Source Collection: Internationalism
Introduction to this collection
Internationalism was a movement about global unity. It was particularly strong in the period after the First World War, although there were small groups of internationalists before the war, and internationalism still exists today. In the 1910s and 1920s, when internationalism was at its peak, the many internationalist movements were not united. From the Olympic games to calls for a global commonwealth to global communist workers’ movements, many people were talking about how the world would work—or could work—if we thought of all the world’s people as being united in a common cause. In these sources, people give their visions of what this could be and push for internationalism of many kinds—or criticize the international movements they find lacking.
Guiding question to think about as you read the documents: To what extent was internationalism successful in its goal of cooperation amongst nations to maintain peace in the first half of the twentieth century?
WHP Primary Source Punctuation Key
When you read through these primary source collections, you might notice some unusual punctuation like this: . . . and [ ] and ( ). Use the table below to help you understand what this punctuation means.
| Punctuation | What it means |
|---|---|
|
ELLIPSES words … words |
Something has been removed from the quoted sentences by an editor. |
|
BRACKETS [word] or word[s] |
Something has been added or changed by an editor. These edits are to clarify or help readers. |
|
PARENTHESES (words) |
The original author of the primary source wanted to clarify, add more detail, or make an additional comment in parentheses. |
Contents
Source 1 – First Solvay Conference, 1911 (1:20)
Source 2 – The Round Table Movement, 1914-1916 (3:00)
Source 3 – Towards International Government, 1915 (8:15)
Source 4 – Women at the Hague, 1916 (11:45)
Source 5 – Woodrow Wilson’s Speech on the Fourteen Points, 1918 (15:35)
Source 6 – Manifesto of the Communist International to the Workers of the World, 1919 (18:05)
Source 7 – A Gap in the Bridge, 1919 (22:45)
Source 8 – Covenant of the League of Nations, 1919 (24:05)
Source 9 – The Olympic Games, 1920 (27:55)
Source 10 – Haile Selassie’s 1936 speech to the League of Nations, 1936 (29:05)
|
Timestamps are in the source title. To locate a specific source in the audio file:
|
This document is also available as an audio file. Click Listen to audio button to access a reading of the article.
Source 1 – First Solvay Conference, 1911 (1:20)
|
Title Photograph of the First Solvay Conference Attendees |
Date and location 30 October to 3 November 1911, Brussels, Belgium |
|
Source type Photograph |
Author Benjamin Couprie |
|
Description In 1911, two dozen European and American scientists were invited to an exclusive scientific conference, the First Solvay Conference. This international group of scientists came together to discuss the topics of radiation and quanta and the problem of having two disparate approaches: classical physics and quantum theory. Though the war interrupted the conferences, they continued in times of peace. This is a key example of scientific internationalism, or collaboration on scientific projects that extended across nations. These networks continued to move and transform scientific knowledge even when no formal meetings were possible. However, it is notable that there were limits to how international these gatherings truly were, as most representatives were from Europe and almost all were men. |
|
Guiding question
To what extent was internationalism successful in its goal of cooperation amongst nations to maintain peace in the first half of the twentieth century?
Image
Citation
Couprie, Benjamin. “Photograph of participants of the first Solvay Conference”. Brussels, November 2, 1911.
Source 2 – The Round Table Movement, 1914-1916 (3:00)
|
Title Excerpts from Philip Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian’s Round Table essays |
Date and location Great Britain, 1914-1917 |
|
Source type Political essays |
Author Philip Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian |
|
Description Philip Kerr, an influential British statesman and later ambassador to the United States, was a defender of imperialism and also a proponent of internationalism. How could one be both, you ask? Well, Kerr argued for the creation of a world federation, or commonwealth, but he believed that “much of the world” was still “incapable of governing itself” and needed to be governed by empires. Below are excerpts from Kerr’s essays which appeared in the Round Table, a journal of the Round Table movement that sought to promote relationships between Great Britain and its current and former colonies. |
|
Guiding question
To what extent was internationalism successful in its goal of cooperation amongst nations to maintain peace in the first half of the twentieth century?
Excerpt
[The most awful fact] of the moment is that some 10,000,000 men are being deliberately killed or maimed a year The root of it was that the civilized nations were so selfishly absorbed in their own welfare that they felt little or no responsibility for the welfare of others. The German ... domination of a military autocracy, [is] the very incarnation of selfish nationalism. The Western powers have failed in a different way. Their selfish nationalism ... has taken the less evil but hardly less disastrous form of thinking only about their own peace and liberty and of [ignoring] any responsibility for maintaining right and justice in international affairs ... [T]hey refused to concern themselves seriously in times of peace with the problem of how the reign of law and liberty was to be ensured throughout the world, and they are now spending untold lives and treasure in re-establishing them by force of arms.. . .
The whole world has been dominated by a national bigotry, not unlike the religious bigotry which deluged the world in blood a few centuries ago. ... It has been the central dogma of this nationalism that it is the first duty of the national state to consider its own interests. ... Mankind has been conceived of not as a unity, but as a collection of states, separated by racial pride and intolerance, and striving endlessly for themselves. ... Such a society must end in war, and until the national intolerance which rules it is abandoned it will continue to produce war . . . the prospects of a permanent peace after the war depend upon a reversal of policy . . . the claims of humanity must override the interests of any race or nation. . . .
The cure for war is not to weaken the principle of the state, but to carry it to its logical conclusion, by the creation of a world state . . . [which] will create a responsible and representative political authority which will consider every problem presented to it from the point of view of humanity and not of a single state or people . . . a world state . . . is the necessary . . . condition to universal peace. Such a state must override all others. Indeed, it will be the only state. For no man can be a citizen of two states or obey two sets of law where they conflict. . . .
[T]here is the most serious difficulty of all—that of the backward peoples. Much of the world is still incapable of governing itself politically . . . incapable of maintaining those elements of order, justice, and personal liberty necessary to civilized life. . . .
[F]ar-fetched as the idea [of a world state] may seem, it has a practical example already in existence. The British Commonwealth is a perfect example of the eventual world commonwealth. It is one state in which one law is supreme. . . .
The situation in the international sphere . . . [is] like that of the Western States of America in the early days. There also each individual was a law unto himself. He was the judge of his own rights and duties, and had to depend for his safety and his rights upon his own private armaments . . . [this] led to constant private wars . . .only ended when the community established the reign of civilized law . . . It is exactly the same in the international sphere. So long as States behave like independent sovereign individuals, from time to time they will massacre one another in defence of what they believe to be their rights.
Citation
“The End of War.” The Round Table 5, no. 17–20 (December 1, 1914): 772–96.
“The Principle of Peace.” The Round Table 6, no. 23 (June 1, 1916): 391–429.
Source 3 – Towards International Government, 1915 (8:15)
|
Title Towards International Government |
Date and location 1915 |
|
Source type Political/economic manuscript |
Author J.A. Hobson |
|
Description The English economist J.A. Hobson went through many transformations in his political life, supporting liberal and socialist movements. His 1902 book Imperialism was incredibly influential on internationalist thinkers, including Vladimir Lenin, and he predicted growing international movements (although Hobson was not himself a communist or even a socialist). In this 1915 work, he argues for a strong international government, as he predicts the failures of weaker governing mechanisms. |
|
Guiding question
To what extent was internationalism successful in its goal of cooperation amongst nations to maintain peace in the first half of the twentieth century?
Excerpt
After this war is over, will the nations fall back again into the armed peace, the rival alliances, the Balance of Power with competing armaments, the preparations for another war thus made “inevitable,” or will they go forward to the realization . . . of a real European partnership, based on the recognition of equal rights and established and enforced by the common will? . . .
Could a conference of Powers bring about a reduction of armaments by agreement? Surely not unless the motives which have led them in the past to arm are reversed. These motives are either a desire to be stronger than some other Power, in order to take something from him by force—the aggressive motive; or a desire to be strong enough to prevent some other Power from acting in this way to us—the defensive motive. Now how can these motives be reversed? Nations may enter into a solemn undertaking to refer all differences or disputes that may arise to arbitration or to other peaceful settlement. . . . But what will ensure the fulfillment of their undertaking? . . . Public opinion and a common sense of justice are found inadequate safeguards. There must be an executive power enabled. . . .
But it is not safe for the League of Nations to wait until difficulties ripen into quarrels. There must be some wider power . . . vested in a representative Council of the Nations. This will in substance mean a legislative power. . . . So there emerges the necessity of extending the idea of a League of Government into that of an International Government. . . .
Many difficulties come up for consideration. What nations would enter into such an international arrangement, and upon what terms of representation? Should it be a European Confederation, or is a wider basis wanted? . . . The new era of internationalism requires the replacement of the secret diplomacy of Powers by the public intercourse of Peoples through their chosen representatives. ... Courage and faith are needed for a great new extension of the art of government.
Citation
Hobson, J. A. (John Atkinson). Towards International Government. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1915.
Source 4 – Women at the Hague, 1916 (11:45)
|
Title Women at the Hague |
Date and location 1916 |
|
Source type Personal account |
Author Jane Addams, Emily Greene Balch, and Alice Hamilton |
|
Description During the First World War over a thousand women came together for the International Congress of Women, a meeting of an international network of suffrage activists. They managed to meet despite very difficult travels, the dangers of the war, and being ridiculed for their persistence. The conference was held at The Hague, Netherlands. In addition to women’s suffrage, they discussed their commitment to international networks and peace-building. |
|
Guiding question
To what extent was internationalism successful in its goal of cooperation amongst nations to maintain peace in the first half of the twentieth century?
Excerpt
In this world upheaval, the links that bind the peoples have been strained and snapped on every side. Of all the international gatherings that help to draw the nations together, since the fatal days of July, 1914, practically none have been convened. . . .
The women, fifteen hundred of them and more, have come together and for four days conferred, not on remote and abstract questions, but on the vital subject of international relations. English and Scotch, German, Austrian, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Belgian, Dutch, American, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish all were represented. The French, alas, have not been able to be with us. . . .
The largest hall in the Hague was needed for the meetings. . .and difficult as it is to conduct business with so many. . . languages . . . and divergent views . . . [the officials] carried on orderly and effective sessions, marked by the most active will for unity that I have ever felt in an assemblage. . . .
The programme and rules of order agreed on from the first shut out all discussions of relative national responsibility for the present war or the conduct of it or of methods of conducing future wars. We met on the common ground beyond—the ground of preparation for permanent peace. . . .
[The] women who came to the Congress in the face of such difficulties must have been impelled by some profound and spiritual forces. During a year when the spirit of internationalism had apparently broken down, they came together to declare the validity of internationalism which surrounds and completes national life, even as national life itself surrounds and completes family life; to insist that internationalism does not conflict with patriotism on one side any more than family devotion conflicts with it upon the other.
In the shadow of the intolerable knowledge of what war means, revealed so minutely during the previous months, these women also made a solemn protest against that which they knew. The protest may have been feeble, but the world progresses, in the slow and halting manner in which it does progress, only in proportion to the moral energy exerted by the men and women living in it. . . .
The delegates to the Congress were not without a sense of complicity in the war, and so aware of the bloodshed and desolation surrounding them that their deliberations at moments took on the solemn tone of those who talk around the bedside of the dying.
Citation
Addams, Jane, Emily G. Balch, and Alice Hamilton. Women at the Hague: The International Congress of Women and its Results. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1915.
Source 5 – Woodrow Wilson’s Speech on the Fourteen Points, 1918 (15:35)
|
Title Speech on the Fourteen Points |
Date and location January 8, 1918, USA |
|
Source type Political speech |
Author Woodrow Wilson |
|
Description American President Woodrow Wilson was an internationalist. The Fourteen Points was his statement of principles for peace which were meant to inform negotiations to end World War I. Here are six of the most significant of those points. |
|
Guiding question
To what extent was internationalism successful in its goal of cooperation amongst nations to maintain peace in the first half of the twentieth century?
Excerpt
I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understanding 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. . . .
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. . . .
Citation
From Woodrow Wilson, “Speech on the Fourteen Points,” Congressional Record, 65th Congress 2nd Session, 1918, pp. 680¬681. https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1918wilson.asp
Source 6 – Manifesto of the Communist International to the Workers of the World, 1919 (18:05)
|
Title Manifesto of the Communist International to the Workers of the World |
Date and location March 6, 1919, Moscow |
|
Source type Political primary source |
Author Leon Trotsky |
|
Description In the 1910s, most communists were internationalists, as they envisioned conflict between socio-economic classes rather than conflict between states as the main struggle of human history. There was an official organization of communist internationalism, the Communist International. This manifesto was adopted unanimously at the last (fifth) session of the First World Congress of the International on March 6, 1919. It was published in the first issue of Communist International journal in Russian, German, French and English. |
|
Guiding question
To what extent was internationalism successful in its goal of cooperation amongst nations to maintain peace in the first half of the twentieth century?
Excerpt
The state-ization of economic life, against which capitalist liberalism1 used to protest so much, has become an accomplished fact. Today the one and only issue is: Who shall henceforth be the bearer of state-ized production – the imperialist state or the state of the victorious proletariat?2
In other words: Is all toiling mankind to become the bond slaves of victorious world cliques who, under the firm-name of the League of Nations and aided by an “international” army and “international” navy, will here plunder and strangle some peoples and there cast crumbs to others, while everywhere and always shackling the proletariat – with the sole object of maintaining their own rule? Or shall the working class of Europe and of the advanced countries in other parts of the world take in hand the disrupted and ruined economy in order to assure its regeneration upon socialist principles?. . .
The national state which gave a mighty impulsion to capitalist development has become too narrow for the further development of productive forces. . . .
The small peoples3 can be assured the opportunity of free existence only by the proletarian revolution which will free the productive forces of all countries from the tentacles of the national states, unifying the peoples in closest economic collaboration on the basis of a common economic plan . . . [without disrupting] the unified and centralized European and world economy. . . .
The workers and peasants not only of Annam, Algiers, and Bengal, but also of Persia and Armenia, will gain their opportunity of independent existence only in that hour when the workers of England and France . . . have taken state power into their own hands. Colonial slaves of Africa and Asia! The hour of proletarian dictatorship in Europe will strike for you as the hour of your own emancipation! . . .
Workers of the World – in the struggle against imperialist barbarism, against monarchy, against the privileged estates, against the bourgeois state and bourgeois property, against all kinds and forms of class or national oppression– Unite!
Under the banner of Workers’ Soviets, under the banner of revolutionary struggle for power and the dictatorship of the proletariat, under the banner of the Third International – Workers of the World Unite!
Citation
Trotsky, Leon. “Manifesto of the Communist International to the Workers of the World.” Communist International, 1919.
1 Capitalist liberalism calls for free markets and economic activity with few regulations; it is against economies being limited to or controlled by individual states.
2 the working class, especially those that lack wealth and must sell their labor in order to survive.
3 This is referring to small states, former colonies, and state-less communities
Source 7 – A Gap in the Bridge, 1919 (22:45)
|
Title A Gap in the Bridge |
Date and location December 10, 1919, Great Britain |
|
Source type Political cartoon |
Author Leonard Raven-Hill |
|
Description This satirical political cartoon from Punch Magazine was published after America rejected the Treaty of Versailles. It depicts a bridge that would allow the League of Nations to come into being, and shows that President Woodrow Wilson was its main architect. However, there is a gap in the bridge. |
|
Guiding question
To what extent was internationalism successful in its goal of cooperation amongst nations to maintain peace in the first half of the twentieth century?
Image
Citation
Raven-Hill, Leonard. “The Gap in the Bridge.” Punch Magazine, December 10, 1919.
Source 8 – Covenant of the League of Nations, 1919 (24:05)
|
Title Covenant of the League of Nations |
Date and location 28 June, 1919 (became effective 10 January 1920) |
|
Source type Official Document |
Author An international commission that included representatives from the governments of the United States, Great Britain (and the British dominion of South Africa), France, Japan, Italy, Belgium, Brazil, China, Portugal, Serbia, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Poland, and Romania |
|
Description This document officially brought the League of Nations into being. It laid out the role of the League and the obligations of members of the League of Nations towards each other. In particular, it was a “contract” in which each nation-state undertook to protect other members of the League against aggression and to try to mediate disputes rather than allow them to turn into war. |
|
Guiding question
To what extent was internationalism successful in its goal of cooperation amongst nations to maintain peace in the first half of the twentieth century?
Excerpt
THE HIGH CONTRACTING PARTIES,
In order to promote international co-operation and to achieve international peace and security by
the acceptance of obligations not to resort to war,
by the prescription of open, just and honourable relations between nations,
by the firm establishment of the understandings of international law as the actual rule of conduct among Governments, and
by the maintenance of justice and a scrupulous respect for all treaty obligations in the dealings of organised peoples with one another,
Agree to this Covenant of the League of Nations.
ARTICLE 10.
The Members of the League undertake to respect and preserve as against external aggression the territorial integrity and existing political independence of all Members of the League. In case of any such aggression or in case of any threat or danger of such aggression the Council shall advise upon the means by which this obligation shall be fulfilled.
ARTICLE 11.
Any war or threat of war, whether immediately affecting any of the Members of the League or not, is hereby declared a matter of concern to the whole League, and the League shall take any action that may be deemed wise and effectual to safeguard the peace of nations. . . .
ARTICLE 12.
The Members of the League agree that, if there should arise between them any dispute likely to lead to a rupture they will submit the matter either to arbitration or judicial settlement or to enquiry by the Council, and they agree in no case to resort to war until three months after the award by the arbitrators or the judicial decision, or the report by the Council. . . .
ARTICLE 16.
Should any Member of the League resort to war in disregard of its covenants under Articles 12, 13 or 15, it shall . . . be deemed to have committed an act of war against all other Members of the League, which hereby undertake immediately to subject it to the severance of all trade or financial relations, the prohibition of all intercourse between their nationals and the nationals of the covenant-breaking State, and the prevention of all financial, commercial or personal intercourse between the nationals of the covenant-breaking State and the nationals of any other State, whether a Member of the League or not. . .
Citation
“The Covenant of the League of Nations, 1919.”
Source 9 – The Olympic Games, 1920 (27:55)
|
Title 1920 Olympics poster |
Date and location 1920. Antwerp, Belgium |
|
Source type Poster (sports) |
Author Martha van Kuyck and Walter van der Ven |
|
Description Printed in 17 languages, this poster celebrates the Olympic games and their international character, depicting a long, continuous, interwoven flag made up of the flags of the competing nations. It also shows the coat of arms of Antwerp, and a classical Greek nude discus thrower, all displayed in front of a view of the city and its most famous landmark, the Tower of Notre Dame. |
|
Guiding question
To what extent was internationalism successful in its goal of cooperation amongst nations to maintain peace in the first half of the twentieth century?
Image
Citation
van Kuyck, Martha and Walter von der Ven. “Olympiade, Antwerp, 1920.”
Source 10 – Haile Selassie’s 1936 speech to the League of Nations, 1936 (29:05)
|
Title Haile Selassie’s 1936 speech to the League of Nations |
Date and location June 30, 1936, Geneva, Switzerland |
|
Source type Speech |
Author Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia |
|
Description In this excerpt, the Emperor of Ethiopia appeals to the League of Nations in the midst of the Abyssinia Crisis, a period of aggression by the Kingdom of Italy. Though the League of Nations ruled against Italy and voted for economic sanctions, they were never fully implemented. Italy ignored the sanctions, left the League, made secret deals with Britain and France, and occupied Ethiopia after a prolonged conflict. The original text was in Amharic. |
|
Guiding question
To what extent was internationalism successful in its goal of cooperation amongst nations to maintain peace in the first half of the twentieth century?
Excerpt
I, Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia, am here today to claim that justice which is due to my people, and the assistance promised to it eight months ago, when fifty nations asserted that aggression had been committed in violation of international treaties.
…
Also, there has never before been an example of any Government proceeding to the systematic extermination of a nation by barbarous means, in violation of the most solemn promises made by the nations of the earth that there should not be used against innocent human beings the terrible poison of harmful gases. It is to defend a people struggling for its age-old independence that the head of the Ethiopian Empire has come to Geneva to fulfil this supreme duty, after having himself fought at the head of his armies. …
It is not only upon warriors that the Italian Government has made war. It has above all attacked populations far removed from hostilities, in order to terrorize and exterminate them. … The deadly rain that fell from the aircraft made all those whom it touched fly shrieking with pain. All those who drank the poisoned water or ate the infected food also succumbed in dreadful suffering. In tens of thousands, the victims of the Italian mustard gas fell. It is in order to denounce to the civilized world the tortures inflicted upon the Ethiopian people that I resolved to come to Geneva. … The appeals of my delegates addressed to the League of Nations had remained without any answer …
I did not hesitate to declare that I did not wish for war, that it was imposed upon me, and I should struggle solely for the independence and integrity of my people, and that in that struggle I was the defender of the cause of all small States exposed to the greed of a powerful neighbour. … Despite the inferiority of my weapons, the complete lack of aircraft, artillery, munitions, hospital services, my confidence in the League was absolute. I thought it to be impossible that fifty-two nations, including the most powerful in the world, should be successfully opposed by a single aggressor. …
It is collective security: it is the very existence of the League of Nations. It is the confidence that each State is to place in international treaties. It is the value of promises made to small States that their integrity and their independence shall be respected and ensured. It is the principle of the equality of States on the one hand, or otherwise the obligation laid upon small Powers to accept the bonds of vassalship. In a word, it is international morality that is at stake. …
Citation
Selassie, Haile. “Appeal to the League of Nations, June 1936.” https://www.loc.gov/item/2021667904/
Notes or additional materials
It may be productive to show this video before or after students read this source. It’s a clip of a 1936 newsreel including footage from the actual speech.
Eman M. Elshaikh
Eman M. Elshaikh is a writer, researcher, and teacher who has taught K-12 and undergraduates in the United States and in the Middle East and written for many different audiences. She teaches writing at the University of Chicago, where she also completed her master’s in social sciences and is currently pursuing her PhD. She was previously a World History Fellow at Khan Academy, where she worked closely with the College Board to develop curriculum for AP World History.
Image credits
This work is licensed under CC BY 4.0 except for the following:
Cover image: British Prime Minister David Lloyd George (1863 - 1945, left), French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau (1841 - 1929, centre) and American President Woodrow Wilson (1856 - 1924, right) on their way to the Versailles Peace Conference. © Hulton Archive/Getty Images.
First Solvay Conference, 1911 Seated (L-R): Walther Nernst, Marcel Brillouin, Ernest Solvay (he wasn’t present when the above group photo was taken; his portrait was crudely pasted on before the picture was released), Hendrik Lorentz, Emil Warburg, Jean Baptiste Perrin, Wilhelm Wien, Marie Skłodowska-Curie, and Henri Poincaré. Standing (L-R): Robert Goldschmidt, Max Planck, Heinrich Rubens, Arnold Sommerfeld, Frederick Lindemann, Maurice de Broglie, Martin Knudsen, Friedrich Hasenöhrl, Georges Hostelet, Edouard Herzen, James Hopwood Jeans, Ernest Rutherford, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Albert Einstein, and Paul Langevin. Public domain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solvay_Conference#/media/File:1911_Solvay_conference.jpg
Women at the Hague, 1916 Addams, Jane, Emily Greene Balch, and Alice Hamilton. Women At the Hague: The International Congress of Women and Its Results. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1916. Public domain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_at_the_Hague#/media/File:International_Congress_of_Women1915_(22785230005).jpg
A Gap in the Bridge, 1919 The Gap in the Bridge. Cartoon about the absence of the USA from the League of Nations, depicted as the missing keystone of the arch. The cigar also symbolizes America (Uncle sam) enjoying its wealth. Public domain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Gap_in_the_Bridge.png
The Olympic Games, 1920 Poster of the “Antwerpen Games” held in Belgium. Public domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1920_olympics_poster.jpg#/media/File:1920_olympics_antwerpen_poster.jpg
Articles leveled by Newsela have been adjusted along several dimensions of text complexity including sentence structure, vocabulary and organization. The number followed by L indicates the Lexile measure of the article. For more information on Lexile measures and how they correspond to grade levels: www.lexile.com/educators/understanding-lexile-measures/
To learn more about Newsela, visit www.newsela.com/about.
The Lexile® Framework for Reading evaluates reading ability and text complexity on the same developmental scale. Unlike other measurement systems, the Lexile Framework determines reading ability based on actual assessments, rather than generalized age or grade levels. Recognized as the standard for matching readers with texts, tens of millions of students worldwide receive a Lexile measure that helps them find targeted readings from the more than 100 million articles, books and websites that have been measured. Lexile measures connect learners of all ages with resources at the right level of challenge and monitors their progress toward state and national proficiency standards. More information about the Lexile® Framework can be found at www.Lexile.com.