WWI: The Great War

World War I has been called the Great War. WWI was about a global war, which centered mostly
in Europe, but it spread into other areas as well. It started from July 28, 1914 to November 1918.
The war was very bloody with more than 9 million combatants being killed. 7 million civilians
died as a result of the war. Estimates say that 30 million people were injured. The influenza
epidemic (from 1918 to 1920) causes about 50-100 million people to die. That was 3-5% of the
world population during that time. The large casualty rate was due to more TECHNOLOGICAL
sophistication of warfare and the stalemate. It was one of the bloodiest conflicts in world history.
The war was an inter-imperialist war when the ALLIED and the Central Powers fought each other
for geopolitical power in the world. The Allied Forces were based on the Triple Entente of the UK,
France, the Russian Empire, and other nations. America joined the Allied forces later on after the
sinking of the Lusitania. The Central Powers involved Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman
Empire, and Bulgaria. The war began after decades of conflict between the Triple Entente and the
Central Powers. Austria-Hungary also dealt with the former territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This angered the Kingdom of Serbia, because Serbian nationalists wanted to maintain their
cultural, political powerbase in that region. The Serbians want their human dignity to be respected
in the region. The Balkan League fought the Ottoman Empire (which was weakening by the early
20th century) in the First Balkan War from 1912 to 1913.

The Assassination

On June 28, 1914, Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand visited the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. He
was killed by the assassin Gavrilo Princip. He was part of a group of a six assassin team (whose
names are Cvjetko Popović, Gavrilo Princip, Muhamed Mehmedbašić, Nedeljko Čabrinović, Trifko
Grabež, Vaso Čubrilović). The Black Hand organization was involved in the assassination. Later,
Austria-Hungary sent an ultimatum to Serbia. The Serbian response is seen as unsatisfactory. By
July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Russia mobilized. Germany soon declared
war on Russia. On August 1, 1914, Germany and the Ottoman Empire sign a secret alliance treaty.
Germany declares war on France. The UK declared war on Germany on August 4, 1914. Webster
Tarpley has written about King Edward VII using deception in stirring WWI into supporting UK
imperial interests instead of legitimate aims. WWI was definitely started as a product of rival
capitalist states competing for the world’s resources. During the War, Russia was an ally of France.
The Allied Powers wanted to contain the influence of Germany in the world stage.

The Beginning of WWI

The interimperialist war of World War One was very brutal and bloodshed flourished. It was
called the Great War. There was the July crisis. Russia first issued a general mobilization of its
troops. They mobilized against Germany on July 30th, 1914 too. Germany responded when
Germany declared a "state of danger of war." This also led to the general mobilization in Austria-
Hungary on August 4. Kaiser Wilhelm II asked his cousin, Tsar Nicolas II, to suspend the Russian
general mobilization. When he refused, Germany issued an ultimatum demanding the arrest of its
mobilization and commitment not to support Serbia. Another ultimatum was sent to France,
asking her not to support Russia if it were to come to the defense of Serbia. On August 1, after the
Russian response, Germany mobilized and declared war on Russia. Soon, Germany and France
fought each other. Britain declared war on Germany on August 4, 1914 as well. There was
confusion among the Central Powers. Germany wanted Austro-Hungary to attack Russia while
Austria Hungary wanted Germany to attack Russia. This caused the Austro-Hungarian Army to
divide its forces between Russian and Serbian fronts.
It is also important to know about the new weapons of war during WWI, which are the following:
poison gas, the machine gun, the tank, and the submarine.
Austria invaded and fought the Serbian Army in the Battle of Cer and the Battle of Kolubara
starting in August 12. Serbia won the Austro-Hungarian invasion of 1914. It was a huge upset.
WWI involved battles in Africa and Asia as well. Trench warfare existed when people used new
TECHNOLOGY like gas warfare and the tank. Tanks were first used in combat by the British
during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette (part of the wider Somme offensive) on September 15, 1916,
with only partial success. However, their effectiveness would grow as the war progressed. The
Germans employed only small numbers of their own design, supplemented by captured Allied
tanks. The Germans used chlorine gas for the first time on the Western front on April 22, 1915. In
the next 2 years, WWI was almost a stalemate among all sides. The British Empire and the French
suffered more casualties between 1915 and 1917, because both sides were heavily invested in
trench warfare. In February 1916 the Germans attacked the French defensive positions at Verdun.
Running until December 1916, the battle saw initial German gains, before French counterattacks
returned matters to near their starting point. Casualties were greater for the French, but the
Germans bled heavily as well, with anywhere from 700,000 to 975,000 causalities suffered between
the French and the Germans.

Trench warfare was highly unorthodox. A lot of people have done activities at night under the cover of darkness.
Soldiers, who usually only slept for a few hours at a time, were constantly on guard. Troops in the front line had a
repetitive diet of tinned food and sometimes the food was served cold.

WWI from 1915 to 1918 evolved quickly. Germany on February 4, 1915 declared a submarine
blockade of Great Britain. In any ship approaching England, was considered a legitimate target.
German U-Boats have targeted Allied forces. The Allies forces also battle for nine months in the
area of Gallipoli in the Turkish peninsula. They did this to divide up the Central Powers and gain
access to the Western front. By December 28, the Allies executed a withdrawal troops form
Gallipoli. The U-boat sank the USS Lusitania in May 7, 1915, which killed 1,198 civilians including
128 Americans. Germany soon ceased to sink ships with warning, but the U.S. declared war on the
Central Powers. At first President Woodrow Wilson campaigned to get America out of the war.
Both sides used gas in warfare. Sir Douglas Haig becomes commander of British Expeditionary
Force. The 1916 Battle of Verdun was the longest battle of the war. It was fought to a draw and
both sides suffered about one million casualties. The Battle of Jutland, which was a naval
engagement, saw no clear winner. In July 1 to November 18, 1916 there was the Battle of the
Simme. About one million people died and it was a breakthrough for the Allies.
The 1914 Christmas truce

There was the Christmas truce of WWI. It has been over 100 years since it occurred on December
24, 1914. This was one of the most poignant, important events of WWI. It has been called
Weihnachtsfrieden in Germany and Trêve de Noël in France. The Christmas truce was when there
was a spontaneous ceasefire all across the Western front that stretched 440 miles from the border
of Switzerland to the North Sea. This was very extraordinary, because there was the jingoist
reaction shown by all of the belligerent powers (like Germany, France, Russia, and Britain) to
justify their recourse to war just months before, starting on July 28, 1914. There were British and
German troops meeting in no man’s land during the unofficial truce. There is one picture of British
troops from the Northumberland Hussars, 7th Division, Bridoux-Rouge Banc Sector). Just before
this truce, German imperialist forces invaded Belgium and Luxembourg. The German military
then went south across the border into France. The Germans wanted to have a quick victory over
its opponents on the Western Front. The Germans wanted to defeat Britain and France in six weeks
before going into Russia. British and French imperialists were thrown on the defensive, because of
the initially rapid German advance. They soon stabilized the front and mobilize the resources of
their colonial empire. They also created a crippling naval blockade on food supplies to starve the
German population. By December 1914, there was a stalemate. There were thousands of men in the
trenches. The trenches were rat infested, wet, bloody, and cold. The war was still going. These
horrible conditions caused a number of unofficial truces to exist. It started on Christmas Eve where
about 100,000 soldiers along the Western front laid down their arms. They fraternized in no-man’s
land between the lines of trenches. Many of them (for 48 hours or more) sang carols, exchanged
cigarettes, food like chocolates, and personal mementos. There are plenty of photographs showing
British and German troops along the soldiers’ letters home are witness to the event. On December
26, 1914, German soldiers of the 134th Saxon Regiment and the British soldiers of the Royal
Warwickshire Regiment met in no man’s land. The Christmas truce was not totally universal.
There was slaughter among many sectors. On December 24, 1914, that the first German bomb
struck on British soil, in Dover.

In some instances, the lull in hostilities lasted only hours—just long enough to enable the retrieval
and burial of the corpses lying in the freezing and desolate wasteland. Some said that a friendly
football match occurred among British and German troops. This truce represented how strong the
anti-war sentiment was during WWI. Many people refused to fight, created unofficial truce,
munities, strikes, and peace protests. Corporal Adolf Hitler of the 16th Bavarians opposed such
truces. “Such things should not happen in wartime. Have you Germans no sense of honour left at
all?” he complained. Within days, the German, British and French High Commands served anti-
fraternization orders, carrying the heaviest penalties. The Christmas truce was a courageous
display of opposition to the brutality of war. We can learn the lesson that this truce represented the
need for us to fight for world peace which we all seek. The Christmas truce was a great act of
humanity.
America comes into WWI

The British introduced the tank, which was an effective weapon but far too few to make much of a
difference. The Zimmerman telegram caused a stir in America. It was a telegram from Reich
Foreign Secretary Zimmerman to Mexico urging Mexico to into a war against the United States
(especially in the Southwest). Later, Germany declared unrestricted submarine warfare on
February 1, 1917. During this time, the Russian Revolution is taking place with a provisional
government declared and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicating from the throne. April 6, 1917 was
the time when President Wilson asks Congress for a declaration of war with Imperial Germany. A
draft from the Selective Service Act came about. Many French troops used a mutiny over
conditions in the battlefield in April to June of 1917. The first wave of American Expeditionary
Force came to France in July 3, 1917. The American troops fought in trench warfare by October 23,
1917. Kerensky’s provincial government in Russia was overthrown by the Bolsheviks, who were
led by Lenin. Leon Trotsky represented the new Russian government and he signed an armistice
agreement with Germany. That agreement meant that Russia would not fight Germany in WWI.
That allowed Russia to be out of the Great War completely. On December 9, 1917, the British
captured Jerusalem from the Ottoman Turks and its Arabic allies. This signals a new era in human
history. In the same year of 1917, the British used African, Indian, and Arabic troops to take over
Baghdad. In 1918, the Great War CONTINUES. The German offensive from March 21, 1918 was
stopped by late June. British and Australian troops stopped the German advance near Amiens in
April 25, 1918.
World War I introduced to the world military aviation or airplanes being involved in warfare in
the skies. Both sides used planes with massive speed and agility in order to battle each other and
crush targets. Thousands of planes were used in the war. Most of the plane’s weight was in the
center of them in order for the airplanes to have excellent maneuverability. There was the German
Fokker D VII and the British Sopwith F1 Camel. As time went on, engines developed in an
advanced fashion.

The 5 Deadliest Battles and Campaigns in World War

Chemical Weapons were used by both sides during
One are:
World War I. The Hague Declaration of 1899 and the
Hague Convention of 1907 forbade the use of poison -Hundred Days Offensive (1,855,369 total casualties).
or poisoned weapons in warfare. The Allies and the
Central Powers violated those rules. 124,000 tons of -The Spring Offensive (1,539,715 total casualties).
gas were produced by the end of the war. There were
-The Battle of the Somme (1,219,201 total casualties).
about 1.3 million casualties of chemical warfare.
Between 100,000 to 260,000 civilians were part of the -The Battle of Verdun (976,000 total casualties).
casualties too.
-The Battle of Passchenaele (848,614 total casualties).
African Americans and WWI

African Americans have a huge history in WWI. During the period of WWI, there was the Great
Migration. This was when about 500,000 black Americans migrated from the South to the North
and the Midwest (especially in cities like New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Boston,
Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, etc.). These events changed America, because the black Southern
cultural traditions traveled into the North (which further developed black culture in general). The
Great Migration transpired, because of many reasons. Many black sharecroppers in the South were
brutalized, violated of their workers’ rights, and suffered terrorism by white racists. Many black
farmers went northward as a means for them to escape poverty and escape racism (in a wicked Jim
Crow-filled society). Many black people back then lived in perpetual debt. The North seemed, to
many black Southerners, as a place of more economic opportunities and more freedom from Jim
Crow segregation. Many black people received jobs in the North, but it was not a total paradise.
Jim Crow segregation was banned heavily in the North, but residential segregation, job
discrimination, substandard living conditions, and white racism was heavily found in the North
(just like in the South). Many black people were forced to live in the ghettoes of the North. African
American newspapers like the Chicago Defender have stood up for justice for black people as
well. There was a network of African Americans who helped black people get jobs, housing,
and other resources in the North as well. New forms of music, literature, and art developed as
well. The Harlem Renaissance developed in large part because of the Great Migration.

WWI was promoted by the U.S. government as a way for them to claim that they wanted to fight
for “democracy.” Most African Americans at first opposed American involvement in WWI (like
most Americans in general). Most black people believed in the beginning that the conflict in
Europe had nothing to do with the fight for justice for black people. Wilson won reelection in 1916
on the platform of neutrality ironically. Black Americans had diverse views on WWI. Some black
people wanted African Americans to fight in WWI as a means to fight for racial justice. Others
refused to fight in WWI because of the injustices of America, some black people disagreed with
war in general for moral reasons (as pacifism and the anti-war movement in general were strong
back then), and for other reasons. One quote sums up this view in the following terms: “…If
America truly understands the functions of democracy and justice, she must know that she must
begin to promote democracy and justice at home first of all," Arthur Shaw of New York
proclaimed. It is obvious that Woodrow Wilson (who was a racist) would never want true
democracy and freedom for all peoples of the Earth. He wanted to use America as a way for him
(and the corporate elite in general) to advance Western interests. The American government used
anti-liberty actions in suppressing dissent (via the June 1917 Espionage Act and the May 1918
Sedition Act). The truth is that humanity has every right to dissent and to express intellectual
diversity. A. Philip Randolph and Chandler (they were editors of the socialist newspaper “The
Messenger”) publicly encouraged African Americans to resist military service. Both men were
monitored by federal intelligence agents. Over one million African Americans followed the draft
calls. About 370,000 black men were inducted into the Army. Charles Brodnax, a farmer from
Virginia recalled, "I felt that I belonged to the Government of my country and should answer to the
call and obey the orders in defense of Democracy."
These are images of the Silent Protest of June 28, 1917 (in New York City). This protest was organized
by Brother WEB DuBois and the rest of the NAACP. Black men, Black women, and Black children
protested racial injustice, segregation, lynching, and the racial riots going on. They desired freedom.
This is similar to the protests now in 2015 against police brutality, racism, stop and frisk, racial profiling,
economic injustice, and other forms of oppression.

During this period, race riots occurred nationwide from 1914 to 1919. In East St. Louis on July 2,
1917, there was a race riot based on working issues. About 125 black people were killed. Even the
NAACP led a silent protest parade in NYC on July 28, 1917. Eight thousand marchers, which
included the men dressed in black and the women and children in white, solemnly advanced
down Fifth Avenue to the sound of muffled drums. They held signs such as the one that read, "Mr.
President, why not make America safe for democracy." The 2 combat divisions for African-
Americans were the 92nd Division (which was made up of draftees and officers) and the 93rd
Division (which composed mostly of National Guard units from New York, Chicago, Washington
D.C., Cleveland, and Massachusetts). Many black people were in service units and denied high
ranking positions. There was discrimination and other issues too. Black women served to as Red
Cross members, nurses, and participated in other jobs. There was the National Association of
Colored Women (NACW) which led rallies and gave support for the black troops. Black women
also worked in America while many men went into the battlefield. Black women in Mobile,
Alabama walked off the job in fighting for better working conditions and rights. Emmett Scott (or
the former secretary to Booker T. Washington) was a special assistant to the Secretary of War in
charge of matters related to African Americans and the war. Even WEB DuBois supported WWI,
because he believed that it could cause black people to experience democracy at home.
 Soldiers of the 369th (15th N.Y.) who won the Croix de Guerre for gallantry in action from
1919. Left to right. Front row: Pvt. Ed Williams, Herbert Taylor, Pvt. Leon Fraitor, Pvt. Ralph
Hawkins. Back Row: Sgt. H. D. Prinas, Sgt. Dan Storms, Pvt. Joe Williams, Pvt. Alfred Hanley,
and Cpl. T. W. Taylor

The 93rd Division’s 396th Infantry Regiment from New York was a famous fighting unit of African
American troops. They were nicknamed the “Harlem Hellfighters.” They had a world class band.
They popularized jazz in France. Many of the French respected the black soldiers, despite white
racists trying to slander the black Americans. The 369th were strong in combat. Henry Johnson and
Needham Roberts, were the first American soldiers to receive the French Croix de Guerre (War
Cross). The regiment served for 191 days and ceded no ground to German forces. They were the
first American regiment to reach the Rhine River in Germany following the armistice and returned
to the United States national heroes.
 These were officers of the 366th Infantry Regiment returning home from World War I service.

The 92nd Division suffered racist treatment. Many of them were court-martialed on bogus charges.
Numerous African American troops interacted with North and West African solders who served
in the French military. This expanded black African diasporic belonging. Many people in France
gave the African American troops respect. "They treated us with respect," one soldier recalled, "not
like the white American soldiers." Yet, there is the paradox. France did not have segregation or Jim
Crow. Black Americans had a little more freedom in France, but France had racism and France was
a strong colonial power back during WWI. After WWI, African Americans wanted to fight for
justice in America. WEB DuBois and William Monroe Trotter of the Equal Rights League wanted
to fight European colonialism while they were in the Versailles peace conferences. On February 17,
1919, the 369th Infantry Regiment marched up Fifth Avenue and into Harlem before some 250,000
people. There were the 1919 race riots across America including in Washington, D.C. and in
Chicago. In Elaine, Arkansas, whites massacres hundreds of black people when black people
wanted to organize themselves as sharecroppers. There were 89 reported lynching of black people
in 1919. Many of the victims were returning soldiers.

Therefore, WWI never ended oppression against black people. That is why black people focused
internally in their communities as a means for them to organize against white supremacy and
oppression. We can’t be free without struggle. Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement
Association (UNIA) gained massive support after WWI. Marcus Garvey was a Jamaican born
leader who wanted to promote black racial pride and desired to cause black people in the
Americas to come into Africa. His nationalist movement was representative of the Black
Nationalist movement which was highly popular (even to this day). He wanted African Diasporic
unity, which is great. We are one black people regardless if we live in Brazil or the USA. WWI was
a turning point in black American history. It was the time when African Americans organized
more in the midst of an oppressive society. It had grown black movements for social change and
inspired tons of black men, women, and children to keep on fighting against evil. The sacrifice, the
courage, and the strength of black people of that era should always be respected.

The End of WWI

1918 was the year of the end of WWI. During this time, two waves of influenza spread globally.
That epidemic ended in 1919. These waves killed more people than the war did. On January 8,
1918, President Woodrow Wilson declared his 14 points as the path to permanent world peace. The
deal was that WWI was extremely destructive and it was a war that was not witnessed before his
human history during that time. So, many people wanted to establish a policy, a program, and an
organization to end all wars in general. On March 21, 1918, the Germans launched its first of five
offensives. This was done before American troops were in the trenches. The German advance was
stopped in late June. The Red Baron or Baron von Richtofen was killed in an air dog fight on April
22, 1918. The German advance was stooped near Amiens by British and Australian troops by April
25. German shells landed on Paris in May 23, 1918. American forces stopped the Germans on the
banks of the Marne near Paris at Chateau-Thierry on May 31, 1918. German troops were being
shipped from the Eastern to Western Front to desert in large numbers from their transport trains in
July. Former Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, children, and members of his entourage were murdered by
the Bolsheviks on July 16-17, 1918. President Wilson agreed to co-operate with Allies in sending
volunteer troops to Russia. The Allied counter offensives finally on Somme push the Germany
army back and into retreat by August 8, 1918. Allied forces break through German fortifications at
the Hindenburg line on September. Then, the German sailors had done mutiny at port when they
are asked to sail and fight a hopeless naval battle (on October 28). The Turks signed the armistice
on October 30. Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates on November 9 and a new German republic is founded
the next day.

At eleven o’clock on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, the war ends as Germany and
the Allies sign an armistice. American soldiers and others celebrate the end of the war.
The Paris Peace Conference

The Paris Peace Conference comes afterwards on January 18, 1919. Wilson comes to Europe.
Delegates from 27 nations were assigned to 52 commissions, which held 1,646 sessions to prepare
reports, with the help of many experts, on topics ranging from prisoners of war, to undersea
cables, to international aviation, to responsibility for the war. Their recommendations in the
conference transform into the Treaty of Versailles. The major powers (of France, Britain Italy, the
U.S., and Japan) ruled the conference. Other treaties came ending by 1923 with the Treaty of
Lausanne. Japan proposed a provision in the Covenant of the League of Nations to advance racial
equality among nations, but it was rejected. The Paris Peace Conference had a total amount of 32
countries with it delegates there. President Woodrow Wilson created his 14 Points as a way for in
his mind to form a just and lasting peace. The first four points dealt with promoting an end to
secret treaties, freedom of the seas, free trade, and reduced national armies and navies. The fifth
point was about colonial claims and colonial peoples. The sixth through thirteenth points deals
with changing borders and creating new nations. Self-determination was a concept promoted in
the Paris Peace Conference too. The fourteenth point wanted a general association of nations that
would protect nations. This was the progenitor or the birth of his League of Nations plan.

Ironically, the British and the French (whose leader included Georges Clemenceau) were not
interested in supporting Wilson’s 14 Points. They wanted Germany to be punished, because of the
war. They wanted Germany to be stripped of its military power and they focused on national
security. The Treaty of Versailles was enacted and it was a compromise among the Allied Powers
in how to deal with Germany and the post-World War I atmosphere. In that Treaty, Germany was
forced to pay reparations and Germany’s lands in Africa was subject to mandate statue under the
authority of the League of Nations. Wilson was disappointed when the Senate of America rejected
the Treaty of Versailles.

The Arabic revolt of 1916-1918 was about Arabic peoples, led by Sherif Hussein bin Ali, to fight for
the independence of the Arabic community against the Ottoman Empire. He or Sherif wanted to
create a single, unified Arabic state spanning from Aleppo, Syria to Aden in Yemen. This was an
Arabic nationalist movement. The British promised the Arabic people that they would get their
independence if they would defeat the Ottoman forces. This was shown via the McMahon-Hussein
Correspondence. This correspondence was made up of an exchange of letters from July 14, 1915 to
January 30, 1916. Sir Henry McMahon was the British High Commissioner in Egypt. Of course, the
British elite did not mean this. Later, the Sykes-Picot Agreement existed in 1916. This agreement
was between France and the UK and they planned to split the occupy parts of the promised Arabic
country. In other words, the Sykes-Picot agreement wanted to divide the Middle East into British
and French spheres of influence for political control (in allowing France to gain Syria and Lebanon
while Britain would get Mesopotamia and Palestine). It was a secret agreement, which was against
the Correspondence from a year before.

The Captain T.E. Lawrence was sent by the British to the Middle East as a means for him to assist
in the Arabic revolt (against the Ottoman Empire). Emir Faisal was involved in the battles against
the Ottoman Empire as well. The Arabic forces made huge victories and the Ottoman Empire will
not totally surrender until January of 1919. The Paris Conference came about where also TE
Lawrence, Prince Feisal, and the Arabic delegation came to discuss Middle Eastern issues. TE
Lawrence wanted Arabic independence (and the establishment of Hashemite Kingdoms), but the
members of the Paris Conference refused to give unilateral independence to the Arabic peoples of
the Middle East. TE Lawrence refused to accept the medals that King George V wanted to award
him because of the betrayal of the Arabic people with the evil, slick Sykes-Picot Agreement. King
Hussein’s son was Feisal. Chaim Weizmann once posed with Emir Feisal when they pledged
mutual cooperation. The Paris Peace Conference ignored the Arabic point of view. It would be the
1921 Cairo Conference, which allowed Feisal to be the leader of the Kingdom of Iraq, Husain was
the Sharif of Mecca, and Abdul Aziz ibn Saud left in control of the Nejd in the heart of the Arabian
Desert. Both were to continue to receive financial support from Great Britain. France controlled
Syria. The British ruled the Mandate of Palestine and they would support a Jewish homeland
there. The Cairo Conference was about a token compromise with European hegemony in the
region being intact. So, the Cairo Conference was very controversial.

After WWI, the Austro-Hungarian Empire ended. New nations that were formed included
Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia.

The League of Nations

The League of Nations was an organization, which was similar to the future United Nations of
1945, which wanted world peace via negotiations, treaties, and other political actions. It lasted
from 1920 to 1946. The United Nations would replace the League of Nations in 1946. The League of
Nations was weakened and it was not strong because of many reasons. The League of Nations
didn’t have enough power to enforce their anti-war provisions. Germany and Russia were
excluded from the League of Nations. The League of Nations was not massively supported by
America. Japan and Italy didn’t view themselves as getting a just competition after the war. The
Paris Peace conference divided up territories and punished Germany with huge reparations. Many
Africans and Asians felt betrayed by the Paris Peace Conference, because their advocacy of
independence in those continents was ignored. In other words, European colonialism continued in
Africa and Asia under the guise of “mandates,” but the independence of African and Asian nation
would grow after World War II. After World War I, people in Nigeria, Ireland, China, the Middle
East, etc. would continue to fight for self-determination and independence. Leaders as diverse
ideologically as Lenin, Stalin, Sun Yixian, Mao Zedong, Gandhi, and Kemal would support world
changing movements that would alter the course of history forever. The problems with the League
of Nations, fascism rising globally, etc. set the stage for WWII.

By Timothy

In the final analysis, the entire human race

deserves justice, freedom, and equality.

Peace