World War 1 Outline
C H A P T E R 2 2
War & the American State
1914–1920
Chapter Objectives:
After you have read this chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions: I. How & why did World War I begin? II. Evaluate & discuss President Wilson’s decision to enter the war in 1917. III. Why was World War I considered a “total war”? IV. How did the war affect economic affairs & social relationships in America? V. How & why did President Wilson attempt to shape the Treaty of Versailles? VI. Assess & discuss the failure of the Settlement of 1919–1920 to achieve a lasting peace in America & in Europe.
Chapter Annotated Outline
I. The Great War, 1914–1918 A. War in Europe 1. When war …show more content…
erupted a. Most Americans saw no reason to involve themselves in the struggle among Europe’s imperialist powers b. United States had a good relationship with both sides. 2. Many Americans believed in “U.S. exceptionalism,” a. = the feeling that democratic values & institutions made their country immune from the corruption & chaos of other nations. 3. Preparations for war began almost from the moment the Triple Entente was formed in 1907 to counter the Triple Alliance. 4. Austria’s seizure of Bosnia & Herzegovina (1908) enraged Russia & Serbia a. Serbian terrorists recruited Bosnians to agitate against Austrian rule. 5. On June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian, assassinated Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, & his wife in the town of Sarajevo. 6. After the assassination, the complex European alliance system drew all the major powers into war within a few days. 7. The two rival blocs faced off: a. Great Britain, France, Japan, Russia, & Italy = Allied Powers b. Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, & Bulgaria = Central Powers. 8. The worldwide scope of the conflict came to be known as “the Great War,” or later, World War I. 9. World War I was the first war in which extensive harm was done to civilians; a. New military technology, much of it from the U.S., made armies more deadly than before. 10. Trench warfare produced unprecedented numbers of casualties; a. Between February & December of 1916, the French suffered 550,000 casualties & the Germans 450,000. B. The Perils of Neutrality 1. After the war began in Europe a. President Woodrow Wilson made it clear that U.S. would remain neutral b. He believed that he could arbitrate & influence a European settlement. 2. The U.S. had divided loyalties concerning the war a. Many Americans felt deep cultural ties to the Allies b. Irish & German immigrants had strong pro-German sentiments. 3. Progressive leaders opposed American participation in the European conflict: a. New pacifist groups mobilized popular opposition b. The political left condemned the war as imperialistic c. Some industrialists, like Henry Ford, bankrolled antiwar activities. 4. African American leaders saw the war as a conflict of the white race only. 5. The British imposed a naval blockade that in effect prevented neutral nations, including the U.S., from trading with Germany & its Allies. 6. This created a trade imbalance bringing the U.S. to closer economic ties with the Allies (despite America’s official posture of neutrality). 7. The German navy launched a devastating new weapon, the U-boat a. Issued a warning to civilians that all ships flying the flags of Britain or its Allies were liable to be destroyed. 8. May 7, 1915: British ship Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland a. 128 Americans were among the 1,198 people killed. 9. September 1915: Germany announced that its submarines would no longer attack passenger ships without warning. 10. Wilson worried that the U.S. might be drawn into the conflict a. He endorsed a $1 billion buildup of the army & the navy. 11. Congress passed the National Defense Act a. Created the Council of National Defense=an agency responsible for planning industrial mobilization in the event of war. 12. Public opposition to entering the war made the election of 1916 a contest between two anti-war candidates a. Wilson won the election but lost his hopes of staying out of the war. 13. Anti-German sentiment increases in the U.S….WHY? a. The resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare b. The Zimmermann telegram 14. Throughout March 1917, German U-boats attacked & sank American ships without warning 15. On April 2, Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war a. United States formally declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917. C. “Over There” 1. Many Americans assumed that their participation in the war would be limited to military & economic aid a. Were surprised to find that American troops would be sent to Europe. 2. American government conscripted almost 4 million men & women with the passage of the Selective Service Act in May 1917. 3. The Selective Service system: a. Combined central direction from Washington with local administration & civilian control b. Preserved individual freedom & local autonomy. 4. General John J. Pershing = head of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) a. New recruits had to be trained before being transported across the submarine-infested Atlantic. 5. The government countered the U-boats by sending armed convoys across the Atlantic a. The plan worked: no American soldiers were killed on the way to Europe. 6. Pershing didn’t want to put his men under foreign commanders a. Thus, until May 1918, the French & the British still bore the brunt of the fighting. 7. Under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk a. The new Bolshevik regime under Vladimir Ilych Lenin surrendered about 1/3 of Russia’s territories in return for peace with the Central Powers. 8. At the request of Allied leaders, Pershing committed about 60,000 Americans to help the French repel the Germans in the battles of Château-Thierry & Belleau Wood. 9. American & Allied forces brought the German offensive to a halt in mid-July; a. The counteroffensive began with a campaign to push the Germans back from the Marne River. 10. The Meuse-Argonne campaign a. Pushed the enemy back across the Selle River near Verdun b. Broke the German defenses c. Cost over 26,000 American lives. 11. German & Allied representatives signed an armistice on November 11, 1918, ending World War I. 12. America’s decisive contribution shifted international power: a. European dominance declined b. United States emerged as a world leader. D. The American Fighting Force 1. The United States lost 48,000 American servicemen in the fighting, & another 27,000 died from other causes a. The Allies & Central Powers lost 8 million soldiers. 2. Ethnic diversity of the American military worried some observers a. Most optimistically predicted that service in the armed forces would promote the Americanization of immigrants. 3. The Stanford-Binet intelligence test was used by the armed forces a. Reinforced stereotypes about the supposed intellectual inferiority of blacks & immigrants b. Lower scores stemmed from the cultural & environmental biases of the tests. 4. The Americanization of the army was imperfect at best a. African Americans were in segregated units under the control of white officers & were assigned to the most menial tasks. b. The French were more egalitarian, socializing with black troops & awarding hundreds of them the Croix de Guerre. 5. A group of former AEF soldiers formed the first American Legion in 1919 a. Purpose = to preserve the “memories & incidents” of their association in the Great War. I. War on the Home Front A. Mobilizing Industry & the Economy 1. The Allies paid in gold for American grain & military supplies a. Allowed the U.S. to reverse its historical position as a debtor & became a leading creditor. 2. Government paid for the war by: a. Using the Federal Reserve System to expand the money supply b. Enacting the War Revenue Bills of 1917 & 1918 c. Collecting excess-profits taxes from corporations. 3. The central agency for coordinating wartime production = the War Industries Board (WIB) a. WIB epitomized an unparalleled expansion of the federal government’s powers. 4. Despite higher taxes, corporate profits soared: a. Aided by the suspension of antitrust laws & the institution of price guarantees for war work. 5. To ease a fuel shortage in the winter of 1917–18: a. The Fuel Administration ordered the temporary closing of factories b. The Railroad War Board took temporary control of the railroads when traffic slowed troop movement. 6. The Food Administration: a. Encouraged farmers to expand production b. Encouraged housewives to conserve food c. At no time was it necessary for the government to contemplate domestic food rationing. 7. With the signing of the armistice in 1918, the WIB was disbanded a. Most Americans could tolerate government planning power during an emergency but not permanently. 8. The U. S. participation in the war lasted just eighteen months, but it left an enduring legacy: the modern bureaucratic state. B. Mobilizing American Workers 1. The National War Labor Board (NWLB) & acute labor shortages helped to improve labor’s position: a. Eight-hour days, time-and-a-half pay for overtime, & equal pay for women. 2. After the war, the NWLB quickly disbanded a. Wartime inflation ate up most of the wage hikes b. Postwar antiunion movement caused a decline in union membership. 3. During the war emergency: a. African Americans were recruited by northern factories (coming from the “Great Migration” from the South). b. Mexican Americans left farm labor for industrial jobs in rapidly growing southwestern cities. c. About 1 million women joined the labor force for the first time, & many of the 8 million already working switched from low-paying fields to higher-paying industrial work. C. Wartime Reform: Woman Suffrage & Prohibition 1. Members of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) believed: a. Women’s patriotic service could advance the cause of woman suffrage. 2. Members of the National Woman’s Party (NWP) a. Arrested & jailed for picketing the White House b. Became martyrs & drew attention to the issue of woman suffrage. 3. In January 1918,Woodrow Wilson withdrew his opposition to a federal woman suffrage amendment 4. August 26, 1920: woman suffrage achieved with the XIX Amendment. 5. Throughout the mobilization period, reformers pushed for social reforms: a. Addressing children’s welfare b. Launching a campaign against sexually transmitted diseases c. Lobbying for a ban on drinking. 6. Prohibition met resistance in the cities because alcoholic beverages played an important role in the social life of certain ethnic cultures. 7. Many states already had Prohibition laws a. The XVIII Amendment to the Constitution demonstrated the government’s increasing influence on personal behavior. 8. Federal agencies were quickly disbanded after the war was over a. Shows that most Americans felt uneasy about a strong bureaucratic state. 9. The wartime relationship b/w government & business gave corporate leaders more influence in shaping the economy & government policy. D. Promoting National Unity 1. Committee on Public Information (CPI) est. 1917: a. Promoted public support for the war b.
Served as a nationalizing force by promoting the development of a national ideology. 2. During the war, the CPI touched the lives of practically every American, & in its zeal, it often ventured into hatemongering against the Germans. 3. Many Americans found themselves targets of suspicion a. Self-appointed agents of the American Protective League spied on neighbors & coworkers. 4. CPI a. Encouraged ethnic groups to give up their Old World customs in the spirit of “One Hundred Percent Americanism,” b. There was an insistence on conformity & an intolerance of dissent. 5. Law enforcement officials tolerated little criticism of established values & institutions a. Legal tools for curbing dissent = the Espionage Act of 1917 & the Sedition Act of 1918. 6. The acts (defined treason & sedition loosely): a. Led to the conviction of 1000+ b. The courts rarely resisted wartime legal excesses. 7. In Schenck v. United States, the Supreme Court upheld limits on freedom of speech that wouldn”t have been acceptable in
peacetime a. “Clear and present danger.” II. An Unsettled Peace, 1919–1920 A. The Treaty of Versailles 1. January 1917: President Wilson proposed a “peace without victory:” a. Central to his postwar plans = a permanent League of Nations. 2. The Allies accepted Wilson’s Fourteen Points as the basis for the peace negotiations for the Treaty of Versailles that began in January 1919. 3. Wilson called for: a. Open diplomacy b. Freedom of navigation upon the seas c. Arms reduction, the removal of trade barriers d. An international commitment to national self-determination. 4. According to Article X of the peace treaty: a. League of Nations would curb aggressor countries through collective military action & mediate disputes to prevent future wars. 5. The Fourteen Points demonstrate a. The spirit of progressivism b. BUT: the lofty goals & ideals for world reformation proved too far reaching for the Old World powers, which had less high-minded goals of their own. 6. 27 countries attended the peace conference in Versailles a. Germany & Russia were not invited. 7. France, Italy, & Great Britain a. Wanted to treat themselves to the spoils of war b. Demanded heavy reparations c. Made secret agreements to divide up the German colonies. 8. National self-determination took hold in the creation of the independent states of: a. Austria b. Hungary c. Poland d. Yugoslavia e. Czechoslovakia f. Finland g. Estonia h. Lithuania i. Latvia j. Some countries were able to uphold the principle of self-determination & isolate Soviet Russia from the rest of Europe. 9. Wilson won only limited concessions regarding the colonial empires a. Topics such as freedom of the seas & free trade never came up because of Allied resistance. 10. June 28, 1919: Peace treaty was signed in Versailles a. When Wilson presented the treaty to the U.S. Senate, it did not receive the necessary 2/3s vote for ratification. b. WHY? i. Progressive senators felt that the treaty was too conservative ii. “Irreconcilables” disapproved of U.S. participation in European affairs, iii. Republicans wanted to amend Article X. 11. September 1919: a. Wilson went on a speaking tour to defend the treaty b. Tour was cut short because he suffered a severe stroke. 12. Wilson remained inflexible in his refusal to compromise a. The treaty was not ratified when it came up for a vote in the Senate in 1919 & again in 1920. 13. Wartime issues were only partially resolved a. Some unresolved problems played a major role in the coming of World War II b. Some, like the competing ethnic nationalism in the Balkans, remain unsolved today. B. Racial Strife, Labor Unrest, & the Red Scare 1. Many African Americans emerged from the war determined to stand up for their rights a. Contributed to a spirit of resistance to oppression that characterized the early 1920s. 2. Blacks who had migrated to the North & blacks who had served in the war had high expectations that fueled white racism; a. Lynching nearly doubled in the South b. Race riots broke out in the North. 3. Tensions were present in northern cities where violence erupted: a. Black voters determined the winners of close elections b. Blacks competed with whites for jobs & housing. 4. Workers of all races had hopes for a better life a. BUT: after the war employers resumed attacks on union activity, b. Rapidly rising inflation threatened to wipe out wage increases. 5. Due to workers’ determination & employers’ resistance: a. 1:5 workers went on strike in 1919 b. Strikes were held by steelworkers, shipyard workers in Seattle, & policemen in Boston. 6. Governor Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts fired the entire Boston police force a. That strike failed b. Coolidge’s reward = Republican vice presidential nomination in 1920. 7. Americans widely held: a. Fear of radicalism b. Anxiety about unassimilated immigrants (made worse by the war). 8. Russian Revolution (1917) so alarmed the Allies that Wilson sent several thousand troops to Russia in hopes of weakening the Bolshevik regime. 9. American fears of communism were deepened a. Labor unrest coincided with the founding of the Bolsheviks’ Third International (or Comintern) b. Comintern’s purpose = to export Communist doctrine & revolution to the rest of the world. 10. Ironically, as public concern about domestic Bolshevism increased a. U.S. Communist Party & the Communist Labor Party were rapidly losing members & political power. 11. Tensions mounted with a series of bombings in the early spring of 1919; a. November 1919, Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer staged the first of what were known as “Palmer raids.” 12. Lacking the protection of U.S. citizenship, thousands of aliens faced deportation without formal trial or indictment. 13. Palmer’s downfall: a. He predicted that a conspiracy attempt to overthrow the government would occur in May 1920 b. When the incident never occurred, the hysteria of the Red Scare began to abate. 14. At the height of the Red Scare, Nicola Sacco & Bartolomeo Vanzetti—alien draft evaders—were arrested for robbery & murder, were denied a new trial even though evidence surfaced that suggested their innocence, & were executed in 1927. 15. With few casualties & no physical destruction at home, America emerged from the war stronger than ever—a major international power with exceptional industrial productivity.
War & the American State
1914–1920
Chapter Objectives:
After you have read this chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions: I. How & why did World War I begin? II. Evaluate & discuss President Wilson’s decision to enter the war in 1917. III. Why was World War I considered a “total war”? IV. How did the war affect economic affairs & social relationships in America? V. How & why did President Wilson attempt to shape the Treaty of Versailles? VI. Assess & discuss the failure of the Settlement of 1919–1920 to achieve a lasting peace in America & in Europe.
Chapter Annotated Outline
I. The Great War, 1914–1918 A. War in Europe 1. When war …show more content…
erupted a. Most Americans saw no reason to involve themselves in the struggle among Europe’s imperialist powers b. United States had a good relationship with both sides. 2. Many Americans believed in “U.S. exceptionalism,” a. = the feeling that democratic values & institutions made their country immune from the corruption & chaos of other nations. 3. Preparations for war began almost from the moment the Triple Entente was formed in 1907 to counter the Triple Alliance. 4. Austria’s seizure of Bosnia & Herzegovina (1908) enraged Russia & Serbia a. Serbian terrorists recruited Bosnians to agitate against Austrian rule. 5. On June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian, assassinated Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, & his wife in the town of Sarajevo. 6. After the assassination, the complex European alliance system drew all the major powers into war within a few days. 7. The two rival blocs faced off: a. Great Britain, France, Japan, Russia, & Italy = Allied Powers b. Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, & Bulgaria = Central Powers. 8. The worldwide scope of the conflict came to be known as “the Great War,” or later, World War I. 9. World War I was the first war in which extensive harm was done to civilians; a. New military technology, much of it from the U.S., made armies more deadly than before. 10. Trench warfare produced unprecedented numbers of casualties; a. Between February & December of 1916, the French suffered 550,000 casualties & the Germans 450,000. B. The Perils of Neutrality 1. After the war began in Europe a. President Woodrow Wilson made it clear that U.S. would remain neutral b. He believed that he could arbitrate & influence a European settlement. 2. The U.S. had divided loyalties concerning the war a. Many Americans felt deep cultural ties to the Allies b. Irish & German immigrants had strong pro-German sentiments. 3. Progressive leaders opposed American participation in the European conflict: a. New pacifist groups mobilized popular opposition b. The political left condemned the war as imperialistic c. Some industrialists, like Henry Ford, bankrolled antiwar activities. 4. African American leaders saw the war as a conflict of the white race only. 5. The British imposed a naval blockade that in effect prevented neutral nations, including the U.S., from trading with Germany & its Allies. 6. This created a trade imbalance bringing the U.S. to closer economic ties with the Allies (despite America’s official posture of neutrality). 7. The German navy launched a devastating new weapon, the U-boat a. Issued a warning to civilians that all ships flying the flags of Britain or its Allies were liable to be destroyed. 8. May 7, 1915: British ship Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland a. 128 Americans were among the 1,198 people killed. 9. September 1915: Germany announced that its submarines would no longer attack passenger ships without warning. 10. Wilson worried that the U.S. might be drawn into the conflict a. He endorsed a $1 billion buildup of the army & the navy. 11. Congress passed the National Defense Act a. Created the Council of National Defense=an agency responsible for planning industrial mobilization in the event of war. 12. Public opposition to entering the war made the election of 1916 a contest between two anti-war candidates a. Wilson won the election but lost his hopes of staying out of the war. 13. Anti-German sentiment increases in the U.S….WHY? a. The resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare b. The Zimmermann telegram 14. Throughout March 1917, German U-boats attacked & sank American ships without warning 15. On April 2, Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war a. United States formally declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917. C. “Over There” 1. Many Americans assumed that their participation in the war would be limited to military & economic aid a. Were surprised to find that American troops would be sent to Europe. 2. American government conscripted almost 4 million men & women with the passage of the Selective Service Act in May 1917. 3. The Selective Service system: a. Combined central direction from Washington with local administration & civilian control b. Preserved individual freedom & local autonomy. 4. General John J. Pershing = head of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) a. New recruits had to be trained before being transported across the submarine-infested Atlantic. 5. The government countered the U-boats by sending armed convoys across the Atlantic a. The plan worked: no American soldiers were killed on the way to Europe. 6. Pershing didn’t want to put his men under foreign commanders a. Thus, until May 1918, the French & the British still bore the brunt of the fighting. 7. Under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk a. The new Bolshevik regime under Vladimir Ilych Lenin surrendered about 1/3 of Russia’s territories in return for peace with the Central Powers. 8. At the request of Allied leaders, Pershing committed about 60,000 Americans to help the French repel the Germans in the battles of Château-Thierry & Belleau Wood. 9. American & Allied forces brought the German offensive to a halt in mid-July; a. The counteroffensive began with a campaign to push the Germans back from the Marne River. 10. The Meuse-Argonne campaign a. Pushed the enemy back across the Selle River near Verdun b. Broke the German defenses c. Cost over 26,000 American lives. 11. German & Allied representatives signed an armistice on November 11, 1918, ending World War I. 12. America’s decisive contribution shifted international power: a. European dominance declined b. United States emerged as a world leader. D. The American Fighting Force 1. The United States lost 48,000 American servicemen in the fighting, & another 27,000 died from other causes a. The Allies & Central Powers lost 8 million soldiers. 2. Ethnic diversity of the American military worried some observers a. Most optimistically predicted that service in the armed forces would promote the Americanization of immigrants. 3. The Stanford-Binet intelligence test was used by the armed forces a. Reinforced stereotypes about the supposed intellectual inferiority of blacks & immigrants b. Lower scores stemmed from the cultural & environmental biases of the tests. 4. The Americanization of the army was imperfect at best a. African Americans were in segregated units under the control of white officers & were assigned to the most menial tasks. b. The French were more egalitarian, socializing with black troops & awarding hundreds of them the Croix de Guerre. 5. A group of former AEF soldiers formed the first American Legion in 1919 a. Purpose = to preserve the “memories & incidents” of their association in the Great War. I. War on the Home Front A. Mobilizing Industry & the Economy 1. The Allies paid in gold for American grain & military supplies a. Allowed the U.S. to reverse its historical position as a debtor & became a leading creditor. 2. Government paid for the war by: a. Using the Federal Reserve System to expand the money supply b. Enacting the War Revenue Bills of 1917 & 1918 c. Collecting excess-profits taxes from corporations. 3. The central agency for coordinating wartime production = the War Industries Board (WIB) a. WIB epitomized an unparalleled expansion of the federal government’s powers. 4. Despite higher taxes, corporate profits soared: a. Aided by the suspension of antitrust laws & the institution of price guarantees for war work. 5. To ease a fuel shortage in the winter of 1917–18: a. The Fuel Administration ordered the temporary closing of factories b. The Railroad War Board took temporary control of the railroads when traffic slowed troop movement. 6. The Food Administration: a. Encouraged farmers to expand production b. Encouraged housewives to conserve food c. At no time was it necessary for the government to contemplate domestic food rationing. 7. With the signing of the armistice in 1918, the WIB was disbanded a. Most Americans could tolerate government planning power during an emergency but not permanently. 8. The U. S. participation in the war lasted just eighteen months, but it left an enduring legacy: the modern bureaucratic state. B. Mobilizing American Workers 1. The National War Labor Board (NWLB) & acute labor shortages helped to improve labor’s position: a. Eight-hour days, time-and-a-half pay for overtime, & equal pay for women. 2. After the war, the NWLB quickly disbanded a. Wartime inflation ate up most of the wage hikes b. Postwar antiunion movement caused a decline in union membership. 3. During the war emergency: a. African Americans were recruited by northern factories (coming from the “Great Migration” from the South). b. Mexican Americans left farm labor for industrial jobs in rapidly growing southwestern cities. c. About 1 million women joined the labor force for the first time, & many of the 8 million already working switched from low-paying fields to higher-paying industrial work. C. Wartime Reform: Woman Suffrage & Prohibition 1. Members of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) believed: a. Women’s patriotic service could advance the cause of woman suffrage. 2. Members of the National Woman’s Party (NWP) a. Arrested & jailed for picketing the White House b. Became martyrs & drew attention to the issue of woman suffrage. 3. In January 1918,Woodrow Wilson withdrew his opposition to a federal woman suffrage amendment 4. August 26, 1920: woman suffrage achieved with the XIX Amendment. 5. Throughout the mobilization period, reformers pushed for social reforms: a. Addressing children’s welfare b. Launching a campaign against sexually transmitted diseases c. Lobbying for a ban on drinking. 6. Prohibition met resistance in the cities because alcoholic beverages played an important role in the social life of certain ethnic cultures. 7. Many states already had Prohibition laws a. The XVIII Amendment to the Constitution demonstrated the government’s increasing influence on personal behavior. 8. Federal agencies were quickly disbanded after the war was over a. Shows that most Americans felt uneasy about a strong bureaucratic state. 9. The wartime relationship b/w government & business gave corporate leaders more influence in shaping the economy & government policy. D. Promoting National Unity 1. Committee on Public Information (CPI) est. 1917: a. Promoted public support for the war b.
Served as a nationalizing force by promoting the development of a national ideology. 2. During the war, the CPI touched the lives of practically every American, & in its zeal, it often ventured into hatemongering against the Germans. 3. Many Americans found themselves targets of suspicion a. Self-appointed agents of the American Protective League spied on neighbors & coworkers. 4. CPI a. Encouraged ethnic groups to give up their Old World customs in the spirit of “One Hundred Percent Americanism,” b. There was an insistence on conformity & an intolerance of dissent. 5. Law enforcement officials tolerated little criticism of established values & institutions a. Legal tools for curbing dissent = the Espionage Act of 1917 & the Sedition Act of 1918. 6. The acts (defined treason & sedition loosely): a. Led to the conviction of 1000+ b. The courts rarely resisted wartime legal excesses. 7. In Schenck v. United States, the Supreme Court upheld limits on freedom of speech that wouldn”t have been acceptable in
peacetime a. “Clear and present danger.” II. An Unsettled Peace, 1919–1920 A. The Treaty of Versailles 1. January 1917: President Wilson proposed a “peace without victory:” a. Central to his postwar plans = a permanent League of Nations. 2. The Allies accepted Wilson’s Fourteen Points as the basis for the peace negotiations for the Treaty of Versailles that began in January 1919. 3. Wilson called for: a. Open diplomacy b. Freedom of navigation upon the seas c. Arms reduction, the removal of trade barriers d. An international commitment to national self-determination. 4. According to Article X of the peace treaty: a. League of Nations would curb aggressor countries through collective military action & mediate disputes to prevent future wars. 5. The Fourteen Points demonstrate a. The spirit of progressivism b. BUT: the lofty goals & ideals for world reformation proved too far reaching for the Old World powers, which had less high-minded goals of their own. 6. 27 countries attended the peace conference in Versailles a. Germany & Russia were not invited. 7. France, Italy, & Great Britain a. Wanted to treat themselves to the spoils of war b. Demanded heavy reparations c. Made secret agreements to divide up the German colonies. 8. National self-determination took hold in the creation of the independent states of: a. Austria b. Hungary c. Poland d. Yugoslavia e. Czechoslovakia f. Finland g. Estonia h. Lithuania i. Latvia j. Some countries were able to uphold the principle of self-determination & isolate Soviet Russia from the rest of Europe. 9. Wilson won only limited concessions regarding the colonial empires a. Topics such as freedom of the seas & free trade never came up because of Allied resistance. 10. June 28, 1919: Peace treaty was signed in Versailles a. When Wilson presented the treaty to the U.S. Senate, it did not receive the necessary 2/3s vote for ratification. b. WHY? i. Progressive senators felt that the treaty was too conservative ii. “Irreconcilables” disapproved of U.S. participation in European affairs, iii. Republicans wanted to amend Article X. 11. September 1919: a. Wilson went on a speaking tour to defend the treaty b. Tour was cut short because he suffered a severe stroke. 12. Wilson remained inflexible in his refusal to compromise a. The treaty was not ratified when it came up for a vote in the Senate in 1919 & again in 1920. 13. Wartime issues were only partially resolved a. Some unresolved problems played a major role in the coming of World War II b. Some, like the competing ethnic nationalism in the Balkans, remain unsolved today. B. Racial Strife, Labor Unrest, & the Red Scare 1. Many African Americans emerged from the war determined to stand up for their rights a. Contributed to a spirit of resistance to oppression that characterized the early 1920s. 2. Blacks who had migrated to the North & blacks who had served in the war had high expectations that fueled white racism; a. Lynching nearly doubled in the South b. Race riots broke out in the North. 3. Tensions were present in northern cities where violence erupted: a. Black voters determined the winners of close elections b. Blacks competed with whites for jobs & housing. 4. Workers of all races had hopes for a better life a. BUT: after the war employers resumed attacks on union activity, b. Rapidly rising inflation threatened to wipe out wage increases. 5. Due to workers’ determination & employers’ resistance: a. 1:5 workers went on strike in 1919 b. Strikes were held by steelworkers, shipyard workers in Seattle, & policemen in Boston. 6. Governor Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts fired the entire Boston police force a. That strike failed b. Coolidge’s reward = Republican vice presidential nomination in 1920. 7. Americans widely held: a. Fear of radicalism b. Anxiety about unassimilated immigrants (made worse by the war). 8. Russian Revolution (1917) so alarmed the Allies that Wilson sent several thousand troops to Russia in hopes of weakening the Bolshevik regime. 9. American fears of communism were deepened a. Labor unrest coincided with the founding of the Bolsheviks’ Third International (or Comintern) b. Comintern’s purpose = to export Communist doctrine & revolution to the rest of the world. 10. Ironically, as public concern about domestic Bolshevism increased a. U.S. Communist Party & the Communist Labor Party were rapidly losing members & political power. 11. Tensions mounted with a series of bombings in the early spring of 1919; a. November 1919, Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer staged the first of what were known as “Palmer raids.” 12. Lacking the protection of U.S. citizenship, thousands of aliens faced deportation without formal trial or indictment. 13. Palmer’s downfall: a. He predicted that a conspiracy attempt to overthrow the government would occur in May 1920 b. When the incident never occurred, the hysteria of the Red Scare began to abate. 14. At the height of the Red Scare, Nicola Sacco & Bartolomeo Vanzetti—alien draft evaders—were arrested for robbery & murder, were denied a new trial even though evidence surfaced that suggested their innocence, & were executed in 1927. 15. With few casualties & no physical destruction at home, America emerged from the war stronger than ever—a major international power with exceptional industrial productivity.