Day 16: Fourteen Points and Versailles

Costs of WWI:  Ten Million Dead Russia 1.7 Million France 1.4 Million British 900, 000 German 1.8 Million Austrians 1.2 Million Turks 325, 000 20 Million Died of disease, hunger and other war related causes. 6 Million Crippled America    130,174 Dead and 200,000 wounded.  Cost $32 Billion Map Redrawn - German spending on war $100 Billion ordered to repay $32 Billion The Espionage Act (May 16, 1917)

The following act was passed by Congress shortly after the United States declared war on Germany in April, 1917. Congress passed this to silence people who did not support the war in the U.S.

Questions to consider:
1. Do you think this Act was necessary or wise? Explain your answer.
2. Discuss the impact of war on civil liberties.

Section 3
"Whoever, when the United States is at war, shall wilfully make or convey false reports or false statements with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the military or naval forces of the United States or to promote the success of its enemies and whoever when the United States is at war, shall wilfully cause or attempt to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States, or shall wilfully obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States, to the injury of the service or of the United States, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both."

Woodrow Wilson: Fourteen Points (January 8, 1918)

The following is President Wilson’s plan to end World War I; The Fourteen Points. He delivered this plan to congress January 8, 1918 after an armistice was signed to stop the war in Europe November 11, 1918. Here are some questions to consider as you read. 1.What reason did Wilson give for the United States entering the war? 2.Why did Wilson want “Absolute freedom of navigation” (point II)? 3.What did Wilson want to be created? Why?

Citations:

Wilson's "Fourteen Points" was found on the web at www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1918/14points.html

Peace Treaty of Versailles: Articles 159-213; Military, Naval and Air Clauses

After World War I ended a peace conference was held in Paris. At this peace Conference the Big 4 (President Wilson from the U.S., Prime Minister David Lloyd George from Great Britain, Premier Georges Clemenceau from France, and Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando from Italy) dominated the peace talks. The Treaty of Versailles was the treaty that Germany signed. The terms of the treaty were very harsh and disliked by Germans. The Treaty of Versailles made many German soldiers, like Adolf Hitler, bitter about the results of World War I. Here are a few questions to consider as you read. 1.What do these clauses deal with? 2.Why do you think the Big 4 wanted to limit Germany’s military? 3.How many officers was Germany able to have? 4.How many guns and ammunition could they have? 5.When did they have to have it reduced to that amount?

Citations:

The Treaty of Versailles was found on the web at http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/versa/versa4.html

Day 15: Weapons of WWI

Watch This First:






Task Two:   Please go through the museum exhibit, The Price of Freedom and select World War I.   Take time and go though the museum artifacts about WWI.   Watch the short video and enter the exhibit.  

http://americanhistory.si.edu/militaryhistory/exhibition/flash.html

Task Three:  Please click on the link, Photos of the Great War.   Browse through several photos to notice the different aspects of the war.   For example, how were animals used in the war?  What was the war in the sky like?  


http://www.gwpda.org/photos/coppermine/index.php


Final Task:  Spend the rest of your time playing the game, Trench Warfare.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/worldwarone/hq/trenchwarfare.shtml

Analyze the impact the new weapons had on World War I.  Choose 3 of the following weapons (poison gas, submarines, airplanes, tanks and artillery shells) and explain how the weapon changed the strategy of warfare.  Create a Google Doc and share it with me explaining how it changed the strategy of warfare. 

Day 14: World War I

Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice?
It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them.
Taking care always to keep ourselves by suitable establishments on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies.  

1 . Answer the following questions:
            A. What is Washington warning future Americans of in this passage?
            B. What does Washington say about defensive alliances?
            C. According to Washington, when is it okay to be part of a defensive alliance?
            D. In our history, when have there been “extraordinary emergencies” that required us to join an                  alliance?

Woodrow Wilson:  U.S. Declaration of Neutrality (1914)

The effect of the war upon the United States will depend upon what American citizens say and do.  Every man who really loves America will act and speak in the true spirit of neutrality, which is the spirit of impartiality and fairness and friendliness to all concerned.
The spirit of the nation in this critical matter will be determined largely by what individuals and society and those gathered in public meetings do and say, upon what newspapers and magazines contain, upon what ministers utter in their pulpits, and men proclaim as their opinions upon the street.
The people of the United States are drawn from many nations, and chiefly from the nations now at war.  It is natural and inevitable that there should be the utmost variety of sympathy and desire among them with regard to the issues and circumstances of the conflict.
Some will wish one nation, others another, to succeed in the momentous struggle.  It will be easy to excite passion and difficult to allay it.  Those responsible for exciting it will assume a heavy responsibility, responsibility for no less a thing than that the people of the United States, whose love of their country and whose loyalty to its government should unite them as Americans all, bound in honour and affection to think first of her and her interests, may be divided in camps of hostile opinion, hot against each other, involved in the war itself in impulse and opinion if not in action.
Such divisions amongst us would be fatal to our peace of mind and might seriously stand in the way of the proper performance of our duty as the one great nation at peace, the one people holding itself ready to play a part of impartial mediation and speak the counsels of peace and accommodation, not as a partisan, but as a friend.
I venture, therefore, my fellow countrymen, to speak a solemn word of warning to you against that deepest, most subtle, most essential breach of neutrality which may spring out of partisanship, out of passionately taking sides.
The United States must be neutral in fact, as well as in name, during these days that are to try men's souls.  We must be impartial in thought, as well as action, must put a curb upon our sentiments, as well as upon every transaction that might be construed as a preference of one party to the struggle before another.

Questions to consider:
1) Why did Wilson not want the United States involved in World War I? Contrast the United States' devotion to isolationism prior to World War I to U.S. involvement in world affairs today.
2) Do you believe Wilson was representing the will of the general public? Why or why not?