Topic 6 - Imperialism and WWI

Required reading:
"1918 Spanish Influenza Outbreak: The Enemy Within, " Christine M. Kreiser, Essay 20, Flyover
The United States Becomes a World Power . Mintz, Steven. Digital History . 2007.
World War I . Mintz, Steven. Digital History . 2007.
The Road to War . Mintz, Steven. Digital History . 2007.
The United States Enters the War . Mintz, Steven. Digital History . 2007.
Over There: American Doughboys Go to War . Mintz, Steven. Digital History . 2007.
Over Here: World War I on the Home Front . Mintz, Steven. Digital History . 2007.

Quiz:

"1918 Spanish Influenza Outbreak: The Enemy Within"

1. Between September 1918 and June 1919, 675,000 Americans died from the flu. That number is higher than:
A. the number of Europeans who died from the Bubonic Plague in the fourteenth century.
B. the Native Americans who succumbed to diseases in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
C. the combined combat deaths of U.S. forces in World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.
D. the total of automobile, train, and airplane fatalities in the years 2001 and 2002.

2. What "fever" were many Americans stricken with in 1918?
A. war
B. cold
C. measles
D. pennant

3. Who were prime targets for the influenza disease?
A. middle-aged farmers living in rural isolation
B. previously healthy young adults in their 20s and 30s
C. the elderly, small children, and recent immigrants
D. those who lived in cold-weather climates like Maine

4. Flu spread rapidly among ______________________ were rushed through on their way to the front.
A. Army camps as troops
B. Navy nurses before they
C. Marine Corps drivers who
C. food service handlers who

5. What city encountered the greatest number of flu deaths?
A. Miami
B. San Fransico
C. Chicago
D. Philadelphia

6. Why was the epidemic a crushing blow to medical science?
politicians rejected doctors's concerns that the disease was spread through the digestive system.
scientists thought flu was caused by bacteria but it was not; it was identified as a virus in 1933.
scientists experimented with prisoners, who protested due to not receiving adequate compensation.
labratory rats were inmune to the flu and thus vaccines appeared at first to prevent the illness.

7. How did the U.S. government contribute to the national paranoia during the epidemic?
A. it justified locking up thousands of Irish-Americans for unsanitary habits.
B. it scapegoated the French as the prime carriers of the flu on immigrant boats.
C. it suppported the belief that Germany had somehow launched a biological attack.
D. it argued that the British were to blame for spreading the disease in cities.

8. For all the advances in medical science:
A. it makes little sense to get flu vaccintions for people under the age of thirty in America.
B. it was not until 1969 that scientists understood the origins of the 1918 influenza epidemic.
C. it is still unclear where the 1918 virus originated, or why it took a toll on healthy young adults.
D. it possible to prevent an outbreak of flu, but it is impossible to prepare for one.

From Mintz readings

9. What were some of the motivations behind American imperialistic impulses of the late 19th century?
A. Gaining more territory would earn the U.S. more international prestige.
B. Having more citizens would mean more tax income for government programs.
C. Some considered it the mission of the U.S. to spread enlightenment to 'backward' peoples of the world.
D. Many political leaders thought they'd gain more constituents.

10. Why was World War I said to be the 'war to end all wars'?
A. It had more short- and long-term effects on world history than any war preceding it.
B. It was caused by countries that most thought wouldn't cause any more trouble.
C. It was the first European war in which the U.S. was involved.
D. The war caused more damage than any other war.

11. What were the reasons for an assassination to turn into a continent-wide conflict?
A. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was a beloved and respected leader throughout Europe.
B. The Bosnian assassin claimed to represent the feelings of Europeans in general to the Hapsburg dynasty.
C. There were many military and political alliances that drew country after country into the fight.
D. Most European countries wanted to get rid of the Hapsburg dynasty.

12. What nation's political future was radically changed during the war?
A. England
B. the U.S.
C. Australia
D. Russia

13. Why were many Americans reluctant to enter the war?
A. They saw American entry into a European war as a losing proposition
B. They believed that war would distract from progressive reforms
C. The large number of recent European immigrants petitioning congress made it difficult to decide which side to take
D. Many thought Europe would be better off dealing with their own problems

14. What caused the eventual entry of the U.S. into the war?
A. The Germans wanted a deal with Mexico to get help with the U.S. if the Germans attacked
B. The U.S. was loaning money to the allied side in ever-increasing amounts, making neutrality more difficult
C. U.S. ships were being attacked by German submarines
D. All of the reasons listed above were part of the U.S. entry into the war

15. What was the purpose of the Committee on Public Information?
A. To make sure everyone in the U.S. was constantly updated on the war's progress
B. To inform men about how they could join the military
C. To create propaganda to sway public opinion toward support of the war
D. To stop anti-German feelings in the country

A: To better understand the rationale and justification for America's quest for empire in the late nineteenth century, one must first recognize that Euro-Americans were labeling other lands in a hierarchical order for hundreds of years. When Christopher Columbus first set foot in the western hemisphere, he wrote of the indigenous people as being lesser creatures. As other Europeans arrived in "The New World", they too labeled others as foreign, savage, barbarian, uncivilized... The list is virtually endless. Within a generation of America winning its independence from Great Britain, the nation was on it's own path to empire. By the 1840's, the ideology of Manifest Destiny was thrust upon the American people by newspapermen and politicians- it was the nation's god given obligation "to civilize the uncivilized." Racial and cultural superiority was assumed.

As you analyze this 1821 world map (from school atlas- Woodbridge's Rudiments of Geogrpahy), consider the factors that differentiated the groups within the State of Civilization. For example, what made an Enlightened area "enlightened"? What made a Savage area "savage"? Do you recognize the places in the world that America would later covet? How have the "unenlightened" regions of the world responded to the "enlightened" regions' paternalism over the past two centuries?

 

 

 

C: Theodore Roosevelt has been called the 'Icon of the American Century.' Listen to his speech, "Progressive Covenant With the People," on the website of the Library of Congress. (You'll need Real Player for this). While listening to the recording, read along with the transcripts, if you'd like. What was is about Theodore Roosevelt that captured the imagination of the American people and the world? After learning about his upbringing, would you have expected he would become a reformer in later life? Explain you response. Why is he considered a symbol of American ambition in the early 20th century?

 

 

 

D: The American press played a pivotal role in the nation's pursuit of an overseas empire at the turn of the 20th century. Newspaper moguls' William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer sensationalized international events with bombastic headlines that attempted to infuriate its readers and of course increase their tabloid sales. 'Remember the Maine, To Hell with Spain!' was a war cry that resounded in belligerent U.S. newspapers. The implication being was that if the United States battleship exploded in Cuba's Havana Harbor, then the Spanish must have been guilty of the dastardly deed. In "Yellow Journalism Cartoon Gallery," you'll see a number of cartoons that helped form public opinion about the war. Click on 'Cartoon Gallery' in the left column of the site and select five of the cartoons. List the title of the cartoon and determine whether the cartoon is either pro-imperialist, anti-imperialist, or neutral in its tone- a minimum of two sentences is needed on each cartoon explaining the reasoning for your label.

 

 

 

E: The Progressive Movement was an umbrella term used to describe a large number of social reform movements in the early 20th century. Read a brief overview of the Progressive Movmement. Read the Progressive Party Platform of 1912. Choose two strands of the Progressive movement (child labor and temperance; conservation and good government, for examples) and describe the progressive's stance on the issue, what they accomplished and how it affects us to this day. Overall, were the progressives useful to the U.S. at the beginning of the 20th century? Can you think of any progressive-style movements today? How are they similar to the earlier progressives? How are they different?

 

 

 

 

F: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918-19 was one of the biggest killers of the era, taking more lives than World War I. It killed more people than the Bubonic Plague of the 1300s. What was different about this flu? Why was it so much more devastating and why did it spread so far, so fast? Read the Public Health Response. Were the measures taken adequate for the situation? What else could have been done? How would you respond to a public health threat like this today? What measures would you suggest?

 

 

G: When America entered World War One in April of 1917, President Woodrow Wilson attempted to bolster popular support for the military effort by creating the Committee on Public Information headed by George Creel. Creel established voluntary press censorship, which made the committee essentially the overseeer of all war-related news. In the following site, The Poster War: Allied Propaganda Art of the First World War view the printed types of wartime "information" that was "broadcast" by the British, Canadian, and American governments. Select a minimum of five of the following World War I Posters and answer the following questions for each selected poster:

Who is the intended audience for the poster? (The specific targeted group- e.g. young men)
What nation produced the poster?
What is the poster attempting to get people to think? to do?
What logical appeal(s) is being made by the poster?
What emotional appeal(s) is being made by the poster?
What might be the results -positive and negative- on the homefront for these kinds of appeals?
How do the different nations' posters differ from each other? Are there similarities?
Although America is currently at war, why are few posters used in the war against terrorism?
(For each poster analyzed include it's title. )

 

 

H: The United States was in a unique position when drafting soldiers for World War I. With the millions who had emigrated to the U.S. in the preceding two decades, the pool of recruits were often immigrants from the countries with which we were at war. Read these excerpts from Nancy Gentile Ford's book, Americans All! Foreign-Born Soldiers in World War I. Describe some of the obstacles faced by the armed forces when training these foreign-born soldiers, and how the challenges were met and mastered. What was the climate in the U.S. in regards to foreign born immigrants? See Chapter 22 in Nash for more, particularly the sections A Patriotic Crusade and Raising an Army.