1. Lecture By: Robert Rennie
(Graduate Teaching Assistant: The University of Tennessee)

2. The U.S. Before The Great War: 1900-1914
U.S. as Industrial Power
United States manufactures 1/3 of world’s Era of Intervention
goods.
U.S. increasingly involved in international
The United States is on the verge of affairs.
becoming a World Power.
U.S. Marines land in Caribbean countries
Roosevelt Corollary twenty times between 1900-1920.
United States has a right to exercise
“International Police Powers.” Dollar Diplomacy and Moral Imperialism
Ignores Monroe Doctrine. Use of trade and investment to further
diplomatic aims.
Groundwork for U.S. Foreign Policy to this
day. Democracy = Capitalism and Trade for
American companies.

4. The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand ignites underlying
tensions created by…
An entangling “Alliance System.”
Austro-Hungarian aggression.
Colonial Expansion and a Military Arms Race.
Franco-Russian Alliance.
German-Austro-Hungarian Alliance.
Exacting, Inflexible Military Planning: The Schlieffen Plan / Plan XVII.
Overpowering Currents of Nationalism and Ethnic Identity.

36. American “Neutrality…”
President Wilson re-elected on
platform of “He kept us out of the
 Unrestricted German
war.”
Submarine Warfare.
The United States loans money to  Sinking of the Lusitania.
England and France during the war.
 Interception of the
American civilians divided. Zimmerman Note.
Lusitania and Zimmerman Note.  United States Declares
War: April 2, 1917.

38. Russian Collapse
•Combat is more fluid in the  Revolution of 1917
East – Trenches never truly  Russian Economy near
develop collapse.
•High causalities: Russian  Bolshevik agitators fuel
Dead: 682,213 German Dead: unrest at home.
1,150,000
 November 29, 1917:
•War wears down Russian Communist Bolsheviks
morale. take power.
•Unrest with Czarist  Russia withdraws from
Government increases. war: March 1918 (Treaty
of Brest-Litovsk).

39. Wilson’s Fourteen Points…
Wilson’s idea of a new  Self-Determination
international order.
 Freedom of the Seas
Strictly an American Idea. Not  Open Diplomacy
endorsed by the Allies.  Free Trade
 Colonial Readjustment
Progressive Ideals.
 League of Nations
United States fails to ratify the
Fourteen Points.

40. The Treaty of Versailles…
•The Treaty of Versailles officially  Germany Assigned
ended World War I…
“War Guilt.” (Ar.231)
•Wilson’s Fourteen Points Not Fully
Realized.  German War
•Establishes the League of
Reparations.
Nations: The forerunner to the  German Military Power
United Nations. Destroyed.
•Self-Determination “Stillborn.”
 “Stab in the Back.”
•Reshapes European Continent.
•Creates Seething Discontent that
 A Second World War in
will Spark World War II. a Generation.

43. Why World War I Matters…
World War I signaled the end of the  37,000,000 Military and
Victorian Era and the Old Order. Civilian Causalities.
It creates the world we now live in.  16,000,000 Deaths.
International Trouble In… Iraq,  21,000,000 Wounded
Afghanistan, the Balkans, the
Middle East.
 9 in 10 French Soldiers
killed or maimed.
Even the Cold War finds its roots in
The Great War.
 100,000 U.S. Casualties in
10 months.

45. Let’s Not Forget the Spanish Flu: Kills 50-100 Million People!
Worldwide!

46. A Destructive Decade…
 Germany virtually
 40,000,000 Dead or
destroyed.
Wounded in The Great
War.
 European Monarchies
Extinct.
 50 – 100,000,000 Die in
Spanish Flu Pandemic
of 1918.

47. A Tumultuous Decade…
 Repression of Liberty.  Eugenics.
 Americanization.
 Racial and Ethnic
Discrimination.

48. A Transformative Decade…
 European World Order
 The United States:
Transformed.
World Power.
 European economy in
 Victorious in The Great turmoil.
War.