Asked by Anabelle
You are a journalist for Texas Monthly magazine. Your editor has asked you to write an article about the economic, social, and political impacts of World War I or World War II on Texas and Texans. Your article needs to inform readers about how Texas was impacted during your chosen event. The editor also wants you to include a photograph to show an impact of the war. Use your notes from today’s lesson to guide your thinking. Your article should include the following “must haves.” If you need more space, use an additional piece of paper.
MUST HAVES:
__Title—must state which war your article is about—WWI or WWII (10 points)
__Brief explanation of the war—When did it happen? Which countries were involved? (10 points)
__Explanation of AT LEAST one social effect (15 points)
__Explanation of AT LEAST one political effect (15 points)
__Explanation of AT LEAST one economic effect (15 points)
__Sub-feature about how the war impacted a minority group (women, African Americans, Mexican Americans) in Texas (15 points)
__One “photograph” of an E, S, or P impact with caption (10 points) *you can use the internet to find your image*
__Shows significant effort; few to no spelling/grammatical errors (10 points)
Texans bought Liberty bonds
Farmers borrowed money to buy more land and equipment
Oil and lumber industries increased production
Economic Impacts
Social Impacts
Political Impacts
200,000 Texans volunteered to fight
Many Texans trained in Waco, Houston, San Antonio, etc.
Texans planted war gardens to feed soldiers
Women took on more responsibilities
Texans conserved food
Approx. 5,000 Texans died in WWI
Texas army and naval bases were important training centers
Texas National Guard protected the Mexican order and seaports.
All Answers 1
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Title: Texas and the Great War — How World War I Reshaped the Lone Star State
Brief explanation of the war
World War I (the “Great War”) lasted from 1914 to 1918; the United States entered the conflict in April 1917. The fighting drew in the major powers of Europe: the Allies (principally Britain, France, Russia and, after 1917, the United States) against the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria). The brutal, industrialized warfare in Europe and the U.S. mobilization to support it reached deeply into everyday life in Texas.
Economic impacts
- Military training and local spending: Texas became a major training ground. Camps and forts — including Camp Bowie (Fort Worth), Camp Travis (San Antonio), Camp Logan (Houston) and others around Waco and Houston — brought tens of thousands of soldiers and military payrolls to Texas towns. That military spending helped stimulate local economies, construction, and services.
- Agricultural expansion and debt: Farmers borrowed money to buy more land and equipment to meet both domestic needs and export opportunities. The war drove increased demand and higher prices for cotton and other commodities, but many farmers took on debt that became risky after prices fell in the postwar years.
- Energy and timber booms: Texas oil production and the lumber industry increased sharply to meet wartime needs for fuel, construction, and manufacturing. The oil boom accelerated Texas’s shift toward a petroleum-centered economy.
- Financing the war at home: Texans bought Liberty Bonds in huge numbers and paid new federal taxes (War Revenue Acts) to finance U.S. participation. Bond drives mobilized civic organizations and boosted local banks and business activity.
- Supply and labor pressures: As thousands of Texas men entered military service (roughly 200,000 Texans volunteered), industries faced labor shortages that pushed employers to hire women and migrants, and in some cases to mechanize.
Social impacts
- Shifting roles for women: With many men in uniform, women stepped into expanded roles on farms, in factories, in offices, and in volunteer wartime organizations. They ran war gardens, worked in munitions and processing plants, and led Liberty Bond drives and Red Cross efforts — changes that helped broaden public expectations for women’s civic and economic participation.
- Patriotism and suppression: Heightened patriotism also brought intolerance. German-language newspapers, schools, and social clubs in Texas came under suspicion; some communities suppressed German-language instruction and public expressions of German culture.
- Public health and casualties: Roughly 5,000 Texans died in the war. The 1918 influenza pandemic, which followed troop movements and troop concentrations, also hit Texans hard and strained public health systems.
- Urban growth and migration: The wartime economy and the promise of industrial jobs accelerated migration into Texas cities, including internal migration of African Americans and Mexican Americans seeking work — setting the stage for later demographic and political changes.
Political impacts
- Federal power and local life: The federal government’s reach expanded into everyday Texas life — from the draft (Selective Service Act of 1917) to wartime agencies that regulated prices, production, and transportation. The National Guard was federalized and units from Texas served overseas; at the same time the Texas National Guard guarded the Mexican border and seaports against possible disruptions.
- Civic politics and reform momentum: Wartime demands heightened calls for efficiency and order and accelerated progressive-era reforms at home, including public health initiatives and temperance. Prohibition gained political momentum during the war and would become national law in 1919–1920.
- Women’s suffrage: The war’s demonstration of women’s expanded public roles helped create political momentum for voting rights. Texas was the first Southern state to ratify the 19th Amendment on June 28, 1919 — a distinctly political outcome tied to wartime changes in perceptions of gender and citizenship.
- Local politics and suppression: Wartime fears of sedition affected political discourse in Texas; local leaders sometimes used the war atmosphere to justify cracking down on dissent, particularly against immigrant communities and labor organizers.
Sub-feature — How World War I changed life for Texas women
Before the war many Texas women’s roles were centered in the household and in local civic organizations. World War I turned some of those roles into public, paid, or politically visible work. Women organized and ran Liberty Bond and Red Cross drives; they planted and tended “war gardens” to free up commercial food supplies; and they took paid jobs in factories, canneries, and municipal offices while men were in uniform. That hands-on contribution to the war effort gave many women new skills, income, and public authority — which temperingly helped propel support for women’s suffrage at the state and national levels. By the time Texas ratified the 19th Amendment in 1919, the image of women as capable civic actors had been strengthened by their wartime work.
Photograph (showing impact)
[Image suggestion] Soldiers training at Camp Bowie, Fort Worth, 1918. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
Caption: “Camp Bowie recruits drill in Fort Worth, 1918 — one of several Texas camps that trained roughly 200,000 Texans and funneled federal payrolls, construction, and industry into local economies during the war.”
(If you want to print or display this photograph, search the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs online for “Camp Bowie 1918” to find public-domain images and full credits.)
Conclusion
World War I reached into Texas’s fields and oilfields, into its factories and backyards, and into the political life of its towns and statehouses. The war boosted oil and lumber production, encouraged farm expansion (and debt), and brought federal money and military presence to towns from Waco to San Antonio. It reshaped social roles—especially for women—and deepened racial and cultural tensions even as it accelerated political changes, including women’s suffrage and greater federal influence in state affairs. The Great War didn’t happen far away for Texans; it remade the state’s economy, altered everyday life, and redirected Texas politics for decades to come.
Sources and notes
(Many contemporary photos and documents available at the Library of Congress; Texas state archives and local newspapers of 1917–1920; summary figures from wartime recruitment and casualty reports.)
Brief explanation of the war
World War I (the “Great War”) lasted from 1914 to 1918; the United States entered the conflict in April 1917. The fighting drew in the major powers of Europe: the Allies (principally Britain, France, Russia and, after 1917, the United States) against the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria). The brutal, industrialized warfare in Europe and the U.S. mobilization to support it reached deeply into everyday life in Texas.
Economic impacts
- Military training and local spending: Texas became a major training ground. Camps and forts — including Camp Bowie (Fort Worth), Camp Travis (San Antonio), Camp Logan (Houston) and others around Waco and Houston — brought tens of thousands of soldiers and military payrolls to Texas towns. That military spending helped stimulate local economies, construction, and services.
- Agricultural expansion and debt: Farmers borrowed money to buy more land and equipment to meet both domestic needs and export opportunities. The war drove increased demand and higher prices for cotton and other commodities, but many farmers took on debt that became risky after prices fell in the postwar years.
- Energy and timber booms: Texas oil production and the lumber industry increased sharply to meet wartime needs for fuel, construction, and manufacturing. The oil boom accelerated Texas’s shift toward a petroleum-centered economy.
- Financing the war at home: Texans bought Liberty Bonds in huge numbers and paid new federal taxes (War Revenue Acts) to finance U.S. participation. Bond drives mobilized civic organizations and boosted local banks and business activity.
- Supply and labor pressures: As thousands of Texas men entered military service (roughly 200,000 Texans volunteered), industries faced labor shortages that pushed employers to hire women and migrants, and in some cases to mechanize.
Social impacts
- Shifting roles for women: With many men in uniform, women stepped into expanded roles on farms, in factories, in offices, and in volunteer wartime organizations. They ran war gardens, worked in munitions and processing plants, and led Liberty Bond drives and Red Cross efforts — changes that helped broaden public expectations for women’s civic and economic participation.
- Patriotism and suppression: Heightened patriotism also brought intolerance. German-language newspapers, schools, and social clubs in Texas came under suspicion; some communities suppressed German-language instruction and public expressions of German culture.
- Public health and casualties: Roughly 5,000 Texans died in the war. The 1918 influenza pandemic, which followed troop movements and troop concentrations, also hit Texans hard and strained public health systems.
- Urban growth and migration: The wartime economy and the promise of industrial jobs accelerated migration into Texas cities, including internal migration of African Americans and Mexican Americans seeking work — setting the stage for later demographic and political changes.
Political impacts
- Federal power and local life: The federal government’s reach expanded into everyday Texas life — from the draft (Selective Service Act of 1917) to wartime agencies that regulated prices, production, and transportation. The National Guard was federalized and units from Texas served overseas; at the same time the Texas National Guard guarded the Mexican border and seaports against possible disruptions.
- Civic politics and reform momentum: Wartime demands heightened calls for efficiency and order and accelerated progressive-era reforms at home, including public health initiatives and temperance. Prohibition gained political momentum during the war and would become national law in 1919–1920.
- Women’s suffrage: The war’s demonstration of women’s expanded public roles helped create political momentum for voting rights. Texas was the first Southern state to ratify the 19th Amendment on June 28, 1919 — a distinctly political outcome tied to wartime changes in perceptions of gender and citizenship.
- Local politics and suppression: Wartime fears of sedition affected political discourse in Texas; local leaders sometimes used the war atmosphere to justify cracking down on dissent, particularly against immigrant communities and labor organizers.
Sub-feature — How World War I changed life for Texas women
Before the war many Texas women’s roles were centered in the household and in local civic organizations. World War I turned some of those roles into public, paid, or politically visible work. Women organized and ran Liberty Bond and Red Cross drives; they planted and tended “war gardens” to free up commercial food supplies; and they took paid jobs in factories, canneries, and municipal offices while men were in uniform. That hands-on contribution to the war effort gave many women new skills, income, and public authority — which temperingly helped propel support for women’s suffrage at the state and national levels. By the time Texas ratified the 19th Amendment in 1919, the image of women as capable civic actors had been strengthened by their wartime work.
Photograph (showing impact)
[Image suggestion] Soldiers training at Camp Bowie, Fort Worth, 1918. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
Caption: “Camp Bowie recruits drill in Fort Worth, 1918 — one of several Texas camps that trained roughly 200,000 Texans and funneled federal payrolls, construction, and industry into local economies during the war.”
(If you want to print or display this photograph, search the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs online for “Camp Bowie 1918” to find public-domain images and full credits.)
Conclusion
World War I reached into Texas’s fields and oilfields, into its factories and backyards, and into the political life of its towns and statehouses. The war boosted oil and lumber production, encouraged farm expansion (and debt), and brought federal money and military presence to towns from Waco to San Antonio. It reshaped social roles—especially for women—and deepened racial and cultural tensions even as it accelerated political changes, including women’s suffrage and greater federal influence in state affairs. The Great War didn’t happen far away for Texans; it remade the state’s economy, altered everyday life, and redirected Texas politics for decades to come.
Sources and notes
(Many contemporary photos and documents available at the Library of Congress; Texas state archives and local newspapers of 1917–1920; summary figures from wartime recruitment and casualty reports.)
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