History

Directions:

The prompt is based on the accompanying documents. As you analyze the documents, take into account both the source of the document and the author’s point of view. Be sure to:

1. Carefully read the document based question(s).

2. Answer the questions that accompany the documents using information found in the documents.

3. Based on the information found in the documents, formulate a thesis that directly answers the essay prompt. Use the documents provided

5. Write a well-organized 3 paragraph essay proving your thesis. The essay should be logically presented and should include information from at least 4 documents.

This assignment is worth 55 Points. 25 points for answering the document questions in complete sentences. 30 Points for well organized 3 paragraph essay that proves your thesis, with at least 4 documents from this DBQ.

Essay Prompt:

Was the Treaty of Versailles a good settlement to ensure the peace and help Europe recover from the war? Use at least 4 documents to support your position.

Document 1:

Source: Selected points from Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points (Jan.,1918) 1) 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 3) The removal, so far possible, of all economic barriers.... 6) 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.

Questions:

1. How did President Wilson hope to support Russia?

2. Do you think Wilson’s ideas would help preserve the peace and make Europe a better place?

Document 2:

Source: Excerpt from speech by Woodrow Wilson to Congress on Feb. 11, 1919

“National aspirations must be respected; people may now be dominated and governed only by their own consent. "Self-determination" is not a mere phrase. It is an imperative principle of action, which statesmen will henceforth ignore at their peril. This war had its roots in the disregard of the rights of small nations and of nationalities which lacked the union and the force to make good their claim to determine their own allegiances and their own forms of political life. Covenants (Agreements) must now be entered into which will render such things impossible for the future; and those covenants must be backed by the united force of all nations that love justice and are willing to maintain it at any cost...”

Question:

3. How would this idea of Wilson’s benefit the minority populations (Slavs, Poles, Serbs, etc.) existing within European countries?

Document 3:

Source: John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of Peace, 1920

The Treaty includes no provision for the economic rehabilitation of Europe - nothing to make the defeated Central Powers into good neighbors, nothing to stabilize the new States of Europe, nothing to reclaim Russia; nor does it promote in any way a compact of economic solidarity amongst the Allies themselves; no arrangement was reached at Paris for restoring the disordered finances of France and Italy, or to adjust the systems of the Old World and the New.

Question:

4. What economic problems were not solved with the Versailles Treaty?

Document 4:

Questions:

5. Why do you think Clemenceau wants to punish Germany so much?

6. Do you think his arguments are valid?

7. Will Clemenceau’s ideas help ensure peace?

Document 5:

Questions:

8. How did Wilson’s goals differ from Clemenceau’s goals?

9. Would Wilson’s ideas help ensure peace?

Document 6:

Questions:

10. Lloyd George seems to contradict himself in sources C & D, what is this contradiction?

11. Can Great Britain expect both elements?

Document 7:

Questions:

12. What is happening in this political cartoon?

13. Who is being forced to swallow the “pill?”

14. Who is doing the forcing?

Document 8:

Question:

15. According to the 2 graphs above, which countries emerge from WWI in the best economic shape?

16. Which country is in the worst economic shape?

17. Why do you think this has happened to these countries?

Document 9:

German Couple carting their German Marks (money) in a whellbarrow.

Children playing with German Marks (money) as if it were building blocks.

Young Boys making kites out of German Marks (money).

Questions:

18. Why would people haul their money in wheelbarrows?

19. Why would people allow their children to play with the money?

20. How do these pictures support the data in the graphs above?

Document 10:

Treaty of Versailles (June 28, 1919)

Article 22. Certain communities formerly belonging to the Turkish Empire have reached a stage of development where their existence as independent nations can be recognized with the assistance of a Western power until such time as they are able to stand alone.

Article 51. The territories which were ceded to Germany on February 26, 1871 [Franco-Prussian War], and the Treaty of Frankfort of May 10, 1871, are restored to French sovereignty as from the date of the Armistice of November 11, 1918.

Article 119. Germany renounces in favor of the Principal Allied Powers all her rights and titles over her overseas possessions.

Article 159. The German military forces shall be demobilized and reduced as follows

Article 160. By a date which must not be later than March 31, 1920, the German Army must not comprise more than seven divisions of infantry and three divisions of cavalry.

The Army shall be devoted exclusively to the maintenance of order within the territory and to the control of the frontiers.

Article 231. Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied Governments have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies.

Questions:

21. Which of these articles support peace and recovery? How do they support peace and recovery in Europe?

22. Which of these articles do not support peace and recover? How do the articles not support peace and recovery in Europe?

Essay Prompt:

Was the Treaty of Versailles a good settlement to ensure the peace and help Europe recover from the war? Use at least 4 documents to support your position.

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