APUSH Textbook Chapter 21

An Emerging World Power
21
C H A P T E R
1890–1918
A
FROM EXPANSION ccepting the Democratic presiden- IDENTIFY THE BIG IDEA
TO IMPERIALISM tial nomination in 1900, William As the United States became a major
Foundations of Empire Jennings Bryan delivered a famous power on the world stage, what
The War of 1898 speech denouncing U.S. military occu- ideas and interests did policymak-
Spoils of War pations overseas. “God Himself,” Bryan ers seek to promote in international
declared, “placed in every human heart affairs?
A POWER AMONG the love of liberty. . . . He never made a
POWERS
race of people so low in the scale of civilization or intelligence that it would welcome a
The Open Door in Asia
foreign master.” At the time, Republican president William McKinley was leading an
The United States and Latin
ambitious and popular plan of overseas expansion. The United States had asserted con-
America
trol over the Caribbean, claimed Hawaii, and sought to annex the Philippines. Bryan
THE UNITED STATES failed to convince a majority of voters that imperialism — the exercise of military, politi-
IN WORLD WAR I cal, and economic power overseas — was the wrong direction. He lost the election by a
From Neutrality to War landslide.
“Over There” By the 1910s, however, American enthusiasm for overseas involvement cooled.
War on the Home Front Despite efforts to stay neutral, the United States got caught up in the global catastrophe
of World War I, which killed 8 million combatants, including over 50,000 U.S. soldiers.
CATASTROPHE AT By the war’s end, European powers’ grip on their colonial empires was weakening. The
VERSAILLES
United States also ceased acquiring overseas territories and pursued a different path. It
The Fate of Wilson’s Ideas
did so in part because the war brought dramatic changes at home, leaving Americans a
Congress Rejects the Treaty
postwar legacy of economic upheaval and political disillusionment.
President Woodrow Wilson, who in 1913 appointed Bryan as his secretary of state,
tried to steer a middle course between revolutionary socialism and European-style impe-
rialism. In Wilson’s phrase, America would “make the world safe for democracy” while
unapologetically working to advance U.S. economic interests. The U.S. Senate, however,
rejected the 1919 Treaty of Versailles and with it Wilson’s vision, leaving the nation’s
foreign policy in doubt. Should the United States try to promote democracy abroad? If
so, how? To what degree should the federal government seek to promote American
business interests? Under what conditions was overseas military action justified? When,
on the contrary, did it impinge on others’ sovereignty, endanger U.S. soldiers, and invite
disaster? Today’s debates over foreign policy still center to a large degree on questions
that Americans debated in the era of McKinley, Bryan, and Wilson, when the nation first
asserted itself as a major world power.
672
American Soldiers on a French Battlefield, 1918 As the United States asserted its power on the
world stage, American soldiers found themselves fighting on foreign battlefields. This 1918 photograph
shows a few of the 1 million U.S. soldiers who joined French and British troops fighting on the brutal
Western Front to defeat Germany in the Great War. Over 26,000 American soldiers lost their lives on the
battlefield during World War I, and 95,000 were wounded. Library of Congress.
673
674 PART 7 DOMESTIC AND GLOBAL CHALLENGES, 1890–1945
over foreign people of color made sense in an era when,

From Expansion at home, most American Indians and Asian immi-
grants were denied citizenship and most southern
to Imperialism blacks were disenfranchised. Imperialists argued that
Historians used to describe turn-of-the-twentieth- “free land” on the western frontier was dwindling, and
century U.S. imperialism as something new and unprec- thus new outlets needed to be found for American
edented. Now they stress continuities between foreign energy and enterprise. Responding to critics of U.S.
policy in this era and the nation’s earlier, relentless occupation of the Philippines, Theodore Roosevelt
expansion across North America. Wars against native scoffed: if Filipinos should control their own islands, he
peoples had occurred almost continuously since the declared, then America was “morally bound to return
country’s founding; in the 1840s, the United States had Arizona to the Apaches.”
annexed a third of Mexico. The United States never Imperialists also justified their views through
administered a large colonial empire, as did European racialized Social Darwinism (Chapter 18). Josiah
powers like Spain, England, and Germany, partly Strong, for example, predicted that with the globe fully
because it had a plentiful supply of natural resources occupied, a “competition of races” would ensue, with
in the American West. But policymakers undertook a victory based on “survival of the fittest.” Fear of ruth-
determined quest for global markets. Events in the less competition drove the United States, like European
1890s opened opportunities to pursue this goal in nations, to invest in the latest weapons. Policymakers
new ways. saw that European powers were amassing steel-plated
battleships and carving up Africa and Asia among them-
selves. In his book The Influence of Sea Power upon
Foundations of Empire History (1890), U.S. naval officer Alfred Mahan urged
American empire builders around 1900 fulfilled a the United States to enter the fray, observing that naval
vision laid out earlier by William Seward, secretary of power had been essential to past empires. As early as
state under presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew 1886, Congress ordered construction of two steel-hulled
Johnson, who saw access to global markets as the key battleships, the USS Texas and USS Maine; in 1890, it
to power (Chapter 16). Seward’s ideas had won only appropriated funds for three more, a program that
limited support at the time, but the severe economic expanded over the next two decades.
depression of the 1890s brought Republicans into During Grover Cleveland’s second term (1893–
power and Seward’s ideas back into vogue. Confronting 1897), his secretary of state, Richard Olney, turned
high unemployment and mass protests, policymakers to direct confrontation. He warned Europe to stay
feared American workers would embrace socialism or away from Latin America, which he saw as the United
Marxism. The alternative, they believed, was to create States’s rightful sphere of influence. Without consult-
jobs and prosperity at home by selling U.S. products in ing the nation of Venezuela, Olney suddenly demanded
overseas markets. in 1895 that Britain resolve a long-standing border dis-
Intellectual trends also favored imperialism. As pute between Venezuela and Britain’s neighboring col-
early as 1885, in his popular book Our Country, ony, British Guiana. Invoking the Monroe Doctrine,
Congregationalist minister Josiah Strong urged Prot- which stated that the Western Hemisphere was off-
estants to proselytize overseas. He predicted that the limits to further European colonization, Olney warned
American “Anglo-Saxon race,” which represented “the that the United States would brook no challenge to
largest liberty, the purest Christianity, the highest civi- its interests. Startled, Britain agreed to arbitrate. U.S.
lization,” would “spread itself over the earth.” Such power was on the rise.
arguments were grounded in American exceptional-
ism, the idea that the United States had a unique des-
tiny to foster democracy and civilization. The War of 1898
As Strong’s exhortation sug- Events in the Caribbean presented the United States
TRACE CHANGE gested, imperialists also drew on with far greater opportunities. In 1895, Cuban patriots
OVER TIME popular racial theories, which mounted a major guerrilla war against Spain, which
How did imperialism in the claimed that people of “Anglo- had lost most of its other New World territories.
1890s reflect both conti- Saxon” descent — English and The Spanish commander responded by rounding
nuities and changes from
often German — were superior to up Cuban civilians into concentration camps, where
earlier eras?
all others. “Anglo-Saxon” rule as many as 200,000 died of starvation, exposure,
CHAPTER 21 An Emerging World Power, 1890–1918 675
or dysentery. In the United States, “yellow journalists” in Cuban independence. On April 11, McKinley asked
such as William Randolph Hearst turned their plight Congress for authority to intervene in Cuba “in the
into a cause célèbre. Hearst’s coverage of Spanish atroc- name of civilization, [and] in behalf of endangered
ities fed a surge of nationalism, especially among those American interests.”
who feared that industrialization was causing American Historians long referred to the ensuing fight as the
men to lose physical strength and valor. The govern- Spanish-American War, but because that name ignores
ment should not pass up this opportunity, said Indiana the central role of Cuban revolutionaries, many histo-
senator Albert Beveridge, to “manufacture manhood.” rians now call the three-way conflict the War of 1898.
Congress called for Cuban independence. Though Americans widely admired Cubans’ aspirations
President Cleveland had no interest in supporting for freedom, the McKinley administration defeated a
the Cuban rebellion but worried over Spain’s failure to congressional attempt to recognize the rebel govern-
end it. The war disrupted trade and damaged American- ment. In response, Senator Henry M. Teller of Colorado
owned sugar plantations on the island. Moreover, an added an amendment to the war bill, disclaiming any
unstable Cuba was incompatible with U.S. strategic intention by the United States to occupy Cuba. The
interests, including a proposed canal whose Caribbean Teller Amendment reassured Americans that their
approaches had to be safeguarded. Taking office in country would uphold democracy abroad as well as at
1897, President William McKinley took a tough stance. home. McKinley’s expectations differed. He wrote pri-
In September, a U.S. diplomat informed Spain that it vately, “We must keep all we get; when the war is over
must ensure an “early and certain peace” or the United we must keep what we want.”
States would step in. At first, this hard line seemed to On April 24, 1898, Spain declared war on the
work: Spain’s conservative regime fell, and a liberal United States. The news provoked full-blown war fever.
government, taking office in October 1897, offered Across the country, young men enlisted for the fight.
Cuba limited self-rule. But Spanish loyalists in Havana Theodore Roosevelt, serving in the War Department,
rioted against this proposal, while Cuban rebels held resigned to become lieutenant colonel of a cavalry reg-
out for full independence. iment. Recruits poured into makeshift bases around
In February 1898, Hearst’s New York Journal pub- Tampa, Florida, where confusion reigned. Rifles failed
lished a private letter in which a Spanish minister to the to arrive; food was bad, sanitation worse. No provision
United States belittled McKinley. The minister, Dupuy had been made for getting troops to Cuba, so the gov-
de Lôme, resigned, but exposure of the de Lôme letter ernment hastily collected a fleet of yachts and commer-
intensified Americans’ indignation toward Spain. The cial boats. Fortunately, the regular army was a disci-
next week brought shocking news: the U.S. battle cruiser plined, professional force; its 28,000 seasoned troops
Maine had exploded and sunk in Havana harbor, with provided a nucleus for 200,000 volunteers. The navy
260 seamen lost. “Whole Country Thrills with the War was in better shape: Spain had nothing to match
Fever,” proclaimed the New York Journal. “Remember America’s seven battleships and armored cruisers. The
the Maine” became a national chant. Popular passions Spanish admiral bitterly predicted that his fleet would
were now a major factor in the march toward war. “like Don Quixote go out to fight windmills and come
McKinley assumed the sinking of the Maine had back with a broken head.”
been accidental. Improbably, though, a naval board of The first, decisive military engagement took place
inquiry blamed an underwater mine, fueling public in the Pacific. This was the handiwork of Theodore
outrage. (Later investigators disagreed: the more likely Roosevelt, who, in his government post, had gotten the
cause was a faulty ship design that placed explosive intrepid Commodore George Dewey appointed com-
munitions too close to coal bunkers, which were prone mander of the Pacific fleet. In the event of war, Dewey
to fire.) No evidence linked Spain to the purported had instructions to sail immediately for the Spanish-
mine, but if a mine sank the Maine, then Spain was owned Philippines. When war was declared, Roosevelt
responsible for not protecting the ship. confronted his surprised superior and pressured him
Business leaders became impatient, believing war into validating Dewey’s instructions. On May 1, 1898,
was preferable to an unending Cuban crisis. On American ships cornered the Spanish fleet in Manila
March 27, McKinley cabled an ultimatum to Madrid: Bay and destroyed it. Manila, the Philippine capital,
an immediate ceasefire in Cuba for six months and, fell on August 13. “We must on no account let the
with the United States mediating, peace negotiations [Philippines] go,” declared Senator Henry Cabot
with the rebels. Spain, while desperate to avoid war, Lodge. McKinley agreed. The United States now had a
balked at the added demand that mediation must result major foothold in the western Pacific.
U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor. Four years later, suc-

ceeding her brother as Hawaii’s monarch, Queen
Liliuokalani made known her frustration with these
treaties. In response, an Annexation Club of U.S.-
backed planters organized secretly and in 1892, with
the help of U.S. Marines, overthrew the queen and then
negotiated a treaty of annexation. Grover Cleveland,
however, rejected it when he entered office, declaring
that it would violate America’s “unbroken tradition”
against acquiring territory overseas.
Dewey’s victory in Manila delivered what the plant-
ers wanted: Hawaii acquired strategic value as a half-
way station to the Philippines. In July 1898, Congress
voted for annexation, over the protests of Hawaii’s
deposed queen. “Oh, honest Americans,” she pleaded,
“as Christians hear me for my down-trodden people!
Their form of government is as dear to them as yours
is precious to you. Quite as warmly as you love your
country, so they love theirs.” But to the great powers,
Hawaii was not a country. One congressman dismissed
Hawaii’s monarchy as “absurd, grotesque, tottering”;
the “Aryan race,” he declared, would “rescue” the islands
from it.
Hawaii’s Queen
To see a longer excerpt from Queen Liliuokalani’s
Hawaiian queen Liliuokalani (1838–1917) was the great-
appeal, along with other primary sources from this
granddaughter of Keaweaheulu, founder of the Kamehameha
period, see Sources for America’s History.
dynasty that had ruled the islands since the late 1700s.
Liliuokalani assumed the throne after her brother’s death
in 1891. As an outspoken critic, however, of treaties ced-
ing power to U.S. economic interests, she was deposed Further U.S. annexations took on their own logic.
three years later by a cabal of sugar planters who estab- The navy pressed for another coaling base in the cen-
lished a republic. When secret plans to revolt and restore tral Pacific; that meant Guam, a Spanish island in the
the monarchy were discovered, the queen was imprisoned Marianas. A strategic base was needed in the Caribbean;
for a year in Iolani Palace. She lived the remainder of her life
in Hawaii but never regained power. Fluent in English and that meant Puerto Rico. By early summer, before U.S.
influenced from childhood by Congregational missionaries, troops had fired a shot in Cuba, McKinley’s broader
she used this background to advocate for her people; in her war aims were crystallizing.
book Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen (1898), she appealed
for justice from fellow Christians. George Bacon Collection,
In Cuba, Spanish forces were depleted by the long
Hawaii State Archives. guerrilla war. Though poorly trained and equipped,
American forces had the advantages of a demoralized
foe and knowledgeable Cuban allies. The main battle
occurred on July 1 at San Juan Hill, near Santiago, where
Dewey’s victory directed policymakers’ attention to the Spanish fleet was anchored. Roosevelt’s Rough
Hawaii. Nominally independent, these islands had Riders took the lead, but four African American regi-
long been subject to U.S. influence, including a horde ments bore the brunt of the fighting. Observers credited
of resident American sugarcane planters. An 1876 much of the victory to the “superb gallantry” of these
treaty between the United States and the island’s mon- soldiers. Spanish troops retreated to a well-fortified
arch gave Hawaiian sugar free access to the American second line, but U.S. forces were spared the test of a
market, without tariff payments, second assault. On July 3, the Spanish fleet in Santiago
IDENTIFY CAUSES and Hawaii pledged to sign no harbor tried a desperate run through the American
Why did the United States such agreement with any other blockade and was destroyed. Days later, Spanish forces
go to war against Spain in power. When this treaty was surrendered. American combat casualties had been
1898, and what led to U.S.
renewed in 1887, Hawaii also few; most U.S. soldiers’ deaths had resulted from
victory?
granted a long-coveted lease for a malaria and yellow fever.
The Battle of San Juan Hill

On July 1, 1898, the key battle for Cuba took place on heights overlooking Santiago. African American
troops bore the brunt of the fighting. Although generally overlooked, black soldiers’ role in the San Juan
battle is done justice in this contemporary lithograph, without the demeaning stereotypes by which blacks
were normally depicted in an age of intensifying racism. Note, however, that as in the Civil War, blacks
enlisted as foot soldiers; their officers were white. Library of Congress.
This declaration provoked heated debate. Under

Spoils of War the Constitution, as Republican senator George F. Hoar
The United States and Spain quickly signed a prelimi- argued, “no power is given to the Federal Government
nary peace agreement in which Spain agreed to liberate to acquire territory to be held and governed perma-
Cuba and cede Puerto Rico and Guam to the United nently as colonies” or “to conquer alien people and
States. But what would happen to the Philippines, an hold them in subjugation.” Leading citizens and peace
immense archipelago that lay more than 5,000 miles advocates, including Jane Addams and Mark Twain,
from California? Initially, the United States aimed to enlisted in the anti-imperialist cause. Steel king Andrew
keep only Manila, because of its fine harbor. Manila Carnegie offered $20 million to purchase Philippine
was not defensible, however, without the whole island independence. Labor leader Samuel Gompers warned
of Luzon, on which it sat. After deliberating, McKinley union members about the threat of competition from
found a justification for annexing all of the Philippines. low-wage Filipino immigrants. Anti-imperialists, how-
He decided that “we could not leave [the Filipinos] to ever, were a diverse lot. Some argued that Filipinos
themselves — they were unfit for self-rule.” were perfectly capable of self-rule; others warned about
the dangers of annexing eight million Filipinos of an Constitutional issues also remained unresolved.
“inferior race.” “No matter whether they are fit to gov- The treaty, while guaranteeing freedom of religion to
ern themselves or not,” declared a Missouri congress- inhabitants of ceded Spanish territories, withheld any
man, “they are not fit to govern us.” promise of citizenship. It was up to Congress to decide
Beginning in late 1898, anti-imperialist leagues Filipinos’ “civil rights and political status.” In 1901, the
sprang up around the country, but they never sparked a Supreme Court upheld this provision in a set of deci-
mass movement. On the contrary, McKinley’s “splendid sions known as the Insular Cases. The Constitution,
little war” proved immensely popular. Confronted with declared the Court, did not automatically extend citi-
that reality, Democrats waffled. Their standard-bearer, zenship to people in acquired territories; Congress
William Jennings Bryan, decided could decide. Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines
EXPLAIN not to stake Democrats’ future on were thus marked as colonies, not future states.
CONSEQUENCES opposition to a policy that he The next year, as a condition for withdrawing from
What were the long-term believed to be irreversible. He Cuba, the United States forced the newly independent
results of the U.S. victory threw his party into turmoil by island to accept a proviso in its constitution called the
over Spain, in Hawaii and declaring last-minute support for Platt Amendment (1902). This blocked Cuba from
in former Spanish posses- McKinley’s proposed treaty. Hav- making a treaty with any country except the United
sions? ing met military defeat, Spanish States and gave the United States the right to intervene
representatives had little choice. In in Cuban affairs if it saw fit. Cuba also granted the
the Treaty of Paris, Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States a lease on Guantánamo Bay (still in
United States for $20 million. effect), where the U.S. Navy built a large base. Cubans’
Annexation was not as simple as U.S. policymakers hard-fought independence was limited; so was that of
had expected. On February 4, 1899, two days before Filipinos. Eventually, the Jones Act of 1916 committed
the Senate ratified the treaty, fighting broke out the United States to Philippine independence but set
between American and Filipino patrols on the edge of no date. (The Philippines at last achieved indepen-
Manila. Confronted by annexation, rebel leader Emilio dence in 1946.) Though the war’s carnage had rubbed
Aguinaldo asserted his nation’s independence and off some of the moralizing gloss, America’s global aspi-
turned his guns on occupying American forces. Though rations remained intact.
Aguinaldo found it difficult to organize a mass-based
resistance movement, the ensuing conflict between
Filipino nationalists and U.S. troops far exceeded in
length and ferocity the war just concluded with Spain.
A Power Among Powers
Fighting tenacious guerrillas, the U.S. Army resorted to No one appreciated America’s emerging influence more
the same tactics Spain had employed in Cuba: burning than the man who, after William McKinley’s assassina-
crops and villages and rounding up civilians. Atrocities tion, became president in 1901. Theodore Roosevelt
became commonplace on both sides. In three years of was an avid student of world affairs who called on “the
warfare, 4,200 Americans and an estimated 200,000 civilized and orderly powers to insist on the proper
Filipinos died; many of the latter were dislocated civil- policing of the world.” He meant, in part, directing the
ians, particularly children, who succumbed to malnu- affairs of “backward peoples.” For Roosevelt, imperial-
trition and disease. ism went hand in hand with domestic progressivism
McKinley’s convincing victory over William (Chapter 20). He argued that a strong federal govern-
Jennings Bryan in 1900 suggested popular satisfaction ment, asserting itself both at home and abroad, would
with America’s overseas adventures, even in the face of enhance economic stability and political order. Over-
dogged Filipino resistance to U.S. rule. The fighting seas, Roosevelt sought to arbitrate disputes and main-
ended in 1902, and William Howard Taft, appointed as tain a global balance of power, but he also asserted U.S.
governor-general of the Philippines, sought to make interests.
the territory a model of roadbuilding and sanitary engi-
neering. Yet misgivings lingered as Americans con-
fronted the brutality of the war. Philosopher William The Open Door in Asia
James noted that the United States had destroyed “these U.S. officials and business leaders had a burning inter-
islanders by the thousands, their villages and cities. . . . est in East Asian markets, but they were entering a
Could there be any more damning indictment of that crowded field (Map 21.1). In the late 1890s, following
whole bloated ideal termed ‘modern civilization’?” Japan’s victory in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895,
(American Voices, p. 680). Japan, Russia, Germany, France, and Britain divided
MAP 21.1
The Great Powers in East Asia, 1898–1910 RUSSIA
L. Baikal R.R.
N
European powers established dominance Irkutsk TRANS-SIB E R
IA
over China by way of “treaty ports,” where Chita
the powers based their naval forces, and CHINES Am Sakhalin
EE
through “spheres of influence” that OUTER MONGOLIA AS
TE
ur
R.
RN
extended from the ports into the hinter- (Russian influence) R .R .
Harbin
land. This map reveals why the United
IA
KURILE
MANCHURIA
States had a weak hand: it lacked a OL Vladivostok
IS.
presence on this colonized terrain. An NG Sea of
MO
I N N E R g Ho Peking Japan
uprising of Chinese nationalists in 1900 SINKIANG
JAPAN
Hw a n Tientsin Port
gave the United States a chance to insert Arthur
Seoul
itself on the Chinese mainland by sending KOREA
Tokyo
an American expeditionary force. Ameri- Kobe

Yokohama
can diplomats made the most of the CHINA
N
opportunity to defend U.S. commercial
TIBET
interests in China. As noted in the key, all Shanghai
Nanking E
Lhasa
Hankow
Ningpo W
place names in this map are those in use Chungking R.
NEPAL gtze Wenchow RYUKYU IS.
in 1910: Modern Beijing, for example, is Yan (Japan)
S
Foochow
shown as Peking. BHUTAN KWANGCHOWAN (Fr.) Amoy

INDIA Wuchow Formosa
Calcutta BURMA Canton (Taiwan)
Hong
Colonial Spheres Hanoi Macao Kong (Br.) PACIFIC
possessions of influence (Port.)
OCEAN
American
South
British China
French SIAM Sea Manila
Bangkok
Japanese FRENCH PHILIPPINE
Russian INDOCHINA ISLANDS
German
Saigon
Chinese treaty ports
open for foreign trade 0 500 1,000 miles
Place names in common use, 1910 0 500 1,000 kilometers
coastal China into spheres of influence. Fearful of and Manchuria, in northern China, by attacking the
being shut out, U.S. Secretary of State John Hay sent tzar’s fleet at Russia’s leased Chinese port. In a series of
these powers a note in 1899, claiming the right of equal brilliant victories, the Japanese smashed the Russian
trade access — an “open door” — for all nations seek- forces. Westerners were shocked: for the first time, a
ing to do business in China. The United States lacked European power had been defeated by a non-Western
leverage in Asia, and Hay’s note elicited only noncom- nation. Conveying both admiration and alarm, Ameri-
mittal responses. But he chose to interpret this as can cartoonists sketched Japan as a martial artist
acceptance of his position. knocking down the Russian giant. Roosevelt mediated
When a secret society of Chinese nationalists, a settlement to the war in 1905, receiving for his
known outside China as “Boxers” because of their pug- efforts the first Nobel Peace Prize awarded to an
nacious political stance, rebelled against foreign occu- American.
pation in 1900, the United States sent 5,000 troops to Though he was contemptuous of other Asians,
join a multinational campaign to break the nationalists’ Roosevelt respected the Japanese, whom he called “a
siege of European offices in Beijing. Hay took this wonderful and civilized people.” More important, he
opportunity to assert a second open door principle: understood Japan’s rising military might and aligned
China must be preserved as a “territorial and adminis- himself with the mighty. The United States approved
trative entity.” As long as the legal fiction of an inde- Japan’s “protectorate” over Korea in 1905 and, six years
pendent China survived, Americans could claim equal later, its seizure of full control.
access to its market. With Japan asserting harsh COMPARE AND
CONTRAST
European and American plans were, however, authority over Manchuria, ener-
What factors constrained
unsettled by Japan’s emergence as East Asia’s dominant getic Chinese diplomat Yüan
and guided U.S. actions in
power. A decade after its victory over China, Japan Shih-k’ai tried to encourage the Asia and in Latin America?
responded to Russian bids for control of both Korea United States to intervene. But
AMERICAN
VOICES
As President McKinley privately acknowledged in writing — “when the war is

over we must keep what we want” — seizing the Philippines was an act of
national self-interest. Of the alternatives, it was the one that seemed best calcu-
lated to serve America’s strategic aims in Asia. But McKinley’s geopolitical deci-
Debating the sion had unintended consequences. For one, it provoked a bloody insurrection.
For another, it challenged the United States’s democratic principles. As these
Philippines consequences hit home, a divided Senate set up a special committee and held
closed hearings. Congressional testimony is a source much prized by historians.
Though some of it is prepared, once questioning begins, testimony becomes
unscripted and can be especially revealing. The following documents are taken
from the 1902 testimony before the Senate Committee on the Philippines.
Ideals The contrasting idea with our idea is this: In planting

our ideas we plant something that can not be destroyed.
General Arthur MacArthur (1845–1912) was in on the
To my mind the archipelago is a fertile soil upon which
action in the Philippines almost from the start. He com-
to plant republicanism. . . . We are planting the best tradi-
manded one of the first units to arrive there in 1898 and in
tions, the best characteristics of Americanism in such a way
1900 was reassigned as the islands’ military governor and
that they can never be removed from that soil. That in itself
general commander of the troops. His standing as a mili-
seems to me a most inspiring thought. It encouraged me
tary man — holder of the Congressional Medal of Honor
during all my efforts in those lands, even when conditions
from the Civil War — was matched later by his more famous
seemed most disappointing, when the people themselves,
son, Douglas MacArthur, who fought in the Pacific during
not appreciating precisely what the remote consequences
World War II. Here the elder MacArthur explains in pre-
of our efforts were going to be, mistrusted us; but that fact
pared testimony his vision of America’s mission to the
was always before me — that going deep down into that
Philippines.
fertile soil were the indispensable ideas of Americanism.
At the time I returned to Manila [May 1900] to assume
the supreme command it seemed to me that . . . our occu- Skepticism
pation of the island was simply one of the necessary con-
At this point, the general was interrupted by Colorado
sequences in logical sequence of our great prosperity, and
senator Thomas Patterson, a Populist-Democrat and a vocal
to doubt the wisdom of [occupation] was simply to doubt
anti-imperialist.
the stability of our own institutions and in effect to declare
that a self-governing nation was incapable of successfully Sen. Patterson: Do you mean that imperishable idea
resisting strains arising naturally from its own productive of which you speak is the right of self-government?
energy. It seemed to me that our conception of right, jus- Gen. MacArthur: Precisely so; self-government
tice, freedom, and personal liberty was the precious fruit regulated by law as I understand it in this Republic.
of centuries of strife . . . [and that] we must regard our- Sen. Patterson: Of course you do not mean self-
selves simply as the custodians of imperishable ideas government regulated by some foreign and superior
held in trust for the general benefit of mankind. In other power?
words, I felt that we had attained a moral and intellectual Gen. MacArthur: Well, that is a matter of evolution,
height from which we were bound to proclaim to all as Senator. We are putting these institutions there so they
the occasion arose the true message of humanity as will evolve themselves just as here and everywhere else
embodied in the principles of our own institutions. . . . where freedom has flourished. . . .
All other governments that have gone to the East Sen. Patterson [after the General concluded his state-
have simply planted trading establishments; they have ment]: Do I understand your claim of right and duty to
not materially affected the conditions of the people. . . . retain the Philippine Islands is based upon the proposi-
There is not a single establishment, in my judgment, in tion that they have come to us upon the basis of our
Asia to-day that would survive five years if the original morals, honorable dealing, and unassailable international
power which planted it was withdrawn therefrom. integrity?
680
Gen. MacArthur: That proposition is not questioned can punish the man probably worse in that way than in
by anybody in the world, excepting a few people in the any other.
United States. . . . We will be benefited, and the Filipino Q: But is that within the ordinary rules of civilized
people will be benefited, and that is what I meant by the warfare? . . .
original proposition — Gen. Hughes: These people are not civilized.
Sen. Patterson: Do you mean the Filipino people that
are left alive?
Cruelties
Gen. MacArthur: I mean the Filipino people. . . .
Sen. Patterson: You mean those left alive after they Daniel J. Evans, Twelfth Infantry, describes the “water cure.”
have been subjugated? Q: The committee would like to hear . . . whether you
Gen. MacArthur: I do not admit that there has been were the witness to any cruelties inflicted upon the
any unusual destruction of life in the Philippine Islands. natives of the Philippine Islands; and if so, under what
The destruction is simply the incident of war, and of circumstances.
course it embraces only a very small percentage of the Evans: The case I had reference to was where they
total population. gave the water cure to a native in the Ilicano Province at
. . . I doubt if any war — either international or civil, Ilocos Norte . . . about the month of August 1900. There
any war on earth — has been conducted with as much were two native scouts with the American forces. They
humanity, with as much careful consideration, with as went out and brought in a couple of insurgents. . . . They
much self-restraint, as have been the American opera- tried to get from this insurgent . . . where the rest of the
tions in the Philippine Archipelago. . . . insurgents were at that time. . . . The first thing one of the
Americans — I mean one of the scouts for the Americans —
Realities grabbed one of the men by the head and jerked his head
back, and then they took a tomato can and poured water
Brigadier General Robert P. Hughes, a military district com-
down his throat until he could hold no more. . . . Then
mander, testified as follows.
they forced a gag into his mouth; they stood him up . . .
Q: In burning towns, what would you do? Would the against a post and fastened him so that he could not move.
entire town be destroyed by fire or would only the offend- Then one man, an American soldier, who was over six feet
ing portions of the town be burned? tall, and who was very strong, too, struck this native in
Gen. Hughes: I do not know that we ever had a case of the pit of the stomach as hard as he could. . . . They kept
burning what you would call a town in this country, but that operation up for quite a time, and finally I thought
probably a barrio or a sitio; probably half a dozen houses, the fellow was about to die, but I don’t believe he was as
native shacks, where the insurrectos would go in and be bad as that, because finally he told them he would tell,
concealed, and if they caught a detachment passing they and from that day on he was taken away, and I saw no
would kill some of them. more of him.
Q: What did I understand you to say would be the
consequences of that? Source: From American Imperialism and the Philippine Insurrection, edited by Henry F.
Graff (Boston: Little, Brown, 1969). Reprinted by permission of the author.
Gen. Hughes: They usually burned the village.
Q: All of the houses in the village?
Gen. Hughes: Yes, every one of them.
Q: What would become of the inhabitants?
Gen. Hughes: That was their lookout. QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS
Q: If these shacks were of no consequence what was 1. The text of this chapter offers the U.S. reasons for hold-
the utility of their destruction? ing on to the Philippines. In what ways does General
MacArthur’s testimony confirm, add to, or contradict the
Gen. Hughes: The destruction was as a punishment. text account?
They permitted these people to come in there and conceal 2. The chapter text also describes the anti-imperialist move-
themselves. . . . ment. What does Senator Patterson’s cross-examination
Q: The punishment in that case would fall, not upon of General MacArthur reveal about the anti-imperialists’
beliefs?
the men, who could go elsewhere, but mainly upon the
3. Does the clash of ideas in these excerpts remain relevant
women and little children. to our own time? How does it compare to what you
Gen. Hughes: The women and children are part of the might read or hear about in a news source today?
family, and where you wish to inflict a punishment you
681
Roosevelt reviewed America’s weak position in the oceans required a canal. European powers conceded
Pacific and declined. He conceded that Japan had “a the United States’s “paramount interest” in the Carib-
paramount interest in what surrounds the Yellow Sea.” bean. Freed by Britain’s surrender of canal-building
In 1908, the United States and Japan signed the Root- rights in the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty (1901), Roosevelt
Takahira Agreement, confirming principles of free persuaded Congress to authorize $10 million, plus
oceanic commerce and recognizing Japan’s authority future payments of $250,000 per year, to purchase from
over Manchuria. Colombia a six-mile strip of land across Panama, a
William Howard Taft entered the White House in Colombian province.
1909 convinced that the United States had been short- Furious when Colombia rejected this proposal,
changed in Asia. He pressed for a larger role for Roosevelt contemplated outright seizure of Panama
American investors, especially in Chinese railroad but settled on a more roundabout solution. Panama-
construction. Eager to promote U.S. business interests nians, long separated from Colombia by remote jungle,
abroad, he hoped that infusions of American capital chafed under Colombian rule. The United States lent
would offset Japanese power. When the Chinese Revo- covert assistance to an independence movement, trig-
lution of 1911 toppled the Manchu dynasty, Taft sup- gering a bloodless revolution. On November 6, 1903,
ported the victorious Nationalists, who wanted to the United States recognized the new nation of Panama;
modernize their country and liberate it from Japanese two weeks later, it obtained a perpetually renewable
domination. The United States had entangled itself in lease on a canal zone. Roosevelt never regretted the ven-
China and entered a long-term rivalry with Japan for ture, though in 1922 the United States paid Colombia
power in the Pacific, a competition that would culmi- $25 million as a kind of conscience money.
nate thirty years later in World War II. To build the canal, the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers hired 60,000 laborers, who came from many
countries to clear vast swamps, excavate 240 million
The United States and Latin America cubic yards of earth, and construct a series of immense
Roosevelt famously argued that the United States locks. The project, a major engineering feat, took eight
should “speak softly and carry a big stick.” By “big years and cost thousands of lives among the workers
stick,” he meant naval power, and rapid access to two who built it. Opened in 1914, the Panama Canal gave
Panama Canal Workers, 1910

The 51-mile-long Panama Canal includes seven sets
of locks that can raise and lower fifty large ships in a
twenty-four-hour period. Building the canal took eight
years and required over 50,000 workers, including
immigrants from Spain and Italy and many West
Indians such as these men, who accomplished some
of the worst-paid, most dangerous labor. Workers
endured the horrors of rockslides, explosions, and a
yellow fever epidemic that almost halted the project.
But American observers hailed the canal as a triumph
of modern science and engineering — especially in
medical efforts to eradicate the yellow fever and
malaria that had stymied earlier canal-building
efforts. Theodore Roosevelt insisted on making a
personal visit in November 1906. “He made the
men that were building there feel like they were
special people,” recalled the descendant of one
canal worker. “Give them pride of what they were
doing for the United States.” Library of Congress.
the United States a commanding position in the purchased Mexican plantations, mines, and oil fields.
Western Hemisphere. By the early 1900s, however, Díaz feared the extraordi-
Meanwhile, arguing that instability invited Euro- nary power of these foreign interests and began to
pean intervention, Roosevelt announced in 1904 that nationalize — reclaim — key resources. American inves-
the United States would police all of the Caribbean tors who faced the loss of Mexican holdings began to
(Map 21.2). This so-called Roosevelt Corollary to the back Francisco Madero, an advocate of constitutional
Monroe Doctrine actually turned that doctrine upside government who was friendly to U.S. interests. In 1911,
down: instead of guaranteeing that the United States Madero forced Díaz to resign and proclaimed himself
would protect its neighbors from Europe and help pre- president. Thousands of poor Mexicans took this oppor-
serve their independence, it asserted the United States’s tunity to mobilize rural armies and demand more rad-
unrestricted right to regulate Caribbean affairs. The ical change. Madero’s position was weak, and several
Roosevelt Corollary was not a treaty but a unilateral strongmen sought to overthrow him; in 1913, he was
declaration sanctioned only by America’s military and deposed and murdered by a leading general. Imme-
economic might. Citing it, the United States intervened diately, several other military men vied for control.
regularly in Caribbean and Central American nations Wilson, fearing that the unrest threatened U.S.
over the next three decades. interests, decided to intervene in the emerging Mexican
Entering office in 1913, Democratic president Revolution. On the pretext of a minor insult to the
Woodrow Wilson criticized his predecessors’ foreign navy, he ordered U.S. occupation of the port of Veracruz
policy. He pledged that the United States would “never on April 21, 1914, at the cost of 19 American and
again seek one additional foot of territory by conquest.” 126 Mexican lives. Though the intervention helped
This stance appealed to anti-imperialists in the Demo- Venustiano Carranza, the revolutionary leader whom
cratic base, including longtime supporters of William Wilson most favored, Carranza protested it as illegiti-
Jennings Bryan. But the new president soon showed mate meddling in Mexican affairs. Carranza’s forces,
that, when American interests called for it, his actions after nearly engaging the Americans themselves,
were not so different from those of Roosevelt and Taft. entered Mexico City in triumph a few months later.
Since the 1870s, Mexican dictator Porfirio Díaz had Though Wilson had supported this outcome, his inter-
created a friendly climate for American companies that ference caused lasting mistrust.
UNITED STATES
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
BAHAMAS N
Gulf of Mexico
(British)
PACIFIC MEXICO E
W
OCEAN DOMINICAN
S
2 REPUBLIC
U.S. possessions CUBA PUERTO RICO
U.S. interventions Acquired in 1898
Veracruz 8
9
1 Settled border dispute, 1895–1896 7 Guantánamo Bay 4
2 U.S. troops, 1898–1902, VIRGIN IS.
1906–1909, 1917–1922 BRITISH JAMAICA HAITI
HONDURAS (British) Acquired in 1917
3 Support of revolt, 1903
HONDURAS Caribbean Sea
4 U.S. lease beginning in 1903
5 U.S. control beginning NICARAGUA
in 1903 GUATEMALA 6
6 U.S. troops, 1909–1910, EL SALVADOR CANAL
1912–1925 ZONE 5 1
7 Seized by U.S. Navy, 1914 COSTA VENEZUELA BR.
RICA 3 GUIANA
8 U.S. troops, 1915–1934 0 250 500 miles
9 U.S. troops, 1916–1924 COLOMBIA
0 250 500 kilometers PANAMA
MAP 21.2
Policeman of the Caribbean
After the War of 1898, the United States vigorously asserted its interest in the affairs of its
neighbors to the south. As the record of interventions shows, the United States truly became the
“policeman” of the Caribbean and Central America.
Pancho Villa, 1914

This photograph captures Mexican general Pancho
Villa at the height of his power, at the head of
Venustiano Carranza’s northern army in 1914. The
next year, he broke with Carranza and, among other
desperate tactics, began to attack Americans. Though
he had been much admired in the United States, Villa
instantly became America’s foremost enemy. He
evaded General John J. Pershing’s punitive expedition
of 1916, however, demonstrating the difficulties even
modern armies could have against a guerrilla foe who
knows his home terrain and can melt away into a
sympathetic population. Brown Brothers.
Carranza’s victory did not subdue revolutionary Americans had no obvious stake in these develop-
activity in Mexico. In 1916, General Francisco “Pancho” ments. In 1905, when Germany suddenly challenged
Villa — a thug to his enemies, but a heroic Robin Hood French control of Morocco, Theodore Roosevelt
to many poor Mexicans — crossed the U.S.-Mexico bor- arranged an international conference to defuse the cri-
der, killing sixteen American civilians and raiding the sis. Germany got a few concessions, but France — with
town of Columbus, New Mexico. Wilson sent 11,000 British backing — retained Morocco. Accomplished in
troops to pursue Villa, a force that soon resembled an the same year that Roosevelt brokered peace between
army of occupation in northern Mexico. Mexican pub- Russia and Japan, the conference seemed another dip-
lic opinion demanded withdrawal as armed clashes lomatic triumph. One U.S. official boasted that America
broke out between U.S. and Mexican troops. At the had kept peace by “the power of our detachment.” It
brink of war, both governments backed off and U.S. was not to last.
forces departed. But policymakers in Washington had
shown their intention to police not only the Caribbean
and Central America but also Mexico when they From Neutrality to War
deemed it necessary. The spark that ignited World War I came in the Balkans,
where Austria-Hungary and Russia competed for con-
trol. Austria’s 1908 seizure of Ottoman provinces,
including Bosnia, angered the nearby Slavic nation of
The United States in Serbia and its ally, Russia. Serbian revolutionaries
World War I recruited Bosnian Slavs to resist Austrian rule. In June
1914, in the city of Sarajevo, university student Gavrilo
While the United States staked claims around the Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir
globe, a war of unprecedented scale was brewing in to the Austro-Hungarian throne.
Europe. The military buildup of Germany, a rising Like dominos falling, the system of European alli-
power, terrified its neighbors. To the east, the disinte- ances pushed all the powers into war. Austria-Hungary
grating Ottoman Empire was losing its grip on the blamed Serbia for the assassination and declared war
Balkans. Out of these conflicts, two rival power blocs on July 28. Russia, tied by secret treaty to Serbia, mobi-
emerged: the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria- lized against Austria-Hungary. This prompted Germany
Hungary, and Italy) and Triple Entente (Britain, France, to declare war on Russia and its ally France. As a prep-
and Russia). Within each alliance, national govern- aration for attacking France, Germany launched a
ments pursued their own interests but were bound to brutal invasion of the neutral country of Belgium,
one another by both public and secret treaties. which caused Great Britain to declare war on Germany.
Within a week, most of Europe was at war, with the

major Allies — Great Britain, France, and Russia —
confronting the Central Powers of Germany and
Austria-Hungary. Two military zones emerged. On the
Western Front, Germany battled the British and
French; on the Eastern Front, Germany and Austria-
Hungary fought Russia. Because most of the warring
nations held colonial empires, the conflict soon spread
to the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.
The so-called Great War wreaked terrible devasta-
tion. New technology, some of it devised in the United
States, made warfare deadlier than ever before. Every
soldier carried a long-range, high-velocity rifle that
could hit a target at 1,000 yards — a vast technical
advancement over the 300-yard range of rifles used in
the U.S. Civil War. The machine gun was even more
deadly. Its American-born inventor, Hiram Maxim,
had moved to Britain in the 1880s to follow a friend’s
advice: “If you want to make your fortune, invent
something which will allow those fool Europeans to
kill each other more quickly.” New technologies helped
soldiers in defensive positions; once advancing Ger-
mans ran into French fortifications, they stalled. Across
a swath of Belgium and northeastern France, millions
of soldiers on both sides hunkered down in fortified
trenches. During 1916, repeatedly trying to break
through French lines at Verdun, Germans suffered
450,000 casualties. The French fared even worse, with
550,000 dead or wounded. It was all to no avail. From
1914 to 1918, the Western Front barely moved. Flying Aces
At the war’s outbreak, President Wilson called on As millions of men suffered and died in the trenches during
Americans to be “neutral in fact as well as in name.” If the Great War, a few hundred pilots did battle in the sky.
America’s best-known ace pilot was Eddie Rickenbacker
the United States remained out of the conflict, Wilson (right) of the 94th Aero Pursuit Squadron — a pilot who
reasoned, he could influence the postwar settlement, was credited with shooting down twenty-six enemy aircraft.
much as Theodore Roosevelt had done after previous The 94th was known as the hat-in-the-ring squadron, after
conflicts. Even if Wilson had wished to, it would have the American custom by which a combatant threw his hat
into the ring as an invitation to fight. Note the hat insignia
been nearly impossible in 1914 to unite Americans on the plane. © Bettmann/Corbis.
behind the Allies. Many Irish immigrants viewed
Britain as an enemy — based on its continued occupa-
tion of Ireland — while millions of German Americans
maintained ties to their homeland. Progressive-minded
Republicans, such as Senator Robert La Follette of The Struggle to Remain Neutral The United
Wisconsin, vehemently opposed taking sides in a Euro- States, wishing to trade with all the warring nations,
pean fight, as did socialists, who condemned the war as might have remained neutral if Britain had not held
a conflict among greedy capitalist empires. Two giants commanding power at sea. In September 1914, the
of American industry, Andrew Carnegie and Henry British imposed a naval blockade on the Central
Ford, opposed the war. In December 1915, Ford sent a Powers to cut off vital supplies of food and military
hundred men and women to Europe on a “peace ship” equipment. Though the Wilson administration pro-
to urge an end to the war. “It would be folly,” declared tested this infringement of the rights of neutral carri-
the New York Sun, “for the country to sacrifice itself ers, commerce with the Allies more than made up for
to . . . the clash of ancient hatreds which is urging the the economic loss. Trade with Britain and France grew
Old World to destruction.” fourfold over the next two years, to $3.2 billion in 1916;
by 1917, U.S. banks had lent the Allies $2.5 billion. In this threat jolted public opinion. Meanwhile, German
contrast, American trade and loans to Germany stood U-boats attacked U.S. ships without warning, sinking
then at a mere $56 million. This imbalance undercut three on March 18 alone.
U.S. neutrality. If Germany won and Britain and France On April 2, 1917, Wilson asked Congress for a dec-
defaulted on their debts, American companies would laration of war. He argued that Germany had trampled
suffer catastrophic losses. on American rights and imperiled U.S. trade and citi-
To challenge the British navy, Germany launched zens’ lives. “We desire no conquest,” Wilson declared,
a devastating new weapon, the U-boat (short for “no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall
Unterseeboot, “undersea boat,” or submarine). In April freely make.” Reflecting his progressive idealism, Wilson
1915, Germany issued a warning that all ships flying promised that American involvement would make the
flags of Britain or its allies were liable to destruction. A world “safe for democracy.” On April 6, the United
few weeks later, a U-boat torpedoed the British luxury States declared war on Germany. Reflecting the nation’s
liner Lusitania off the coast of Ireland, killing 1,198 divided views, the vote was far from unanimous. Six
people, including 128 Americans. The attack on the senators and fifty members of the House voted against
passenger ship (which was later revealed to have been entry, including Representative Jeannette Rankin of
carrying munitions) incensed Americans. The follow- Montana, the first woman elected to Congress. “You
ing year, in an agreement known as the Sussex pledge, can no more win a war than you can win an earth-
Germany agreed not to target passenger liners or mer- quake,” Rankin said. “I want to stand by my country,
chant ships unless an inspection showed the latter car- but I cannot vote for war.”
ried weapons. But the Lusitania sinking prompted
Wilson to reconsider his options. After quietly trying
to mediate in Europe but finding neither side inter- “Over There”
ested in peace, he endorsed a $1 billion U.S. military To Americans, Europe seemed a great distance away.
buildup. Many assumed the United States would simply provide
American public opinion still ran strongly against munitions and economic aid. “Good Lord,” exclaimed
entering the war, a fact that shaped the election of 1916. one U.S. senator to a Wilson administration official,
Republicans rejected the belligerently prowar Theodore “you’re not going to send soldiers over there, are you?”
Roosevelt in favor of Supreme Court justice Charles But when General John J. Pershing asked how the
Evans Hughes, a progressive former governor of New United States could best support the Allies, the French
York. Democrats renominated Wilson, who cam- commander put it bluntly: “Men, men, and more men.”
paigned on his domestic record and as the president Amid war fever, thousands of young men prepared to
who “kept us out of war.” Wilson eked out a narrow vic- go “over there,” in the words of George M. Cohan’s
tory; winning California by a mere 4,000 votes, he popular song: “Make your Daddy glad to have had
secured a slim majority in the electoral college. such a lad. / Tell your sweetheart not to pine, / To be
proud her boy’s in line.”
America Enters the War Despite Wilson’s campaign
slogan, events pushed him toward war. In February Americans Join the War In 1917, the U.S. Army
1917, Germany resumed unrestricted submarine war- numbered fewer than 200,000 soldiers; needing more
fare, a decision dictated by the impasse on the Western men, Congress instituted a military draft in May 1917.
Front. In response, Wilson broke off diplomatic rela- In contrast to the Civil War, when resistance was com-
tions with Germany. A few weeks later, newspapers mon, conscription went smoothly, partly because local,
published an intercepted dispatch from German for- civilian-run draft boards played a central role in the
eign secretary Arthur Zimmermann to his minister in new system. Still, draft registration demonstrated gov-
Mexico. The Zimmermann tele- ernment’s increasing power over ordinary citizens. On
IDENTIFY CAUSES gram urged Mexico to join the a single day — June 5, 1917 — more than 9.5 million
What factors led the Central Powers, promising that if men between the ages of twenty-one and thirty regis-
United States to enter the United States entered the war, tered at local voting precincts for possible military
World War I, despite Germany would help Mexico service.
the desire of so many recover “the lost territory of President Wilson chose General Pershing to head
Americans, including the
Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.” the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), which had to
president, to stay out of
With Pancho Villa’s border raids be trained, outfitted, and carried across the submarine-
the war?
still fresh in Americans’ minds, plagued Atlantic. This required safer shipping. When
Safe Sex, Vintage 1919

To teach young American men how to avoid
venereal diseases, the War Department used
posters, pep talks, and films. There were no
effective treatments for venereal infections
until 1928, when Alexander Fleming discov-
ered penicillin, and so the army urged soldiers
to refrain from visiting prostitutes or to use
condoms. Fit to Win starred handsome Ray
McKee, who had already appeared in eighty
films, and was directed by E. H. Griffith, who
would go on to direct sixty Hollywood films
between 1920 and 1946. Social Welfare History
Archives Center, University of Minnesota/Picture
Research Consultants & Archives.
the United States entered the war, German U-boats American soldiers against an out-
EXPLAIN
were sinking 900,000 tons of Allied ships each month. numbered and exhausted German CONSEQUENCES
By sending merchant and troop ships in armed con- army in the Argonne forest. By How did U.S. military entry
voys, the U.S. Navy cut that monthly rate to 400,000 early November, this attack broke into World War I affect the
tons by the end of 1917. With trench warfare grinding German defenses at a crucial rail course of the war?
on, Allied commanders pleaded for American soldiers hub, Sedan. The cost was high:
to fill their depleted units, but Pershing waited until the 26,000 Americans killed and 95,000 wounded (Map
AEF reached full strength. As late as May 1918, the 21.3). But the flood of U.S. troops and supplies deter-
brunt of the fighting fell to the French and British. mined the outcome. Recognizing inevitable defeat and
The Allies’ burden increased when the Eastern facing popular uprisings at home, Germany signed an
Front collapsed following the Bolshevik (Communist) armistice on November 11, 1918. The Great War was
Revolution in Russia in November 1917. To consoli- over.
date power at home, the new Bolshevik government,
led by Vladimir Lenin, sought peace with the Central The American Fighting Force By the end of World
Powers. In a 1918 treaty, Russia surrendered its claims War I, almost 4 million American men — popularly
over vast parts of its territories in exchange for peace. known as “doughboys” — wore U.S. uniforms, as did
Released from war against Germany, the Bolsheviks several thousand female nurses. The recruits reflected
turned their attention to a civil war at home. Terrified America’s heterogeneity: one-fifth had been born out-
by communism, Japan and several Allied countries, side the United States, and soldiers spoke forty-nine
including the United States, later sent troops to fight different languages. Though ethnic diversity worried
the Bolsheviks and aid forces loyal to the deposed tsar. some observers, most predicted that military service
But after a four-year civil war, Lenin’s forces established would promote Americanization.
full control over Russia and reclaimed Ukraine and Over 400,000 African American men enlisted,
other former possessions. accounting for 13 percent of the armed forces. Their
Peace with Russia freed Germany to launch a major wartime experiences were often grim: serving in segre-
offensive on the Western Front. By May 1918, German gated units, they were given the most menial tasks.
troops had advanced to within 50 miles of Paris. Racial discrimination hampered military efficiency
Pershing at last committed about 60,000 U.S. soldiers and provoked violence at several camps. The worst
to support the French defense. With American soldiers incident occurred in August 1917, when, after suffer-
engaged in massive numbers, Allied forces brought the ing a string of racial attacks, black members of the 24th
Germans to a halt in July; by September, they forced a Infantry’s Third Battalion rioted in Houston, killing 15
retreat. Pershing then pitted more than one million white civilians and police officers. The army tried 118
MAP 21.3
NETHERLANDS
U.S. Participation on the Western
EN GL AND N or t h
Front, 1918
R hine
Thame
sR
Sea
.
When American troops reached the
R.
London
Cologne European front in significant numbers
Dunkirk
Calais Ypres
Brussels in 1918, the Allies and Central Powers
GERMANY had been fighting a deadly war of
B ELG IU M
Frankfurt attrition for almost four years. The
el
influx of American troops and supplies
R.
nn
Cha
l le
So m
se
glish me helped break the stalemate. Successful
Mo
En R
Amiens . LUX. offensive maneuvers by the American
Cantigny Sedan
May 1918 Meuse-Argonne Saar Expeditionary Force included those at
Sept.–Nov. 1918 R.
Soissons Belleau Wood and Château-Thierry
Se
in Belleau Wood Marne and the Meuse-Argonne campaign.
R.
June 1918
e R. Verdun
ne
R.
Château-
Rhi
Paris Strasbourg
Thierry
May 1918 St. Mihiel Nancy
Versailles Sept. 1918
N
W E
F RA NC E
S
Major battles involving U.S. forces

Allied offensive SWITZERLAND
Territory under German control by July 1918
Line of trench warfare, 1915–1917
0 50 100 miles
Armistice line, November 11, 1918
0 50 100 kilometers
of the soldiers in military courts for mutiny and riot, Many progressives also supported the war, hoping
hanged 19, and sentenced 63 to life in prison. Wilson’s ideals and wartime patriotism would renew
Unlike African Americans, American Indians Americans’ attention to reform. But the war bitterly
served in integrated combat units. Racial stereotypes disappointed them. Rather than enhancing democracy,
about Native Americans’ prowess as warriors enhanced it chilled the political climate as government agencies
their military reputations, but it also prompted officers tried to enforce “100 percent loyalty.”
to assign them hazardous duties as scouts and snipers.
About 13,000, or 25 percent, of the adult male Ameri- Mobilizing the Economy American businesses
can Indian population served during the war; roughly made big bucks from World War I. As grain, weapons,
5 percent died, compared to 2 percent for the military and manufactured goods flowed to Britain and France,
as a whole. the United States became a creditor nation. Moreover,
Most American soldiers escaped the horrors of sus- as the war drained British financial reserves, U.S. banks
tained trench warfare. Still, during the brief period of provided capital for investments around the globe.
U.S. participation, over 50,000 servicemen died in Government powers expanded during wartime,
action; another 63,000 died from disease, mainly the with new federal agencies overseeing almost every part
devastating influenza pandemic that began early in of the economy. The War Industries Board (WIB),
1918 and, over the next two years, killed 50 million established in July 1917, directed military production.
people worldwide. The nation’s military deaths, though After a fumbling start that showed the limits of volun-
substantial, were only a tenth as many as the 500,000 tarism, the Wilson administration reorganized the
American civilians who died of this terrible epidemic — board and placed Bernard Baruch, a Wall Street finan-
not to mention the staggering losses of Europeans in cier and superb administrator, at its head. Under his
the war (America Compared, p. 689). direction, the WIB allocated scarce resources among
industries, ordered factories to convert to war produc-
tion, set prices, and standardized procedures. Though
War on the Home Front he could compel compliance, Baruch preferred to win
In the United States, opponents of the war were a voluntary cooperation. A man of immense charm, he
minority. Helping the Allies triggered an economic usually succeeded — helped by the lucrative military
boom that benefitted farmers and working people. contracts at his disposal. Despite higher taxes, corporate
AMERICA
C O M PA R E D
The United States played a crucial role in financing World War I. In its war-related
expenditures, totaling $22.6 billion, the United States ranked fourth among all
The Human Cost of nations that participated, ranking behind only Germany ($37.7 billion), Britain
($35.3 billion), and France ($24.3 billion). In human terms, however, the U.S. role
World War I was different. Note that the figures below for military casualties are rough esti-
mates. Civilian casualties are even more uncertain: the exact number of Russians,
Italians, Romanians, Serbians, and others who died will never be known.
TABLE 21.1
World War I Casualties
Country Total Population Military Killed or Missing Total Civilian Deaths
Germany 67,000,000 2,037,000 700,000
Russia 167,000,000 1,800,000 2,000,000
France 39,000,000 1,385,300 40,000
Austria-Hungary 49,900,000 1,016,200 unknown
United Kingdom 46,400,000 702,410 1,386
Italy 35,000,000 462,400 unknown
Turkey 21,300,000 236,000 2,000,000*
Romania 7,510,000 219,800 265,000–500,000
Serbia 5,000,000 127,500 600,000
Bulgaria 5,500,000 77,450 275,000
India 316,000,000 62,060 negligible
Canada 7,400,000 58,990 negligible
Australia 4,872,000 53,560 negligible
United States 92,000,000 51,822 negligible
*Mostly Armenians
QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS

1. What does this data suggest about the comparative role 2. Which other countries made contributions similar to
of the United States in World War I? The experience of that of the United States, and why?
its soldiers? The war’s impact on civilians in each nation?
profits soared, as military production sustained a boom Administration, meanwhile, introduced daylight sav-
that continued until 1920. ing time to conserve coal and oil. In December 1917,
Some federal agencies took dramatic measures. The the Railroad Administration seized control of the
National War Labor Board (NWLB), formed in April nation’s hodgepodge of private railroads, seeking to
1918, established an eight-hour day for war workers facilitate rapid movement of troops and equipment —
with time-and-a-half pay for overtime, and it endorsed an experiment that had, at best, mixed results.
equal pay for women. In return for a no-strike pledge, Perhaps the most successful wartime agency was
the NWLB also supported workers’ right to organize — the Food Administration, created in August 1917 and
a major achievement for the labor movement. The Fuel led by engineer Herbert Hoover. With the slogan “Food
689
Fighting the Flu

Influenza traversed the globe in 1918–1919, becoming a pandemic that killed as many as 50 million people.
According to recent research, the flu began as a virus native to wild birds and then mutated into a form that
passed easily from one human to another. In the United States, one-fifth of the population was infected and
more than 500,000 civilians died — ten times the number of American soldiers who died in combat during
World War I. The flu virus spread with frightening speed, and the epidemic strained the resources of a U.S.
public health system already fully mobilized for the war effort. In October 1918 alone, 200,000 Americans
died. This photo shows doctors, army officers, and reporters who donned surgical masks and gowns before
touring hospitals that treated influenza patients. © Bettmann/Corbis.
will win the war,” Hoover convinced farmers to nearly Information (CPI), a government propaganda agency
double their acreage of grain. This increase allowed a headed by journalist George Creel. Professing lofty
threefold rise in food exports to Europe. Among citi- goals — educating citizens about democracy, assimilat-
zens, the Food Administration mobilized a “spirit of ing immigrants, and ending the isolation of rural
self-denial” rather than mandatory rationing. Female life — the committee set out to mold Americans into
volunteers went from door to door to persuade house- “one white-hot mass” of war patriotism. The CPI touched
keepers to observe “Wheatless” Mondays and “Pork- the lives of nearly all civilians. It distributed seventy-
less” Thursdays. Hoover, a Republican, emerged from five million pieces of literature and enlisted thousands
the war as one of the nation’s most admired public of volunteers — Four-Minute Men — to deliver short
figures. prowar speeches at movie theaters.
The CPI also pressured immigrant groups to
Promoting National Unity Suppressing wartime become “One Hundred Percent Americans.” German
dissent became a near obsession for President Wilson. Americans bore the brunt of this campaign (Thinking
In April 1917, Wilson formed the Committee on Public Like a Historian, p. 692). With posters exhorting
Selling Liberty Bonds: Two Appeals

Once the United States entered the Great War, government officials sought to enlist all Americans in the
battle against the Central Powers. They carefully crafted patriotic advertising campaigns that urged Americans
to buy bonds, conserve food, enlist in the military, and support the war effort in many other ways. One of
these posters appeals to recent immigrants, reminding them of their debt to American Liberty. The other
shows the overtly anti-German prejudices of many war appeals: it depicts the “Hun,” a slur for a German
soldier, with bloody hands and bayonet. Library of Congress.
citizens to root out German spies, a spirit of confor- people. The Justice Department prosecuted members
mity pervaded the home front. A quasi-vigilante group, of the Industrial Workers of the World, whose oppo-
the American Protective League, mobilized about sition to militarism threatened to disrupt war pro-
250,000 “agents,” furnished them with badges issued by duction of lumber and copper. When a Quaker pacifist
the Justice Department, and trained them to spy on teacher in New York City refused to teach a prowar
neighbors and coworkers. In 1918, members of the curriculum, she was fired. Socialist Party leader
league led violent raids against draft evaders and peace Eugene V. Debs was sentenced to ten years in jail for
activists. Government propaganda helped rouse a the crime of arguing that wealthy capitalists had started
nativist hysteria that lingered into the 1920s. the conflict and were forcing workers to fight.
Congress also passed new laws to curb dissent. Federal courts mostly supported the acts. In
Among them was the Sedition Act of 1918, which pro- Schenck v. United States (1919), the Supreme Court
hibited any words or behavior that might “incite, pro- upheld the conviction of a socialist who was jailed for
voke, or encourage resistance to the United States, or circulating pamphlets that urged army draftees to resist
promote the cause of its enemies.” Because this and an induction. The justices followed this with a similar
earlier Espionage Act (1917) defined treason loosely, decision in Abrams v. United States (1919), ruling that
they led to the conviction of more than a thousand authorities could prosecute speech they believed to
THINKING LIKE
A HISTORIAN
Before 1917, Americans expressed diverse opinions about the war in Europe.
After the United States joined the Allies, however, German Americans’ loyalty
became suspect. German immigrant men who were not U.S. citizens were
German Americans required to register as “alien enemies,” and government propaganda fueled
fear of alleged German spies. In April 1918 in Collinsville, Illinois, a German-born
in World War I socialist named Robert Prager — who had sought U.S. citizenship and tried to
enlist in the navy — was lynched by drunken miners. The documents below shed
light on German Americans’ wartime experiences.
1. Advertisement, Fatherland, 1915. This ad appeared 3. Sign in a Chicago park, 1917.

in a political journal for German Americans. The
translation of the songs offered on this recording
are “Germany, Germany Above All” and “Precious
Homeland.”
Patriotic German Music on Columbia Double-Disc
Records
E2039 Deutschland, Deutschland über alles. . . .
10 in. — 75¢ Teure Heimat. . . .
COLUMBIA GRAMOPHONE COMPANY . . .

DEALERS EVERYWHERE.
2. C. J. Hexamer, speech, Milwaukee, 1915. This

Chicago History Museum.
address by a German American community leader
was widely cited during a 1918 investigation by the
Senate Judiciary Committee. 4. “Lager Uber Alles” cartoon, 1918. This cartoon was
Whoever casts his Germanism from him like an old glove, part of an Ohio Anti-Saloon League referendum
is not worthy to be spit upon. . . . We have long suffered campaign to prohibit liquor sales. Ohio voters had
the preachment that “you Germans must allow yourselves rejected such a measure in 1915 and 1917, but in
to be assimilated, you must merge more in the American 1918 a majority voted for prohibition. Many U.S.
people;” but no one will ever find us prepared to step breweries, such as Anheuser-Busch and Pabst, were
down to a lesser culture. No, we have made it our aim owned by German Americans. “Hun” was an epi-
to elevate the others to us. . . . Be strong, and German. thet for Germans; “Lager (Beer) Uber Alles” refers
Remember, you German pioneers, that we are giving to the German national anthem cited in source 1.
to this people the best the earth affords, the benefits of
Germanic kultur.
Courtesy of The Ohio State

University Department of
History.
692
5. James W. Gerard, radio address, 1917. Gerard was Brocke, a farmer, recalled that neighbors on their
U.S. ambassador to Great Britain. joint telephone line would slam down the phone
The great majority of American citizens of German when his mother or sister spoke German. “We had
descent have, in this great crisis in our history, shown to be so careful,” he said.
themselves splendidly loyal to our flag. Everyone has a I remember when they smashed out store windows at
right to sympathize with any warring nation. But now Uniontown that said [sauer]kraut. . . . Nobody would eat
that we are in the war there are only two sides, and the kraut. Throw the Kraut out, they were Germans. . . . Even
time has come when every citizen must declare himself the great Williamson store, he went in and gathered up
American — or traitor! everything that was made in Germany, and had a big bon-
. . . The Foreign Minister of Germany once said to me fire out in the middle of the street, you know. Although he
“. . . we have in your country 500,000 German reservists had many good German friends all over the county that
who will rise in arms against your government if you dare had helped make him rich. . . . And if it was a German
to make a move against Germany.” Well, I told him that name — we’ll just change our name. . . . There were some
that might be so, but that we had 500,001 lampposts in [German American] boys that got draft deferments. . . .
this country, and that that was where the reservists would Some of them said that their fathers were sick and dying,
be hanging the day after they tried to rise. And if there are and their father had so much land they had to stay home
any German-Americans here who are so ungrateful for all and farm it for them. . . . [Local men] tarred and feath-
the benefits they have received that they are still for the ered some of them. Some of them as old men dying still
Kaiser, there is only one thing to do with them. And that resented and remembered.
is to hog-tie them, give them back the wooden shoes and
the rags they landed in, and ship them back. . . . There is
Sources: (1) Frederick C. Luebke, Bonds of Loyalty: German Americans and World
no animal that bites and kicks and squeals . . . equal to a War I (Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1974), 109; (2) Hearings Before the
fat German-American, if you commenced to tie him up Subcommittee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 65th Congress, Second Session
(Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1918), 300; (5) Gerard speech,
and told him that he was on his way back to the Kaiser. transcript and recording, at Library of Congress American Memory: memory.loc.gov
/ammem/nfhtml/nforSpeakers01.html; (6) New Orleans Times-Picayune, May 16, 1918;
6. Actions by New York liederkranz reported in New (7) Oral histories of Idaho residents at GMU History Matters, historymatters.gmu
.edu/d/2/. Excerpt courtesy of Latah County Historical Society.
Orleans Times-Picayune, May 16, 1918. Lieder-
kranz, or singing societies, played a vital role in
German immigrant communities. Before World
War I the city of Wheeling, West Virginia, counted
eleven such societies, with names like Harmonie,
Germania, and Mozart. By 1918 most liederkranz
had vanished. New York City’s was one of the few ANALYZING THE EVIDENCE
that did not. 1. How did conditions change for German Americans
between 1915 and 1918?
Members of the [New York] Liederkranz, an organiza- 2. According to these sources, what aspects of German
tion founded seventy-one years ago by Germans . . . met American culture did other Americans find threatening?
tonight and placed on record their unqualified Ameri- What forms did anti-German hostility take?
canism. 3. Compare the sources that offer a German American per-
spective (sources 1, 2, 6, and 7) to those that represent
. . . They declared English the official language of the
a threat to German Americans’ way of life (3, 4, 5). How
organization, and for the first time in years the sound of did German Americans respond to growing anti-German
an enemy tongue will not be heard in the club’s halls. sentiment in this period?
Likewise they reiterated their offer to turn the buildings
over to the government as a hospital if it were necessary. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
World War I heightened anxieties about who was a “true”
7. Lola Gamble Clyde, 1976 interview on life in Idaho American. What groups were singled out in particular and
why? What continuities do you see between these fears
during World War I. In the 1970s, historians inter-
over “hyphenated” identities and controversies in earlier
viewed residents of rural Latah County, Idaho, eras of U.S. history? Today?
about their experiences in World War I. Frank
693
Great Migrations World War I created tremendous

economic opportunities at home. Jobs in war indus-
tries drew thousands of people to the cities. With so
many men in uniform, jobs in heavy industry opened
for the first time to African Americans, accelerating
the pace of black migration from South to North.
During World War I, more than 400,000 African
Americans moved to such cities as St. Louis, Chicago,
New York, and Detroit, in what became known as the
Great Migration. The rewards were great, and taking
war jobs could be a source of patriotic pride. “If it
hadn’t been for the negro,” a Carnegie Steel manager
later recalled, “we could hardly have carried on our
operations.”
Blacks in the North encountered discrimination in
jobs, housing, and education. But in the first flush of
opportunity, most celebrated their escape from the
repressive racism and poverty of the South. “It is a mat-
ter of a dollar with me and I feel that God made the
path and I am walking therein,” one woman reported
to her sister back home. “Tell your husband work is
plentiful here.” “I just begin to feel like a man,” wrote
another migrant to a friend in Mississippi. “My chil-
dren are going to the same school with the whites. . . .
Will vote the next election and there isn’t any ‘yes sir’
and ‘no sir’ — it’s all yes and no and Sam and Bill.”
Wartime labor shortages prompted Mexican Amer-
icans in the Southwest to leave farmwork for urban
industrial jobs. Continued political instability in Mex-
The Labor Agent in the South
ico, combined with increased demand for farmworkers
This evocative painting from 1940 is part of the famous
Great Migration series by African American painter Jacob in the United States, also encouraged more Mexicans
Lawrence. It shows how many African American workers to move across the border. Between 1917 and 1920, at
found a route to opportunity: northern manufacturers, least 100,000 Mexicans entered the United States;
facing severe wartime labor shortages, sent agents to the
South to recruit workers. Agents often arranged loans to
despite discrimination, large numbers stayed. If asked
pay for train fare and other travel expenses; once laborers why, many might have echoed the words of an African
were settled and employed in the North, they repaid the American man who left New Orleans for Chicago: they
loans from their wages. Here, a line of men waits for the were going “north for a better chance.” The same was
agent to record their names in his open ledger. The bare
tree in the background suggests the barrenness of eco- true for Puerto Ricans such as Jésus Colón, who also
nomic prospects for impoverished rural blacks in the confronted racism. “I came to New York to poor pay,
South; it also hints at the threat of lynching and racial long hours, terrible working conditions, discrimination
violence. Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed
even in the slums and in the poor paying factories,”
by SCALA/Art Resource, NY.
Colón recalled, “where the bosses very dexterously
pitted Italians against Puerto Ricans and Puerto Ricans
against American Negroes and Jews.”
Women were the largest group to take advantage of
pose “a clear and present danger to the safety of the wartime job opportunities. About 1 million women
country.” In an important dissent, however, Justices joined the paid labor force for the first time, while
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. and Louis Brandeis objected another 8 million gave up low-wage service jobs for
to the Abrams decision. Holmes’s probing questions higher-paying industrial work. Americans soon got
about the definition of “clear and present danger” used to the sight of female streetcar conductors, train
helped launch twentieth-century legal battles over free engineers, and defense workers. Though most people
speech and civil liberties. expected these jobs to return to men in peacetime, the
Women Riveters at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, 1919

With men at the front, women took many new jobs during World War I — as mail carriers, police officers,
and farm laborers who joined the Women’s Land Army. African American women, generally limited by white
prejudice to jobs in domestic service and agriculture, found that the war opened up new opportunities and
better wages in industry. When the war ended, women usually lost jobs deemed to be men’s work. In 1919,
however, these women were still hard at work in the Puget Sound Navy Yard, near Seattle. What clues
indicate their attitudes toward their work, and toward one another? National Archives.
war created a new comfort level with women’s employ- White House. Standing silently with their banners,
ment outside the home — and with women’s suffrage. Paul and other NWP activists faced arrest for obstruct-
ing traffic and were sentenced to seven months in jail.
Women’s Voting Rights The National American They protested by going on a hunger strike, which
Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) threw the sup- prison authorities met with forced
port of its 2 million members wholeheartedly into the feeding. Public shock at the EXPLAIN
war effort. Its president, Carrie Chapman Catt, declared women’s treatment drew attention CONSEQUENCES
that women had to prove their patriotism to win the to the suffrage cause. What were the different
ballot. NAWSA members in thousands of communi- Impressed by NAWSA’s patri- effects of African Ameri-
ties promoted food conservation and distributed emer- otism and worried by the NWP’s cans’, Mexican Americans’,
gency relief through organizations such as the Red militancy, the antisuffrage Wilson and women’s civilian
Cross. reversed his position. In January mobilization during World
Alice Paul and the National Woman’s Party (NWP) 1918, he urged support for woman War I?
took a more confrontational approach. Paul was a suffrage as a “war measure.” The
Quaker who had worked in the settlement movement constitutional amendment quickly passed the House
and earned a PhD in political science. Finding as a of Representatives; it took eighteen months to get
NAWSA lobbyist that congressmen dismissed her, Paul through the Senate and another year to win ratifi-
founded the NWP in 1916. Inspired by militant British cation by the states. On August 26, 1920, when
suffragists, the group began in July 1917 to picket the Tennessee voted for ratification, the Nineteenth
Wagon Decorated for the Labor Day Parade, San Diego, California, 1910
As the woman suffrage movement grew stronger in the years before and during World War I, working-class
women played increasingly prominent and visible roles in its leadership. This Labor Day parade float, created
by the Women’s Union Label League of San Diego, showed that activists championed equal pay for women
in the workplace as well as women’s voting rights. “Union Label Leagues” urged middle-class shoppers
to purchase only clothing with a union label, certifying that the item had been manufactured under safe
conditions and the workers who made it had received a fair wage. San Diego Historical Society, Title Insurance
Trust Collection.
Amendment became law. The state thus joined Texas women did not gain voting rights until after World
as one of two ex-Confederate states to ratify it. In most War II, and Switzerland, which held out until 1971.)
parts of the South, the measure meant that white Thus, while World War I introduced modern horrors
women began to vote: in this Jim Crow era, African on the battlefield — machine guns and poison gas — it
American women’s voting rights remained restricted brought some positive results at home: economic
along with men’s. opportunity and women’s political participation.
In explaining suffragists’ victory, historians have
debated the relative effectiveness of Catt’s patriotic
strategy and Paul’s militant protests. Both played a role
in persuading Wilson and Congress to act, but neither
might have worked without the extraordinary impact
Catastrophe at Versailles
of the Great War. Across the globe, before 1914, the The idealistic Wilson argued that no victor should be
only places where women had full suffrage were New declared after World War I: only “peace among equals”
Zealand, Australia, Finland, and Norway. After World could last. Having won at an incredible price, Britain
War I, many nations moved to enfranchise women. and France showed zero interest in such a plan. But the
The new Soviet Union acted first, in 1917, with Great devastation wrought by the war created popular pres-
Britain and Canada following in 1918; by 1920, the sure for a just and enduring outcome. Wilson scored a
measure had passed in Germany, Austria, Poland, diplomatic victory at the peace conference, held at
Czechoslovakia, and Hungary as well as the United Versailles, near Paris, in 1919, when the Allies chose to
States. (Major exceptions were France and Italy, where base the talks on his Fourteen Points, a blueprint for
collective military action. Wilson hoped the League

would “end all wars.” But his ideals had marked limits,
and in negotiations he confronted harsh realities.
The Fate of Wilson’s Ideas

The peace conference included ten thousand represen-
tatives from around the globe, but leaders of France,
Britain, and the United States dominated the proceed-
ings. When the Japanese delegation proposed a decla-
ration for equal treatment of all races, the Allies rejected
it. Similarly, the Allies ignored a global Pan-African
Congress, organized by W. E. B. Du Bois and other
black leaders; they snubbed Arab representatives who
had been military allies during the war. Even Italy’s
prime minister — included among the influential “Big
Four,” because in 1915 Italy had switched to the Allied
side — withdrew from the conference, aggrieved at
the way British and French leaders marginalized him.
The Allies excluded two key players: Russia, because
they distrusted its communist leaders, and Germany,
because they planned to dictate terms to their defeated
“Peace and Future Cannon Fodder” foe. For Wilson’s “peace among equals,” it was a terrible
This scathing cartoon, published in 1920, was drawn by
start.
Australian-born artist Will Dyson and published in a British Prime Minister David Lloyd George of Britain and
magazine. It shows the “Big Four” power brokers at Ver- Premier Georges Clemenceau of France imposed harsh
sailles — from left to right, Vittorio Orlando of Italy, David punishments on Germany. Unbeknownst to others at
Lloyd George of Britain, Georges Clemenceau of France, and
Woodrow Wilson of the United States. Clemenceau, who was the time, they had already made secret agreements to
nicknamed “The Tiger,” turns his head and comments on the divide up Germany’s African colonies and take them as
crying child. Even at the time, astute observers such as Dyson spoils of war. At Versailles, they also forced the defeated
argued that the treaty might have horrific consequences,
particularly in the brutal conditions it imposed on Germany.
nation to pay $33 billion in reparations and surrender
Dyson sketched “1940 Class” over the head of the child. The coal supplies, merchant ships, valuable patents, and
young children of 1920 grew up to inherit the consequences even territory along the French border. These terms
of the Versailles treaty, which contributed to the rise of caused keen resentment and economic hardship in
fascism, Nazism, and World War II. British Daily Herald,
May 13, 1919.
Germany, and over the following two decades they
helped lead to World War II.
Given these conditions, it is remarkable that Wilson
influenced the Treaty of Versailles as much as he did.
peace that he had presented a year earlier in a speech to He intervened repeatedly to soften conditions imposed
Congress. on Germany. In accordance with the Fourteen Points,
Wilson’s Points embodied an important strand he worked with the other Allies to fashion nine new
in progressivism. They called for open diplomacy; nations, stretching from the Baltic to the Mediterranean
“absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas”; arms (Map 21.4). These were intended as a buffer to protect
reduction; removal of trade barriers; and national self- Western Europe from communist Russia; the plan also
determination for peoples in the Austro-Hungarian, embodied Wilson’s principle of self-determination for
Russian, and German empires. Essential to Wilson’s European states. Elsewhere in the world, the Allies
vision was the creation of an international regulatory dismantled their enemies’ empires but did not create
body, eventually called the League of Nations, that independent nations, keeping colonized people subor-
would guarantee each country’s “independence and dinate to European power. France, for example, refused
territorial integrity.” The League would mediate dis- to give up its long-standing occupation of Indochina;
putes, supervise arms reduction, and — according to its Clemenceau’s snub of future Vietnamese leader Ho Chi
crucial Article X — curb aggressor nations through Minh, who sought representation at Versailles, had
grave long-term consequences for The Versailles treaty thus created conditions for
EXPLAIN
both France and the United States. horrific future bloodshed, and it must be judged one of
CONSEQUENCES
In what ways did the
The establishment of a British history’s great catastrophes. Balfour astutely described
Treaty of Versailles mandate in Palestine (now Israel) Clemenceau, Lloyd George, and Wilson as “all-powerful,
embody — or fail to also proved crucial. During the all-ignorant men, sitting there and carving up conti-
embody — Wilson’s war, Brit ish foreign secretary Sir nents.” Wilson, however, remained optimistic as he
Fourteen Points? Arthur Balfour had stated that his returned home, even though his health was beginning
country would work to establish to fail. The president hoped the new League of Nations,
there a “national home for the Jewish people,” with the authorized by the treaty, would moderate the settle-
condition that “nothing shall be done which may prej- ment and secure peaceful resolutions of other disputes.
udice the civil and religious rights of existing non- For this to occur, U.S. participation was crucial.
Jewish communities in Palestine.” Under the British
mandate, thousands of Jews moved to Palestine and
purchased land, in some cases evicting Palestinian Congress Rejects the Treaty
tenants. As early as 1920, riots erupted between Jews The outlook for U.S. ratification was not promising.
and Palestinians — a situation that, even before World Though major opinion makers and religious denomi-
War II, escalated beyond British control. nations supported the treaty, openly hostile Republicans
0 250 500 miles

New and reconstituted
FINLAND nations
EN
AY
RW
0 250 500 kilometers Demilitarized or Allied

S W ED
occupation
NO
ATLANTIC ESTONIA British mandates

OCEAN French mandates
ea
North
LATVIA
cS
Sea
DENMARK
lti
IRELAND LITHUANIA
NETHERLANDS Ba
EAST
UNITED PRUSSIA SOVIET UNION
KINGDOM Danzig (Ger.)
(Free City)
N GERMANY POLAND Vol
BELG. RHINELAND ga
R.
W
SAAR CZ
LUXEMBOURG EC
E E H.
IN Ca
S R A CE
L O R LS A sp
A SWITZ. AUST. HUNG. i
FRANCE
ROMANIA an
Ad YUGOSLAVIA Black Sea Se
a
AL
ria
IT
TUG
SPAIN Corsica tic BULG.

AL
(Fr.) Se
a
Y
POR
ALB.
Sardinia
(It.) GREECE PERSIA
TURKEY
Sicily
SYRIA Persian
Gulf
Mediterranean Sea DODECANESE IS. IRAQ
Crete (Italy)
TUNISIA
(Fr.) PALESTINE
ALGERIA TRANS-
(Fr.) JORDAN KUWAIT
LIBYA (Gr. Br.)
(It.) EGYPT
N O R T H A F R I C A (independent 1922) SAUDI ARABIA
MAP 21.4
Europe and the Middle East After World War I
World War I and its aftermath dramatically altered the landscape of Europe and the Middle East.
In central Europe, the collapse of the German, Russian, and Austro-Hungarian empires brought
the reconstitution of Poland and the creation of a string of new states based on the principle of
national (ethnic) self-determination. The demise of the Ottoman Empire resulted in the appearance
of the quasi-independent territories, or “mandates,” of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. The
League of Nations stipulated that their affairs would be supervised by one of the Allied powers.
held a majority in the Senate. One group, called the achievements of women’s voting rights seemed to pre-
“irreconcilables,” consisted of western progressive sage a new progressive era. But as peace returned, it
Republicans such as Hiram Johnson of California and became clear that the war had not advanced reform.
Robert La Follette of Wisconsin, who opposed U.S. Rather than embracing government activism, Ameri-
involvement in European affairs. Another group, led by cans of the 1920s proved eager to relinquish it.
Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, worried
that Article X — the provision for collective security —
would prevent the United States from pursuing an inde-
pendent foreign policy. Was the nation, Lodge asked,
SUMMARY
“willing to have the youth of America ordered to war” Between 1877 and 1918, the United States rose as a
by an international body? Wilson refused to accept major economic and military power. Justifications for
any amendments, especially to placate Lodge, a hated overseas expansion emphasized access to global mar-
rival. “I shall consent to nothing,” the president told kets, the importance of sea power, and the need to
the French ambassador. “The Senate must take its police international misconduct and trade. These justi-
medicine.” fications shaped U.S. policy toward European powers
To mobilize support, Wilson embarked on an in Latin America, and victory in the War of 1898
exhausting speaking tour. His impassioned defense of enabled the United States to take control of former
the League of Nations brought audiences to tears, but Spanish colonies in the Caribbean and Pacific. Victory,
the strain proved too much for the president. While vis- however, also led to bloody conflict in the Philippines
iting Colorado in September 1919, Wilson collapsed. A as the United States struggled to suppress Filipino
week later, back in Washington, he suffered a stroke that resistance to American rule.
left one side of his body paralyzed. Wilson still urged After 1899, the United States aggressively asserted
Democratic senators to reject all Republican amend- its interests in Asia and Latin America. In China, the
ments. When the treaty came up for a vote in November United States used the so-called Boxer Rebellion to
1919, it failed to win the required two-thirds majority. A make good its claim to an “open door” to Chinese mar-
second attempt, in March 1920, fell seven votes short. kets. Later, President Theodore Roosevelt strengthened
The treaty was dead, and so was Wilson’s leader- relations with Japan, and his successor, William Howard
ship. The president never fully recovered from his Taft, supported U.S. business interests in China. In the
stroke. During the last eighteen months of his adminis- Caribbean, the United States constructed the Panama
tration, the government drifted as Wilson’s physician, Canal and regularly exercised the right, claimed under
his wife, and various cabinet heads secretly took charge. the Roosevelt Corollary, to intervene in the affairs of
The United States never ratified the Versailles treaty or states in the region. President Woodrow Wilson pub-
joined the League of Nations. In turn, the League was licly disparaged the imperialism of his predecessors but
weak. When Wilson died in 1924, his dream of a just repeatedly used the U.S. military to “police” Mexico.
and peaceful international order lay in ruins. At the outbreak of World War I, the United States
The impact of World War I can hardly be over- asserted neutrality, but its economic ties to the Allies
stated. Despite bids for power by Britain and France, rapidly undercut that claim. In 1917, German subma-
Europe’s hold on its colonial empires never recovered. rine attacks drew the United States into the war on the
The United States, now a major world power, appeared side of Britain and France. Involvement in the war pro-
to turn its back on the world when it rejected the foundly transformed the economy, politics, and society
Versailles treaty. But in laying claim to Hawaii and the of the nation, resulting in an economic boom, mass
Philippines, asserting power in Latin America, and migrations of workers to industrial centers, and the
intervening in Asia, the United States had entangled achievement of national voting rights. At the Paris
itself deeply in global politics. By 1918, the nation had Peace Conference, Wilson attempted to implement his
gained too much diplomatic clout — and was too Fourteen Points. However, the designs of the Allies in
dependent on overseas trade — for isolation to be a Europe undermined the Treaty of Versailles, while
realistic long-term option. Republican resistance at home prevented ratification of
On the home front, the effects of World War I the treaty. Although Wilson’s dream of a just interna-
were no less dramatic. Wartime jobs and prosperity tional order failed, the United States had taken its place
ushered in an era of exuberant consumerism, while the as a major world power.
700 PART 7 CHAPTER REVIEW
C H A P T E R R E V I E W
M A K E I T S T I C K Go to LearningCurve to retain what you’ve read.
TERMS TO KNOW Identify and explain the significance of each term below.
Key Concepts and Events Key People

American exceptionalism (p. 674) National War Labor Board Theodore Roosevelt (p. 674)
“Remember the Maine” (p. 675) (p. 689) Alfred Mahan (p. 674)
Teller Amendment (p. 675) Committee on Public Informa- Queen Liliuokalani (p. 676)
Insular Cases (p. 678) tion (p. 690) Emilio Aguinaldo (p. 678)
Platt Amendment (p. 678) Four-Minute Men (p. 690) Porfirio Díaz (p. 683)
open door policy (p. 679) Sedition Act of 1918 (p. 691) Woodrow Wilson (p. 683)
Root-Takahira Agreement Great Migration (p. 694) Herbert Hoover (p. 689)
(p. 682) National Woman’s Party (p. 695) Alice Paul (p. 695)
Panama Canal (p. 682) Fourteen Points (p. 696)
Roosevelt Corollary (p. 683) League of Nations (p. 697)
Zimmermann telegram (p. 686) Treaty of Versailles (p. 697)
War Industries Board (p. 688)
REVIEW QUESTIONS Answer these questions to demonstrate your

understanding of the chapter’s main ideas.
1. What factors prompted the United States to claim 4. THEMATIC UNDERSTANDING Review the
overseas territories in the 1890s and early 1900s? events listed under “America in the World” on the
thematic timeline on page 671. By the end of World
2. What role did the United States play in World War
War I, what influence did the United States exercise
I? On balance, do you think U.S. entry into the war
in the Caribbean, Latin America, the Pacific, and
was justified? Why or why not?
China, and in European affairs? How, and to what
3. How did World War I shape America on the home extent, had its power in each region expanded over
front, economically and politically? the previous four decades? Compare and contrast
the role of the United States to the roles of other
powers in each region.
CHAPTER 21 CHAPTER REVIEW 701
MAKING Recognize the larger developments and continuities within

CONNECTIONS and across chapters by answering these questions.
1. ACROSS TIME AND PLACE Read again the Americans shaped white Americans’ racial assump-
documents from “Representing Indians” in Chap- tions in this era.
ter 16 (Thinking Like a Historian, p. 530). In what
2. VISUAL EVIDENCE Review the images on
ways might ideas about Native Americans have
pages 673, 685, and 695. What do they tell us about
informed attitudes toward Hawaiians, Filipinos,
how the 1910s, especially the experiences of World
and other people of color overseas? How might this
War I, changed gender expectations for men and
explain which peoples Woodrow Wilson included
women? At the start of the war, would you rather
and excluded in his ideal of “national self-determina-
have been a young man or a young woman? Why?
tion”? Write a short essay in which you explain how
How did new opportunities vary according to a
Americans’ policies and attitudes toward native
young person’s race and ethnicity? (The posters on
peoples within North America shaped U.S. foreign
pp. 687 and 691 may also be useful in considering
policy between 1898 and 1918. You may also wish
this question.)
to review relevant information in Chapters 15 and
20 and consider how attitudes toward African
MORE TO EXPLORE Start here to learn more about the events discussed in this chapter.
Jean H. Baker, Votes for Women (2002). A collection of Julie Greene, The Canal Builders (2009). The story of
essays on the achievement of women’s suffrage. the Panama Canal through the viewpoint of the
diverse workers who constructed it.
Frank Freidel, Over There (1990). A collection of
American soldiers’ firsthand accounts of their experi- James R. Grossman, Land of Hope (1999). A sweeping
ences in World War I. study of the Great Migration.
The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century. Walter LaFeber, The American Search for Opportunity,
An excellent PBS documentary with accompanying 1865–1913 (1993). An excellent, up-to-date synthesis
documents at pbs.org/greatwar/index.html. of foreign policy in this era.
702 PART 7 CHAPTER REVIEW
TIMELINE Ask yourself why this chapter begins and ends with these dates
and then identify the links among related events.
1886 t U.S. begins building modern battleships
1892 t U.S.-backed planters overthrow Hawaii’s Queen Liliuokalani
1895 t United States arbitrates border dispute between Britain and Venezuela
t Guerrilla war against Spanish rule begins in Cuba
1898 t War between United States and Spain
t United States annexes Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Guam
1899–1902 t U.S.-Philippine War, ending in U.S. occupation of Philippines
t United States pursues open door policy in China
1900 t United States helps suppress nationalist rebellion in China (“Boxer Rebellion”)
1901 t Hay-Pauncefote Treaty
1902 t Platt Amendment gives U.S. exclusive role in Cuba
1903 t U.S. recognizes Panama’s independence from Colombia
1905 t Russo-Japanese War; Roosevelt mediates peace
1908 t Root-Takahira Agreement
1914 t Panama Canal opens
t U.S. military action in Veracruz, Mexico
t World War I begins in Europe
1916 t Jones Act commits United States to future Philippine independence
1917 t United States declares war on Germany and its allies, creates new agencies to mobilize
economy and promote national unity
t Espionage Act
1918 t Sedition Act
t World War I ends
t Beginning of two-year influenza pandemic that kills 50 million people worldwide
1919 t Schenck v. United States and Abrams v. United States
t Wilson promotes Fourteen Points at Paris Peace Conference
t Senate rejects the Treaty of Versailles
1920 t Nineteenth Amendment grants women suffrage

CHAPTER 21 CHAPTER REVIEW 703
KEY TURNING POINTS: On the timeline above, identify at least five events that demonstrated
the rising global power of the United States. Compare their consequences. If you had been an
observer in London or Tokyo, how might you have interpreted the United States’s actions in
each case?

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An Emerging World Power

over foreign people of color made sense in an era when,

U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor. Four years later, suc-

The Battle of San Juan Hill

This declaration provoked heated debate. Under

Place names in common use, 1910 0 500 1,000 kilometers

As President McKinley privately acknowledged in writing — “when the war is

Ideals The contrasting idea with our idea is this: In planting

Panama Canal Workers, 1910

Pancho Villa, 1914

Within a week, most of Europe was at war, with the

Safe Sex, Vintage 1919

 Major battles involving U.S. forces

QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS

Fighting the Flu

Selling Liberty Bonds: Two Appeals

1. Advertisement, Fatherland, 1915. This ad appeared 3. Sign in a Chicago park, 1917.

E2039 Deutschland, Deutschland über alles. . . .

10 in. — 75¢ Teure Heimat. . . .

COLUMBIA GRAMOPHONE COMPANY . . .

2. C. J. Hexamer, speech, Milwaukee, 1915. This

Courtesy of The Ohio State

Great Migrations World War I created tremendous

Women Riveters at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, 1919

collective military action. Wilson hoped the League

The Fate of Wilson’s Ideas

0 250 500 miles

0 250 500 kilometers Demilitarized or Allied

ATLANTIC ESTONIA British mandates

SPAIN Corsica tic BULG.

Key Concepts and Events Key People

REVIEW QUESTIONS Answer these questions to demonstrate your

MAKING Recognize the larger developments and continuities within

1886 t U.S. begins building modern battleships

1892 t U.S.-backed planters overthrow Hawaii’s Queen Liliuokalani

t Guerrilla war against Spanish rule begins in Cuba

1898 t War between United States and Spain

t United States annexes Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Guam

1899–1902 t U.S.-Philippine War, ending in U.S. occupation of Philippines

t United States pursues open door policy in China

1901 t Hay-Pauncefote Treaty

1902 t Platt Amendment gives U.S. exclusive role in Cuba

1903 t U.S. recognizes Panama’s independence from Colombia

1905 t Russo-Japanese War; Roosevelt mediates peace

1908 t Root-Takahira Agreement

1914 t Panama Canal opens

t U.S. military action in Veracruz, Mexico

t World War I begins in Europe

1916 t Jones Act commits United States to future Philippine independence

1918 t Sedition Act

t World War I ends

t Beginning of two-year inﬂuenza pandemic that kills 50 million people worldwide

1919 t Schenck v. United States and Abrams v. United States

t Wilson promotes Fourteen Points at Paris Peace Conference

t Senate rejects the Treaty of Versailles

1920 t Nineteenth Amendment grants women suffrage

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Major battles involving U.S. forces