HIUS 131 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Master Class, William Jennings Bryan, The Klansman
HIUS 131 – Lecture 15 – World War I in the United States
Introduction: From Neutrality to War
• June 1914 Serbian nationalist assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire
• Prior to 1914, European nations competing with one another for dominance in Europe, colonial
possessions
o US got in on the action when it entered the Spanish-American War
o To protect possessions, European nations entered alliances with one another
• After the killing of the duke, A-H declares war on Serbia
o Because of alliances, took a little over a month for it to become a global conflict
• Germany, Austria-Hungry, Ottomans vs. France, England, Russia
• Submarines, planes, tanks, poison gas, machine guns created conditions for unprecedented
slaughter
o By end of war, 10 million soldiers and 6 million civilians killed, many millions more wounded
o 1918 famine and worldwide flu epidemic killed 20 more million people
o 4 years of extraordinary death
• Wilson elected 1912
Wilson’s Progressive Vision
• Wilson elected 1912
o All candidates reflected emerging progressive consensus
• All agreed that some degree of government regulation was necessary in order to
spread the fruits of production widely across the population
▪ Differed in how much regulation and how it would be done
• Taft, most conservative, accepted regulations that were already on the
ooks, ut didt at aoe
• Roosevelt, running on 3rd party progressive ticket, wanted to regulate
oopolies ut didt at to eak the up
• Wilson (Democrat) favored breaking up monopolies, supporting small
businesses and farmers
• Southerner, had sympathy for farmers
• Debs (Socialist) nationalization of steel industry/railroad, national banks,
free public college education, strengthen unions and improve conditions
of industrial workers
• B 9, “ues isio of sait, of poet as a esult of opetitio, as o the delie
o Increasingly, people held to the notion that industry had the capacity to produce
abundance, and that government was necessary in order to regulate business and serve the
interests of the people at large
• Rise of department stores and consumer culture fueled this vision
o Simon W. Patton: ed of the eig of at, of people atig/eedig thigs; e
civilization of extensive leisure and basic economic equality
• Advertisements linking freedom/liberty with consumption, with the ability to get limitless goods
produced by industry
• Wilson: not just free from the government, government needs to do things for the people
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
• With Democratic Congress, accomplished a lot during 1st term
o Reduced tariff on some products
• Help farmers
• Lower prices for consumers
o Graduated income tax for richest 5%
• Before income tax for all Americans
• Richest 5% owe something, very progressive
o Supported passage of an act outlawing child labor
o Support act creating 8-hour workday for railroad workers
• On the race question, Wilson and his party stood behind inequality and disenfranchisement
o As did all of the candidates, except for Debs
• Many progressives regarded disenfranchisement of black and poor white voters as a
way of cleaning up corruption in politics
▪ To have a true democracy, need to have only the people who deserve to vote
voting
o Wilson was a southerner
• Friends with man whose novel inspired Birth of a Nation (The Klansman)
Division at Home
• Few Americans thought that entering the war would be a good idea
o Aggressive militarism was confined to NE, where wealthy men had close business ties to rich
men in Britain
o Some who supported War of 1898 also supported war, and encouraged US to enter war
with ally UK
• Immigrants opposing war
o Russians immigrants fled in order to escape the war/serving in the army
o Iish iigats hate the Bitish, didt at to suppot the i a
o German immigrants
• Academics studying in Germany, saw Germany as center of learning
o Intellectual ties between Americans and Germans
• Debs and labor radicals
o As working people, they shared the interests and aspirations of working people all over the
world, and not with the rich men who were supporting the war effort
• Jane Addams and other progressive reformers said the US has nothing to gain from war
• 1914 Wilson followed public opinion and declared neutrality
• Willia Jeigs Ba as Wilsos “eeta of “tate ad fil opposed a
o Also was against War of 1898
Entering the War
• Germany using submarine to sink British ship Lusitania, which had American passengers onboard
• Wilson declared Germany as enemy of liberty
• Wilson started to build up military
o “aig that he as doig it to sae Gea, so that the ouldt mess with the US
• When Bryan saw what was happening, he resigned
• Wilson continued to insist that they were preparing in order to protect neutrality
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
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