1. American Power in WWI

2. BIG IDEAS
MAIN IDEA: The U.S. Mobilized a large army and navy to help the Allies achieve victory
WHY IT MATTERS NOWS: During WWI, the U.S. military evolved into the powerful force that it remains today

3. Selling the War
American citizens bought war bonds to help raise funds for the government
Seen as a patriotic duty
George Creel’s Committee on Public Information created propaganda in favor of the war

4. Mobilization Before the War After the War 200,000 men in the service
Women not used in war services
Little government regulations in businesses
Civil Service Act = 2million plus enter the war
13,000 women in non combat positions
Government takes control of the shipping industry

5. CONVOY SYSTEM
Uses the protection of U.S. destroyers to escort merchant ships and help increase trade
Keeps German U-boats out of the North Sea

6. War Technology Machine Guns: 600 rounds per min Anti Aircraft
Airships and Airplanes: carried guns, bombs, and zeppelins
Tanks: Run on tread and made of steel
Poison Gas: Suffocate, burn and blind the enemy

7. Germany Falls German sailors faced mutiny Austria-Hungry surrendered
German soldiers and civilians organize revolutionary councils
Socialist leaders take over control of Berlin and establish the German Republic

8. Impact of the War 22 million killed 20 million wounded
10 million refugees
$338 billion spent on the war
62,000 killed by disease alone

9. BIG IDEAS
1. WWI spurred social political, and economic change in the U.S. on the home front
2. Wilson’s plans for peace are modified by Allied leaders in Europe and by Americans eager to remove the country from foreign entanglements.

10. American Resistance
Troops returning with “shellshock” and unable to get proper care
Conscientious Objectors do not fight in war based on moral grounds despite the draft

11. Government Controls Dissent
Government took away civil liberties from citizens
Espionage and Sedition Acts of 1918
Made it illegal to interfere with the draft
Say anything disloyal, profane, or abusive about the gov’t/war effort

12. The Great Migration
African Americans escaping the Jim Crow Laws in the South
Factory opportunities and less discrimination in the North (IE Ford factories)
Jobs open for African Americans and women because of the war effort

14. Wilson’s 14 Points No secret treaties or alliances
Freedom of the seas and support of free trade
Consider attitudes of colonial people
Reduce military to lowest point needed for safety
Made specific boundary changes for different nationalities

15. The Big Four British Prime Minister David Lloyd George
French Premier Georges Clemenceau
Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson

16. Treaty of Versailles Rejected most of Wilson’s 14 points
Officially end WWI
Established 9 new nations; breaking up the Ottoman Empire
Demilitarized Germany
Created the League of Nations– U.S. would not join

17. What about Germany? War-guilt clause: full responsibility
$33 Billion in reparations and war damages
Depression, famine, and unemployment set the Nazi Party up for Success in 1933

18. Why was there so much opposition to the treaty of Versailles and Wilson’s plan for peace in his 14 points?
Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points: Five Points Delivered in Joint Session, January 8, Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view. 4. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety. 5. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the government whose title is to be Determined. 10. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest opportunity to autonomous development. 14. A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.