Month: March 2011

03/6/11

Kiss the Flag!

I think the words in the image are a pretty adequate caption, but take a minute to think about what the flag means to us today - because according to what's written in chapter 19, its not even close to what it came to represent during WWI.

In chapter 19 there is section entitled “Coercive Patriotism”, wherein Foner briefly describes the extent to which the Patriotism of World War I era America was sometimes nothing more than a forced loyalty.

The American flag became more than just the sign of a nation, it became a symbol of commitment to democracy and a test of a person’s true patriotism. He even goes so far as to say that “Persons suspected f disloyalty were forced to kiss the flag in public; those who made statements critical of the flag could be imprisoned.”

Apparently, freedom of speech didn’t really apply to those speaking of anything other than freedom.

While Foner’s coverage of the topic does seem sufficient as compared to that of some other points (like the era’s rapid advancement of war technology), I feel that, especially when considering the book’s title ‘Give Me Liberty’, it would have made sense to go in depth to describe the extent to which the American People’s freedom seemed to be rather non existent. Maybe its just a modern ideal, but since when is forcing anything on the people of our nation really the American way…?

-C. Salama

03/5/11

Franco-Prussian War


The other reason that causes World War I is Franco-Prussian War. The war was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia wanted to unify Germany Empire and started to expend its power in Europe. On the other hand, the Second French Empire restored its power in Europe and Prussia became a barrier of France. However, the north German and south German joined together and defeated the Second French Empire. As a result, French lost land on the north of French and paid for German 5 billion francs. This increased the conflict between European countries and lead to the War World I.

03/5/11

Wikileaks of 1916

In January 1916, Arthur Zimmermann, foreign secretary of Germany, send a coded telegram to German’s ambassador to Mexico. This telegraph was intercepted by British agents and decoded, exposing its contents. Within the telegraph Zimmermann wrote to their ambassador to Mexico, that if America looked to join the war, they (Germany) should approach the Mexican government and offer support and reward their support in return for Mexico’s allegiance in the war. This telegraph was exposed to the American public in March, leading to widespread anger, and thus contributed to the declaration of war in April.

Had the telegraph not been intercepted, or had the attempts to decode it failed, there was plenty of other causes that justified America’s entrance into the war. Furthermore, Mexico had analyzed Germany’s proposition and concluded that war with America wouldn’t achieve their goals of recapturing lost territories, nor would it be beneficial.

03/5/11

The Crises before 1914

In 1904 Morocco had been given to France by Britain, but the Moroccans wanted their independence. In 1905, Germany announced her support for Moroccan independence. War was narrowly avoided by a conference which allowed France to retain possession of Morocco. However, in 1911, the Germans were again protesting against French possession of Morocco. Britain supported France and Germany was persuaded to back down for part of French Congo.

In 1908, Austria-Hungary took over the former Turkish province of Bosnia. This angered Serbians who felt the province should be theirs. Serbia threatened Austria-Hungary with war, Russia, allied to Serbia, mobilised its forces. Germany, allied to Austria-Hungary mobilised its forces and prepared to threaten Russia. War was avoided when Russia backed down. There was, however, war in the Balkans between 1911 and 1912 when the Balkan states drove Turkey out of the area. The states then fought each other over which area should belong to which state. Austria-Hungary then intervened and forced Serbia to give up some of its acquisitions. Tension between Serbia and Austria-Hungary was high.

The effects of these crises had been a hardening of attitudes and an increase in distrust between the different European powers. It led to a strengthening of the different alliances: Britain and France during the Moroccan Crises and Austria and Germany during the Bosnian crisis.

03/4/11

Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand

One cause of WWI is the assassination of Archduke, Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife on June 28, 1914 by a Serbian nationalist from the Black Hand organization. Immediately this event is the trigger that set off declarations of the war. In response to the assassination of Ferdinand, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Austria blamed Serbia for the assassination since Serbia supported the Black Hand’s in order to be free of Austria’s rule. Due to Austria’s alliance with Germany, Serbia tried to get help from Russia. When Russia began to mobilize in result of its alliance with Serbia, Germany declared war on Russia on August 1, 1914. Two days later Germany declared war on France. Germany swept through Belgium on its way to France, the invasion of Belgium caused Britain to declare war on Germany.

03/4/11

Militarism

As the world entered the 20th century, an arms race had begun. By 1914, Germany had the greatest increase in military buildup. Great Britain and Germany both greatly increased their army size in this time period as well. Further, in Germany and Russia particularly, the military establishment began to have a greater influence on public policy.  Thus the increase in militarism helped push the countries involved into WWI.

03/4/11

The great migration

The great migration during 1910 to 1940 described in Foner’s book has a long-term effect on American politics, economics and culture. As picture above shows, up to 1.5 million African American moved from southern states to North, to look for jobs and search a peace place to live. Detroit, chicago and Cleveland are among the most popular destinations. And the reason simply is, the rail fare was the cheapest.

Carrying a sign in front of a milk company, Chicago, Illinois, July 1941 John Vachon, Photographer Gelatin-silver

In Foner’s book, the discrimation against newly arrived African American was not talked enough. Many black workers were having a hard time to get promoted and many of them simply couldn’t find a simple job, as second picture depicted.

03/3/11

Volation of freedom of the seas

The main reason for the American entry into World War I was the German use of submarine warfare (1917), violating the United State right to freedom of the seas. German was suffering from near- starvation due to a lack of supplies and food. German military leaders feared they would lose the war unless they could defeat Britain and France quickly. They therefore took a risk by announcing they would they would sink any ship in the blockaded areas. This was a clear violation of the American principle of freedom of the seas that neutral parties have the right to ship non-war goods to nations at war. When German followed up its threat by ordering its submarines to sink three unarmed American merchant vessels, Wilson asked congress for a declaration of war against German.

03/3/11

Nationalism

Nationalism is one of the causes of World War I.  Nationalism is what made people become proud of their country. It also makes them support and fight for their country. Including imperialism and militarism, countries started to increase their armies power. Countries like Italy, Germany, Russia, and France became great powers. Nationalism encourage countries to be independent. Other countries that weren’t a great power like Serbia wanted to be independent because of Nationalism. They wanted to form their own country and be separate.

03/3/11

Imperialism

Imperialism was one of the long-term causes that increased the rivalry in Europe, which influence the start of World War I. European countries started taking over colonies through the world since the fifteenth century. By 1900 the British Empire extended over five continents and France had control of large areas of Africa. With the rise of industrialism, countries (Great Britain, Germany and France) needed new markets. The amount of lands ‘owned’ by Britain and France increased the rivalry with Germany who only had small areas of Africa entering the scramble to acquire colonies. As a consequences, it caused Germany to ally with Austria-Hungary, and Britain to ally with France.

03/2/11

Milwaukee Sewer Socialism

 

 

 

Sewer Socialism is a term described the American socialist movement that centered in Milwaukee Wisconsin. With the creation of the Socialist Party of America, this group deemphased social theory and revolutionary rhetoric and in favor of honest government and efforts to improve public health.  The Sewer Socialists fought to clean up what they saw as “the dirty and polluted legacy of the Industrial Revolution,” cleaning up neighborhoods and factories with new sanitation systems, city-owned water and power systems, and improved education.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1910, the Socialists won most of the seats in the Milwaukee city council and county board. This included the first Socialist mayor in the United States, Emil Seidel, who also received the nomination for Vice-President on the Socialist Party ticket in the 1912 election with Eugene Debs.

This movement ended in 1960 when Frank P. Zeidler left his office as Milwaukee mayor. 

03/2/11

WW I Begins

       The Ferdinand Family

          The straw that broke the camels back that causing WWI was the assasination of  Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, at the hand of Gavrilo Princip.  On June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo, Bosnia the couple was gunned down by the Serb in the hopes of increasing the Serbian teritory.  The ploy worked and spiraled the majority of the world into a war.  A month later Austria-Hungry invaded Serbia.  This was followed by the German invasion of Belgium, Luxembourg and France leading to the Russians attacking Germany.  Although this tragedy is actually what directly can be seen as what ignited the war, there were also a slew of underlying conflicts and problems including political turmoil, international relations, imperialism, also technical and militarty factors.  Considering all of these issues, the war was utterly inevitable, such as a volcano primed for an eruption.

03/2/11

The Cause of a World War- the Alliance System

Map of World with Participants in World War I :

Allies- in green

Central Powers- in orange

Neutral- in grey

The triggering event cause of World War I was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, in 1914. The fact that the assassination did not lead to a war of two nations, but a war among many nations around the whole world, has to do with the alliance system in the era. Although the actual causes of the war are complicated, the escalation of the size of the war can be partly attributed to the alliance treaties.

For the readers’ convenience,  some of the entrances of the participants will be listed below:

1. Austria-Hungary- declared war on Serbia due to the assassination.

2. Serbia- became a participant by Austria-Hungary’s war declaration.

3. Russia- allied to Serbia by their treaty

4. Germany- allied to Austria-Hungary by their treaty

5. France- allied to Russia

6. Britain- allied to France. Since Britain has entered the war, her many colonies have became participants, whether with direct military support or financial support.

7. Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa- entered the war because of their ties with Britain

8. Japan- entered the war due to its treaty with Britain.

As we can see, over 10 additional nations were involved because of their alliance treaties with other nations. Although some nations have entered the war with reasons of their own, it is undeniable that the alliance treaties were strong factors for the escalation of the war to a world-wide scale.

03/2/11

League of Nations

In the center of the cartoon is Uncle Sam who represents the United States of America. In the four corners of the political cartoon are four of the other major countrites involved with the United States in the League of Nations: England, Japan, European nations, and other foreign nations not mentioned. The League of Nations was created as intergovernmental organization amongst these nations that was meant to serve as a possible peace making organziation that the nations can convene in with the notion of making peace and amending relationships between the countries. The League of Nations is commonly seen as a precursor to the United Nations which still exists today. This cartoon depicts deciet as each of the nations is taking care of the United States. The nations all have hold strings that are keeping the hands of United States (Uncle Sam) tied up, and unable to break free. This cartoonist is trying to show that the League of Nations isn’t accomplishing what it set it out to accomplish. By keeping their hands tied could symbolize the fact that the other countries aren’t letting the United States not have a voice. The League of Nations was meant to be a place where all the nations involved could speak their voice freely without objection, and the cartoonist believes that it is not being done. The League of Nations was created as a means to deter, and possibly cause a swift end to the war, yet many people saw it as being ineffective. Thus, it could be inferred that many people were pessimistic that an end to the war was near. The League of Nations handeled other minor issues as well, but overall was meant to be an open forum for discussion for any nation willing to participate.

03/2/11

Garveyism

Garveyism became on the rise in World War I. Started by Marcus Garvey, it is the complete, total and never ending redemption of the continent of Africa by people of African ancestry, at home and abroad. It was to encourage African Americans to stand up for themselves and the self-encourage one self towards equal rights. The UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association) was a big supporter of the movement. Eric Foner’s coverage on this topic is restricted though. He covers it in one paragraph.

03/2/11

The Roosevelt Corollary

While officially being enacted prior to WWI, the Roosevelt Corollary was an important part of WWI.  This document basically stated that the United Stated had “the right to exercise “an international police power” in the western hemisphere”, in order to protect the Americas for possible imperialistic notions from European countries (Foner, 683).  Essentially this meant that if a country in “The Americas” seemed to be unstable due to economic, political etc.  reasons the US would play the part of the “good neighbor” (as called by FDR) and help the country get back on its feet.  This was done because the US feared that if a country fell, European invaders would take over that nation and make it a point to further expand in the Americas, thus causing war.  This policy became known as the “Big Stick” policy due to the fact that at the time the US had arguably the best military and we put on a show of force to ward off potential attackers.  Prior to and during WWI the US fought for Cuba and Panama and stated this policy as their reasoning.  There were tensions with the Germans in Venezuela as well in the early 1900’s that eventually blew up into them going on a imperialistic and genocidal rampage in WWI.  Foner was dead on in what he wrote about the Roosevelt Corollary; however I feel he could have written more than one page on it.  He seems to be neutral on the topic and seems to state the basic points clearly.  My images show the representation of what people thought of the US during that time, essentially that we were trying to bully them out of “our territory”.  It simply shows that the US took the time to say “we have the bigger gun” so that Europeans better back away slowly and not try to invade our areas.

03/2/11

War Industries Board and the intervention of government


The picture of Bernard Baruch, who was assigned to oversee the War Industries Board. From worldlyphilosophers.com

On July 28 1918 the War Industry Board was established by federal government to coordinate production war-related in the country. Very well known in our college Bernard Baruch, a successful financier at the time was set to oversee the Board. This was unprecedented intervention of government into economy dictated by U.S. involvement into WWI.

In Foner the War Industry Board is presented in the context of progressive movement, which aspired to use the momentum produced by the war to reform “the American society along scientific lines”. The 1917 Selective Service Act is mentioned just before the the War Industries Board as another example of war created “national state” with unseen before presence in Americans’ everyday lives. So it seems that the Board was touched upon in the text as an example to expanding government and progressive achievement. However the social premises of the Board were very well elaborated, the economic prerequisites were left untouched completely. From my quick research there were plenty of them, such as instant surge of demand on steel up to and beyond the edge of what economy could produce and many more. The description of the board’s functionality and structure was very brief. There was no coverage of the aftermath of War Industry Board’s activity, or any assessment of the role it had played for the US economy or strategy during the war. And as a Baruch college student I am grateful Foner had Bernard Baruch specifically mentioned in the text, however I’d love to see more information about his personal contributions into the Board’s operations.

03/2/11

10,000 take to the streets

     Garveyism is defined by wikipedia as the total and never ending redemption of the continent of Africa by people of African ancestry, at home and abroad.  This notion came about by Marcus Garvey, originally born in Jamaica,  after the East St. Louis riot of 1917.  During the chaos in St. Louis, $400,000 worth of property was destroyed, atleast 40 African men, women and children were slaughtered and 6,000 were driven from their homes.  To mourn the revolt, about 10,000 blacks silently marched down fifth avenue in New York carrying cards that read “Mr. President, Why Not Make America Safe for Democracy?”  Marcus Garvey organized the black community and launched a campain to unite and empower Africans.  Through out his crusade, Garvey also established the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (the UNIA).

  Foner’s coverage of this subject I feel is incomplete.  Upon research I came across much more information that I found useful in understanding the details of this event.  Some children in the procession also carried signs that read: “Mother, do lynchers go to heaven?”  Also, President Wilson continually denied any requests from African Americans to stop lynching and to obtain equallity.  Today Wilson is considered one of the most racist Presidents in American history.

03/2/11

Southern Renaissance

With the end of World War I, American South came to be known as the “Southern Literary Renaissance” era. The “southern Literary Renaissance” was the reinvigoration of American Southern literature that b began in the 1920s and 1930s.

In 1945, Allen Tate wrote, “With the 1914-1918 war, the South again into the world; when it kick taken the boundary, it is a back care, this care has brought us Southern literary renaissance, brought about a consciousness in the past in the present literature”.

In fact, the major life change of South during the World War I is that changing the angle of perspective. After half century the material poverty and political impotence, the South stood up again; actively support and endorsement of the South’s “Native Son” Woodrow Wilson’s idealism and internationalism.

Among the writers of the Southern Renaissance, William Faulkner is arguably the most influential and most famous one. The above is William Faulkner’s picture.

03/2/11

Give us Money! Buy a Bond!

During WW1, War bonds were sold, These bonds were called Liberty bonds. These bonds were to help finance the war.

The first issue of these bonds was not all sold, which did not make Treasury Department look very good.  This eventually involved a launched of a massive campaigns using posters, and  movie stars to make it popular .  This was a major movement in American history during world war one, that helped make investment public.    It was an important way to raise funding for the war.