Chapter 11 - Post-Great War 20s and 30s Flashcards
What is the main change in the study of Western Civilization that occurs around 1915?
The world shifts from being Eurocentric to America-Centric. Therefore the study shifts to a more American study of history.
What was not resolved in the Post-Great War Peace Settlement.
Germany’s position of predominance in Europe and its discontentment with its current situation.
Why were the issues surrounding the Great War not resolved?
1) Germany did not unconditionally surrender.
2) Germans Believed They Never Lost the War But Were Stabbed in the Back by Weak German Leaders.
3) The Fourteen Points of Wilson Fighting For A Different Goal Than Britain and France.
What is the post-1918 government in Germany called?
The Weimar Republic/Weimar Germany
What were Wilsons 14-Points?
1) No secret treaties. All deals are public.
2) Absolute Freedom of the seas for all ocean-going vessels, both in times of peace and times of war.
3) Free trade among all states.
4) Restricted Militaries to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety
5) Just and equitable treatment of all overseas colonies. Respect the rights of colonized people.
6) Assist Russia in the transition from czar to democratic republic.
7) Germany must leave Belgium and Restore it as a Sovereign State.
8) Germany must leave France and Give it Back All Its Land, Even Alsace-Lorraine taken in 1871.)
9) Italy’s Borders Withdrawn to Follow Lines of Nationality.
10) Ethnic self-determination for all the various people of Austria-Hungary (Death of the Austro-Hungarian Empire)
11) Ethnic self-determination throughout the Balkans
12) Turkish people should be allowed their own state but non-Turks should be granted self-determination. (End of the Ottoman Empire)
13) The state of Poland re-created as a home for ethnically Polish people along with a piece of land giving Poland access to the sea.
14) Creation of a League of Nations.
What did Wilson call the 14-Points Settlement?
A Peace Without Victors.
What was the result of the granting of an armistice by Britain and France even though they disagreed with the 14-Points?
Much uncertainty as different states went to the 1919 peace conference with different expectations.
What was France’s goal in the post-Great War peace settlement?
To prevent Germany from ever waging war again by punishing Germany.
What was Britain’s goal in the post-Great War peace settlement?
To not anger Germany with a harsh treaty but to pass on its ecxpensives and debts to Germany.
What was Italy’s goal in the post-Great War peace settlement?
Fairly small land concessions in Austria-Hungary.
What was the most import of the 14 Points in Wilson’s mind?
The creation of the League of Nations
What did Wilson have to sacrifice to get the League of Nations?
Every other point of the 14 points.
What was the resulting peace settlement after the Great War called?
The Versailles Treaty.
What did the Versailles Treaty contain?
1) A War Blame Clause That Place the Blame on Germany.
2) Germany was forced to pay large reparations to the allies.
3) Germany Lost All Its Overseas Colonies
4) Germany was forced to De-Militarize
5) The Rhineland was declared a demilitarized Zone.
6) The League of Nations
7) Self-Determination to the people of the Balkans.
8) State of Poland
9) The state of Austria was formed with reunification with Germany banned.
How did Germany make reparation payments?
By creating incredibly high inflation.
Who were the Junkers?
The rich, illiberal elements of German society who blamed the crisis on the Weimar Republic.
What killed the Weimar Republic?
The Versailles Treaty.
What countries refused to join the newly-created League of Nations?
The United States and the Soviet Union.
Which Senator led the effort to defeat the ratification of the League of Nations Charter?
Henry Cabot Lodge.
What was the U.S, objection to the League of Nations Treaty?
The Article 10 Automatic Declaration of War Clause.
List the Consequences of the Great War.
1) The Fin De Siecle Ideals are Smashed.
2) Many Brits, French, and Americans hate war and are committed pacifists.
3) The war exhausts European states and ends the European era of Global Hegemony. Heavy debts cause them to liquidate their global empires.
4) Revolutions Come to Two States That Previously Avoided Them: Germany and Russia.
5) The Polygot Empire of Austria-Hungary comes to an end.
6) The Ottoman Empire dies.
7) The U.S. emerges as the world’s premier economic super-power
8) The seeds of a second Great War are sown as Germany wants revenge for what it sees as a punitive and unjust peace settlement.
9) The liberal revolution in Germany is doomed to fail and peaceful Germany is sabotaged by Versailles.
What seemed to destroy the Modernist Worldview?
The Great War.
What are examples of the change in worldview in the area of psychology after the Great War?
1) Sigmund Freud claiming that human behavior was driven by irrational, inexplicable, and usually hidden emotions
What are examples of the change in worldview in the area of music after the Great War?
1) Richard Wagner emphasizing the irrational and emotional in his operas
2) Arnold Schoenberg introducing atonal music that rejected the structured disciplines of classical music tradition.
What are examples of the change in worldview in the area of art after the Great War?
1) Surrealist art by Dali and Kandinsky had no objective rules and standards
2) In literature, stream of consciousness writing and free-verse poetry denied basic structures.
What are example of the change in worldview in the area of art after the Great War?
1) Heisenberg’s Uncertainty principle that state the very act of observing phenomenon alters the phenomenon’s condition.
2) Planck’s discovery of the particle-wave duality of energy
3) Einstein’s Claim that even the most stable of phenomenon were uncertain and unstable.
Describe the post-Great War condition in Great Britain.
1) A whole generation of young men was missing
2) Skewed Birth and Marital rates
3) Britain drastically decreased investment in its colonies. (160 million to 45 million)
4) The belief that the war wasn’t worth the price was pervasive.
Describe the post-Great War condition in France.
1) 1.5 million dead and 4 million missing and wounded.
2) France felt the war accomplished nothing and left them without allies.
Describe the post-Great War condition in the United States.
1) Disillusionment as a result of British War Propaganda
2) The Belief that U.S. businessmen manufacturing war products pushed the U.S. Government into war.
3) Participation in the war was viewed as a great waste.
What is the collection of postwar thought in Britain, France, and the United States called?
Postwar/World War I revisionism.
What did the postwar revisionist movement produce?
The largest peace/anti-war movement ever seen in the western world.
List examples of the peace movement in the Western World.
1) The sinking of over 1.75 million tons of naval firepower by Britain, the United States, and Japan.
2) The 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact that outlawed war.