Download The US Declares War

Lecture 3:
U. S.
Involvement;
WHY??
U.S.
Involvement
• The U.S. declared war on Germany in April 1917.
• Many reasons: unrestricted submarine warfare
(Lusitania), Zimmerman telegram, British
propaganda, the Russian Revolution
• With America’s entry, the war was transformed (at
least according to Woodrow Wilson) into a moral
crusade: an ideological conflict between
democracy and autocracy.
• He had been able to claim that because of the
revolution in Russia.
Freedom of the Seas
· The U.S., as a
neutral nation,
claimed the right to
trade with either side
in the war.
· However, Britain
and Germany set up
blockades around the
British and German
coasts.
· German submarines, called U-boats, torpedoed enemy ships
and neutral ships trading with the enemy.
German Submarine Warfare
U-Boats
• Germany suffered because of the
British blockade, so it developed small
submarines called U-boats to strike
back at the British.
• U-boats are named after the German
for “undersea boat.”
• In February 1915 the German
government declared the waters
around Great Britain a war zone,
threatening to destroy all enemy
ships.
• Germany warned the U.S. that neutral
ships might be attacked.
• The German plan for unrestricted
submarine warfare angered
Americans, and Wilson believed it
violated the laws of neutrality.
• Wilson held Germany accountable for
American losses.
America’s Involvement
• In 1915, Germany sank a luxury
passenger ship to Great Britain
called the Lusitania, killing many,
including 128 Americans
• Americans were outraged, and
Wilson demanded an end to
unrestricted submarine warfare.
• The Germans agreed to attack only
supply ships but later sank the
French passenger ship Sussex,
killing 80 people.
• Wilson threatened Germany again,
and Germany issued the Sussex
pledge, promising not to sink
merchant vessels “without warning
and without saving human lives.”
What did it take to get the US
involved?
1. Blockades
•In May, 1915 Germany
told Americans to stay off
of British ships
•They could/would sink
them
7
· In 1915, a German submarine torpedoed the Lusitania, a
British passenger ship, killing approximately 1,200 people,
including 128 Americans.
What did it take to get the US
involved?
German Propaganda Justifying Lusitania sinking
•Lusitania
torpedoed,
sinking with
1200
passengers and
crew (including
128 Americans)
•Was eventually
found to be
carrying 4200
cases of
ammunition 9
· Americans were infuriated with the destruction of the
Lusitania.
What did it take to get the US
involved?
•The US sharply
criticized
Germany for
their action
•Germany
agreed not to
sink passenger
ships without
warning in the
future
Note in Bottle After Lusitania Disaster
11
What did it take to get the US
involved?
2. Unlimited Submarine Warfare
•1917 Germany
announced
“unlimited
submarine
warfare” in the
war zone
Why?
Otherwise their
blockade would
not be
successful
12
Re-Election, Espionage, and War
• Wilson promised not to go to war, and after his re-election in 1916 he
began to work for a settlement of “peace without victory.”
• When Germany restarted unrestricted warfare, the U.S. ended
diplomatic relations and started installing guns on merchant ships.
The Zimmermann Note
• German foreign secretary Arthur
Zimmermann sent a telegram to
a German official in Mexico
proposing an alliance between
Germany and Mexico.
• The Zimmermann Note asked
for Mexico’s help in exchange for
its lost Southwest territory.
• The Mexicans declined, but the
British decoded the note, and
Americans called for war.
The U.S. Declares War
• Wilson continued to resist.
• Russians forced the czar to
give up absolute power and
formed a more democratic
government, which
Americans liked.
• Then German U-boats sank
three American merchant
ships, and Wilson’s cabinet
convinced him to declare
war, which Congress
approved.
On April 6, 1917, the United States joined the Allies. Now they needed
to raise an army, train them, and ship supplies and troops.
What did it take to get the US
involved?
3. Zimmerman Note
•US intercepted a note from Germany to
Mexico,
•It promised Texas, New Mexico, and
Arizona back in return for an alliance
14
Moving Toward War
Zimmermann telegram:
– secret message from
Germany to Mexico
urging Mexico to attack
the U.S. if the U.S.
declared war on
Germany
– Germany promised to
help Mexico regain land
it lost to the U.S. in the
Mexican War.
* The U.S. declared war
on the Central Powers
in 1917.
Zimmermann
Telegram:
Decoded
Message
What did it take to get the US
involved?
•Zimmerman
Note + the
sinking of 4
unarmed
American
ships led to a
declaration
of war
17
Americans in the Trenches
The Spanish Flu
(Influenza)1918
• Struck in the trenches of the western front and then
flourished when soldiers returned home.
• It became the greatest public health disaster of modern
history
– The pandemic killed between 22 and 30 million people
worldwide, or roughly twice as many as had died during
the fighting
– In Spain, it killed roughly 40 percent of the population (8
million), thus giving it the name of the Spanish Influenza.
– British colonial troops carried it to India where it killed 12
million.
– No disease, plague, war, famine, or natural catastrophe in
world history had killed so many people in such a short
time.
Influenza Spreads—Did you know?
•
Three waves of a severe flu epidemic broke out between 1918 and 1919 in
Europe and in America.
•
Of all American troops who died in World War I, half died from influenza.
•
On the Western Front, crowded and unsanitary trenches helped flu spread
among troops, then to American military camps in Kansas and beyond.
•
This strain of influenza was deadly, killing healthy people within days, and
during the month of October 1918, influenza killed nearly 200,000
Americans.
•
Panicked city leaders halted gatherings, and people accused the Germans of
releasing flu germs into the populace.
By the time it passed, over 600,000 Americans lost their lives.
Disease, Influenza and Pneumonia
Major Personalities
• General John J. Pershing
was a general officer in the United States Army.
Pershing is the only person to be promoted in his own
lifetime to the highest rank ever held in the United
States Army—General of the Armies
Marshal Ferdinand Foch
• general in the French army during World War I and was made
Marshal of France in its final year: 1918
• chosen as supreme commander of the Allied armies, a position
that he held until 11 November 1918, when he accepted the
German request for an armistice.
Field Marshal Earl Haig:
Earl Haig is a title in the Peerage of the
UK
• Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig
• He commanded the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) from
1915 to the end of the War. Most notably he was
commander during the Battle of the Somme, the 3rd Battle
of Ypres and the series of victories leading to the German
surrender in 1918.
Lt. Gen. Erich von
Ludendorff,1865-1937
• German Army officer
1916-he ran Germany's war effort in
World War I until his resignation in
October 1918.
Hindenburg, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and Ludendorff
in January, 1917
Paul von Hindenburg
• was a German field marshal, statesman, and politician, and
served as the 2nd President of Germany from 1925 to 1934
• Was 84 years old when elected President!!
• Chief of the General Staff from 1916
• His deputy was Ludendorff in WW I
• The famed zeppelin, Hindenburg, that was destroyed by fire in
1937 had been named in his honor
Lieutenant Colonel Thomas
Edward Lawrence
• known professionally as T. E. Lawrence, was a British Army
officer renowned especially for his liaison role during the Arab
Revolt of 1916–18. 1918 British armies defeated the Ottoman
empire once and for all!
• Lawrence of Arabia, a title popularized by the 1962 film
Lawrence of Arabia based on his life.
Society during the War
• Creation of planned economies
• People everywhere supported their countries (nationalism!)
• Men were drafted & women took their places in the work force.
Female nurses & doctors, served on the war front.
• Suffragettes put their campaign on hold during the
war….immediately after 1918…they go the right to voted in
Britain, Austria, & Germany…US?
• Daylight Saving Time was used for the 1st time! Though
mentioned by Benjamin Franklin in 1784, the modern idea of
daylight saving was first proposed in 1895 by George Vernon
Hudson] and it was first implemented during the First World
War. Many countries have used it at various times since then
Germany
• Had the most planned economy & the most
advanced chemical industry
• They had successfully created an array of synthetic
products, from rubber, to nitrates(for fertilizer, or
explosives)
• Walter Rathenau, Jewish industrialist, headed a
German program to utilize everything!
• Will serve as as Foreign Minister
of Germany during the Weimar Republic.
Total War
• “…if all the treasures of our soil that agriculture
and industry can produce are used exclusively
for the conduct of War…all other considerations
must come second.” --General Hindenburg
British Writers
• Siegfried Sassoon & Wilfred Owen
Wrote poetry around themes of irony & bitterness
Other writer’s
Oswald Spengler(German)-Decline of the West in 1919
book introduces itself as a 'Copernican overturning' and rejects the Euro-centric
view of history, especially the division of history into the linear "ancientmedieval-modern" rubric] According to Spengler the meaningful units for
history are not epochs but whole cultures which evolve as organisms. He
acknowledges eight high cultures: Babylonian, Egyptian, Chinese, Indian,
Mexican (Mayan/Aztec), Classical (Greek/Roman), Arabian, Western or
"European-American". Cultures have a limited lifespan of some thousand
years. The final stage of each culture is, in his word use, a 'civilization'.
Other Writers
• Thomas Mann(German)-1929 Nobel Prize laureate The
Magic Mountain
• widely considered to be one of the most influential works of
20th century German literature
• novel about disease, not merely of individuals, but also of a whole age.
Where disease appears as the prerequisite of spiritual growth, Mann
plays his favorite theme of the polarity between spirit and life; the
transcendence of this polarity in the name of humanism is central to the
novel. Where disease stands as the symptom of the moral deterioration
of the capitalist and bourgeois order, Mann is the modern writer who
must concern himself with the issues of his time. To attempt "to see the
real in the spiritual and the spiritual in the real" was a fundamental
maxim of his.
The end of the war!
• The German Defeat in the Great War!
• No other war had changed the map of
Europe so dramatically—four empires
disappeared: the German, AustroHungarian, Ottoman and the Russian.
• Four defunct dynasties, the
Hohenzollerns, the Habsburg, Romanovs
and the Ottomans together with all their
ancillary aristocracies, all fell after the war
ARMISTICE ENDS
THE WAR
The armistice was reached on
November 11, 1918.
After a three days of negotiations,
representatives of the Allied Powers and
Germany signed the armistice on a
railway carriage in Compiegne Forest on
November 11, 1918. The expression “the
eleventh of the eleventh of the eleventh” is
derived from this date. The armistice went
into effect at the eleventh hour, on the
eleventh day, of the eleventh month.
According to the armistice, German
troops were to leave Belgium, France, and
the eastern bank of the Rhine. The
remainder of the German fleet was forced
to surrender its weapons and ships to the
Allied Powers. Germany also was forced
to renounce its peace treaties with Russia
and Romania.
With the failure of the Ludendorf Offensive,
and with the exhausted state of Germany,
the German generals recognized that it was
time to sue for peace with the Allies. The
Kaiser was forced to abdicate on the 8th
November and a new democratic republic
was established.
Peace at Last
· At 11 a.m. on
November 11, 1918,
Germany agreed to an
armistice, ending
World War I.
•11th day, 11th hour, of
the 11th month!
On 8th November 1918, Imperial
Germany came to an end when a
democratic republic was established.
Though it was intended to have Wilhelm
tried as a ‘war criminal’ he was
eventually allowed to spend the rest of
his life in exile in the Netherlands. He
died in 1941.
The Costs of War
• Loss of life
– 8.5 million soldiers died
– 21 million were injured
– Civilians were also victims of the war
• Starvation, disease and slaughter
• Economic loss
– Estimated $338 billion
– Cities, towns, farmlands and homes were
also destroyed
* Approximately 13 million people died and 20 million were
wounded in the war.
GERMAN EAGLE (to German Dove): "Here, carry on for a
bit, will you I'm feeling rather run down."
Germany
• Nov. 9, 1918, Kaiser Wilhelm II is forced to step
down
• Germany declares themselves a republic…the
Weimar Republic
parliamentary republic
established in 1919
“a brittle compromise agreement between American
utopianism and European paranoia — too conditional to fulfill
the dreams of the former, too tentative to alleviate the fears of
the latter” – Kissinger
The Treaty!!
• Paris Peace conference
• meeting of the Allied victors following the end of
World War I to set the peace terms for
Germany and other defeated nations, and to
deal with the empires of the defeated powers
following the Armistice of 1918
• took place in Paris in 1919 and involved
diplomats from more than 30 countries
Coincidental Dates
• Arrival of Clemenceau, Lloyd George, and
Wilson on January 18, 1919
Anniversary of the beginning of the
Second Reich in 1871
• Signed June 28, 1919
5 Years to the day of Ferdinand’s death
David LloydGeorge
[Great
Britain]
Orlando [Italy]
Woodrow
Wilson
[USA]
Georges Clemenceau
[France]
The Big Four
David Lloyd George
• The prime minister of Great
Britain.
• He was a realist.
• An experienced politician
who realised there must be
compromise.
• The people of Britain
wanted revenge.
• He knew this would lead to
war but he represented the
people.
Georges Clemenceau
• Premier of France.
• Clemenceau had seen
France invaded by
Germany in 1870 and
1914, he wanted to make
sure this would never
happen again.
• France had suffered
greatly during the War
they wanted
compensation and
revenge.
• Uncompromising.
Woodrow Wilson
• President of the USA.
• Wilson was an idealist and
reformer, who wanted to build
a better and more peaceful
world.
• He didn’t want the Treaty to
be too harsh as he believed
this would lead to revenge.
• He wanted to set up a peace
keeping body – The League
of Nations
• Wilson did not understand
the deep feelings of hatred
in Europe.
Observation by David Lloyd
George
• Most hostile relationship at
the conference was
between Clemenceau and
Wilson.
• Clemenceau-known as the
Tiger…physician,
journalist, with a desire for
Germany to be punished!
• Wilson.., Presbyterian
Minister, idealist,
compromiser
• Lloyd George summed it
up when he was asked
how he did at the Paris
Peace Conference: “Not
badly” he replied,
“considering I was
seated between Jesus
Christ and Napoleon!!”
Wilson’s Fourteen Points
• In a speech to Congress before the war ended, President Wilson outlined a
vision of a “just and lasting peace.”
• His plan was called the Fourteen Points, and among its ideas were
—Open diplomacy, freedom of the seas, the removal of trade barriers, and
the reduction of military arms
—A fair system to resolve disputes over colonies
—Self-determination, or the right of people to decide their own political
status and form their own nations
—Establishing a League of Nations, or an organization of countries working
together to settle disputes, protect democracy, and prevent future wars
• The Fourteen Points expressed a new philosophy that applied progressivism to
U.S. foreign policy.
• The Fourteen Points declared that foreign policy should be based on morality,
not just on what’s best for the nation.
Fourteen Points
• Created by Woodrow Wilson
• First 5 points
–
–
–
–
–
Ended secret treaties
Freedom of seas
Free Trade
Reduced national armies and navies
Colonial claims
• Points 6-13
– Readjustment of border changes for new nations
• What is self-determination?
• What was the 14th point?
Vittorio Orlando
• Italian Prime Minister.
• Wanted land and
territory for Italy.
• Self determination stopped
Italy getting the lands
especially Fiume.
• Walked out of the meeting
when he didn’t get his way
in April 1919.
• Returned to sign the
Treaty in May.
The Mood in 1919
 Most countries felt Germany should pay for the
damage and destruction caused by the War.
 The countries of Europe were exhausted.
 Their economies and industries were in a poor
state.
 Millions had died. Almost every family had lost a
member in the fighting.
 Ordinary citizens faced shortages of food and
medicine.
The Aims of the Leaders
There was disagreement about what the
conference was aiming to do.
Some felt the aim was to punish Germany.
Some wanted to cripple Germany so it
couldn’t start another war.
Some felt the winning countries should be
rewarded.
Some aimed for a just and lasting peace.
Terms of the Versailles Treaty
(see class handout)
•
•
•
•
•
•
G
A
R
G
L
E
"The Allied and Associated
Governments affirm, and Germany
accepts, the
responsibility of Germany and her
Allies for causing all the loss and
damage to which the Allied and
Associate Governments and their
nationals have been subjected as a
consequence of a war imposed upon
them by the aggression of Germany
and her Allies."
GERMANY
ACCEPTED
Article 231
RESPONSIBILITY FOR
THE WAR=Article 231
“G”
STARTING
Versailles Treaty
- Germany was forced
to:
· take full blame for the
war; Article 231
· completely disarm
· pay huge reparations
to the Allies
· give up it’s colonies
to the Allies
* Germany was an
angry, humiliated
nation, setting the stage
for World War II.
“A”=Army
100,000
A=ARMY
De-militarised
To do with Germany’s armed forces :
The German army was to be reduced to 100,000
men. It was not allowed to have tanks.
Germany was not allowed an airforce
The area known as the Rhineland was to be demilitarised
The Allies were to occupy the west bank of the
Rhine for fifteen years
The German navy was to have no submarines or
large battle-ships
“R”=REPARATIONS
Germany agreed to pay for the damage caused by
her armies during the war. The sum she had to pay
was later fixed at £6,600 million($33 Billion)—in
2012 dollars=471 billion!!
“G”= Germany Lost
Land
Germany lost ALL of her
overseas colonies
Alsace-Lorraine was
given to France
The Rhineland was to be demilitarized
The Saar coalfields were given
to France for fifteen years
The port of Danzig was made a
Free City under the control of the
League of Nations
“L”= League of Nations.
“E”=Extra points
• Forbade Anschluss(A union of Germany
and Austria to create a 'Greater Germany',
any attempt at an Anschluss was banned
by this treaty, but Hitler drove it through
anyway on March 13 1938)
• Estonia, Latvia, & Lituania, independent
states
Wilson’s Plan for Peace
President Wilson’s goals for peace after World War I, known
as the Fourteen Points, included the following.
· an end to secret agreements among nations
· freedom of the seas, free trade, and a limit on arms
· allow national groups self-determination….Unfortunately
will be replaced by mandates (commission given to a nation to
administer the government and affairs of a former territory or
colony)
· formation of a League of Nations in order to protect the
independence of all nations and settle international disputes
The Great War
was to see the
collapse of four
continental
empires. These
were to be
replaced by new
nation states.
- Based on the goal of
self-determination,
many new nations were
formed.
Examples: Finland,
Poland, Yugoslavia,
Czechoslovakia
Creation of New Nations
 Austria-Hungary
empire was
destroyed and split
into 4 independent
nations.
›
›
›
›
Austria
Hungary
Czechoslovakia
Yugoslavia
• The Ottoman Empire
lost most of their
territory.
• The empire was split
between Great Britain
and France
–
–
–
–
–
Palestine
Iraq
Transjordan
Syria
Lebanon
Creation of New Nations
cont’d
• Russia lost land too
• Romania and Poland were given Russia
territory
• Other nations were given their
independence
– Finland
– Estonia
– Latvia
– Lithuania
Peace Settlement in the Middle
East
• Sykes-Picot Agreement
• Balfour
Declaration(1917)
• Arab Response
• Creation of Turkey
Map 26.5 The Partition of the Ottoman Empire, 1914–1923
By 1914 the Ottoman Turks had been pushed out of the Balkans, and their Arab
provinces were on the edge of revolt. That revolt, in alliance with the British,
erupted during the First World War and contributed greatly to the Ottoman
defeat. Refusing to grant independence to the Arabs, the Allies established
League of Nations mandates and replaced Ottoman rulers in Syria, Iraq,
Transjordan, and Palestine. Page 844
Prince Faisal at the Versailles Peace Conference, 1919
Standing in front, Faisal is supported by his allies and black slave. Nur-as-Said,
an officer in the Ottoman army who joined the Arab revolt, is second from the
left, and the British officer T. E. Lawrence—popularly known as Lawrence of
Arabia—is fourth from the left in back. Faisal failed to win political
independence for the Arabs, as the British backed away from the vague
promises they had made during the war. (Courtesy of the Trustees of the
Imperial War Museum) Text, pg. 845
Fight over the Treaty
•
President Wilson returned to the U.S. and presented the treaty to the Senate,
needing the support of both Republicans and Democrats to ratify it.
•
Wilson had trouble getting the Republican Congress’s support.
•
The Senators divided into three groups:
1. Democrats, who supported immediate ratification of the
treaty
2. Irreconcilables, who wanted outright rejection of U.S. participation
in the League of Nations
3.
•
Reservationists, led by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, who
would only ratify a revised treaty
Reservationists thought the League of Nations charter requiring members to use
force for the League conflicted with Congress’s constitutional right to declare
war.
UNITED STATES DOES NOT SIGN THE TREATY
• Wilson presented the Treaty of Versailles to the Senate.
He was met
with stiff opposition. The Republican leader of the Senate, Henry Cabot
Lodge, was very suspicious of Wilson and his treaty. Article X of the League
of Nations required the United States to respect the territorial integrity of
member states.
• Many believed the League was the sort of entangling alliance the United
States had avoided since George Washington's Farewell Address.
• Lodge sabotaged the League covenant by declaring the United States
exempt from Article X. He attached reservations, or amendments, to the
treaty to this effect. Wilson, bedridden from a debilitating stroke, was unable
to accept these changes. He asked Senate Democrats to vote against the
Treaty of Versailles unless the Lodge reservations were dropped. Neither
side budged, and the treaty went down to defeat.
* Pres. Wilson
refused to
compromise
on the treaty.
* In November
of 1919 the
Senate rejected
the Versailles
Treaty.
How did Germans React to the Treaty?
Germans thought the Treaty was a “diktat” : a
dictated peace. They had not been invited to the
peace conference at Versailles and when the Treaty
was presented to them they were threatened with
war if they did not sign it.
Most Germans believed that the War Guilt Clause
was unjustified. The French and British had done
just as much to start the war
Many Germans believed the German economy would be
crippled by having to pay reparations.
The loss of territory and population angered most
Germans who believed that the losses were too
severe.
“A Peace Built on Quicksand”
• Was the Treaty of Versailles effective?
• The United States rejected the treaty
– They wanted to stay out of European affairs
• Others felt cheated by the treaty
– Germany
– Colonies in Asia and Africa
– Japan
– Italy
The Forgotten Allies
• Japan
– Provided large amounts of
war materials to the Allies
– Seized German
possessions in the Pacific
• Later given mandate over
these areas
– Japan felt that they
deserved more
– Proposed a “racial
equality” clause to the
Treaty of Versailles
• It was rejected
• Italy
– Failed to annex land they
were promised by the
British and French
– Italy felt like they were not
being recognized enough
for what they had given up
during the war
• “Mutilated Victory”
– Economic issues
– Paved the way for fascism
Impact in Europe
•
•
•
The effects of World War I in Europe were devastating.
– European nations lost almost an entire generation of young men.
– France, where most of the fighting took place, was in ruins.
– Great Britain was deeply in debt to the U.S. and lost its place as the
world’s financial center.
– The reparations forced on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles were
crippling to its economy.
World War I would not be the “war to end all wars,” as some called it.
– Too many issues were left unresolved.
– Too much anger and hostility remained among nations.
Within a generation, conflict would again break out in Europe, bringing the
United States and the world back into war.
The Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28th June 1919. It
officially ended the 1st World War. Many historians
believe that it was a major cause of the 2nd World War.
Most Germans were horrified by the harshness of the
Treaty. There was anger amongst all groups in Germany,
no matter what their political beliefs. Some German
newspapers called for revenge for the humiliation of
Versailles.
However anger was also directed against the government
in Germany. Already there was a myth growing in the
country that the German army had been “stabbed in the
back” by politicians…the so called “November
Criminals”. Now these same politicians had signed the
“Diktat”, the dictated peace. The new democracy in
Germany was now closely linked with the humiliation of
Versailles.
Weaknesses of the Treaty
• The Treaty of Versailles was written up by the allied powers without any
input from the Germans.
• It failed to create a lasting peace.
• The treaty was ruinous to Germany in many ways. It contained a "war- guilt
clause" under Article 231 which forced the Germans to accept all
responsibility for damages caused to any of the allied countries during the
war.
• It forced demilitarization of the Rhine, an elimination of the German air force
and near elimination of the German navy, and a maximum allowance of
100,000 troops in the German army.
• The Germans were forced to give up the territories of Alsace and Lorraine to
France, and a great deal of Prussian territory went to the new state of
Poland.
• To be given the opportunity of signing a peace treaty at all, the Germans
were forced to accept a democratic government.
What can be learned from this
Treaty?
• Following the desire for revenge is ultimately
UNSUCCESSFUL!
• Forcing one nation to assume all the blame is neither
practical or fair!
• All nations should be included in the peace
process!
• If a major nation doesn’t support a treaty, the
terms are not on firm ground!
• If a world peacekeeping body is going to be
effective it must have REAL POWER!
In Reality….
• Were the terms of the Treaty of
Versailles actually carried out?
• See class handout!
Historical Interpretations
• Reasonable
– Germany left mostly intact
– Kinder than Brest-Litovsk
• Unreasonable
– Reparations impossible
– Polish corridor unfair
• Too much middle of the road
• Helped Adolf Hitler ascend to power
THE TREATY WILL BE A MAJOR
CAUSE 0F THE RISE OF HITLER
• Feelings like these led to a great deal of unrest in Germany in the
years from 1919 to 1922.
• Returning soldiers formed armed gangs, the Freikorps, who
roamed the streets attacking people. In March 1920, they tried to
seize power.
• There was an attempted revolution by the Communists in January
1919, the Spartacist Revolt.
• There were many murders, including two government ministers,
one of whom had signed the armistice.
• A number of extremist political parties were set up, including the
German Workers' Party, which Adolf Hitler took over in 1921. He
based his support upon the hatred that many Germans felt for the
Treaty of Versailles.
AFTERMATH
OF WORLD WAR I
In the aftermath of World War I,
other conflicts that were a direct
result of the war took place.
Germans believed the Treaty of
Versailles was unfairly punitive.
Adolf Hitler gained popularity in
Germany when he urged Germans to
fight the injustices imposed on them
after World War I.
The collapse of the Ottoman Empire
caused conflicts as nations sought to
control territory in the Middle East.
These conflict would intensify
throughout the twentieth century
and into the twenty-first century.
future Chancellor of Germany,
Adolf Hitler
Reparations
• About $32 billion US dollars ($400B today)
• Cut in half later in the year (still impossible)
• John Maynard Keynes: The Economic
Consequences of the Peace (1920)
– Would cripple German Economy
– Would lead to European depression
• Weimar solution: print more money
• 1923: French troops occupy Ruhr, German
industrial heart land, to force payment