Transcript America in WWI - Ms. Belur's World & US History

Warm Up Question
Why was the Battle of the Somme significant?
America in WWI
America’s decision to enter the war
 Sinking of the Lusitania
 British passenger liner
 Sunk by German sub
 1,200 died, including 128 Americans
America’s decision to enter the war
 Unrestricted German submarine attacks
 Germany refused to give warning in sub attacks
America’s decision to enter the war
 Zimmerman note
 German plot to provoke
Mexico to war against
US
 Significance – changed
public opinion in U.S.
Different Perspectives
 We will read two different perspectives on why
America entered WWI and try to determine
which is more accurate
 Intro- what are the 3 main reasons that the
article gives for the U.S. entering the war?
Perspective- President Wilson
 Use the 1917 speech to “imagine the setting.”
(a) What does Wilson accuse Germany of
doing? (b) Do you think this is a good reason
to go to war? (c) What additional information
would you need to have before making a
decision?
 Re-read the last two paragraphs of the 1917
speech. Why do you think Wilson added
these paragraphs? How do you think these
words made Americans feel?
Perspective- Howard Zinn
 Who is Howard Zinn? What do you think his
perspective will be?
 What does Zinn suggest are the real reasons
the United States entered the war
 What evidence does Zinn provide to support
his claims that the United States was
motivated by other reasons (besides German
attacks on U.S. ships)?
Pre-War America
 Wilson declared war on April 6, 1917
 When America entered the war in 1917, we had
just over 100,000 troops
 Smaller than 16 other countries
 Congress had to institute the draft
As America enters, Russia exits
 Russian Revolution
 Bolsheviks, led by Lenin,
took over
 Signed a peace treaty with
Germany
 Significance: Let Germany
fight a one-front war
The state of the war
 Germany was slaughtering British and French
troops
 By May of 1918 they were just 50 miles from
Paris
America to the rescue
 American troops jumped in and saved Paris
 Turned the tide of war
 250,000 American troops arriving in France
each month
IMPORTANCE OF WWI
 Deaths
 Killed 9 million combatants and 5 million civilians
 Politically
 Downfall of 4 empires, led to Bolshevik rise to power
in Russia, triumph of fascism in Italy
 American interests
 Led America to become the world’s leading creditor
and industrial power
 Other consequences
 Mass murder of Armenians in Turkey
 Influenza epidemic that killed 25 million people