Shell Shock: 1914-1919

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  Over 2000 passengers leave New York for England
  
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  Trans-Atlantic crossing was dangerous because of German U-Boat (submarine) attacks
  
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  WWI is raging in Europe
  
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  German U-Boat fires one torpedo
  
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  1198 killed. 128 were American
  
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  ***Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare was the factor that most challenged U.S. neutrality prior to our entering WWI***
  

June 1914- Assassination sparks a war!

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  Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary killed by a Serbian nationalist
  
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  Kaiser (King) of Germany took this as an opportunity to start a war in Europe
  
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  All the countries wanted to widen their influence in Europe and the world
  

Schlieffen Plan- Germany’s plan for fighting WWI

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  Hold against Russia in the East. Quickly take Belgium and France in the West
  
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  Then unite the German army to defeat Russia in the East
  
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  ***fighting gets bogged down in France, trenches are built.***
  
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  ***This “western front” in FRANCE would be the stage for most of the fighting of the war***
  
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  ***by end of 1^st year, over 1 million French casualties!***
  

Massacre of the Innocents- The “flower of German youth”

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  young German boys were given little training, sent to the front lines
  
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  Tens of thousands dead in the first few weeks!
  

U.S. stays neutral at the beginning of war

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  We did not want to get involved in European conflicts
  
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  ***Freedom of navigation of seas would be the primary concern of Woodrow Wilson’s foreign policy, from 1914-1917***
  
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  U.S. was changing: becoming modern- electric appliances, motion pictures-
  
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  movie houses are where Americans got news of the war in Europe- it made war look glamorous
  

Propaganda!!!- using media and twisting facts to persuade

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  Americans sympathized with the British view of Germany- an evil race of people
  
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  Committee on Public Information: U.S. gov. committee, whose main purpose was to encourage broad public support for entry into the war.
  
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  German immigrants in U.S. would face repression and possible deportation for objecting to the war in Europe.
  

War- Good for American business!

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  Banks lent money to Britain and France, who used the money to buy weapons from U.S. factories
  
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  ***Greatest economic boom in U.S. history up to that point***
  

The Great Migration

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  War in Europe cut immigration to the U.S.
  
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  Businesses looked to black Americans to work
  
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  ***millions of blacks moved to northern cities to work in factories***
  

Stalemate on the Western Front- Trench Warfare

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  300 mile system of trenches in France
  
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  Very deadly type of warfare
  
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  Rats, trench foot, dead bodies, lice, excrement were daily hardships
  
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  ***the front never moved more than a mile in the 1^st year
  

New Weapons- the industrialization of war

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  Factories switched to war production
  
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  Flame throwers, machine guns, massive cannons, tanks, air planes, and poison gas
  
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  ***Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)- shell shock
  

2^nd Battle of the Somme- France, Summer of 1916

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  British decide to storm German trenches
  
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  First, a massive artillery barrage that lasted a week
  
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  Then a massive charge by British troops toward German trenches
  
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  Germans were safe in their trench dug-outs, came out after the artillery barrage
  
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  “I stopped firing because I was sickened by what we were doing”- a German soldier
  
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  ***bloodiest day in British history: 20,000 killed and 40,000 injured
  
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  ***Battle of the Somme lasted 6 months!- over 1 million casualties. The front only moved 5 miles!
  

Revolution in Russia- March 1917-November 1917

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  300 years of royal rule replaced by provisional representative government- decided to continue the war
  
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  ***To make the world “safe for democracy” would be a major reason Wilson pushed for U.S. involvement in WWI
  
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  German’s helped a Russian revolutionary return from exile- Vladimir Lennon
  
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  Lennon urged working class to revolt & create a communist government
  
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  ***November 1917- Bolshevik Revolution- Lennon takes control of Russia
  
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  ***Russia becomes a communist nation- withdraws from war!
  
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  ***This ends friendly relations between U.S. and Russia. U.S. would rapidly deploy troops to prevent Allied supplies from falling into enemy hands
  
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  ***Wilson refused to recognize legitimacy of Bolshevik gov. What about self-determination?***
  

Wilson must declare war- why (In 1916, he ran on the campaign slogan, “He kept us out of war”)?

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  Continued German U-boat attacks on U.S. ships
  
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  Zimmerman note- proposed alliance between Germany and Mexico, and urged Mexico to invade the U.S.
  
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  Revolution in Russia- President Wilson can characterize the war as a fight of democracies versus brutal monarchies.
  
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  ***April 6, 1917- Congress declares war on Germany
  

U.S. doughboys land in France- summer 1917

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  U.S. troops were ready to fight, but were poorly armed and poorly trained
  
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  ***U.S. troops were needed to replace the Allied forces who had lost millions of soldiers
  

March 1918- Germany makes its last great offensive on the Western front

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  The front finally moved…toward Paris…uh oh.
  
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  Millions of people evacuated the city
  
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  Germans make it within 30 miles of Paris
  
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  U.S. forces finally stop Germany in fall of 1918
  

11:00am, November 11^th, 1918. The armistice (truce agreement)

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  On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, Germany formally surrendered.
  
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  The war is over
  

Problems for returning soldiers

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  Wartime economy slows down- factories layoff as veterans come home looking for work
  
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  No government help for returning soldiers
  

Cost of War- “Nobody wins in a war. They lost. We didn’t win.”

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  The empires of Germany and Austria-Hungary are shattered
  
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  Britain and France deal with ruin and rage
  
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  9 million dead
  
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  ***Widespread devastation of Europe’s industrial base would be a contributing factor to the Great Depression
  

Peace conference in Versailles, France- bringing the war to an end

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  Pres. Wilson brings his “14 Points”- called for liberty and self-determination for all people
  
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  Called for a League of Nations to avert crises and help prevent another war
  
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    The League of Nations was the predecessor to the United Nations
    
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  The goal of Wilson’s Fourteen Points: “A just and lasting peace”
  
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  Britain and France want REVENGE!
  

The Treaty of Versailles- politics of ____________

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  Soviet Union excluded from the peace conference
  
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  Germany excluded from negotiations
  
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  Britain & France gain new colonies in the Middle East
  
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  U.S. senatorial opposition was led by Henry Cabot Lodge
  
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    The Senate would NOT ratify the treaty in part because of the League of Nations.
    
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    This greatly weakened the League of Nations’ effectiveness
    
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  Germany forced to accept conditions that left them humiliated and their economy ruined for years
  
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  ***The Treaty of Versailles was about punishment, not peace***
  
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  ***The conditions would lead to resentment, and the rise of German nationalism and the Third Reich
  
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  ***Within 20 years- the same countries would be at war over the same territory!***