#world war i

October 18 1921, Washington–Despite multiple attempts, the Treaty of Versailles had failed to reach the required two-thirds majority for ratification in the US Senate.  The Harding Administration negotiated and signed new treaties with Germany, Austria, and Hungary, dropping American participation in the League of Nations or most other international commitments from Treaty of Versailles.  Nonetheless, there was still determined opposition to the new treaties, and it was no means clear that the new treaties would not meet the same fate.  Wilson, now living in DC, attempted to organize Democrats against the treaty, while a few die-hard irreconcilables opposed the treaty as they feared any recognition of any aspect of the Treaty of Versailles would lead to the United States joining the League of Nations in the future.  Ultimately, however, the treaty with Germany was ratified by a wide margin, 66-20, with more than half of the Senate Democrats voting in favor.  The other treaties were ratified by a similar margin.  Wilson, fuming at this final defeat, called the treaty’s supporters “the most partisan, prejudiced, ignorant, and unpatriotic group that ever misled the Senate of the United States.”

A massive crowd rallies outside the former Royal Palace and the Kaiser Wilhelm Monument, expressing their support for the Republic.  Both structures were demolished by the East German government after World War II, though a reconstruction of the palace was completed in 2020.

August 31 1921, Biberach–Matthias Erzberger, leading advocate of peace since July 1917 and signer of the Armistice, quickly became a bête noire to the German right, who viewed him as a traitor.  By 1921, he had retreated to the backbenches of the Reichstag.  Organisation Consul, a violently anti-Semitic and ultranationalist terror group formed after the dissolution of the Ehrhardtbrigade (the main force behind last year’s Kapp Putsch), assassinated Erzberger on August 26.  The two assassins escaped Germany and would not stand trial until after World War II.

His funeral, on August 31, became a political rally for his Zentrumparty; the keynote speaker was his long-time ally, Chancellor Joseph Wirth.  In Berlin, over 100,000 workers, mostly members of the SDP and other left-wing parties, demonstrated in support of the fragile German Republic.

August 25 1921, Berlin–Republican objections to the League of Nations had prevented American ratification of the Treaty of Versailles, and Harding’s election to the presidency in 1920 sealed its fate.  This, however, left the United States still officially at war with Germany.  On July 2, 1921 the United States officially declared that the state of war with Germany, Austria, and Hungary was over, but a formal peace treaty still needed to be signed.  This came on August 25, with a brief treaty signed in Berlin.  This effectively was the United States ratifying the Treaty of Versailles with extreme reservations:

• The United States would not join the League of Nations or the International Labour Organization.
• The United States would not concern itself with Germany’s borders or other strictly European matters agreed to in the treaty.
• The United States did not recognize the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles considering German concerns outside Europe (apart from the surrendering of her colonies); in particular, this included the handover of Shantung to the Japanese.
• The United States would not attempt to conduct war crimes trials of the Kaiser or other German war criminals.
• The United States would not join the International Labour Organization.
• The United States would not be compelled to participate in any commission called for by the Treaty of Versailles.

In the same week, similar treaties were signed with Austria and Hungary; the United States never declared war on Bulgaria or the Ottoman Empire.

July 11 1921, London–The Sinn Féin sweep of the Southern Irish elections, winning every seat unopposed except the ones associated with Trinity College, put a deadline on British efforts in Ireland.  A Southern Irish government was, by the terms of the Government of Ireland Act 1920, to be established no later than July 12.  Sinn Féin, following its usual abstentionist policies, would not take their seats in any Southern Irish parliament, leaving the British forced to either impose military rule on all of Southern Ireland, or reach a negotiated settlement with Sinn Féin.  The former was never seriously considered, so it became a question of finding an agreeable basis for negotiations with the Irish.

At the opening of the Northern Irish parliament on June 22, King George gave a conciliatory speech.  In the meantime, Jan Smuts, who had recently arrived from South Africa for a conference, began his own negotiations through Tom Casement (brother of the late Roger), and both agreed that a peaceful solution could be found which did not involve British recognition of an Irish Republic.  Casement and Smuts arranged the release of additional negotiators, and a truce was agreed to on July 9, entering into effect on July 11.  The terms were slightly unclear, with the Irish and British ultimately publishing different versions, but both sides would stop attacks and raids, and the British would cease military maneuvers and searches.

The truce came as something of a surprise to many in the IRA, and it would attract some criticism from those who felt they could beat the British without making concessions regarding Ireland’s political future.  British criticism of the truce was more muted, as it was clear the only alternative was a military occupation of the whole island that nobody was in favor of after nearly seven years of war.

Sources include: Michael Hopkinson, The Irish War of Independence

Greenwood destroyed.

June 1 1921, Tulsa–White mob violence against black communities had abated nationwide since the Red Summer of 1919, but the threat was still ever-present and materialized once again at the end of May 1921 in Tulsa.

On Memorial Day, May 30, a 19 year-old black shoeshiner, Dick Rowland, entered the elevator operated by 17-year-old white Sarah Page, on his way to use the segregated bathroom on the top floor of the building.  A clerk in a nearby store heard a scream, saw Rowland running from the building, and called the police.  Page denied an assault had taken place, did not want to press charges, and said that Rowland had done nothing beyond grabbing her arm.  It has been speculated that Rowland tripped as he entered the elevator, and grabbed onto a shocked Page as he fell, before understandably fleeing the scene, knowing the likely fate of a black man found alone with a screaming white woman.

Roland was arrested the next morning, and was taken to the city jail, and then to a more secure location at the top of the Tulsa County Courthouse to protect him from a possible lynching.  The afternoon edition of the Tulsa Tribune reported the story under the headline “Nab Negro for Attacking Girl In an Elevator,” and a now-missing editorial discussed (and perhaps called for) Rowland’s potential lynching.  By sunset, a white crowd of several hundred had gathered outside the courthouse.

Two hours later, a few dozen black World War I veterans arrived from the Greenwood neighborhood with guns to help defend the courthouse from a lynch mob.  Some of the mob went to secure arms of their own; the National Guard did prevented them from raiding the armory, but many others retrieved their own guns from their houses.  After 10 PM, another group arrived from Greenwood to offer additional defense for the courthouse.  Gunfire soon broke out; the black men retreated towards Greenwood, while the white mob pursued and looted stores for more guns and ammunition.  The National Guard units in the area defended the courthouse, the armory, and a few other buildings, along with detaining a number of black Tulsa residents, but did not take any action against the rioting white population.

Gunfire continued through the night, along with the occasional automobile raid into Greenwood.  At around 1 AM, fires were set in black businesses at the southern end of Greenwood; fire fighters were kept away by force.  After sunrise, large numbers of armed white men moved into Greenwood, supported from the air by at least one plane.  A handful of the rioters were killed by black defenders, but the neighborhood was quickly overwhelmed; many were able to flee to the north, but several thousand were detained.

Martial law was declared shortly before noon, and the rioting stopped within minutes, though the fires continued.  Greenwood was destroyed, and up to 300 Tulsa residents, the vast majority black, were killed.  None of the perpetrators were convicted of any crimes; the police chief was dismissed later in the summer and imprisoned on unrelated charges.  Dick Rowland was released in September, the charges against him dropped.