Social Studies Curriculum

United States History

« Return to U.S. History home page

Isolation And World War I (1914-1920)

Two weeks (through Week 15)

Enduring Understandings

The students will understand:

1. America’s expanding global interests increasingly involved the nation in world affairs making us less able to remain neutral.
2. America’s failure to join the League of Nations was an indicator of our increasing isolationism and focus on our own economic nationalism.

Essential Questions

1. What are the causes and effects of imperialism?
2. What were the factors of global conflict?
3. What factors have caused warfare to change over time? 
4. What is the long-term outcome of global conflict on participating nations?
5. How do world leaders and nations affect global conflict? 
6. How does propaganda shape the opinions of people?
7. How does global conflict shape the world?
8. What kept the U.S. out of the League of Nations?
9. What was the post- W.W.I. economic focus of the U.S.?

Objectives

• List and discuss causes for the war in Europe:  militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism (MAIN reasons).
• Describe how America moves from neutrality to involvement and intervention.
• Analyze the war by examining major theaters and innovations in warfare, Wilson’s Fourteen Points, and the Treaty of Versailles. 
• Examine how the home front was organized to support the war effort and limit dissent. 
• Evaluate the use of propaganda in obtaining support for American entry into the war.
• Analyze changing political boundaries of the world before and after the war.
• Examine the debate over American ratification of the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations. 
• Evaluate the importance of changing world politics in reference to the Russian Revolution and as a foundation for the enduring conflicts throughout World War II and the Cold War. 
• Survey significant cultural movements during the war.
• Define essential terms including:  “no man’s land,” trench warfare, Lusitania, Zimmerman Note, Selective Service Act, conscientious objector, mechanized warfare, War Industries Board, Espionage and Sedition Acts, U-Boats, armistice, poisonous gases, “doughboy,” war reparations.
• Reflect on the contributions of the following:  Archduke Ferdinand, Alvin York, Kaiser Wilhelm, Henry Cabot Lodge, and Woodrow Wilson.

Next: Post World War I (Roaring Twenties) »