Xenophobia In The 1920s Essay

The Red Scare reflected the fear of Americans which they had of communists infiltrating the US government. Sacco and Vanzetti’s arrest and execution made foreigners fear America even more, especially the anarchists. This caused worldwide dispute over whether they were given

The repercussions of WWI had a larger effect on some immigrant groups than others. One of the groups that was affected the most by WWI in the United States, was the German population. Germany’s role in the war made life increasingly difficult for German Americans. During the war, the whole German race was being painted as the enemy.

Americans became afraid of and disdainful towards anything German. Affairs associated with Germans or Germany ceased such as German bands, German courses in schools, and renaming German associated words such as German measles to liberty measles. Many German-Americans felt loyal to America but still had ties to Germany. With intolerance towards all things German, German-Americans became cautious and discreet in their speech and actions. Ambassador James W. Gerard warned, “but now that we are in the war there are only two sides, and the time has come when every citizen must declare himself American – or traitor!”

Whenever war broke out overseas in 1914, many Americans had ties to countries involved. Many of citizens living here were immigrants or children of immigrants who came from Germany, France, or other countries involved in the war. Out of the 92 million citizens living in the states, one-third of them were hyphenated Americans. There was strong support of the Central Powers in the states due to the 8 million German-Americans and the 4 million Irish-Americans who disliked English rule. Yet, many Americans were pro Allies due to the language bond with Great Britain. America wanted to keep to their selves as war broke out in Europe and not get involved. President Woodrow Wilson would announce in 1914 that the Unites States would stay neutral during the war. Wilson would run by the slogan “Keep Us Out of the War” whenever he was running for re-election for presidency. Americas would trade with both parties and bankers could lend money to both sides involved in the war. Trading with Germany would eventually be blockaded and trade with Allies would increase.

    What is The Red Scare? The Red Scare is fear resulting from communists wanting to control citizens. From 1919 to 1921, The First Red Scare occurred in which Americans feared the Soviet Union’s idea of communism spreading to The United States. After this panic was resolved, there was another epidemic of fear called The Second Red Scare. This lasted from 1947 to 1957 and was driven by the panic of communism growing and spreading in The United States. The Second Red Scare was perpetuated by international events and dismay such as the Korean War and fear of the Soviet Union’s nuclear weapon capabilities. From this, the House Un-American Activities Committee was formed. The committee’s purpose was to investigate alleged communists and infiltrators within the government, subcommittees, and Hollywood. “Americans also felt the effects of the Red

With the outbreak of World War I immigration was put to a stop and Ellis Island was turned into a detention center for enemy aliens specifically German Americans or German immigrants. Many Americans during the first and second World War felt a sense of obligation to their country, it was this sense of obligation that drove people to participate in voluntary associations to aid the government in capturing enemy aliens. President Woodrow Wilson invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and “defined all male German citizens in the United States age fourteen and older as “enemy aliens.”” (Capozzola, Pg.177) Enemy aliens would face specific regulations including liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed. They would be forced to surrender any firearms, and weapons they own, they also were not allowed to live or travel within a half a mile of any “military installation”. Many organizations dedicated to German- American life closed shop during the war usually in fear of being seen as having multiply loyalties. The German language was removed from the schools’ curriculum along with German music being cut out of music books, even German dog breeds would be slaughtered in some states. There were four internment camps used to house these “enemy aliens” and the only visitors allowed to come to the camps were spouses, and a select group of ministers. “The Smith-Towner Bill introduced in October 1918, would create a department of education in Washington that would distribute

The Red Scare represented the widespread concern that Americans had developed over the fear of communist subversion within society. Americans believed, especially during the Cold War, which was a period of tension between the United States and Soviet Union, that communism was attempting to infiltrate every aspect of their lives. While this is not necessarily the best analogy, you can relate the widespread fear of communism during the Cold War as being similar to the heightened alert Americans had toward terrorism and suspected terrorists during the beginning of the modern century.

The Red Scare is the rounding up and deportation of several hundred immigrates of radical political views by the federal government in 1919 and 1920. Certain causes that led up to this event was the fact that the United States feared the fact that certain immigrants embraced communist, socialist, and anarchist ideology. The Red Scare later led to the impact of the fear of communism. Today this event is remembered all over the world for is impact that it made on every person society.

The American people were easily manipulated into anti-German and pro-war beliefs. More "American-like" names were given to certain things. Hamburgers became Salisbury steaks because Hamburg was located in Germany. Sauerkraut became liberty cabbage, because sauerkraut was a German name. Beethoven 's music was banned, and burning of German books was common. "These techniques were highly successful. The government found that overt and subtle forms of propaganda fanned the requisite passions of pride and prejudice to fight a total war in Europe. Indeed, aggressive propaganda helped to skirt constitutional and statutory limitations on war policies — policies that would never pass rational scrutiny in peacetime. Empirically, it proved that government propaganda aimed at arousing strong feelings of American nationalism could facilitate the exercise of extralegal and

During WWII many civil liberties were affected and felt by the American people; some of these decisions include new policies on foreigners and civil defense groups in towns. A major facet of homefront life in WWII was the discrimination faced by Japanese/German/Italian Americans, especially the Japanese, After the attack on Pearl Harbor which drew the United States into the war, Americans developed a fear towards immigrants and foreigners; not unlike the fear felt during the 1920’s after WWI. Local, state, and federal governments began drafting new laws and policies against persons whose ancestry is that of any of the Axis powers (Italy-Germany-Japan). For instance, a new law stated that all residents (“enemy aliens”) of German, Japanese, or Italian descent were required to register with the government, submit to fingerprinting, and list all their organizational affiliations. In addition, many of these peoples were forced to submit to curfews and travel restrictions. Furthermore, during this time, Japanese persons could not join the military until 1943 due to racism and fears of the American people. In February of 1942, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which designated certain areas as war zones, and allowed for the removal of anyone for any reason. This led to the internment of Japanese people. Japanese-Americans were forced to either store or sell nearly all their property and belongings, only permitted to take “necessities”,

Orchestras Refused to play works by German composers, and German measles became “Liberty Measles”. There were also more serious actions taken against German Americans, especially business owners. Almost every German Business owner’s store had their windows smashed and the store vandalized. Even though this was very inhumane and rude, the US government often overlooked these wrongdoings just so they would continue to get public support for the war. Both German and Islamic and Arab Americans dealt with the cruel treatment after WW1 and 9/11. Stereotypes were placed on them and they were automatically considered the “Bad Guys” because of where they were from. They both were treated unfairly by the government and society. When something bad happened to these German, Arab, and Islamic americans the government overlooked these problem a lot of the time . When all of this was going on, there wasn’t a lot of laws in place to protect them or even defend them. They were purely judged just because of their relations to their country and were humiliated. They often had to get searched extra times for absolutely no reason at all, just over sepecision. In conclusion, the German, Islamic, and Arab Americans had to deal

The 1920’s was a great and important decade for the United States. After World War I, the United States went through events and changes that, overall, made the United States a much better place to live. New advances in technology and industry improved American life in more ways than just one. Americans had better wages during this time, more leisure time, and overall, had a better life than ever before. In addition, the 1920’s advocated social and cultural change as well. During this time period, the United States did not return to Normalcy, and instead developed attitudes that changed the life of the people of the United States forever thanks to social changes, cultural changes and changes in technology.

Also the Germans tried to use propaganda against the U.S. by attempting to convince American soldiers to join Germany in its war efforts. German soldiers would purposely drop pamphlets onto the ground in hopes that American soldiers would come across them and read them. On the pamphlets were saying such as "Do you think it honorable to fight the country that has given birth to your fathers or forefathers?" (Brainz) The Germans also attacked the African-Americans with phrases such as "Do you enjoy the same rights socially and before the law? Do you enjoy the same rights as the white people do in America the land of Freedom and Democracy? Or aren't you rather treated over there as second class citizens?" (Brainz) With these, the Germans tried to persuade the African-Americans that the U.S. was not treating them with respect and were not equal, but if they went to the German side they would be treated like average citizens. I feel it was a valiant effort for the Germans, but was not very productive.

During the 1920’s the United States really became a country of immigrants, even though not everyone was on board. In this time we saw immigration numbers that would far exceed the decades that would come after it and only to be surpasses by the decade that came before in a 40 year span. Almost 4.3 million people came to the US in the 1920’s and they spanned from far and wide to come to the US. Numbers would dip in the coming decades and would not surpass the million mark for at least two decades. These numbers saw drops that would relate to immigrant life and US immigration tactics.

Have you ever wondered how the U.S. was morally, economically and politically justified in entering the first world war against Germany? Well, the U.S was morally, economically, and politically justified. Germany gave gave no warning, they hurt businesses, and they don’t follow war rules.