President Wilson's Fourteen Points

Point 2: 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.

This point also is not in exsistance, to an extent. Restricted access is in effect for territorial waters, but are not as open as the point suggests they should be. Also, the U.N. controls international waters, though the boundaries are enforced by military force.

Point 4: Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistant with domestic safety.

 This point is not in exsistance today. This point suggests only having a military large enough to keep the peace within the country, not outside the country. I think this would keep the peace better than the other other points because it would keep tension/fear low, and also make it difficult for nations to quickly go to war.

Point 9: A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along clearly recognizable lines of nationality.

This point exists today. The only area that Italy has changed its borders is it gave up what is modern day Slovania. I don't feel that this helps at all to keep war from happening. If Italy had been split up more, it would have caused more fighting and possibly another war.

Point 14:  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.

This is the point that set up the League of Nations. It is no longer around, because we have the United Nations, though they are not the same thing. The League of Nations would never be able to control every country well enough to ensure peace, so it would never be very good at keeping peace.

 

Political Cartoon

The aggression from Germany, especially the challenge to Naval superiority, sparked British nationalism.  They would not lose their naval superiority, and the British government played off this to the highest extent to gain a massive influx into their military force.  This too, set Great Britian considering war.  At the top left of this political cartoon is an example of British nationalism and their opinion on the Arms Race with Germany.

This political cartoon perfectly depicts Britain's fight for the best navy. Control of the ocean was very important to them and all the other countries tried to be either equal or better just to be on the same playing field in military forces.

Women During World War I

Women experienced various levels of independence during this period of global upheaval and unrest. Women gained the right to vote, which represented future independence and gender equality. The vote also represented the beginning of the break from women's subordinate role to a more equal role. Women gained industrial knowledge, experience and expertise through their replacement role in factories and other work places. In general, women did very well, surprising men with their ability to undertake heavy work and with their efficiency.  By the middle of the war they were already regarded as a force to be proud of, part of the glory of Britain.  However, their entrance into the workforce was initially greeted with hostility for the usual sexist reasons and also because male workers worried that women's willingness to work for lower wages would put them out of work. The women employed in munitions factories, popularly known as munitionettes have became the most visible face of the woman worker in WWI, though doubt remains as to whether their motivation was patriotic or simply economic.

Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide was carried out by the "Young Turk" government of the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1916. One and a half million Armenians were killed, out of a total of two and a half million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. The Armenian Genocide was masterminded by the Central Committee of the Young Turk Party. They were a racist group whose ideology was articulated by Zia Gökalp, Dr. Mehmed Nazim, and Dr. Behaeddin Shakir. The Armenian Genocide was directed by a Special Organization  set up by the Committee of Union and Progress, which created special "butcher battalions," made up of violent criminals released from prison. First the Armenians in the army were disarmed, placed into labor battalions, and then killed. Then the Armenian political and intellectual leaders were rounded up on April 24, 1915, and then killed. Finally, the remaining Armenians were called from their homes, told they would be relocated, and then marched off to concentration camps in the desert between Jerablus and Deir ez-Zor where they would starve and thirst to death in the burning sun. On the march, often they would be denied food and water, and many were brutalized and killed by their "guards" or by "marauders." The authorities in Trebizond, on the Black Sea coast, did vary this routine: they loaded Armenians on barges and sank them out at sea. The Turkish government today denies that there was an Armenian genocide and claims that Armenians were only removed from the eastern "war zone."