America and WWI Part E

1. America and WWIPart E

2. In January 1918, what did President Woodrow Wilson present before Congress? • His Fourteen Points, a plan to promote peace after the conclusion of the war 2. What were the basics of the first five points? • No secret treaties among nations • The Oceans should be free for all • Tariffs and other trade restrictions between nations should be lowered • Armed forces should be reduced in number to a level that protected a nation’s basic security…but not much more • Nations with colonies should rule with the interests of the colonies in mind, not just the mother country

3. 3. What did the next eight points deal with? • Boundary issues and the self-determination of peoples 4. Regarding national self-determination, what did President Woodrow Wilson (Democrat) believe in? • Groups of people with distinct ethnic identities should be free to form their own nation-states

4. 5. What did the fourteenth point call for? • The creation of a League of Nations to provide an international forum for nations to engage in diplomacy and prevent international crises 6. What two important Allied leaders wanted a more harsh peace settlement for Germany? • Georges Clemenceau of France • David Lloyd George of Great Britain

5. 7. The Peace conference did not include whom? • The Central Powers nations such as Germany, The Ottoman Empire, and Austria-Hungary • Russia—a nation now under the control of the Bolshevik Communists (Lenin and Trotsky) 8. Who were the Big Four at the Paris Peace Conference? • Woodrow Wilson of the United States • Georges Clemenceau of France • David Lloyd George of Great Britain • Vittorio Orlando of Italy

6. 9. The Big Four worked out the details of what? • The peace treaty that would formally end WWI 10. Regarding the Fourteen Points, what did Wilson have to concede? • Much of it…but he did succeed in getting the League of Nations created

7. 11. On June 28, 1919, what happened in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, the old royal palace outside of Paris, France? • The Big Four (plus Japan) and Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles, thus ending World War One, for all intents and purposes • The other Central Powers (Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire) were parties to other treaties

8. 12. Regarding Germany, what did the 1919 Treaty of Versailles demand? • Germany accepted the sole responsibility (war-guilt) for starting the war • Germany returned Alsace and Lorraine (Former French provinces) to France • Germany paid the Allies money reparations (i.e. war damages of $33 billion) • Germany’s military was reduced to not much more than a police force

9. 13. How did the Treaty of Versailles leave Germany, in the big picture? • Defeated, humiliated, and bitter 14. What German army WWI veteran would capitalize politically on this humiliation and bitterness during the 1920s and early 1930s? • Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), an Austrian-born immigrant who served in the German army from 1914 to 1918 • In the 1920s, Hitler attained the leadership of the Nazi Party and molded the party’s message according to his view of the world • In 1933, Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, and in short time, became Germany’s dictator. • Hitler and the Nazis ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945.

10. 15. When President Woodrow Wilson returned to the United States he found great opposition to the what? • Treaty of Versailles 16. To ratify the Treaty of Versailles the U.S. Constitution requires the approval of whom? • The U.S. Senate

11. 17. In 1919, which political party controlled the U.S. Senate? • The Republicans • Many of the Republicans did not like the League of Nations provision 18. In September 1919, President Wilson (a Democrat) began what? • An 8,000 mile journey across the U.S. in hopes of ginning up public opinion on behalf of ratification of the Treaty of Versailles

12. 19. In October 1919, what happened to Wilson? • He suffered a stroke • He was ill for he rest of his second term • But he survived and finished out his term which ended on March 4, 1921 20. Ultimately, the U.S. Senate did what with the Treaty of Versailles? • In 1920, the Senate rejected the treaty

13. 21. When did the U.S. and Germany formally establish a peace treaty between the two? • In 1921, under an entirely different treaty during the presidency of Republican, Warren G. Harding 22. Did the United States ever join the League of Nations? • No

14. 23. As a result of World War One, what major empires came to an end? • The Russian Empire • The Austrian-Hungarian Empire • The Ottoman Empire • The German Empire 24. What became of the Russian Empire? • Due to the Bolshevik takeover, Russia became the central component of the Soviet Union, an entity that survived until 1991 • By the mid-1920s, Vladimir Lenin was dead (d. 1924), and the Soviet Union was increasingly ruled by the iron hand of Josef Stalin, a dictator of immense cruelty • Josef Stalin ruled the Soviet Union until his death in 1953

15. 25. What became of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire? • Several new nations were carved out of the dissolved empire • Hapsburg rule came to an end • Austria became a separate country • Hungary became a separate country

16. 26. What became of the Ottoman Empire? • Turkey became the major nation to be created out of the dissolved empire • Parts of the Middle Eastern territories of the former Ottoman Empire became League of Nations “mandates,” some ruled by France, some by Great Britain

17. 27. What became of the German Empire? • Germany’s territorial size was reduced • The Weimar Republic replaced the Empire, and the office of Kaiser (Emperor/King) was abolished • Germany lost its overseas territories in Africa and the Pacific