1. Aim: How did life change in America during World War I?

2. Selective Service Act
U.S. needed a way to raise an army
Selective Service Act is passed in May of 1917
Required men between 18 and 45 to register with the government to be randomly selected for military service
24 million registered with about 3 million being called to duty during the war

4. Espionage and Seditions Acts
Passed in June 1917 and May 1918
Espionage Act made it a crime to interfere with the war effort or to “promote the success of its enemies”
Sedition Act made it a crime to say anything that was disloyal to or criticized the government or military
It was a general crackdown on labor organizers, socialists, anti-war activists, radicals and recent immigrants

6. Schenck v. United States (1919)
An American Socialist named Charles Schenck distributed leaflets calling the draft a “deed against humanity,” among other things. He was convicted of violating the Sedition Act and appealed his case to the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court upheld his conviction, saying during wartime his words were not protected under free speech

7. Wartime Economy Wages increased, but so did food and housing costs
Unions grew and strikes became frequent
President Wilson established the National War Labor Board in 1918
Improved factory conditions but also told laborers to “work or fight”
President Woodrow Wilson used the Council of National Defense to increase government control over the economy.

8. Wartime Economy
16% of male workers enlisted in the army and the positions were filled by women and African-Americans.
The Great Migration was the movement of million blacks out of the Southern United States to the Midwest, Northeast and West from 1910 to African Americans migrated to escape racism and to seek jobs in industrial cities.

10. Patriotism and Helping The Cause
President Wilson needed public opinion to be in support of the war
The government created a domestic propaganda campaign and started the Committee on Public Information to try to achieve this
The CPI placed pro-war advertisements in magazines and passed out pamphlets usually attacking Germany
There was also an emphasis on purchasing liberty bonds and conserving resources such as food and donating books for the war effort

12. Aim: What was the United States role in ending World War I?

14. U.S. Entry into World War I
The United States’ Congress officially declares war on Germany and enters World War I on April 6, 1917.
U.S. entry tipped the scales in favor of the Allies.
November 11, 1918 at 5:00am an armistice was signed in a railroad carriage at Compiègne.
November 11, 1918 at 11:00am - "the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" — a ceasefire came into effect.

16. Peace Talks
President Woodrow Wilson had begun to come up with his own proposal for the basis of peace talks at Versailles, France known as The Fourteen Points.

17. Peace Talks
The Fourteen Points included:
Open, not secret, diplomacy
Freedom of the seas
Removal of trade barriers
Arms reduction
Self-determination - letting various national groups make their own political decisions
An “association of nations” (League of Nations) to guarantee political independence and territorial integrity.

19. Peace Talks
Wilson’s Fourteen Points met some opposition at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919.
Wilson became ill at the beginning of the Conference and had to modify some of his ideas and make compromises while negotiating peace treaties.

20. Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles was the treaty that ended World War I in Europe. Germany had to:
War Guilt Clause - Accept complete responsibility for causing the war.
Pay huge reparations to the Allies.
Give up its military forces.
Cede lands to the new nations of Poland and Czechoslovakia.
Give up its overseas colonies.

22. Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles provided a clause for creating the League of Nations.
An international organization that would correct any problems caused by peace treaties.

23. Treaty of Versailles
The United States Senate does not approve the Treaty of Versailles.
Many worried that the United States would have to send troops to protect member nations.
Many believed that the United States would lose its sovereignty as a nation.
The United States would return to a foreign policy of nonintervention.