Wilson and The Great War

Review Questions Chapter 22
1. What were the principle causes of World War I in Europe? Why did this outbreak of war immediately take on considerable importance for the people and the government of the U.S. when the European wars in the second half of the 19th century had been of limited interest or concern to most Americans?

2. What are the new technologies of war? What is the result in the number of people killed with these new technologies?

3. When President Wilson said the U.S. should be neutral in thought as well as action, was the U.S. and Wilson really neutral? Why did the United States support the Allies? What happens to United States trade with the Central Powers, the Allies? How was U.S. neutrality violated? What role does the Lusitania and Arabic play in all of this? What in Wilson's background would cause him to be anti-war?

4. On page 539 it states "Wilson envisioned a world purged of imperialism... What does the United States do in Latin American under Wilson's leadership? What were the effects of Wilson's intervention in Mexico?

5. Why does Wilson the peace candidate of 1916 take the United States into the war on the Allied side in 1917?

6. How did the U.S. view the Bolshevik Revolution? What was the effect of the Bolshevik's taking power on World War I? Why were British, France, Japanese and American troops in Russia? Did these troops have any effect on relations of the communist government and the west after the war?

7. How did the government rally public support for the war? What consequences did critics of U.S. involvement face if they spoke or acted on their convictions? What happened to civil rights during World War I? Why did the Wilson Administration deal with civil rights this way during the war?

8. How did the United States recruit people for military service? Do you think this is a good idea? How were Black soldiers treated in the United States military?

9. Was American military involvement in the war important to the final Allied victory? How?

10. How did the government manage the economy to promote the war effort? What does the National War Board do? Why were Blacks, Mexican-Americans and women able to get jobs?

11. What, in general terms, constituted Wilson's "Fourteen Points"? Which were the most crucial points for a enduring peace settlement? Evaluate President Wilson's role as a peacemaker.
12. Why did the U.S. neither sign the peace treaty nor join the League of Nations? What does the Versailles Treaty do to Germany? The map of Europe and middle east?