Chapter 11

The War to End All

Wars, 1914-1918

Source: Punch magazine Balkan

Troubles, 1908.

Sec.1: World War I Begins

A. Causes of War
1. Long-Term Causes

Militarism
Alliances
Imperialism
Nationalism

2. Short-Term Cause
1914 assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz
Ferdinand by Serbian nationalist

Allied Powers*

Central Powers

Serbia

Austria-Hungary

Russia

Germany

Great Britain

Bulgaria

France

Ottoman Empire

Belgium
*Allied Powers were originally the Triple Entente (Fr., GB, Rus.)

Entangling Alliances

Allied Powers

Central Powers

Great Britain

Germany

France

Austria-Hungary

Russia

Bulgaria

Belgium

Ottoman Empire

 B. Fighting Begins
1. British blockade of Germany
Starve Ger. into submission

2. German U-boats
Lusitania (1915)
Sussex pledge Germany will warn before ships are
sunk

 3. Schlieffen Plan
German plan to invade Belgium & France, then
attack Russia

4. Trench Warfare (1914-1916)

no mans land in b/n trenches
along Fr. & Ger. border

 C. US Neutrality
1. 1916 Election, Wilson kept us out of war
2. Jan.1917 Wilson called for peace without
victory
3. April 1917 Declaration of War
a. German unrestricted sub warfare
b. Zimmermann note to Mexico
Proposed alliance between Ger. & Mex.; Mex. promised
Mexican Cession territory.

c. Russia dropped out of war

d. make the world safe for democracy
It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into
war Woodrow Wilson

Zimmermann note

the
Zimmerman
telegram
the sinking
of the
Lusitania

unrestricted
submarine
warfare

U.S.
Entered
WWI

Russia
dropped out
of the war

Sec.2: American Power Tips the Balance

A. America Mobilizes
1. Selective Service Act (1917)
men must register for military service

2. Factories & Mass Production

3. Convoy System
destroyers protected merchant ships in Atlantic

 B. Fighting Over There

1. American Expeditionary Force (AEF)
Led by Gen. Pershing
doughboys

Over There
Johnnie, get your gun,
Get your gun, get your gun,
Take it on the run,
On the run, on the run.
Hear them calling, you and me,
Every son of liberty.
Hurry right away,
No delay, go today,
Make your daddy glad
To have had such a lad.
Tell your sweetheart not to pine,
To be proud her boy's in line.
(chorus sung twice)
Johnnie, get your gun,
Get your gun, get your gun,
Johnnie show the Hun
Your a son of a gun.
Hoist the flag and let her fly,
Yankee Doodle do or die.
Pack your little kit,
Show your grit, do your bit.
Yankee to the ranks,
From the towns and the tanks.
Make your mother proud of you,
And the old Red, White and Blue.

Chorus
Over there, over there,
Send the word, send the word over there
That the Yanks are coming,
The Yanks are coming,
The drums rum-tumming
Ev'rywhere.
So prepare, say a pray'r,
Send the word, send the word to beware.
We'll be over, we're coming over,
And we won't come back till it's over
Over there.

 2. Modern Warfare

machine guns
tanks
mustard gas
zeppelins & airplanes
submarines
barbed wire
effect = trench warfare
Trench foot, trench mouth
shell shock =
psychological trauma
from war (PTSD)

 C. US arrives over there (1918)

1. Chateau-Thierry 1st battle
2. Second Battle of the Marne
3. Meuse-Argonne offensive (Sept. 1918)
a. Alvin York = conscientious objector who killed
20 Germans and captured 132 more
Someone who is morally opposed to war

4. November 11, 1918 armistice (cease-fire)

a. German food shortages as a result of British blockade
b. Overall, about 9 million died from war
c. Another 20-50 million died from 1918 flu epidemic

Sec.3: War at Home

A. War Boards
1. War Industries Board
limit waste; use mass production

2. War Labor Board work or fight

Female workers (19th Amendment)
Great Migration of Afr.-Amers. to northern cities for
jobs

 B. War Economy
1. Fuel Administration lightless nights
2. Food Administration
Voluntary rationing
Wheatless, sweetless, and porkless days

3. victory gardens

 C. Selling the War

1. liberty/victory bonds sold to fund war
Bond = give $ to govt and they give it back with
interest after a certain amount of time.

2. Committee on Public Information

Propaganda agency led by George Creel

 D. Attacks on Civil Liberties

1. anti-German hysteria
Liberty measles, liberty sandwich

2. Espionage & Sedition Acts (1917)

Fine or jail for criticizing war or spying
Schenck v. United States (1919) = speech is not
protected if it poses a clear and present danger

Sec.4: Wilson Fights for Peace

A. Wilsons Fourteen Points (1918)
1. purpose: keep peace & avoid war
2. points

#1. no secret treaties

#2. freedom of the seas
#3. Reduce trade barriers
#4. reduce arms
#5. adjust colonial claims
#6-13. self-determination (self-rule)
#14 = general association of nations (League of
Nations)

 B. Paris Peace Conference (Jan. 1919)

1. Big Four Wilson (US), Clemenceau
(Fr.), Lloyd George (GB), Orlando (It.)
2. League of Nations (LON) created

 3. Treaty of Versailles (1919)

a. German coal fields given to LON
b. war-guilt clause for Germany
Germany had to accept responsibility for the war

c. German reparations (war damages) of $33

billion
d. Germany barred from maintaining a military
e. GB & US pledged to aid France in event of
another invasion

After
WWI
(1919)

 C. Failure to Ratify Treaty of Versailles

1. Wilsons speechmaking tour (led to stroke)
2. Sen. William Borah & the irreconcilables
followed behind him
a. Sen. Henry Cabot Lodges Reservations
Protect US sovereignty
LON morally bound US to help victims

3. US never ratified treaty and never joined

LON
a. signed a separate treaty w/Ger. in 1921

 4. 1920 election
a. Wilson called for solemn referendum of
Versailles Treaty
b. Warren G. Harding (R) promised a return to
normalcy