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Period: to
World War 1
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Trench Warfare
Trench Warfare is type of land warfare using occupied fighting lines consiting largely of the Trenches. -
Sinking of Lusitania
In May 1915, the German Embassy gave a warning in Washington DC that the Americans traveling on British or Allied ships entered war zones at their own risk. The captain of Lusitania ignored the warning and at 2:12 pm on May 7, the 32,000-ton ship was hit by an exploding torpedo and the ship sank off the south coast of Ireland in less than 20 minutes. -
Zimmermann Note
An internal diplomatic communication issued from the German Foreign Office in January 1917 that proposed a military alliance between Germany and Mexico in the event of the US entering WW1 against Germany. This drew the United States closer to declaring war on Germany. -
Espionage and Sedition Act
Espionage Act was enacted in 1917 and the Sedition Act in 1918. The Espionage Act prohibited individuals from expressing or publishing opinions that would interfere with the US military efforts to defeat Germany and its allies. A year later, the US amended the law (Sedition Act) which made it illegal to write or speak anything critical of American involvement in the war. The Schenck v. US (1919) was concerning enforcement of the Espionage Act. Schenck was sent to jail for 6 months. -
Spanish Flu
The flu started in January 1918 and ended in 1919. In these years, 1/5 of the world's population was infected. It was highly contagious, so every time a person coughs, sneezes, or talks respiratory droplets are transmitted through the air and can be inhaled by anyone nearby. Depending on the severity, people were hospitalized and even died. Symptoms included a severe cough, runny nose, sore throat, fever, nausea, and more. It infected around 500 million and killed 20 to 50 million people. -
The Fourteen Points and The League of Nations
The Fourteen Points was a statement of principles for world peace that was to be used for peace negotiations in order to end World War I. The principles were outlined in January 8,1918 Congress by President Woodrow Wilson.
The League of Nations were an international organization, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Proposed by President Woodrow Wilson as part of his Fourteen Points plan for peace. -
Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty to end the war. It reassigned German boundaries and assigned liability for reparations. Germany had to pay to repair all damage of the war. -
Women (19th Amendment)
The 19th Amendment was ratified August 18, 1920. This guarantees all American women the right to vote, a right known as women suffrage. Women were recruited into jobs vacated by men who went to fight in the war. High demand for weapons created a need for munition factories with women workers. Some jobs were railway guards and ticket collectors, postal workers, police, firefighters, bank tellers/clerks, etc. Some women also worked some heavy machinery in engineering.
