Friday Information in late May of 2018

After World War I was over, new changes occurred in the world. Four empires ended. Their names were the German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian empires. Many nations maintained their independence. New nations were established. Many dynasties fell like the Romanovs, the Hohenzollerns, the Habsburgs, and the Ottomans. Socialist revolutionary spirit flourished in the world like the red flag of social revolution flying in Glasgow, Scotland. Worker councils existed in the cities of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. Belgium and Serbia was damaged. About 1.4 French soldiers were killed alone. Germany and Russia suffered huge casualties too. The formal end of World War One came on the date of June 28, 1919 when both sides signed the Treaty of Versailles in Germany. The U.S. Senate didn’t ratify the treaty although there was public support for it. America formally ended its involvement in World War until July 2, 1921 via the Knox-Porter Resolution. It was signed by President Warren G. Harding. The British ended involved in the war via the Termination of the Present War Act of 1918.   After the Treaty of Versailles, treaties with Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire were signed. However, the negotiation of the latter treaty with the Ottoman Empire was followed by strife, and a final peace treaty between the Allied Powers and the country that would shortly become the Republic of Turkey was not signed until July 24, 1923, at Lausanne. Under the final Treaty of Lausanne, the Allied forces left Constantinople on August 23, 1923.

After World War One, the Paris Peace Conference existed from January 18, 1919 to 1920. It was controlled by America, England, France, Italy, and Japan. They consisted of Allied heads of state, diplomats, military personnel, and policy experts. These nations feared the growth of the communist movement in Russia. Many angry citizens also wanted revenge on the Central Powers. It organized peace treaties on the Central Powers officially ending the war. The conference was built upon Wilson’s 14 points agenda. President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points was a peace proposal that desire a truce which was based on open diplomacy, freedom, and the right of self-determination of peoples. The problem was that the leaders of the Paris Peace Conference refused to give true self-determination among Middle Eastern and African including Asian peoples globally. The Paris Peace Conference made the Peace of Paris. This policy made the Central Powers, especially Germany, to accept responsibility for the war. It forced Germany to pay huge reparations. Austria-Hungary was partitioned into nations like Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia.  Yugoslavia had ethnic divisions. Transylvania was shifted from Hungary to Greater Romania.  The details were contained in the Treaty of Saint-Germain and the Treaty of Trianon. As a result of the Treaty of Trianon, 3.3 million Hungarians came under foreign rule. Although the Hungarians made up 54% of the population of the pre-war Kingdom of Hungary, only 32% of its territory was left to Hungary. Between 1920 and 1924, 354,000 Hungarians fled former Hungarian territories attached to Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia. The Peace of Paris also forced Germany to give up its colonies, decrease its army, stop manufacturing offensive weapons, and give a large amount of free coal each year to both Belgium and France. France recovered Alsace and Lorraine. Germany soon experienced a massive recession as a result of the economic burdens from the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles was one key part of the Peace of Paris.

The Russian Empire was over. So, after the war, new nations of Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland were created. The Ottoman Empire ended. Turkey evolved into a Republic. The Treaty of Sevres of 1920 ended in failure. So, the Turkish nationalists used their war of independence to form the modern Turkish nation along with the event of the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne taking place too. Poland was a new nation after WWI in more than a century. Serbians, Croats, and Slovenes lived in Yugoslavia. The British Empire experienced more people calling for independence. Nationalism spread. Australia and New Zealand had soldiers who fought in the Battle of Gallipoli. They expressed themselves as Australians and New Zealanders not as subjects to the Crown. Anzac Day, commemorating the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, celebrates this defining moment. The war increased a lot of Canadians promoting their sense of independence too. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa were individual signatories of the Treaty of Versailles. The Conclusion of World War I saw the beginnings of the roots of the Israel-Palestinian conflict and the roots of the establishment of the modern state of Israel too. The Middle East had many power dynamics. The Ottoman Empire stabilized the region for a time.

The Ottoman Empire was soon gone and conflicting people debated nationhood. European powers and Arabic monarchs divided areas of the region heavily. Chaim Weizmann lobbied to support the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which promoted the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. A total of more than 1,172,000 Jewish soldiers served in the Allied and Central Power forces in World War I, including 275,000 in Austria-Hungary and 450,000 in Tsarist Russia. The Russian Revolution was bloody and Western forces wanted to end it and restore a puppet state in contrary to the Communist movement. So, a Russian Civil War started. More than 2,000 pogroms existed in Ukraine alone. Almost 200,000 Jewish civilians were murdered. Mustafa Kemal led Turkish nationalists. Greece fought against the Turkish nationalists after World War I. Thousands of Greek people died during this period as a product of the evil Greek genocide. The League of Nations was an organization created after WWI whose purpose was to maintain peace via negotiation or collective security. It was part of Wilson's vision to disarm, to solve problems, and to monitor labor conditions internationally. Germany and Russia were banned from joining the League of Nations because Germany was punished after WWI (and Russia embraced Soviet Communism). The Ottoman Empire and Germany relinquished their colonies in the forms of mandates. Mandates were precisely colonialism in a different form. Many peoples of color were angry at this and continued to fight for independence. Pan-African activists continued to fight against colonialism and racism as well. Chinese nationalists (like Sun Yatsen using his party of Guomindang to mobilize change. Later, he passed away in 1925 and Chicang Kai-Shek took over the nationalist movement. He led troops to take over cities, but his followers murdered Communists which was one cause of ultimately the Chinese civil war. As a result of that war, China would be Communist) and people of Ireland fought for independence. Ireland became a free state by 1921. Ireland would ultimately have independence by 1949 officially as the Republic of Ireland. Fights against the evils of colonialism existed in Africa (where Igbo women fought via a tax protest against Britain in 1929. These heroic black women fought for their human rights), India (where British forces shot into crowds of protesters at Amirstar in 1919), Indonesia (where political leaders were jailed by the Dutch), Vietnam, etc.

Many people suffered health problems as a result of the war too. Many people were injured and disabled. Famine, disease, and starvation would spread across Europe. Millions died in the Russian famine of 1921.  In 1914 alone, louse-borne epidemic typhus killed 200,000 human beings in Serbia. From 1918 to 1922, Russia had about 25 million infections and 3 million deaths from epidemic typhus. In 1923, 13 million Russians contracted malaria, a sharp increase from the pre-war years. In addition, a major influenza epidemic spread around the world. Overall, the 1918 flu pandemic killed at least 50 million people.


There are many news going on today. The NFL made a disgusting, disrespectful policy that is not only a violation of the freedom of speech, but promotes historical revisionism and lies. The national anthem was created by the racist Francis Scott Key. Its original lyrics condoned slavery and Key was a slave owner as well. The essence of patriotism is dissent. Dissent, therefore, is not unpatriotic. The NFL leadership wants to fine teams whose players kneel on the field when the national anthem is played. It won't require players to come out into the field, but if a player is in the field, the NFL wants to force them to stand when the national anthem is displayed. Colin Kaepernick knelled to fight against racial injustice and police brutality. These peaceful knells are not anti-American people and it isn't anti-patriotism. These forms of peaceful protests want to address real issues and advance social justice. Trump has slandered and used profane language against football players who have knelled too. This unjust policy from the NFL ought to be change. We reject tyranny and we believe in full free speech rights. There a racial issue too as the motivation for some to hate the kneel is racism. Many of the same ones who hate Kaepernick love a person who is Cliven Bundy (who made explicit words that demonize people of color).

There is always the lie that when black people protest, then we're disloyal. Instead, we are loyal to truth and we are loyal to black liberation. Some worship a flag than adhere to human free expression and human protest. Trump and his cowardly epigone Mike Pence should be ashamed of themselves for their hypocrisy, their anti-free speech agenda, and their reactionary rhetoric. Muhammad Ali, Dr. King, Rosa Parks, and other Brothers and Sisters protested for their rights for years. Today, we advocate the same activism in favor of our human rights too. Recently, Trump said that NFL Players who refuse to stand up when the anthem is being played maybe should leave America. This is an advocacy of fascism and Trump is an American fascist. From him hurting people with his Trump University to his other scandals, he is a person with reprehensible character. He is not only a racist, but a fascist as peaceful protest doesn't merit someone being forcibly removed from America. With events of police misconduct, xenophobia, wars, and other problems, we can't be naive. Racism is beyond ignorance. It is a system dedicated to oppress human beings based upon one's skin color. Xenophobia is based on being the antithesis of the Golden Rule. Fighting evil and advancing good is what our life's work is all about.

By Timothy