HIST 106 2nd Edition Lecture 16 Outline of Last Lecture I Introduction II The origins of conflict III American attitudes IV The economy of war V The diplomacy of neutrality VI The battle over preparedness Outline of Current Lecture I Descent into war II Managing the wartime economy III Women and minorities New opportunities old inequities IV Financing the war V Social engineering VI Suppressing dissent Current Lecture Descent into war o 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 of o 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 soldiers o 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 ground o 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 economy o 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 transportation o 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 draft o 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 inequities o 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 segregation o Women sufrage and prohibition Prohibition was thought to keep the soldiers safe and the grain wasted on alcohol would 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 them o 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 war o Pay big brother o 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 engineering o Intro context The government tried to get more people to support the war through propaganda and control how the people acted to the war o 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 dissent o 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 war o Wilson s fascist thing o 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 hysteria
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