Lesson 16: World War I and the Beginning of the Roaring Twenties

Objectives understand how the United States tried to stay out of WWI analyze the causes of the WWI know the circumstances that led America into WWI learn about new technology and fighting methods learn about the League of Nations and the Treaty of Versailles analyze the causes of labor strikes after WWI learn about the beginning of the twenties

World War I Woodrow Wilson became president in 1913 and used all his skills to keep the United States out of WWI. America had no desire to enter a war in Europe. In fact, many organizations were created to keep the peace. For example, the Pan American Union was an organization whose aim was to encourage arbitration whenever disputes between American republics arose. William Jennings Bryan, the Secretary of State under President Wilson, organized and carried out peace treaties with 21 different nations in continuing attempts to prevent war. In the end, however, these efforts failed. While there was no single cause for the war among nations in the early 1900's, a number of factors contributed to the conflict. The factors that led to war in Europe can be traced back to economic and political conflicts from the previous century. Many nations in Europe continued to feel ill-will towards one another. One key factor that fanned the fires of war was nationalism, a feeling of community among a people and a sense of devotion to the interests of one's country and culture. Many nationalities in Europe felt a huge sense of pride for their country, and there was competition in Europe to prove who the strongest nation was. Many nations had formed treaties and alliances with each other, so if war broke out, everyone would be drawn in. Imperialism, the policy of acquiring colonies, was another contributing factor in starting WWI. Certain nations in Europe tried to take control of others. The event that set WWI into motion was the Serbian Nationalist assassination of the Austro-Hungarian Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife. As they rode through the streets of Bosnia, on June 28, 1914, they were shot by assassins. Russia feared that this was a secret plan of Austria to find an excuse to go to war with Serbia to annex it. Russia wanted to settle the issue peacefully, but Austria refused and declared war on Serbia. In response, Serbia’s ally Russia immediately mobilized its army in preparation for war. Germany, an ally of Austria, told Russia to back down or the German army would become involved. When Russia refused, Germany declared war on Russia on August 1, 1914. Then on August 3, Germany declared war on France, a Russian ally. The Germans invaded the countries of Belgium and Luxembourg as part of their plan to advance into France. The Russian-French alliance brought Great Britain into the war against Germany. The war began as a clash between two coalitions of European nations. The Allied Powers included the United Kingdom (Great Britain), France, Belgium, Serbia, Montenegro, and Russia. The opposition, the Central (Axis) Powers, consisted of Germany and Austria-Hungary. In 1914, Japan joined the Allied Powers while the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) joined the Central Powers. In 1915, Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, and Italy entered the war on the Allied side. The United States remained neutral until 1917 when it joined the Allies. The conflict eventually involved 32 countries, 28 of which supported the Allies. However, many of these nations did not engage in the fighting.

America Goes to War Prior to 1917, President Wilson was committed to remaining neutral in WWI. Many Americans felt the war was too far away to affect the United States. In addition, the people of the United States were divided in their loyalties. Many Americans were of British ancestry and many were of German origin, giving them conflicting loyalties. Irish Americans were opposed to U.S. support for Britain because the British refused to grant home rule to Ireland. The sinking of the British vessel Lusitania on May 7, 1915 and the attack of the French vessel, the Sussex, in 1916 by German submarines enraged Americans. Both incidents seemed very threatening to American citizens. In the “Sussex Pledge" following the attack, Germany promised to limit its hostile actions against oceanliners. In return, it wanted the United States to force an end to the Allies’ naval blockade of Germany. In his campaign of 1916, Wilson promised to maintain “freedom of the seas.” In accordance with this, he warned Germany to end attacks on United States ships and actively campaigned for U.S. support of the Allies. With increasing public attention on the hostile actions of German submarines, more and more Americans were eager to help Britain, France, and Russia. But a small group of Americans, known as dissenters, still opposed the direct intervention of the United States in the war. Dissenters were opponents of United States policies in World War I. The U.S. government continued to negotiate with Germany to stop the sinking of American ships. Germany, attempting to starve the British into surrender, persisted in attacking any ship that may have been taking supplies to the British. On April 6, 1917, Congress voted to enter the war against the Central Powers. The U.S. government found a way to prevent dissenters from gaining a voice of opposition. The Espionage Act was adopted which made treasonous and disloyal acts punishable. Many supporters and dissenters viewed this act as an infringement of rights and deemed it unconstitutional, but it remained in effect and led to the arrests of thousands of people. In June of 1917, the first troops of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), under the command of General John J. Pershing, arrived in France. However, U.S. intervention in World War I did not have an immediate impact on the fighting because it took about a year to mobilize, train, and transport troops. In May 1917, Congress enacted the Selective Service Act to draft men into the armed forces. Within a few months, more than 10 million American men had registered for military duty. However, it was not until the summer of the following year that the AEF began to have an impact on the Allied war effort. By this time, the Russians had withdrawn from the war because of the Bolshevik Revolution led by Vladimir Lenin. Before U.S. troops were able to fully participate in the fighting on a large scale, the war had reached a stalemate, with neither side gaining an advantage. U.S. involvement provided a major boost to the Allied effort, tipping the scale. By the fall of 1918, the tide of the war had turned. The Central Powers were being dealt blows on all fronts. After the failure of a final major offensive, Germany was ready to listen to peace talks. On November 11, 1918, the Allied and German delegates signed an armistice on terms established by the Allies. Wilson came up with Fourteen Point Peace Plan designed to establish the basis for a just and lasting peace. Wilson's major goal was to create a League of Nations. The final peace treaty of WWI was the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919. The treaty forced Germany to take responsibility for the war and to pay war reparations to England and France. It also included the pledge to create a League of Nations, based on Wilson's idea in the Fourteen Point Plan. The League of Nations was to become a worldwide organization that promoted international cooperation and peace. However, to Wilson’s extreme disappointment, the United States Senate would not ratify the treaty including the League of Nations. The Senate refused to join due to what they perceived as the organization’s weaknesses. Without the strength of American support, the League of Nations was essentially powerless and was officially dissolved in 1946.

The Realities of War No nation in Europe wanted a deadly, bloody war prior to WWI. But the conflict became one of the deadliest conflicts in history. The great powers were armed with many new weapons, like machine guns, tanks, and poison gas, that would change the traditional battlefield forever. The war began with high hopes on each side for a speedy victory. This dream turned into a nightmare as the war dragged on for years. The major battleground, the Western Front (running through Belgium and France), became a slaughterhouse. Each side attempted to punch through the opposing side's heavily fortified lines of trenches and achieve the breakthrough that would crush the enemy forces. In the process, hundreds of thousands of men were butchered by poison gas, machine guns, and artillery. This method of battle became known as trench warfare. Life expectancy for officers at the front was about five months in 1914, and about ten months in 1918. For every officer killed, twenty enlisted men were killed. At the Battle of the Somme on July 1, 1916, fourteen British soldiers were killed and twenty-five were wounded every minute for twenty-four hours. On that day, the British suffered the heaviest single day's losses in their military history - 60,000 soldiers killed, wounded, or captured. Casualties for the war were staggering: 908,000 British killed 1,000,000 French killed 1,000,000 Russians killed 650,000 Italians killed 126,000 American killed 1,000,000 Germans killed 1,000,000 Austro-Hungarians killed 350,000 Turks Europe and the United States were swept by pessimism and cynicism after the war when these battlefield horrors were revealed. This war saw the introduction of many new and deadly weapons in the armies. The machine gun, invented before the turn of the century, came into its own as a superb weapon of mass destruction. Airplanes, first used for observation, began being armed with machine guns and bombs. The British invented the tank, an armored vehicle, moving on caterpillar treads and carrying machine guns and cannons, to try to break through the trenches. Another new weapon, developed by Germany, was the submarine, or U-boat, which fired torpedoes at unsuspecting ships from below the surface of the water. One of the most fiendish weapons was poison gas, which brought an agonized death to those soldiers without protective masks. WWI changed the nature of warfare. Nations would be highly reluctant to engage in war in the future. This reality would manifest when Adolph Hitler started the second World War twenty years later, and countries would not stop him.

America after the War and the Labor Strikes The post-war period was a difficult time for Americans. Factory workers and farmers suffered greatly from the economic downturn following the end of the war. European demand for American goods declined, wages dropped, production became more difficult, and the cost of living increased. American farmers faced enormous problems because European farming began to return to normal after the war. Farm prices in the U.S. dropped drastically after World War I, causing half a million American farmers to lose their farms during the post-World War I depression. Finding jobs was a huge ordeal when the war was over. Temporary factory employees, who had replaced soldiers in the workplace during the war, found themselves competing with returning veterans for jobs. Many wartime industries had to convert to peacetime production at a much lower level of production. Thus, factories were shut down or operated by a reduced work force. The federal government had also created a temporary job force to run their wartime agencies, and as with the farmers, former government employees were forced to compete with returning war veterans for civilian jobs. Competition was fierce for work and wages fell more and more. As people lost their jobs, America’s workers resorted to strikes, with the hope of gaining better wages or working conditions. In 1919, more than 4 million workers went on strike. During this time, labor unions formed to fight for better working conditions. Three strikes are recognized as the most memorable of this time because they set precedents for the future of the labor movement. One was the Boston Police strike in September 1919, during which the city's police force went on strike. Calvin Coolidge, a governor who later became president, declared striking by protectors of the public unacceptable. When looting and rioting started, the National Guard was called out and the police returned to work. Because of his words and actions in the crisis, Coolidge won national fame during the Boston Police strike. Another major strike in 1919 was called by the United Mine Workers (UMW), led by John L. Lewis. They demanded changes within the mining system and refused to work until serious changes were made. President Wilson mediated a major wage increase of 27%, but the harsh working conditions remained unchanged. The third strike of importance was a steel strike in which over 350,000 workers walked off the job protesting terrible working conditions. The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) organized workers in the steel towns of the United States. However, when steel company managers refused to let the A.F. of L. bargain for all the workers, the steelworkers went on strike in September of 1919. With the economy worsening, public opinion did not favor the steelworkers and they returned to work in January of 1920 with little gained. It took three more years before business owners finally agreed to a single demand of the workers, a shorter 8-hour workday. In early 1920, the economy was beginning to improve. Workers were disillusioned with the unions and strikes because they had gained very little from the strikes of 1919. These factors, combined with a Supreme Court ruling which limited labor union activity and declared that legislature to improve working conditions was unconstitutional, led to declining union support. The A.F. of L.'s membership fell substantially. Another factor in the decline of the labor movement was the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 in Russia. The Russian Revolution was based on the teachings of Karl Marx, who preached the organization of workers to overthrow oppressive governments. In 1917, the Communist Party overthrew the government of Tsar Nicholas II, killing his entire family. Communists, often referred to as “Reds," gained control of Russia and eventually formed the Soviet Union. The Russian revolutionary organization created a “Red Scare” in the United States. Americans became suspicious of any type of organized activities that might lead to a similar revolution in the U.S. Laws were passed to crack down on any type of revolutionary activity. Strikes by workers were considered a form of revolutionary activity. In 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified. It declared that "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." Now, legally, everyone over the age of 21 was eligible to vote. Most blacks, however, were not voting, because poll tax laws and literacy tests were still common. There were also a great number of lynchings, the horrendous practice in the South of mob justice against African-Americans. In 1915 alone, 32 blacks were killed (usually by hanging, but sometimes by burning) by mobs in the South. These were carried out when accusations of crimes were made against blacks. The accusations were almost always false, and there was almost never a trial for any of these alleged crimes. Lynchings effectively intimidated black people into not voting and continuing their existence as disenfranchised members of society.

The Beginning of the Roaring Twenties In the election of 1920, Warren G. Harding was elected President after campaigning to return America to “normalcy" --to a time of peace and prosperity. On November 2, 1920, a radio station in Pittsburg announced the results of the election on the radio. This marked the beginning of the news broadcast industry, and Harding was the first president to use this new medium. Throughout his campaign, Harding had promised to be a hands-off president. He delegated much of his authority to his trusted advisors. Unfortunately, many of his trusted advisors embroiled the Harding administration in several scandals. For example, Thomas Miller, one of the "dirty politicians" of the Harding administration, defrauded the government in the sale of its foreign properties. On the other hand, Andrew Mellon, the Secretary of the Treasury at the time, helped cut the national debt by about one third. However, because of the many scandals, the public lost faith in Harding and his administration. Talk of impeachment began to grow, but Harding died in office in 1923. Vice-President Calvin Coolidge took office and set out to restore trust in the presidency. Coolidge saw no need to tinker with the economy, and great prosperity prevailed during the twenties. The economy grew and Americans shopped. People were able to purchase more than they ever had because of the institution of credit, which allowed people to buy items and pay for them in monthly installments. Investing in the stock market became particularly popular during this period. On January 16, 1920, the 18th Amendment to the Constitution went into effect throughout the United States. For the next 14 years the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic drinks was forbidden. Millions of Americans who had been drinkers all their lives suddenly found that the saloons had been closed down, and it was difficult and more expensive to get alcoholic beverages. Organized crime syndicates, or gangsters, took advantage of the era and began bootlegging - importing and producing alcohol illegally. Illegal drinking establishments, called speakeasies, were prevalent in American cities. In revolt against the prohibition, many Americans ignored the laws and adopted a wild, self-indulgent lifestyle. The period became known as the "Roaring Twenties." Al Capone, a notoriously famous mobster, is an example of a gangster who emerged during the twenties.