Topic 5.

1 Notes
Name : ____ Period ________

Topic 5.1 suggested reading for homework pages 270-278 student textbook.

Guiding Question: What were the causes of U.S involvement in the war?.
(3 sentences minimum)

The Causes of the First World War:

 Militarism, alliances, imperialism and nationalism (MAIN)
- Fighting in the First World War began in Europe in August 1914
- Crisis that precipitated (caused) WWI was assassination on June 28, 1914 of
Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
- Assassination triggered the alliance system when Austria tried to avenge the
assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand by attacking Serbia
- Germanys’ invasion of peaceful Belgium crystalized American opinion of
German aggression.
Alliances of the First World War:
 Central Powers – Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria
 Allied Powers – England, France, Russia, Japan, and Italy
- Woodrow Wilson attempted to follow the traditional American policy of
neutrality but eventually U.S. became involved in conflict
Zimmerman Telegram:
 Secret message from a German official that promised to return territories to Mexico
if Mexico helped Germany against the United States (should the USA enter WWI)
- Americans were outraged when the telegram was printed in the newspapers
Unrestricted Submarine Warfare:
 Main reason for American entry into World War I
- In 1915, a German submarine sank the British passenger ship Lusitania, killing
over 1,000 passengers, including 128 Americans
- Germany pledged not to sink any ocean liners without prior warning; however,
German submarines began to attack American merchant vessels again in 1917
- In response, Wilson asked Congress to declare war
- 1917 was the year the USA entered the war (with Allies) but also the year Russia
dropped out of the war due to the Bolshevik (Communist) Revolution

New Technology of W.W.1 ( Leave space)

 Topic 5.2 Notes
Name : ____ Period ________

Topic 5.2 suggested reading for homework pages 279-285 student textbook.

Guiding Question: How did the government prepare America for the War?
(3 sentences minimum)

Selective Service Act:

 After USA formally entered WWI, Congress passed the Selective Service Act (1917)
- Gave the president the power to draft soldiers (military conscription)
- Required all men between the ages of 21 and 30 to register for military service

Opposition to the war:

- Conscientious objectors, people whose religious or moral beliefs forbid them to fight
in wars.
- Some women opposed the war such as Jane Adams. She and other formed the
Women’s peace party.
Prejudice against German Americans:
- Some German Americans were treated harshly by Americans, pressured to prove their
loyalty to America. ( Stop speaking German and stop reading German newspapers)
Schenck v. U.S. (1919):
 Shortly after U.S. entry into World War I, Congress passed the Espionage Act and
Sedition act. This limited free speech.
- Made it illegal during wartime to interfere with the recruiting of troops or the
disclosure of information dealing with national defense
- Charles T. Schenck was general secretary of the U.S. Socialist Party, which
opposed the implementation of a military draft in the country
- Socialists distributed leaflets that called for men to resist military service
- Schenck was arrested for having violated the Espionage Act
- The Supreme Court upheld the government’s restrictions on speech
- DO NOT COPY Writing for the court, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., argued:
“Words which, ordinarily and in many places, would be within the freedom of
speech…may become subject to prohibition when…as to create a clear and
present danger...”
- During the war, civil liberties can be curtailed (restricted)
The Committee on Public Information:
- Because most Americans did not understand the reason for the war, this
committee was founded.
- The C.P.I had to convince Americans that the war effort was a just cause.
- George Creel was the director of the C.P.I. He stressed to the American people
the cruelty and wickedness of the enemy, particularly Germany.
 - Used Propaganda to persuade the American public.

The Great Migration, the movement of African Americans from the rural South to the
industrial North.

A migration is a movement of a group people to a new place. Migrations are often described as
being caused by “push-pull” factors: people migrate because some factors “push” them away
from where they have been living while other factors “pull” them toward their destination.
 Topic 5.3 Notes
Name : ____ Period ________

Topic 5.3 suggested reading for homework pages 286-293 student textbook.

Guiding Question: How did the plans for post war peace differ and create further conflict.
(3 sentences minimum)

Fourteen Points:
 President Woodrow Wilson’s war aims or goals for the First World War
- Called for freedom of the seas, reduced armaments, and end to secret diplomacy
as well as self-determination (a country determines its own government)
- Also called for a League of Nations (an international peacekeeping organization)
- Fresh American troops had helped end stalemate of trench warfare in Europe
and led to an armistice (an agreement to stop fighting) in 1918
The Treaty of Versailles:
 The final terms of the peace treaties did not conform to goals of the Fourteen Points
- Extremely harsh
- Germany was forced to pay reparations for the war, lost colonies, forced to
demilitarize but League of Nations was established (although U.S. did not join)
- The Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles; USA returned to isolationism
 Topic 5.4-5.5 Notes
Name : ____ Period ________

Topic 5.4 – 5.5 suggested reading for homework pages 296-309 student textbook.

Guiding Question: How did the combined bull market and the consumer revolution affect the
American family?
(3 sentences minimum)

The “Roaring Twenties”:

 In 1920s, Republicans regained presidency and were pro-business
- Government policies, technology, and consumer society produced a booming
economy
- America entered a period of isolationism and severely limited immigration
- The younger generation rebelled against traditional morals
- While urban workers saw their wealth grow, farmers actually saw their income
decline as debt grew.
- The two symbols of this new, looser social behavior were jazz and the “flapper”
 Flappers were young women who exhibited freedom from conventions.
The y represented a revolution in manners and morals. Young women
who wore short skirts and make-up.
Speculation Boom on the New York Stock Exchange:
 Millions of people invested in stocks in the hope of striking it rich
- During the years of business prosperity in the 1920s, the value of stock on the
New York stock market climbed steadily
- Many people bought “on margin,” investing a small amount of cash and
borrowing the rest to be paid back when the stock price went up
- For example, if a share of stock sold for $100, a buyer might put up $10 in cash
and borrow $90
 But if stock price dropped, the investor lost the investment and the
person from whom he borrowed lost
Impact of Automobile:
 Cars gave people greater mobility
- Made the growth of the suburbs possible
- Automobile production required vast amounts of steel, glass, and rubber –
stimulating those industries

President Warren Harding:

 1921 – 1923
- Republicans signed a bill that raised protective tariff rates to support American
Business.
- Captured the national spirit by calling for a “return to normalcy”
- Supported laissez-faire economic policies
- However, the Teapot Dome Scandal revealed that a high-ranking administration
official had been bribed to lease oil-rich government lands at Teapot Dome,
Wyoming, to businessmen
President Calvin Coolidge:
 1923 – 1929
- Republican
- Symbolized old-fashioned values like honesty and thrift
- Supported laissez-faire economic policies
- His motto embodied his philosophy: “The business of America is business”
President Herbert Hoover:
 1929-1933
- Republican
- Supported laissez-faire economic polices
- Believed in “rugged individualism” or that an individual can succeed with
minimal government help – the individual makes success happen
- He strongly felt that government interference in business could threaten the
nation’s prosperity
- Believed that prosperity depended on freedom
- Feared that federal relief programs would undermine individual character by
making recipients dependent on the government
-
All U.S leaders in the 1920’s hoped the rest of the world would do whatever was possible to
avoid another war.

Topic 5.6 Notes

Name : ____ Period ________

Topic 5.6 suggested reading for homework pages 310-318 student textbook.

Guiding Question: How did the foreign events after World War I and nativism contribute to
the Red Scare?
(3 sentences minimum)

“The Red Scare”:

 The Bolshevik or Communist Revolution in 1917 had frightened Americans
- There was a fear that communism was spreading
 When a wave of strikes hit the nation in 1919, citizens feared they were seeing the
beginning of a Communist revolution
- This “Red Scare” led Attorney General Palmer to arrest radicals accused of
plotting to overthrow the government
- Police arrested thousands of suspected radicals in what was known as the
Palmer raids.
 - During the Red Scare, civil liberties were sometimes grossly violated and many
innocent aliens were deported
Sacco and Vanzetti:
 Soon after the “Red Scare,” two Italian immigrants, Sacco and Vanzetti were
convicted of murder to get funds for an anarchist revolution
- Although the evidence was insufficient, they were found guilty and executed
- Many people felt that the trial had been less than fair and that the defendants
had been convicted for their radical, anarchist beliefs rather than for the crime
for which they had been tried

The Immigration Acts of 1921, 1924, and 1929:

 The “Red Scare” and the Sacco and Vanzetti trial greatly contributed to the rise of
nativism – a dislike of foreigners
- The Immigration Acts of 1921, 1924, and 1929 restricted immigration from
Southern and Eastern Europe (the “New Immigrants”) by establishing quotas
for each nationality based on America’s existing ethnic composition
- The Quota system of the national origins act did not apply to Mexico.

The Scopes Trial:

Modernists ideals clashed with fundamentalists, modernists stressed secular ideas rather
than religious beliefs.
 Religious Fundamentalists in Tennessee brought to trial in 1925 John C. Scopes for
breaking a Tennessee state law forbidding the teaching of evolution
- These Fundamentalists advocated traditional values and condemned Darwin
and evolution as against the Bible’s story of creation in seven days
- The Scopes trial was nicknamed the Monkey Trial by the press because
evolution suggested humans were descended from monkeys and not created by
God
- William Jennings Bryan, Fundamentalist and three-time presidential candidate,
testified as an expert on the Bible
 Scopes was found guilty, but the trial lawyers made Bryan appear
ridiculous, and the Fundamentalist cause was temporarily set back
Eighteenth Amendment and Twenty-First Amendment:
 In 1919, the Eighteenth Amendment was ratified, banning the sale of alcohol
- Gradually Americans began to see this “experiment” as a failure, since many
people refused to accept the ban on alcohol
- In addition, the great demand for illegal liquor stimulated the growth of
organized crime in the 1920s
- Prohibition was repealed in 1933 by the Twenty-first Amendment.
- Americans learned from this experience that widely unpopular laws are
sometimes unenforceable.

Answer to Guiding question:

Topic 5.7-5.8 Notes

Name : ____ Period ________

Topic 5.7-5.8 suggested reading for homework pages 319-332 student textbook.

Guiding Question: On page 333-334 read one poem by Langston Hughes and summarize it.
(3 sentences minimum)

American Culture in the 1920’s

 The growth of cities changed leisure life and the workweek. Americans had more time and
more money to spend. American loved motion pictures. The movie Jazz Singer was the
first motion picture to have sound. Radios and phonograph players also entertained the
masses.
Babe Ruth Sports hero/baseball.
Charles Lindbergh “lucky Lindy” First transatlantic flight from New York to Paris.
The changing role of women: Women tended to live longer, marry later and have fewer children.
Many women entered the workforce, or devoted time to charity. The economy of the 1920 has
benefited women. (New appliances)

The Lost Generation:

 A new group of writers, known as the Lost Generation, rejected the desire for
material wealth. Often had a pessimistic or skeptical worldview.
- Novelists such as Sinclair Lewis in Main Street and Babbitt, ridiculed the
narrowness and hypocrisy of American life
- In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald hinted that the search for purely
material success often led to tragedy
- Ernest Hemmingway: A farewell to Arms. A novel about W.W.1
- Marjorie Rawlings: The Yearling. Novels and shorts stories about Florida countryside
life

The Jazz Age:

 The 1920s is often referred to as the Jazz Age, reflecting the greater importance of
African-American music
- In 1925 the Jazz Age was in full swing
 It was the year Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington made their first
recording
 Bessie Smith: Vocal soloists known as the “ Empress of the Blues”
- The Jazz Age glorified city life
The Harlem Renaissance:
 Literary, artistic and intellectual movement that kindled a new black cultural
identity
- An awakening of African-American culture that occurred in Harlem between
the end of World War I and the middle of the 1930s

- African-American writers emerged as a new voice for change.

- Marcus Garvey: Garvey believed that “ Blacks were exploited everywhere” Organized
a “ back to Africa movement” Unlike Booker T. Washington or W.E.B. Du Bois,
Garvey he did not call upon Black and whites to work together. Garvey called for a
separation of the races.
- Claude McKay: A writer who showed that ordinary African Americans struggled for
dignity and economic advancement.
- Langston Hughes: The most powerful African American Literary voice for his time.
His theme was to celebrate the unique aspects African American culture and life.
Expressed pride in their heritage while attacking racism.
- Zora Neale Hurston: Female African American Florida writer. Their eyes were
watching God expressed a new longing for independence felt by many women, black and
white.
- During this period Harlem was a cultural center, drawing black writers, artists,
musicians, photographers, poets, and scholars