![]() War fervor in Georgia sometimes raged to the immediate detriment of common sense. For about two years, Georgia’s newspapers had been writing against the war because of its negative impact on the state’s economy, yet almost overnight the media changed their tune, becoming anti-German and strongly patriotic. On April 6, 1917, the United States declared war on Germany, thereby entering World War I. The Declaration of War and the Selective Service Act The Great Migration reached its peak between 19, by which time Georgia had lost more than 10 percent of its Black population. New war-related jobs suddenly available in northern cities, coupled with the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan and mass lynchings across the South, spurred this flight. The events of the war also contributed in large part to what is known as the Great Migration, during which African Americans moved from the South to urban areas in the North. A curtain of Royal Navy ships, forming the British blockade of Europe, prevented Georgia cotton, tobacco, timber, and naval stores from reaching potentially lucrative German and Austrian markets. Local newspapers in Savannah and Athens also warned the public against hastily supporting the case for war, which had already hurt the state’s economy. senator from Georgia, said that war was not needed to avenge the deaths of a few “rich Americans” who had gone down with the ship. Nearly a year later, the torpedoing of the transatlantic liner Lusitania on May 7, 1915, again caused little outcry in Georgia, although voices from the North were quick to call for America’s entry into the war. ![]() The United States must be neutral in fact as well as in name.” “Every man who really loves America,” he said, “will act and speak in the true spirit of neutrality, which is the spirit of impartiality and fairness and friendliness to all concerned. On August 19 he delivered a speech defining America’s stance on the war. president Woodrow Wilson was determined to keep the United States out of the conflict. In early August, hardly a month later, war broke out in Europe after Germany attacked Belgium. The assassination provoked an immediate response from several European countries, however, all of whom were concerned about the growing political instability and the possible shift in power on the continent. War Sentiment in GeorgiaĪs newspaper headlines around the world reported the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on June 28, 1914, Georgia papers paid very little attention to the news. Georgia also suffered from the effects of the influenza pandemic, a tragic maritime disaster, local political fights, and wartime homefront restrictions. The state was home to more training camps than any other state and, by the war’s end, it had contributed more than 100,000 men and women to the war effort. Georgia played a significant role during America’s participation in World War I (1917-18).
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