The Treaty of Versailles (ended WW I)

The Treaty of Versailles was the peace treaty that officially ended World War I, it was signed in 1919 by the Allied nations and Germany. The treaty created a League of Nations; their goal was to keep peace among nations.

The treaty punished Germany. They were blamed for all of the loss and damage incurred by the allies (England and France). Germany was also blamed for being the aggressor in the war. The treaty forced Germany to pay huge fines, suffered large territorial losses in total, Germany lost over one millions square miles of land. They also had severe restrictions placed on its military operations.

The Treaty of Versailles is very important because it punished Germany so much that it could never recover and this defeated Germany became ripe for Adolph Hitler and his fascist politics of hate and blame. Hitler tried to regain the land and power that were taken away from Germany. He had long pledge to undo the Versailles Treaty. In March 1935, Hitler announced that Germany would not obey the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles. It strengthened Hitler's power and prestige within Germany.

Mustaf Kemal (Ataturk) and the Modernization of Turkey

Turkey was a traditional Islamic country and Mustafa Kamal tried to modernize it. He led Turkish nationalists in overthrowing the last Ottoman sultan. In 1923, Kemal became the president of the new republic of Turkey, the first republic in Southwest Asia. His goal was to create a modern, democratic, and a secular nation state. Kemal modernized the country's legal and educational systems and encouraged the adoption of a European way of life. Under Kemal, women gained more freedom. He granted women the right to vote and to hold public office. Kemal also launched governments funded programs to industrialize Turkey.

Mustafa Kamal led Turkey in the period after WW I. Religious fundamentalists who had ruled Turkey for years were shocked by the changes. Kamal tried to 'Westernize' Turkey. He even encouraged men to give up the 'fez', a traditional Muslim hat and wear a brimmed Panama hat. Kamal tried to create a feeling of nationalism in Turkey and get the population to move away from a religious dominated society.

Secular: Not concerned with religion or religious matters.

Film Lesson: "Ghandi"

Gandhi was a major political and spiritual leader of the Indian Independence movement. He was also known as Mahatma or "Great Souled", and was born in Porbandar in India on October 2, 1869. In 1893, he went to South Africa, there he became a successful lawyer and worked really hard to improve living conditions for the Indian minority.

As a leader of the Indian community he involved himself in the fight to end discrimination against the country's Indian minority. He was urged to take up the fight for India's independence from Great Britain, because India had been controlled by the British for about 200 years. Ghandi became the leader of the non-violent resistance movement in India during the first half two centuries. He never encouraged his people to fight back. He taught them that violence was not the answer to solving their problems. But as WW II approached Indians began to really fight for their independence. They were led in this fight by Mahatma Ghandi. After numerous arrests and the unwanted attention of the world, the government finally relented by recognizing the rights for Indians, though not for the native blacks of South Africa. Gandhi was invited back to India, where he was considered something of a national hero.

I think that the Indian independence wasn't all about Ghandi, that it would have happened anyway, but it would have taken them longer to gain their independence. The Indian people wanted to solve their problems by fighting back, but Ghandi thought them that fighting was not the way to solve their problems, instead they had to learn to be patient.