The First World War Adapted from McIntyre at http://worldhistory.pppst.com

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The First World War Adapted from McIntyre at
http//worldhistory.pppst.com

• U.S. government WWI posters

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The First World War
What?

• War involving nearly all the nations of the world

• When?

• 1914-1918

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The First World War

• Why?

Long term causes 1. Militarism 2. Alliance
system 3. Imperialism 4. Nationalism (Memory tip
Think MAIN.)
Short term cause Assassination of Franz
Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
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The First World War

• Who?

Central Powers
Allies

• Germany
• Austria-Hungary
• Ottoman Empire
• Bulgaria

• Russia
• France
• Great Britain
• Italy
• Japan
• United States (1917)

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The First World War

• Where?

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Why did it take so long for America to get
involved in the war?

• America was isolationist.
• Why should I get involved in someone elses
  problems?
• The Monroe Doctrine (1823) sought to
  isolate the American
  continents from European
  influences and problems.

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Thinking Slide

• Is isolationism really an option for a country
  as powerful as the United States?
• What are the disadvantages of isolationism?
• What are the advantages?

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Which side should the U.S. pick?
Central Powers
Allies

• 11 million German- Americans
• Irish-Americans hated Great Britain

• Close cultural ties to other allies
• American, England, and Frances economies were
  increasingly interdependent.

US Exports to both sides
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What did it take to get the U.S. involved?
1. Blockades

• Britain blockaded (stopped) all German ships
  going to America.

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What did it take to get the U.S. involved?
1. Blockades

• May, 1915 Germany told Americans to stay off
  British ships, and they could and would sink
  them.
• Germany torpedoed the Lusitania, sinking it with
  1200 passengers and crew (including 128
  Americans).
• It was eventually found to be carrying 4200
  cases of ammunition.

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What did it take to get the U.S. involved?
1. Blockades

• The US sharply criticized Germany for its
  action.

• Germany agreed not to sink passenger ships
  without warning in the future.

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What did it take to get the U.S. involved?
2. Unlimited Submarine Warfare

• In 1917, Germany announced unlimited
  submarine warfare in the war zone.
• Otherwise, Germanys blockade would not be
  successful.

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What did it take to get the U.S. involved?
3. Zimmerman Note

• The U.S. intercepted a note from Germany to
  Mexico.

• It promised to give Texas, New Mexico,
  and
  Arizona back to
  Mexico in return for an
  alliance and attacking
  the United States.

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What did it take to get the U.S. involved?

• The Zimmerman Note and the sinking of four
  unarmed American ships led to a declaration of
  war.

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How was the war looking for the allies?
Not Good...

• Russia left the war after its communist
  revolution in 1917.
• Russias withdrawal allowed Germany to fight a
  one- front war with all its troops concentrated
  on France (remember this point when you study
  WWII!).

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Convincing the American People

• Posters

• How do you think these posters helped to
  convince the American people that the war was
  a good idea?

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Convincing the American People
Idealism 2 Goals For War

• Wilson had to convince American that this would
  be the War to End All Wars.
• He had to convince American that beating the
  Germans and its allies would make the world safe
  for democracy.

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Convincing the American People
Idealism Fourteen Points
President Wilsons Fourteen Points was his vision
for the future after the war, including freedom
of the seas and a League of Nations to work for
world peace.
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What did the U.S. do to help?
Supplies

• The U.S. provided the food, money, and fresh
  troops needed to win the war.

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How did the war affect the U.S.?
Women

• Women filled factory jobs

• Womens war effort helped bring about passage of
  the 19th Amendment after the war giving women the
  right to vote.

African Americans

• Black soldiers still served in segregated units.

• In the Great Migration thousands of African
  Americans moved to the North to work in factories.

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How did the war affect the U.S.?
Enforcing Loyalty

• Hatred of all things German spread across the
  U.S. For example sauerkraut was renamed
  Liberty Cabbage.

• The Espionage Act 1917 and the Sedition Act of
  1918 punished those against the war, many of
  whom were labor leaders.

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What ended the war?
The Treaty of Versailles

• After the Central Powers were exhausted by the
  war, especially after the US began fighting, it
  sought an armistice (the end of fighting).
• The Treaty of Versailles (ver-sigh)
  was signed
  between the Allied powers
  and Germany.
• It took land away from Germany.
• It dismantled Germanys military.
• It forced Germany to make reparations
  (payments) to the countries it harmed
  in the war.
• This treaty so destroyed the German economy and
  the morale of the German people, that within 20
  years, they would start another world war.

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Extend your learning
Movies

• All Quiet on the Western Front
• A Farewell to Arms
• Gallipoli
• Paths of Glory
• Wings

Literature

• All Quiet on the Western Front
• A Farewell to Arms
• Johnny Got His Gun
• Under Fire