U.S. History IIEmpire and the Progressive Era (1890 to 1920)D2.His.14.9-12
The War at Home and the Peace
The government drafted soldiers, ran wartime agencies and limited dissent (the Espionage Act, 1917; Schenck v. United States, 1919); the war ended with the armistice of November 11, 1918; Wilson's Fourteen Points and League of Nations failed to win the Senate's approval of the Treaty of Versailles.
Once Congress declared war, the federal government grew faster than ever before. It raised an army, ran the economy and worked to shape opinion. Then Wilson tried to shape the peace.
🔑 Key idea
The government drafted soldiers (Selective Service Act, 1917), ran wartime agencies and limited dissent (the Espionage Act, 1917; Schenck v. United States, 1919). The war ended with the armistice of November 11, 1918. Wilson's Fourteen Points and League of Nations failed to win the Senate's approval of the Treaty of Versailles.
💡 Why it works
About 24 million men registered for the draft and 2.8 million were drafted; some two million soldiers went to France under General John J. Pershing. The War Industries Board directed factories, the Food Administration under Herbert Hoover urged "meatless" days, and the Committee on Public Information made posters and films for the war. Critics were prosecuted: Socialist leader Eugene Debs got ten years in prison for a speech. In Schenck the Supreme Court, 9 to 0, upheld a conviction for urging men to resist the draft; Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote that speech could be punished when it creates a "clear and present danger."
Wilson's Fourteen Points (January 1918) called for open treaties, freedom of the seas, lower trade barriers, self-determination for peoples, and, in Point 14, "a general association of nations." At Paris in 1919 the Allies wrote a harsher treaty, but it included the League. In the Senate, Henry Cabot Lodge and his allies demanded reservations, especially to Article 10, which they feared could commit the U.S. to war without Congress. Wilson refused to compromise, then suffered a stroke. The Senate rejected the treaty in 1919 and again in 1920.
Work it through
✏️ Worked example: Why no League?
Wilson proposed the League. Why did the United States never join?
The Constitution requires two-thirds of the Senate to approve a treaty.
Lodge's Republicans would approve only with reservations; a smaller group opposed the League entirely.
Wilson told Democrats to vote against the treaty with reservations, so neither version reached two-thirds.
Answer: The Senate never gave the two-thirds approval, so the U.S. stayed out.
⚠️ Common mistake
Many students think the U.S. joined the League of Nations because Wilson proposed it. The Senate did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles, so the U.S. never joined. It made a separate peace with Germany in 1921.
Practice
Pass with 3 right answers, the last 2 in a row. Each right answer earns 2 XP.