Transcript The Treaty of Versailles

APUSH Unit 6, Lecture 5
(covers Ch. 23)
Ms. Kray
(some slides taken from Susan Pojer)
 Analyze
the Treaty of Versailles in terms
of its relative weakness and the reasons
behind its failed ratification.
 Are
the lecture you should be able to:
• List problems with the Treaty of Versailles
• Explain why the treaty was never ratified in the
U.S.
 Headed
by George
Creel – America’s
Propaganda Minister?
 Anti-Germanism
 Films, posters,
pamphlets
 Espionage
Act, 1917 – provided for
imprisonment for up to 20 yrs. for either
trying to incite rebellion in the armed
forces or obstructing the operation of the
draft
 Sedition Act, 1918 – prohibited anyone
from making “disloyal” or “abusive”
remarks about the gov’t
• Eugene V. Debs sentenced to 10 years
• 2,000 convicted and jailed
Supreme
Court upheld
constitutionality of Espionage
Act
Free speech could be limited
when it represented a “clear and
present danger” to the public
safety
 Enlisted
people to
serve as “agents”
• Check out activities of
neighbors (open mail, tap
phones, etc.)
 “Hate
the Hun”
Campaign
• Attacked all things
German
• German measles =
Liberty measles
• Sauerkraut = Liberty
cabbage
John J. Pershing & AEF
 Battle of Chateau-Thierry,
June 1918
 Meuse-Argonne Offensive,
Sept. 1918
 Modern warfare led to
high casualty rates

• Trench warfare, mustard gas,
u-boats, tanks, machine guns
• DEATHS: British  1 mil,
French  1.7 mil, Germany 2
mil, Russia 1.7 mil, Austria
 1.5 mil, USA  112,000
 “Peace
without victory”
 Detailed list of war aims presented to
Congress in January 1918
Recognition of freedom of the seas
No secret treaties
An “impartial adjustment of all colonial claims”
Self-determination for the various nationalities within
the Austro-Hungarian Empire
• League of Nations to keep the peace*
•
•
•
•
 Answer to the new Bolshevik gov’t
• Lenin = a competitor in leadership
in USSR
Woodrow
Wilson,
USA
David
Lloyd
George,
Britain
George
Clemenceau,
France
Vittorio
Orlando,
Italy
 Idealism
competed w/spirit of national
aggrandizement
• USSR and Germany not invited
• Britain won’t even discuss free trade
 Treaty of Versailles, 1919
• Germany punished: “war guilt” clause, reparations,
•
•
•
•
territorial losses
USSR punished: lost more territory than Germany
Self-determination largely ignored
Italy and Japan did not gain all territory desired
League of Nations established
Problems with the Treaty
 Many want a return to
isolationism
 Violation of Monroe
Doctrine?
 Increased partisanship
• Wilson & Midterm Election
of 1818
• Republicans not consulted
on peace negotiations
 Popular
sentiment
favored
ratification
 Lodge
tried to
slow the
process
 Amendments
to the League
Covenant
 Began
8,000 mile speaking tour to rally
support for the treaty
• followed and harassed by the “Irreconcilables”
 Sept
25, 1919  Wilson collapsed
 Wilson
urged Democrats to vote against
treaty w/Lodge Reservations
 Nov
19, 1919  Treaty of Versailles defeated
in the Senate
5 Isolationists like
Senator Lodge, refused
to allow the US to sign
the Versailles Treaty.
5 Security treaty with
France also rejected by
the Senate.
5 July, 1921  Congress
passed a resolution
declaring WWI
officially over!
Sen. Henry Cabot
Lodge, Sr. [R-MA]

Postwar Recession, 1919

Coal Miner’s Strike of 1919

Boston Police Strike of 1919

Steelworkers’ Strike of 1919
• Largest strike in American
history
• Demanded 8-hr day & union
recognition
“If Capital & Labor
Don’t Pull Together”
– Chicago Tribune
“Coming Out of
the Smoke” –
New York World
“Put Them Out & Keep Them
Out” – Philadelphia Inquirer


Series of raids on alleged radical centers throughout the
country
6,000 arrested
 Sacco
and Vanzetti
 New
black attitudes
• Increased determination to fight for rights
• Economic expectations raised
 In
the South, lynchings increased in 1919
 In
the North, race riots
• East St. Louis, 1917
• Chicago, 1919
 40
people killed, 500 injured