American history homework help
American history homework help. WEB-BASED COMPONENT ASSIGNMENT GROUP 2
Consult Course Syllabus or Course Calendar for Assignment Submission deadline in CANVAS.
Directions: Complete both of the following. Remember to prepare all
assignments in computer-generated form (10 or 12 point font).
Activity #1: Analyzing Historic Documents – Wilson’s 14 Points
Read “The Fourteen Points Speech” by President Woodrow Wilson as it appears here, then respond to
the prompt below in an essay of 2 – 3 five-sentence paragraphs.
Note: This is NOT a part of the original speech. This is background
information from the publisher of your textbook.
In early January 1918, while fighting was still raging in Europe, Wilson
laid out his specific plans for the postwar order. He did so in order to
reassure wary allies and opponents that the war would not simply
result in a division of spoils by the victors.
Gentlemen of the Congress: . . . It will be our wish and purpose that the
processes of peace, when they are begun, shall be absolutely open and
that they shall involve and permit henceforth no secret understandings of
any kind. The day of conquest and aggrandizement is gone by; so is also
the day of secret covenants entered into in the interest of particular
governments and likely at some unlooked-for moment to upset the peace
of the world. It is this happy fact, now clear to the view of every public
man whose thoughts do not still linger in an age that is dead and gone,
which makes it possible for every nation whose purposes are consistent
with justice and the peace of the world to avow now or at any other time
the objects it has in view.
Prompt to respond to: Based on your understanding of class discussion on WWI and
Information provided in Chapter 22 of your text, what were the underlying principles of
Wilson’s Fourteen Points speech? Were his aims and goals too ambitious so soon after
World War I? Why or Why not?
We entered this war because violations of right had occurred which
touched us to the quick and made the life of our own people impossible
unless they were corrected and the world secured once and for all against
their recurrence. What we demand in this war, therefore, is nothing
peculiar to ourselves. It is that the world be made fit and safe to live in;
and particularly that it be made safe for every peace-loving nation which,
like our own, wishes to live its own life, determine its own institutions, be
assured of justice and fair dealing by the other peoples of the world as
against force and selfish aggression. All the peoples of the world are in
effect partners in this interest, and for our own part we see very clearly
that unless justice be done to others it will not be done to us. The
program of the world’s peace, therefore, is our program; and that
program, the only possible program, as we see it, is this:
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.
II. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial
waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closed in
whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of
international covenants.
III. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the
establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations
consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance.
IV. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will be
reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety.
V. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all
colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that in
determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the
populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims
of the government whose title is to be determined.
VI. The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a settlement of all
questions affecting Russia as will secure the best and freest cooperation
of the other nations of the world in obtaining for her an unhampered and
unembarrassed opportunity for the independent determination of her
own political development and national policy and assure her of a sincere
welcome into the society of free nations under institutions of her own
choosing; and, more than a welcome, assistance also of every kind that
she may need and may herself desire. The treatment accorded Russia by
her sister nations in the months to come will be the acid test of their
good will, of their comprehension of her needs as distinguished from
their own interests, and of their intelligent and unselfish sympathy.
VII. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacuated and restored,
without any attempt to limit the sovereignty which she enjoys in common
with all other free nations. No other single act will serve as this will serve
to restore confidence among the nations in the laws which they have
themselves set and determined for the government of their relations with
one another. Without this healing act the whole structure and validity of
international law is forever impaired.
VIII. All French territory should be freed and the invaded portions
restored, and the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871 in the matter
of Alsace-Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the world for nearly
fifty years, should be righted, in order that peace may once more be
made secure in the interest of all.
IX. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along
clearly recognizable lines of nationality.
X. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we
wish to see safe-guarded and assured, should be accorded the freest
opportunity of autonomous development.
XI. Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacuated; occupied
territories restored; Serbia accorded free and secure access to the sea;
and the relations of the several Balkan states to one another determined
by friendly counsel along historically established lines of allegiance and
nationality; and international guarantees of the political and economic
independence and territorial integrity of the several Balkan states should
be entered into.
XII. The Turkish portions of the present Ottoman Empire should be
assured a secure sovereignty, but the other nationalities which are now
under Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted security of life and
an absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous development, and
the Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a free passage to the
ships and commerce of all nations under international guarantees.
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.
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.
In regard to these essential rectifications of wrong and assertions of right
we feel ourselves to be intimate partners of all the governments and
peoples associated together against the Imperialists. We cannot be
separated in interest or divided in purpose. We stand together until the
end.
For such arrangements and covenants we are willing to fight and to
continue to fight until they are achieved; but only because we wish the
right to prevail and desire a just and stable peace such as can be secured
only by removing the chief provocations to war, which this program does
not remove. We have no jealousy of German greatness, and there is
nothing in this program that impairs it. We grudge her no achievement or
distinction of learning or of pacific enterprise such as have made her
record very bright and very enviable. We do not wish to injure her or to
block in any way her legitimate influence or power. We do not wish to
fight her either with arms or with hostile arrangements of trade if she is
willing to associate herself with us and the other peace-loving nations of
the world in covenants of justice and law and fair dealing. We wish her
only to accept a place of equality among the peoples of the world,—the
new world in which we now live,—instead of a place of mastery.
Neither do we presume to suggest to her any alteration or modification of
her institutions. But it is necessary, we must frankly say, and necessary as
a preliminary to any intelligent dealings with her on our part, that we
should know whom her spokesmen speak for when they speak to us,
whether for the Reichstag majority or for the military party and the men
whose creed is imperial domination.
We have spoken now, surely, in terms too concrete to admit of any
further doubt or question. An evident principle runs through the whole
program I have outlined. It is the principle of justice to all peoples and
nationalities, and their right to live on equal terms of liberty and safety
with one another, whether they be strong or weak. Unless this principle
be made its foundation no part of the structure of international justice
can stand. The people of the United States could act upon no other
principle; and to the vindication of this principle they are ready to devote
their lives, their honor, and everything that they possess. The moral
climax of this the culminating and final war for human liberty has come,
and they are ready to put their own strength, their own highest purpose,
their own integrity and devotion to the test.
[From James D. Richardson, ed., “Address to Congress,” 8 January 1918, in A Compilation of the Messages and
Papers of the Presidents (New York: Bureau of National Literature, n.d.), 18:8421-26.]
Activity #2: Analyzing Historic Documents – “The Klan’s Fight For
Americanism”
Read “The Klan’s Fight for Americanism” as it appears here and respond to the prompt below in an
essay of 2 – 3 five sentence paragraphs.
NOTE: This is NOT a part of the original document, but publisher provided
background on the topic and the document you are reading.
The backlash against “alien” groups “infesting” American life
after World War I assumed its most virulent form in a revival of
the Ku Klux Klan. The organization had first emerged in the rural
South after the Civil War, seeking to intimidate blacks from
voting or holding office, and had pretty much died out by 1900.
The zealous patriotism fostered by American intervention in
World War I helped revive the Klan. In its new form it was more
of an urban than a rural phenomenon. It adopted a broader
agenda than the original organization, and its membership grew
across the nation. By 1926 it boasted over 3 million members.
Klan intolerance now went beyond blacks to include Jews,
Catholics, Communists, and labor unionists. Texas dentist Hiram
Prompt you are responding to: Using information presented in class lectures and
in chapters 23 & 24of your text, how does Evans‟ article reflect the attitudes of
some white Americans in the 1920s? What tone does Evans take in his work? Use
evidence from the readings to explain your conclusions.
Evans assumed leadership of the organization in 1926. In this
speech he reveals that the Klan was fundamentally a protest
against all of the ills associated with modern culture.
. . . The Klan, therefore, has now come to speak for the great mass of
Americans of the old pioneer stock. We believe that it does fairly and
faithfully represent them, and our proof lies in their support. To understand
the Klan, then, it is necessary to understand the character and present mind
of the mass of old-stock Americans. The mass, it must be remembered, as
distinguished from the intellectually mongrelized “Liberals.”
These are, in the first place, a blend of various peoples of the so-called
Nordic race, the race which, with all its faults, has given the world almost
the whole of modern civilization. The Klan does not try to represent any
people but these. . . .
These Nordic Americans for the last generation have found themselves
increasingly uncomfortable, and finally deeply distressed. There appeared
first confusion in thought and opinion, a groping and hesitancy about
national affairs and private life alike, in sharp contrast to the clear,
straightforward purposes of our earlier years. There was futility in religion,
too, which was in many ways even more distressing. Presently we began to
find that we were dealing with strange ideas; policies that always sounded
well but somehow always made us still more uncomfortable.
Finally came the moral breakdown that has been going on for two decades.
One by one all our traditional moral standards went by the boards or were
so disregarded that they ceased to be binding. The sacredness of our
Sabbath, of our homes, of chastity, and finally even of our right to teach our
own children in our own schools fundamental facts and truths were torn
away from us. Those who maintained the old standards did so only in the
face of constant ridicule. . . .
The old-stock Americans are learning, however. They have begun to arm
themselves for this new type of warfare. Most important, they have broken
away from the fetters of the false ideals and philanthropy which put aliens
ahead of their own children and their own race. . . .
One more point about the present attitude of the old-stock American: he has
revived and increased his long-standing distrust of the Roman Catholic
Church. It is for this that the native Americans, and the Klan as their leader,
are most often denounced as intolerant and prejudiced. . . .
The Ku Klux Klan, in short, is an organization which gives expression,
direction and purpose to the most vital instincts, hopes, and resentments of
the old-stock Americans, provides them with leadership, and is enlisting and
preparing them for militant, constructive action toward fulfilling their racial
and national destiny. . . . The Klan literally is once more the embattled
American farmer and artisan, coordinated into a disciplined and growing
army, and launched upon a definite crusade for Americanism! . . .
Thus the Klan goes back to the American racial instincts, and to the common
sense which is their first product, as the basis of its beliefs and methods. . . .
There are three of these great racial instincts, vital elements in both the
historic and the present attempts to build an America which shall fulfill the
aspirations and justify the heroism of the men who made the nation. These
are the instincts of loyalty to the white race, to the traditions of America,
and to the spirit of Protestantism, which has been an essential part of
Americanism ever since the days of Roanoke and Plymouth Rock. They are
condensed into the Klan slogan: “Native, white, Protestant supremacy.”
[From Hiram W. Evans, “The Klan’s Fight for Americanism,” North American Review 223 (March 1926):38
39.]
American history homework help