Wilson's Fourteen Points

Here are four of Wilson's Fourteen points and whether or not they exist today.

"I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view."
     The first of Wilson's points is essencially that no countries should make secret or dishonest treaties. I think that there are secret dealings in governments today, this point is not present in today's world. There have been plenty secret treaties between countries and dealigs which are questionable.

"IV. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety."
     Wilson's fourth point is to lower the amout of weapons a country has to the lowest possible amount without impeding domestic safey. This point is totally absent from today's world. Many countries have nuclear armaments and weapons beyond necessity. The Middle East is full of tension and thus, weapons. Today, I think we rely on having weapons in case of defense, so much so that it has become exessive.

"XIII. An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenant."
     Wilson was calling for Poland to be its own country. This point is actually present in the world today. Poland is its own independent nation. It has access to the sea, and political and economic independence from any other country, Russia and Germany included.

"XIV. A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike."
     Here Wilson was addressing creating the League of Nations. It does not exist today, but the United Nations does and is much like the League of Nations once was. The United Nations seeks to keep peace between nations and help peoples keep political independence.

Of the four points discussed here I think that the most effective in preventing war is the first point. Secret treaties and agreements between nations easily causes tension and conflict. This conflict can lead to fights and even wars. If nations are upfront and honest about their dealings than less people would be angered at a treaty. We are inclined to be slightly more accepting of things if we know about them first.

Political Cartoon

The cartoonist is depicting the Treaty of Verasilles, and how Germany was made to accept the conditions whether they liked them or not. The four men holding the spoon are Clemenceau, George, Wilson, and Orlando. The giant pill is labeled 'Peace Terms' and the fist is labeled with names of the Allied countires. The cartoonist is pointing out how much Germany doesn't want to accept this treay, but is forced to.
The cartoon doesn't display significant stereotypes. Obviously it is exaggerated in that there was no literal fist or pill, it is using that as a metaphor for the situation.
The comic is funny in that it really is what happened, just satirized. It is kind of sad when you dwell on it, because technically, Germany didn't start the war. Austria-Hungary started the war. But Germany had to pay all the reparations. I think it is mildly funny because of how the cartoonist displays Germany's feelings toward the treaty and how it was forced on them. It was clever to use the medicine analogy.

Women in World War I

The most obvious affect on women in America during World War I, is that many of the men had left for service in the military and women had to take the mens' jobs in the workplace. Women were still expected to be homemakers and raise children but during the war, women were given the opportunity to work outside of their usual roles. It was much more common to see a woman in a munitions factory during the war than before. However, despite these opportunities, women were only paid half of a man's wages and there were still strong sexist feelings. Even with continued struggles, women seemed to thrive, they were much happier playing their part in supporting the war effort and doing manual labor than being stuck inside a house. Women accepted this opportunity with open arms, and their role wasn't solely taking men's places in factories. Some women got to travel overseas to the front. Women were employed as nurses and telephone operators. They provided food and supplies, entertainment, and were journalists. But on the down side, women lost their fathers, brothers, friends, and husbands to the war. Women sorely missed their loved ones.
After the war, the oppoerunities women had gained were lost. The placed they had in the workforce was taken back by men. Women's fight for rights quieted after the war, as most people simply wanted things to return to normal.

The Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide took place between 1915 and 1918 in Turkey where approximately two million Armenians were murdered. The Ottoman Empire controlled Armenia for hundreds of years, and when it was rapidly declining in the late 1800s, new Turkish leaders stepped into power. A group of Turkish nationalists called the 'Young Turks' staged a coup in 1913 and though it first looked hopeful to Armenians, it proved to be a horrible change. The Young Turks fueled disdain for differences between Turks and Armenians ans encouraged discrimination against Armenians. Christian Armenians were branded as infidels and sometimes massacred.
With the outbreak of World War I, the Ottoman Empire sided with the Central Powers. The Turkish goverment knew that with the world's attention in Europe for the war, fewer people would question their treatment of Armenians. The goverment stripped Armenians of all weapons, claiming that they might sympathize with Russian Christians and betray the Ottoman's alliance with the Central Powers. In 1914 all Armenians serving in the Turkish Army were disarmed and put into slave labor batallions. The Young Turks decided to exterminate the entire Armenian population and on April 24, 1915 300 Armenian leaders, educators, and citizens were jailed, tortured, and then killed. The violence spread so that soon Armenian men were executed in mass numbers. Following that, women, children, and the eldery were forced to pack and be 'relocated' but were instead taken on death marches. Dangerous routes were intnetionally taken, and when food ran out, it was never replaced. About 75% of the people in these marches perished. In May of 1918 Turkish troops attacked a large group of Armenians living within the boarders of Russia, the Armenians managed to acquire weapons and defended themselves from the invading Turks. When the war ended in 1918, the Young Turks' three prominent leaders fled to Germany an a new government was established, thus ending the majority of the violence towards Armenians.

The Armenian Genocide was, as any genocide, absolutely barbaric and inhumane. It is far beyond my understanding how anyone can kill two million people and justify it. What strikes me is that the government planned it, they knew that once the war broke out, less attention would be given to their treatment and slaughter of their Armenian people. It is absolutely horrifying in that no person was spared, and if you were not shot or hanged, you starved. The marches were unbelieveably cruel and bodies lay along roads, nameless. It is awful to know that two million innocent people lost their lives.

http://www.unitedhumanrights.org/genocide/armenian_genocide.htm