(Class 16) The Great War Flashcards
William Jennings Bryan
Appointed as Secretary of State as a reward for Bryan’s support of Woodrow Wilson in election of 1912
Triple Alliance Countries
- Germany
- Austria-Hungary
- Italy (eventually leaves and replaced by Ottoman Empire)
What was another name for the Triple Alliance Countries?
Central Powers
Triple Entente Countries
- Britain
- France
- Russia (obligated by a treaty to protect Serbia)
Another name for the Triple Entente Countries
Allied Powers / Allies
Whose assassination “sparked” WW1?
Archduke (Franz) Ferdinand
Who was Archduke Ferdinand assassinated by?
Bosnian national Gavrilo Princip (19)
Member of Young Bosnia
“Black Hand”
What was Trench Warfare?
Act of digging trenches to hide and fight in
How many people died from WW1?
- War claimed 8.5 million lives and twice that number wounded
- Total of 37 million casualties including civilians
How did most of the people die in WW1?
combat and disease
What was a Underseebooten?
U boats (German Submarines)
What does Germany decide to do after Britain’s navy set up an economic block on them?
(February 1915) Germany announces they will sink all boats on way to Britain
What was the Lusitania?
British Passenger Ship
What happens to the Lusitania?
(May 7, 1915) U boat sinks the British passenger liner Lusitania – killing 1,198 passengers including 124 American citizens
“Middle of the Road” Strategy
- (May 10, 1915) Wilson announces that any further destruction of ships would be regarded as “deliberately unfriendly” and would lead U.S. to break diplomatic relations with Germany
- He demanded that Germany end unrestricted submarine warfare
- Germany apologized for deaths on Lusitania
- Germany went further and promised no more submarine attacks without warning
What was the Zimmerman Telegram?
- (In March 1917) the British intercept a telegram sent from German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmerman to Mexico
- It proposed a military alliance between Germany and Mexico in the event the United States entered the war against Germany.
- In exchange for Mexican alliance Germany would see that Mexico regained Texas, New Mexico and Arizona from the United States
What did Woodrow Wilson do in retaliation to the Zimmerman Telegram?
Goes to Congress to approve policy of “armed neutrality”
Who were the Harlem Hellfighters?
- 370,000 armed forces were African-Americans
- 369th Regimen of 92nd division was integrated with the French and saw more combat than any other unit
- 171 members of the 369th were awarded the Legion of Merit
What was the Selective Service Act of 1917?
- Authorized a draft of all young men into the armed services
- Draft had been first used during the Civil War
- Draft boards eventually drafted 2.8 million men into the armed forces
- 2 million others volunteered to fight
What was Prohibition?
Ban on Alcohol
What was the 18th Amendment?
- (December 1917) – Congress passed the 18th Amendment
- Declared the production, transport, and sale of alcohol (though not the consumption or private possession) illegal
- Prohibition went into effect January 1, 1920
What was the 19th Amendment?
- In 1919 Congress passed the 19th Amendment granting women the vote
- “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.”
- “Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”
Wilson’s 14 Points
- January 8, 1918 Wilson revealed to Congress his 14 point plan for democratic order in the world after war
- First 5 points affirmed basic liberal ideals
- The next 8 points supported the right of self-determination of European peoples
- Final point was establishment of a League of Nations – “parliament of man” to secure lasting peace
Did the US ever become a member of the League of Nations?
No
League of Nations
- He believed the League would provide collective security and establish rules of international conduct
- It would be an agent to resolve future conflicts between nations without war
- Wilson’s refusal to accept compromise lost the treaty
- U.S. never signed the Paris Peace Treaty
- Failure of America to join probably weakened the League from the very start
- President Harding in 1921 signed separate treaties with Germany, Austria and Hungary to end WWI
Versailles Peace Treaty
- Versailles peace treaty was signed on June 28, 1919 and Wilson returned home in July
- He was disappointed in many of the provisions of the treaty
- He felt he had failed to get acceptance of the majority of his 14 points
- But he was happy that his centerpiece – the League of Nations – was agreed upon by the allies
Who was Henry Cabot Lodge?
- Harvard College, Harvard Law School and Harvard PhD in History (similar to Wilson)
- Senator from Massachusetts
- Republican
- Chairman of the Foreign Relations committee
- Felt League threatened US independence in foreign affairs
- Did not completely reject it outright
- Proposed amendments/reservations to membership in the League of Nations
Great Flu Epidemic of 1918
- The1918 influenza pandemic(January 1918 – December 1920) was an unusually deadlyinfluenza epidemic
- It infected 500million people across the world,including Europe, US and remote Pacific islands and the Arctic
- Resulted in the deaths of 50 to 100million (three to five percent of the world’s population)
- In World War I – 8.5 million died
- One of the deadliest natural disasters in human history
The Great Migration
- From 1915 to 1920 a half a million African-Americans (10% of south’s black population) boarded trains bound for industrial cities in the north
- Encountered many problems in terms of work and racism in the north but had little to lose in the south
- Most stayed in North and encouraged family and friends to migrate too
- By 1940 more than 1 million African-Americans left the south and headed north
- Harlem in New York and Southside of Chicago
- By 1970 6 million had moved out of the south
