Week III: First World War and the First Red Scare (January 27-February 2)
Please address at least one of the following:
1) Why did the US wait so long to get involved in the First World War?
2) Why did the U.S. get involved in the First World War when it did?
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3) What did the American participation in WWI mean to America and the world?
4) How did the First World War lead to the Red Scare?
5) How did the Red Scare come about when it did? What did it mean to America?
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6) How did the Red Scare affect atitudes of Americans throughout the 1920s?
Sample Essay
Why did the U.S. get involved in the First World War when it did?
There were various events that caused the U.S. to enter World War I. One would be the sinking of the Lusitania. The Lusitania was a cruise ship headed from the U.S. to Great Britain. It was target by German submarines and the Germans, thinking the cruise ship was carrying weapons, sank it, killing many Americans. This and other sinkings caused tension between the U.S. and Germany. Nearly 1,200 people died including 128 Americans. The sinking was worst since the Titanic went down. Theodore Roosevelt called it “an act of piracy” and demanded war (Divine, 775)
The United States entered the war because of the Germans’ decision to resume the policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, and the so-called “Zimmerman telegram,” intercepted by the British, in which Germany floated the idea of an alliance with Mexico. It stated that if Mexico joined Germany in the War, they would give the U.S to them. Mexico refused, not wanting to ruin relationships between them, but this made the tensions rise even higher. Unrestricted submarine warfare, a desperate effort to counter the British blockade of Germany, would lead to the sinking of American merchant ships heading for England, and had been employed by the Germans before. They abandoned it in the face of US pressure earlier in the war. Its resumption was enough to cause Woodrow Wilson to renounce his stated position of neutrality, as his war speech to Congress demonstrates:
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The new policy has swept every restriction aside. Vessels of every kind, whatever their flag, their character, their cargo, their destination, their errand, have been ruthlessly sent to the bottom without warning and without thought of help or mercy for those on board, the vessels of friendly neutrals along with those of belligerents.
While there was significant opposition to the war in the United States, the official position was that the nation could not tolerate such an imposition on its rights as a sovereign nation, to say nothing of the effect of the Zimmerman telegram. American entry into the war broke what had been a bloody stalemate. US troops were instrumental in repulsing a German offensive, and led the way in an Allied offensive, the combined effect of which fatally weakened the German army. Politically, many Europeans hoped that US entry in the war would result in a treaty based on Wilson’s Fourteen Points, but the Treaty of Versailles that officially ended the conflict contained few of its provisions.
Divine, R.A., Breen, T.H., Williams, R.H., Gross, A.J., & Brands, H.W. (2013). The American Story (5th ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
