World War I Vocabulary

Front

Trench Warfare

Back

Combat in which armies attack, counterattack, and defend from relatively permanent systems of trenches dug into the ground

Front

Lusitania Incident

Back

The torpedoing and sinking of a British passenger liner by a German submarine

Front

Preparedness Movement

Back

A campaign led former President Theodore Roosevelt to strengthen the US military after the outbreak of World War I

Front

Selective Service Act

Back

Law giving the U.S. president the power to draft soldiers

Front

American Expeditionary Force

Back

The name applied to US soldiers serving in Europe during World War I

Front

Harlem Hellfighters

Back

The most celebrated African-American regiment in World War I

Front

Zimmerman Note

Back

Secret communication that proposed a military alliance between Germany and Mexico if the US entered World War I against Germany

Front

Great Migration

Back

The movement of six million African Americans out of the rural Southern US to the cities in the north

Front

Espionage & Sedition Acts

Back

Laws which prohibited many forms of speech, including "any disloyal...or abusive language about the...government of the US"

Front

Schenck v. United States

Back

Supreme Court case which limited free speech in times of war