Chapter 19 Section 2 Guided Reading Questions

1) How did the United States raise an Army? When the U.S. joined the war, there were only 200,000 men enlisted in the armed forces, and so in order to build a large enough army to take on Europe, Congress passed the Selective Service Act, which required men to register with the government in order to be randomly selected for military service, in 1917. About 3 million of the 24 million who signed up were enlisted.

2) How did U.S. soldiers help to win the war? The numbers and enthusiasm of new MAerican troops exhausted the Allied forces. Many Americans were determined to hurt the germans and make an impression.It helped keep the troops together and fighting in top form.

3) How did the U.S. build its naval forces? The government took 4 steps to increase its fleet: first, it exempted many shipyard workers from the draft and delayed the participation of others. Second, the Chamber of Commerce joined in a public relations campaign to underline the importance of shipyard work, giving flags to the families of shipyard workers as it did the families of soldiers, and encouraging automobile owners to give shipyard workers rides to works since streetcars were so crowded. Third, shipyards used techniques to reduce the construction time, such as getting parts and then assembling them rather than building the whole thing there. And fourth, the govt. took over commercial and private ships for use in transatlantic war.

4) How did the U.S. Navy help win the war? The U.S. Navy helped to lay A 230 mile barrier of mines across the North Sea from Scotland to Norway, which contain the U-Boats that sailed from German ports and kept them out of the Atlantic Ocean. Germany was starting to find it difficult to replace their losses and staff their fleets with experienced men, and the number of Americans hurt by U-Boats were hurt. Only 637 of the 2 million Americans sent over were killed in U-Boat attacks.

5) What new weapons of mechanized warfare threatened those in combat?
New weapons such as refine machine guns, airplanes, tanks, barbed wire, antiaircraft guns, and poison gas killed millions of soldiers.

6) The war caused 22 million deaths, half of them civilians, 10 million refugees, and more than 200,000 Americans were wounded.

7) The estimated economic costs of the war were $338 billion.