A conflict of unlimited scope in which a belligerent engages in a mobilization of all available resources at their disposal, whether human, industrial, agricultural, military, natural, technological, or otherwise, in order to entirely destroy or render beyond use of their rival's capacity to continue resistance.
A coded telegram dispatched by the Foreign Secretary of the German Empire, Arthur Zimmermann, on January 16, 1917, to the German ambassador in Washington, Johann von Bernstorff, at the height of World War I.
Selective Service Act
Authorized President Woodrow Wilson to raise an infantry force from the general population of no more than four divisions, and it created the Selective Service System.
John J. Pershing
An officer in the United States Army. He is the only person to be promoted in his own lifetime to the highest rank ever held in the United States Army—General of the Armies.
A war bond that was sold in the United States to support the allied cause in World War I.
War Industries Board
A United States government agency established on July 28, 1917, during World War I, to coordinate the purchase of war supplies.
National War Labor Board
An agency created in 1918 by President Woodrow Wilson composed of representatives from business and labor.
The violent deaths of 20 people, 11 of them children, during an attack by the Colorado National Guard on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado in the on April 20, 1914.
The movement of 1.3 million African-Americans out of the Southern United States to the North, Midwest and West from 1915 to 1930.
A social movement that seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war (or all wars), minimize inter-human violence in a particular place or type of situation, often linked to the goal of achieving world peace.
Committee on Public Information
An independent agency of the government of the United States intended to influence U.S. public opinion regarding American intervention in World War I. It was established by President Woodrow Wilson.
An investigative journalist, a politician, and, most famously, the head of the United States Committee on Public Information, a propaganda organization created by President Woodrow Wilson during World War I.
Espionage Act of 1917
A United States federal law passed shortly after entering World War I, on June 15, 1917.
Sabotage Act of 1918
A United Stated federal law passed making it illegal to sabotage the United States of America.
Sedition Act of 1918
An amendment to the Espionage Act of 1917 passed at the urging of President Woodrow Wilson, who was concerned that dissent, in time of war, was a significant threat to morale. The passing of this act forbade Americans to use "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the United States government, flag, or armed forces during war.
Eugene V. Debs
An American union leader, one of the founding members of the International Labor Union and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), as well as candidate for President of the United States as a member of the Social Democratic Party in 1900, and later as a member of the Socialist Party of America in 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920.
Big Bill Haywood
A prominent figure in the American labor movement. Haywood was a leader of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM), a founding member and leader of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and a member of the Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of America.
American Protective League
An American World War I-era private organization that worked with federal law enforcement agencies in support of the anti German Empire movement, as well as against radical anarchists, anti-war activists, and left-wing labor and political organizations.
A speech delivered by United States President Woodrow Wilson to a joint session of Congress on January 8, 1918. The address was intended to assure the country that the Great War was being fought for a moral cause and for postwar peace in Europe.
A faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903 and ultimately became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
An ocean liner owned by the Cunard Line and built by John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Scotland, torpedoed by a German U-boat on May 7th 1915. The ship sank in 18 minutes, eight miles (15 km) off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland, killing 1,198 of the 1,959 people aboard.
A cross-channel passenger ferry, which became the focus of an international incident when she was torpedoed by a German U-Boat in 1916.
Pacifits and Interventionists
Some counties attempted not to enter wars, while other intervened and became involved in the conflict.
Charles Evans Hughes
A lawyer and Republican politician from the State of New York. He served as Governor of New York (1907-1910), United States Secretary of State (1921-1925), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1910-1916) and Chief Justice of the United States (1930-1941).
David Lloyd George
A British statesman and the only Welsh Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; he is also the only one to have spoken English as a second language, Welsh having been his first.
A French statesman, physician, and journalist. He served as the prime minister of France from 1906-1909 and 1917-1920.
The Big Four
The top Allied leaders who met at the Paris Peace Conference in January of 1919, following the end of World War I (1914-18). The Big Four are also know as the Council of Four. It was composed of Woodrow Wilson of the United States, David Lloyd George of Britain, Vittorio Orlando of Italy, and Georges Clemenceau of France.
The payments and transfers of property and equipment that Germany was forced to make under the Treaty of Versailles (1919) following its defeat during World War I.
One of the principal organs of the United Nations, was established to help ensure that non-self-governing territories were administered in the best interests of the inhabitants and of international peace and security.
A political movement that advocates a greater economic and political cooperation among nations for the theoretical benefit of all. Partisans of this movement, such as supporters of the World Federalist Movement, claim that nations should cooperate because their long-term mutual interests are of greater value than their individual short term needs.
Treaty of Versailles
One of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
Some of the acts by Germany during Worl War I that seemingly could not be taken back.
East St. Louis Riots
An outbreak of labor and racially motivated violence against blacks that caused an estimated 100 deaths and extensive property damage in the United States industrial city of East St. Louis, Illinois, located on the Mississippi River. It was the worst incidence of labor-related violence in 20th century American history.
Red Summer of 1919
Used to describe the bloody race riots that occurred during the summer and autumn of 1919. Race riots erupted in several cities in both the North and South of the United States. The three with the highest number of fatalities happened in Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Elaine, Arkansas.
A publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, Black Nationalist, Pan-Africanist, and orator. Marcus Garvey was founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL).
Retroactively applied to two distinct periods of strong anti-Communism in United States history: first from 1917 to 1920, and second from the late 1940s through the late 1950s. These periods were characterized by heightened suspicion of a threat to United States capitalism from communists and radicals.
A series of controversial raids by the United States Department of Justice and Immigration and Naturalization Service from 1919 to 1921 on suspected radical leftist citizens and immigrants in the United States, the legality of which is now in question.
Sacco and Vanzetti
Two Italian-born laborers and anarchists who were tried, convicted and executed via electrocution on August 23, 1927 in Massachusetts for the 1920 armed robbery and murder of a pay-clerk and a security guard in Braintree, Massachusetts.
Carrie Chapman Catt
A woman's suffrage leader. She was elected president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) twice; her first term was from 1900 to 1904 and her second term was from 1915 to 1920.
Prohibits each of the states and the federal government from denying any citizen the right to vote because of that citizen's sex. It was ratified on August 18, 1920.
Warren G. Harding
The 29th President of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death from a heart attack or stroke, in 1923.
Generally refers to a specific period of increased spiritual interest or renewal in the life of a church congregation or many churches, either regionally or globally.
A belief in, and strict adherence to a set of basic principles (often religious in nature), sometimes as a reaction to perceived doctrinal compromises with modern social and political life.
An American athlete and religious figure who, after being a popular outfielder in baseball's National League during the 1880s, became the most celebrated and influential American evangelist during the first two decades of the 20th century.