HIST 106 2nd Edition Lecture 16Outline of Last Lecture I. IntroductionII. The origins of conflictIII. American attitudesIV. The economy of warV. The diplomacy of neutralityVI. The battle over preparednessOutline of Current LectureI. Descent into warII. Managing the wartime economyIII. Women and minorities: New opportunities, old inequitiesIV. Financing the warV. Social engineeringVI. Suppressing dissentCurrent Lecture- Descent into waro Intro/context Wilson knew that America’s involvement in the war was inevitable- 1915-1916: tried to mediate the European conflict and in 1917, he appealed to belligerent nations to not keep the conflict- Plan for peace without victory and without this plan, there would be another war New world order should be organized on national equality, arms reduction, freedom of the seize, and an international organization to ensure peace (an American vision)o “No thanks. Not interested” Neither the allies nor the other sides were interested because they sacrificed too much to not have a victory Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare and they hoped that this would cut the allies’ supply from America ofo Calling Wilson’s bluf Germany decided to unleash all of their submarines and now Wilson, against the will of many Americans and the Senate, armed American soldierso Germany FAIL Submarines sank 4 American craters and Americans went from not wanting to get into the war and went to beating the Germans into the groundo It’s official: we’re coming to kill you Wilson stated that war was inevitable due to Germany’s unrestricted warfare Wilson said that America will be going into the war not to dominate everyone but to put peace into a place where there was much conflict- Going to war to input peace- Managing the wartime economyo Intro/context War no longer was just the soldiers and the weapons because now there was a lot of technology that were being produced To manage all of the industries that were now going at full speed due to war, the industries shifted their eforts to make war related products and increased transportationo Organizing industry War industries board (WIB) supervised businesses that were building things for war and set prices and standardized products to increase production Business/government merging-helped suspend anti-trust laws, supported big business and guaranteed corporation incentives Progressives saw the danger of this merging of business and government o Ensuring food supplies Food administration (Hoover)-now controlled the production of food for America and its allies and persuaded Americans to consume meatless and wheat less foods - City residents planted city gardens and Wilson pastured sheep on the White House lawn Farmers profited from war to-Hoover increased prices of agricultural goods and the farmers really benefitted for this - The government ensured more labor to the farmers regardless of the drafto Overseeing labor relations The labor board-this organization ensured the unions that they would be allowed They also increased pay, decreased hours (8-hour days), and by the end of the war, most workers had achieved 48-hour work weeks These improvements decreased the amount of conflicts in the workplace so that the production was steady throughout the war- Women and minorities: New opportunities, old inequitieso Women and war work Because the men were all drafted, many women took jobs in the workplace White women’s jobs were shifted to the better paying and more skilled jobs and black women took their place as seamstresses and other womanly jobs There was still a lot of racial and gender segregationo Women sufrage and prohibition Prohibition was thought to keep the soldiers safe and the grain wasted on alcoholwould now be used to help feed soldiers Women’s sufrage would now start because women got a taste of what the men had compared to themo African-Americans and war work Helped America achieve its wartime labor demands A ton of African-Americans moved north but even though they moved, they still encountered the same racial injustice they hoped to leave in the south- Financing the waro Pay big brothero The indebted states of America The government got most of the funding by loans through banks and wealthy investors and campaigned to sell liberty bonds Buy bonds as a patriotic duty to America and every person who refuses to buy a bond, is a friend of Germany- Social engineeringo Intro/context The government tried to get more people to support the war through propaganda and control how the people acted to the waro Government propaganda Committee of public interest (CPI) would manipulate the public interest Made cartoons and movies to get people to support the war that was going on o The government office of hate and fear mongering Made the war seem like a grand crusade for liberty and democracy Creole and the CPI became obsessed with public unity and established fear and prejudice in the minds of Americans This would bring hatred upon pacifists and German-Americans - Suppressing dissento Intro/context Wilson admin suppressed dissent o The united police states of America Espionage act-heavy fines and up to 20 years of prison if you went against the waro Wilson’s fascist thingo Fascism, Down-Home style Encouraged Americans to spy on one another and required people to buy liberty bonds and prohibited schools from teaching German German names of towns, streets, and people were changed o Blame big brother The government was initially and primarily responsible for the war
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