The Great War and After, 1914–1919

This is Unit Eight, part one, on the Great War, from Wilson's moral diplomacy to the organisation of the home front. Unit Seven closed by calling the United States an empire of two kinds, and followed the new world power toward the Great War. This unit is that war. Carry one habit through this part: compare what a policy was called with what it did. Wilson's diplomacy was called moral, and it produced two interventions in Mexico. His neutrality was declared in thought and deed, and trade went to one side. At the declaration of war the course asks why the country entered, and answers in two layers. By the end you will be able to compare Wilson's moral diplomacy with his record in Mexico. To explain how neutrality in policy differed from neutrality in trade. To trace the German actions that brought the country into the war. To explain why it entered, holding both layers. And to describe how the government raised an army and organised the economy.

Five entries on Wilson's moral diplomacy and its first test, in revolutionary Mexico.

Wilson's promise.

USH2 1051 Moral Diplomacy

Woodrow Wilson promised a moral diplomacy, a foreign policy grounded in principle rather than in American self-interest, the anchor says, and Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan negotiated cooling-off treaties with other nations. The promise was tested almost at once in revolutionary Mexico, where American oil companies held valuable rights.

The first test.

USH2 1052 Veracruz

In April nineteen fourteen Wilson sent the navy to occupy the Mexican port of Veracruz, to stop German arms from reaching the Mexican leader Victoriano Huerta, and about one hundred fifty were killed in the landing, nineteen of them American. The Yawp says the Marines ran the city's government until that November. Digital History says Huerta was soon forced out.

The rebel who turned on Wilson.

USH2 1053 Villa's Raid

On March ninth, nineteen sixteen, the rebel Pancho Villa, once backed by Wilson, led fifteen hundred men across the border and burned Columbus, New Mexico, and more than one hundred people died, seventeen of them American. Wilson had recognised the government of Villa's rival, Venustiano Carranza, in nineteen fifteen, and Villa turned on the United States.

The army's pursuit.

USH2 1054 The Punitive Expedition

Wilson sent General John Pershing with more than eleven thousand troops to capture Villa, and Pershing marched three hundred miles into Mexico, until Carranza demanded the withdrawal of American troops. The troops left in nineteen seventeen without Villa. The Yawp says the army gained valuable training and experience in Mexico.

How the policy's name and record compare.

USH2 1055 Morality and Force

Wilson called his policy moral diplomacy, a foreign policy based on principle rather than self-interest. In practice it produced two armed interventions in Mexico within two years: the occupation of Veracruz in nineteen fourteen, at a cost of about one hundred fifty lives, and Pershing's pursuit of Villa in nineteen sixteen, until Mexico's own president demanded that the troops leave. The confusion to avoid is taking the policy's name as a description of its record. Both halves are true: Wilson meant the principle, and he used force. The anchor calls Mexico emblematic of how hard it was to set the country on a course of moral leadership, and the same tension runs through Wilson's war and his peace.

Three entries on how the war began, and on two kinds of American neutrality.

How the war in Europe began.

USH2 1056 The Archduke's Assassination

On June twenty-eighth, nineteen fourteen, Gavrilo Princip killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary, setting off the crisis that began the war, as alliance obligations pulled one European power after another in. The anchor's point is the alliances: a single killing became a general war because each power was bound to others.

The American response.

USH2 1057 Neutral in Thought

When war broke out in Europe, Wilson declared American neutrality and, the National Archives records, asked Americans to remain impartial in thought as well as deed. Neutrality in policy did not mean neutrality in trade, as the next entry shows.

What American trade actually did.

USH2 1058 Neutral in Trade

American exports to the Allies quadrupled in two years, from seven hundred fifty million dollars to three billion. Over the same years exports to Germany fell from three hundred fifty million dollars to thirty million, as the British blockade cut Germany off from American goods. A country officially neutral had become the Allies' supplier. Policy was neutral; commerce was not. The blockade, not American choice alone, closed the German market, but the result tied American business to an Allied victory, and that is the evidence for the economic reading of why the country entered the war, which the course weighs later in this lecture.

Five entries on the German actions that narrowed Wilson's room to stay out: sinkings, a pledge, its breaking, and a telegram.

The sinking that turned opinion.

USH2 1059 The Lusitania

On May seventh, nineteen fifteen, a German submarine sank the British liner Lusitania without warning, against international law, killing nearly twelve hundred civilians, one hundred twenty-eight of them Americans travelling on a British ship. The Yawp says the attack raised public anger and the desire for war.

The promise Germany then made.

USH2 1060 The Arabic Pledge

After the Lusitania, and the sinking of the British liner Arabic on August thirtieth, Germany promised to restrict its use of submarine warfare: U-boats would surface, identify a ship, and let civilians leave before firing. The pledge held for well over a year, until Germany broke it in February nineteen seventeen.

Why Germany broke it.

USH2 1061 Unrestricted Submarine Warfare

Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare early in nineteen seventeen, gambling that it could win before American troops arrived in strength; Digital History's figure is half a million tons of Allied shipping sunk each month. Germany hoped to cripple Britain's economy, and the anchor says it aimed to end the war before the United States could tip the balance.

The sinkings that followed.

USH2 1062 The Laconia

In February nineteen seventeen a German submarine sank the ship Laconia, killing two passengers, and in late March four more American ships were sunk, with officials, the public, and both parties urging Wilson toward war. Each sinking narrowed Wilson's room to stay out. The anchor calls the next event the final element.

The telegram that settled it.

USH2 1063 The Zimmermann Telegram

British intelligence intercepted and decoded a telegram from German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann inviting Mexico to join the war against the United States, and promising it the return of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas if it attacked. The National Archives says its threats inflamed American opinion and helped convince Congress to declare war.

Three entries on the declaration: the request, the members who voted no, and why the country entered.

Wilson's request for war.

USH2 1064 Wilson Asks for War

On April second, nineteen seventeen, Wilson went before a joint session of Congress and called for a declaration of war against Germany, and after four days of debate Congress voted on April sixth. The National Archives notes that Wilson had declared neutrality in nineteen fourteen and moved to war only after the events of nineteen fifteen to nineteen seventeen.

The members who voted no.

USH2 1065 Fifty-Six Against

When Congress voted for war on April sixth, fifty-six members voted against it, the largest vote ever cast against a war resolution, among them Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to Congress. The anchor says some members feared the war was being fought for economic interests more than for democratic ideals.

Why the country entered the war.

USH2 1066 Why America Entered

The evidence answers this two ways, and the anchor carries both. The first answer is German action. The Yawp says the Lusitania had already raised public anger; unrestricted submarine warfare, resumed in nineteen seventeen, sank the Laconia and four more American ships; and the Zimmermann telegram offered Mexico American territory in exchange for war, which the National Archives says helped convince Congress. The second answer is economic. In two years exports to the Allies had quadrupled to three billion dollars while exports to Germany fell to thirty million, and members of Congress feared that economic interests were driving the country to war. Two misreadings sit on either side. One treats entry as a response to German aggression alone, which cannot account for the lopsided trade that already tied the country to one side. The other treats it as a war for profits, which cannot account for the timing. The two explanations are layers rather than rivals. Trade shaped which side the country leaned toward; submarines and the telegram decided when it went to war. Wilson spoke of neither; he asked the country to make the world safe for democracy. The course states both and leaves the weighting to you.

Three entries on how the country raised an army, and on those who refused.

How the country raised an army.

USH2 1067 The Selective Service Act

Congress approved the Selective Service Act on May eighteenth, nineteen seventeen, and Wilson signed it a week later, first calling men aged twenty-one to thirty, a range widened in nineteen eighteen to eighteen through forty-five. The Yawp says the law avoided the Civil War's unpopular bonuses and substitutes and met no major objection.

Who registered and who refused.

USH2 1068 Registration and Refusal

On the first day of registration more than ten million men signed up, and twenty-two million had registered by the war's end. Almost three hundred fifty thousand eligible men refused to register at all, and about sixty-five thousand resisted as conscientious objectors. The draft met resistance as well as compliance.

The force that went overseas.

USH2 1069 Two Million Overseas

In all, the anchor says, two million American men took part in combat operations overseas, drawn from draftees and volunteers alike, with one and a half million volunteers and more than five hundred thousand who joined the navy or the marines. Twenty thousand women also volunteered, a quarter of them going to France as nurses or clerks.

Three entries on how the government organised industry, food and the railroads for war.

How the government organised industry.

USH2 1070 The War Industries Board

The War Industries Board, under the financier Bernard Baruch, directed the flow of raw materials and controlled government contracts for war production, supplying and scheduling factories according to federal priorities. Federal direction of industry on this scale was new, and the New Deal of unit eleven would reach back to it as a precedent.

The agency that ran the nation's food.

USH2 1071 The Food Administration

Herbert Hoover's Food Administration asked Americans to conserve food under the slogan Food will win the war, with Meatless Mondays and Wheatless Wednesdays observed voluntarily. A Fuel Administration under Harry Garfield added fuel holidays and introduced daylight saving time. Hoover's faith in voluntary effort returns in unit ten.

The agency that took over the railroads.

USH2 1072 The Railroad Administration

Treasury Secretary William McAdoo headed the Railroad Administration, which held what the anchor calls extraordinary war powers over the entire railroad industry, and the federal government ran the nation's railroads for the duration of the war. The railroads of unit three, once divided among a few tycoons, now answered to Washington.

Look at what you can now do. You can compare Wilson's moral diplomacy with his record: principle in name, and two armed interventions in Mexico, at Veracruz and in pursuit of Villa. You can explain how neutrality in policy differed from neutrality in trade. Exports to the Allies quadrupled while exports to Germany fell to a tenth or less. You can trace the German actions: the Lusitania, the Arabic pledge and its breaking, unrestricted submarine warfare, and the Zimmermann telegram. You can explain why the country entered, in two layers. Trade shaped which side it leaned toward; submarines and the telegram decided when. And you can describe how the government raised an army of draftees and volunteers, and ran industry, food and the railroads through new federal agencies.