Transcript The End of WWI

The End of WWI
Neil Hammond
The End of WWI
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November, 1918, the war ended, but a
treaty needed to be signed
Wilson wanted an honorable peace and
pushed his 14 points…a plan to fairly end
the war and prevent another war from
happening
Very Progressive! League of Nations was the
key…it would mediate disputes, supervise
arms reduction and curb aggressive military
nations through collective military action
(article x)
The End of WWI
The Treaty of Versailles
27 countries sent representatives to
Versailles
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• Soviet Union and Germany excluded
“Big Four” (Prime Minister David Lloyd
George of Great Britain, Premier Georges
Clemenceau of France, and Prime Minister
Vittorio Orlando of Italy) did most negotiating
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• The European powers opposed much of Wilson’s
program
• Japan and Italy lost out at key points
• Some colonial powers were ignored (e.g. Ho Chi
Minh of French Indochina)
The Treaty of Versailles
The New Map of Europe
World War I and its aftermath dramatically altered the landscape of Europe and the Middle East. In central
Europe, the collapse of the German, Russian, and Austro-Hungarian empires brought the reconstitution of
Poland and the creation of a string of new states based on the principle of national (ethnic) self-determination.
The demise of the Ottoman Empire resulted in the appearance of the quasi-independent territories of Iraq,
Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine, whose affairs were supervised by one of the Allied Powers under a mandate of the
League of Nations.
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The Fate of the Treaty of Versailles
WW had to get the treaty ratified by the
senate…hard…Democrats did NOT control the
senate
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Opposition:
• Irreconcilables…[mainly] western Republican
Progressives who did not want ANY part of the
treaty
• Reservationists…Republicans who wanted to
amend the treaty
• Primary Source
The Fate of the Treaty of Versailles
To mobilize popular and political support for the treaty,
the president embarked on an extensive and exhausting
speaking tour. His impassioned defense of the League of
Nations brought large audiences to tears, but the strain
proved too much for the sixty-two-year-old president. In
late September 1919 in Pueblo, Colorado, Wilson collapsed;
a week later, back in Washington, he suffered a severe
stroke that left him paralyzed on one side of his body.
Wilson still refused to compromise. From his sickbed, the
president ordered Democratic senators to vote against all
Republican amendments. Brought up for a vote in November
1919, the treaty failed to win the required two-thirds
majority; a second attempt, in March 1920, fell seven votes
short.
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During the final 18 months of Wilson’s presidency,
Wilson’s wife and various cabinet members ran the country
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Racial Strife, Labor Unrest, and the Red Scare
Many African-Americans were determined to fight
for their rights after WWI. This exacerbated white
racism and led to some horrific race riots
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Lynchings went up…North and South saw
violence…violence in northern cities stemmed from
fights between white workers returning and expecting
their old jobs back. Black workers sometimes acted as
strikebreakers
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Ethnic conflicts over jobs and patronage had long
been part of the urban scene, but racism turned them
into violent confrontations. When gangs of young
white men bombed or burned houses in African
American neighborhoods or attacked their residents,
blacks fought back in self-defense and for their rights
as citizens. Wilson's rhetoric about democracy and
self-determination had raised their expectations, too.
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1919: A Year of Strikes
Workers also had higher expectations. The economic
prosperity and government regulations of the war years had
brought them higher pay, shorter hours, and better working
conditions. As workers tried to maintain and advance these
gains, employers tried to cut high wartime wages and root
out unions. Consumers and native-born Americans generally
sided with management. They blamed workers for the
rapidly rising cost of living, which jumped nearly 80 percent
between 1917 and 1919, and remained suspicious of unions,
which they identified with radicalism and foreigners.
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In 1919, 4 million [ 1 out of 5] workers went on strike.
• General Strike in Seattle
• Steel Strike
• Lacking public backing, unions declined in membership and
influence in the 1920s, and the WWI gains of workers melted
away
The Red Scare and the Palmer Raids
Most Americans opposed radicalism and
associated unions with radicalism.
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• socialism of recent immigrants
• fear of Bolshevik Russia
Ironically, radicalism was in decline…the
Socialists and IWW had been hard hit by
wartime repression. Yet the public and the
press continued to blame almost every
disturbance, especially labor conflicts, on
alien radicals.
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The Red Scare and the Palmer Raids
Attorney general Mitchell Palmer took center stage with
WW incapacitated
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The attorney general staged the first of what became
known as “Palmer raids.” In November 1919, on the second
anniversary of the Russian Revolution, Palmer's agents
stormed the headquarters of radical organizations. The
dragnet pulled in thousands of aliens who had committed
no crime but were suspect because of their anarchist or
revolutionary beliefs or their immigrant backgrounds.
Lacking the protection of U.S. citizenship, they could be
deported without a formal indictment or trial. In December
1919 the USS Buford, nicknamed the “Soviet Ark,” sailed to
Russia with a cargo of 294 deported radicals—including the
famous anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman.
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January 1920 Palmer rounded up 6,000 radicals. But
later in the year the hysteria faded…as did Palmer’s
influence
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The 1920 Election
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Economic issues, racial unrest, labor unrest
• Sense of disillusionment
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Party focus:
• Democrats = Progressivism (Wilson wanted the
election to be a referendum on Versailles)
• Republicans = Turn back the clock to a simpler time