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United States Entry into World War I: A Documentary Chronology
—Curriculum Unit Overview—
Introduction
American foreign policy continues to resonate with the issues involved in the entry of the United States into World War I-unilateralism versus foreign alliances, the responsibilities of power, the influence of the military-industrial complex on foreign policy, the use of force to accomplish idealistic goals. Understanding the choices the Wilson administration made and their consequences provides insight into international affairs in the years since the end of the Great War and beyond.
In this curriculum unit, students reconsider the events leading to U.S. entry into World War I through the lens of archival documents.
Note: This unit may be taught either as a stand-alone lesson or as a prequel to the complementary EDSITEment curriculum unit The Debate in the United States Over the League of Nations. It may also be taught in conjunction with the EDSITEment curriculum units African Americans Soldiers in World War I: The 92nd and 93rd Divisions and African American Soldiers After World War I: Had Race Relations Changed?.
Guiding Questions:
What important events led to U.S. involvement in World War I?
What is the most compelling evidence explaining why the U.S. entered World War I?
Learning Objectives
After completing the lessons in this unit, students will be able to:
- List important events leading to U.S. involvement in World War I.
- Take a stand on a hypothesis for U.S. entry into World War I, supported by specific evidence.
Preparing to Teach this Curriculum Unit
- Review the curriculum unit. Locate and bookmark suggested materials and other useful websites. Download and print out documents you will use and duplicate copies as necessary for student viewing.
- Download the blackline masters for this unit, available here as a PDF file. Print out and make an appropriate number of copies of any handouts you plan to use in class.
- Before printing any oversized documents, use the Print Preview function of your browser to see how each will look. Change the settings in Page Setup, as desired, by selecting Print Preview from the FILE option in your browser. Use the Print Preview function after making changes.
- This unit is a Web quest. Given specified resources on the Internet (though not necessarily limited to those resources), student groups are challenged to create a slideshow using archival documents to tell the story of U.S. entry into World War I. No single cause would be sufficient to explain something as complex as the reasons behind U.S. entry into World War I. It's difficult to discuss the reasons, however, without talking about them separately. In this lesson, the students are looking for primary causes and a way to understand the process by which the U.S. entered World War I.
- This unit is intended for students familiar with the basic facts about World War I.
- For background on the entry of the U.S. into World War I, read the following essays from "An Outline of American History" (USIA, 1994), available on From Revolution to Reconstruction, a link from the EDSITEment resource American Studies at the University of Virginia:
Unit Lesson Plans
Extending the Lesson
- The EDSITEment-reviewed website Links to the Past offers a lesson entitled Woodrow Wilson: Prophet of Peace (from the Teaching with Historic Places Lesson Plan), inspired by the Woodrow Wilson House in Washington, D.C. It features some excellent archival documents and activities, some of which are used in this lesson, for teaching about Wilson and especially his fight for the League of Nations.
- Students interested in World War I poetry and prose can consult the following EDSITEment resources:
- In the mid-1930s, the Nye Committee investigated the relationship between the munitions industry and foreign policy. Though its conclusions are still disputed today, the committee's report had a profound influence on American isolationism between the World Wars and on the peace movement. A principal Nye Committee Report on the growth and influence of the munitions industry after World War I is accessible from Documents of World War I, a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed website Great War Primary Documents Archive.
- President Wilson established the Committee for Public Information to influence public opinion, encourage enlistment, demonize the enemy, and increase the sale of war bonds. Students interested in studying the propaganda produced by the CPI can consult:
Selected EDSITEment Websites
- Digital Classroom
[http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/]
- First
Page
[http://media.nara.gov/media/images/28/21/28-2050a.jpg]
- Cartoon:
President Calls Congress April 2
[http://media.nara.gov/media/images/50/1/a0121.gif]
- Cartoon:
Reasonable Program of National Defense, 11/20/1915
[http://media.nara.gov/media/images/50/1/a0851.gif]
- Image of Telegram to Wilson with Translation of Zimmerman Telegram
- Page
1
[http://media.nara.gov/media/images/19/29/19-2802a.gif]
- Page
2
[http://media.nara.gov/media/images/19/29/19-2803a.gif]
- Page
3
[http://media.nara.gov/media/images/19/29/19-2804a.gif]
- Page
4
[http://media.nara.gov/media/images/19/29/19-2805a.gif]
- Letter from Wilson to Henry Cabot Lodge (about meeting with
Foreign Relations Committee)
- Great War Primary Documents
Archive
[http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/]
- 19 April,
1916: Wilson on the Sussex Case
[http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1916/sussex.html]
- 19 September,
1914: The Status of Armed Merchant Vessels
[http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1914/armship.html]
- 26 August,
1915: Wilson's Change of Attitude on War Loans
[http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1915/warloans.html]
- An Anthem for
Doomed Youth (WWI literature site with examples.)
[http://www.lib.byu.edu/~english/WWI/main.html]
- Commentary
on The Bryce Report
[http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/comment/bryce.html]
- German Admiralty
Declaration Regarding Unrestricted U-Boat Warfare
[http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1915/admiral.html]
- German Ambassador's
Assurances About American Ships
[http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1915/arabic.html]
- Great
Britain Declares War on Germany
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/wwone/mirror01_01.shtml]
- Lord
Kitchener
[http://www.gwpda.org/photos/bin03/imag0264.jpg]
- Notable
American Volunteers of the Great War
[http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/comment/volsnote.html]
- President
Wilson's Declaration of Neutrality
[http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1914/wilsonneut.html]
- President
Wilson's First Warning to the Germans
[http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1915/strict.html]
- President
Wilson's War Message
[http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1917/wilswarm.html]
- Propaganda
Leaflets
[http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1915/propleaf.html]
- Telegram
about Assassination of the Archduke
[http://www.lib.byu.edu/estu/wwi/1914m/gooch/1-12.htm]
- Telegram
from Wilson re: Sinking of the Lusitania
[http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1915/lusitania1.html]
- U.S. Policies
on Loans to Belligerents
[http://www.lib.byu.edu/%7Erdh/wwi/1915/usloans.html]
- U.S. Protests
Against Maritime Warfare
[http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1915/usmarit.html]
- Wilson
War Message to Congress
[http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1917/wilswarm.html]
- Narrow
Miss by a German Torpedo
[http://www.gwpda.org/photos/bin14/imag1387.jpg]
- Woodrow
Wilson
[http://www.gwpda.org/photos/bin02/imag0141.jpg]
- Documents of World
War I
[http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/ww1.htm]
- Nye Committee Report
[http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/nye.htm]
- Opposition to
Wilson's War Message
[http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/doc19.htm]
- First World War.com
[http://www.firstworldwar.com/]
- Domestic
Propaganda During The First World War
[http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/propaganda.htm]
- Propaganda Posters
- United States of America
[http://www.firstworldwar.com/posters/usa.htm]
- Prose and
Poetry
[http://www.firstworldwar.com/poetsandprose/index.htm]
- Second
Inaugural Address of President Woodrow Wilson, 4 March 1917
[http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/wilson1917inauguration.htm]
- U.S.
Declaration of War
[http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/usofficialawardeclaration.htm]
- Map
of the World Showing the Possessions of the US, Britain,
France, and Germany
[http://freepages.military.rootsweb.com/~worldwarone/WWI/
TheGeographyOfTheGreatWar/images/Figure1-WorldAtlas.jpg]
- The
Geography of the Great War
[http://freepages.military.rootsweb.com/~worldwarone/WWI/
TheGeographyOfTheGreatWar/index.html]
- Map
of the World Showing Nations at War: December 31, 1914
[http://freepages.military.rootsweb.com/~worldwarone/WWI/
TheGeographyOfTheGreatWar/images/Figure9-Page11.jpg]
- Map
of the World Showing Nations at War, August 1, 1918
[http://freepages.military.rootsweb.com/~worldwarone/WWI/
TheGeographyOfTheGreatWar/images/Figure36-Page36-sm.jpg]
Standards Alignment
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