History 102: End of the Great War and
the Treaty of Versailles

American Intervention, 1917-1918   

·       May 1915: Lusitania (128 US citizens

·       February 1917: Germany declared unconditional submarine warfare

·       Zimmermann Telegram

o      Sent and deciphered in Jan. 1917

o      Brits gave it to Wilson Feb. 24, 1917

o      Wilson had it published March 1, 1917

·       6 April 1917: US Congress approved resolution declaring war on Germany

President Woodrow Wilson

·       1916: “He kept us out of war.”

·       By 1917 wanted to help end the war

·       Jan. 1918: Fourteen Points

o      Idealistic

o      National self-determination

American Intervention was decisive

·       Money and supplies (1917-1918: $7,000,000,000 worth of food and guns)

·       Navy (second largest)

·       Men

o      March 1918: 85,000 US troops

o      Sept. 1918: 1.2 million US troops

·       Morale

 

November 11, 1918: Armistice!

·       The “Stab in the Back” Myth
Adolf Hitler
Matthias Erzberger

Spanish Influenza Pandemic

·       First appeared in Kansas

·       Killed 8 million in Spain

·       Most deadly to 20-40 year-olds

·       Quick death

·       43,000 US soldiers died

·       20 million died in India

·       Up to 40 million world-wide

Paris Peace Conference, 1919

·       The Big Four:

o      David Lloyd George of Britain (mediator)

o      Georges Clemenceau of France (wanted revenge, compensation, to contain Germany)

o      Woodrow Wilson of the United States (idealist; national self-determination; lasting peace)

o      Vittorio Orlando of Italy (played a minor role)

·       John Maynard Keynes
(1883-1940)

o      Economic advisor to Lloyd George

o      Quit the conference

o      The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1920)

 

·       Treaty of Versailles

o      Between Allies and Germany

o      Signed in Hall of Mirrors, Palace of Versailles, June 28, 1919

o      Treaty of Versailles

o      Crucial Terms:

§       Clause 231: “War guilt” clause

§       “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 Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies.”

§       Clause 232: reparations, eventually calculated at $33,000,000,000 (1921)

§       Covenant of the League of Nations

Things soon begin to fall apart

·       US Congress rejected Versailles Treaty

·       Henry Cabot Lodge

·       Sept. 1919: Wilson's 8000 mile tour, 40 speeches; 29 cities (22 days)

·       Wilson collapsed

·       Nov. 2, 1920: Warren Harding elected US President

·       August 1921: USA signed separate peace treaty with Germany