After mastering this chapter, you should be able to:
- Discuss the new role of the United States in Latin America and the various diplomatic approaches of Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson.
- Describe the problems Wilson faced in Mexico and whether he handled them responsibly.
- List and explain the causes of the war in Europe and American reactions to the war.
- Compare and contrast the arguments of the preparedness advocates and the pacifists.
- Understand the factors that brought the U.S. into the war and the extent to which German belligerence in the North Atlantic was responsible.
- Compare American military involvement and wartime losses with those of the major European nations.
- Determine the reasons for the final military collapse of Germany.
- Show the ways in which the wartime partnership between citizens and government worked and how the war affected women and African Americans.
- Specify the steps by which America mobilized for war.
- Summarize the activities of the War Industries Board, the Committee on Public Information, and the War Labor Board.
- Explain the concessions or sacrifices that Wilson had to make to the other European leaders regarding the peace structuring.
- Define the different goals of the victorious nations at the Paris Peace Conference, and explain how Wilson's goals were incorporated into the treaty.
- Discuss the reasons for the failure of Wilsonian global idealism and the Versailles treaty.
- Reflect on American disillusionment and the decline of the progressive spirit as the 1920s set in.
