QUESTION 1: Briefly, how did the war that broke out in Europe in 1914 become a world war? QUESTION 2: Because of the crucial roles they played on the home front during World War I, what right was finally granted to women in most of the warring nations after 1918? QUESTION 3:What was the name the American writer Gertrude Stein gave to Ernest Hemingway & the other young men & women who had experienced the horrors of World War I? QUESTION 4: The Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I demanded that Germany, & Germany alone, must accept responsibility for the war

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QUESTION 1: Briefly, how did the war that broke out in Europe in 1914 become a world war?

QUESTION 2: Because of the crucial roles they played on the home front during World War I, what right was finally granted to women in most of the warring nations after 1918?

QUESTION 3:What was the name the American writer Gertrude Stein gave to Ernest Hemingway & the other young men & women who had experienced the horrors of World War I?

QUESTION 4: The Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I demanded that Germany, & Germany alone, must accept responsibility for the war. What was this called?

YOU CAN FIND THE ANSWER BY USING THESE WORD doc bellow

 

HIST 100 – Western Civilization: Week 10 I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. The Great War “Mass consumption warfare” “Home fronts” War around the world The 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month ... Bitter harvest Return to the Hall of Mirrors Illustrations, maps, photos 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. British slit trench - the Somme German soldiers march to war French North African soldiers European alliance map -1914 Franz & Sophie Ferdinand photo Maps of the Balkans Woodrow Wilson photo Wilhelm II photo German soldiers march to war with young woman, 1914 Kitchener poster Kitchener/Uncle Sam posters Somme trench photo Western Front map Map & Italian soldiers in the Alps; photo - Isonzo River valley Ernest Hemingway photos (2) Map of Europe - Eastern Front Nicholas II as army commander; Russian soldiers (2) Austria-Hungary map Women munitions workers Falkenhayn photo Western Front map - Verdun Pétain magazine photo Pals Battalions posters Australian soldiers, Western Front Stretcher bearers knee-deep in mud Vietnam Memorial - Thiepval Memorial photos Gertrude Stein/Hemingway photos Japanese soldiers German East African soldiers T E Lawrence photo; Lawrence Mideast map AJ Balfour photo; post-WWI Mideast map Armenian massacre photos; Hitler photo 2 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52 Woodrow Wilson photo 100 % Americanism poster - Dachshund Robert Paul Prager & his murderers British anti-German hysteria photos U-boat photo Zimmerman telegram map & cartoons Great Migration map Black American soldiers photo 4 soldiers photo H.G. Wells photo; book covers Spanish flu photos Lloyd George, Clemenceau, Wilson photos; together & individually Ho Chi Minh (2 photos) Versailles & China maps & photos Franz Ferdinand & Sophie, 1914 Versailles photo & paintings Post-World War I maps (2) Warren Harding Peace Treaty celebration photo Peace Treaty illustration Film clips 1. Great War, “Explosion”, part 1: Assassins - Begin 39.40 minute mark; end 43.14 minute mark; 3.37 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRtdSoeYQYk&list=PL038996EE01A51D5E 2. Gwynne Dyer’s War, Episode 1, “The Road to Total War” - Begin 14.17 minute mark; end 21.56 minute mark; 7.38 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPnppCelvk0&list=PLR8X5I0C1LF5kaxAE2z_pPy 6RMSr89tBx 3. Gwynne Dyer’s War, Episode 1, “The Road to Total War” – Begin 21.56 minute mark; end 25.40 minute mark; 3.34 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPnppCelvk0&list=PLR8X5I0C1LF5kaxAE2z_pPy 6RMSr89tBx 3 British slit trench - the Somme I. The Great War BETWEEN 1914 & 1918 THE MAJOR POWERS OF THE WAGED A WAR UNLIKE ANY EVER WITNESSED BEFORE IN HUMAN HISTORY SOME HISTORIANS HAVE GONE SO FAR AS TO SAY THAT THE 20TH CENTURY BEGAN WITH THIS CONFLICT - THE FIRST WORLD WAR THIS WAR WAS THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT EVENT IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION SINCE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION ... THE HISTORIAN JOHN KEEGAN {The First World War, 8} PUTS IT THIS WAY - THE 1ST WORLD WAR DELIVERED A BODY BLOW TO THE RATIONAL, LLIBERAL CIVILIZATION BORN IN THE EUROPEAN ENLIGHTENMENT, WHICH FALL ITS FAULTS - WAS NOT AS VIOLENT, NEVER MIND AS CRUEL AS THE TOTALITARIAN REGIMES THAT REPLACED IT IN THE 1920s & 30s THE AMERICAN DIPLOMAT GEORGE KENNAN PUT IT THIS WAY ... THE 1ST WORLD WAR - HE ONCE SAID - WAS THE “SEMINAL* CATASTROPHE OF THE 20TH CENTURY” ... IN FACT, BECAUSE OF THIS WAR -FOR MUCH OF THE 20TH CENTURY LIBERAL DEMOCRACY WAS ON THE DEFENSIVE - & IT WAS ONLY MUCH LATER THAT THE MORE DYNAMIC IDEOLOGIES - FASCISM & SOVIET-STYLE COMMUNISM - WENT INTO RETREAT {*Seminal: original or formative} 4 HOWEVER YOU VIEW THE 1ST WORLD WAR - OR, INDEED, THE WHOLE PERIOD FROM 1914 TO 1945 - THERE IS NO DENYING THAT THE MEN & WOMEN WHO LIVED THROUGH THOSE 3 DECADES EXPERIENCED ONE OF THE MOST DECISIVE PERIODS OF HUMAN HISTORY & THE 1ST WORLD WAR ITSELF WAS THE FORMATIVE EXPERIENCE OF THE 20TH CENTURY German mother & soldiers, 1914 ALTHOUGH IT COMES VERY CLOSE TO OVER-SIMPLIFYING, IT’S GENERALLY AGREED THAT ROUGHLY 4 FACTORS BROUGHT ABOUT THE WAR IN 1914 1ST - NATIONALISM - i.e., PRIDE IN YOUR NATION-STATE & - CLOSELY TIED TO THAT - THE DETERMINATION TO SEE THAT YOUR NATION’S INTERESTS WERE PROTECTED - &, INDEED, RESPECTED BY OTHERS IN THE LATE 1800s & EARLY 1900s - THIS RISE OF NATIONALISM WAS AIDED BY MASS-CIRCULATION NEWSPAPERS SPECIALIZING IN LURID STORIES THAT INFLAMED PUBLIC OPINION AGAINST PERCEIVED ENEMIES - e.g. - INVASION SCARE STORIES OF EVIL GERMANS STORMING BRITISH BEACHES BECAME A STAPLE OF THAT COUNTRY’S NEWSPAPERS THE PROBLEM WITH INFLAMING PUBLIC OPINION IS THAT WHEN A REAL CRISIS OCCURRED IN THE SUMMER OF 1914 - IT BECAME DIFFICULT FOR THE LEADERS OF THESE EUROPEAN POWERS TO BACK DOWN ... EVEN WHEN BACKING OFF WAS IN THE COUNTRY'S BEST INTEREST 5 French North African soldiers A RELATED - 2ND CAUSE - WAS IMPERIALISM ... THE CONTEST FOR EMPIRE HAD INCREASED FRICTION BETWEEN THE EUROPEAN POWERS ... IT ALSO MEANT THEY COULD RELY ON THE MANPOWER OF THESE EMPIRES - AS YOU CAN SEE FROM THIS PHOTO OF SOLDIERS FROM FRENCH NORTH AFRICA A 3RD CAUSE OF THE WAR WAS MILITARISM – THAT IS, THE BUILD UP OF ARMIES - & IN THE CASE OF BRITAIN & GERMANY - AN EARLIER NAVAL ARMS RACE - THAT ALSO INCREASED TENSIONS European alliance map -1914 FINALLY, RELATED TO MILITARISM WAS THE 4TH CAUSE OF THE WAR - AN AN ALLIANCE SYSTEM THAT HAD DIVIDED EUROPE INTO 2 ARMED CAMPS - WITH RUSSIA, FRANCE & Gt. BRITAIN ON ONE SIDE ... & ON THE OTHER GERMANY AUSTRIA-HUNGARY & ITALY ... ALTHOUGH WHEN THE CRUNCH CAME IN 1914 ITALY STAYED NEUTRAL THE ITALIANS EVENTUALLY JOINED THE WAR IN 1915 - BUT ON THE SIDE OF THE BRITISH, FRENCH, & THE RUSSIANS ... BEFORE THAT THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE JOINED THE GERMANS & THE AUSTRIANS BECAUSE THIS 2ND COALITION WAS AT THE CENTER OF EUROPE, THEY BECAME KNOWN AS THE CENTRAL POWERS ... WHILE THEIR OPPONENTS THE BRITISH, FRENCH, RUSSIANS, ITALIANS, & OTHERS INCLUDING - LATER THE UNITED STATES - BECAME KNOWN AS THE ALLIES 6 IT’S BECOME A CLICHE - BUT IT IS NONETHELESS TRUE THAT BY THE EARLY 1900s EUROPE WAS A POWDERKEG - JUST WAITING TO GO OFF ... & IT WAS SET OFF - IN THE SUMMER OF 1914 Franz & Sophie Ferdinand photo THE 20TH CENTURY - THE CENTURY IN WHICH SOME OF YOU WERE BORN - BEGAN WITH A MURDER IN JUNE OF 1914 THE HEIR TO THE CROWN OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY - THE ARCHDUKE, FRANZ FERDINAND & HIS WIFE, SOPHIE, VISITED OF SARAJEVO - A CITY IN THE BALKANS - SPECIFICALLY IN A PROVINCE THAT WAS CLAIMED BY MORE THAN ONE NATION - BOSNIA Maps of the Balkans (2) IN 1914 - BOSNIA WAS CLAIMED BY BOTH SERBIA & AUSTRIA HUNGARY THIS PART OF EUROPE IS AN EXTRAORDINARILY COMPLEX MIX OF DIFFERENT RELIGIOUS & ETHNIC GROUPS ... MOST SERBS, FOR INSTANCE SLAVS ... MOST RUSSIANS ARE ALSO SLAVS - & RUSSIA HAD PROCLAIMED ITSELF THE PROTECTOR OF ALL SLAVIC PEOPLES - & THAT WAS A PROBLEM BECAUSE IT PUT RUSSIA & AUSTRIA ON A COLLUSION COURSE IF A CRISIS ERUPTED OVER BOSNIA RATHER THAN SAY ANYMORE LET ME SHOW YOU THIS VERY BRIEF CLIP View Great War, “Explosion”, part 1: Assassins - Begin 39.40 minute mark; end 43.14 minute mark; 3.37 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRtdSoeYQYk&list=PL038996EE01A51D5E 7 I SHOWED THAT CLIP MAINLY FOR THE MAP AT THE VERY END BECAUSE IT DEMONSTRATES - I THINK - HOW QUICKLY EUROPE - & EVENTUALLY THE ENTIRE WORLD SLID INTO WAR THE CRISIS THAT WAS SET OFF BY THE MURDER OF FRANZ FERDINAND & HIS WIFE MIGHT NOT HAVE LED TO A WORLD WAR BUT FOR THE ALLIANCE SYSTEM ... AS THAT PROGRAM GRAPHICALLY SHOWED ONCE AUSTRIA ATTACKED SERBIA RUSSIA WAS DRAWN INTO THE WAR ... IF RUSSIA WAS DRAWN INTO THE WAR ... GERMANY WOULD BE DRAWN INTO THE WAR ... & IF GERMANY WAS DRAWN INTO THE WAR ... THEN FRANCE WOULD BE PULLED INTO THE WAR ... & IF FRANCE WAS PULLED INTO THE WAR ... THAT MEANT Gt. BRITAIN WOULD BE PULLED INTO THE WAR, TOO AND THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED IN A MATTER OF WEEKS - MOST OF EUROPE WAS AT WAR SO MUCH FOR BEST LAID PLANS & ALL THAT ... I TELL YOU ALL OF THIS TO SHOW HOW WARS CAN EASILY GET OUT OF HAND ... BEYOND THAT - BECAUSE THESE EUROPEAN POWERS WERE ALSO IMPERIAL POWERS - THIS EUROPEAN WAR WAS BOUND TO BE A WORLD WAR 8 THERE WAS - HOWEVER - AN EXCEPTION ... THE UNITED STATES - AS YOU CAN READILY SEE - WAS ON NEITHER SIDE Woodrow Wilson photo AS SOON AS THE WAR BROKE OUT, THE PRESIDENT - WOODROW WILSON - DECLARED THAT HIS COUNTRY WOULD BE NEUTRAL - & MOST AMERICANS WANTED IT TO STAY THAT WAY THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE HAD THE WAR GONE AS EVERYONE EXPECTED ... THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A BRIEF WAR - A QUICK WAR A WAR OF GRAND, SWEEPING CAMPAIGNS & A FEW DECISIVE BATTLES TOPPED OFF BY DRAMATIC CAVALRY CHARGES ... OR SO PEOPLE WERE LED TO BELIEVE ... POLITICIANS & GENERALS ALIKE PROMISED THAT THE WAR - WHICH BEGAN IN LATE JULY 1914 WOULD BE OVER BY CHRISTMAS Wilhelm II photo THE GERMAN EMPEROR - THE KAISER - REMEMBER HIM? - FAMOUSLY TOLD HIS SOLDIERS AS THEY MARCHED OFF TO BATTLE THAT THEY WOULD BE HOME BEFORE THE LEAVES FELL German soldiers march to war with young woman AND WILHELM II WAS RIGHT ... THE WAR DID END IN THE AUTUMN ... BUT IT DID SO 4 YEARS LATER - & BEFORE THE LAST SHOT WAS FIRED, OVER 8 MILLION YOUNG MEN WHO MARCHED OFF TO WAR WOULD BE DEAD 9 II. “Mass consumption warfare” AS JAY WYNTER - ONE OF THE COMMENTATORS IN THAT FILM CLIP POINTED OUT - BOTH SIDES WERE PREPARED FOR A SHORT, SHARP WAR WHAT NO ONE WAS PREPARED FOR WAS THE 20TH CENTURY ... SPECIFICALLY - THE TECHNOLOGY OF THE 20TH CENTURY ... THE MACHINE GUN - BARBED WIRE - &, LATER, POISON GAS - AIRPLANES SUBMARINES - THOSE WERE JUST SOME OF THE WEAPONS THAT WERE DEVELOPED OR INVENTED BETWEEN 1914 & 1918 AS ANOTHER HISTORIAN HAS POINTED OUT ... MASS CONSUMPTION, INDUSTRIALIZED SOCIETIES PRODUCE MASS-CONSUMPTION, INDUSTRIALIZED WARS - & WHAT WARS CONSUME ARE PEOPLE {Source: Gwynne Dyer, War: A Commentary} Kitchener poster EVEN BEFORE 1914 - MOST OF THE MAJOR POWERS HAD SOME FORM OF MILITARY CONSCRIPTION - i.e., THE DRAFT EVEN SO - ALL OF THEM LAUNCHED CAMPAIGNS TO INDUCE YOUNG MEN TO JOIN THE MILITARY BEFORE THEY WERE CALLED UP - ESPECIALLY IN GREAT BRITAIN - THE ONE MAJOR EUROPEAN POWER THAT BEGAN THE WAR WITHOUT THE MILITARY DRAFT ... THE SAME WAS TRUE OF THE UNITED STATES WHEN IT JOINED THE WAR IN 1917 10 BECAUSE OF THE UNIMAGINABLE DEATH TOLL OF THESE BATTLES, BOTH BOTH THE BRITISH & THE AMERICANS ABANDONED THEIR OPPOSITION & INSTITUTED CONSCRIPTION - THE BRITISH IN 1916, THE AMERICANS AS SOON AS THEY ENTERED THE WAR IN 1917 Somme trench photo THIS HELPS EXPLAIN WHAT BECAME THE LASTING SYMBOL OF WORLD WAR I - THE TRENCH ... NO ONE PLANNED FOR TRENCH WARFARE IT DEVELOPED QUITE SIMPLY BECAUSE THE SOLDIERS ON BOTH SIDES DUG INTO THE EARTH TO PROTECT THEMSELVES FROM THE BULLETS & BOMBS RAINING DOWN ON THEM CONDITIONS IN THESE TRENCHES WERE HORRIBLE ... THEY WERE BLAZENLY HOT IN THE SUMMER & BITTERLY COLD IN WINTER WHEN IT RAINED - SOLDIERS WOULD FIND THEMSELVES ANKLE- OR EVEN KNEE-DEEP IN WATER & MUD Western Front map WITH THE COMBINATION OF UNBURIED BODIES LYING AROUND AS WELL AS HUMAN EXCREMENT & ROTTEN FOOD - THE MEN WHO EXPERIENCE LIFE IN THESE TRENCHES SAID THE SMELL - THE STENCH WAS UNBELIEVABLE 11 WORST OF ALL IN THE TRENCHES WAS THE CONSTANT PRESENCE OF BOLD, WELL-FED RATS - WHICH WERE EVERYWHERE ... AS WELL AS SMELLING THESE ROTTING, UNBURIED CORPSES SOLDIERS OFTEN SAW - TO QUOTE ONE, OLD VETERAN - “RATS - GORGING ON HUMAN FLESH” TRY TO IMAGINE THAT Great War Europe map EVEN AFTER THE TRENCH SYSTEM WAS IN PLACE ALONG WHAT WAS KNOWN AS THE WESTERN FRONT IN FRANCE & BELGIUM ... THE GENERALS ON BOTH SIDES - STILL PLANNED FOR A WAR OF MOVEMENT ... MAJOR ATTACKS OFTEN CALLED THE BIG PUSH ... THE PROBLEM WAS THAT THE GENERALS HAD BEEN TRAINED IN 19TH CENTURY TACTICS - BUT THEIR SOLDIERS WERE USING 20TH CENTURY WEAPONS Italian soldiers in the Alps FOR THOSE ON THE ITALIAN FRONT - ALL OF THE PROBLEMS EXPERIENCED BY THEIR FELLOW SOLDIERS IN FRANCE & BELGIUM WERE COMPOUNDED BY THE FACT THAT MUCH OF THE FIGHTING TOOK PLACE IN THE ALPS ... IN EFFECT, THESE SOLDIERS ENCOUNTERED TRENCH WARFARE IN THE MOUNTAINS WHICH -AGAIN - FAVORED THE DEFENSE Photo - Isonzo River valley ONE OF THE FEW AREAS WHERE A BREAKTHROUGH WAS POSSIBLE WAS ALONG THE RIVER ISONZO - WHICH ROUGHLY PARALLELED ITALY’S BORDER WITH AUSTRIA ... SO, THERE THE ITALIANS ATTACKED 12 THERE WAS THE 1ST BATTLE OF THE ISONZO THE 2ND BATTLE OF THE ISONZO ... THE 3RD BATTLE OF THE ISONZO THE 4TH - THE 5TH - THE 6TH ... THERE WERE 11 BATTLES OF THE ISONZO - EACH ONE AS POINTLESS AS THE ONE BEFORE IN OCTOBER 1917 - THE AUSTRIANS - WITH GERMAN SUPPORT - STRUCK BACK IN WHAT IS SOMETIMES CALLED THE 12TH BATTLE OF THE ISONZO BUT IS BETTER KNOWN AS THE BATTLE OF CAPORETTO ... Ernest Hemingway photos A DISASTER IMMORTALIZED IN ERNEST HEMINGWAY’S NOVEL - A FAREWELL TO ARMS ... {HEMINGWAY JOINED THE ITALIAN ARMY AS AN AMBULANCE DRIVER & BASED HIS NOVEL ON THOSE EXPERIENCES} THE AUSTRO-GERMAN FORCES ALMOST MADE IT TO VENICE BEFORE THEY WERE STOPPED - & TO KEEP THE ITALIANS IN THE WAR, BRITISH, FRENCH & LATER - AMERICAN TROOPS WERE SENT TO THE ITALIAN FRONT WHEN THE WAR ENDED A YEAR LATER, THE ITALIANS HAD JUST ABOUT MADE GOOD THEIR LOSSES FROM THE CAPORETTO DEBACLE WHILE THE TRENCH HAS SYMBOLIZED THE 1ST WORLD WAR FOR THOSE IN THE WEST - IT WOULD BE WRONG TO THINK THAT THERE WERE NO GREAT SWEEPING MOVEMENTS OF ARMIES ... THERE WERE 13 BUT THESE MAINLY OCCURRED IN THE EAST - IN THE WAR BETWEEN RUSSIA ON 1 SIDE & THE GERMANS & AUSTRIANS ON THE OTHER Map of Europe - Eastern Front THE SIMPLEST EXPLANATION FOR THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE WAY THE WAR WAS FOUGHT ON THE EASTERN FRONT IS THAT THE VAST DISTANCES MADE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO ESTABLISH AN UNBROKEN LINE OF TRENCHES AS WAS FOUND ON THE WESTERN FRONT Nicholas II as army commander THE GENERALS ON THE EASTERN FRONT CERTAINLY WERE NOT ANY MORE BRILLIANT IN STRATEGY OR TACTICS ... JUST THE OPPOSITE THE RUSSIAN ARMY WAS HORRIBLY LED & NEVER MORE SO THAN WHEN THE EMPEROR- TSAR NICHOLAS - SHOWN HERE, IN THIS PHOTOGRAPH TOOK PERSONAL COMMAND OF RUSSIA’S ARMIES IN 1915 WORSE - THE RUSSIAN OFFICERS WHO WERE COMPETENT - WERE FOR THE MOST PART - KILLED IN THE 1ST YEARS OF THE WAR, A FACT THAT WAS TO HAVE DIRE CONSEQUENCES WHEN THE REVOLUTIONS OCCURRED IN 1917 Russian soldiers EQUIPMENT - OR THE LACK OF IT - WAS ANOTHER MAJOR PROBLEM ON THE EASTERN FRONT & THIS WAS ESPECIALLY TRUE OF THE RUSSIANS 14 ALTHOUGH THEY COULD MOBILIZE LITERALLY MILLIONS OF MEN FOR WAR THE RUSSIANS COULD NOT ARM ALL OF THEM Russian soldiers train without weapons THEY SOLVED THIS THORNY LITTLE PROBLEM BY SENDING BOTH ARMED & UNARMED MEN INTO BATTLE THIS PHOTO OF SOLDIERS TRAINIGN FOR BATTLE … THOSE WITH WEAPONS WERE IN THE FRONT, READY TO ATTACK 1ST ... THOSE WITHOUT WEAPONS FOLLOWED BEHIND ... THE UNARMED SOLDIERS WERE TOLD TO ARM THEMSELVES BY PICKING UP THE RIFLES OF THEIR DEAD COMRADES - NOT EXACTLY A GOOD WAY OF INSPIRING CONFIDENCE Austria-Hungary map THE ONLY ARMY THAT WAS WORSE THAN THE RUSSIAN ARMY WAS THE AUSTRIAN ARMY ... THE POOR LEADERSHIP OF THE HAPSBURG ARMY WAS COUPLED WITH THE FACT THAT WHILE MOST OF ITS OFFICERS WERE GERMAN- SPEAKING AUSTRIANS ... AS YOU CAN SEE FROM THIS MAP, THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE WAS FILLED WITH DIFFERENT MULTINATIONAL GROUPS THE RANK & FILE THE EMPIRE’S ARMIES CAME FROM THESE ETHNIC GROUPS &, CONSEQUENTLY, THEY COULD NOT ALWAYS UNDERSTAND THEIR OFFICERS’ ORDERS 15 THE RESULT WAS A SERIES OF SEE-SAW CAMPAIGNS IN WHICH THE RUSSIANS WOULD PUNCH HUGE, GAPING HOLES IN THE AUSTRIAN LINES, ADVANCING, SOMETIMES, HUNDREDS OF MILES ... ONLY TO BE FORCED BACK WHEN BETTER-TRAINED, BETTER-EQUIPPED GERMAN ARMIES ENTERED THE BATTLE, THROWING THE RUSSIANS BACK TO THEIR OWN LINES & - OFTEN -FURTHER BACK INTO RUSSIAN TERRITORY UNLIKE THE GERMANS & THE WESTERN ALLIES, THE RUSSIANS & TO A LARGE EXTENT THE AUSTRIANS WERE UNPREPARED FOR THE FACT THAT THEY FACED A NEW KIND OF WAR — WHAT IS CALLED TOTAL WAR & - WITH IT - A NEW FIELD WHERE WAR IS WAGED THE HOME FRONT Women munitions workers III. “Home Fronts” THE TERM HOME FRONT HAS BECOME SUCH A COMMON PART OF OUR LEXICON THAT WE SELDOM GIVE IT A 2ND THOUGHT ... BUT, ACCORDING TO AT LEAST 2 SOURCES (MERRIAM-WEBSTER & OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARIES) ... THE TERM WAS USED FOR THE 1ST TIME DURING THE GREAT WAR {1st published source, 1919, Punch’s History of the Great War} THE HOME FRONT GREW OUT OF TOTAL WAR & THE NEED TO MOBILIZE SOCIETIES - THE NATION AT ARMS - THAT WENT MUCH FURTHER THAN DURING THE NAPOLEONIC WARS ... TO SUPPLY THE ARMIES & NAVIES DEPLOYED BETWEEN 1914 & 1918 - ALL OF THESE POWERS - INCLUDING, LATER, THE UNITED STATES - HAD TO CREATE WAR ECONOMIES 16 AT THE SAME TIME, THESE NATIONS WERE FORCED TO ABANDON THEIR FREE MARKET ECONOMIES - AT LEAST FOR THE DURATION - & CREATE PLANNED ECONOMIES ... GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION - NOT ONLY IN THE FACTORIES, BUT IN SOCIETY AT LARGE OCCURRED ON A SCALE THAT PRE-WAR SOCIALISTS COULD HAVE ONLY DREAMED ABOUT LET ME TAKE ANOTHER BREAK HERE TO SHOW A CLIP - THIS ONE FROM A CANADIAN DOCUMENTARY ABOUT THE WAR TO GIVE YOU A CLEARER IDEA OF WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT {Show Gwynne Dyer’s War, end with “And what mass production wars consume is lives” quote} Gwynne Dyer’s War, Episode 1, “The Road to Total War” - Begin 14.17 minute mark; end 21.56 minute mark; 7.38 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPnppCelvk0&list=PLR8X5I0C1LF5kaxAE2z_pPy 6RMSr89tBx WITH SO MANY MEN IN THE ARMED FORCES - THE ROLE OF WOMEN CHANGED DRAMATICALLY ESPECIALLY IN THE WORKPLACE ... WE OFTEN THINK THAT WOMEN WEREN’T MOBILIZED FOR WAR WORK UNTIL THE 2ND WORLD WAR - BUT, THAT WASN’T TRUE AT ALL THIS SEA-CHANGE IN ATTITUDES TOWARDS WOMEN & WORK WAS BOUND TO HAVE CONSEQUENCES FOR SOCIETY AFTER THE WAR - AS I’VE SAID - IN MANY COUNTRIES AFTER THE WAR THE DEMAND BY WOMEN FOR THE RIGHT TO VOTE NO LONGER COULD BE RESISTED 17 WAGING A GLOBAL WAR IS ALSO ENORMOUSLY EXPENSIVE ... RATHER THAN TAX THEIR CITIZENS TO PAY FOR THE WAR AT THE TIME - BOTH SIDES BORROWED HEAVILY TO PAY THE WAR’S EXPENSES {Stevenson, 179} FOR THE CENTRAL POWERS - GERMANY VERY QUICKLY BECAME THE BANKER OF LAST RESORT FOR THE ALLIES THE NATION WITH THE DEEPEST POCKETS WAS GREAT BRITAIN - THE BRITISH ALSO ACTED AS THE ALLIES’ PURCHASING AGENT IN THE UNITED STATES ... ALTHOUGH OFFICIALLY NEUTRAL - AMERICAN SUPPLIERS WERE HAPPY TO DO A BRISK BUSINESS WITH THE ALLIED POWERS - WHICH, IN TURN, RAN UP ENORMOUS BILLS BEFORE 1914 THE UNITED STATES WAS A DEBTOR NATION ... IT HAD BORROWED HUGE SUMS FROM THE EUROPEANS TO FUND IT’S INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION ... BUT, BY 1917 - THOSE DEBTS HAD BEEN ERASED - SO THAT, IN THOSE 3 SHORT YEARS - THE UNITED STATES WENT FROM BEING A DEBTOR NATION TO A CREDITOR NATION - SUDDENLY, THE REST OF THE WORLD OWED IT MONEY IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO OVER-ESTIMATE THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS SHIFT IN EFFECT, THE WORLD’S CENTER OF ECONOMIC GRAVITY MOVED ACROSS THE ATLANTIC FROM LONDON’S FINANCIAL DISTRICT - THE CITY - TO NEW YORK - TO WALL STREET 18 BY THE WAY - CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHEN THE UNITED STATES BECAME A DEBTOR NATION, AGAIN - IN 1986, DURING THE REAGAN PRESIDENCY BACK TO THE 1ST WORLD WAR - THE LEGACY OF WHAT BECAME KNOWN AS THE WAR DEBTS COLORED RELATIONS BETWEEN THE TWO SIDES OF THE ATLANTIC FOR DECADES TO COME THE MASS, INDUSTRIAL SLAUGHTER THAT IS ASSOCIATED WITH THE WESTERN FRONT - IN BELGIUM & FRANCE - IS EPITOMIZED BY THE BATTLE OF VERDUN ... WHAT IS MOST GRUESOME ABOUT VERDUN IS NOT THE ACTUAL FIGHTING ITSELF - BUT THE PLAN BEHIND IT - A PLAN CONCEIVED BY GERMANY’S GENERAL ERICH VON FALKENHAYN Falkenhayn photo FALKENHAYN - QUITE LITERALLY - PLANNED TO BLEED THE FRENCH NATION WHITE ... BECAUSE VERDUN WAS A CITY IMPORTANT IN FRENCH HISTORY THE FRENCH ARMY WAS BOUND TO DEFEND IT - & - WITH FRANCE’S SMALLER POPULATION - FALKENHAYN REASONED HE COULD GRIND DOWN THE ENEMY ... THIS WAS INDUSTRIAL WARFARE AT ITS MOST BRUTAL Western Front map - Verdun WHAT FALKENHAYN FAILED TO CONSIDER WAS THAT ONCE THE BATTLE BEGAN THE GERMAN PEOPLE WOULD DEMAND VERDUN’S CAPTURE 19 THIS FORCED HIM TO POUR IN MORE OF HIS OWN SOLDIERS THAN HE HAD PLANNED ... THE RESULT - IRONICALLY - WAS THAT BOTH THE FRENCH & GERMANS SUFFERED AN EQUAL NUMBER OF CASUALTIES ACCORDING TO ONE ESTIMATE, DURING THE 10-MONTH BATTLE THE FRENCH SUFFERED ROUGHLY 378,000 CASUALTIES ... THE GERMANS, MEANWHILE, SUSTAINED ROUGHLY 337,000 CASUALTIES ... THOSE ARE CONSERVATIVE FIGURES - BY THE WAY THIS WAS A SEARING EXPERIENCE - & NOT JUST FOR THE SOLDIERS WHO ACTUALLY FOUGHT IN THIS BATTLE ... IT ALSO AFFECTED THE NATION’S LEADERS INCLUDING THE MAN WHO IS CREDITED WITH SAVING VERDUN - GENERAL -LATER FIELD MARSHAL - PHILIPPE PÉTAIN Pétain magazine photo AS A RESULT OF THIS SEARING EXPERIENCE, PETAIN BECAME INFECTED THERE’S NO OTHER WORD, REALLY - WITH A SENSE OF PESSIMISM THAT AMOUNTED TO DEFEATISM THAT WOULD COME TO FRUITION IN 1940 EVEN THOUGH THE LOSS OF LIFE AT VERDUN IS HARD TO CONCEIVE - IT WAS NOT THE BLOODIEST BATTLE OF THE WAR ... THAT HONOR - SUCH AS IT IS - BELONGS TO THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME ... A BATTLE THAT EPITOMIZES THE TRAGEDY OF THE 1ST WORLD WAR 20 THE OFFENSIVE THAT BECAME KNOWN AS THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME WAS LAUNCHED ON THE 1ST OF JULY 1916 BUT THE BACKGROUND OF THIS DISASTER IS FOUND IN BRITAIN, ITSELF AS I SAID EARLIER, WHEN THE WAR BEGAN, BRITAIN DID NOT CONSCRIPT ITS YOUNG MEN FOR MILITARY SERVICE BEFORE THE WAR ONE METHOD USED TO ATTRACT RECRUITS THAT WAS IMMEDIATELY POPULAR WAS TO ALLOW YOUNG MEN FROM WHOLE TOWNS & VILLAGES OR BUSINESSES, OR FACTORIES, OR GROUPS OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS TO ENLIST TOGETHER ... AS YOU CAN SEE FROM THESE POSTERS, THEY ALSO RELIED ON SPORTS TO ATTRACT RECRUITS Pals Battalions posters THE IDEA WAS THAT - BECAUSE THESE MEN KNEW ONE ANOTHER THEIR WOULD GREATER UNIT COHESION ... SO RECRUITERS TOLD YOUNG MEN THEY COULD GO TO WAR WITH THEIR FRIENDS - OR PALS IT’S FOR THIS REASON THAT THESE UNITS BECAME KNOWN AS THE PALS BATTALIONS WHAT NO ONE SEEMED TO HAVE THOUGHT OF IS THAT IF THESE BATTALIONS SUSTAINED HEAVY CASUALTIES - THE RESULT WOULD DEVASTATE ENTIRE TOWNS & VILLAGES & PLACES OF WORK 21 EVEN SO, THESE PALS BATTALIONS WERE SENT TO THE FRONT TO TAKE PART IN THE BRITISH ARMY'S 1st TRULY LARGE-SCALE OFFENSIVE OF THE WAR - WHICH BECAME THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME BECAUSE THESE UNITS WERE NOT MADE UP OF PROFESSIONAL SOLDIERS THE GENERALS WHO PLANNED THIS OFFENSIVE ORDERED THAT WHEN THESE UNITS WENT OVER THE TOP ... THEY SHOULD FORM NICE, NEAT LINES & WALK - NOT RUN - ACROSS NO MAN'S LAND THE GENERALS WHO ISSUED THESE ORDERS WEREN'T CALLOUS MEN THEY REALLY BELIEVED THAT THE GERMAN TRENCHES WOULD BE DESTROYED BY THE ARTILLERY BOMBARDMENT BEFORE THE ATTACK RATHER THAN TALK ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED - LET ME TAKE ANOTHER BREAK TO SHOW A BIT MORE OF THAT PREVIOUS DOCUMENTARY MADE BY THE CANADIAN MILITARY ANALYST GWYNNE DYER ... Show Gwynne Dyer’s War, Episode 1, “The Road to Total War”; BEGIN with “And what mass production wars consume is lives” TO Ulster soldier’s letter to his mother} Gwynne Dyer’s War, Episode 1, “The Road to Total War” – Begin 21.56 minute mark; end 25.40 minute mark; 3.34 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPnppCelvk0&list=PLR8X5I0C1LF5kaxAE2z_pPy 6RMSr89tBx AS YOU SAW - THE GERMAN TRENCHES WEREN'T DESTROYED --- OF COURSE ... SO, BY THE TIME THAT THESE FRESH-FACED, NEW SOLDIERS CLIMBED OUT OF THEIR TRENCHES ... THE GERMAN MACHINE GUNNERS WERE ALREADY IN PLACE -- & THEY SIMPLY CUT THEM DOWN 22 ON THE 1ST DAY OF THE SOMME - THE BRITISH SUSTAINED 58,000 CASUALTIES OF WHOM NEARLY 20,000 WERE DEAD ... BY THE TIME THE BATTLE FINALLY ENDED THAT NOVEMBER - THE BRITISH SUFFERED NEARLY 420,000 CASUALTIES ... THE FRENCH - WHO ALSO TOOK PART - 200,000 CASUALTIES ... & THE GERMANS 650,000 CASUALTIES Australian soldiers, Western Front NOW, IMAGINE WHAT IT WAS LIKE WHEN THE CASUALTY LISTS FROM THESE BATTLES REACHED THE HOME FRONT ... IN THE CASE OF THESE BRITISH UNITS - THE PALS BATTALIONS - IT WAS NOT UNCOMMON FOR A WHOLE COMMUNITY TO LOSE MOST OF ITS YOUNG MEN IN ONE BATTLE THESE DISASTERS HAPPENED - AT LEAST IN PART - BECAUSE THE GENERALS WHO COMMANDED THESE ARMIES - ON BOTH SIDES - SELDOM - IF EVER - WENT TO THE FRONT ... INSTEAD - THEY REMAINED BEHIND THE LINES ... SO, THEY HAD NO IDEA OF THE CONDITIONS THEY EXPECTED THEIR TROOPS TO FIGHT IN Stretcher bearers knee-deep in mud CONSIDER THIS - SOLDIERS WERE OFTEN WEIGHED DOWN EQUIPMENT - AMMUNITION, A WEAPON, FOOD - IT WAS NOT UNCOMMON FOR THESE SOLDIERS TO FALL INTO SHELL HOLES FILLED WITH MUD & WATER WHERE - BECAUSE OF THE WEIGHT THEY CARRIED THEY DROWNED 23 THERE'S A FAMOUS INCIDENT OF 1 BRITISH GENERAL FINALLY GOING TO THE FRONT IN 1918 - THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR ... & SEEING FOR THE 1ST TIME THE KNEE-DEEP MUD THAT SOLDIERS WERE WADING THROUGH THIS GENERAL REMARKED: MY GOD - HAVE WE BEEN ASKING OUR SOLDIERS TO FIGHT THROUGH THIS? HE REALLY HAD NO IDEA OF WHAT THE FRONT WAS LIKE LET ME ASK YOU SOMETHING ... HOW MANY NAMES ARE ON THE VIETNAM WAR MEMORIAL OVER IN DC? .... JUST OVER 58,000 Vietnam Memorial photo AT THE SOMME BATTLEFIELD IN NORTHERN FRANCE THERE IS A MONUMENT NAMED AFTER THE VILLAGE THAT ONCE STOOD THERE CALLED THE THIEPVAL MEMORIAL ... Thiepval Memorial photos AT 1ST GLANCE, IT WOULDN’T SEEM THESE MONUMENTS HAVE MUCH IN COMMON ... BUT, LIKE THE VIETNAM MEMORIAL, THE THIEPVAL MEMORIAL HAS NAMES ON IT - 73,000 NAMES ...THOSE NAMES ARE NOT THE NAMES OF ALL THE BRITISH MEN WHO DIED IN THE WAR ... THEY DON’T REPRESENT ALL OF THE BRITISH SOLDIERS WHO DIED AT THE SOMME ... THOSE 73,000 NAMES - ARE THE NAMES OF THE BRITISH SOLDIERS WHOSE BODIES WERE NEVER FOUND AFTER THIS 1 BATTLE 24 I DON'T WANT TO GIVE THE IMPRESSION HERE THAT THE EUROPEANS WERE ESPECIALLY INCOMPETENT ... WHEN THE UNITED STATES ENTERED THE WAR THE GENERALS LEADING THE US ARMY WERE NO BETTER AT REALIZING THAT THEY WERE FIGHTING A NEW KIND OF WAR THE LARGEST BATTLE FOUGHT BY AMERICANS IN WORLD WAR I - THE BATTLE OF THE ARGONNE EQUALED OF 7 GETTYSBURGS Gertrude Stein/Hemingway photos THIS SORT OF SLAUGHTER WAS UNIMAGINABLE ... IT HAD NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE IN HUMAN HISTORY ... THE LOSS WAS SUMMED UP BY THE AMERICAN WRITER GERTRUDE STEIN WHEN SHE TOLD ANOTHER AMERICAN WRITER & VETERAN OF THIS WAR - ERNEST HEMINGWAY THAT HE & OTHERS OF AGE WERE A LOST GENERATION Japanese soldiers IV. War around the world IT’S EASY TO GET THE IMPRESSION THAT THE 1ST WORLD WAR WAS REALLY JUST A EUROPEAN WAR ... THAT’S NOT TRUE THE WAR BROKE OUT - ALBEIT BRIEFLY - IN ASIA - WHEN THE ALLIES INCLUDING JAPAN - SNAPPED UP GERMAN COLONIAL POSSESSIONS IN CHINA & THE PACIFIC German East African soldiers 25 ACCORDING TO THE HISTORIAN BRUCE VANDERVORT - THE 1ST WORLD WAR OCCUPIES A LARGE - & A LARGELY OVERLOOKED - PLACE IN MODERN AFRICAN HISTORY ... THE FIGHTING IN AFRICA DURING WORLD WAR I WAS MORE WIDESPREAD THAN DURING THE 2ND WORLD WAR - & MOST OF THOSE WHO FOUGHT IN WORLD WAR I WERE THEMSELVES AFRICANS - LIKE THESE SOLDIERS IN GERMAN EAST AFRICA - WHICH, AGAIN, WAS NOT TRUE WHEN WAR CAME TO THE CONTINENT AFTER 1939 AT THE SAME TIME - MANY MORE AFRICANS FOUGHT IN EUROPE ITSELF BETWEEN 1914 & 1918 THAN WOULD BETWEEN 1939 & 1945 ... & WHILE IT TOOK A 2ND WORLD WAR TO COMPLETE THE JOB - THE SEEDS OF THE LIBERATION MOVEMENTS THAT SWEPT AWAY THE EUROPEAN EMPIRES IN AFRICA WERE PLANTED AS A RESULT OF WORLD WAR I BUT - NOWHERE WAS THE IMPACT OF THIS WAR MORE PROFOUND THAN IN THE MIDDLE EAST ... AS I SAID EARLIER - THE OTTOMAN TURKS SIDED WITH GERMANY & THE CENTRAL POWERS IN 1914 - MAKING IT A TARGET OF THE MAJOR ALLIED POWERS, NOT LEAST TO FOR ... WAIT FOR IT? OIL T E Lawrence photo AMONG OTHER THINGS, THE BRITISH ENCOURAGED ARABS - WHO WERE RULED BY THE OTTOMANS TO REBEL ... 26 THE ARAB REVOLT - AS IT WAS SOON BEING CALLED - WAS INSPIRED IN PART BY A BRITISH OFFICER NAMED T.E. LAWRENCE - BETTER KNOWN AS??? LAWRENCE OF ARABIA THE ARABS BELIEVED THE ALLIES WOULD GRANT THEM INDEPENDENCE TO CREATE AN ARAB KINGDOM STRETCHING FROM PALESTINE - ON THE SHORES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN TO THE PERSIAN GULF FOR THE ROLE THEY PLAYED IN DEFEATING THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE - WHICH, AS YOU SEE FROM THIS MAP THAT LAWRENCE SHOWED THEM, WAS THE CASE Lawrence Mideast map HOWEVER, THE BRITISH - & THE FRENCH - HAD NO INTENTION WHATSOEVER OF GIVING UP THE MIDDLE EAST IF THEY COULD EVER GET THEIR HANDS ON THE REGION ... &, AS EARLY AS 1915, THEY AGREED WITH THE RUSSIANS TO DIVIDE THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE BETWEEN THEM ... Sykes-Picot Agreement map WHICH YOU CAN SEE FROM THIS MAP - WHICH LAID OUT WHAT BECAME KNOWN AS THE SYKES-PICOT AGREEMENT THEN - JUST TO MAKE THINGS REALLY INTERESTING, THEY PROMISED AT LEAST A PORTION OF THESE LANDS A 3RD TIME AJ Balfour photo 27 IN 1917 - THE WAR WAS GOING VERY BADLY FOR THE ALLIES, & THEY WERE LOOKING FOR SUPPORT FROM ANY QUARTER ... TO GAIN THE BACKING OF THE SMALL, BUT INFLUENTIAL ZIONIST MOVEMENT - BRITAIN’S FOREIGN SECRETARY ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR ISSUED THE BALFOUR DECLARATION PROMISING A JEWISH HOMELAND IN PALESTINE TO OBTAIN JEWISH SUPPORT FOR THE ALLIED WAR EFFORT Post-WWI Mideast map FURTHER EAST - BRITISH EMPIRE FORCES TOOK CONTROL OF OTTOMAN TERRITORY IN THE PERSIAN GULF AREA - & ITS OIL FIELDS AFTER THE WAR, THE BRITISH TOOK 3 OF THESE OTTOMAN PROVINCES TO CREATE THE NATION OF IRAQ ... WHILE THE FRENCH HELPED THEMSELVES TO SYRIA & LEBANON - AS YOU CAN SEE FROM THIS MAP IT DOESN’T TAKE TOO MUCH IMAGINATION TO SEE THAT ALL OF THESE CONFLICTING PROMISES WERE BOUND TO CLASH ... & THEY HAVE EVER SINCE ... IF YOU WANT TO UNDERSTAND THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST YOUR STARTING POINT IS WORLD WAR I THERE IS ONE OTHER EPISODE FROM THIS THEATER OF THE WAR THAT MUST BE MENTIONED - THAT DESERVES MORE THAN A MENTION AMONG THE MANY NATIONAL & ETHNIC GROUPS LIVING IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE WERE AS MANY AS 2 MILLION ARMENIANS ... Armenian massacre photos 28 FOR A NUMBER OF REASONS - INCLUDING A FALSE CLAIM THAT THE ARMENIANS WERE DISLOYAL & COLLABORATING WITH RUSSIA THE OTTOMAN GOVERNMENT ORDERED THE MASS DEPORTATION OF THE ARMENIANS FROM THEIR HOMELAND ... THE RESULT WERE MASS KILLINGS OF AS MANY AS 1.5 MILLION MEN, WOMEN, & CHILDREN WHICH MOST HISTORIANS AGREE AMOUNTED TO A GENOCIDE OF THE ARMENIAN PEOPLE {Stevenson, 94-95} Adolf Hitler photo TO THIS DAY - THE GOVERNMENT OF MODERN TURKEY FURIOUSLY DENIES THAT THESE MASSACRES TOOK PLACE &, EVEN AT THE TIME, THE THE WORLD WAS LARGELY INDIFFERENT TO THE ARMENIAN MASSACRES THIS INDIFFERENCE WAS NOT LOST ON ONE FUTURE LEADER ... ON THE EVE OF WORLD WAR II - WHEN HE WAS QUESTIONED ABOUT HIS ATTACKS ON EUROPEAN JEWS, ADOLF HITLER TOLD HIS INNER CIRCLE NOT TO WORRY ... AFTER ALL - HE TOLD THEM, “WHO REMEMBERS THE ARMENIAN MASSACRES, TODAY?” Woodrow Wilson photo V. The 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month ... THE FIRST WORLD WAR ENDED SUDDENLY AT THE END OF 1918 ... TO EXPLAIN WHY - YOU HAVE TO CROSS THE ATLANTIC & PICK UP THIS STORY WITH THE UNITED STATES 29 AS I SAID EARLIER - WHEN THE WAR BEGAN IN 1914, WOODROW WILSON CALLED ON AMERICANS TO BE NEUTRAL - BUT THAT WAS EASIER SAID THAN DONE ... FOR ONE THING - MANY AMERICANS WERE - IN FACT - NEWLY ARRIVED IMMIGRANTS FROM THE VERY COUNTRIES NOW FIGHTING ONE ANOTHER IN EUROPE TO COUNTER THAT - THE HYPHENATED AMERICAN BECAME VERY UNFASHIONABLE IN THE UNITED STATES ... THAT’S HARD TO BELIEVE TODAY - WHEN EVERYONE SEEMS TO QUALIFY THEIR CITIZENSHIP ... YOU’LL HEAR PEOPLE REFER TO THEMSELVES AS MEXICAN-AMERICAN OR CHINESE-AMERICAN - OR AFRICAN-AMERICAN IN MUCH THE SAME WAY IT WAS NOT UNCOMMON TO HEAR PEOPLE REFER TO THEMSELVES AS ITALIAN-AMERICANS OR IRISH-AMERICANS OR GERMAN-AMERICANS A CENTURY AGO AS I SAY - AS A RESULT OF WORLD WAR I - THAT SORT OF THING BECAME SUSPECT ... IN ITS PLACE - A DEMAND AROSE FOR WHAT BECAME KNOWN AS “100 PERCENT AMERICANISM” 100 % Americanism poster WHEN AMERICA ENTERED THE WAR IN APRIL 1917 - THE CAMPAIGN FOR 100% AMERICANISM TURNED INTO FULL-FLEDGED ANTI-GERMAN HYSTERIA & CAUSED SOME PEOPLE TO DO SOME REALLY STUPID THINGS 30 ANYTHING GERMAN WAS ATTACKED ... TEACHING THE GERMAN LANGUAGE IN SCHOOLS WAS BANNED ... CONCERT ORCHESTRAS WERE FORBIDDEN FROM PLAYING MUSIC WRITTEN BY GERMAN COMPOSERS SO, NO BACH, NO BEETHOVEN, NO WAGNER PEOPLE WITH GERMAN NAMES WERE HARASSED - EVEN IF THEY HAD LIVED IN THE US FOR GENERATIONS ... A FAMILY NAMED FUCHS - VERY GERMAN - MIGHT CHANGE THEIR NAME TO FOX ... VERY ENGLISH GERMAN STREET NAMES WERE CHANGED GERMAN ... AS WERE SOME FOODS ... SAUERKRAUT FOR A TIME BECAME - LIBERTY CABBAGE &, EVEN, PETS - DACHSHUNDS BECAME LIBERTY DOGS {Ellis, Echoes of Distant Thunder, 428} Dachshund dog photo BUT - AS THIS HYSTERIA WENT UNCHECKED IT TURNED VERY UGLY ... IN APRIL 1918 IN THE TOWN OF COLLINSVILLE, ILLINOIS - A MOB ATTACKED THIS MAN - ROBERT PAUL PRAGER - BECAUSE THEY DECIDED - & THIS IS A DIRECT QUOTE - “HE LOOKED LIKE A SPY” Prager photo PRAGER WAS A GERMAN IMMIGRANT - BUT, HE WAS NOT A SPY ... WHILE THE POLICE STOOD BY, THE MOB DRAPED AN AMERICAN FLAG AROUND PRAGER & THEN THEY LYNCHED HIM ... 11 RINGLEADERS OF THE MOB WERE PUT ON TRIAL FOR HANGING PRAGER - THESE MEN ... 31 Prager murderers BUT THE JURY ACQUITTED PRAGER’S KILLERS ... THEY SAID THE MOB HAD COMMITTED “PATRIOTIC MURDER” British anti-German hysteria photos THIS HYSTERIA WASN’T CONFINED TO THE UNITED STATES ... IN AUSTRALIA THE RIGHTS OF GERMAN IMMIGRANTS WERE RESTRICTED &, AS YOU CAN SEE FROM THESE PHOTOS - IN BRITAIN THERE WERE ATTACKS ON GERMAN-OWNED BUSINESSES & HOMES - &, OFTEN, THE POLICE DID NOTHING TO STOP THE MOBS BACK TO THE UNITED STATES ... WHILE PEOPLE CONTINUED TO TAKE PRIDE IN THEIR ETHNIC HERITAGE - THE HYPHENATED AMERICAN HAD LARGELY DISAPPEARED BY THE END OF THE 1st WORLD WAR ... IT WOULDN’T BE UNTIL THE 1970s - REALLY - THAT THE HYPHENATED- AMERICAN WAS ACCEPTED AGAIN IN AMERICAN CULTURE ... SO MUCH SO THAT - TODAY, IT SEEMS THAT AMERICANS HAVE TO PREFACE THEIR AMERICAN NATIONALITY WITH SOME ETHNIC GROUP REFERENCE SO FAR AS THE WAR ITSELF WAS CONCERNED - DESPITE WOODROW WILSON’S DESIRE TO STAY OUT OF THE WAR - THE AMERICAN ECONOMY SOON BECAME DEEPLY INVOLVED IN SELLING GOODS TO THE ALLIES ... TO STOP THE SHIPMENT OF THESE SUPPLIES THE GERMANS ENGAGED SUBMARINE WARFARE 32 WITHOUT WARNING - SHIPS ON THE ATLANTIC OCEAN WERE SUNK BY GERMANY SUBMARINES CALLED U-BOATS - LIKE THIS ONE U-boat photo THIS STRATEGY VERY NEARLY BROUGHT THE UNITED STATES INTO THE WAR AS EARLY AS 1915 ... WAR WAS AVERTED THEN ... BUT IN 1917 - THE GERMANS RESORTED TO IT - AGAIN - THEY GAMBLED THAT U-BOATS COULD LITERALLY STARVE Gt BRITAIN INTO SURRENDERING BY CUTTING OFF FOOD SUPPLIES FROM NORTH AMERICA - WITH BRITAIN OUT - THE GERMANS COULD THEN DEFEAT FRANCE AT THE SAME TIME, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE LEARNED OF THE ZIMMERMANN TELEGRAM - A GERMAN PROMISE TO MEXICO THAT IF THE MEXICO DECLARED WAR ON THE UNITED STATES - GERMANY WOULD GUARANTEE THAT MEXICO WOULD BE GRANTED THE STATES OF TEXAS, NEW MEXICO & ARIZONA ... (WHY NOT CALIFORNIA???) PROVIDED THE CENTRAL POWERS WON - OF COURSE Zimmerman telegram map & cartoons COMBINED WITH THE INCREASING NUMBER OF SINKINGS OF AMERICAN SHIPS - THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WERE ENRAGED ... SO THAT, IN APRIL 1917 THE UNITED STATES DECLARED WAR ON GERMANY THE IMPACT OF AMERICAN INVOLVEMENT IN WORLD WAR I WENT FAR BEYOND THE BATTLEFIELD 33 AS OCCURRED IN EUROPE - AS YOUNG MEN ENTERED THE MILITARY, WOMEN TOOK TRADITIONALLY MALE JOBS IN HUGE NUMBERS & THIS WAS CRUCIAL FOR THEM SECURING THE RIGHT TO VOTE IN 1920 Great Migration map ANOTHER GROUP THAT WAS GREATLY AFFECTED BY THE WAR WAS BLACK AMERICANS ... WHEN I TALKED ABOUT THE WAVE OF IMMIGRANTS WHO CAME TO THIS COUNTRY BETWEEN THE CIVIL WAR & WORLD WAR I, I POINTED OUT THAT WHILE THEY WERE TOLERATED BECAUSE THIS COUNTRY NEEDED WORKERS ... ONCE THE WAR BEGAN IN 1914, HOWEVER, THAT SOURCE OF WORKERS WAS CUT OFF - QUITE SIMPLY GERMANY, & BRITAIN, & RUSSIA & ALL OF THE OTHER COMBATANT COUNTRIES NEEDED THEIR YOUNG MEN & WOMEN TO SERVE IN THEIR ARMIES OR WORK IN THEIR OWN FACTORIES IN THIS COUNTRY - FACTORY OWNERS STILL NEEDED WORKERS - & ALL THE MORE ONCE THIS COUNTRY DECLARED WAR ... SO, THEY TURNED TO BLACK WORKERS IN THE SOUTH ... BEGINNING WHAT IS KNOWN AS THE GREAT MIGRATION ... AS BLACK MEN, WOMEN, & THEIR FAMILIES MOVED NORTH TO WORK IN THE FACTORIES OF CHICAGO, DETROIT, PITTSBURGH, & OTHER AMERICAN CITIES AS WELL AS BRINGING THEIR LABOR - THESE MEN & WOMEN BROUGHT TWO FORMS OF MUSIC WITH THEM … 34 RHYTHM & BLUES, OR THE BLUES, FOR SHORT - & WHAT PROVED TO BE MORE IMMEDIATELY POPULAR — JAZZ Black American soldiers AS HAPPENED DURING THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, BLACK AMERICAN MEN SERVED IN THE US MILITARY IN LARGE NUMBERS THOUGH — AGAIN — IN SEGREGATED UNITS EVEN SO, THEY & OTHERS PROVED A POINT WHEN THE KAISER & HIS GENERALS RENEWED UNRESTRICTED SUBMARINE WARFARE THEY GAMBLED THAT THE AMERICANS WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO FIELD AN ARMY FAST ENOUGH TO MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE ON THE BATTLEFIELD ... THEY COULD NOT HAVE BEEN MORE WRONG BY THE AUTUMN OF 1918 MORE THAN 4 MILLION AMERICANS - OF ALL RACES - WERE SERVING IN THE US MILITARY ... OF THAT NUMBER 2 MILLION WERE SERVING OVERSEAS & 1 MILLION WERE IN COMBAT - LIKE THESE 4 YOUNG MEN 4 American soldiers photo THE AMERICANS WERE NOT DECISIVE ON THE BATTLEFIELD - THEY WEREN’T IN THE WAR LONG ENOUGH ... WHAT WAS DECISIVE WAS THE KNOWLEDGE THAT AMERICAN MANPOWER WAS NOW ON THE ALLIED SIDE THIS GAVE A HUGE PSYCHOLOGICAL BOOST TO THE BRITISH & FRENCH - IT HAD THE OPPOSITE EFFECT ON GERMAN TROOPS 35 IN OTHER WORDS, THE DECISION TO LAUNCH ITS U-BOAT CAMPAIGN WAS A CATASTROPHE ... FAR FROM BRINGING VICTORY - IT INSURED GERMANY'S DEFEAT ... WHEN THE ALLIED ARMIES WHICH NOW INCLUDED AMERICAN SOLDIERS - ATTACKED IN THE AUTUMN OF 1918, THE GERMANS HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO SUE FOR PEACE AND THAT IS WHAT HAPPENED ON THE 11th HOUR OF THE 11th DAY OF THE 11th MONTH OF 1918 HG Wells photos & novels VI. Bitter harvest YOU MAY HAVE HEARD OF THIS MAN — H.G. WELLS ... HE IS FAMOUS FOR HIS NOVELS OF SCIENCE FICTION ... e.g. - THE WAR OF THE WORLDS WELLS ALSO PUT INTO WORDS THE WIDESPREAD HOPE THAT THE 1ST WORLD WAR WOULD BE THE WAR TO END WAR IT WASN’T LONG BEFORE POLITICIANS - AT LEAST AMONG THE ALLIES BEGAN TO TAKE UP THIS SLOGAN - & MADE IT 1 OF THEIR WAR AIMS ... SPECIFICALLY - THAT IF THEY WON THE WAR - THEY WOULD DO ALL THAT THEY COULD TO ENSURE THAT THERE WOULD BE NO MORE WAR THE FAILURE TO MAKE GOOD ON THIS PROMISE WAS NOT THE LEAST OF THE CONSEQUENCES - & TRAGEDIES OF THOSE AWFUL 4 YEARS 36 ONCE IT BECAME OBVIOUS THAT THE WINNERS WOULD NOT - OR, WORSE, COULD NOT MAKE GOOD ON THIS PLEDGE A DEEP DISILLUSION SET IN AMONG VICTOR & VANQUISHED, ALIKE ... & IN THIS DISILLUSIONMENT YOU FIND THE BEGINNINGS OF A 2ND WORLD WAR IN PARTICULAR IT LED MANY TO QUESTION THE IDEA OF LIBERAL DEMOCRACY … BECAUSE, AFTER ALL, THE VICTORIOUS NATIONS IN THE MAIN, HERE, I’M TALKING ABOUT FRANCE, Gt. BRITAIN, & THE UNITED STATES WERE LIBERAL DEMOCRACIES ... THEIR FAILURE TO FASHION A REAL PEACE, A JUST PEACE WOULD BE SEEN BY MANY AS A DEMONSTRATION THAT LIBERAL DEMOCRACY WAS ITSELF A FAILURE WHAT MANY CONVENIENTLY FORGOT WAS THAT THE PEOPLE OF THESE NATIONS OFTEN DEMANDED CONTRADICTORY THINGS A JUST PEACE - YES … A WAR TO END WAR – YES A WAR TO MAKE THE WORLD SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY – AS WOODROW WILSON HAD PROMISED – YES, CERTAINLY BUT - THESE SAME PEOPLES ALSO WANTED TO HANG THE KAISER & MAKE GERMANY PAY FOR THE WAR IN THE WAKE OF THE ARMISTICE - THE NATIONS OF BOTH SIDES COUNTED UP THE COSTS OF THE PAST 4 YEARS ... COSTS THAT WERE UNPRECEDENTED IN HUMAN HISTORY ... HERE ARE SOME OF THEM 37 BY THE END OF WORLD WAR I - OF THE 61.5 MILLION MEN WHO WERE MOBILIZED BY BOTH SIDES TO FIGHT ... AN ESTIMATED 8.3 MILLION COMBATANTS WERE DEAD ... ANOTHER 19 & A HALF MILLION HAD BEEN WOUNDED ... & OF THAT NUMBER 7 MILLION WERE MAIMED FOR LIFE AND - OF COURSE - BECAUSE THE 1st WORLD WAR WAS A TOTAL WAR THERE WERE CIVILIAN CASUALTIES, TOO ... 8 MILLION BY 1 COUNT BEFORE THE 1ST WORLD WAR THE MAJORITY OF THOSE KILLED IN ANY MAJOR CONFLICT CAME FROM THE RANKS OF THOSE WHO ACTUALLY FOUGHT IN THE WAR - THAT IS, THE COMBATANTS BUT BETWEEN 1914 & 1918 - THE WORLD REACHED A TIPPING POINT ... AS YOU THE MAJORITY OF DEATHS WAS STILL AMONG COMBATANTS - BUT THE NUMBERS ARE VERY CLOSE ... WHEN YOU REACH WORLD WAR II, THE FIGURES SHIFT DECISIVELY &, FOR THE 1ST TIME IN HUMAN HISTORY, THE NUMBER OF CIVILIANS - OF NON-COMBATANTS - SURPASSED THE NUMBER OF COMBATANTS WHO WERE KILLED ... & IT’S BEEN THAT WAY IN EVERY MAJOR WAR EVER SINCE AS HUGE AS THE NUMBERS WERE OF THOSE KILLED DURING THE WAR THEY PALE IN COMPARISON WITH THE NUMBER OF DEATHS THAT ARE ATTRIBUTED TO WHAT CAME TO BE CALLED THE SPANISH FLU ... ONE OF THE WORST RESULTS OF THIS 4-YEAR CONFLICT {Stevenson, 405} 38 DURING 1918, A PARTICULARLY VIRULENT STRAIN OF INFLUENZA SWEPT THE WORLD, KILLING AT LEAST 21.5 MILLION PEOPLE - & ... Spanish flu photos AS MANY AS 30 MILLION PEOPLE {Stevenson, 405} - INCLUDING FROM 500,000 TO 675,000 PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES THIS PARTICULAR STRAIN OF FLU - EASILY THE WORST PLAGUE TO HIT MANKIND IN THE MODERN AGE … & - IN FACT - IS 2nd ONLY TO THE BLACK DEATH OF THE MIDDLE AGES (1347-51) AS A DISEASE AFFLICTING HUMAN BEINGS ... (75 MILLION DIED IN BLACK DEATH) THE SPANISH FLU DID NOT BEGIN IN SPAIN ... TWO LIKELY CANDIDATES FOR THE PLACE WHERE THIS FLU JUMPED ANIMALS TO HUMANS ARE A US ARMY CAMP IN KANSAS - OR, A BRITISH ARMY CAMP IN NORTHERN FRANCE ... THE MASSIVE MOVEMENT OF SOLDIERS LITERALLY AROUND THE GLOBE ... THIS EXPLAINS HOW A LOCAL EPIDEMIC QUICKLY BECAME A WORLDWIDE EPIDEMIC - OR A PANDEMIC AT ANY RATE, AFTER A WHILE FIGURES LIKE THESE MAKE THE MIND GLAZE OVER ... A MILLION DEAD HERE ... A MILLION DEAD THERE IT'S DIFFICULT TO THINK OF THESE NUMBERS AS HUMAN BEINGS ... BUT, WITH SO MANY LIVES LOST - ESPECIALLY THOSE KILLED IN THE WAR IT WAS GOING TO BE VERY DIFFICULT TO FASHION A PEACE THAT WOULD JUSTIFY THESE TERRIBLE LOSSES 39 THAT JOB FELL TO THE 3 LARGEST OF THE ALLIED POWERS TO FRANCE, TO THE UNITED KINGDOM, & TO THE UNITED STATES Clemenceau, Lloyd George, Wilson VII. Return to the Hall of Mirrors MORE TO THE POINT, IT FELL TO THE LEADERS OF THESE 3 COUNTRIES WHEN THEY GATHERED AT PARIS TO HAMMER OUT A SETTLEMENT TO SAVE TIME - LET’S LOOK AT THIS TREATY THROUGH THE EYES OF THE 3 ALLIED LEADERS WHO WERE MOST RESPONSIBLE FOR HOW IT CAME ABOUT {Show photograph} 1ST - GEORGES CLEMENCEAU, THE PREMIER OF FRANCE CLEMENCEAU - WAS KNOWN AS THE "TIGER" ... ABOVE ALL ELSE, HE WAS OBSESSED WITH THE SECURITY OF HIS COUNTRY -- &, IN A WORD, HE WANTED OLD-FASHIONED REVENGE - THE DEMILITARIZATION OF GERMANY – &, HUGE REPARATIONS - SOUND FAMILIAR? IT’S EASY TO CONDEMN CLEMENCEAU FOR HIS ATTITUDE BUT - YOU HAVE TO REMEMBER THAT MUCH OF NORTHERN FRANCE HAD BEEN DESTROYED BETWEEN 1914 & 1918 THERE WERE WHOLE AREAS THAT WERE SAID TO BE UNINHABITABLE ... THERE WERE UNEXPLODED SHELLS, BARBED WIRE, UNBURIED BODIES THE DEVASTATION WAS UNIMAGINABLE 40 WHILE PEOPLE DID - IN FACT - MOVE BACK INTO THESE AREAS TO RE-BUILD THEIR TOWNS & VILLAGES & FARMS ... THOSE PROBLEMS DID NOT GO AWAY ... & IN FACT, THEY STILL HAVEN'T GONE AWAY TO THIS DAY, FARMERS STILL OCCASIONALLY UNEARTH UNEXPLODED SHELLS & LAND-MINES WHILE PLOUGHING THE FIELDS - &, YES - SOME STILL DIE {TELL ABOUT VISIT TO THE SOMME} THE 2nd OF THESE 3 LEADERS WAS THE BRITISH PRIME MINISTER DAVID LLOYD GEORGE LLOYD GEORGE’S MAIN OBJECTIVE AT VERSAILLES WAS TO PROTECT THE INTERESTS OF GREAT BRITAIN & ITS EMPIRE AND - FINALLY - THE 3RD OF THESE LEADERS - THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON - WHO HAD HIS OWN AGENDA IN 1917 - WILSON HAD DECLARED THAT THIS COUNTRY WAS GOING TO WAR TO MAKE THE WORLD SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY - TO ACHIEVE THAT GOAL ... A FEW MONTHS LATER ... HE LAID OUT HIS VISION OF THE POST-WAR WORLD KNOWN AS THE 14 POINTS I’M NOT GOING TO GO THROUGH EVERY ONE OF THESE POINTS ... BUT - AMONG THE HIGHLIGHTS - WILSON CALLED FOR FREEDOM OF THE SEAS - IN OTHER WORDS, NATIONS WOULD BE ALLOWED TO TRADE FREELY WITHOUT FEAR OF ATTACK - AS HAD HAPPENED TO AMERICAN SHIPS WHEN THEY WERE ATTACKED BY U-BOATS DURING THE WAR 41 WILSON ALSO CALLED FOR AN END TO SECRET TREATIES & FOR NATIONAL SELF-DETERMINATION - THE RIGHT OF NATIONAL GROUPS TO FORM THEIR OWN SOVEREIGN COUNTRIES MOST IMPORTANTLY - WILSON CALLED FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A LEAGUE OF NATIONS - AN INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF NATIONS WHERE THEY WOULD SETTLE DISPUTES INSTEAD OF RESORTING TO WAR THIS IDEA - THAT NATIONS SHOULD WORK TOGETHER TO RESOLVE DISPUTES IS KNOWN AS COLLECTIVE SECURITY IT’S AN AMERICAN IDEA ... WHICH A LOT OF AMERICANS DON’T CARE TO REMEMBER NOWADAYS ... BUT, THAT’S ANOTHER SUBJECT THE MODERN INCARNATION OF COLLECTIVE SECURITY ... THE INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION THAT PROMOTES THIS IDEA IS THE UNITED NATIONS THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS & THE UNITED NATIONS - HOWEVER - ARE NOT THE SAME ORGANIZATION ... THE UN WAS TO BE CREATED AFTER THE END OF A SECOND WORLD WAR IN ANY CASE - WILSON’S 14 POINTS WERE TO BE THE BASIS FOR AMERICA’S NEGOTIATING POSITION WHEN THE VICTORIOUS ALLIES MET AT PARIS 42 WILSON’S INITIAL RECEPTION IN EUROPE WAS RAPTUROUS ... HUGE THRONGS IN LONDON, PARIS, & ROME HAILED HIM AS THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD - THE MAN WHO WOULD GUARANTEE THAT THE GREAT WAR AS IT WAS BEING CALLED - WOULD BE THE WAR TO END WAR ... BUT AGAIN - THESE SAME CHEERING THRONGS ALSO EXPECTED WILSON TO GIVE THEIR NATIONS WHAT THEY WANTED ... WHETHER IT WAS A SHARE OF GERMANY’S OVERSEAS COLONIES OR - A GERMANY THAT WOULD NEVER THREATEN THEM, AGAIN OR - A PIECE OF THE OLD AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE ... MAYBE A PIECE OF THE OLD OTTOMAN EMPIRE, TOO NOT LEAST - ONCE HE WAS IN FRANCE - WILSON WAS HORRIFIED TO DISCOVER THAT HIS CALLS FOR NATIONAL SELF-DETERMINATION FOR SOME NATIONAL GROUPS HAD BEEN TAKEN UP BY MANY OTHERS ... HE WAS BESIEGED REPRESENTATIVES OF NATIONAL & ETHNIC GROUPS, MANY OF WHOM - HE LATER ADMITTED - HE’D NEVER HEARD OF … WILSON HAD RAISED EXPECTATIONS AMONG THESE GROUPS THAT COULDN'T POSSIBLE BY MET ... INCLUDING A YOUNG MAN FROM VIETNAM LATER KNOWN AS HO CHI MINH {MacMillan, 59} Ho Chin Minh (2 photos) IN HIS NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE OTHER ALLIED POWERS - & NOT JUST WITH CLEMENCEAU & LLOYD GEORGE - WILSON WAS FORCED TO COMPROMISE ON ALL OF HIS 14 POINTS 43 FOR INSTANCE, TO WIN JAPANESE BACKING FOR THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS WILSON AGREED TO GIVE THAT COUNTRY EFFECTIVE CONTROL OF CHINA’S SHANTUNG PROVINCE Asia & Versailles Treaty map WILSON HOPED THAT THE LEAGUE WOULD BE THE VEHICLE THAT WOULD RIGHT THE WRONGS BEING CREATED BY THE TREATY ... BUT DEALS LIKE THIS WERE USED BY SENATE REPUBLICANS TO KILL THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES WHEN IT CAME UP FOR RATIFICATION 4th of May demonstrations photo IN CHINA ITSELF - THIS AGREEMENT HAD HUGE RAMIFICATIONS IT LED TO MASSIVE DEMONSTRATIONS ON THE 4TH OF MAY 1919 & TO A REJECTION BY MANY CHINESE INTELLECTUALS OF THE WEST Zhou & Mao photo & later poster LARGE NUMBERS CHINESE MEN & WOMEN - ESPECIALLY STUDENTS TURNED TO THE NEW BOLSHEVIK GOVERNMENT IN RUSSIA FOR INSPIRATION & A YEAR LATER THEY FORMED THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY ... AMONG THEM WERE MAO TSE-TUNG & CHOU EN-LAI BOTH OF WHOM TOOK PART IN THE 4TH OF MAY DEMONSTRATIONS {Macmillan, Paris, 1919 p 338-341} Franz & Sophie Ferdinand photo 44 THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES THAT ENDED THE GREAT WAR WAS SIGNED ON 28 JUNE 1919 - 5 YEARS TO THE DAY OF THE ASSASSINATION OF FRANZ FERDINAND & HIS WIFE Hall of Mirrors photo & painting THE CEREMONY ITSELF TOOK PLACE AT THE PALACE OF VERSAILLES ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF PARIS THAT HAD BEEN BUILT TO THE GLORY OF LOUIS XIV IN THE LATE 1600s ... THAT MORE RECENTLY HAD BEEN THE SITE OF BISMARCK’S TRIUMPH & NOW WAS TO BE THE SITE OF GERMANY’S HUMILIATION THE TREATY’S MAIN TERMS WERE THESE - GERMANY WAS SINGLED OUT FOR PUNISHMENT IT’S ONCE PROUD ARMY WAS LIMITED TO A SMALL FORCE IT LOST TERRITORY - ESPECIALLY IN THE EAST TO THE NEW NATION OF POLAND Map of German territorial losses GERMANY WAS ALSO FORCED TO MAKE HUGE CASH PAYMENTS CALLED REPARATIONS TO SOME OF THE ALLIES ... JUST AS BISMARCK HAD IMPOSED REPARATIONS ON FRANCE IN 1871 ... BUT - WHAT WAS WORST - WAS THAT THE ALLIES FORCED GERMANY TO ACCEPT WAR GUILT 45 IN OTHER WORDS, THE GERMANS HAD TO AGREE THAT THEY - & THEY ALONE - HAD BROUGHT THIS 4-YEAR CATASTROPHE ON THE WORLD ... PROBABLY MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE, THE WAR GUILT CLAUSE LAID FOUNDATION FOR A 2ND WORLD WAR MORE GENERALLY - THE VERSAILLES SETTLEMENT DRAMATICALLY ALTERED THE FACE OF EUROPE - AS YOU CAN SEE FROM THIS MAP Europe 1914 & 1922 maps AS I SAID PREVIOUSLY, THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES ALSO RE-MADE THE MIDDLE EAST & LAID THE FOUNDATIONS FOR 2 CONFLICTS ... THE SEEDS OF THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT - & THE IRAQ WAR WERE SOWN DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR {EXPLAIN - BREAK-UP OF OTTOMAN EMPIRE} UNFORTUNATELY FOR WILSON - WHO COUNTED ON THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS TO RIGHT THESE WRONGS - THE LEAGUE’S SUCCESS DEPENDED ON THE LEADERSHIP OF THE 3 MAJOR ALLIED POWERS - OF BRITAIN, FRANCE - BUT - ESPECIALLY THE UNITED STATES WHILE BRITAIN & FRANCE JOINED THE ORGANIZATION - THE US SENATE WAS DOMINATED BY REPUBLICAN WHO OPPOSED ISOLATIONISTS US PARTICIPATION IN THE LEAGUE 46 WILSON TOOK HIS CASE TO THE TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DURING A CROSS-COUNTRY TOUR TO PROMOTE THE LEAGUE WILSON SUFFERED A STROKE ... AFTER THAT, HE WAS, FOR ALL INTENTS & PURPOSES -AN INVALID FOR THE REST OF HIS PRESIDENCY SHORTLY AFTER WILSON’S STROKE - AS EXPECTED - THE SENATE REJECTED THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES & THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS CRIPPLING ORGANIZATION AT THE OUTSET Warren Harding photo THAT MADE IT THE MAIN ISSUE OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1920 ... WHILE THE DEMOCRATS SUPPORTED THE LEAGUE - THE REPUBLICANS NOMINATED AN OBSCURE OHIO SENATOR NAMED WARREN G. HARDING - WHO PROMISED THE RETURN THE NATION TO AS HE CALLED IT - NORMALCY ... WHICH ISN’T A WORD, BUT NEVER MIND THIS WOULDN’T BE THE LAST TIME THAT WE’VE HAD A MAN IN THE WHITE HOUSE WHO’S DONE BATTLE WITH THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ... & THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE HAS LOST ANYWAY - WHILE HARDING MIGHT NOT HAVE BEEN A MASTER OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE - HE DID APPEAL TO A CERTAIN WEARINESS AMONG THE AMERICAN PEOPLE - MANY OF WHOM WANTED TO TURN THEIR BACKS ON THE WORLD ... THEY COULDN’T - OF COURSE BU THEY WOULD TRY MIGHTILY HARD OVER THE NEXT 2 DECADES 47 Peace celebration photo & illustration WHEN THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES WAS SIGNED IN 1919 - THERE WERE, AS YOU MIGHT IMAGINE - HUGE CELEBRATIONS ... ESPECIALLY IN PARIS PEOPLE REALLY BELIEVED THEY HAD ENDED WAR FOR ALL TIME ONE FRENCH GENERAL - WATCHING THE CELEBRATIONS - KNEW BETTER AFTERWARD - HE WROTE - THEY THINK THEY HAVE GOT PEACE … WHEN ALL THEY HAVE GOT IS A 20-YEAR TRUCE AND - OF COURSE - HE WAS RIGHT * {* Sebastian Faulks, ‘Heroes in hell’, The Guardian, 15 Sept 1993, attributes this quote to Foch; see World War I file for copy.} LOOKING BACK ON THIS TRAGEDY, THE AMERICAN WRITER EZRA POUND BLAMED THE WAR ON A BOTCHED CIVILIZATION WHICH HAD BEGOTTEN SCIENTIFIC BARBARISM ... BARBARISM BRED MORE BARBARISM ... & IN RUSSIA, THE BARBARISM OF WORLD WAR I TOOK THE FORM OF BOLSHEVISM ... THAT IS THE SUBJECT WE’LL TURN TO NEXT HIST 100 - Western Civilization: Lecture 11 I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. Revolution in Russia “Where madness & evil meet” The enduring power of fascism “Il Duce” – Benito Mussolini The not-so-Roaring 20s Origins of the Great Depression FDR & the New Deal The Great Depression as a global catastrophe Illustrations, maps, photos 1. Poster – Provisional Government, 1917 pro-war “freedom loan” 2. Photo – Romanov family 3. Photo – Women’s march, February 1917 4. Photo - Petrograd soldiers, 1917 5. Photo - Provisional Government, March 1917 6. Photo - Petrograd Soviet 7. Lenin portrait 8. Photo – Alexander Kerensky – far left 9. Photo – Russian soldiers abandon the front, July 1917 10. Photo – Lenin speaks at a mass rally 11. Photo – Leon Trotsky 12. Red Guards 13. Map – Russian Civil War 14. Pro-Bolshevik Interventionist cartoon 15. Cheka leaders photo 16. Vladimir Putin photo 17. Romanov family photo 18. Map – Gulag Archipelago 19. Lenin & Stalin photo 20. Photo - Stalin 21. Photo – Mao Zedong 22. Trotsky with the Red Army 23. Photo – Stalin smoking a pipe 24. Collectivization poster 25. Ukrainian famine victims 26. Stalin & Khrushchev photo 27. Poster - Italian fascists 28. Photo - Nazi torchlight parade 29. Photo – Mussolini with Roman arch 30. SS induction ceremony 31. German male student poster 2 32. League of German girls poster 33. Photo - Italian boy Blackshirts 34. Poster - Nazi mother & child 35. Photo - Hungarian Arrow Cross 36. Mussolini – official photograph 37. Fasces symbol 38. Italian WWI claims map 39. Photo - Blackshirts, 1922 40. Photo - Mussolini marching with Blackshirts; 41. Photos - Blackshirts “march” on Rome 42. Mussolini & Blackshirts 43. Photos - Mussolini & Hitler, 1937 44. Mussolini execution 45. Photo - 1920s flappers 46. Wall Street crash photo 47. Great Depression photos (2) 48. Photo – John Maynard Keynes 49. Photo – Jobless men photo, Utica, NY 50. Photo – Franklin Delano Roosevelt 51. Photo – John Maynard Keynes, 1925 52. Works Progress Administration – photo & poster 53. Blue Ridge Parkway: map & photo 54. Bank Run photo; New Deal programs logos & posters 55. Social Security poster; FDR signs Social Security Act 56. Jarrow hunger march photo 57. France’s Popular Front: poster & Leon Blum photo 58. Photo – Brazil revolution, 1930; “Banana republics” map 59. Photos - Nairobi, Kenya; African National Congress founders, 1912 60. Map – Middle East, 1922; photos — Feisal of Iraq; Kemal of Turkey 61. Map — Asia, 1930 62. Photo — Amritsar massacre 63. Photos — Winston Churchill, 1919; Mahatma Gandhi Film clips Great War & Shaping 20th C, 5, “Mutiny” - February Revolution; BEGIN: 39.54 minutemark, “March 8th was International Women’s Day”. END: 45.12 minute mark, “Not enough blood has been shed”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6haP4AQfhQ&list=PLTu8nanTJo7GIemHj0BZU Bv-SFTNO311O&index=5 3 Poster – Provisional Government, 1917 pro-war “freedom loan” I. Revolution in Russia WHEN WE LAST TALKED ABOUT RUSSIA … I POINTED OUT THAT IT WAS IN NO WAY PREPARED FOR THE MODERN WAR THAT WOULD BE WAGED IN THE GREAT WAR THIS WAS EVIDENT DURING ITS EARLIER, DISASTROUS DEFEAT AT THE HANDS OF THE JAPANESE WHEN THEY WENT TO WAR DURING THE IMPERIAL PERIOD IN 1904-05 ONE OF THE RESULTS OF THAT CATASTROPHE WAS A FULL-BLOWN UPRISING IN RUSSIA – WHAT IS KNOWN AS THE REVOLUTION OF 1905 YOUR BOOK BRIEFLY TALKS ABOUT THIS REVOLUTION BACK ON p 606 THE UPSHOT WAS THAT, FOR THE FIRST TIME, A RUSSIAN EMPEROR – OR TSAR TO USE THE PROPER TITLE – WAS FORCED TO ACCEPT THAT HE DID NOT HAVE SOLE, ABSOLUTE POWER THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE WERE GUARANTEED CIVIL & LEGAL RIGHTS & A PARLIAMENT – THE DUMA – WAS ESTABLISHED … THIS, BY THE WAY, IS THE NAME OF THE RUSSIAN PARLIAMENT, TODAY Romanov family photo THE PROBLEM WAS THE MAN AT THE CENTER OF THIS PHOTO – THE EMPEROR, OR TSAR – NICHOLAS II … NICHOLAS WAS NOT EVIL OR WICKED … BUT HE WAS PIG-HEADED & STUBBORN 4 AS SOON AS THE CRISIS HAD PASSED, HE DID EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO REVERSE THE REFORMS HE HAD AGREED TO, MEANING THAT RUSSIA WAS IN NO BETTER A POSITION AT THE START OF THE GREAT WAR IN 1914 THAN IT WAS AT THE END OF THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR IN 1905 TO SHOW JUST HOW BACKWARD RUSSIA WAS - THIS IS A GOOD PLACE TO EXPLAIN A PROBLEM ABOUT DATES IN IN THE REVOLUTIONARY YEAR 1917 RUSSIA STILL FOLLOWED THE OLD - LESS ACCURATE JULIAN CALENDAR WHILE THE REST OF THE WORLD - CERTAINLY THE WEST - HAD LONG SINCE ADOPTED THE CALENDAR WE USE - THE GREGORIAN CALENDAR BY 1917 THIS MEANT THE RUSSIANS WERE ROUGHLY 13 DAYS BEHIND THE REST OF THE WORLD THIS EXPLAINS WHY THE 1st OF THE REVOLUTIONS THAT TOOK PLACE IN 1917 IS SOMETIMES CALLED THE FEBRUARY REVOLUTION - OR THE MARCH REVOLUTION ... WHILE THE 2nd REVOLUTION OF 1917 IS CALLED THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION - THE NOVEMBER REVOLUTION … OR SIMPLY THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION … 5 NAMES FOR 2 REVOLUTIONS IN ANY CASE – THE RUSSIAN ARMY SUFFERED A SERIES OF DEFEATS DURING THE FIRST TWO YEARS OF THE GREAT WAR FOR WHICH THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE INCREASINGLY BLAMED THE GOVERNMENT, & THE TSAR IN PARTCULAR … BY EARLY 1917, QUITE SIMPLY THEY HAD HAD ENOUGH 5 Photo – Women’s march, February 1917 THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION BEGAN THANKS TO THE WOMEN OF RUSSIA'S CAPITAL CITY ... ST PETERSBURG OR PETROGRAD - AS IT WAS RENAMED EARLY IN THE WAR – THE LATTER NAME BEING MORE RUSSIAN THIS 1st RUSSIAN REVOLUTION TOOK EVERYONE BY SURPRISE IT BEGAN AS A PLEA FOR FOOD … CROWDS GATHERED IN THE STREETS CHANTING - “BREAD & PEACE” & THESE CROWDS SOON TURNED INTO A MOB THE GOVERNMENT RESPONDED BY DOING WHAT IT HAD ALWAYS DONE – IT CALLED OUT THE TROOPS … BUT, BY NOW, THE SOLDIERS THEMSELVES WERE SICK OF THE WAR Petrograd soldiers, 1917 WHEN ORDERED TO SHOOT THE PROTESTERS, THE SOLDIERS, INSTEAD SHOT THEIR OWN OFFICERS & JOINED THE MOB … AT THAT MOMENT A RIOT FOR BREAD BECAME A REVOLUTION TAKE A BREAK HERE TO GET A VISUAL IDEA OF WHAT THESE EVENTS WERE LIKE Great War & Shaping 20th C, 5, “Mutiny” - February Revolution; BEGIN: 39.54 minutemark, “March 8th was International Women’s Day”. END: 45.12 minute mark, “Not enough blood has been shed”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6haP4AQfhQ&list=PLTu8nanTJo7GIemHj0BZU Bv-SFTNO311O&index=5 6 Provisional Government, March 1917 AS THAT CLIP POINTED OUT, THE REVOLUTION – WHEN IT CAME – TOOK EVERYONE BY SURPRISE – NOT LEAST RUSSIA’S POLITICIANS … MEMBERS OF THE DUMA - SET UP A PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT - THE TSAR WAS FORCED TO ABDICATE - THAT IS, HE GAVE UP HIS CROWN ... WITH THAT, RUSSIA BECAME A REPUBLIC Petrograd Soviet photos FROM THE 1st DAY, HOWEVER ... THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT WAS NOT THE ONLY CENTER OF POWER IN RUSSIA ... WORKERS & SOLDIERS IN PETROGRAD FORMED THEIR OWN COUNCIL OR SOVIET LIKE THOSE THAT HAD BEEN FORMED DURING THE REVOLUTION OF 1905 - & SOON OTHER SOVIETS SOON SPRANG UP AROUND THE COUNTRY MOREOVER, THIS RIVAL TO THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT – THE PETROGRAD SOVIET - WAS DOMINATED BY RADICAL PARTIES – INCLUDING A MARXIST PARTY - THE BOLSHEVIKS – LED BY VLADIMIR ILYICH ULYANOV - OR AS HE WAS KNOWN - LENIN Lenin portrait THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT MIGHT HAVE HELD ONTO POWER BUT FOR THE FACT THAT ITS LEADERS FAILED TO SEE THAT THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE WERE TRULY WEARY OF THE WAR 7 MOREOVER, THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT’S LEADERS OPPOSED MAKING A SEPARATE PEACE WITH GERMANY REASONING – CORRECTLY, AS IT TURNED OUT, THAT THE GERMANY’S PEACE TERMS WOULD BE PUNITIVE & THEY TURNED OUT TO BE EXACTLY THAT WHAT – MUCH MORE PUNITIVE THAN THE ALLIES LATER IMPOSED ON THE GERMANS AT VERSAILLES ADDD TO THAT, WESTERN ALLIES ALSO PROMISED TO GIVE THEIR FULL SUPPORT - INCLUDING LOANS OF MONEY & WEAPONS ... BUT, AGAIN, ONLY IF RUSSIA STAYED IN THE WAR Photo – Alexander Kerensky – far left THE LEADING FIGURE IN THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT – ALEXANDER KERENSKY – HE’S ON THE LEFT OF THIS PHOTO, SPEAKING TO THE SOLDIERS - INCORRECTLY - BELIEVED THAT WITH A DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT IN CHARGE - HE COULD RALLY RUSSIA’S TROOPS TO FIGHT A WIN-THE-WAR OFFENSIVE ... HE WAS WRONG Photo – Russian soldiers abandon the front, July 1917 ALTHOUGH THE ATTACK INITIALLY SUCCEEDED - IT WAS SOON THROWN BACK & THE RUSSIAN ARMY BEGAN TO DISINTEGRATE ... SOLDIERS DESERTED IN DROVES & SIMPLY BEGAN TO WALK – OR AS YOU SEE FROM THIS PHOTO – THEY BEGAN TO RUN - HOME 8 Photo – Lenin speaks at a mass rally LENIN – MEANWHILE – WAS IN PETROGRAD - REFUSING TO COOPERATE WITH THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT - THE ONLY SOCIALIST PARTY TO SO - &, INSTEAD, HAMMERED AWAY WITH A SIMPLE MESSAGE TO APPEAL TO THE MASS OF RUSSIANS … IF THE BOLSHEVIKS WERE IN POWER, LENIN DECLARED, THEY WOULD HAVE PEACE BREAD LAND ... & ALL POWER TO THE SOVIETS BY THE AUTUMN OF 1917 - KERENSKY’S GOVERNMENT WAS CLEARLY IN TROUBLE & LENIN SENSED THAT IT WAS TIME TO STRIKE Photo – Leon Trotsky THE JOB OF PLANNING THE BOLSHEVIKS’ POWER GRAG AT THE END OF OCTOBER - IF YOU USE THE OLD CALENDAR … OR NOVEMBER - IF YOU USE THE NEW - OF 1917 – FELL TO THIS MAN - LEON TROTSKY TROTSKY WAS A BRILLIANT SPEAKER & ORGANIZER Photo – Red Guards HE MANAGED TO TURN A MIX OF SOLIDERS, SAILORS, & WORKERS INTO A REVOLUTIONARY ARMY CALLED THE RED GUARDS – WHICH OVERTHREW THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT & CONTROL OF OTHER KEY BUILDINGS IN THE CITY 9 ONCE THE POWER WAS IN HIS HANDS - LENIN USED IT RUTHLESSLY ... ALTHOUGH THE BOLSHEVIKS HAD PROMISED TO BRING PEACE TO RUSSIA THE COUNTRY SOON DESCENDED INTO A HORRIFIC CIVIL WAR Russian Civil War map THE BOLSHEVIKS & THEIR FOLLOWERS BECAME KNOWN AS THE REDS THEIR OPPONENTS - RANGED FROM LIBERALS WHO WANTED TO RESTORE THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT & DEMOCRACY ... TO THOSE WHO WANTED TO RESTORE THE TSARIST AUTOCRACY WERE KNOWN AS THE WHITES Pro-Bolshevik Interventionist cartoon AS MANY AS 14 SEPARATE NATIONS - INCLUDING BRITAIN, FRANCE, JAPAN, & THE UNITED STATES - INTERVENED IN THE CIVIL WAR ON THE SIDE OF THE WHITES BUT THEIR ASSISTANCE DID LITTLE GOOD ... HOWEVER, THE SOVIETS NEVER FORGOT - OR FORGAVE - THIS INTERVENTION … & , AS YOU CAN SEE FROM THIS CARTOON, THE BOLSHEVIKS TURNED THIS AID AGAINST THE WHITES, BY MAKING IS SEEM AS IF THEY WERE THE ATTACK DOGS OF FOREIGNERS – WHILE, THEY, THE BOLSHEVIKS, WERE THE TRUE RUSSIAN PATRIOTS TO WIN THE CIVIL WAR BOTH THE REDS & THE WHITES USED TERROR TO DEFEAT THE OTHER SIDE - INCLUDING MASS EXECUTIONS ... THERE WOULD BE NO RECONCILIATION BETWEEN VICTOR & VANQUISHED 10 TO IMPOSE THEIR WILL LENIN & HIS COLLEAGUES ALSO CREATED THEIR OWN INSTRUMENT OF THIS TERROR - A SECRET POLICE FORCE CALLED THE CHEKA Cheka leaders photo THE CHEKA WOULD BE KNOWN BY SEVERAL DIFFERENT NAMES, OR ACRONYMS OF NAMES THROUGHOUT SOVIET HISTORY ...THE GPU – OGPU - NKVD &, FINALLY, THE KGB ... Vladimir Putin photo AS A MATTER OF FACT THERE’S A VERY FAMOUS RUSSIAN, TODAY, WHO STARTED OUT AS A KGB OFFICER - VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIA’S CURRENT PRESIDENT LENIN & HIS COLLEAGUES HAD NO QUALMS ABOUT RESORTING TO TERROR AFTER ALL, IT HAD BEEN EMPLOYED BY THE MEN THEY OFTEN LOOKED TO FOR GUIDANCE - THE LEADERS OF FRENCH REVOLUTION HAVING SAID THAT – THE METHODS EMPLOYED BY LENIN & THE BOLSHEVIKS WOULD HAVE MADE ROBESPIERRE BLUSH Romanov family photo THE VICTIMS OF LENIN’S TERROR INCLUDED THE TSAR – NICHOLAS II & HIS ENTIRE FAMILY – WHO WERE SHOT TO DEATH IN A BASEMENT THE DETAILS ARE QUITE GRUESOME 11 THEY WERE AMONG A COUNTLESS NUMBER WHO LOST THEIR LIVES DURING THE RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR … &, IN SOME WAYS, THEY WERE THE LUCKY ONES Map – Gulag Archipelago FOR THOSE NOT EXECUTED BY THE CHEKA, LENIN’S REGIME CREATED A SYSTEM OF SLAVE LABOR CAMPS THAT BECAME A FEATURE OF THEIR NEW STATE - THE UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS - OR THE USSR ... OR THE SOVIET UNION - AS IT’S MORE COMMONLY KNOWN THE BOLSHEVIKS ALSO TOOK A NEW NAME FOR THEMSELVES - THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE SOVIET UNION II. “Where madness & evil meet” THE CREATION OF A NETWORK OF SLAVE LABOR CAMPS WAS JUST ONE OF MANY LEGACIES - NONE OF THEM GOOD, IN MY OPINION - THAT LENIN BEQUEATHED TO THE SOVIET PEOPLE ... THE CAMPS - EVENTUALLY KNOWN AS THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO Lenin & Stalin photo THE GULAG USUALLY IS ASSOCIATED WITH THE RULE OF LENIN'S SUCCESSOR …HE’S THE LAST OF THE 3 RUSSIAN LEADERS YOU SHOULD KNOW - ALONG WITH LENIN & TROTSKY - & THAT IS JOSEF STALIN HERE’S A FAMOUS PHOTO OF 2 OF THESE CHARACTERS - LENIN & STALIN 12 FOLLOWING LENIN’S DEATH IN 1924 - THERE WAS A POWER STRUGGLE AMONG HIS SUBORDINATES ... ALTHOUGH TROTSKY WAS LENIN’S LIKELY SUCCESSOR, HE WAS OUTMANEUVERED BY THE COLORLESS STALIN Stalin photo IN A CENTURY FILLED WITH BAD MEN – STALIN RATES AT THE VERY TOP OF THE LIST … NO SINGLE LEADER – WITH THE POSSIBLE EXCEPTION OF MAO ZEDONG - WHO WAS STALIN’S PROTÉGÉ IN MANY WAYS … HAS BEEN RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATHS OF SO MANY PEOPLE OVER SO LONG A PERIOD OF TIME Photo – Mao Zedong WHAT’S IRONIC IS THAT WHEN THE SOVIET UNION WAS CREATED – FEW PEOPLE WOULD HAVE GUESSED THAT STALIN – MORE THAN ANY OTHER SINGLE PERSON – WOULD STAMP HIS OWN PERSONALITY ONTO THE NATION Trotsky as Red Army leader photo STALIN WAS ABLE TO WIN OUT OVER TROTSKY EVEN THOUGH TROTKSY HAD PLANNED THE BOLSHEVIK TAKEOVER IN 1917 &, AFTER THAT, CREATED THE RED ARMY TO WIN THE RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR … THE PROBLEM WAS TROTSKY WAS TOO GOOD A MARXIST ... KARL MARX PREDICTED SOCIALISM WAS ONLY POSSIBLE IN AN ADVANCED COUNTRY - LIKE BRITAIN, OR GERMANY, OR THE USA ... THE SOVIET UNION DID NOT FIT THAT BILL 13 WHILE TROTSKY STILL HELD TO THIS MARX’S THEORY – BY THE LATE 1920s – OTHERS, INCLUDING STALIN - ARGUED THEY COULD BUILD – TO USE THE SLOGAN OF THE DAY - “SOCIALISM IN ONE COUNTRY” ONCE STALIN HAD EDGED TROTSKY NOT ONLY OUT OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY BUT OUT OF THE SOVIET UNION ENTIRELY – TROTSKY WOUND UP IN EXILE IN MEXICO – HE, STALIN, FACED ANOTHER MAJOR PROBLEM TO MODERNIZE, THE SOVIETS NEEDED MONEY TO BUY GOODS FROM THE WEST - THE MACHINERY, ETC - THAT THEY COULDN’T YET MAKE THEMSELVES ... & STALIN BELIEVED HE KNEW WHERE THIS MONEY COULD BE HAD - IN THE SOVIET UNION’S RICH FARMLANDS WHICH, SINCE THE REVOLUTION, HAD BEEN RUN BY THE PEASANTS ... CONFISCATE THESE FARMS -STALIN CLAIMED - & THE MONEY WOULD COME POURING IN Stalin with pipe photo INSTEAD, STALIN CREATED ONE OF THE GREATEST MAN-MADE DISASTERS OF NOT ONLY THE 20TH - BUT OF ANY CENTURY ... A POLICY CALLED COLLECTIVIZATION WHICH FORCED ALL PEASANTS TO HAND OVER THEIR LAND, THEIR LIVESTOCK & ANY WEALTH THEY POSSESSED TO THE STATE ... THESE PEASANTS WERE THEN EMPLOYED TO WORK ON STATE FARMS Collectivization poster 14 ULTIMATELY - COLLECTIVIZATION DID PRODUCE THE MONEY NEEDED TO MODERNIZE THE SOVIET UNION THROUGH A SERIES OF WHAT WERE CALLED 5-YEAR PLANS ... BY 1941 - THE USSR HAD A MODERN, INDUSTRIAL ECONOMY - BUT THE HUMAN COST WAS ENORMOUS WHATEVER SOVIET PROPAGANDA, LIKE THIS POSTER, MIGHT CLAIM THE PEASANTS - FOR OBVIOUS REASONS – HATED COLLECTIVIZATION THIS LED TO WIDESPREAD RESISTANCE &, IN RETALIATION, MILLIONS WERE ALLOWED TO DIE IN A FAMINE THAT MAY HAVE KILLED AS MANY AS 3 MILLION PEOPLE – SUCH AS THESE CHILDREN Ukrainian famine victims AT THE SAME TIME - STALIN - WHO WAS INCREASINGLY PARANOID LAUNCHED A SERIES OF PURGES - 1ST OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY - &, LATER, OF THE SOVIET RED ARMY HERE - IT’S ENOUGH TO SAY THAT A LARGE PROPORTION OF THE RED ARMY’S OFFICER CORPS ... ESTIMATES RANGE FROM 10% TO AS HIGH AS 50% - FELL VICTIM TO STALIN’S PURGES MANY OF THESE MEN WERE AMONG THE BRIGHTEST & MOST HIGHLY TRAINED OFFICERS THAT THE ARMY HAD PRODUCED YOU CAN IMAGINE WHAT A DISASTER THEIR LOSS WAS WHEN THE SOVIET UNION WAS FIGHTING FOR ITS LIFE JUST A FEW YEARS LATER AGAINST NAZI GERMANY 15 WHEN DEATHS FROM THE PURGES ARE TALLIED WITH THOSE CAUSED BY COLLECTIVIZATION, AS WELL AS OTHER DEATHS DURING THE VARIOUS 5 YEAR PLANS - IT’S PROBABLE THAT BETWEEN 6 & 10 MILLION SOVIET MEN, WOMEN, & CHILDREN DIED DURING THE 1930s ... BUT - IT’S LIKELY WE’LL NEVER KNOW FOR SURE DURING THE EARLIER CIVIL WAR PERIOD ... IT’S BELIEVED THAT AS MANY AS 6 MILLION DIED - OF THAT NUMBER ABOUT 4 MILLION WERE LIKELY KILLED DURING AN EARLIER FAMINE IN 1921 FINALLY - DURING WORLD WAR II - THE SOVIETS LOST AN ESTIMATED 27 MILLION MEN, WOMEN, & CHILDREN ... THAT FIGURE - BY THE WAY - IS PRETTY FIRM {Hayes, 153; earlier figures from Eric Lohr, AU, 16 Oct 2003} YOU DON’T HAVE TO REMEMBER ALL THOSE FIGURES ... I’M NOT GOING TO TEST YOU ON THEM ... THEY ARE MIND-BOGGLING - & THEYARE REAL Stalin & Khrushchev photo THEY ALSO LEND CREDENCE TO A STATEMENT THAT’S BEEN ATTRIBUTED TO STALIN HIMSELF ... A SINGLE DEATH” -HE IS SUPPOSED TO HAVE SAID “IS A TRAGEDY” “A MILLION DEATHS IS A STATISTIC” AGAIN - IN JUST RECOUNTING THESE FACTS ... IT’S HARD NOT TO THINK THAT - SOMEHOW - THEY MUST BE UNTRUE – BUT THEY ARE 16 AND WHEN IT COMES TO EXPLANATIONS EVEN TERMS LIKE PARANOIA ARE INADEQUATE ONE HISTORIAN HAS COME CLOSEST WHEN HE WROTE THAT IF YOU WANT TO EXPLAIN WHATEVER IT WAS THAT MOTIVATED YOU MUST LOOK IN THE “BLACK HOLE WHERE MADNESS & EVIL MEET” {Piers Brendon, The Dark Valley, 492} Poster - Italian fascists III. The enduring power of fascism IF THE RISE OF COMMUNISM WITH THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA WAS ONE REACTION TO THE TRAUMA OF WORLD WAR I – THERE WAS ANOTHER REACTION FROM THE OPPOSITE END OF THE POLITICAL SPCTRUM – THE FAR RIGHT - A POLITICAL IDEOLOGY THAT IS CALLED FASCISM FASCISM WAS A REACTION TO THE FEAR OF COMMUNISM SPREADING FROM THE SOVIET UNION TO THE REST OF EUROPE ... BUT – AS I SAY, MORE BROADLY - IS ONE OF THE ENDURING LEGACIES OF THE GREAT WAR HAD THAT CONFLICT NOT OCCURRED, IT’S HARD TO SEE HOW FASCISM COULD HAVE TAKEN SHAPE FOR A TIME, ANYWAY, IT WAS BELIEVED THAT THE 2ND WORLD WAR MARKED THE END OF FASCISM, AS MUCH AS THE 1ST WORLD WAR HAD MARKED ITS BEGINNING 17 BUT - FASCISM HAS REAPPEARED IN THE NEWS OVER THE PAST DECADE MORE THAN IT HAD BEEN FOR MOST OF THE PAST 75 YEARS UNFORTUNATELY, THE WORD, FASCISM, IS TOSSED AROUND RECKLESSLY ... NEVER MIND INACCURATELY - & IT’S OFTEN USED BY PEOPLE WHO HAVEN’T THE SLIGHTEST IDEA OF WHAT IT REALLY MEANS Color Nazi torchlight parade photo ANOTHER POINT TO MAKE IS THAT - DESPITE THAT FASCISM HAS LEFT BEHIND WHAT ANY SANE PERSON WOULD AGREE IS A TERRIBLE LEGACY ... IT NEVERTHELESS RETAINS A STRANGE FASCINATION FOR LARGE NUMBERS OF PEOPLE ... THERE IS - IN FACT - A LATENT EROTICISM AT THE ROOT OF THIS IDEOLOGY YOU’RE HARD-PRESSED TO FIND IN ANY OTHER SYSTEM OF POLITICAL BELIEF ... & AT SOME LEVEL - FASCIST LEADERS RECOGNIZED THIS ATTRACTION ONE OF THE HALLMARKS OF FASCIST MOVEMENTS IN THE 1930s WAS THE TORCH-LIT PARADE - A TRADEMARK OF THE NAZIS WITH MASSED COLUMNS OF VIRILE YOUNG, MEN MARCHING OUT OF THE DARKNESS WITH TORCHES HELD HIGH ABOVE THEIR HEADS AS FLAMES OF FIRE SHOOT UP INTO THE NIGHT THOSE “VIVID PRIMARY IMAGES” - AS ONE HISTORIAN OF FASCISM CALLS THEM {Robert Paxton} - WERE NOT TYPICAL OF THE OTHER MAJOR THAT OTHER MAJOR TOTALITARIAN REGIME - THE SOVIET UNION 18 YES - STALIN’S REGIME CERTAINLY PUT ON MASS DISPLAYS - TYPICALLY WITH MASSIVE HORDES OF SOVIET ARMY UNITS PARADING THROUGH RED SQUARE ... BUT, THEY WERE ALWAYS HELD IN DAY-TIME ONE OF THE 1st THINGS TO SAY WHEN DEFINING FASCISM IS THAT IT’S NOT A TERM THAT IS EASY TO DEFINE ... UNLIKE COMMUNISM - FASCISM WAS NEVER A POLITICAL THEORY AS SUCH - IT NEVER HAD ITS VERSION OF KARL MARX - & A UNIVERSAL DOGMA - OR SET OF IDEAS INSTEAD - THE FASCIST MOVEMENTS OF THE INTER-WAR YEARS WERE ALL BASED ON THE NATIONAL MYTHS - TRADITIONS & PREJUDICES THAT WERE UNIQUE TO THE COUNTRY IN WHICH EACH OF THESE FASCIST MOVEMENTS AROSE Mussolini/Roman arch photo SO - FOR INSTANCE - BENITO MUSSOLINI’S FASCIST PARTY IN ITALY PROMISED TO RECREATE THE ROMAN EMPIRE ... AN IDEA THAT WAS NOT GOING TO HAVE MUCH APPEAL TO FASCISTS IN GERMANY - JUST AS THE PROMISE OF GERMAN FASCISTS - THE NAZIS - TO AVENGE GERMANY’S DEFEAT IN WORLD WAR I WAS NOT GOING TO HAVE MUCH APPEAL TO FASCISTS IN - SAY, SPAIN AS GOOD DEFINITION OF FASCISM WAS GIVEN BY R.A.H. ROBINSON ... FASCISM - HE WROTE IS “A NATIONALIST ANTI-MARXIST, MASS- MOBILIZING POLITICAL MOVEMENT” ... 19 “NORMALLY” - THIS MOVEMENT IS “HEADED BY A CHARISMATIC LEADER, AIMING AT THE COMPLETE CONQUEST OF POWER & SEEKING THE FULLEST CONTROL POSSIBLE OVER ALL ASPECTS OF LIFE” IN A SINGLE PARTY STATE LET ME EXPLAIN WHAT THAT MEANS ... DESPITE THE MANY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ALL FASCIST MOVEMENTS - THEY SHARE SEVERAL COMMON THEMES & THIS WAS ESPECIALLY TRUE OF THE FASCIST MOVEMENTS OF THE 1920s & 30s 1ST - THESE FASCIST MOVEMENTS WERE HIGHLY NATIONALISTIC - & THEY APPEALED TO A BELIEF THAT THE NATION HAD LOST ITS WAY OR HAD BEEN HUMILIATED ... IN PLACE OF THESE HUMILIATIONS - FASCISTS PROMISED A NATIONAL - & IN SOME CASES - RACIAL - REBIRTH THAT ONLY THEIR LEADER - & HE, ALONE, COULD GIVE TO THE NATION 2ND - ALL FASCIST MOVEMENTS WERE ANTI-DEMOCRATIC - ITS LEADERS SOUGHT TO MOBILIZE THE MASSES FOR POPULAR SUPPORT - ONCE IN POWER, OR ON THE VERGE OF POWER, HOWEVER - THESE SAME LEADERS READILY ABANDONED THESE FOLLOWERS IN FAVOR ALLIANCES WITH THE NATION’S ELITES ... BUSINESS LEADERS, BANKERS 3RD - IN PLACE OF LIBERAL DEMOCRACY - THE FASCIST 1-PARTY STATE REVOLVED AROUND A LEADER WHO EMBODIED THE MOVEMENT ... IN ALMOST EVERY CASE, THESE PERSONALITY CULTS WERE MESSIANIC 20 IN OTHER WORDS, THE LEADER WOULD LIBERATE THE NATION FROM ITS CURRENT PLIGHT OF COURSE, THIS MEANT OBEDIENCE TO THE LEADER - SO FASCISTS EMPHASIZED HIERARCHY & AUTHORITARIANISM ... THEIR ULTIMATE GOAL WAS TO CREATE A CIVIC RELIGION ... A WORLD IN WHICH THEIR PEOPLE WORSHIPED THE STATE - & TO THAT END, THESE FASCIST MOVEMENTS USED NATIONAL MYTHS OR CREATED NEW ONES TO SUIT THEIR PURPOSES ... & THESE MYTHS - OLD & NEW - ALONG WITH RITUAL, SYMBOLISM - RAW EMOTION - & THE MASS MEDIA WERE COMBINED TO CREATE A THEATRICAL POLITICS - AS YOU SAW A FEW MOMENTS AGO WITH THE NAZI TORCHLIGHT PARADE - & AS YOU CAN SEE IN THIS PHOTO OF SS SOLDIERS - AGAIN, A NIGHT-TIME CEREMONY SS induction photo, 1938 4TH - FASCISTS WERE VIOLENTLY ANTI-COMMUNIST ... THIS APPEALED TO THE UPPER CLASSES BUT ALSO TO THE MIDDLE CLASS & TO THE UPWARDLY MOBILE WORKING CLASSES -ALL OF WHOM FEARED A BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION MIGHT OCCUR IN THEIR OWN COUNTRIES 5TH - WHATEVER THE NATION - FASCISTS REJECTED ESTABLISHED VALUES {EQUALITY, RATIONALISM, ETC} & WHAT THEY PERCEIVED TO BE THE DECADENCE OF THE NATION’S PAST ... IN PLACE OF THESE VALUES – FASCISTS IDEALIZED - ACTION - YOUTH - MASCULINITY 21 German student fights for Fuhrer & the people poster FASCISTS WERE CHAUVINISTIC – AS YOU CAN SEE BY COMPARING THESE AS YOU CAN SEE BY COMPARING THESE TWO POSTERS IN THE FIRST, THE YOUNG MAN FIGHTS FOR HIS LEADER — HIS FUHRER IN THE SECOND, THE YOUNG WOMAN BELONGS TO HER FUHRER You, too, belong to the Fuhrer - 1937 poster FASCISTS HAD NO TIME FOR IDEAS LIKE FEMINISM ... TO FASCISTS WOMEN’S EQUALITY THREATENED THE FAMILY - SINGLE WOMEN WERE CLASSIFIED AS 2ND CLASS CITIZENS ... & ALL WOMEN - SINGLE OR MARRIED - WERE DISCOURAGED FROM WORKING OUTSIDE THE HOME HAVING SAID THAT WOMEN WERE CRUCIAL TO FASCIST VISION OF AN IDEAL FUTURE - AS YOU CAN SEE FROM THIS POSTER “YOU, TOO, BELONG TO THE FUHRER” - NAMELY, TO BE THE WIVES OF VIRILE FASCIST MEN, & THE MOTHERS OF GOOD LITTLE FASCIST BOYS & GIRLS - ESPECIALLY BOYS Photo of Italian fascist boys marching FOR INSTANCE, IN MUSSOLINI’S ITALY - DIVORCE WAS OUTLAWED, AS WAS CONTRACEPTION & ABORTION ... MEANWHILE, A TAX WAS IMPOSED ON ALL UNMARRIED MEN - WITH 2 EXCEPTIONS - WAR VETERANS & PRIESTS IN WHAT MUSSOLINI CALLED HIS “BATTLE FOR BABIES” ... HERE’S A PHOTO OF SOME GOOD LITTLE ITALIAN FASCISTS 22 Nazi 1937 motherhood poster IN NAZI GERMANY - THE ROLE OF WOMEN WAS SUMMED UP IN 3 WORDS KINDER - KIRCHE – KÜCHE … CHILDREN CHURCH, & KITCHEN LIKE ALL FASCIST MOVEMENTS, THE NAZIS BELIEVED A LARGE POPULATION WAS VITAL TO THE SUCCESS OF THE RACE & WOMEN – OF COURSE - WERE CRUCIAL AS BEARERS OF THE RACE THE NAZIS ALSO GAVE FINANCIAL INCENTIVES TO LARGE FAMILIES & IMPOSED A TAX PENALTY ON COUPLES WHO WERE MARRIED FOR 5 YEARS BUT HAD FAILED TO PRODUCE CHILDREN - & AS IN MUSSOLINI’S ITALY - THE NAZIS BANNED ABORTION - CALLING IT RACIAL TREASON 6TH - THESE FASCIST PARTIES WERE HIGHLY MILITARISTIC ... DURING THE 1920s & 30s, MANY COUNTRIES IN EUROPE WERE FILLED WITH EX- SERVICEMEN WHO HAD BEEN BRUTALIZED BY THE WAR & FELT THEY HAD BEEN CHEATED BY THE PEACE MAKING THEM SUSCEPTIBLE TO FASCISM - & GAVE THESE MOVEMENTS A PARA-MILITARY ASPECT LIKE THESE MEN IN HUNGARY’S FASCIST PARTY Arrow Cross photo 7TH -THE FINAL COMMON THEME OF THESE FASCIST MOVEMENTS DURING THE INTER-WAR YEARS WAS THAT ATTRACTED SUPPORT IN COUNTRIES EXPERIENCING A POWER VACUUM ... NATIONS WHERE OLD REGIMES HAD COLLAPSED LEAVING WEAK GOVERNMENTS IN THEIR PLACE 23 MORE BROADLY, THE WAR CREATED VAST ECONOMIC & SOCIAL PROBLEMS MADE WORSE BY THE ECONOMIC DEPRESSION OF THE 1930s DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENTS SEEMED TO BE UNABLE TO SOLVE THESE PROBLEMS - WHICH, IN TURN, UNDERMINED BOTH THE LOYALTY & THE RESPECT FOR THESE GOVERNMENTS BY THEIR PEOPLE Mussolini photo IV. “Il Duce” – Benito Mussolini STRICTLY SPEAKING - FASCISM REFERS TO THE POLITICAL MOVEMENT IN ITALY LED BY BENITO MUSSOLINI FROM THE END OF WORLD WAR I UNTIL HIS DEATH AT THE END OF WORLD WAR II Fasces symbol THE WORD ITSELF - CAN BE TRACED TO THE ANCIENT LATIN TERM FASCES OR - IN ITALIAN - FASCIO ... EITHER WORD REFERS TO A BUNDLE OF RODS WITH AN AXE AT ITS CENTER ... THIS ANCIENT ROMAN INSIGNIA WAS USED TO DENOTE UNITY & STRENGTH - AS WELL AS THE AUTHORITY OF THE STATE Blackshirts photo TODAY - MUSSOLINI IS OFTEN PORTRAYED AS A BUFFON BUT TO THEIR OPPONENTS - MUSSOLINI’S FASCIST PARAMILITARIES - THE BLACKSHIRTS - WERE ANYTHING BUT A JOKE ... MUSSOLINI’S RISE TO POWER WAS MORE VIOLENT IN 1921-22 THAN WOULD BE ADOLF HITLER’S RISE TO POWER IN GERMANY IN 1932-33 24 Italian WWI claims map MUSSOLINI’S FASCIST MOVEMENT ROSE FROM THE ASHES OF WORLD WAR I ALTHOUGH ITALY WAS ON THE WINNING SIDE OF THE WAR, MOST ITALIANS FELT THAT HAD LITTLE TO SHOW FOR THEIR SACRIFICE ... AFTER FAILING TO WIN THE TERRITORIES THEY BELIEVED WERE DUE TO THEM, ITALIANS BEGAN TO DENOUNCE THE VERSAILLES PEACE SETTLEMENT AS THE MUTILATED VICTORY ADD TO THAT, THE ITALIAN ECONOMY WAS A MESS ... IN 1919 THERE WERE OVER 2 MILLION UNEMPLOYED INCLUDING MANY VETERANS WHO WERE DISILLUSIONED & DISGRUNTLED ... POLITICIANS SEEMED TO BE INCAPABLE OF DEALING WITH THESE CHALLENGES - MAKING ITALIAN POLITICS RIPE FOR EXPLOITATION Mussolini marching w/ Blackshirts AND SO ENTER MUSSOLINI ... WITH MOUNTING CHAOS RISING - A NUMBER OF ITALIANS - ESPECIALLY LARGE LANDOWNERS & BUSINESSMEN FEARED AN IMPENDING BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION ... MUSSOLINI STOKED THESE FEARS & THEN OFFERED HIS OWN PRIVATE PARAMILITARY FORCE NAMED THE BLACKSHIRTS - FOR THEIR UNIFORMS - AS PROTECTION SOON - THE BLACKSHIRTS WERE INVOLVED WIDESPREAD VIOLENCE AGAINST ANY OPPONENTS - LIBERALS, TRADE UNION LEADERS, SOCIALISTS AS WELL AS COMMUNISTS 25 THIS VIOLENCE RAN THE GAMUT FROM INTIMIDATION & BEATINGS TO SMASHING UP NEWSPAPER OFFICES & TRADE UNION HALLS &, BEFORE LONG, TO MURDER OFTEN WITH THE COLLUSION OF THE ARMY & THE POLICE {Paxton, 99} ... BY 1921 - MUSSOLINI’S PARTY ENJOYED WIDESPREAD SUPPORT FROM CONSERVATIVE POLITICIANS & ARMY OFFICERS - AS WELL AS THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH ... SHOPKEEPERS, & PEASANTS - ALL OF WHOM SAW FASCISM AS THE BEST DEFENSE AGAINST ANARCHY ... ANARCHY FOR WHICH THE BLACKSHIRTS MAINLY WERE RESPONSIBLE AS THEY FOUGHT RUNNING STREET BATTLES WITH THEIR OPPONENTS Mussolini 1922 photo BY THE AUTUMN OF 1922 ITALIAN DEMOCRACY WAS TEETERING AS BLACKSHIRTS BEGAN TO CONVERGE ON ROME, ITSELF ... ITALY’S KING REFUSED TO DECLARE MARTIAL LAW - & CONSERVATIVE POLITICIANS ADVISED THE KING TO ASK MUSSOLINI TO FORM A GOVERNMENT THE POINT HERE IS THAT THERE WERE OTHER ALTERNATIVES - ITALY’S POLITICIANS COULD HAVE JOINED TOGETHER TO PREVENT MUSSOLINI FROM TAKING OFFICE ... INSTEAD - AS ONE HISTORIAN HAS PUT IT THEY CHOSE THE FASCIST OPTION THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WERE DOING — THEY DID IT, ANYWAY 26 MUSSOLINI BECAME PREMIER IN OCTOBER 1922 ... BY 1927 ITALY WAS A ONE-PARTY FASCIST DICTATORSHIP & HE WAS IT’S LEADER - IL DUCE WITH A SECRET POLICE - THE OVRA - AS WELL AS CONCENTRATION CAMPS CRUSH ANY OPPOSITION FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS, MUSSOLINI WAS POPULAR WITH MANY ITALIANS IT HELPED THAT HE USED THE MEDIA TO PORTRAY HIMSELF AS THE MAN OF ACTION, THE MAN ALWAYS ON THE MOVE MUSSOLINI’S UNDOING WAS HIS DECISION TO BECOME THE PARTNER OF THE MAN WHO ONCE CALLED HIMSELF MUSSOLINI’S “SINCERE ADMIRER & DISCIPLE” - ADOLF HITLER {Paxton, 252, n. 22} Mussolini & Hitler photo MUSSOLINI WAS OVERTHROWN BY OWN PARTY IN 1943 ... ALTHOUGH HE WAS SOON RESCUED BY THE GERMANS - IN THE SPRING OF 1945, HE & HIS MISTRESS WERE CAPTURED BY ITALIAN PARTISANS & EXECUTED THEIR CORPSES WERE THEN STRUNG UP IN MILAN - THE SAME CITY WHERE, IRONICALLY, HE HAD STARTED HIS FASCIST MOVEMENT IN 1919 Mussolini execution photo MUSSOLINI MAY HAVE WRITTEN THE BEST EPITHET FOR HIMSELF WHEN HE ONCE SAID “”EVERYBODY DIES THE DEATH THAT CORRESPONDS TO HIS CHARACTER {Lee, 151} 27 Flappers - 1920s V. The not-so-Roaring 20s LET ME TURN FOR A MOMENT IN A TOTALLY DIFFERENT DIRECTION TO TALK ABOUT HOW THESE SAME YEARS WERE LIVED ELSEWHERE IN THIS COUNTRY - THE UNITED STATES - THE DECADE AFTER WORLD WAR I IS FOREVER KNOWN AS THE ROARING 20s ... A DECADE THAT FOR SOME AMERICANS - & I EMPHASIZE “SOME” - BECAUSE NOT ALL AMERICANS WERE IN THIS CATEGORY ... BUT - FOR SOME AMERICANS, WERE GOOD YEARS ... THE IMAGES WE HAVE OF THE DECADE ARE LIKE THESE YOUNG WOMEN KNOWN AS “FLAPPERS” AS WELL AS BEING HUGELY PROSPEROUS - ESPECIALLY WHEN COMPARED WITH OTHER WESTERN NATIONS - THE AMERICAN ECONOMY EXPERIENCED A BOOM THAT WAS BASED LARGELY ON HI-TECH INDUSTRIES I’M NOT TALKING ABOUT COMPUTERS & THE INTERNET IN THE IN THE 1920s, HI-TECH MEANT THE MASS PRODUCTION OF CARS & TELEPHONES ... IT MEANT ELECTRONICS - ESPECIALLY HOME APPLIANCES, e.g. ELECTRIC IRONS & REFRIGERATORS ... MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE - HI-TECH IN THE 1920s MEANT THE RADIO THIS EXPANSION HELPED FUEL - &, INDEED WAS FUELED BY A GROWING NUMBER OF AMERICANS INVESTING IN COMPANIES IN THE STOCK MARKET - I’LL COME BACK TO THIS STOCK MARKET MANIA, LATER 28 THE STORY WAS RATHER DIFFERENT ACROSS THE ATLANTIC’ ... WHILE MOST OF EUROPE ENJOYED A BRIEF PERIOD OF GROWTH FROM ABOUT 1925 ON - THE CONTINENT NEVER EXPERIENCED A “ROARING 20s” AS OCCURRED IN THE UNITED STATES MOST OF THE EUROPEAN STATES HAD AGING ECONOMIES - THAT IS TO SAY, THEY HAD NOT MODERNIZED THEIR FACTORIES, THEIR INFRASTRUCTURE ... THEY HAD NOT INVESTED IN NEW TECHNOLOGY AT THE SAME TIME, THE GREAT WAR HAD CREATED A HOST OF OTHER PROBLEMS - NOT LEAST, THE STAGGERING DEBTS THAT THE VICTORS THE FRENCH, THE ITALIANS, THE GREEKS, BUT ESPECIALLY THE BRITISH - OWED TO THE UNITED STATES ... THIS EXPLAINS THEIR DEMAND FOR REPARATIONS PAYMENTS FROM GERMANY - WHICH THE ALLIED NATIONS PLANNED TO USE TO PAY OFF THEIR AMERICAN DEBTS THE PROBLEM WAS THAT THE GERMAN ECONOMY WAS ITSELF HOBBLED & THE GERMAN ECONOMY WAS - AS IT IS TODAY - THE ENGINE OF EUROPE ABSENT THAT - & THE EUROPEANS FOUND THEMSELVES IN AN ONGOING CRISIS THAT SEEMED TO HAVE NO SOLUTION NOT LEAST - ALL OF THESE NATIONS WERE ALSO DEALING WITH THE EMOTIONAL SCARS OF THE GREAT WAR ... REMEMBER - MOST OF THESE COUNTRIES HAD LOST HUGE NUMBERS OF THEIR YOUNG MEN AND THOSE WHO SURVIVED OFTEN CAME BACK VERY DIFFERENT MEN 29 THEY HAD COME HOME WITH TERRIBLE WOUNDS - PSYCHOLOGICAL AS WELL AS PHYSICAL - WHICH AFFECTED THEM & THEIR FAMILIES BEYOND THAT - THERE WAS THE POLITICAL TURMOIL I’VE TALKED ABOUT THE FEAR OF COMMUNISM ON ONE EXTREME - OR OF FASCISM ON THE OTHER IN OTHER WORDS - WHEN THE ECONOMIC CATASTROPHE THAT IS NOW CALLED THE GREAT DEPRESSION HIT - MUCH OF THE WORLD WAS ALREADY IN A WEAKENED STATE Wall Street Crash photo VI. Origins of the Great Depression IN OCTOBER 1929, AMERICA’S ROARING 20s CAME TO A ROARING HALT WITH A MASSIVE STOCK MARKET CRASH ON WALL STREET ... AS YOU MAY KNOW - MOST PEOPLE THINK THE GREAT DEPRESSION BEGAN WITH THE STOCK MARKET CRASH ON WALL STREET IN OCTOBER 1929 ... BUT THAT’S NOT TRUE ... NO ONE EVENT BROUGHT ON THIS GLOBAL CRISIS GENERALLY SPEAKING - HISTORIANS HAVE COME UP WITH 5 SEPARATE CAUSES FOR THE WORST ECONOMIC DOWNTURN OF MODERN TIMES ... & BECAUSE THE DEPRESSION STARTED IN THIS COUNTRY, LET ME TAKE A LOOK AT THESE CAUSES FROM THE AMERICAN ANGLE Gt Depression children photo 30 1ST - THE AMERICAN ECONOMY WAS NOT DIVERSIFIED - &, INSTEAD, RELIED ON A FEW BASIC INDUSTRIES TO THRIVE ... IF THOSE INDUSTRIES WENT INTO A SLUMP, AS HAPPENED WITH CAR PRODUCTION - THEY COULD DRAGGED DOWN THE ENTIRE ECONOMY 2ND - THERE WAS - AS THERE IS TODAY - A GAP BETWEEN INCOME GROUPS A WIDENING GAP BETWEEN RICH & POOR WITHOUT SUFFICIENT PURCHASING POWER - AMERICAN CONSUMERS COULDN’T BUY THE GOODS BEING PRODUCED - & THIS EVENTUALLY LED TO A CRISIS IN THE LATE 1920s 3RD - AMERICA’S FINANCIAL SYSTEM WAS UNSTABLE ... THERE WAS LITTLE REGULATION OF THE NATION’S BANKS - MANY OF WHICH HAD MADE RISKY LOANS WITHOUT THE CAPITAL TO BACK THEM UP ... SOUND FAMILIAR NOR WAS THEIR SUFFICIENT REGULATION OF WALL STREET INVESTORS 4TH - LATE IN THE DECADE INTERNATIONAL TRADE BEGAN TO SLUMP ... & FINALLY ... 5TH - THEIR WAS AN INTERNATIONAL DEBT CRISIS - BROUGHT ON IN LARGE PART BECAUSE OF THE MONEY OWED TO THE UNITED STATES AS A RESULT OF WORLD WAR I & BY THE REPARATIONS DEMANDED BY THE VICTORIOUS ALLIES TO PAY OFF THOSE LOANS OWED THE AMERICANS Gt Depression mother with children photo 31 IN OTHER WORDS, THE GREAT DEPRESSION - AS IT WAS SOON BEING CALLED - HAD MANY CAUSES ... FOR MOST AMERICANS - THEN & SINCE THE WALL STREET CRASH SYMBOLIZED THE END OF ONE ERA & THE BEGINNING OF WHAT THE WORST CRISIS FACED BY THIS COUNTRY SINCE THE CIVIL WAR BY 1932 - AS MANY AS ONE-QUARTER - OR 25 % - OF THE ENTIRE AMERICAN WORKFORCE WAS WITHOUT A JOB IN OTHER COUNTRIES - SUCH AS GERMANY - THE SITUATION WAS EVEN WORSE - THERE, AN INCREDIBLE 43 % OF THE WORKFORCE WAS JOBLESS IF YOU WANT ONE SINGLE EXPLANATION FOR THE RISE OF THE NAZIS, THAT FIGURE - 43 % - IS YOUR ANSWER IT TOOK ABOUT A YEAR BEFORE THE DEPRESSION BEGAN TO HIT EUROPE & THE REST OF THE WORLD - & YOU CANNOT OVER-ESTIMATE THE IMPACT THAT THE DEPRESSION - OR THE SLUMP, AS IT WAS ALSO CALLED IT SEEMED AS IF LIBERAL DEMOCRACY WAS UNABLE TO SOLVE THIS CRISIS ... THIS HELPS EXPLAIN THE SPREAD OF FASCISM IN EUROPE & JAPAN’S EXPANSION IN ASIA - ALL WHICH WOULD LEAD TO A SECOND WORLD WAR MORE IMMEDIATELY, AS THE DEPRESSION DRAGGED ON - IT CREATED A FEELING OF DESPAIR - AS IT SEEMED THERE WAS NO END IN SIGHT TO THIS CRISIS 32 John Maynard Keynes photo IF YOU WANT TO SET THE GREAT DEPRESSION IN CONTEXT - THERE’S NO BETTER AUTHORITY TO TURN TO THAN THE BRITISH ECONOMIST JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES... KEYNES WAS ONCE ASKED IF THE WORLD HAD EVER WITNESSED ANYTHING LIKE THE GREAT DEPRESSION - “YES” HE REPLIED - “IT WAS CALLED THE DARK AGES - & IT LASTED 400 YEARS” {WP book review, 22 Feb ‘04, in my Quotes file} ORTHODOX ECONOMISTS SAID THAT THE DEPRESSION WAS PART OF THE NORMAL BUSINESS CYCLE & THERE WAS NOTHING YOU COULD DO ABOUT IT ... BUT FOR A GROWING NUMBER OF PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD, THAT ANSWER WASN’T GOOD ENOUGH Jobless men photo, Utica, NY AMERICANS TEND TO THINK OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION AS PURELY AN AMERICAN EVENT – AS IF IT HAD LITTLE IMPACT ON THE REST OF THE WORLD … THAT’S NOT TRUE AT ALL … BY 1932 - VOCAL GROUPS OF PEOPLE IN AMERICA, EUROPE, ASIA, & ELSEWHERE HAD GIVEN UP ON LIBERAL DEMOCRACY & CONCLUDED THAT THE ONLY WAY OUT OF THE DEPRESSION WAS DICTATORSHIP ... FOR SOME - THIS MEANT A DICTATORSHIP FROM LEFT - COMMUNISM ... FOR OTHERS THIS MEANT A DICTATORSHIP FROM THE RIGHT – FASCISM WHAT I WANT TO DO, IS TO LOOK AT SOME OF THESE REACTIONS, STARTING WITH THE UNITED STATES 33 Franklin Roosevelt VII. FDR & the New Deal IN THE UNITED STATES, 1932 HAPPENED TO BE AN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION YEAR &, AS A RESULT, AMERICANS GOT NEITHER COMMUNISM OR FASCISM … INSTEAD, THEY GOT A NEW PRESIDENT – THIS MAN – FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT & THE NEW DEAL THE NEW DEAL HAS BEEN CONDEMNED AS A FORM OF AMERICAN FASCISM - MORE OFTEN ITS BEEN CALLED SOCIALISM - IT WAS NEITHER WHAT IT DID DO WAS TO DRAMATICALLY ALTER HOW AMERICANS VIEW THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT - & THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH THAT GOVERNMENT ... FOR THE 1ST TIME AMERICANS LOOKED TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO PROTECT THEM IN TIMES OF ECONOMIC & SOCIAL CRISIS John Maynard Keynes photo BROADLY SPEAKING - THE NEW DEAL WAS BASED ON THE IDEAS OF THE BRITISH ECONOMIST - JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES … KEYNES ARGUED THAT NATIONAL GOVERNMENTS HAD A RIGHT - INDEED ... THEY HAD AN OBLIGATION TO USE THEIR RESOURCES TO REVIVE THEIR ECONOMIES 34 NOW ... I’D GUESS THAT SOME OF YOU MIGHT HAVE STUDIED KEYNES IN ECONOMICS COURSES ... SO - EXCUSE ME FOR THIS SIMPLIFIED EXPLANATION OF WHAT IS CALLED KEYNESIAN ECONOMICS VERY ROUGHLY - KEYNES ADVISED THAT GOVERNMENTS SHOULD CREATE PROGRAMS TO PUT PEOPLE BACK TO WORK ... WHILE THIS WOULD CREATE BUDGET DEFICITS IN THE SHORT RUN ... KEYNES SAID THAT - IN THE LONG RUN - THE REVIVED ECONOMIES WOULD EVENTUALLY PAY DOWN THESE DEFICITS WPA worker THAT, VERY GENERALLY, WAS THE AIM OF THE NEW DEAL &, IN THE PROCESS, THE COUNTRY ITSELF WAS TRANSFORMED WITH THE CONSTRUCTION OF SCHOOLS, ROADS, AIRPORTS, HOSPITALS & OTHER INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS THAT AMERICANS STILL RELY ON, TODAY WPA poster A NUMBER OF THESE PROJECTS WERE ACCOMPLISHED BY AGENCIES SUCH AS THE WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION – INCLUDING ONE SOME OF YOU MIGHT HAVE TRAVELED ON (& IF YOU HAVEN’T, YOU SHOULD) I’M TALKING ABOUT THE BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY Blue Ridge Parkway map THE PARKWAY IS A COUPLE HOURS’ DRIVE WEST OF MASON’S CAMPUS … IT’S A SPECTACULAR PLACE FOR A DAY TRIP, ESPECIALLY IN AUTUMN Blue Ridge Parkway photo 35 THE NEW DEAL CREATED OTHER LEGACIES THAT STILL BENEFIT AMERICANS AS YOU CAN SEE SIMPLY BY LOOKING AT THE WORLD OF FINANCE Bank run photo IN MANY COUNTRIES DURING THE DEPRESSION, THERE WERE WHAT WERE CALLED BANK RUNS … IF DEPOSITORS BELIEVED THEIR BANK WAS ABOUT TO GO UNDER, THEY WOULD DEMAND THEIR MONEY … THESE BANK RUNS OFTEN WERE FED BY BASELESS RUMORS – BUT THEY WOULD LEAD TO SCENES LIKE THIS FDIC logo TO RESTORE CONFIDENCE IN BANKS – THE NEW DEAL CREATED THE FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION - OR FDIC WHICH STILL PROTECTS THE DEPOSITS OF THE AVERAGE CUSTOMER SEC seal ON ANOTHER FRONT, THE SECURITIES & EXCHANGE COMMISSION - OR SEC – WAS CREATED TO REGULATE THE STOCK EXCHANGE THE GLASS-STEAGALL ACT SPLIT INVESTMENT BANKS FROM & COMMERCIAL BANKS IF YOU’RE WONDERING WHY THIS LEGISLATION DIDN’T SAVE US FROM THE 2ND WORST ECONOMIC CRISIS OF MODERN TIMES - THE CRASH OF 20072008 - THE ANSWER IS THAT MANY OF THESE NEW DEAL AGENCIES HAVE BEEN WEAKENED - OR, IN THE CASE OF GLASS-STEAGALL - THE LAWS THEMSELVES HAVE BEEN REPEALED - IN THE NAME OF DEREGULATION 36 TVA poster ONE OF THE NEW DEAL’S MOST NOTABLE LEGACIES IS THE TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY WHICH BROUGHT ELECTRIC POWER TO MANY PARTS OF THE SOUTHEAST - INCLUDING PARTS OF VIRGINIA - THAT HAD ONLY DREAMED OF SUCH A NECESSITY BEFORE ... & THIS, IN TURN, LATER MADE ALL THOSE BUSINESSES THAT CREATED THE SUN BELT POSSIBLE THE TVA WAS JUST ONE OF SEVERAL NEW DEAL PROJECTS THAT BROUGHT THE MODERN WORLD INTO AMERICAN HOMES ... ESPECIALLY WHEN THOSE HOMES WERE IN RURAL PARTS OF THE COUNTRY REA poster ANOTHER NEW DEAL LEGACY IS SOCIAL SECURITY - THE OLD-AGE PENSION SYSTEM THAT ORIGINATED IN BISMARCK’S GERMANY IN THE 1880s Social Security poster BEFORE SOCIAL SECURITY - THE ELDERLY WERE AMERICA’S POOREST AGE GROUP ... TODAY, OLD PEOPLE ARE AMONG THE WEALTHIEST POOREST - TODAY - ARE CHILDREN ... BUT, THAT’S ANOTHER STORY FDR signing the Social Security Act ALTHOUGH MORE THAN 85 YEARS HAVE PASSED SINCE THE NEW DEAL BEGAN - IT STILL STIRS FURIOUS REACTIONS 37 THOSE WHO DESPISE FDR - & DESPISE DOESN’T BEGIN TO DESCRIBE HOW SOME PEOPLE FEEL ABOUT THIS NATION’S 32ND PRESIDENT & THE NEW DEAL ... CRITICS POINT OUT THAT FOR ALL THE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS POURED INTO THE NEW DEAL THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE WAS STILL OVER 10% IN 1940 & THAT ONLY THE ONSET OF WORLD WAR II THAT ENDED THE GREAT DEPRESSION OTHERS ARGUE - INDEED KEYNES ARGUED AT THE TIME – THAT THE PROBLEM WAS THAT THE NEW DEAL DIDN’T GO FAR ENOUGH IN SOME WAYS, FDR WAS A RELUCTANT NEW DEALER ... HE HATED DEFICITS & SPENDING ON NEW DEAL PROGRAMS NEVER REACHED THE LEVEL NEEDED TO BRING THE COUNTRY OUT OF THE SLUMP THAT WOULD HAPPEN ONLY WHEN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BEGAN TO SPEND MASSIVE SUMS OF MONEY - AS KEYNES HAD SUGGESTED - THOUGH NOT ON PUBLIC WORKS PROJECTS ... BUT - INSTEAD - ON PRODUCING WEAPONS IN THE RUN-UP TO WORLD WAR II NONETHELESS - THE NEW DEAL PULLED AMERICA BACK FROM THE ABYSS WHATEVER PROBLEMS THE COUNTRY FACED - BY THE END OF THE 1930s FEW AMERICANS WERE TALKING ABOUT DICTATORSHIP - FASCIST OR COMMUNIST - ANY LONGER 38 Jarrow Crusade march VIII. The Great Depression as a global catastrophe IN EUROPE - THERE WAS NO NEW DEAL ... WHILE SOME GOVERNMENTS SUCH AS SWEDEN’S - ADOPTED AGGRESSIVE POLICIES TO BATTLE UNEMPLOYMENT - MOST, SUCH AS BRITAIN - TOOK THE LINE OF ORTHODOX ECONOMISTS - CUTS IN GOVERNMENT SPENDING, BALANCED BUDGETS, ETC - & DID LITTLE TO REVIVE THEIR ECONOMIES IN BRITAIN THERE WERE A SERIES OF WHAT WERE CALLED HUNGER MARCHES - SUCH AS THIS ONE - BY MEN SIMPLY ASKING FOR WORK BUT NOTHING WAS DONE FOR THEM BRITAIN’S ECONOMY ONLY BEGAN TO REALLY PICK UP IN THE LATE 1930s AS THE NATION BEGAN TO REARM - & THEN ONLY AFTER THEY WERE FORCED TO ACCEPT THAT THEY WERE FACED WITH NEW THREAT OF WAR FROM WHAT WERE BEING CALLED THE “DICTATOR STATES” – NAZI GERMANY, FASCIST ITALY, & IMPERIAL JAPAN French Popular Front poster THE GREAT DEPRESSION HIT FRANCE LATER THAN MOST COUNTRIES SO – WHEN THE ECONOMY COLLAPSED IT WAS AN BIGGER SHOCK, BECAUSE THE FRENCH BELIEVED THEY HAD ESCAPED THIS CATASTROPHE ... SOON, THOUGH, ITS IMPACT WAS FELT THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY 39 AT THE SAME TIME, FRENCH POLITICS WAS AS FRACTURED BETWEEN THOSE ON THE FAR RIGHT WHO WANTED TO BRING ABOUT A FASCIST DICTATORSHIP ... & THOSE ON THE LEFT WHO - NOT SURPRISINGLY WANTED TO BRING ABOUT A COMMUNIST REVOLUTION ... MANY PEOPLE BOTH INSIDE & OUTSIDE FRANCE BELIEVED THAT THE COUNTRY WAS ON THE VERGE OF A CIVIL WAR Leon Blum photograph IN 1936, FRENCH VOTERS ELECTED A COALITION OF POLITICAL PARTIES ON THE LEFT KNOWN AS THE POPULAR FRONT – LED BY THIS MAN, LEON BLUM … ALTHOUGH THE POPULAR FRONT WAS IN OFFICE ONLY A SHORT TIME, IT WON SEVERAL VICTORIES FOR FRENCH WORKERS, SUCH AS THE 40-HOUR WORK WEEK & PAID VACATIONS – WHICH WOULD BECOME COMMONPLACE IN MUCH OF THE WESTERN WORLD IN THE YEARS AFTER WORLD WAR II … BUT, AS YOUR BOOK POINTS OUT ON p 688, THE POPULAR FRONT FAILED TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT THAT PLAGUED ALL OF THESE WESTERN DEMOCRACIES IN THE 1930s Brazil revolution 1930 AS HAPPENED IN EUROPE & NORTH AMERICA, IN LATIN AMERICA THE GREAT DEPRESSION ALSO PUT DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT TO THE TEST IN A NUMBER OF INSTANCES – LIKE BRAZIL – THE NATION’S MILITARY TOPPLED DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENTS & PROMISED REFORMS THAT WOULD SPARE THE COUNTRY FROM THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CATASTROPHE 40 BUT LIKE OTHER LATIN AMERICAN STATES DEPENDENT ON EXPORT TRADE IN BRAZIL’S CASE, THE EXPORT OF COFFEE – THE NEW GOVERNMENT COULD NOT SAVE THE COUNTRY FROM THE DEPRESSION’S IMPACT, & BRAZIL’S LEADERS TURNED TO A FASCIST-STYLE OF GOVERNING “Banana republics” map LIKE BRAZIL – THE ECONOMIES OF CENTRAL AMERICA DEPENDED ON EXPORT TRADE WHICH WAS DOMINATED BY THE AMERICAN-OWNED UNITED FRUIT COMPANY (TODAY, THE COMPANY IS CALLED CHIQUITA) AS WELL AS DOMINATING THE ECONOMIES OF THESE NATIONS, UNITED FRUIT ALSO DOMINATED THE GOVERNMENTS – SO MUCH SO THAT THESE CENTRAL AMERICAN COUNTRIES ACQUIRED THE DERISIVE NICKNAME “BANANA REPUBLICS” … THE PEOPLE OF THESE COUNTRIES WERE, ALSO, HIT HARD BY THE DEPRESSION WHEN THE GREAT DEPRESSION HIT IN 1930, MEXICO WAS STILL DEALING WITH THE LEGACY OF A VIOLENT REVOLUTION THAT HAD STARTED IN 1910 & HAD LASTED THE BETTER PART OF A DECADE … THE REVOLUTION CENTERED ON LAND REFORM – AN ISSUE THAT DOGGED MUCH OF LATIN AMERICA … &, IN THE CASE OF MEXICO, THE DOMINATION OF ITS OIL INDUSTRY BY U.S. OWNED CORPORATIONS BY THE EARLY 1930s, A NEW MEXICAN GOVERNMENT HAD INSTITUTED MEASURES TO REDISTRIBUTE SOME LAND TO PEASANTS 41 IN THE MEANTIME, IT NATIONALIZED THE COUNTRY’S OIL INDUSTRY BY PAYING COMPENSATION TO AMERICAN OIL COMPANIES HOWEVER, MEXICAN POLITICS STAGNATED … A NEW POLITICAL PARTY THE INSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTIONARY PARTY (or PRI) – BECAME SO DOMINATE THAT, FOR DECADES TO COME, MEXICO WAS, FOR ALL INTENTS & PURPOSES A ONE-PARTY STATE Nairobi, Kenya, interwar years THE PROBLEMS CONFRONTING AFRICA IN SOME WAYS MIRRORED THE CHALLENGES FOUND IN LATIN AMERICA – EXCEPT THAT, WITH MUCH OF THE CONTINENT STILL CONTROLLED BY EUROPEAN POWERS, AFRICA’S ECONOMIES, & THEREFORE THE WELL-BEING OF THEIR PEOPLE, WERE TIED TO THE FATES OF THE EUROPEAN POWERS AS YOU CAN SEE FROM THIS PHOTOGRAPH, TAKEN OF NAIROBI, KENYA DURING THE INTERWAR YEARS, IN MANY PLACES THE EUROPEANS OFTEN RECREATED THE SORT OF WORLD THEY WERE USED TO IN THEIR HOME COUNTRIES … AT LEAST FOR THE WHITE POPLUATIONS LIVING THERE BUT WITH THE COLLAPSE OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE, THE RAW MATERIALS ON WHICH MANY AFRICAN ECONOMIES DEPENDEND SANK AS WELL … &, IT WILL NOT BE A SURPRISE TO KNOW THAT THOSE WHO SUFFERED MOST FROM THIS DOWNTURN WERE THE NATIVE PEOPLE OF ALL OF THESE Photo – African National Congress founders, 1912 42 ALTHOUGH LARGE NUMBERS OF AFRICAN MEN HAD SERVED IN THE GREAT WAR – ON BOTH SIDES – EFFORTS AT ENDING RACIAL DISCRIMINATION THROUGHOUT THE CONTINENT WERE STYMIED DURING THESE YEARS THE AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS – FOUNDED EVEN BEFORE THE WAR, IN 1912 – SOUGHT ASSISTANCE FROM ANTI-IMPERIALISTS IN EUROPE, BUT BY THE EVE OF WORLD WAR II, LITTLE HAD CHANGED Middle East map, 1922 AS YOU MAY RECALL FROM THIS MAP, THE GREAT WAR HAD A TREMENDOUS IMPACT ON THE MIDDLE EAST AS IN AFRICA, THE FATE OF THE PEOPLE OF THIS REGION WAS LARGELY DETERMINED BY THE EUROPEAN POWERS THAT TOOK CONTROL AFTER 1918 WHILE FRANCE CONTROLLED BOTH SYRIA & LEBANON - OVERALL, THE DOMINANT PRESENCE WAS GREAT BRITAIN BUT — ONE OF THE OF THE MANY IRONIES THAT OCCURRED AS A RESULT OF WORLD WAR I WAS THAT BRITAIN’S EMPIRE AFTER1918 WAS LARGER THAN IT HAD EVER BEEN ... BUT - THE BRITISH FOUND THAT THE BURDEN OF EMPIRE WAS MORE COSTLY THAN THEY COULD AFFORD IN PALESTINE - THE BRITISH SOON FOUND THEMSELVES FACE TO FACE WITH THE CONFLICTING PROMISES THEY HAD MADE TO BOTH ARABS & JEWS 43 THROUGHOUT THE 1920s & 30s THERE WERE REPEATED BLOODY CLASHES BETWEEN THE 2 COMMUNITIES ... THE RESULT WAS THAT BRITISH POLICY SWUNG BACK & FORTH ... ESPECIALLY OVER THE ISSUE OF JEWISH IMMIGRATION TO PALESTINE - LEAVING NO ONE SATISFIED AFTER THE ARAB REBELLION 1936-39 - THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT ALL BUT CUT OFF JEWISH IMMIGRATION ... AT THE VERY TIME THAT EUROPE'S JEWS WERE ABOUT TO BE SUBJECTED TO HITLER'S PLANS TO MURDER ALL OF THEM IN THE HOLOCAUST THE BRITISH - COULDN'T KNOW THIS - BUT - SINCE WORLD WAR II JEWS HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN ... OR FORGIVEN THIS DECISION ... THEIR DEMAND FOR A JEWISH STATE WAS GRANTED WHEN BRITAIN RELINQUISHED CONTROL OF PALESTINE TO THE UNITED NATIONS WHICH SPONSORED THE CREATION OF ISRAEL IN 1948 AT THE SAME TIME - THE BRITISH RE-ARRANGED THE POLITICAL MAP OF THE PERSIAN GULF REGION ... AS I BELIEVE I SAID PREVIOUSLY, THE PRESENT-DAY STATE OF IRAQ WAS A BRITISH CREATION – WHICH JOINED TOGETHER THE MAINLY SHI’A PROVINCE CENTERED ON THE CITY OF BASRA IN THE SOUTH, THE MAINLY SUNNI PROVINCE CENTERED ON THE CITY OF BAGHDAD IN THE MIDDLE, & THE MAINLY KURDISH PROVINCE IN THE NORTH CENTERED ON THE CITY OF MOSUL King Feisal of Iraq 44 BY THE SUMMER OF 1920 ABOUT 1/3RD OF MESOPOTAMIA WAS IN OPEN REBELLIO...