Treaty of Versailles

The Treaty of Versailles was signed after WWI at the Versailles Palace. The leaders of the major countries that were involved in the signing were called the Big Four. It is widely believed by many historians that the Treaty of Versailles was what allowed WWII to take place.

The Big Four were David Lloyd George from Britain, George Clemenceau from France, Woodrow Wilson from America and Vittorio Orlando from Italy. They helped make the treaty to make peace by punishing Germany and by setting up the League of Nations. The treaty was signed at Versailles and put in place certain terms that were supposed to keep to keep Germany from being able to make war.

Germany was by no means pleased the treaty. The treaty took away Germany's military power, which was a blow to the country's pride. When some thing like this is taken away from a country they will automatically want to rebel. "Had we known how bad things were in Germany, we might have got stiffer terms:" Great Britain and the German Armistice." (Book Source).

"The Treaty of Versailles created a political climate in Germany in which the right put all the blame on everything that went sour, onto the Treaty and the lost war. And that created this climate in which many people then began to think one had to fight the war once again." (Source).
Although the Treaty of Versailles is known to be "the Treaty that ended World War I," (Book Source), it is believed that this treaty is what allowed World War II to take place. I think that this is a reasonable conclusion to come to because when something valued by a nation or people is taken away the people or nation would want revenge.


The Treaty of Versailles is known as "the Treaty that ended World War I" (Book Source). The irony in this is that the treaty is what allowed the second World War to take place.

Pandemic of 1918

The pandemic of 1918 or the Spanish flu lasted from 1918 to 1919. More people were killed by the pandemic than in WWI.

It wasn't until the autumn of 1918 that people began to pay attention to the strange disease (book source)
that would end up killing fifty million people worldwide. The disease was first recorded to be in Nuremberg in Franconia. However, the seriousness of the disease was not given to the public. (book source).

The disease was most fatal to people between twenty and fifty years old. The symptoms of the disease were fever nausea, aches and diarrhea. "Many developed severe pneumonia attack. Dark spots would appear on the cheeks and patients would turn blue, suffocating from a lack of oxygen as lungs filled with a frothy, bloody substance." Source. Nothing this deadly had been seen since the black death in the Middle Ages.

The Spanish influenza received its name from the amount of people who died from it in Spain. This pandemic actually began in the United States. It began to be noticed military camps in the US during WWI. One fifth of the world had suffered from the pandemic. Eve the US president Woodrow Wilson caught the Spanish influenza as well.

The Spanish influenza of 1918 killed more people than WWI, which killed around sixteen million people. This pandemic ended up killing fifty million people worldwide.

The Panama Canal

The Panama Canal was a project that was started by the French. This project was later finished by the Americans.

The plans for the Panama Canal were first created by King Charles V in 1539. However, the plan did not become possible until the Panama railway would be constructed. "The Panama Canal was constructed in two stages." (Source). Ferdinan de Lesseps, who had constructed the Suez Canal, was the first to attempt building the Panama Canal.

The French began building the Panama Canal in the 1800s. However, this project had to be stopped due to disease, engineering problems and lack of money. The project for the canal was taken up again by America in 1904.

Before the U.S. decided to build the canal in Panama, they considered building it in Nicaragua. However, when a volcano erupted in that area and destroyed a city, they decided to build it in Panama. The Panama canal would be a great benefit to the U.S. navy. Book source. However, the sanitation issues were still a problem and there were still the mosquitoes that were infected with yellow fever and malaria. Book Source. "The Panama Canal opened to oceangoing vessels on Aug. 15, 1914." (Source).

The Panama Canal was a project that was started by the French, but they had to stop construction due to disease, engineering problems and lack of money. This project was later finished by the U.S. in 1914.