Political Cartoons and Free Response Test

Today on the Block Day we spent a great deal of time discussing Historical Cartoons.   Historical Cartoons provide a better understanding of the subject by offering a new way to view the subject.  These are very helpful as the differing views of the time are clear and put forth.

The next test unlike the previous one will focus on these political cartoons and responding freely to what you take away from each individual image.

With almost every Historical Cartoon provided in the slideshow, there were many different messages that could be taken from each.  While many were straight forward and obvious what the intended message was, others were very vague and could be interpreted in many different ways.  This lead to some very conflicting ideas between classmates as to what the cartoon could portray.  As ideas were put on the table, often I found my take on the cartoon changed from when I initially saw the cartoon to post discussion.

Due to Veteran's day being on 11th, the free response test will be moved to the Tuesday of that week. Wether or not that week will contain block days will be determined soon in the future.  For what we know of now, expect to have 50 minutes to complete the assessment.

Republicans v.s. Wilson

As we have known before, the Republicans win and run for Congress and it later becomes a problem for Wilson. Wilson has a very important idea that he thought was necessary to bring up. He states them in his 14 points and a lot of people actually liked the idea. The Allies also liked Wilson's 14 points, but they didn't think it was real. On the other hand too, Wilson was visited by many people that wanted to show him how devasting the Germans left France and how they want revenge for it. Wilson still didn't change his mind. During this time, in the U.S., a president can negotiate a treaty but the Senate must ratify it before it becomes a law. This was problematic for Wilson because Republicans run for Congress. Republicans had taken control of Congress (the House and Senate in 1918) and were hostile to Wilson and the treaty, and most importantly, Wilson's last point, the League of Nations. Wilson even had no Republican leaders invited to the Paris Peace Conference and so many were angry. This obviously leaves Wilson and Congress in a bad relationship. And even so, the Republicans didn’t support the League of Nations because they don’t like the idea of having to go to war for something the U.S. has little interest in. Even so, Wilson wasn't going to continue his 14 points progress. Wilson, when hearing other countries wishes, he knew his 14 point would not exist, but leaves one point to exist: the League of Nations. However, things started to backfire on that idea because not only was Congress not supporting it, but he had issues. After the artery problem with Wilson, he couldn’t function emotionally or politically as well as he used to. Growing desperate to create the League of Nations, he comes up with a plan. So that Wilson doesn’t lose the League of Nations, he took a 10,000 mile tour in the U.S. to give a speech about why the League of Nations is important and that is will prevent a second world war. However, Wilson’s artery health was growing worse and worse during the tour. Unfortunately, four days after Wilson’s tour, he suffered a massive stroke and half of his body is paralyzed.

Wilson's Fourteen Points (Three Ideas)

• Wilson’s Speech before Congress
• January 8, 1918
1. Points 1-5
• Rules for International Conduct
2. Points 6-13
• Self Determination
• Territorial Adjustment
3. Point 14
• A General Association of nations to resolve disputes and promote collective security

"New World Order" notes

After the result of the first world war (or The Great War), U.S. President Woodrow Wilson had already been thinking about creating a “New World Order”. Basically this existed to create “Peace among equals” with all nations all over the world. It was intended to end any further wars. Back during the war, Wilson didn’t trust the German government any more after declaration of war. The British had intercepted the Zimmerman telegram from Germany and told the U.S. about it. Just because this threat has happened to the U.S., Wilson still needed to give reason for war. Wilson states that America was going to war with Germany for democracy. A very important thing with the idea of democracy is that Wilson believe that would be safer for other countries to become democratic because he believed it was better than having a country rule as empire or under dictatorship. However, the U.S. had some people that didn’t support the war. But there was also people who supported it. There was a rally for supporting the war in the U.S. and even hollywood star, Charlie Chaplin was there. One unfortunate thing that Wilson had to tell his rival, Theodore Roosevelt, that his son died at war. Something that most people don't realize is that presidents have their own personal helper, where Wilson had a “behind-the-scene” person named House. House helped Wilson actually create the New World Order. The New World Order was to have no more war and end in with a global alliance for preventing war. Now nearing the end of the war, the U.S. had already stated that they wanted global peace. The Germans reach out to Wilson before France or Britain near the end of war, after hearing about “Peace without Victory”. One thing Wilson support was to help black segregation. Very soon Republicans win the Congress and it becomes a problem for Wilson. Once the Allies about Wilson's 14 points, they liked it but they don’t think it's real.

Woodrow Wilson and the Fourteen Points

• Wilson wanted to make the world safe for democracy people will always choose democracy and if they choose it then the world will be at peace.
• Wilson didn’t want to punish the Germans in a harsh way because then they would rebel and want to fight again.
• Wilson believed in efficiency, each country is stronger working together than fighting against each other.
• Why don’t all the countries come together and work together so each country will attain collective security.
• The United States needs to be involved with political affairs to create peace amongst the world.

The Fourteen Points

• Points 1-5: Rules for International Conduct
• Points 6-13: Self Determination. nations should determine for themselves how they are ruled.
• Point 14: A General association of nations to resolve disputes and promote collective security (The League of Nations)

The Fourteen Point Flaws

• Economic Differences
• How are countries supposed to determine for themselves how they are ruled if the country is split for people
• Opposition of Allies
• The fourteen points wants everyone to work well collectively however all the countries want individual accolades and success.

Wilson and the End of the First World War

Wilson brought America into WWI with the idea that they would make the world safe for democracy, achieve a peace without victory, and fight a war to end all wars. These ideas accumulated into the 14 points. In the 14 points Wilson sought to create laws that nations must abide by to maintain peace, asserted the idea of self-determination, and establish the League of Nations. Unfortunately for Wilson the leaders of the other belligerents had different ideas for a peace treaty. France had been ravaged by the German invasion, and wanted permanently cripple Germany's ability to wage war and for Germany to pay for the damage done to France. Britain had also lost a generation of men and for the most part agreed with France, except for Britain's desire to keep Germany strong enough to resist communism and for Germany to be wealthy enough to be a trade partner with Britain. Italy, Japan, and the other lesser nations which aided the Allied war effort had no interest in self-determination or international laws, and merely wanted the land they had hoped to have gained for participating in the war. Overall the Versailles treaty did not reflect Wilson's ideas which outraged the Germans (especially the reparations and article 231 which blamed the Germans for the war) because they had expected the treaty to be more aligned with Wilson's Fourteen Points. However, due to the threat of invasion, the Wiemar Republic reluctantly agreed to the terms which made the German citizens bitter with the Allies, the treaty, and their government. This resentment along with later factors paved the way for rise of the National Socialist German Worker's Party lead by Adolf Hitler. Wilson did succeed in forming the League of Nations, but the league was doomed to fail because while Wilson had an internationalist vision for America, the republicans at home and many Americans believed they had lost 300,000 soldiers too many and that America needed to focus on its domestic affairs and return to isolationism. Between the withdrawal of American involvement and weak collective security, the League of Nations was able to act on social problems (such as the League's successful crack down on human trafficking) but did not have the power to stop the actions of a revitalized German military.

Wilson in the Aftermath of World War I

President Wilson created his Fourteen Points in the aftermath of World War I.  The first five points laid out rules for international conduct. For example, it asserted freedom of the seas, arms control and no secret negotiation. Points 6 through 13 talked about self-determination, which led to the creation of many new European nations after the Paris Peace Conference. Point 14 organized the League of Nations, an organization of countries to encourage collective security. At the Paris Peace Conference, hundreds of countries were present, but only four were considered big players: Britain, France, Italy, and the United States. The British wanted to maintain their empire; they did not care if other countries accepted self-determination, but it was not to happen to their own empire. They also wanted to fortify their own position and punish Germany to some degree. The French wanted to punish and weaken Germany to an extreme, while Italy just wants land. The British and the French want Germany to formally accept “war guilt,” as outlined in Article 231. Wilson’s major victory in this conference was the acceptance of the League of Nations. His fourteen points were not accepted by the other nations as they were not representative of reality.