Chapter 22: America and the World, 1913-1920

1. Inherited Commitments and New Directions, 1913-1917
   1. Anti-imperialism and Intervention
      1. Congress established a bill of rights for Filipinos in 1917 and promised them future independence, while Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory the next year and its residents became U.S. citizens.
      2. The Bryan-Chamorro Treaty (1914) gave the United States significant concessions in Nicaragua, including the right to build a canal.
      3. Haiti became a protectorate in 1915, and American forces controlled most of the government until 1933.
      4. Wilson sent marines to the Dominican Republic in 1916, and they maintained a presence there until 1924.
   2. Wilson and the Mexican Revolution
      1. Huerta took control of the Mexican government in 1913 and had Madero executed.
      2. Wilson considered Huerta a murderer and vowed "not to recognize a government of butchers."
      3. Wilson thus presented a new moral dimension to U.S. diplomatic recognition - governments must rest on the consent of the governed.
      4. Wilson found an excuse to intervene in April 1914 in Veracruz, the leading Mexican port, after American soldiers were arrested in Tampico.
      5. Huerta fled Mexico in mid-July, and Wilson withdrew the last American forces in Veracruz in November 1914.
      6. Carranza succeeded Huerta as president, and Wilson officially recognized his government.
      7. Pancho Villa, another rebel leader, decided that his best hope to take power from Carranza was to incite war between the U.S. and Mexican governments, so he led a raid across the border and killed Americans in Columbus, New Mexico, in 1916.
         1. Wilson sent a punitive expedition, led by John J. Pershing, into Mexico to capture Villa but was unsuccessful and ordered the troops withdrawn from Mexico as the United States was drawn into World War I.
2. From Neutrality to War: 1914-1917
   1. The Great War in Europe
      1. Since 1871, competition for world markets and colonies encouraged nations to accumulate arms and seek allies.
      2. The Triple Entente linked Britain, France, and Russia, while the Triple Alliance linked Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy.
      3. The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand at Sarajevo occurred in the midst of an arms race between rival alliances and rising nationalist tensions.
   2. American Neutrality
      1. Wilson announced that the United States was not committed to either side and was to be accorded all neutral rights, but his hopes for peace proved unrealistic.
         1. Most warring nations wanted additional territory, and only a decisive victory could deliver such a prize.
   3. Neutral Rights and German U-boats
      1. Secretary of State Bryan proved willing to sacrifice neutral rights if insistence on those rights posed the prospect of conflict with one of the belligerents, while Wilson stood firm on maintaining all traditional rights of neutral nations, a posture that proved more favorable to the Allies.
      2. Britain began to define neutral rights by announcing a blockade not only of German ports but also of neutral ports from which goods could reach German markets.
         1. Germany responded by declaring a blockade of the British Isles, to be enforced by its submarines, called U-boats.
      3. Wilson warned that the United States would do whatever was necessary to "safeguard American lives" and maintain their neutral rights to travel on the high seas.
         1. When a German U-boat torpedoed the Lusitania,Wilson eventually issued an ultimatum to the Germans and Bryan resigned in protest, since he thought this would lead to war.
      4. Robert Lansing, Bryan’s successor, was outspoken in favor of the Allies and urged a show of strength. When the Germans sank the Sussexthe next year, the United States threatened to sever diplomatic relations.
         1. The German response was the Sussexpledge, promising no more unannounced U-boat attacks.
      5. U.S. economic ties to the Allies grew as the war progressed, but even more significant was the nation’s transformation from a debtor to a creditor nation.
      6. In 1916, Wilson sent his adviser, Edward M. House, to Europe to explore the possibilities of peace, and he concluded that neither side wanted a negotiated end to the war.
      7. Congress passed the National Defense Act, which more than doubled the army and appropriated the largest naval expenditures in the country’s peacetime history.
   4. The Decision for War
      1. On March 1, 1917, Wilson released the Zimmerman telegram, in which Germany proposed that, if the United States went to war with Germany, Mexico should ally itself with Germany and attack the United States As a reward, Mexico could recover Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.
      2. This outraged Americans and lent support to Wilson’s proposal to arm American merchant ships.
      3. German U-boats sank six American ships between February 3 and March 21, but Wilson did not retreat and asked Congress for a declaration of war on April 2, 1917.
3. The Home Front
   1. Mobilizing the Economy
      1. Shortages of military supplies, railway transportation snarls, and serious delays in deliveries led to increased federal direction over manufacturing, food and fuel production, and transportation.
      2. The War Industries Board (WIB) was established in 1917 to oversee production of war materials, and its prompting increased industrial production by 20 percent.
      3. The National War Labor Board, created to mediate labor disputes, endorsed collective bargaining and gave some support for an eight-hour workday in return for a no-strike pledge from labor.
      4. One crucial American contribution to the Allied victory was food, since World War I had severely disrupted much of European agriculture.
   2. Mobilizing Public Opinion
      1. Not all Americans fully supported the war, so Wilson created the Committee on Public Information (CPI) to mobilize public opinion in support of the war.
   3. Civil Liberties in Time of War
      1. German-Americans suffered the most from wartime hysteria, while pacifists, socialists, and other radicals also became targets for repression.
      2. Congress passed the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act, which prohibited interference with the draft; outlawed criticism of the government, the armed forces, and the war effort; and specified large fines and long prison terms for violators.
   4. Changes in the Workplace
      1. American labor’s wartime experience was characterized by intense activism and remarkable productivity as well as increased opportunities for women.
   5. The Great Migration and White Reactions
      1. Until World War I, 90 percent of African Americans lived in the South and 75 percent lived in rural areas.
      2. By 1920, perhaps as many as 500,000 had moved north during the Great Migration, with the largest proportional increases in the midwestern industrial cities.
      3. Reasons for the Great Migration included lynchings, economic disaster, and a sharp decline in European immigration caused by the war.
         1. In addition, the war heightened racial tensions in the South because some whites resented the new options available to blacks, and several wartime racial conflicts also erupted in northern cities as a result of the Great Migration.
4. Americans "Over There"
   1. Mobilizing for Battle
      1. Almost immediately, the navy was able to strike back successfully at the German fleet, but the army was not ready for action until April 1917.
      2. Many men volunteered but not enough, so Congress rushed into law the Selective Service Act in May 1917.
      3. No women were drafted, but some chose to serve in the military and nearly 400,000 African Americans served in a segregated army.
   2. "Over There"
      1. Wilson wished to make the U.S. contribution to victory as prominent as possible in
      2. order to maximize American influence in peacemaking.
      3. American losses numbered 115,000 casualties, including 48,000 killed in action.
5. Wilson and the Peace Conference
   1. Bolshevism, the Secret Treaties, and the Fourteen Points
      1. In March 1917, war-weary, hungry Russians overthrew their czar and the Bolsheviks seized power.
      2. Lenin, the Bolshevik leader, immediately began peace negotiations.
      3. Wilson spoke to Congress in January 1918 about his war aims, known as the Fourteen Points, which emphasized lasting peace and a League of Nations.
         1. The major allies reluctantly accepted Wilson’s Fourteen Points as a basis for discussion but expressed little enthusiasm for them.
   2. Wilson at Versailles
      1. Major decisions were made by the Big Four - Wilson, David Lloyd George of Britain, Georges Clemenceau of France, and Vittorio Orlando of Italy.
      2. Terms of peace were to be imposed, not negotiated, and Wilson learned at the outset that the European leaders were more interested in pursuing their own national interests than in implementing his Fourteen Points.
         1. Wilson did secure the creation of a League of Nations, but the War Guilt clause forced Germany to accept the blame for starting the war.
   3. The Senate and the Treaty
      1. The Senate, controlled by Republicans since the 1918 election, had to approve any treaty, and Wilson had failed to include any prominent Republicans in his delegation to Versailles.
      2. Faced with the treaty, the Senate split into three groups - the reservationists, the irreconcilables, and those who supported the president.
      3. Wilson decided to take his case directly to the people but suffered a serious stroke and still refused to compromise with the Senate.
      4. The Senate’s defeat of the treaty meant that the United States would not join the League of Nations.
   4. Legacies of the Great War
      1. The war to end war spun off several wars in its wake, and, in the end, the war and its peace conference left unresolved many problems.
      2. Above all, the war and the treaty helped to produce economic and political instability in much of Europe, making it a breeding ground for totalitarian and nationalistic movements that were eventually to bring another world war.
6. Trauma in the Wake of War
   1. Inflation and Strikes
      1. Inflation, described in newspapers as "HCL" for "High Cost of Living," was the most pressing single problem Americans faced after the war, and such inflation contributed to labor unrest.
      2. Unions made wage demands to maintain wartime gains and keep up with the soaring cost of living, but management was ready for a fight.
         1. The largest and most dramatic labor conflict in 1919 was against the U.S. Steel Corporation.
   2. The Red Scare
      1. The Red Scare, led by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, frightened Americans into believing the Bolsheviks were going to take over the nation, and thousands of radicals were arrested.
   3. Race Riots and Lynchings
      1. The racial tensions of the war years continued into the postwar period, and mobs in southern states lynched returning black soldiers while they were still in uniform.
         1. Rioting also struck outside the South, and the Ku Klux Klan became powerful again.
   4. The Election of 1920
      1. The Republicans confidently expected to regain the White House in the 1920 election and the reaction against Wilson almost guaranteed election of any competent Republican nominee.
      2. Warren G. Harding won a Republican landslide with thirty-seven of forty-eight states and 60 percent of the popular votethe largest popular majority up to that time.