Source Collection: Unresolved Tensions
Introduction to this collection
This collection explores the political mood and actions following the Great War, which would unfortunately soon be known as the First World War, due to the lingering tensions among nations when that conflict concluded.
Guiding question to think about as you read the documents: How did economic factors and changes to imperial power lead to World War II?
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.
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ELLIPSES words … words |
Something has been removed from the quoted sentences by an editor. |
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BRACKETS [word] or word[s] |
Something has been added or changed by an editor. These edits are to clarify or help readers. |
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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 – The Treaty of Versailles, 1919 (0:40)
Source 2 – Hammond’s map of Europe, 1920 (5:15)
Source 3 – A Year After the Armistice, 1919 (6:15)
Source 4 – Coal requisitioning in the Ruhr, 1923 (11:00)
Source 5 – Paying for a Dead Horse, 1929 (12:05)
Source 6 – Haile Selassie’s speech to the League of Nations, 1936 (13:05)
Source 7 – Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, 1942 (17:25)
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Timestamps are in the source title. To locate a specific source in the audio file:
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Source 1 – The Treaty of Versailles, 1919 (0:40)
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Title The Treaty of Versailles |
Date and location 1919, Paris |
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Source type Primary source – treaty |
Author Multiple state signatories |
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Description A treaty is essentially a contract between two or more nations; an agreement that is made as official as possible through documentation. The Treaty of Versailles is one of the most important international treaties in modern history. It concerned France, Germany, Britain, Austria-Hungary, Japan, and the United States after World War I. Though it is described as a peace treaty, it wasn’t good news for everyone. Part of the Treaty of Versailles established the League of Nations, an organization meant to help prevent international conflicts. It was negotiated at the Paris Peace Conference. |
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Key vocabulary sovereignty mandate provisionally traffic sparseness renounces |
repatriation securities mandatories tutelage diminutions |
Guiding question
How did economic factors and changes to imperial power lead to World War II?
Excerpt
ARTICLE 22.
To those colonies and territories which as a consequence of the late war have ceased to be under the sovereignty of the States which formerly governed them and which are inhabited by peoples not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world, there should be applied the principle that the well-being and development of such peoples form a sacred trust of civilization and that securities for the performance of this trust should be embodied in this Covenant.
The best method of giving practical effect to this principle is that the tutelage of such peoples should be entrusted to advanced nations who by reason of their resources, their experience or their geographical position can best undertake this responsibility, and who are willing to accept it, and that this tutelage should be exercised by them as Mandatories on behalf of the League.
The character of the mandate must differ according to the stage of the development of the people, the geographical situation of the territory, its economic conditions and other similar circumstances.
Certain communities formerly belonging to the Turkish Empire have reached a stage of development where their existence as independent nations can be provisionally recognized subject to the rendering of administrative advice and assistance by a Mandatory until such time as they are able to stand alone. The wishes of these communities must be a principal consideration in the selection of the Mandatory.
Other peoples, especially those of Central Africa, are at such a stage that the Mandatory must be responsible for the administration of the territory under conditions which will guarantee freedom of conscience and religion, subject only to … and will also secure equal opportunities for the trade and commerce of other Members of the League.
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ARTICLE 119.
Germany renounces in favor of the Principal Allied and Associated Powers all her rights and titles over her oversea possessions. …
ARTICLE 231.
The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies.
ARTICLE: 232.
The Allied and Associated Governments recognize that the resources of Germany are not adequate, … to make complete reparation for all such loss and damage. The Allied and Associated Governments, however, require, and Germany undertakes, that she will make compensation for all damage done to the civilian population of the Allied and Associated Powers and to their property during the period of the belligerency …
Citation
Treaty of Versailles, June 28, 1919. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/versailles_menu.asp
Source 2 – Hammond’s map of Europe, 1920 (5:15)
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Title Hammond’s enlarged map of Europe of to-day showing boundaries of the new states as determined by the peace conference |
Date and location 1920, United States |
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Source type Primary source – map |
Author Caleb Stillson Hammond (1862–1929) |
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Description The Treaty of Versailles aimed to redraw national boundaries. This map shows some of the proposed changes in red. It shows how former empires were to be reorganized into nation-states. |
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Guiding question
How did economic factors and changes to imperial power lead to World War II?
Excerpt
Citation
C.S. Hammond & Company, “Europe showing the proposed new states,” Digital Public Library of America, public domain, https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/treaty-of-versailles-and-the-end-of-world-war-i/sources/1894
Notes or additional materials
Students can go to https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/treaty-of-versailles-and-the-end-of-world-war-i/sources/1894 to zoom in on the map and explore it.
Source 3 – A Year After the Armistice, 1919 (6:15)
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Title A Year After the Armistice—The Unsettled Disputes |
Date and location 1919, New York, USA |
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Source type Primary source – newspaper article |
Author Frank H. Simonds (1878–1936) |
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Description This article was written on the anniversary of the end of the war. It spells out many of the existing tensions and ongoing conflicts. |
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Key vocabulary assail zeal recrimination |
wholesale armistice |
Guiding question
How did economic factors and changes to imperial power lead to World War II?
Excerpt
At the end of a year of so-called peace, war is still going forward in many portions of Europe, new disputes have arisen in place of the old issues of a year ago, and, technically at least the condition of peace between Germany and the United States has not been restored. …
Domestic Unrest Grow
Out of this situation has grown domestic unrest in every nation which fought. If the Germans assail their own leaders for having consented to fatal terms in the Peace of Versailles, the French, the British and the Italian people, and, for that matter, the American people, assail their representatives for failure to dispose of [overcome] the issues raised by the war in such fashion that peace or even approximate peace would be assured. A multitude of rivalries has broken out between newly liberated peoples, between the recent allies and between the great powers and smaller races. …
Russia Still Is Battleground
Each newspaper brings fresh reports of the fighting on at least three fronts in Russia. Italian and Jugo-Slav troops face each other in an armed truce on the Adriatic … and Serb and Rumanian troops are mobilized against each other …
Few Issues Really Settled
… The immediate menace of German world supremacy has been temporarily abolished, but unfortunately there are still lacking the most tenuous evidences that German defeat has been followed any change in German purpose. What the German means to do when he gets on his feet again, what spirit he will display, whether he will turn from his old gods or continue to worship them with new zeal, is a matter of prophecy only.
Where the Fighting Still Goes On
The first anniversary of the armistice sees fighting still going on in at least a dozen places in Europe and the Near East. The above map shows these twelve storm centers as follows:
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2. South of Petrograd the alleged anti-German forces of General Yudenitch are in contact with the “red” armies.
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9. Hungary, what with the Rumanian occupation and the White Terror, with its pogroms and wholesale executions, is very much in the state of war.
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11. In Albania promiscuous fighting is going on, with Italians, French, Greeks, Serbians and Albanians participating.
12. In Asia Minor the Turkish nationalist forces of [Mustafa] Kemal Pasha are defying the Allies.
And this uncertainty has paralyzed settlement, real settlement. …
It may be that a league of nations was always impossible; was totally impossible in the circumstances existing after the German defeat, but there has never been any alternative offered, and those who most bitterly perceive the limitations of the President’s scheme still profess to see in it the single present hope of escape from the vicious circle of conflict-breeding wars and settlements.
Wherefore1 it is plain that the coming of the first anniversary of the armistice will be a signal for much bitterness and not a little recrimination.
Citation
Simonds, Frank H. “A Year After the Armistice—The Unsettled Disputes.” New York Tribune, November 9, 1919.
1 Wherefore is an archaic word that can mean therefore, as it does in this context. When part of a question, it can also mean why.
Source 4 – Coal requisitioning in the Ruhr, 1923 (11:00)
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Title Untitled photograph |
Date and location 1923, Germany |
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Source type Primary source – photograph |
Author Unknown photographer |
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Description This image was taken in the Ruhr region in Germany. It shows coal being prepared for transport as part of a World War I reparations program. In 1923, this region was occupied by French forces. Reparations included coal which needed to be taken to Belgium, France, Italy, and Luxembourg each year for a decade. |
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Key vocabulary reparations |
requisitioning |
Guiding question
How did economic factors and changes to imperial power lead to World War II?
Excerpt
Citation
“Germany, 1923, French occupation of the Ruhr region, at the cokeworks of Westerholt. First coal requisitioning by way of World War I reparations, carried out by fifty French, Italian and Polish workers, under protection of the French troops.” (Photo by Photo12/UIG/ Getty Images).
Source 5 – Paying for a Dead Horse, 1929 (12:05)
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Title Paying for a Dead Horse |
Date and location 1929, United States |
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Source type Primary source – political cartoon |
Author Charles Raymond “C. R.” Macauley (1871–1934) |
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Description C.R. Macauley won the Pulitzer for this cartoon published in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. It makes a comment about the reparations that losing countries were responsible for paying after World War I. These reparations were spelled out in the Treaty of Versailles at the end of the First World War. |
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Guiding question
How did economic factors and changes to imperial power lead to World War II?
Excerpt
Citation
Macauley, Charles R. “Paying for a Dead Horse.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 23, 1929.
Source 6 – Haile Selassie’s speech to the League of Nations, 1936 (13:05)
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Title Haile Selassie’s 1936 speech to the League of Nations |
Date and location 1936, Geneva, Switzerland |
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Source type Primary source – political speech |
Author Haile Selassie I (1892–1975), Emperor of Ethiopia |
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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. Selassie’s original text was in Amharic. |
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Key vocabulary succumbed |
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Guiding question
How did economic factors and changes to imperial power lead to World War II?
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.
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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.2 In a word, it is international morality that is at stake. …
Citation
Selassie, Haile. “Appeal to the League of Nations, June 1936.” https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/selassie.htm
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.
2 Vassalship: archaic word referring the feudal system where vassals control land and the people working and living on it; similar to slavery.
Source 7 – Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, 1942 (17:25)
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Title Draft of Basic Plan for Establishment of Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere |
Date and location 1942, Japan |
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Source type Primary source – government document |
Author Japanese government official |
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Description This is a Japanese secret government document from 1942. It was part of a government department that researched and prepared for total war. In this document, we can see short- and long-term Japanese imperial ambitions. |
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Key vocabulary manifestation yoke autonomous nucleus |
Asiatic prosecuted Sino-Japanese |
Guiding question
How did economic factors and changes to imperial power lead to World War II?
Excerpt
PART I. OUTLINE OF CONSTRUCTION
… The Plan. The Japanese empire is a manifestation of morality and its special characteristic is the propagation of the Imperial Way. … [It is] necessary to foster the increased power of the empire, to cause East Asia to return to its original form of independence and co-prosperity by shaking off the yoke of Europe and America, and to let its countries and peoples develop their respective abilities in peaceful cooperation and secure livelihood.
The Form of East Asiatic Independence and Co-Prosperity.
The states, their citizens, and resources, comprised in those areas pertaining to the Pacific, Central Asia, and the Indian Oceans formed into one general union are to be established as an autonomous zone of peaceful living and common prosperity on behalf of the peoples of the nations of East Asia. The area including Japan, Manchuria, North China, lower Yangtze River, and the Russian Maritime Province, forms the nucleus of the East Asiatic Union.
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Regional Division in the East Asiatic Union and the National Defense Sphere for the Japanese Empire.
In the Union of East Asia, the Japanese Empire is at once the stabilizing power and the leading influence. To enable the empire actually to become the central influence in East Asia, the first necessity is the consolidation of the inner belt of East Asia; and the East Asiatic Sphere shall be divided as follows for this purpose:
The Inner Sphere — the vital sphere for the empire-includes Japan, Manchuria, North China, the lower Yangtze Area and the Russian Maritime area.
The Smaller Co-Prosperity Sphere — the smaller self-supplying sphere of East Asia-includes the inner sphere plus Eastern Siberia, China, Indo-China and the South Seas.
The Greater Co-Prosperity Sphere — the larger self-supplying sphere of East Asia-includes the smaller co- prosperity sphere, plus Australia, India, and island groups in the Pacific …
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Outline of East Asiatic Administration.
It is intended that the unification of Japan, Manchoukuo, and China in neighborly friendship be realized by the settlement of the Sino-Japanese problems through the crushing of hostile influences in the Chinese interior, and through the construction of a new China in tune with the rapid construction of the Inner Sphere. Aggressive American and British influences in East Asia shall be driven out of the area of Indo-China and the South Seas, and this area shall be brought into our defense sphere. The war with Britain and America shall be prosecuted for that purpose.
The Russian aggressive influence in East Asia will be driven out. Eastern Siberia shall be cut off from the Soviet regime and included in our defense sphere. For this purpose, a war with the Soviets is expected. …
Citation
Tsunoda, Ryūsaku. Sources of Japanese Tradition. New York: Columbia University Press, 1958.
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: Haile Selassie, whose African kingdom became colonial possession of the new Italian empire, is shown with a few of his remaining followers, leaving the League of Nations chamber after the League Council by a vote of 11 to 3, acknowledged the passing of Ethiopia as an independent monarchy. The Negus holds a copy of the speech he delivered in a futile effort to swerve the delegates from the action which made him an Emperor without an empire. © Bettmann / Getty Images.