Ms.Qoku and Ms. Ng AP U.S. History



Treaty of Versailles and Wilson’s Fourteen Points

DOCUMENT #1 Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points (term first use in speech to Congress, 1/8/ 1918)

Wilson’s plan from the beginning was to have a war with the governments of the Central Powers, not with the people. He emphasized this point by sending messages of ideals in the hopes that such ideas would weaken the enemy resistance and lay a moral basis for peace negotiations.

I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.

II. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas...alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of international covenants.

III. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations...

IV. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims... [considering] the interests of the populations concerned...

V. The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a settlement of all questions affecting Russia as will secure the best and freest cooperation of the other nations of the world in obtaining for her an unhampered and unembarrassed opportunity for the independent determination of her own political development and national policy...

VI. Belgium... must be evacuated and restored, without any attempt to limit the sovereignty which she enjoys in common with all other free nations....

VII. All French territory should be freed and the invaded portions restored, and the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine...should be righted...

VIII. The peoples of Austria-Hungary...should be accorded the freest opportunity to autonomous development.

IX. Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacuated; occupied territories restored; Serbia accorded free and secure access to the sea;...and international guarantees of the political and economic independence and territorial integrity of the several Balkan states should be entered into.

X. The Turkish portion of the present Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure sovereignty...

XI. An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenant.

What were the main principles discussed in the 14 Points?

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In your opinion, did the 14 Points deliver what was needed to have a peaceful world? Explain.

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DOCUMENT #2 Treaty of Versailles

On November 11, 1918, at eleven o'clock in the morning, all fighting ceased on the Western Front. The war had not been going well for Germany for some time. Weary and tasting defeat, the German people revolted against Kaiser Wilhelm II, who fled the Netherlands. It was the Chancellor of the newly created German Republic who met with Marshal Foch and his Allied associates to sign the armistice agreement.

The staggering losses in life and property suffered by the Allies and the hatred whipped up during the war against the enemy made an idealistic peace settlement unlikely, in spite of Woodrow Wilson's pronouncements. The Treaty of Versailles, drawn up without consulting the Germans, was presented to them as an ultimatum. In the Hall of Mirrors, where the German Empire had been proclaimed in 1871, the German delegates reluctantly put their signatures to the Treaty.

|ARTICLE 42. |Germany is forbidden to maintain or construct any fortifications either on the left bank of the Rhine or on the right bank to |

| |the west of a line drawn 50 kilometers to the East of the Rhine. |

|ARTICLE 43. |In the area defined above the maintenance and the assembly of armed forces, either permanently or temporarily, and military |

| |maneuvers of any kind, as well as the upkeep of all permanent works for mobilization, are in the same way forbidden. |

| |In case Germany violates in any manner whatever the provisions of Articles 42 and 43, she shall be regarded as committing a |

|ARTICLE 44 |hostile act against the Powers signatory of the present Treaty and as calculated to disturb the peace of the world. |

|ARTICLE 80. |Germany acknowledges and will respect strictly the independence of Austria... |

|ARTICLE 81. |Germany... recognizes the complete independence of the Czecho-Slovak State... |

|ARTICLE 87. |Germany... recognizes the complete independence of Poland, and renounces in her favor all rights and title over the territory |

| |bounded by the Baltic Sea... |

|ARTICLE 119. |Germany renounces in favor of the Principal Allied and Associated Powers all her rights and titles over her oversea |

| |possessions. |

|ARTICLE 160. |By a date which must not be later than March 31, 1920, the German Army must not comprise more than seven divisions of infantry|

| |and three divisions of cavalry.... |

|ARTICLE 198. |The armed forces of Germany must not include any military or naval air forces. |

|ARTICLE 231. |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. |

|ARTICLE 245. |Within six months after the coming into force of the present Treaty, the German government must restore to the French |

| |government the trophies, archives, historical souvenirs, or works of art carried away from France by the German authorities in|

| |the course of the war of 1870-1871 and during this last war, in accordance with a list which will be communicated to it by the|

| |French government... |

|ARTICLE 428. |As a guarantee for the execution of the present Treaty by Germany, the German territory situated to the west of the Rhine, |

| |together with the bridgeheads, will be occupied by Allied and Associated troops for a period of fifteen years from the coming |

| |into force of the present Treaty. |

ARTICLE 431. If before the expiration of the period of fifteen years Germany complies with all the undertakings resulting from the

present Treaty, the occupying forces will be withdrawn immediately.

DOCUMENT #3 War Aims of the United States

The present war must first be ended; but...it makes a great deal of difference in what way and upon what terms it is ended. The treaties and agreements which bring it to an end must embody terms which will create a peace that is worth guaranteeing and preserving, a peace that will win the approval of mankind, not merely a peace that will serve the several interests and immediate aims of the nations engaged.... It must be a peace without victory....Only a peace between equals can least. Only a peace the very principle of which is equality and a common participation in a common benefit... – Wilson, January 22, 1917

The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as secure as the faith and the freedom of nations can make them. – Wilson, April 2, 1917

Watch videos and take notes on the major difference



|GOALS OF THE 14 POINTS (Doc. #1) |GOALS OF THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES (Doc. #2) |

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• Which plan do you think is more appropriate: The 14 points or the Treaty of Versailles?

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DOCUMENT # 4 Reaction to the Treaty

U.S. Secretary of State Robert Lansing, June 28, 1919

The terms of peace appear immeasurably harsh and humiliating.... Resentment and bitterness, if not desperation, are bound to be the consequences of such provisions.... We have a treaty of peace, but it will not bring permanent peace because it is founded on the shifting sands of self interest.

David Dinkins Discusses the Rejection of the Treaty of Versailles

“America was strictly isolationist at that time. We just barely got involved in time to have any say in the negotiations, and we didn't want any part in a 'new world order.' With this in mind, the Senate refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles due to Wilson's League of Nations article (part of the document). The United States did not want to be involved in foreign, political wars. As a result the Senate was strongly against the Versailles treaty and refused to ratify it. We made a separate peace with Germany.”

Senator Henry Cabot Lodge Speaks Against the Treaty of Versailles

“This league to enforce peace does a great deal for enforcement and very little for peace. We are told that of course nothing will be done in the way of warlike acts without consent of Congress. If that is true let us say so in the treaty. As it stands, there is no doubt whatever in my mind that American troops and American ships may be ordered to any part of the world by nations other than the United States. And that is something that I, for one, can never agree to.”

Describe the criticisms people had for the Treaty of Versailles.

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Do you agree? Why or why not?

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United States Efforts to Promote Peace in the 1920’s

A. Four Power Treaty, 1921

The United States of America, the British Empire, France and Japan… with a view to the preservation of the general peace and the maintenance of their rights in relation to their insular possessions and insular dominions in the region of the Pacific Ocean, agree as between themselves to respect their rights in relation to their insular possessions and insular dominions in the region of the Pacific Ocean. If there should develop between any of the High Contracting Parties a controversy arising out of any Pacific question and involving their said rights which is not satisfactorily settled by diplomacy and is likely to affect the harmonious accord now happily subsisting between them, they shall invite the other High Contracting Parties to a joint conference to which the whole subject will be referred for consideration and adjustment. If the said rights are threatened by the aggressive action of any other Power, the High Contracting Parties shall communicate with one another fully and frankly in order to arrive at an understanding as to the most efficient measures to be taken, jointly or separately, to meet the exigencies of the particular situation.

B. Five Power Treaty

Article III: The Contracting Powers shall abandon their respective capital ship building programs, and no new capital ships shall be constructed or acquired by any of the Contracting powers except replacement tonnage…

Article IV: The total capital ship replacement tonnage of each of the Contracting Powers shall not exceed in standard displacement, for the United States, 525,000 tons; for the British Empire, 525,000 tons; for France, 175,400 tons; and for Japan, 315,000 tons.

Article VI: …no capital ship of any of the Contracting Powers shall carry a gun with caliber in excess of 16 inches…

C. Nine Power Treaty, 1922

The United States of America, Belgium, the British Empire, China, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands and Portugal:

Desiring to adopt a policy designed to stabilize conditions in the Far East, to safeguard the rights and interests of China, and to promote intercourse between China and the other Powers upon the basis of equality of opportunity;

(1) To respect the sovereignty, the independence, and the territorial and administrative integrity of China;

(2) To provide the fullest and most unembarrassed opportunity to China to develop and maintain for herself an effective and stable government;

(3) To use their influence for the purpose of effectually establishing and maintaining the principle of equal opportunity for the commerce and industry of all nations throughout the territory of China;

(4) To refrain from taking advantage of conditions in China in order to seek special rights or privileges which would abridge the rights of subjects or citizens of friendly States, and from countenancing action inimical to the security of such States.

D. Kellogg Briand Pact, 1928

WHEREAS a Treaty between the President of the United States Of America, the President of the German Reich, His Majesty the King of the Belgians, the President of the French Republic, His Majesty the King of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Emperor of India, His Majesty the King of Italy, His Majesty the Emperor of Japan, the President of the Republic of Poland, and the President of the Czechoslovak Republic, providing for the renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy… solemnly declare in the names of their respective peoples that they condemn recourse to war for the solution of international controversies, and renounce it, as an instrument of national policy in their relations with one another. The High Contracting Parties agree that the settlement or solution of all disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them, shall never be sought except by pacific means.

E. Dawes Plan, 1924

In an agreement of August 1924, the main points of The Dawes Plan were:

1. The Ruhr area was to be evacuated by Allied occupation troops.

2. Reparation payments would begin at 1 billion marks for the first year and should rise over a period of four years to 2.5 billion marks per year.

3. The German Reichsbank would be reorganized under Allied supervision.

4. Foreign loans (primarily from the United States) would be made available to Germany.

5. The sources for the reparation money should include transportation, excise, and custom taxes.

The economic condition in Europe gives us the greatest concern… It is idle to say that we are not interested in these problems, for we are deeply interested from an economic standpoint, as our credits and markets are involved, and from a humanitarian viewpoint, as the heart of the American people goes out to those are in distress. We cannot dispose of these problems by calling them European, for they are world problems and we cannot escape the injurious consequences of a failure to settle them… We have no desire to see Germany relieved of her responsibility for the war or of her obligations to make reparation for the injuries due to her aggression… On the other hand, we do not wish to see a prostrate Germany. There can be no economic recuperation in Europe unless Germany recuperates…

League of Nations

The United States Senate had to approve the Versailles Treaty, and there Wilson ran into a great deal of opposition. Wilson angered Republicans by excluding them from the American delegation to the Versailles Conference. Yet Republicans had a majority of seats in the Senate. The chairman of the foreign relations committee, Henry Cabot Lodge, distrusted and disliked Wilson. The feeling was mutual. Some features of the League of Nations worried Americans. They feared, for instance, that the United States might be obligated to furnish troops to defend member nations. Wilson stubbornly refused to allow any but the most minor changes in the Treaty of Versailles. He became increasingly moralistic and uncompromising. When Wilson went on a speaking tour to gain popular support for the treaty, he collapsed and then suffered a stroke. His illness thereafter prevented him from playing an active role in the treaty debate.

F. President Woodrow Wilson, July 10, 1919

“The treaty constitutes nothing less than a world settlement... That there should be a League of Nations to steady the counsels and maintain the peaceful understandings of the world...has been one of the agreements accepted from the first draft as a basis of peace... The united power of free nations must put a stop to aggression, and the world must be given peace. If there was not the will or the intelligence to accomplish that now, there must be another and final war and the world must be swept clean of every power that could renew the terror. The League of Nations was not merely an instrument to adjust and remedy old wrongs under a new treaty of peace; it was the only hope of mankind... They (statesmen) saw it as the main object of peace, as the only thing that could complete it or make it worthwhile. They saw it as the hope of the world, and that hope they did not dare to disappoint. Shall we or any other free people hesitate to accept this great duty? Dare we reject it and break the heart of the world? Our isolation was ended twenty years ago... There can be no question of our ceasing to be a world power. The only question is whether we can refuse the moral leadership that is offered us, whether we shall accept or reject the confidence of the world.”

G. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, March 19, 1919

“Wars between nations come from contacts. A nation with which we have no contact is a nation with which we should never fight. In this scheme for a League before us we create a number of new contacts, a number of new relations, which nations have not undertaken before to create...”

H. President Woodrow Wilson, September 5, 1919

“The essential matter, my fellow citizens, is this: This League will include all the fighting nations of the world except, Germany... All the fighting nations of the world are in it, and what for they promise? This is the center of the document. They promise that they will never go to war without first either submitting the question at issue to arbitration and absolutely abiding the decision of the arbitrators, or, if they are not willing to submit it to arbitration, submitting it to discussion by the council of the League; that they will give the council of the League six months in which to consider it, and that if they don’t like the opinion of the council, they will wait three months after the opinion is rendered before going to war. And I tell you, my fellow citizens, that any nation that is in the wrong and waits nine months before it goes to war never will go to war... This is the beginning, not of the war but of the processes which are going to render a war like this impossible.... It is a great treaty; it is a treaty of justice, of rigorous and severe justice... We are in the presence, therefore, of the most solemn choice that this people was ever called upon to make. That choice is nothing less than this: Shall America redeem her pledges to the world? We have come to redeem the world by giving it liberty and justice. Now we are called upon before the tribunal of mankind to redeem that immortal pledge.”

I. Article 10 of the League of Nations Covenant

“The Members of the League undertake to respect and preserve as against external aggression the territorial integrity and existing political independence of all Members of the League. In case of any such aggression or in case of any threat or danger of such aggression the Council shall advise upon the means by which this obligation shall be fulfilled.”

**Council members included Britain, France, Italy and Japan

J. Senator William Borah of Idaho, November 19, 1919

“What is the result of all of this? We are in the midst of all the affairs of Europe. We have entangled ourselves with all European concerns. We have joined in alliance with all the European nations which have thus far joined the League, and all nations which may be admitted to the League. We are sitting there dabbling in their affairs and intermeddling in their concerns. In other words, Mr. President... we have forfeited and surrendered, once and for all, the great policy of ‘no entangling alliances’ upon which the strength of this republic has been founded for over 150 years... We are a part of the European turmoils and conflicts from the time we enter this League.... You have put in here a reservation upon the Monroe Doctrine... But as a practical position... tell me candidly: Do you think you can intermeddle in European affairs... never to permit Europe to interfere in our affairs? We cannot protect the Monroe Doctrine unless we protect the basic principle upon which it rests, and that is the Washington policy. Mr. President, there is another and even more commanding reason why I shall record my vote against this treaty. It imperils what I conceive to the underlying, the very first principles of this republic. It is in conflict with the right of our people to govern themselves free from all restraint, legal or moral, of foreign powers...”

K. President Woodrow Wilson, August 9, 1919

“Article 10 is in no respect of doubtful meaning when in the light of the covenant as a whole. The council of the League can only ‘advise upon’ the means by which the obligations of that great article are to be given effect to. Unless the United States is party to the policy or action in question, her own affirmative vote in the council is required. If she is a party, the trouble is hers anyhow. And the unanimous vote of the council is only advice in any case. Each government is free to reject it as it pleases. Nothing could have been made more clear to the conference than the right of our Congress under our Constitution to exercise its independent judgment in all matters of peace and war. No attempt was made to question that right. The United States will, indeed, undertake Article 10... every grave and solemn obligation. But it is a moral, not a legal obligation, and leaves our Congress absolutely free to put its own interpretation upon it in all cases that call for action. It is binding in conscience only, not in law. Article 10 seems to me to constitute the very backbone of the whole covenant. Without it the League would hardly be more than an influential debating society...”

L. President Woodrow Wilson Defends the Treaty and the League of Nations

“The united power of free nations must put a stop to aggression, and the world must be given peace. If there was not the will or the intelligence to accomplish that now, there must be another and final war and the world must be swept clean of every power that could renew the terror. The League of Nations is not merely an instrument to adjust and remedy old wrongs under a new treaty of peace; it is the only hope for mankind. They (statesmen) saw it as the main object of peace, as the only thing that could complete it or make it worthwhile. They saw it as the hope of the world, and that hope they did not dare to disappoint. Shall we or any other free people hesitate to accept this great duty? Dare we reject it and break the heart of the world? Our isolation ended 20 years ago...There can be no question of our ceasing to be a world power. The only question is whether we can refuse the moral leadership that is offered us, whether we shall accept or reject the confidence of the world...” Wilson's Trip to Save the League (Literary Digest, 9/15/1919) – A plea to Congress…

M. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, 1919

“Never forget that this league is primarily...a political organization, and I object strongly to having the politics of the United States turn upon disputes where deep feeling is aroused but in which we have no direct interest. It will tend to delay the Americanization of our great population....We have interests of our own in Asia and in the Pacific which we must guard upon our own account, but the less we undertake to play the part of umpire and thrust ourselves into European conflicts the better for the United States and the world.”

Free Response Essay:

Assess the reasons for the change in U.S. policy in 1917 AND whether these reasons were consistent with tradition American values.

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