Transcript Diplomacy & The Great War

Diplomacy &
The Great War
An overview of U.S.
Leaders and policies
leading up to World War I
Diplomacy During the
Roosevelt Presidency
“There is an…adage which runs,
‘Speak softly and carry a big stick:
you will go far.’ If the American
nation will speak softly and yet
build and keep at a pitch of the
highest training a thoroughly
efficient navy, the Monroe Doctrine
will go far.”
“Big Stick” Diplomacy
 Use of military
force to influence
political events in
other countries
 Roosevelt
Corollary to
Monroe DoctrineU.S. can
intervene
“sooner or later, we must keep order ourselves”
So Long, Teddy, Hello Big Guy
 Roosevelt decides not to run again
 Hand picks William Howard Taft to
succeed him as Republican nominee
– Had been Governor of the Philippines
– Shared some of T.R.’s beliefs about
breaking up trusts, but support
business
– Thought U.S. investment abroad
would help Latin America gain
stability.
Dollar Diplomacy
 “Substituting dollars for
bullets”
 To protect loans given to
countries, U.S. would
operate their Customs
Houses
 Reflects Taft’s probusiness views
Teddy regrets his choice
 Roosevelt had gone to Africa for biggame hunting
 Comes back, thinks Taft is a softie on
political reforms
– Forms a new party—The Bull Moose
Party, also known as the Progressives
 In a three-way race, he finishes
second—ahead of Taft, but behind…
Woodrow Wilson
 Democratic former Governor of
New Jersey and former
president/professor at Princeton
 Son of a Minister—strong
Christian upbringing
 Ticks off T.R. by trying to make
a treaty awarding Colombia
damages for the loss of the
Panama Canal Zone.
 Sponsors a new kind of
diplomacy…
Moral Diplomacy
Main goals of Moral
Diplomacy:
 Spread Democracy
 Promote Human
Rights
 Promote Peace
 Condemn Colonialism
How he wants to do it:
 Third-party
arbitration of conflicts
 Cease-fire agreements
during negotiation
The Great
War
A Timeline of American Involvement
Some background…
 In 1870s, Germany is unified as one
nation, becomes a major industrial and
military power
 In 1888, 29-year-old Wilhelm II becomes
Kaiser of Germany after father’s death
 In 1905, Russia loses Russo-Japanese
War—causes a lot of unrest in Russia
Problems of Neutrality
Submarine Warfare
 Britain was blockading Germany with its
powerful navy
– Mined the North Sea
– Seized ships, including U.S. ships
 Germans had developed submarine
technology
– Threatened all ships in the “war zone”
 U.S. feels both are a violation of neutral
nations’ right to freedom of the seas
Problems of Neutrality
Lusitania crisis, May 7, 1915
 British passenger ship torpedoed, most die
– 128 Americans
 Wilson sends warning to Germany, says
they’ll be held to “strict accountability”
 William Jennings Bryan resigns as
Secretary of State
– Language is too war-like
Problems of Neutrality
Other sinkings:
 Arabic, August 1915
– Passenger vessel, 2 Americans die
– Wilson asks Germans to pledge that passenger ships
would be warned before being attacked
– They agree
 Sussex, March 1916
– Merchant vessel, Americans injured
– Wilson threatens to end diplomatic relations, a step to
war
 Sussex Pledge
– Germany doesn’t want U.S. to join Britain’s side
– Agrees to give due warning to merchant and passenger
ships
Timeline of Events
 Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the
Austria-Hungary throne, assassinated in
Sarajevo
 Germany declares war on Russia, France,
invades neutral Belgium
 Great Britain declares war on Germany
 First trenches are dug
 Germany begins Zeppelin air raids of
Britain
 Germany declares submarine blockade of
Great Britain
 Germans use first chemical weapons in the
Second Battle of Ypres.
 HMS Lusitania sunk—124 Americans
killed
 Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary
 Battle of Verdun
– Draw
– ~1 million casualties
 Battle of Jutland,
– Only major naval engagement of the war
– No clear winner
 Battle of the Somme
– Allied breakthrough
– ~1 million casualties
 In U.S., Woodrow Wilson re-elected
 Germany declares unrestricted submarine
warfare
– Thought they could cut British supply lines
before United States could get involved
 Zimmerman telegram
– Note from German foreign minister to Mexico
– If Mexico allies with Germans, they will get
back lost territories of Texas, New Mexico,
Arizona
 March 15—Tsarist government falls in Russia
– Wilson had not wanted to ally with an autocratic
government
 German submarines sink 5 unmanned U.S.
merchant ships
 April 6—United States declares war on Germany
– Wilson cites Germany’s “war against mankind”
– Need to make the world “safe for democracy”
 December—communist Russia signs armistice
with Germany
Mobilization of US Forces
 Race against time
– Germans planning advances on land, increased attacks
at sea
Industry & Labor
 New wartime agencies created, staffed by
volunteers
 War Industries Board established centralized
control over raw materials, prices
 Food Administration shipped food to French &
British troops, encouraged Americans to eat less
meat and bread
– In two years, US shipments of food triples
Mobilization of US Forces
 Fuel Administration directed efforts to save coal
– Closed nonessential factories
– Daylight Savings time put into effect for 1st time
 Finance
 Government manages to raise $33 billion in two
years
 Loans & taxes
 Liberty bonds
 Congress increased personal income, corporate
taxes
 Taxes on luxury goods
 U.S. troops had begun to arrive in June,
1917
 British and U.S. navies combine forces,
form convoys to counter U-boats
 Help to stop German advances, heavy
casualties to the 270,000 U.S. troops
 By end of summer, over 1 million
Americans in Europe
Public Opinion & Civil Liberties
 Committee on Public Information
– Films, posters, pamphlets, speeches
– Depicted bravery, heroism of US soldiers, villainy of the
Kaiser
– Artists, movie stars, vaudeville performers volunteered
– Americans urged to “do your bit” for the war
 American Protective League
– Groups took out prejudices on “disloyal” minorities
– “Hate the Hun” campaign—vigilante actions to attack
all things German, from playing Beethoven to cooking
sauerkraut
 Frankfurter = Hot dog
 Hamburger = Liberty or Salisbury Sandwich
The Yanks are coming
 Naval Operations
– Germans sinking up to 900,000 tons per month
of goods headed for Britain & France
 U.S. uses armed convoys to escort ships
– Works well enough to get sufficient food to
Europe by the end of 1917
 American Expeditionary Force
 First plug holes in British & French lines on
the Western Front
 With 100,000s of volunteers, start to
independently take over parts of the line
Immediate influence of the U.S.
 Last German offensive
 Germans attack at Chateau-Thierry on the
Marne River in spring of 1918
 By June, Americans stop them, successfully
counterattack at Belleau Wood
 In August through October, Allies launch
Meuse-Argonne offensive, drive Germans
back to their own border
 German communication and supply lines are
cut off
The End of the War to End All Wars
 By early November, Bulgaria, AustriaHungary, and the Ottoman Empire sign
armistice
 Germany signs at 11:00, 11/11/1918
 Casualties
– 5 million allied troops
– 3 million Germans
– 116,000 Americans killed
– 49,000 in combat, rest in flu epidemic in
training camps
– 200,000 wounded or missing
Woodrow sets sail for Paris
 Wilson had outlined his 14
points as a plan for world
peace
 Instrumental in the Treaty of
Versailles
 Part of the treaty is to form the
League of Nations to help
resolve international conflicts
The Fourteen Points
1. Open Covenants
9. Readjust Italy’s
borders
2. Freedom of Navigation
10. Austro-Hungarian
3. Trade Equality—
autonomy
removal of economic
barriers
11. Independence for the
Balkan states
4. Lower armaments
5. Reduce colonial claims 12. Free Turkey, open
Dardanelles for
6. Russian autonomy
passage
7. Restoration of Belgium
13. Independent Poland
8. France gets back
14. “A general association
Alsace-Lorraine
of nations”
Wilson the Hero
 June 28,1919—Treaty of Versailles signed
by the German delegates and the Allies
 Incredibly popular in Europe during the
peace talks
 Visions for a new world order widely
accepted by the general public
 He thought the punishments were too
harsh, but goes along to save the treaty
Or is he?
 Opponents to the treaty
– Reservationists—by Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge, wanted
more conditions placed on the treaty. Wilson refuses
– Irreconcilables—no way, no how
 Main concerns:
– U.S. would lose sovereignty if part of League of Nations
– U.S. would be too involved in Europe, they could get
involved in Western Hemisphere (against Monroe
Doctrine)
 Fails to convince U.S. Senate to ratify the treaty
– Had told people in 1918 that voting Democratic was
“patriotic loyalty”
– Republicans won big in House, 2 vote majority in
Senate
The End of Woodrow
 While fighting for the treaty on a personal
tour, collapses from exhaustion in
Colorado
 Days later, he has a stroke, and is left half
paralyzed--must communicate through his
wife
 Dies in 1924, bitter about his failure to get
U.S. to join his crowning achievement
“I am proud to remember that I had the honor
of being the commander in chief of the
most ideal army that was ever thrown together”
Postwar Problems
 U.S. officially ends war in 1921, signs
separate treaty with Germany
 4 million men return home
– Work hard to find
– Jobs taken away from women and AfricanAmericans
 Race Riots
– East St. Louis, 1917
– Chicago, 1919
• 40 people killed, 500 injured
– Increased lynching in the South
Postwar Problems
 Falling prices for U.S. agricultural goods
 Strikes of 1919
– Seattle—60,000 unionists/shipyard workers
want higher pay
– Boston—police strike for firing of pro-union
officers
– Strike against U.S. Steel results in violence
 Public opinion starts to turn against unions,
which had made gains during Progressive
era
 Recession in 1921, 10% unemployment
Postwar Problems
The Red Scare
 Series of unexplained bombings in 1919
 Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer sets up a
special office under J. Edgar Hoover to gather
information on “radicals”
 Palmer Raids
– Nov. 1919—Jan. 1920
– 6,000 people arrested on limited evidence
– Most foreign born, 500 deported, including Emma
Goldman of the IWW
 Palmer warned of huge attacks on May Day 1920
 Never happened, Palmer loses credibility, Red
Scare begins to fade