World War I Flashcards
Spanish Flu
pandemic that spread around the world in 1918
- killed more than 50 million people
Committee on Public Information
- headed by George Creel
- PURPOSE: mobilize people’s minds for war in both America and abroad
- tried to get entire US public to support US involvement in WW1
- employed over 150,000 workers overseas and at home
- provided words were also weapons
Espionage Act
law passed after the US entered WW1 imposing sentences of up to 20 yrs on anyone found guilty of:
- aiding the enemy
- obstructing recruitment of soldiers
- encouraging disloyalty
allowed postmaster general to remove from mail any materials that incited treason or insurrection
Sedition Act
authorized the persecution of virtually any public assembly or publication critic of the government
War Industries Board
agency established during WW1 to increase efficiency and discourage waste in war-related industries
National Woman’s Party
- group of militant suffragists
- took to streets with mass pickets, parades, hunger strikes
- tried to convince government to let them have the right to vote
- led by Alice Paul
Great Migration
movement of over 300,000 African Americans from rural south to northern cities
- 1914-1920s
American Protective League
- 1917
- volunteer organization that claimed approval of Justice Department for pressuring support of war
- humiliated those accused of not buying war bonds
- persecuted those of German descent
- encouraged banning of German culture, including “pretzels” and “German Measles”
League of Nations
- world organization established in 1920
- promote international cooperation and peace
- proposed by US President Woodrow Wilson
- US never joined the League
- essentially powerless, officially dissolved in 1946
Seattle General Strike
- well organized strike
- Feb 1919
- 60,000 shipyard workers walked off the job to demand higher wages and shorter hours
Great Steel Strike
- Chicago
- most violent strike of the time period
- caused the AFL to end support
1919 Chicago Race Riot
- July 27, 1919
- AA teenager drowned in Lake Michigan after violating unofficial segregation of Chicago beaches and stoned to death by white youths
- his death + police refusal to arrest assailant sparked a week of rioting between black and white Chicago gangs and civilians
- 23 blacks killed and more than 500 people injured
1921 Tusla Race Massacre
- May 21 and June 1
- mobs of white residents (some deputized and given weapons by city officials) attacked black residents
- destroyed homes and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Sacco and Vanzetti Case
- Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian immigrants charged with murdering a guard and robbing a shoe factory in Mass.
- trial lasted from 1920-1927
- convicted on circumstantial evidence
- many believed they had been framed due to their anarchist and pro-union activities
