Unit 9

America in World War I (1914 --1918)

Every reform we have won will be lost if we go into this war.  

---President Wilson

Unit Goals

● To know the situation before the First World War.

● To learn about the U. S. neutrality and the reason of its entry into 

    World War I.

● To learn the major consequences of the War.

● To learn the useful words and expressions that describe America in 

    World War I.

● To improve English language skills.

Before You Read

1. World War I has often been described as an “unnecessary war.” 

    Do you agree?

2. What were the causes of the Great War?

                    ————————————————

                    ————————————————

     Possible Causes  ________________________________

      ________________________________

                    ________________________________

3. In what sense is World War I regarded as an ideological struggle?

4. Form groups of three or four students. Try to find, on the Internet 

    or in the library, more information about America during World    

    War I which interests you most. Prepare a 5-minute classroom 

    presentation.

Start to Read

Text A   The U.S.A and World War I 

1.     A recent list of the hundred most important news stories of the 20th century ranked the onset of World War I as the 8th.  This is a great error. Just about everything that happened in the remainder of the century was, in one way or another, a result of World War I, including the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, World War II, the Holocaust, and the development of the atomic bomb. The Great Depression, the Cold War, and the collapse of European colonialism can also be traced, at least indirectly, to the First World War.     

The Assassination of the Archduke 

2.    On June 28, 1914, a car carrying Archduke Franz Ferdinand made a wrong turn. As the car came to a halt and tried to turn around, a nervous teenage approached from a coffee house, pulled out a revolver, and shot twice. Within an hour, the Archduke and his wife were dead. 

3.     The assassination provoked outrage in Austria-Hungary. The assassination of the archduke triggered a series of events that would lead to the outbreak of World War I five weeks later. When the conflict was over, 11 million people had been killed, four powerful European empires had been overthrown, and the seeds of World War II and the Cold War had been planted.  

U.S. Neutrality in World War I 

4.     President Wilson was reluctant to enter World War I. When the War began, Wilson declared U.S. neutrality and demanded that the belligerents(交战方) respect American rights as a neutral party. 

5.     The United States hoped to stay out of the war because war was viewed as wasteful, irrational, and immoral. There was no reason for the U.S. to intervene with European affairs. In addition, America would largely profit from trading with both the Allies and Central Powers. Siding with Britain would cause the U.S. to lose trade with Germany. 

6.      In 1914, he had warned that entry into the conflict would bring an end to Progressive reform. “Every reform we have won will be lost if we go into this war,” he said. In 1916, President Wilson narrowly won reelection after campaigning on the slogan, “He kept us out of war.” 

U.S. Entry into World War I 

7.      Shortly after war erupted in Europe, President Wilson called on Americans to be “neutral in thought as well as deed.” The United States, however, quickly began to lean toward Britain and France. 

8.      Convinced that wartime trade was necessary to fuel the growth of American trade, President Wilson refused to impose an embargo（禁运） on trade with the belligerents. During the early years of the war, trade with the allies tripled. This volume of trade quickly exhausted the allies' cash reserves, forcing them to ask the United States for credit. In October 1915, President Wilson permitted loans to belligerents, a decision that greatly favored Britain and France. By 1917, American loans to the allies had soared to $2.25 billion.   

9.      In January 1917, Germany announced that it would resume unrestricted submarine warfare. This announcement gave rise to American entry into the conflict. 

10.     Then a fresh insult led Wilson to demand a declaration of war. In March 1917, newspapers published the Zimmerman Note, an intercepted(被拦截的) telegram from the German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmerman to the German ambassador to Mexico. The telegram said that if Germany went to war with the United States, Germany promised to help Mexico recover the territory it had lost during the 1840s, including Texas, New Mexico, California, and Arizona. The Zimmerman telegram and German attacks on three U.S. ships in mid-March led Wilson to ask Congress for a declaration of war. 

Treaty of Versailles 

11.     From the beginning of World War I, Wilson had hoped for a peace settlement promoting America's democratic ideals. President Wilson contributed greatly to an early end to the war by defining the war aims of the Allies, and by insisting that the struggle was being waged not against the German people but against their autocratic government. He wanted to end the war through a liberal peace agreement. 

12.    On January 8, 1918, Wilson made his famous “Fourteen Points” address, introducing the idea of a League of Nations — a League that would guarantee all nations "fundamental rights, equal sovereignty, freedom from aggression, freedom of the seas, and eventual disarmament（裁军）.” The League of Nations, he announced, would “insure peace and justice throughout the world.”   

13.     In January 1919, diplomats gathered at the chateau(城堡) of Versailles near Paris to negotiate a peace treaty to end the Great War. By the time work began, it was clear that the pre-war world map required drastic revision. The treaty formally placed the responsibility for the war on Germany and its allies and imposed on Germany the burden of the reparations payments.    

14.    When the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28th, 1919, almost all the points that Wilson had proposed were rejected. Only the League of Nations was established, which was replaced in 1946 by the United Nations.  

Consequences of the War 

15.     American involvement in World War I lasted from the summer of 1917 to the armistice（停战） that ended the war in November 1918 – just over one year. For America, the war was relatively brief, and the casualties, while large, could not be compared with those of the other major nations.  

16.     World War I killed more people (more than 9 million soldiers, sailors, and flyers and another 5 million civilians, involved more countries (28 nations), and cost more money ($186 billion in direct costs and another $151 billion in indirect costs), than any previous war in history. It was the first war to use airplanes, tanks, long-range artillery（炮兵）, submarines, and poison gas. It left at least 7 million men permanently disabled. 

17.      World War I probably had more far-reaching consequences than any other preceding war. Politically, it contributed to the Bolshevik rise to power in Russia in 1917 and the triumph of fascism in Italy in 1922. It ignited colonial revolts in the Middle East and in Southeast Asia. 

18.      Economically, the war severely disrupted the European economies and allowed the United States to become the world's leading creditor and industrial power. The war also brought vast social consequences, including the mass murder of Armenians in Turkey and an influenza epidemic that killed over 25 million people worldwide. 

19.     Few events better reveal the uttermost unpredictability of the future. At the dawn of the 20th century, most Europeans anticipated a future of peace and prosperity. Europe had not fought a major war for 100 years. But a belief in human progress was shattered by World War I, a war few wanted or expected. At any point during the five weeks leading up to the outbreak of fighting, the conflict might have been averted. World War I was a product of miscalculation, misunderstanding, and miscommunication. 

20.      No one expected a war of such magnitude(大小) or duration（长短） as World War I. At first, the armies relied on outdated methods of communication, such as carrier pigeons. The great powers mobilized more than a million horses. However, by the time the conflict was over, tanks, submarines, airplane-dropped bombs, machine guns, and poison gas had transformed the nature of modern warfare.