AP U.S. History DBQ

JohnPennsylvania
Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:44:07 +0000

In my ap class we’ve been writing a lot of dbqs, but my teacher will never give us an ap grade. (1-9) This is a dbq about y the U.S. changed its opinion and decided to declare war on germany. What do you think my score would be. There was 9 docs.

World War I was ignited by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914. Within days, Europe was divided into the Central Powers and the Allies. The main Central Powers were Germany and Austria-Hungary. The allied powers consisted of Serbia, Great Britain, Russia, and Italy. Eventually on April 6, 1917, the U.S. declared war on Germany. At the beginning of “The Great War” Woodrow Wilson, President during WWI was in favor of American neutrality (Doc. D). Wilson restated the Neutrality Proclamation that George Washington had first spoke in 1793. Wilson even won the presidential election of 1916 due to his promise of American neutrality. However, as the war fought across the ocean struck at home, neutrality could not be held. America was forced into the war due to the blocking of U.S trade, American citizens loyalty to the war, and hatred towards Germans.

Trade was a major reason for American involvement as trade was blockaded by Germans, hurting American merchants. British and French war orders helped pull America out of a recession that preluded the war. Exports for both of those countries grew exponentially by as much as 300 percent from 1910 to 1915 totaling over one billion dollars (Doc. B). Trade between America and Germany did not flourish like with Great Britain. Britain operated a military zone, covering Germany access to the ocean and restricted German imports. In response to the military zone, Germany set a submarine war zone on February 1915. German U-boats were originally meant not to attack neutral shippers but mistakes were made. The British liner the Lusitania was sunk due to U-boats on May 7, 1915 killing 128 Americans. Americas were struck hard with the sinking. In response, the U.S. secretary of state, Robert Lansing, sent a letter to bring Germans to book (Doc. C). Another liner the Arabic was sunk in August 1915 killing two Americans. After this attack, Germany reluctantly agreed not to sink unarmed passenger ships without warning. This oath was, however, broke when the French liner the Sussex was attacked by U-Boats in March 1916. Wilson gave Berlin an ultimatum. In the Sussex agreement, the Germans agreed not to sink passenger or merchant ships without warning. On January 31, 1917, Berlin announced that they would wage open warfare on all ships. By the end of March, four American merchant ships were sunk.


Another reason for American involvement was American loyalty. On March 1, 1917, the Zimmerman note was intercepted. The note from German Foreign Secretary Author Zimmerman stated that if Mexico allied with Germany they would receive lands lost from the Mexican War including New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona (Doc. E). This note struck an already anti-German nerve. At the home front, the Committee for Public Information was created and lead by George Creel. The purpose of the committee was to mobilize people’s minds for war. The committee employed over 150,000 including over 75,000 who delivered pro-war speeches. In addition to speeches, the committee used various forms of propaganda including posters, billboards, pamphlets, booklets, movies, and songs. Literature was produced by the millions (Doc. H). Anti-German movies like The Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin, and To Hell with the Kaiser were popular. Many songs were written that reflected the anti-German mood like “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Slacker”. Another popular song, “Over There” was written by George M. Cohan (Doc. I). The Sedition Act and the Espionage Act were used to increase loyalty to America as the limited freedom of speech and were used to convict many thought to be pro-Germans such as socialist Eugene V. Debs and International Workers of the World leader, William D. Haywood.

As the war raged on, Americans developed a hatred for Germans partially due to Creel. German music like Wagner or Beethoven was unsafe to play. German books were taken out of libraries. German classes were cancelled in schools. During the war, eight million Germans lived in the U.S. They were treated harshly and were suspects for everything from spying to diarrhea.

America started as being neutral towards WWI but as the war progressed, they were forced to declare war. Americans joined the allies because of the obstruction of trade, American loyalty to the war effort, and the American hatred of Germans. The Wilsonian goal of neutrality was thrown out the window (Doc. F) and was replaced with the beefing up of America’s army and a shipbuilding program. Wilson gave his infamous Fourteen Points Address on January 8, 1918 that gave the American terms for a treaty including freedom of the seas and A League Of Nations. America would end up fighting in the war until the end when an armistice was called at eleven o’ clock on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918.