17.3 The End of World War 1
Summary of Key Events and Concepts Related to World War I
Germany's Collapse and Surrender
The German front began to collapse as Allied forces launched a series of successful offensives in the summer of 1918, leading to significant territorial losses and ultimately their surrender in 1918.
Perspectives on the War
Vladimir Lenin: Claimed the entire war was merely a land grab.
President Woodrow Wilson: Viewed the war as a struggle for peace and freedom.
End of Hostilities
The signing of the Armistice on November 11, 1918, marked the official end of hostilities, paving the way for the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.
Wilson's Fourteen Points
Open Diplomacy: No secret agreements between nations.
Freedom of the Seas: International waters should be free for navigation.
Free Trade: Eliminate economic barriers and establish equal trade conditions.
Disarmament: Reduce military sizes and armaments to the lowest point possible.
Colonial Adjustments: Consideration for the interests of colonial peoples alongside the interests of colonial powers.
Russia: Self-determination for the peoples of Russia and support for their development.
Belgian Sovereignty: Restoration of Belgian independence.
French Territory: Return of Alsace-Lorraine to France.
Italian Borders: Adjustment of Italy's borders based on nationality.
Self-Determination in Austria-Hungary: Autonomy for various nationalities within the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Balkan States: Independence for the Balkan states and the right for self-determination.
Self-Determination for the Turkish Empire: Nationalities under Turkish rule should be granted autonomy.
Polish Independence: Establishment of an independent Poland with access to the sea.
League of Nations: Formation of a general association of nations to provide mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity.
Wilson championed national self-determination, or the right of people to choose their own form of government.
This would lead to the creation of several new, independent states but also raised many questions of which populations would achieve statehood and under what circumstances.
Finally, he asked for a League of Nations to secure “mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.”
In early 1919, the Victorious Allies held a peace conference in Versailles, a suburb of Paris, in the former palace of Louis XIV.
President Wilson believed that the peace conference was too important to be left to career diplomats and lesser politicians.
He crossed the Atlantic Ocean himself to represent the US at the conference, something no president had ever done.
Wilson did not invite any leading Republicans to join him in his peace delegation.
Wilson’s decision angered Republicans, who had won control of Congress in the 1918 elections.
Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, a leading Republican foreign policy expert, was especially angry.
Wilson left Lodge behind because Wilson disliked him intensely, but the feeling was mutual.
Lodge and Wilson had fundamentally different views about America’s place on the world stage.
Lodge was suspicious of Wilson’s progressivism and idealism, which he viewed as dangerously naive.
Wilson spoke of “peace without victory” and “mutual guarantees,”
Lodge, keen to move the US into the position of a world power, spoke unabashedly about putting American interests first.
The decision to leave Lodge behind would come back to haunt Wilson.
When the American president arrived in France, adoring crowds greeted him. “Never has a king, never has an emperor received such a welcome,” wrote one journalist.
Wilson’s idealism did not inspire the other Allied leaders at the peace conference.
They blamed Germany for starting the war, reminded Wilson that they had suffered more in the war than the US, they insisted that Germany make reparations, or payment for war damages.
They wanted to weaken Germany so that it would never threaten Europe again.
British prime minister David Lloyd-George and French premier Georges Clemenceau knew that the citizens of their countries expected both peace and victory.
Lloyd-George insisted on protecting the existing colonial status quo and punishing Germany.
Clemenceau wanted to make Germany pay dearly for what it had done to France.
In addition to reparations, he demanded the return of Alsace-Lorraine and several key German colonies.
Besides Britain and France, other Allies also had goals of their own.
They were skeptical of Wilson’s grand vision.
Once the Versailles conference began, Clemenceau (French), Lloyd-George (British), Premier Vittorio Orlando (Italian), and other Allied leaders started to chip away at Wilson’s Fourteen Points.
Onto the scrap heap of failed proposals they piled:
Freedom of the seas, free trade, the liberation of colonial empires, a general disarmament, and several other ideas.
Wilson lost a number of battles but kept fighting to salvage a League of Nations, a world organization where countries could gather and peacefully resolve their quarrels.
On this point, Wilson refused to compromise.
The other delegates finally voted to make the League of Nations part of the treaty.
In the end, the various peace treaties created almost as many major issues as they solved.
In the new map that emerged from the Paris Peace Conference, national self-determination was violated almost as often as it was confirmed.
In Europe, several populations of Germans found themselves attached to non-German nations.
The same was true of several Austrian populations.
When Wilson left Versailles to return to the US, he knew the treaty was not perfect.
He believed that over time the League could correct its problems.
He still thought that a lasting peace could emerge.
The movement from war to peace would have been difficult even in the best of times.
But the end of 1918 and 1919 were not the best of times.
In September 1918, an unusually deadly form of the influenza, or flu, virus appeared.
Research in recent years shows that the 1918 influenza virus was originally a bird flu that mutated to spread to humans.
Many historians now believe that the virus originated in the US then traveled around the world, thus becoming a pandemic.
As many as 50 million people died—among them, about 675,000 Americans.
The Great Influenza pandemic, also called the Great Pandemic or the Flu Pandemic of 1918 gave a sense of doom and dread to people around the globe.
The pandemic may have even reached Wilson at the Paris Peace Conference.
He fell seriously ill, and his temperature reached 103 degrees.
Wilson’s physician diagnosed the president as suffering from the flu.
Although there is some doubt that it was actually the flu, there is no doubt that Wilson’s sickness kept him from participating in many meetings.
His illness may have been a factor in Wilson not achieving all he had hoped to.
Much as Wilson faced opposition to his ideas at the Paris Peace Conference, he faced opposition in the US to the Treaty of Versailles he had negotiated—but for different reasons.
German Americans thought the treaty was too harsh toward Germany:
Especially the “war guilt clause” that suggested that Germany had caused the war.
Irish Americans criticized the failure to create an independent Ireland.
Most important, however, the treaty would need to be submitted then ratified by the Republican-controlled Congress.
In both bodies, as well as in his own Democratic Party, Wilson faced stiff opposition.
A handful of senators believed that the US should not get entangled in world politics or involved in world organization at all.
Known as “irreconcilables,” these isolationist senators opposed any treaty that had a League of Nations folded into it.
They particularly disliked Article 10 of the League covenant.
Article 10 called for mutual defense by the signers of the treaty, a pledge that each nation would
“respect and preserve… the territorial integrity and existing political independence of all the Members of the League.”
A larger group of senators, led by Henry Cabot Lodge and known as “reservationists,” were opposed to the treaty as it was written.
Some wanted only small changes, while others demanded larger ones.
For example, many felt Article 10 could lead the US into a war without the consent of Congress, which was unconstitutional.
Reservationists believed that the language of the article was too vague and demanded that it not contradict the power of Congress to declare war.
But with some changes, the reservationists were prepared to vote for the Treaty of Versailles.
They knew that polls indicated that the American people favored the League of Nations.
Wilson had compromised in Versailles, but he was not ready to compromise in Washington, D.C.
When the Senate delayed its ratification vote, Wilson took his case directly to the people.
The League of Nations had become his personal crusade, and convincing the American people of its worth would test his leadership.
Even though he was ill and weak, he set himself the grueling task of crossing the country and giving 32 addresses in 33 days.
But his health failed on September 24, 1919, in Pueblo, Colorado.
He was rushed back to to Washington, D.C., but suffered a debilitating stroke a few days later.
As the Senate prepared to vote on the treaty, Wilson lay close to death, barely able to speak.
In November 1919, one year after the war ended, a treaty revised to eliminate the complaints of the reservationists reached the Senate for a vote.
Wilson would not compromise and told his democratic supporters to vote with the irreconcilables against it.
They did, and it was defeated.
Next, the Senate voted on the treaty without any changes.
The Democrats voted for it, but the combined strength of the irreconcilables and reservationists defeated it.
The treaty once more was voted on, this time with only modest changes.
Again, Wilson told his followers to vote against it.
Some Democrats voted for it, the combination of Wilson Democrats and irreconcilables defeated the treaty.
The problem was not that most of the Senate was isolationist.
Except for the irreconcilables, most senators wanted the US to participate in world affairs.
They differed slightly on what form that participation would take.
At a moment that demanded compromise, Wilson and his opponents refused to put aside personal and political differences for the good of the country.
The tragedy of the failed votes was that without full American support
The League of Nations would prove unable to maintain peace among nations.
It was the League of Nations that US opponents of the Treaty of Versailles most objected to.
In evaluating the pros and cons of US participation in the international organization and treaty, opponents judged that the cons outweigh the pros.
They were especially concerned that the League would entangle the US in conflicts that would not advance US interests.
Supporters, in contrast, thought the pros outweigh the cons.
They thought the US would benefit by being part of an international organization in which other countries could come to the aid of the US.
They also wanted the US to have a voice in international politics before a huge conflict broke out.