2016-17 11 th CP U.S. and the World History First Assignment: Reading and Composing Responses to Questions Due: Monday, 9.12 Block 3 White Directions: 1. Part 1: Please read the short summary of World War I. Please note that the reading includes history and historical thinking skills when reading primary and secondary sources. 2. Please read the 2 selections, Woodrow Wilson s Proclamation of Neutrality, August 19, 1914 and An Article about World War I. 3. Please compose typed responses to the questions on the two selections and the summary, using complete sentences and correct grammar. 4. Part 2: Please read the 3 selections, Woodrow Wilson s speech asking Congress to declare war on Germany, April 2, 1917, George W. Norris s speech against the declaration of war, April 4, 1917, and An article about World War I. 5. Please compose typed responses to the questions on the three selections, using complete sentences and correct grammar 6. You can share your work with me using a Google doc. It must be done before class to receive credit. Don t forget to bring a 3-ring binder with notepaper! Part 1 Summary of World War I Possibly some people cheered with excitement when WWI began in 1914, but few of them felt the same way by the time the war ended in 1918. The great conflict between the Allies (Britain, France, and Russia) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey) produced more horrors than anyone could have imagined. In four years of fighting nearly 9 million soldiers and 13 million civilians died. At the beginning of the war, the U.S. tried to remain neutral. The policy of the U.S. government was to let the Allies and Central Powers fight for power and prestige as long as they did not involve the U.S. One reason for President Woodrow Wilson s reelection in 1916 was his slogan, He Kept Us Out of War. But the U.S. was not allowed to stay neutral. The events of the war could not be ignored by Americans, especially by those who had recently emigrated from the warring countries. When Germany sank several American ships in the early months of 1917, President Wilson felt he had to act. On April 2, 1917, Wilson asked Congress to declare war on the Central Powers. WWI raged on for another year and a half after U.S. soldiers joined in the fight for an Allied victory. The Allies achieved that victory on November 11, 1918, when the Central Powers signed an armistice ending the war. The people, places, and events of WWI are well documented in books, speeches, newspaper, and magazine articles, films, photographs, and drawings. Accounts of the war produced by people who actually saw and experienced the war are called primary sources or firsthand information. Accounts of WWI produced by people who did not personally experience the war are called secondary sources or secondhand information. Primary and secondary sources can be found for any period in American history. For a fuller understanding of an event in history than your textbook can give you, you should read more than one primary and secondary source. If you read only one source, you will be reading only one point of view which may or may not be accurate. By reading different sources, you have a better chance of finding out what really happened at a particular event. It is not unusual to see three dots ( ) in a row in a primary source reading selection. Sometimes you see them in a secondary source. The dots, called an ellipsis, mean that the reading is not complete. Only a part of the reading, called an excerpt is being printed. The ellipses represent the part of the reading that has been left out. 1
Selection 1 Woodrow Wilson s Proclamation of Neutrality, August 19, 1914 My fellow countrymen: I suppose that every thoughtful man in America has asked himself, during these last troubled weeks, what influence the European war may exert upon the United States.... The effect of the war upon the United States will depend upon what American citizens say and do. Every man who really loves America will act and speak in the true spirit of neutrality, which is the spirit of impartiality and fairness and friendliness to all concerned.... The people of the United States are drawn from many nations, and chiefly from the nations now at war. It is natural and inevitable that there should be the utmost variety of sympathy and desire among them with regard to the issues and circumstances of the conflict. Some will wish one nation, others another, to succeed in the momentous struggle... I venture, therefore, my fellow countrymen, to speak a solemn word of warning to you against that deepest, most subtle, most essential breach of neutrality which may spring out of partisanship, out of passionately taking sides. The United States must be neutral in fact as well as in name during these days that are to try men s souls. We must be impartial in thought as well as in action,... Exert: bring to bear with lasting effect Impartiality: the state of not taking sides Venture: dare Breach: break; the act of failing to keep to a stated policy Selection 2 (An article about World War I) On this 50 th anniversary of the start of WWI, a question still remains. Did Woodrow Wilson really believe that his Proclamation of Neutrality would keep the U.S. out of that worldwide conflict? In the early 1900s, most Americans could trace their ancestral roots to Europe. Millions of Europeans had only recently immigrated to our shores. It was natural for them to be as interested in events in Europe as they were in events on this side of the Atlantic. If in 1915 you had tried to tell a young immigrant man who had left his mother and father back in Germany to remain neutral, he would have thought you were out of your mind. Even if Americans had wanted to stay neutral, the warring nations would not have allowed it. Britain used propaganda to gain American support for its cause. Photographs and films of supposed German cruelty were shown all over the United States. German soldiers were shown in the act of killing infants and destroying villages. Virtually all of the photographs and films were later proven to be fake, but they had the desired effect of arousing American sentiment against the Germans. Of course, the Germans did not help to keep the United States neutral. Their sinking of American ships created a great public outcry in favor of war. 2
Then there were the American loans made to Britain and France. Once American bankers lent money to the Allies, there was no chance of neutrality. Only an Allied victory would guarantee repayment of the loans. So what was going through Wilson s head when he said, The United States must be neutral in fact as well as in name? Surely, he must have known that American entry into the war was inevitable. Propaganda: one-sided information to help one s cause Please compose typed responses to the following questions, using complete sentences when needed and correct grammar always. 1. Why is Selection 1 an example of a primary source? 2. Why is Selection 2 an example of a secondary source? 3. How can you tell that Selection 1 is only an excerpt from Wilson s Proclamation of Neutrality? 4. In Selection 2, does the author give any opinion about Wilson s Proclamation of Neutrality or does the person just give facts? Explain your answer. 5. What information could you obtain from reading Selection 2 (a secondary source) that you could not get from reading Selection 1 (a primary source)? Explain your answer. Part 2 Selections Selection 1 Woodrow Wilson s speech asking Congress to declare war on Germany, April 2, 1917... The present German submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare against mankind. It is a war against all nations. American ships have been sunk, American lives have been taken, in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to learn of, but the ships and people of other neutral and friendly nations have been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters in the same way.... I advise that the Congress declare the recent course of the Imperial German Government to be in fact nothing less than war against the government and people of the United States;... It is a distressing and oppressive duty, Gentlemen of the Congress, which I have performed in thus addressing you. There are, it may be, many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts, - for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own Governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free.... 3
Universal dominion: worldwide controlling influence Concert: a plan to act together Selection 2 George W. Norris s speech against the declaration of war, April 4, 1917 There are a great many American citizens who feel that we owe it as a duty to humanity to take part in this war. Many instances of cruelty and inhumanity can be found on both sides. Men are often bias in their judgment on account of their sympathy and their interests. To my mind, what we ought to have maintained from the beginning was the strictest neutrality.... there are many honest, patriotic citizens who think we ought to engage in this war and who are behind the President in his demand that we should declare war against Germany. I think such people err in judgment and to a great extent have been misled as to the real history and the true facts by the almost unanimous demand of the great combination of wealth that has a direct financial interest in our participation in the war.... War brings prosperity to the stock gambler on Wall Street to those who are already in possession of more wealth than can be realized or enjoyed.... Their object in having war and in preparing for war is to make money.... We are taking a step today that is fraught with untold danger.... By our act we will make millions of our countrymen suffer, and the consequences of it may well be that millions of our brethren must shed their lifeblood, millions of broken-hearted women must weep, millions of children must suffer with cold, and millions of babes must die from hunger, and all because we want to preserve the commercial right of American citizens to deliver munitions of war to belligerent nations. Humanity: all human beings Inhumanity: heartless actions Patriotic: having love for and devotion to one s country Unanimous: complete agreement Consequences: results Munitions: military weapons and supplies Belligerent: warring Selection 3 An article about World War I The scene was a familiar one in 1917. Thousands of soldiers boarding trains to be taken to ships that would carry them to war in Europe. Hundreds of young ladies waving American flags, cheering the soldiers as they departed. For those Americans who supported the United States entry into World War I, the war was a simple matter of right and wrong. Germany was sinking American ships, and it was the right of the United States to defend itself. But the war was also to be viewed as a crusade, a holy war against the forces of evil. As President Wilson stated in his declaration of war speech before Congress, the war would be a fight for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free people as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free. 4
While most Americans supported the war effort, some saw the war as a waste of lives. If U.S. ships stayed out of troubled waters, they argued, there would be no sinkings. There were those who saw the United States entry into World War I as nothing more than a chance for rich men to become richer. According to Senator George W. Norris of Nebraska at the time the United States entered the war, American involvement would bring prosperity to the stock gambler on Wall Street to those who are already in possession of more wealth than can be realized or enjoyed. Other critics of the war claimed that those who manufactured guns and bullets would make money while poor people s children would die on bloody battlefields on the other side of the world. Despite such criticisms, American soldiers went off to battle and when the fighting ended on November 11, 1918, the United States could be counted on the winning side. There was jubilation as President Wilson sailed to Europe to participate in the peace conference that would formally end the war. But the excitement of the victory soon turned to feelings of frustration and betrayal. The world had not been made safer for democracy as promised. Disputes between countries had not ended. Instead, the war to end all wars had laid the groundwork for another even more disastrous war. Please compose typed responses to the following questions, using complete sentences and correct grammar. 1. Which of these 3 sources are primary? Explain your choices. 2. Does Selection 1 give Woodrow Wilson s complete speech? How can you tell? 3. According to George Norris, who would benefit from the entry of the U.S. into WWI? 4. Please give two reasons why President Wilson supported a declaration of war. Can be written as a list. 5. Please give two reasons why Senator Norris opposed a declaration of war. Can be written as a list. 6. Why do you think the author of Selection 3 quoted both Wilson and Norris? 7. How does the author of Selection 3 show that there was popular support for the entry of the U.S. into WWI? 8. Can you tell from Selection 3 whether or not the author supported the entry of the U.S. into WWI? Explain your answer. 9. How can you tell that Selection 3 was written a number of years after WWI? 5