The Treaty of Versailles (Ended WW I)

After the first world war, the Triple Entente was held victorious. In Versailles, The Big Four, (representivives of United states, France, Great Britian, and Italy) met to discuss a peace treaty. Since Germany was one of the most powerful countrys and they did the most damage in the war, the blame of the whole war was placed on Germany. The treaty said that Germany had to give up 10% of there land. They also had to pay reperations over a few years, totaling up to billions of dollers. Also, because germany had such a big army, they were now limited in the millitary and navy. Also concerning land, they took Alsasa Lorraine and gave it to France, and after four years it could decide if it wanted to go back to Germany or stay with France. All in all, Germany was blamed for the whole war and was held responsible for all the damage and pain and loss, and was punished.

Lots of historians say that the Treaty of Versailles led to Fascism and the rise of Adolph Hitler. I agree with the historians 100% because WWI was a world war, it was not just Germay fighting the world. Remember, Austria-Hungary and Serbia started this war originally, and they were the ones who even called Germany in to fight, and then France joined the Serbians and eventually every country in Europe, and the United States got dragged in. But the beginning of the war was not on Germanys shoulders. Yes Germany was very powerful and had a great impact, but it was not the only ones fighting. If Germany was getting punished, then every country should have been getting punished just as hard as the Germans. And i do belive that its because the treaty was so unfair in punishing the Germans, that they did let Hitler and Fascism rise to power. They felt that they were treated unfairly and the got angry and WWII began. If the Big Four and the Treaty of Versailles were just fair and gave every country equal punishment, i dont belive WWII would have even started.

Mustaf Kemal (Ataturk) and the Modernization of Turkey

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was the founder of the turkish republic and its first president. He used a theory of kemalism to modernize turkey. He used various things known as the 6 arrows to do so.
One of them was republicanism. The Kemalist reforms was known as a political revolution. They wanted a change from the ottoman empire, and wanted to be individually reconized as their own country. They dident want to be known as only a part of the empire but its own republic. Ataturk believed that it is only the republican regime which can really respect and honer its people and did what it needed.

Another thing he used was populism. The [kemal] revolution was also a social revolution. This part of the revolution was lead by people who really cared about the people insted of just the rich people or the goverment. This lead way to womens civil rights and evenully the swiss civil code. this gave women the right to vote in 1934. ataturk also stated that the true rulers of turkey were the peasants. the principle of populism it was stated that Kemalism was against class privileges and class distinctions and it recognized no individual, no family, no class and no organization as being above others.

anoter important thing that he used was secularism. this was when he wanted to seperate religion from education, cultural and legal affairs. the reson for this was that he wanted everyone in turkey to make up there own minds about religion and how were they to do that if religion was a part of everything and anytrhing they. it would eventully lead to dicrimination and thats not what he was trying to accomplish. he just wanted them to be free to do whatever they felt and belived.

he did alot for turkey, including outlawed some hats, made them were suits and ties, making them look less islamic and more modernized like the europeans. this eventully lead to a independant modernized turkey.

Film Lesson: Gandhi

Gandhi was a peaceful political leader who lead his country to independance. He belived in non violence, and used civil disobedience in order to show great britian that the people of the indian nation would not tolerate the injustice that was being served to them. he belived that if they did not use violence, it would be more effective then fighting fire with fire. he had a famous quote. "an eye for a eye only makes the whole world blind."
One of the things he did, and did often, was protests and marches. One of the most famous marches was the salt march in 1930. Britian controled the salt trade in india, and the people of india were only aloud to buy salt from the british. since it was so hot in india, salt was a crucial part of there diet. so insted of buying salt from the british, Gandhi marched to the sea, along with millions of protesters, and made his own salt in a protest the british.
Another protest he did was not buy british cloth. Gandhi influenced the people of india to make there own clothes. that also took alot of power and money from the british. this and the salt march together made britian realize that india was to much trouble and was a waste of money to have and in 1947, two years after world war 1 ended, India finally became its own country. Gandhi, wanted india to become one, the Hindus and the Muslems but it did not work out that way. but all in all, because of Gandhi's efforts India became its own country.


EXTRA CREDIT: Do you think India's Independence was all about Gandhi? Or do you think it would have happened anyway? What was happening in Great Britain about the time of Indian Independence (1947) that may have influenced events?