AMERICAN
HISTORY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
THE FIRST WORLD WAR AND THE POSTWAR
PERIOD
The First World War broke out in Europe
between Austria
and Germany
(the Central Powers) on one side, and England, France and Italy on the
other.
The American President was Woodrow Wilson. He
proclaimed American neutrality, although the United States was clearly in favour
of Britain,
France
and Italy,
for the sake tradition cultural ties.
American merchant ships were sunk by German summary.
But in 1917 the United
States declared war on the Central Powers. Wilson prepared a
document which was to be the basis of a nonurable peace for Germany. It
consist of fourteen points. Wilson's main "points"
were:
o
Open covenants between States;
o
Removal of all economic barriers between nations;
o
Reduction of national armaments;
o
An impartial adjustment of all colonial claims;
o
League of Nations:
formation of a general association for the purpose of affording mutual
guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small
states alike
The Peace Conference was held in Paris. The result was the Treaty of Versailles; the latter
was extremely punitive for Germany,
which was deprived of its colonies and to pay heavy indemnities. Wilson was obliged to
compromise on several of his "fourteen points" but his idea of a League of Nations was accepted. The League was founded to
promote cooperation among nations, and to achieve peace and security. The League of Nations was reject by the American senate.
At first the conservative policy of isolationism
seemed to give America
a prosperity never enjoyed before. But suddenly there was a dramatic collapse
on Wall Street. The causes of t he crash can easily be found:
o
The government's high protectionist tariffs had
reduced the foreign markets for American goods
o
There had been an excessive expansion of credit and
frantic speculation;
o
A persistent agricultural depression had made the
situation worse.
The country appealed to a magnetic Democratic leader, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who won the
election of 1932, and proved a courageous leader and a good politician.
Now the situation was much worse, but Roosevelt faced it with a courageous programme, which he
called the New Deal; it consisted
partly in measures for recovery and direct relief for the unemployed, partly in
courageous reforms:
o
An extensive programme of public works was begun, with
loans to stimulate business and fight unemployment;
o
Long-range reforms were made in agriculture and
industry;
o
A far-reaching programme was approved for the
conservation of natural resources;
o
The banks were reopened under stricter State
supervision, and guarantee for people's deposits;
o
Careful control was placed on the selling and buying
of securities.
THE SECOND WORLD WAR
The war broke out in 1939 when Hitler, the
German leader, incorporating Austria, Czechoslovakia
into the Reich, In 1939 German soldiers invaded Poland; on September 3,1939, Great Britain
and France
declared war on Germany.
Hitler's armies had conquered Poland,
Denmark,
Norway
then invaded Holland
and Belgium.
On May 28, 1940, France
succumbed, and Germans took Paris
in June. On June 10, Italy
entered the war against England.
The United State declared neutrality but Roosevelt struggled for the repeal of neutrality; at
first Congress approved a law which allowed the country to send arms and other
materials to the fighting democracies.
On August 14, 1940, Roosevelt and
Churchill met in mid-Atlantic, and drew up the Atlantic Charter, based on the kind of principles that had been
stated twenty years before in Wilson's
"Fourteen Points".
Hitler controlled all
western Europe, except neutral Spain,
Sweden,
Switzerland
and Ireland.
Wartime leadership was entrusted to General
Eisenhower in the West; and to General
MacArthur in the Far East. Italy collapsed
in September 1943, but the war was continued on Italian soil by the Germans and
by the few followers of Mussolini, who had founded a Fascist Republic in Northern Italy.
On August 1944 Paris
was liberated and the Russians regained Poland, Rumania, Yugoslavia and Hungary.
HITLER COMMITTED SUICIDE. Only Japan
resisted and ignored the ultimatum that the Allies had sent: surrender.
On August 6 an atomic
bomb was dropped on the industrial town of HIROSHIMA
and another three days later, on NAGASAKI. On September 2 1945 Japan
surrender.
A short time before
the end of the war Roosevelt had died, just a
few months before his death , Roosevelt had
met Stalin (Russian Marshal) and Churchill (British prime minister. They agreed
upon the policy to follow after the end of the war; they dealt with the
division of Germany
into two zones and the establishment of the United Nations Organization (UNO)
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