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The First World War

Please go to www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/rise-to-world-power/us-
in-wwi/v/united-states-enters-world-war-i and watch and read all sections therein,
from the “Zimmermann telegram” to the “Treaty of Versailles.” After doing so,
answer the following questions:

1) What was the “Zimmermann telegram”?

In 1917, the Germans were desperate by the British Blockade. The Zimmermann telegram
in 1917 was a telegram that the Germans sent to the Mexicans, proposing an alliance to
slow the Americans down, offering to reconquer the lost territories in Texas, New Mexico
and Arizona, and inviting Japan to adherence. It was intercepted by the British
intelligence, decoded and then shared with the Americans. The Mexicans did not take it
seriously and the real effect was to make the American public angry.

2) What was the Lusitania? What was its nationality? Who sank it?

The passenger liner Royal Mail Ship Lusitania, a British cargo ship, set sail from New
York to Liverpool in May 1915. It encounters a German u-boat, which sends a torpedo,
and 1195 people died, of which 128 were Americans. That generated a harsh reprimand
to Wilson’s neutrality.

3) Why did the USA enter WWI on April 2, 1917? Why not before?

It did not enter before because Wilson wanted to remain neutral, but with trade and loans
to the allies. In April 1917, after the sinking of the Lusitania, the Zimmerman telegram
and, mostly, the German unrestricted submarine warfare, American congress passes the
resolution to declare war.

4) Who were the Allies? And the Central Powers?

The Allies (previously known as the Triple Entente when it was formed by France, the
United Kingdom and Russia) were France, the United Kingdom, Russia and the United
States. The Central Powers were Germany and Austro-Hungary.

5) What was the “Great Migration”? What “advantages” did WWI offer to
migrants and African Americans? What new forms of discrimination did
they suffer? What was the Red Scare?

The Great Migration was a mass exodus of African Americans during World War I to the
Northern and Mid-eastern cities looking for major opportunities. The prospect of better
jobs generated by the dropped of immigration due to the Atlantic torpedoes, and the need
to produce war material made that half a million African Americans leave the South and
headed North, where they had the right to vote and be less likely to encounter racial
violence. It was also the opportunity to boost their status condition, by contributing to the
war effort, using patriotism to assimilate through the melting pot. However, several of
the most deadly race riots in American History happened during this period, and there
were not any significant Civil Rights gained. There were restrictions on civil liberties (the
Espionage or the Sedition Act, literacy tests, ethnic quotas), partly motivated by fears of
sympathizing with the Russian revolution (the Red Scare)

6) What were Woodrow Wilson’s “Fourteen Points”? What was his fourteenth
point? What did it propose? Did the League of Nations succeed in the long
run?

In January 1918, Woodrow Wilson gave a speech articulating his Fourteen Points, the US
program of the World’s peace, the only possible program according to him. The
fourteenth point promoted a general association of nations formed under specific
covenants, affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity.
That led to the formation in the Paris Peace Conference of the League of Nations, to
cooperate and resolve disputes, which was not ratified by the US since they had
suspicions of extra national organizations and they were not happy with some of the
territorial distributions.

7) What was the 1919 Paris Peace Conference? And the Treaty of Versailles?

It was a conference to talk about the terms of peace after World War I, with all the major
warring parties, but the terms only dictated by the winners. The French were not so
idealistic as Woodrow, they were eager to make Germany pay for the human loses.
The Treaty of Versailles, only one of the several that came out of the Conference, was a
treaty with Germany, blamed later on as one of the main causes of WWII, with a
humiliated Germany (War guilt. Large reparations in gold and resources, shipped away
to the Allies. Limitation of German army, not allowed to having heavy military
equipment. German stripped of territory given over to the Allies. Prohibition of forming
an alliance with Austria. Allies occupied the Saar region.). All those elements led to a
hyperinflation in the Germany of the 1920s (Weimar Republic) and the support of more
and more extreme political parties. Hence, trying to prevent Germany from being able to
rearm, they were a catalyst giving energy to extreme movements and the involvement of
Germany in WWII.

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