THE NATION AT WAR

Chapter 24

Effects of Imperialism: Jingoism

• Jingoism – extreme patriotism/nationalism in the form of aggressive foreign policy– Use of threats or actual force against other

countries to protect what a country sees as its national interests

• Increased as a result of yellow journalism, social darwinism, powerful navy

Roosevelt Foreign Policy

• “Roosevelt Corollary”: U.S. would ensure stability of Latin American finance (Dominican Republic)– Extension of Monroe

Doctrine• Colonialism drew U.S. into

international affairs– Roosevelt supported

revolution to separate Panama from Colombia (Panama Canal)

Taft and Wilson Foreign Policy

Taft and Dollar Diplomacy• Taft substituted economic

force for military• American bankers replaced

Europeans in Caribbean

Wilson’s Moral Diplomacy• Wilson inexperienced in

diplomacy• Wilson negotiated “cooling-

off” treaties settle disputes without war in Latin America– Didn’t work; intervened there

more than Roosevelt or Taft

The Neutrality Policy

• Wilson sympathized with England in WWI, sought U.S. neutrality

• Progressives saw war as wasteful, irrational• Suspicion that business sought war for profit • Americans saw little advantage for US in war

The U-Boat Threat• U.S. trade with Allies boomed– Allies owed U.S. banks $2 billion by 1917

• German submarines (U-boats) violated international law by shooting without warning at all ships

• 1915: Lusitania sunk by U-Boat– Wilson demanded Germans protect passenger ships and

pay for losses• May, 1916: Sussex Pledge—Germany pledged to

honor U.S. neutrality but didn’t live up to this• January, 1917: Zimmerman Note• April 6, 1917: War declared on Germany

U.S. Losses to the German Submarine Campaign, 1916–1918

The Great War 1914-1918

Mobilization

• No U.S. contingency plans for war

• 200,000 troops at war’s beginning

• Selective Service Act created draft– Conscripted 2.8 million

by war’s end• Trench warfare

(Western Front)

Over Here

• Victory on front depended on mobilization at home• Wilson consolidated federal authority to organize

war production and distribution• Wartime laws to repress dissent

– Espionage Act– Trading with the Enemy Act– Sedition Act– 1,500 dissenters imprisoned, including Eugene Debs

• 1918–1919: “Red Scare” resulted in domestic suppression of “radicals” (Bolshevik Revolution)

A Bureaucratic War

• Cooperation between government and business:– War Industries Board and other agencies

supervised production, distribution to maximize war effort

– Government seized some businesses to keep them running

• Business profited from wartime industry

Labor in the War• Union membership

increased• Labor shortage

prompted:– Wage increase– Entry of Mexican

Americans, women, African Americans to war-related industrial work force

• Great Migration of African Americans to North (factories)

The Treaty of Versailles

• Wilson’s Fourteen Points call for non-punitive settlement

• England and France balked at Fourteen Points– Wanted Germany disarmed and crippled– Want Germany’s colonies– Skeptical of principle of self-determination

The Treaty of Versailles

• Wilson failed to deflect Allied punishment of Germany in treaty

• Treaty created Wilson’s League of Nations– Article X of League charter required members to

protect each others’ territorial integrity

• League's jurisdiction excluded member nations’ domestic affairs

Rejection in the Senate

• William Borah (R-ID) led “irreconcibles” who opposed treaty on any ground

• Senator Henry Cabot Lodge (R-MA) led “strong reservationists” that demanded major changes, including League of Nations

• Treaty failed, separate treaty made with Germany• Defeat of League of Nations brought defeat of

Progressive spirit

The Election of 1920