IGCSE History

Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) was born in the Presbyterian manse in Staunton, Virginia, but was taken to Georgia as an infant. In later life he attended the University of Virginia and his second wife was a Virginian. He referred to himself as a Virginian, but he was elected president in 1912 while serving as governor of New Jersey. His first term was marked by domestic reforms, his second by American participation in World War I.

Immigration

During the war the number of immigrants arriving from Europe increased. The USA was a country of immigrants. Millions of people came to the USA to make a new life. These pioneers struggled to open up the huge continent and many succeeded. As a result they had a belief in self-reliance and ‘rugged individualism’, including the right to own guns. They had a hatred and fear of government interference and of socialism. From the 1880s poor immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe had begun to arrive in the USA. Unlike the earlier immigrants from north-west Europe, (often called WASPS, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants) they were dark-skinned and Jews or Catholics. They experienced discrimination and prejudice.

In January 1919, Woodrow Wilson put forward his Fourteen Points for a better word after the war. This included a peace-keeping organisation, the League of Nations and rejected harsh treatment of defeated Germany. Woodrow Wilson arrived in Europe in December 1918 and was welcomed as a hero. Wilson stayed until June 1919 and played a major part in the negotiations for the Treaty of Versailles. He did not get all he wanted, but the treaty included his plans for the League of Nations. However, Wilson was in for a shock on his return. The Senate decided not to accept the Treaty of Versailles and so the USA would not join the League of Nations.

Many Americans had come from Europe to stat a new life. More than half of all Americans in 1919 had been born abroad. Their memories were of poverty, exploitation and a lack of freedom. They wanted nothing to do with Europe. Some Americans feared the dangerous ideas around in Europe: Communism, Anarchism and Socialism. There were revolutions in Hungary and Germany following the Russian Revolution of 1917. More than 100,000 Americans had been killed or wounded in Europe. Many people regretted this and feared that further alliances would lead to further wars.

The traditional policy of the USA was isolation. This was stated in the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. It said that the USA would not interfere in the affairs of Europe. The First World War had been an exception. The USA had interfered to sort out the problems of the ‘Old World’, but now it would be better off on its own.

Wilson had also made himself unpopular by staying away for so long. He wore himself out travelling the USA trying to persuade people. He made himself more unpopular by not being ready to compromise on the deal. Many Americans thought that America could do much better on its own. American industry was ‘booming’ and they did not need any one else. In fact a majority in Congress supported membership of the League of Nations in some form or another, but Wilson would not accept any compromises. Eventually he lost the vote. The USA did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles and did not join the League of Nations.

Once the First World War was over, therefore, support for Isolationism returned. From 1917 there were restrictions on immigration. In the past the USA had always had an ‘open door’ policy towards immigrants. Now restrictions were put on. A literacy test was imposed in 1917. The total number of immigrants was restricted from 1921, when the Immigration Quota Act was imposed. A quota system let in numbers of people according to the numbers that were already in the USA. This favoured WASP immigrants and worked against ‘new’ immigrants from Italy, Spain, Poland and Russia etc. In 1924 the quota was reduced to 2% of the population in 1890 and to 150,000 a year in 1929

Nevertheless, during the 1920s, the population of the USA grew from 106,000,000 in 1920 to 120,000,000 in 1929 and the main reason was immigration.

Numbers of immigrants to the USA

1919	140,000	1925	310,000
1920	400,000	1926	320,000
1921	802,000	1927	340,000
1922	370,000	1928	350,000
1923	520,000	1929	280,000

But immigrants were now treated with a great deal more suspicion. The Russian Revolution in 1917 led to a ‘Red Scare’ and many socialists were arrested. There was also an increasing number of immigrants from Italy, often connected with the Mafia, as the Italian dictator, Mussolini, cracked down, often very violently, on crime. Anyone with left wing ideas became suspect. Trade unions were harassed; membership fell in the 1920s. Henry Ford refused to allow his employees to join a trade union. Socialists were harassed. Sacco and Vanzetti, two Italian Anarchists, were accused of robbery and murder in 1920. Their trial was a farce because the judge was obviously biased. The case dragged on for seven years before the two were executed in 1927, even though somebody else actually confessed to the murders. They were scapegoats for the fear and hatred felt by many Americans.

Henry Ford and mass-production

Murderers?

Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco

On 15th April, 1920, Frederick Parmenter and Alessandro Berardelli, in South Braintree, were shot dead while carrying two boxes containing the payroll of a shoe factory. After the two robbers took the $15,000 they got into a car containing several other men and were driven away.

Several eyewitnesses claimed that the robbers looked Italian. A large number of Italian immigrants were questioned but eventually the authorities decided to charge Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco with the murders. Although the two men did not have criminal records, it was argued that they had committed the robbery to acquire funds for their anarchist political campaign.