Holocaust

Yesterday in class we talked about the horrors of the holocaust and how there are people that say that it never happened. I think that those words are horrible when it comes to this topic. The holocaust is a very huge deal in history, especially Jewish history. No one should be saying that this never happened, what they should be doing is letting people know of the terrible things that happened during this time period and trying to prevent this from happening again. Which in fact is still going on in some places such as Darfur.

Class Presentations

During this week we have been doing presentations on the age of anxiety and the great depression. My topic was Dawes Plan. Which is basically a plan drawn up to help Germany in paying the reparations of WWI. But the plan would also become a big problem during the great depression, because of Germanies dependancy on the U.S. for economic support. Which would later lead to Adolph Hitler and the Holocaust.

This Painting was done by John Singer Sargent, titled, Gassed(1918). The relevance of this painting is there is a lot of soldiers depicted in the painting and many of them are dead. Im guessing they were killed by gasses.

This painting was created by Pablo Picasso, titled, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, in 1907. This painting was concidered one of the best pieces of art created during this time period because it showed the true meaning of impressionism art. Pablo Picasso painted what his impression of females were and he believed that women were supposed to use their sexuality to get by instead of working normal jobs like the men did.

Connection Across Time

World War I was a war that showed new technologies in war. They had advanced machine guns, trenches, poisonous gas, gas masks, dog fights, etc. But today we are more advanced in some of those areas and some don't even exist in war today. For example, trench warfare is not popular in wars today and machine guns are a lot more advanced. They don't overheat and you are able to control one with just one person rather than 4 to 5 people. Tanks are much faster and stronger today also. So WWI has played a big role in shaping the world the way it is today.

Trench Warfare

In WWI trench warfare was a new addition to battles. Trenches were underground bunkers that were used to protect soldiers from gun fire. But not only did the trenches give protection they were causes of death also. We talked about how poisonous gases were thrown into the trenches killing the soldiers. Bacteria was also a huge deal in trenches because the soldiers had no bathrooms to use so they just went where they stood.

This Painting was done by Paul Nash in 1918, titled The Mule Track. I found this painting real interesting. It's not like any other painting done during this time period. It looks as if its a painting of a town of some sort that was just hit with a lot of artillery strike. You can see that it also looks like there was once a trench here.

This image was created by Christopher Nevinson in 1915, titled Machine-Gun. I thought it was relevant to WWI because it shows how the machine gun was operated. They were operated by multiple soldiers in order to keep it from jamming, getting dirty, overheating, and they needed someone to reload it. In the painting it also shows a little bit of what a trench would look like.

This artwork was done by Harry Lamb in 1919, titled Irish Troops in the Judaen Hills. I find this art really interesting just because its not like any other piece of art. It looks as if the soldiers are at a battle and they're being hit with artillery shots(smoke) and they're trying to reach a nearby station(tents). But what I find interesting about this is the soldiers aren't standing in a still formation. They are falling and carrying others. Some even look as if they are being frightened by something.

Class Acronym GARGLE

After we discussed the acronym GARGLE, I thought that the treaty was too harsh on the Germans. It said that Germany was to take guilt for the war, but really Austria-Hungary started the war because of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. It also said that the Germans had to pay all reparations for the war. I believe that every country involved should be responsible for paying, because it was their choice to get involved in a war that was between Serbia and Austria-Hungary. So the treaty was what I believe is just a show of Revenge by the allied countries on Germany.

Wednesday April 1, 2009

In class we discussed the meeting of the big 4 and the treaty of Versailles, and Woodrow Wilson's 14 points of peace. Some of the material that we covered on the Treaty of Versailles, I already knew because I learned about it in french class. But Woodrow Wilson's 14 points were new to me. I feel as though Wilson's points only reflects what he wants to be done to create peace between countries, but not only does it have anything to do with the other countries beliefs, but I also believe that it doesn't show the United States' beliefs in how world peace should be obtained. Woodrow Wilson should have used other's opinions instead of just his. That's how I feel about Woodrow Wilson's 14 points of world peace.