The Treaty of Versailles (ended WWI)

World War I was the first conflict to encompass various major and minor nations from all segments of the world. The two opposing forces, the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente, shed casualties for four years until 1918, when an armistice was signed. It was the armistice signed in the Compiegn Forest in France that ended the conflict, but what truly brought in the after effects of the war was the Treaty of Versailles. Major nations all reached the conclusion that Germany was the central cause of the war, and therefore had to pay full responsibility for all its actions of hostility towards the other nations.

The Treaty of Versailles, reluctantly signed by Germany, forced them to take complete responsibility for the war. Many of the effects of this Treaty on Germany were regarded towards territorial losses, however, others were regarded also towards its economy. Territorial loses include Alsace-Lorraine, which was given back to France after it had lost it during the Franco-Prussian War in 1871. Other territorial losses included its overseas colonies from pre-world war I, which severely reduced its general size and profit income. The northern portion Schlieswig was also lost and returned back to Denmark; it had originally lost it in 1864 during the Second War of Schleswig. The remainder of the overseas colonies were partitioned between the members of the League of Nations. At the end of all territorial losses, Germany's total area was reduced by 13%.

Among the other punishments issued to Germany for starting the war was the reduction of the size of Germany’s army and navy. The treaty set a very strict limitation of 100,000 infantry. Along with this, they were not allowed to produce an artillery or armed vehicles, including tanks, battleships, submarines, supply carriers, ranged artillery, or aircraft.

It was the mix of these effects in Germany help to further fuel a growing revolution in Germany at the time, the German Revolution. Supported by various historians, I also think that the results of the war and the Treaty of Versailles helped carve the way to Adolf Hitler and Fascism. The citizens of Germany did not take their humiliating loss too lightly. Before the war, Germany looked down on all the other European nations, believing that theirs was superior (nationalism), and this was actually true before 1914. But, after the war, people became displeased with their country, and turned to resenting the nations who defeated them (already setting some of the stage for World War II). On top of this, Germany was in an extremely weakened state: not only did they lose huge sums of money from war expenses alone, they lost money to compensate for causing the war, and also had their military reduced. Ex-German soldiers (those removed from the army as a result of the treaty) did not wish to be taken away from the fighting so forcefully, so multiple independent mercenary groups became active all over the nation; one of larger of these mercenary groups was the Freikorps.

However, though all these provisions were set against Germany by the majority of the European nations, ironically, Germany was not present at that meeting. Therefore, it can be said that this Treaty was very unfair.The reparations decided by the Big Three(Woodrow Wilson (U.S), David Lloyd George (Britain), and Georges Clemenceau (France)) added up to 6,000 million British pounds, an extremely unfair cost.

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and the Modernization of Turkey

Mustafa Kemal is viewed as being the father of Turkey, similarly to how Mahatma Gandhi is respected as being the father of India. His plan of action was firs expressed to the public in the Bursa Speech. In his speech, he gave a simplistic outline of his ultimate goal, saying that “…our nation with its true qualities deserves and will become civilized and progressive.”

The first of these reforms, and one he emphasized primarily through his beginning stages, was clothing. He believed that clothing was a mark of civilization, and a certain one present with their country was harming them rather than helping. This piece of clothing was the Fez. Symbolic of the hardships and slavery of the past, Kemal believed that without it, Turkey would be able to become a greater nation. He ordered that now, brimmed hats must be worn, and dress clothing (ties, suits, etc) must be worn as casual clothes. This marked the start of Mustafa’s secularity, because it showed his willingness to break religious order to achieve a certain goal for his nation.

One of these reforms was to the status of people. Mustafa did not want to abide any longer the ideals of the past, where people were set into strict social orders, and personal movement was not encouraged, if not virtually impossible. Much like Japan during the Meiji Era, Kemal embraced the western style of society, and posed a new structure for his people to follow. He borrowed from Europe the theory of a classless, non-hierarchical society. He wished to break away from the class driven chains that Turkey had been caught in for so long, so he gave equal rights to all the citizens of Turkey, which included the freedom to practice any religion, and a formal education for all those who wished to enroll. He also stemmed an original form of education that based itself on individual’s skills; depending on a person’s job, they may be taught in the general areas of education, but also many side subjects to help sharpen the individual’s performance in the job (ex: a waiter learning economics for general knowledge, but also etiquette so that the job may be done properly).

Ultimately, all of the changes produced by Kemal increased the secularity of the Turkey. Secular is defined as “of or pertaining to worldly things or to things that are not regarded as religious, spiritual, or sacred.”

Film Lesseon: Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi was one of he most influential figures of all history. Leading a bloodless revolution across Africa, he was one of the very few fathers of nations who fought for independence for his people without violence. From 1916 to 1945, Gandhi continued to challenge the British authority over the “coolies”, as the British called Indians, until the formation of the creation of India and Pakistan in BLAH. In the accurate biography about his astonishing life, titled “Gandhi”, various of Mahatma’s methods and his philosophy were revealed and brought to a more public light.

The first of the methods used by Gandhi was civil disobedience. This is a practice of resisting an an unjust rule by means of strikes, boycotting, and general neglection of that law. However, while Gandhi did encourage this, he told his followers not to lay a single hand on the British, and to take every one of their blows. His view was most accurately portrayed in the movie during the scene of part of the Salt March. He organized a group of rebel Indians, and marched them to a British salt factory in the desert. However, British officers assembled at the site, and brutally clubbed many Indians.

Gandhi also practiced a sort of "self-sufficient" lifestyle. He encouraged his people to follow his example of spinning their own cloth, obtaining / making their owns goods, and boycotting British made products. This self-sufficiency goes hand in hand with his tactic of civil disobedience. This method turned successful, as many people followed his example. In the movie, the self-sufficiency of Gandhi is most clearly portrayed in the scene of the Salt March, where the Indians travel hundreds of miles to reach the ocean so that they could make their own salt instead of having to depend on the British for it.

I believe that the gaining of India's independence was not all Gandhi. It is true that he played an extremely influential role in it, but there was another invisible hand moving along with Gandhi: the loss of power in their colonies after the close of World War II. Europe, and the entire world for that matter, was devastated by the amass of losses, both in revenue, lives, and overall power. At that state, they weren't able to maintain all of their overseas colonies, as it would deplete their desperately needed resources. Gandhi happened to come in at the perfect time. He and his non-violence methods did not hurt the British physically, but indirectly through money. The crippled British became tripped deeper into weakness, and had to allow India their freedom. However, India's independence was inevitable, because the results of World War II had already weakened the British enough that it would not be in their best wishes to try to keep their colonies active.