CHAPTER 11 - Class Notes World War I

							             WORLD WAR I BEGINS
             (CHAPTER – 11 / SECTION -1)

The climate within the European continent was one of fear and
mistrust. Nations were building armies, were speaking words of
Nationalism and setting the stage for a major confrontation.


Nationalism is where a specific nation rallies behind its
language, culture and carries the understanding that they are
superior to all others.

Some countries rallied behind this nationalistic cause and other
nations were creating problems due to the mix of cultures or ethnic
groups that lived within a single nation.


 Austria-Hungry had a high number of Slavic people within its
  borders.

 Next to Austria-Hungry was the nation of Serbia that was under
  the control of Austria-Hungry.

 Serbia was encouraging the Slavs within Austria-Hungry to
  break free and to join them in an independent united Slavic
  nation.

 Austria-Hungry saw this as a threat to their authority and set the
  stage for trouble.
Colonial Empires

Nations were competing for lands over seas creating were regarded
as being Imperialistic, the process of adding colonies to and the
maintaining of territories across the world.

Most of the nations were aspiring to become another Great Britain.
France also wanted to reacquire Alsace-Lorraine, an area it had
lost in the last war with Germany.



Militarism is a society that is best served (or more efficient)
when it is governed or guided by concepts embodied in the culture,
doctrine, system, or people of the military.

 Militarists hold the view that security is the highest social
  priority, and claim that the development and maintenance of the
  military ensures that security.

 Militarism adds the importance to the drive of expanding
  military culture and ideals to areas outside of the military
  structure, most notably in areas of private business, government
  policy, education, and entertainment.

Alliance is a situation in which a nation is committed to support
another nation if attacked.

Balance of Power is the strength of rival alliances is nearly as
equal to another rival alliance.

European leaders thought that no country would start a war without
a real advantage in military strength.
 The Triple Alliance was the treaty by which Germany,
  Austria-Hungary and Italy pledged (May 20, 1882) to support
  each other militarily in the event of an attack against any of
  them by two or more great powers.

Germany and Italy additionally undertook to support one another
in the event of attack by France.

In a supplementary declaration Italy specified that her undertakings
could not be regarded as being directed against the Great Britain.

Shortly after renewing the Alliance in June 1902, Italy secretly
extended a similar guarantee to France.


 The Triple Entente was the alliance formed in 1907 among
  the Great Britain, France and Russia after the signing of the
  Anglo-Russian Entente.

Entente is a French word meaning agreement. Though not a
military alliance, the alignment of the three powers, constituted a
powerful counterweight to the "Triple Alliance" of Germany,

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The Spark
In 1878 the Balkan province of Bosnia and Herzegovina had just
gained independence from Turkish rule.

In 1908 Austria-Hungary annexed the territories. This angered
many of the Slavic nationalists who wanted the area allied with
Serbia. Many of the Serbian nationalists were members of the
Black Hand, a rebel group that would use violence to achieve its
goals.
Archduke Ferdinand, of Austria-Hungry visits Sarajevo and a 19-
year old Garvrilo Princip steps out from the crowd and assassinates
the Archduke and his wife.

Austria-Hungry choose to disregard a French warning and declare
war on Serbia on July 28, 1914.

Mobilization becomes a concern as many of the allied countries
openly expressed their doubts of being able to mobilize their forces
quickly. This made many countries rethink and create other
alliances.

The Schlieffen Plan
Germany initiates a plan to win the war by invading Belgium on
August 3, 1914. The Germans counted on a holding pattern of the
Russians at the beginning and a combined quick drive from
Belgium into France.

Once France has fallen Germany would turn and defeat Russia.
The Russians have early success in the war and cause the Germans
to place vital troops on the eastern front.

The First Battle of the Marne was a WWI battle where the
French-British won a victory against the German army and was a
major turning point of World War I.

Over two million troops fought in the First Battle of the Marne and
more than 500,000 were killed or wounded.

By the end of August 1914, the whole Allied army on the Western
Front had been forced into a general retreat back towards Paris as
both the French and the British fell back towards the Marne River.
The war became a stalemate when the Allies won the Battle of the
Marne.
The German retreat left Germany with no hope of a quick victory
in the West and the Germans abandoned the Schlieffen Plan.

Both sides dug in and four years of stalemate ensued.

The First Battle of the Marne is best remembered for the
approximately (600) Paris taxicabs, mainly were commandeered
by the French authorities and used to transport a total of six
thousand French reserve infantry troops to the battle.


American opposition to the War

The war in Europe took on different levels of support or lack there
of. Several anti war groups emerged due to the isolationist feelings
in the country.

Naturalized Citizens
Immigrants that had close ties to their home country were reluctant
to fight against their fellow countryman.

Socialists
The perception was that the war was merely an imperialistic
struggle for acquiring more territory.

Pacifists
The group believed that all wars were evil and only a destructive
alternative v. a peaceful negotiated settlement.

Parents
They feared the experience of warfare to their sons and the
potential outcome of either being injured or even worse dying.
Attempts to bring the US into the War

Great Britain

 Cut the transatlantic cable between the US and Germany

 Sensationalized accounts of German aggression in news reports

 Placed large orders for war materials and received large loans
  from the US
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Germany

 Engaged in unrestricted submarine warfare

 Sank the Lusitania and other US cargo ships

 Made a promise to Mexico that it would US territories if they
  declared war on US

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Russia

 Overthrew the Czar and established a socialist government

 The new government created a situation in which the war was
  viewed as one being democracy v. dictatorships
The Central Powers were the nations of Germany, Austria-
Hungry, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria, which fought against
the Allies during WWI.

They are called this because they all were located between Russia
in the east and France and Great Britain in the west.
______________________________________________________

The Allies were the France, Great Britain and Russia.

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and his administration were
determined not to define the U.S. as an ally.

The United States declared war on Germany on the grounds of
German violations of American neutrality by attacking many
international carriers, and was not at war with the Ottoman Empire
at all. Therefore, the U.S. entered the war as an "associated
power", rather than a formal ally of France and Britain, and
maintained that distance throughout the war.



War in Europe

Trench Warfare is a form of war in which both opposing
armies have static lines of fortifications dug into the ground, facing
each other.

Trench warfare arose when there was a revolution in firepower
without similar advances in mobility and communications. It
reached peak brutality and bloodshed on the Western Front in the
WWI
However, as war broke out, German and French and British forces
soon learned that with modern weapons even a shallow scrape in
the soil could be defended by a handful of infantry.

To attack frontally was to court crippling losses, so an outflanking
operation was essential.


Trench Construction
 Trenches were never straight but were dug in a square-toothed
  pattern that broke the line into bays connected by traverses.

  This meant that a soldier could never see more than 10 meters
  or so along the trench. Consequently, the entire trench could not
  be enfiladed if the enemy gained access at one point or if a
  bomb or shell landed in the trench; the fragmentation could not
  travel far.


 The guidelines for British trench construction stated that it
  would take 450 men 6 hours (at night) to complete about 750
  yards of a front-line trench system.

  Thereafter the trench would require constant maintenance to
  prevent deterioration caused by weather or shelling.


Life in the Trenches
An individual soldier's time in the front-line trench was usually
brief; from as little as one day to as much as two weeks at a time
before being relieved.
A typical British soldier's year could be divided as follows:

   15% front line
   10% support line
   30% reserve line
   20% rest
   25% hospital, traveling, leave, training

The trenches were busiest at night when cover of darkness allowed
the movement of troops and supplies, the maintenance and
expansion of the barbed wire, trench system, and reconnaissance of
the enemy's defenses.

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Death in the trenches
 The intensity of World War I trench warfare meant that about
    10% of the fighting soldiers were killed.

    It was highly unlikely for a fighting soldier to survive the war
    without sustaining some form of injury. Many soldiers were
    injured more than once during the course of their service.

 Medical services were primitive and life-saving antibiotics had
    not yet been discovered. Relatively minor injuries could prove
    fatal through the onset of infection and gangrene.

    The Americans recorded that 44% of casualties that developed
    gangrene died and only 1% of those wounded in the stomach
    survived.
 Three-quarters of the wounds inflicted during the war came
  from shell fire. The blast from shell explosions could also kill
  by concussion.

  In addition to the physical effects of shell fire there was the
  psychological damage. Men who had to endure a prolonged
  bombardment would often suffer debilitating shell shock, a
  condition that was not well understood at the time.


 As in many other wars, World War I's greatest killer was
  disease. Sanitary conditions in the trenches were quite poor.

  Many soldiers suffered from infections, poor hygiene and
  exposure to the weather. Temperatures within the trenches, in
  the winter, could easily fall below zero degrees.


 Burial of the dead was usually a luxury that neither side could
  easily afford. The bodies would lie in no man's land until the
  front line moved, by which time the bodies were often
  unidentifiable.



“No Man's Land”
Is a term for a land that is not occupied or more specifically land
that is under dispute between parties that will not occupy it
because of fear or uncertainty of not being able to hold the
territory.

The term was printed in The Times newspaper writing as
"Eyewitness". It became a phrase that characterized the horrors of
World War I, a "neutral" area between opposing trenches that saw
fierce fighting and large scale human carnage.
 No man's land was often a hellish experience for soldiers,
  ranging from several hundred yards to in some cases as short as
  15 yards.


 Heavily defended by machine guns and riflemen on both sides,
  they also were often riddled with land mines and barbed wire, as
  well as corpses and wounded soldiers who were not able to
  make it back to their own trenches.


 Intense bombing and artillery often blanketed the no man's land
  in a sea of explosions and fire. The area was usually devastated
  by the warfare, leaving little to no foliage or cover of any sort.


 The artillery left only disturbed ground and craters. It was open
  to any type of gun fire from the opposing trenches and hard
  going generally slowed down any attempted advance.


Wilson Chooses Neutrality

As the war began President Wilson decides to remain neutral,
which was reflection of the isolation policy in foreign affairs.

Americans were split in who to support. Some Americans
supported Britain & France because of our historical ties and yet
new immigrants choose the Central Powers because of where they
came from.

U.S. trade with the warring nations continued and the U.S. invested
in war bonds to the amount of 20 billion, 25 million of which were
in German bonds.
British Blockade

As the war raged on the British established a blockade of the
German coast to prevent war supplies from entering the country.
The supply ban included food.

The British completely mined the North Sea and extended the
blockade to neutral ports. The results of the blockade were:

 US ships refused to break through the blockade with supplies
  for Germany

 As time goes on Germany finds it harder to acquire food and
  fertilizers to grow crops

Some Americans were upset because of threatening the freedom of
the seas and prevention of US products reaching Germany.


U.S. Comes Under Fire

 On February 4, 1915, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany declared
  the seas around the British Isles a war zone.

 Effective February 18, Allied ships in the area would be sunk
  without warning in what would be known as unrestricted
  submarine warfare.

 British ships hiding behind neutral flags would not be spared,
  though some effort would be made to avoid sinking clearly
  neutral vessels.
 On May 7, 1915 the Lusitania was torpedoed by a German
  submarine, U-20. The sinking galvanized American opinion
  against Germany's policy of unrestricted submarine warfare and
  played a role in the U.S. later entry into WWI on April 17,
  1917.

Though there was a great deal of outrage at the sinking of an
"innocent" merchant ship at the time, historians now believe the
Lusitania had 10 tons of weapons aboard, making it a valid target
under international law.

Of the 1,198 lives lost, 128 were American civilians. This event
turned American public opinion against Germany and was a
significant factor in getting the U.S. involved in the war on the
Allied side.


                       NOTICE!
TRAVELLERS intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are
reminded that a state of war exists between Germany and her
allies and Great Britain and her allies; that the zone of war
includes the waters adjacent to the British Isles; that, in
accordance with formal notice given by the Imperial German
Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of her
allies, are liable to destruction in those waters and that travelers
sailing in the war zone on the ships of Great Britain or her allies
do so at their own risk.

           IMPERIAL GERMAN EMBASSY,
            Washington, D.C. April 22, 1915

This warning was printed right next to an ad for Lusitanian’s return
voyage. The warning worried the ship's passengers and crew.
Political Consequences
 There was massive outrage in Britain and America. The British
  felt the Americans had to declare war on Germany.


 US Secretary of State William Bryan, fearing that the US would
  declare war, resigns from the Cabinet in protest.


 President Wilson still did not want the country to get involved
  in a European dispute because the American population did not
  want to be involved in a war.


 Instead of declaring war, he sent a formal protest to Germany.
  Wilson was bitterly criticized in Britain as a coward.

Wilson's restraint now seems remarkable under the circumstances,
since there was a wave of American anger over the sinking of
Lusitania.

The opening of the Treaty of Versailles opened deliberately on the
anniversary of the sinking of the Lusitania, according to French
newspapers.

______________________________________________________
The Sussex pledge was a promise made in 1916 by Germany
to the U.S., prior to its entry into the war. Germany had been
carrying out unrestricted submarine warfare, indiscriminately
attacking any non-German.
In the process, a French passenger ship, the Sussex, was fired upon.
After this incident, President Wilson threatened that if Germany
were to continue this practice, the U.S. would break diplomatic
relations with Germany.

Fearing the entry of the U.S. into WWI, Germany attempted to
appease the United States by issuing the Sussex pledge, which
promised a change in Germany’s naval warfare policy.



Zimmerman Note

The Zimmermann Telegram was a coded telegram dispatched
by the Foreign Secretary of the Germany, Arthur Zimmerman, on
February 19, 1917, to the German ambassador in Mexico.

It instructed the ambassador to approach the Mexican government
with a proposal to form an alliance against the U.S. It was
intercepted and decoded by the British and its contents hastened
the entry of the United States into WWI.

Zimmermann's message included proposals for a German alliance
with Mexico. For its part, would provide financial assistance and
the restoration of former territories of Texas, New Mexico and
Arizona.
The Mexican answer

Later, Mexico's President, Venustiano Carranza, assessed the
realities of a Mexican takeover of their former provinces and came
to the conclusion that it would not work for the following reasons:

 Taking over the three states would almost certainly cause future
   problems and probably war with the U.S.


 Mexico would also be unable to accommodate a large Anglo
   population within its borders.


 Germany would not be able to supply the arms needed in the
   hostilities that would surely arise.

Carranza declined Zimmermann's proposals on April 14, by which
time the US had declared war on Germany.
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War declared against Germany

Wilson responded to this manifestation of German hostility
towards the US by asking Congress to declare war on Germany.

Jeannette Rankin elected from the state of Montana, becomes
the first women elected to the House of Representatives.

She would also be the only member of the House to vote against
the U.S. entering into WWI and later in WWII.

She believed that females would only be able to prevent future
wars.
On April 6, 1917, Congress complied, bringing the United States into World War I.
     AMERICAN POWER TIPS THE BALANCE
                  (CHAPTER – 11 / SECTION -2)

Eddie Rickenbacker

Famous US fighter pilot in WWI that achieved the “American ace
of aces” when he downed 26 enemy aircraft in 134 missions.
           (Why are war heroes’s so important?)


America Mobilizes
At the beginning of WWI only 200,000 men were in the service.
Some 73,000 enlisted upon the declaration of war would not be
enough for the ensuing war.

The Selective Service Act was passed by the Congress on May
18, 1917 creating the Selective Service System. The act required
men to register with the government and to be randomly selected
to serve when called upon.

The Act gave the President the power to draft soldiers. Few
Americans, however, rushed to volunteer for military service.

 By the end of WWI, some 24 million men had registered, and
  some 3 million had been drafted. In fact, more than half of the
  Americans who served in the armed forces were drafted.

 Most of the inductees had not attended high school and one in
  five was foreign born.

 Pressure also from the NAACP led to the military training of
  African Americans for combat roles. Most were assigned to
  non-combat roles
 Some 25,000 women were reluctantly accepted in the Army
  Corp of Nurses, signalers, typists and interpreters with no pay,
  rank or benefits.

 At home more than 1.5 million women worked in factories.

 Some women actively opposed the war and worked for peace.


U.S. Navy Takes Shape
The U-boat is the German word itself an abbreviation of
Unterseeboot (undersea boat). The primary targets of the U-boat
campaigns in both world wars were the merchant convoys bringing
supplies from Canada and the U.S. to Europe.

By 1917 the German U-Boats had sunk twice as much ship
tonnage as the Allies had built.

The U.S. took four important steps:

1) The U.S. exempted many shipyard workers from the draft or
   delayed their classification

2) The government created a public relations campaign to enhance
   the importance of the workers. Each family was given a family
   flag to display, the same that each serviceman family was given.



3) Shipyards used fabrication techniques instead of building an
   entire ship at a yard they were built elsewhere, and then sent to
   the yard for final assembly.
4) The government took over private and commercial ships and
   converted them for transatlantic war.

Convoy System
U.S. Admiral William Sims convinced the British to utilize a new
system in which merchant ships would be guarded by destroyers
and cruisers.

This new tactic nearly dropped the loss of ships in one year in half.

_______________________________________________
New Weapons / Technology
 Machine Guns: could fire up to 400-600 rounds per minute

 Artillery Guns: could fire huge rounds that exploded with
  deadly fragments, poison gases


 Tanks: to support infantry attacks on trenches

 Airplanes: used to gather information and to shoot down enemy
  planes


 Poison Gas: Mustard, Chlorine and other nerve gases were used
  during the war
War Hero’s
Alvin York, from the state of Tennessee, at first did not believe it
was right to fight in the war and was a conscientious objector,
someone who opposes warfare on moral grounds because the bible
said “thou shall not kill”.

Yet later in one battle he killed 25 Germans and six other men
were able to capture 132 prisoners.

The arrival of American combat troops at the rate of 10,000 a day
in summer 1918 was the decisive factor in restoring the advantage
to the Allies, as the German armies crumbled away.


Germany Collapses

 By the fall of 1918 many German civilians were without food
  and supplies. By this time 800 Germans were dying per day due
  to starvation.

 Sailors mutinied, along with soldiers and factory workers.

 Many of the Central Powers allies began to sign treaties with the
  Allies.

 On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month
  an armistice was signed ending the war. Kaiser Wilhelm II
  abandoned the throne and fled to the Netherlands. The socialists
  create a council and Germany becomes a Republic.
Europe after the War
WWI took a heavy toll upon the world. The final cost of the
battles was:

 More than 11 million civilian deaths

 The Allies lost more than 5 million troops (116,000 U.S.
  troops).

 The Central Powers lost 3.4 million troops and both sides had
  more than 20 million wounded.

 Approximately 10 million refugees

 The cost of the war on the Allies had been around $145 billion
  and some $63 billion for the Central Powers. All totaled the war
  cost about 338 billion dollars.

 Belgium and France had many parts of their agriculture and
  industry nearly wiped out.
                 THE WAR AT HOME
                (CHAPTER – 11 / SECTION -3)

Rallying the Public

The War Industries Board (WIB) was an organization
encouraged companies to use mass-production techniques to
increase efficiency and urged them to eliminate waste by
standardizing products.

The WIB, under the direction of Bernard M. Baruch
companies set production quotas, used mass-production
techniques, reduce waste and allocated raw materials.

Most producers cooperated with the WIB. The auto & steel
industries hesitated until they were threatened with stopping of the
railroad service in & out of plants.

The WIB also aided with the uprising of many unions because of
the war's demand for products.

The government could not negotiate prices and could not handle
worker strikes, so the WIB regulated the two to decrease tensions
by stopping strikes with wage increases to prevent a shortage of
supplies going to the war in Europe.

Railroad Administration controlled the railroad operations
ensuring delivery and standardized shipping price of products.
Fuel Administration Regulated coal supplies, rationed gasoline
and heating oil. The introduction of daylight-savings to further
help conserve resources.
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National War Labor Board was a responsible for resolving
any labor disputes and pushed for the improvement for working
conditions.
______________________________________________________

Under Food Administration the government had the control of
the production and prices of fuel and food. Herbert Hoover
oversaw the agency.
The agency increased the food supplies for the troops by increasing
farm production and reducing domestic consumption. It became a
rationing of goods.

Hoover was able to offer farmers higher prices for their goods and
created meatless Mondays and Wheat-less Wednesdays. He also
promoted the ideal to have people plant their own gardens, which
were called “victory gardens”.

The Committee on Public Information was established
under President Wilson. Its purpose was to influence American
public opinion toward supporting U.S. intervention in WWI via a
vigorous propaganda campaign.
The CPI, under the direction of George Creel (old newspaper
muckraker journalist) began churning out raw propaganda
picturing Germans as evil monsters.

Hollywood movie makers joined in on the propaganda by making
movies such as The Claws of the Hun, The Prussian Cur, and The
Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin.

These titles illustrated the message the CPI tried to convey. CPI
pamphlets were created and warned citizens to be on the lookout
for German spies.

The targets were particularly German Americans, some of whom
lost their jobs, and were publicly humiliated by being forced to kiss
the American flag, recite the Pledge of Allegiance, or buy war
bonds. The CPI was abolished by August 21, 1919.


The Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918
provided if a person could be fined $10,000 dollars and sentenced
up to 20 years in jail if:

 Anyone aided the enemy

 Refused military duty or if one interfered with the war effort

 Said anything disloyal of the war or anything abusive or profane
  about the government

           (Is this a violation of the 1st Amendment?)
Social Changes in American Groups

Immigrants
Often certain countries (based on alliances) were attacked resulting
in injury or death. Many others would loose their jobs.
______________________________________________________

African Americans
Some of the African American leaders supported the war and some
stated that why should we support a country that is oppressive or
racist to its own people?

The Great Migration was the movement of Southern African
American into northern cities to seek out the new employment
opportunities. This movement brought both problems and a new
start to the people.

Also African American soldiers were for the first time allowed to
be led by African American officers.
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Women
The war allowed women to fill in on traditional men’s jobs. This
created a new sense of independence. The new found contribution
also showed their ability to have the right to vote. Thus the 19th
Amendment is passed.
The Great Flu Epidemic

By the fall of 1918 a severe flu out break began affecting nearly
25% of the US population.

The US industrial and basic lifestyles came to a halt. Factories and
businesses staggered their hours as to not have people contract the
disease.

Death could come in a matter of days to people that were
seemingly very healthy. Cities ran short of coffins and many
people were left unburied or placed in mass graves.

In the U.S. army as many as 1/3 of the troops were infected with
the flu, causing about 500,000 deaths before it disappeared in
1919.
      WILSON FIGHTS FOR PEACE
              (CHAPTER – 11 / SECTION -4)

Wilson’s Plans for a Future of Peace

The Fourteen Points were listed in a speech delivered by
President Wilson to a joint session of the U.S. Congress in
1918.

In his speech, Wilson set out a blueprint for a just and lasting peace
in Europe after WWI. The idealism displayed in the speech gave
Wilson a position of moral leadership among the Allies, and
encouraged the Central Powers to surrender.

The speech was delivered over 10 months before the Armistice
with Germany ended WWI, but the Fourteen Points became the
basis for the terms of the German surrender, as negotiated at the
Paris Peace Conference in 1919.

However, only four of the points were adopted completely and the
U.S. refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles.

______________________________________________________

The Fourteen Points

The first five of Wilson's Fourteen Points were quite general:

I. The abolition of secret treaties
Secret treaties were common before the First World War, and
many blamed them for helping spark the conflict.
II. The freedom of the seas
The freedom of the seas allowed for freedom of navigation outside
territorial waters at times of war and peace, but also allowed for
total and partial blockades "for the enforcement of international
covenants". This proposal was opposed in particular by the British.

III. Free trade
Free trade provided for the removal of tariff barriers between
peaceful nations, also called for the introduction of equality in
trading conditions.

IV. Disarmament
Disarmament "to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety"
lessoning the possibility of a military response during a crisis.

V. Adjustment of colonial claims.
Wilson called for national self-determination for formerly
colonized countries, and for the people of the world to give equal
weight to the opinions of the colonized peoples as to those of the
colonial powers.

VI – XIII. Dealt with boundary changes
These were based upon Wilson’s principal of self-determination.
Ethnic groups were to be able to form their own nation states.

Wilson's final point was perhaps the most visionary:

XIV. A general association of nations
Point 14 called for a multilateral international association of
nations to enforce the peace, foreshadowing the League of Nations
(and, after the WWII, the United Nations)
The Paris Peace Treaty of Versailles of 1919 was an organized by
the victors of WWI to negotiate the peace treaties between the
Allied and the defeated Central Powers.

Russia refused to attend and no Central Powers were invited. The
Big Four - Italy (Orlando), Britain (Lloyd George), France
(Clemenceau) and the U.S. (Wilson) dominated the conference.

Without the approval of Congress, Clemenceau noted Wilson's
weak position and furthered the interests of Britain and France,
opposed by Wilson.

Wilson would not sign these treaties, and so the United States
signed separate treaties with Germany, Austria and Hungary
approved by Congress.

Problems with the terms of the treaty arose when:

 Wilson failed to get a consensus with his counterparts in Europe
  on his Fourteen Point proposal;


 The British were against freedom of the seas;

 The French demanded reparations from Germany.

 Germany was forced to demilitarize, accept the War Guilt
  Clause, to give up all of its colonies and Alsace-Lorraine and
  to pay the Allies of WWI $33 billion dollars.

  The resulting bitterness in Germany laid the seeds for the rise of
  Fascism in the 1930s.
 Wilson was forced to compromise on many of his ideals to
  ensure that his most important point, the establishment of the
  League of Nations, was accepted.


 Nevertheless, Wilson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in
  1919 for his peace-making efforts.


Treaty Weaknesses & Germany Responds

 Germans immediately reject the treaty not accept full blame for
  the war

 Germany could not pay the reparations being demanded upon
  them because of the lose of its colonies in the Pacific & Africa

 The Big Four ignore Russia’s sacrifices and desires to regain
  lost territories

 The Big Four ignored the colony people’s plea for self-
  determination
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British Blockade of Germany

Throughout the armistice the Allies maintained the naval blockade
of Germany. This blockade is estimated to have caused the death
of 800,000 German civilians. The continuation of the blockade
after the fighting ended tormented the Germans.

The blockade was not lifted until June of 1919 when the Treaty of
Versailles was signed by most of the combatant nations.
A major historical fallacy is that the reparations were the source of
the economic condition in Germany from 1919 to 1939.

Germany paid very little of the reparations another fallacy is that
these reparations caused the economic condition that saw Hitler’s
rise to power.

Germany was in fact doing remarkably well after its hyper-
inflation of 1923, and was once more one of the world's largest
economies, until the foreign investment funding the economy was
suddenly withdrawn with the Stock Market Crash of 1929.


Henry Cabot Lodge

One provision within the treaty made Lodge suspicious. It was the
call for a joint economic and military action against aggression.

This portion was totally voluntary, however, Lodge wanted the
Constitutional right of Congress to declare war included also in the
treaty.



Treaty Fails in U.S.

The Paris Peace Treaty fails to muster the votes for passage
because:

 Wilson’s failure to ensure that enough Republicans and
  Senators were among the delegation to the treaty

 Wilson, along with the government and Lodge, are unable to
  compromise
 The plan also ultimately failed because of the U.S. Congress
  refusal to go along but in fact no more reparations were paid by
  Germany.

In the end, the Senate voted twice to reject the treaty, thus keeping
the US out of the League.


League of Nations
The League of Nations was an international organization
founded after the Paris Peace conference of 1919. The League's
goals included disarmament; preventing war through collective
security and settling disputes between countries through
negotiation diplomacy; improving global welfare.

The U.S. never joined the League of Nations due to Congress in
America barring the country from being part of the League:

 They felt that America had already had too much involvement
  in Europe's affairs,

 The U.S. did not want to be a part of Europe's international
  disputes any more.

This sentiment was largely shared by the people of America,
despite.

Future Germany & Adolf Hitler
Political instability and rising violence would bring the rise to
other options created by Hitler. Germany’s resentment of the treaty
also created hatred toward the Allies.