WORLD WAR I

Representations and the War Guild Clause

1921 BCE

The treaty barred Germany from maintaining an army. It also required Germany to return the region of Alsace-Lorraine to France and to pay reparations, or war damages, amounting to $33 billion to the Allies. First, the treaty humiliated Germany. It contained a war-guilt clause forcing Germany to admit sole responsibility for starting World War I.

Big Bill Haywood and the IWW

1920 BCE

When she left jail, the authorities deported her to Russia. “Big Bill” Haywood and other leaders of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) were accused of sabotaging the war effort because they urged workers to strike for better conditions and higher pay.

Emma Goldman

1919 BCE

The anarchist Emma Goldman received a two-year prison sentence and a $10,000 fine for organizing the NoConscription League.

Agreements made in the Treaty of Versailles

1919 BCE

The Treaty of Versailles (vEr-sFT) established nine new nations—including Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia—and shifted the boundaries of other nations. It carved five areas out of the Ottoman Empire and gave them to France and Great Britain as mandates, or temporary colonies. Those two Allies were to administer their respective mandates until the areas were ready for self-rule and then independence.

War Industries Board

1918 BCE

The main regulatory body was the War Industries Board (WIB). It was established in 1917 and reorganized in 1918 under the leadership of Bernard M. Baruch (bE-rLkP), a prosperous businessman.

Second Battle of the Marne

1918 BCE

In July and August, they helped win the Second Battle of the Marne. The tide had turned against the Central Powers. In September, U.S. soldiers began to mount offensives against the Germans at Saint-Mihiel and in the Meuse-Argonne area.

Conscientious Objector

1918 BCE

O During the fighting in the Meuse-Argonne area, one of America’s greatest war heroes, Alvin York, became famous. A redheaded mountaineer and blacksmith from Tennessee, York sought exemption as a conscientious objector, a person who opposes warfare on moral grounds, pointing out that the Bible says, “Thou shalt not kill.”

Cease-fire and Armistice

1918 BCE

So at the eleventh hour, on the eleventh day, in the eleventh month of 1918, Germany agreed to a cease-fire and signed the armistice, or truce, that ended the war.

National War Labor Board

1918 BCE

To deal with disputes between management and labor, President Wilson established the National War Labor Board in 1918. Workers who refused to obey board decisions could lose their draft exemptions. “Work or fight,” the board told them.

Food Administration

1918 BCE

To help produce and conserve food, Wilson set up the Food Administration under Herbert Hoover. Instead of rationing food, he called on people to follow the “gospel of the clean plate.” He declared one day a week “meatless,” another “sweetless,” two days “wheatless,” and two other days “porkless.” Restaurants removed sugar bowls from the table and served bread only after the first course.

Espionage and Sedition Acts a\

1918 BCE

In June 1917 Congress passed the Espionage Act, and in May 1918 it passed the Sedition Act. Under the Espionage and Sedition Acts a person could be fined up to $10,000 and sentenced to 20 years in jail for interfering with the war effort or for saying anything disloyal, profane, or abusive about the government or the war effort.

Eugene V. Debs Arrest

1918 BCE

The Espionage and Sedition Acts targeted socialists and labor leaders. Eugene V. Debs was handed a ten-year prison sentence for speaking out against the war and the draft.

Wilson's Fourteen Points

1918 BCE

On January 18, 1918, he delivered his now famous Fourteen Points speech before Congress. The points were divided into three groups. The first five points were issues that Wilson believed had to be addressed to prevent another war.

Germany Blockades the North Sea

1917 BCE

As fighting on land continued, Britain began to make more use of its naval strength. It blockaded the German coast to prevent weapons and other military supplies from getting through. By 1917, famine stalked the country. Americans had been angry at Britain’s blockade, which threatened freedom of the seas and prevented American goods from reaching German ports. However, Germany’s response to the blockade soon outraged American public opinion.

Wilson's "Peace Without Victory Speech"

1917 BCE

After the election, Wilson tried to mediate between the warring alliances. The attempt failed. In a speech before the Senate in January 1917, the president called for “a peace without victory. . . . a peace between equals,” in which neither side would impose harsh terms on the other. Wilson hoped that all nations would join in a “league for peace” that would work to extend democracy, maintain freedom of the seas, and reduce armaments.

Zimmermann Note

1917 BCE

First was the Zimmermann note, a telegram from the German foreign minister to the German ambassador in Mexico that was intercepted by British agents.

Bolshevik Revolution

1917 BCE

In November, the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin and Trotsky, overthrew the provisional government. They set up a Communist state and sought peace with the Central Powers.

Selective Service Act of 1917

1917 BCE

The Selective Service Act in May 1917. The act required men to register with the government
in order to be randomly selected for military service. By the end
of 1918, 24 million men had registered under the act.

369th Infantry Regiment

1917 BCE

The all-black 369th Infantry Regiment saw more continuous duty on the front lines than any other American regiment. Two soldiers of the 369th, Henry Johnson and Needham Roberts, were the first Americans to receive France’s highest military honor, the Croix de Guerre—the “cross of war.”

Convoy System

1917 BCE

American Vice Admiral William S. Sims convinced the
British to try the convoy system, in which a heavy guard of destroyers escorted merchant ships back and forth across the Atlantic in groups. By fall of 1917, shipping losses had been cut in half.

Raising Money for the War

1917 BCE

The United States spent about $35.5 billion on the war effort.
The government raised about one-third of this amount through taxes, including a progressive income tax (which taxed high incomes at a higher rate than low incomes), a war-profits tax, and higher excise taxes on tobacco, liquor, and luxury goods. It raised the rest through public borrowing by selling “Liberty Loan” and “Victory Loan” bonds.

Committee on Public Information and the "four minute men"

1917 BCE

To popularize the war, the government set up the nation’s first propaganda agency, the Committee on Public Information (CPI). Propaganda is a kind of biased communication designed to influence people’s thoughts and actions. The head of the CPI was a former muckraking journalist named George Creel.

Anti-German Sentiment in America

1917 BCE

He main targets of these attacks were Americans who had emigrated from other nations, especially those from Germany and Austria-Hungary. The most bitter attacks were directed against the nearly 2 million Americans who had been born in Germany, but other foreignborn persons and Americans of German descent suffered as well.

Victor Berger

1917 BCE

Berger's views on World War I were complicated by the Socialist view and the difficulties surrounding his German heritage. However, he did support his party's stance against the war. When the United States entered the war and passed the Espionage Act in 1917, Berger's continued opposition made him a target.

American Expeditionary Force and General John J. Pershing

1917 BCE

The American Expeditionary Force (AEF), led by
General John J. Pershing, included men from widely
separated parts of the country. American infantrymen were
nicknamed doughboys, possibly because of the white belts
they wore, which they cleaned with pipe clay, or “dough.”

Battle of the Some

1916 BCE

During the First Battle of the Somme— which began on July 1, 1916, and lasted until mid-November—the British suffered 60,000 casualties the first day alone. Final casualties totaled about 1.2 million, yet only about seven miles of ground changed hands.

Trench Warfare

1916 BCE

This bloody trench warfare, in which armies fought for mere yards of ground, continued for over three years. Elsewhere, the fighting was just as devastating and inconclusive.

Sinking of French Passenger Liner Sussex

1916 BCE

March 1916 Germany broke its promise and torpedoed an unarmed
French passenger steamer, the Sussex. The Sussex sank, and about 80 passengers, including Americans, were killed or injured.

Sinking Of British Liner Arabic

1915 BCE

Three months later, in August 1915, a U-boat sank another British liner, the Arabic, drowning two Americans. Again the United States protested, and this time Germany agreed not to sink any more passenger ships.

Sinking of British Liner Lusitania

1915 BCE

One of the worst disasters occurred on May 7, 1915, when a U-boat sank the British liner Lusitania off the southern coast of Ireland. Of the 1,198 persons lost, 128 were Americans. The Germans defended their action on the grounds that the liner carried ammunition. Despite Germany’s explanation, Americans became outraged with Germany because of the loss of life. American public opinion turned against Germany and the Central Powers.

Shell shock, Trench foot, and Trench mouth

1915 BCE

Experiences often led to battle fatigue and “shell shock,” a term coined during World War I to describe a complete emotional collapse from which many never recovered. Physical problems included a disease called trench foot, caused by standing in cold wet trenches for long periods of time without changing into dry socks or boots. A painful infection of the gums and throat, called trench mouth, was also common among the soldiers.

1914 Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

1914 BCE

In June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to
the Austrian throne, visited the Bosnian capital Sarajevo. As
the royal entourage drove through the city, Serbian nationalist
Gavrilo Princip stepped from the crowd and shot the
Archduke and his wife Sophie.

Schlieffen Plan

1914 BCE

On August 3, 1914, Germany invaded Belgium, following
a strategy known as the Schlieffen Plan. This plan called
for a holding action against Russia, combined with a quick
drive through Belgium to Paris; after France had fallen, the
two German armies would defeat Russia.

Allies

1907 BCE

By 1907 there were two major defense alliances in Europe.
The Triple Entente, later known as the Allies, consisted of France, Britain, and
Russia.

Central Power

1907 BCE

Germany and Austria-Hungary, together with the Ottoman Empire—an empire of
mostly Middle Eastern lands controlled by the Turks—were later known as the
Central Powers.

Austria-Hungary Surrenders to the Allies

Nov 3, 1918

On November 3, 1918, AustriaHungary surrendered to the Allies. That same day, German sailors mutinied against government authority. The mutiny spread quickly. Everywhere in Germany, groups of soldiers and workers organized revolutionary councils.

Establishment of the German Republic

Nov 9, 1918

On November 9, socialist leaders in the capital, Berlin, established a German republic. The kaiser gave up the throne.