22.1: Becoming a World Power

• Roosevelt left a strong mark on the foreign policy of the nation.

  • "TR," took for granted the superiority and the aim of spreading the values and the influence of Protestant Anglo-American culture.

• In 1904 Roosevelt proclaimed the Monroe Doctrine to prevent the armed intervention of the European people.

• William Howard Taft, Roosevelt's successor, believed that he could substitute the militarism of the big stick with the more subtle, efficient instrument of business investment.

• The principle of the moralistic faith in America's democracy was combined with a realistic understanding of the power of international trade in foreign affairs.

• According to Wilson, the military and imperialism were marks of the old European way.

  • The wave of the future was America's liberal values — rooted in capitalist development, democracy and free trade.

22.2: The Great War

• But the war settled down in a long, bloody stalemate after the German armies stopped at the Marne River in September.

  • The machine gun and tank, and the horrors of warfare in trenches, were new and extremely efficient weapons, and unprecedented victims for all involved.

• Among the 8 million German Americans, as well as the 4 million Irish Americans, which shared their ancient home history of English rule, strong support for the Central Powers has been found

• Germany declared in February 1915 that the waters around the British islands were a war zone, a policy to be pursued with unrestricted underwater warfare.

  • The surprise submarine attack would be on every enemy shipping

• Based on a peace settlement negotiated by the end of January, 1917, Germany's leaders decided that their hopes would be the final decisive attack on the Allies.

22.3: American Mobilization

• Only one week after the war declaration was signed, Wilson established a public opinion organizer for the Committee on Public Information (CPI).

  • The CPI quickly became a sophisticated and aggressive warfare agency, with its civilian President, the journalist and reformist George Creel.

• President Wilson won over many Americans who were reluctant to go to war by defining the war call as a big moral cruise.

  • Many Liberals and progressives were particularly attracted to war possibilities as a positive force for social change.

• Only approximately 200,000 men in the army were declared war.

  • The United States traditionally relied on state-wide voluntary forces.

• Serving African Americans found grave constraints for the U.S. military.

  • They were organized into completely separate units, completely barred from marines and coast guards and were largely relegated in the army and marine industry as cooks, washing machines, steveores and the like.

• Recent returned from pursuing Pancho Villa in Mexico City, President Wilson nominated General John J. Pershing, as commander of the AEF.

  • Pershing insisted on keeping the identity of the AEF different from that of the French and British armies

• The turmoil of the Russian Revolution changed both the atmosphere of foreign and domestic politics since the beginning of 1917.

  • In March 1917, a coalition of forces demanding change overthrew Zar Nicholas II's repressive and corrupted regime.

22.4: Over Here

• The War Industries Board was set up as a clearing hall for industrial mobilization to support the war effort by President Wilson in summer 1917.

• The bulk of war financing was provided by government borrowing, particularly as a popular Freedom Bond sold to the American public.

• All in all, the war meant American business expansion and high profits.

  • Total US manufacturing capital spending has jumped to $2.5 billion in 1918, from $600 million in 1915.

• The power and prestige of organized labor, although not equivalent to that of business or administration, grew clearly over the war.

• Department agents, acting under a general authority under the Espionage Act recently passed, slumped in the offices of IWWs, arrested more than 300 people and seized files in more than 60 towns and cities.

• The war has meant that many of the 8 million women who were already in the workforce can move from low-paid jobs, such as domestic services, to higher-paid jobs.

• In addition to the highly visible volunteer work of millions of middle-class women, many new women workers helped finally secure the women's election.

• Simultaneously, another efforts of reform closely linked to women's groups succeeded.

  • Many Americans, and especially men since before the Civil War, had been involved in the movement to eliminate alcohol from American life.

• The mobilization of the war brought deeper public health involvement, particularly in the sphere of sexual hygiene, child protection and disease prevention.

22.5: Repression and Reaction

• The June 1917 Espionage Act became the key instrument of government to suppress anti-war sentiment.

  • It imposes severe punishments for anyone found guilty of assisting the enemy, blocking recruitment or causing insubordination to the military

• War-prosperity has led to massive migration to the northern cities of rural black Southerners.

  • African Americans left rural areas to the north between 1914 and 1920 from 300.000 to 500.000

• Parental relationships and community networks were essential for shaping the so-called Great Migration.

• After the armistice dissolved the relative peace of labor between 1917 and 1918.

  • Over 4 million American workers participated in some 3,600 strikes in 1919 alone.

22.6: An Uneasy Peace

• The Allies were struggling to respond to the revolutionary developments in Russia even before November 1918.

• President Wilson refused to acknowledge the bolsheviks' authority and considered them a threat to US values.

• The Great War showed Wilson that diplomacy was bankrupt on the basis of alliances and the "power balance."

• Based on his Fourteen Points, he believed that peace building represented an opportunity for America to bring the rest of the world to a new perspective on international relations.

• Wilson had neglected politics at home when he was concerned about peace policy at a conference in Paris.

  • He had begun trouble before when both the House and Senate were captured in the 1918 elections by the Republicans.

  • Wilson then made a tactical mistake by not including leading Republicans within the United States peace delegation.

• An important backdrop for domestic policy were revolutionary change in Russia.

  • Bolshevism accusations became a strong weapon to turn public opinion against strike holders and all kinds of political dissidents.

• Wilson didn't run for reelection, unhappy and exhausted.

  • Governor James M. Cox, of Ohio, was compromised by a badly divided Democratic Party.