Today is Friday! I am really excited for tonight because I am going to go to a KISS concert! Today we finished up with Mr. Bruns's WW1 Powerpoint. I shudder to think about all of the time that he spent creating such a collosal powerpoint. The biggest thing that we learned today was about the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles was perhaps the biggest factor in the beginning of World War 2.President Woodrow Wilson had a set of 14 points that he wanted to be enacted for the Treaty. The fourteen points ensured that basically everything would go back to normal with a few changes. Nearly all of Wilson's points were rejected and a different form of the Treaty was made. This Treaty made Germany pay. Germany had to pay $33 billion, basically give up all of its military power, and admit that it had full responsibility in starting the War.This last point was a mojor slap in the face to Germans, because, as we all know, Germany did not start the war, Serbia did. When Hitler rose to power 20 years later, he used the Treaty of Versailles to gain a lot of sentiment from his German followers.The Treaty of Versailles: America enters the war and we are a powerhouse against our enemies. Us helping to win the war brought about the Treaty of Versailles. The treaty took place in the Versailles Palace. Hitler blamed the Treaty to be the cause of German inflation and Germany starting World War 2. The Treaty hit the German economy hard. Many countries, but Russia, were envited to the Treaty. The Big Four were the four biggest countries that attended. The US, GB, France, and Italy were the big four. Wilson represented the US. Russia was not invited because they had become a communist country. Russia lost a lot of land because of the Treaty.The land that had been previously controlled by a few large countries were broken up into many new smaller countries. Wilson wanted the Treaty to be made up of a 14 point list of situations.1. An end to secret treaties.2. Freedom of the seas.3. Free trade for all countries.4. Disarmament.5. End to colonial claims.6. Self-determination for all countries.7. Restoration of Belgium.8. Restoration of France.9. Readjustment of Italy's boundaries.10. Austria-Hungary would be given opportunity for autonomous development.11. Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacuated and restored.12. Turkey should be sovereign.13. Poland would be given their independence.14. The "League of Nations" would be developed.The Germans were really hopeful all of these points to be the Treaty, but unfortunately this did not happen. The final Treaty forced Germany to surrender a lot of its land to other countries like Belgium, Denmark, and France. The German Military had to be reduced to no more than 100,000 troops, they could have no tanks, navy, or war planes. Germany could have no more than 6 capital naval ships.Germany had to pay $33 Billion total to Great Britain and France. Germany fell into a complete depression. Germany was forbidden to join Austria to form one superstate. Germany was forced to admit that it had full responsibility for starting the War. It was called the “War Guilt Clause”. This in and of itself was the biggest slap in the face to the Germans, because, as we all know, Serbia started the War, not Germany.The League of Nations was eventually set up to keep world peace. We did not join this league. The League of Nations was made up basically of five permanent members. Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan. Because the US did not join, the League lacked a lot of credibility and soon failed. About the only country that came out of the War feeling good and strong was Japan. They did pretty well.Congress back home was very resentful of joining the League of Nations. They did not want us to be constantly at war over in Europe or to be second to any other country. They wanted the US to be back to our old Isolationism ways. This was perhaps the biggest error in world history because we very well could have prevented World War 2.
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