205: 1919 – The United States III

August 9, 2020August 9, 2020 Mark Podcast

This 1919 political cartoon depicts Uncle Sam, dressed in a diplomat’s frock coat and top hat, on his way to Europe with an armload of “good intentions.” (Note the bearded Bolshevik and the fez-wearing Turkish nationalist on the other side of the ocean.) But his message of peace and security through mutual cooperation is undercut by his “sons” behind him, representing the racial violence and labor unrest in the U.S.

Woodrow Wilson returned from Paris in the summer of 1919 with the Treaty of Versailles, but found it more difficult than he expected to win approval from Senate Republicans.

Wilson went on a nationwide tour to “sell” the Treaty to the American public, but his travels were cut short when he suffered a stroke. Wilson’s illness put the future of the Treaty in doubt and presented the US government with an unprecedented dilemma: what to do when the President is experiencing a long-term medical impairment.

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Fanfare

Opening Theme

Symphony no. 9 in E minor, “From the New World“
Composed in 1893 by Antonín Dvořák. Public domain.
Performed by the DuPage Symphony Orchestra, Barbara Schubert conducting. Used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 license. Source.

Closing Theme

Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

204: 1919 – The United States II

July 26, 2020July 20, 2020 Mark Podcast

In addition to the First Red Scare, discussed in the previous episode, the year 1919 saw the worst racial violence in US history. Hundreds were killed.

Some attempted to pin the blame on Bolshevik agitation of African Americans, although there was no evidence of that. Also, African Americans were far more often the targets, rather than the perpetrators, of the violence. Who was agitating white Americans to violence against their African-American fellow citizens went strangely unaddressed.

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Fanfare

Opening Theme

“U.S. Field Artillery March”
Composed in 1917 by Edmund Gruber and John Philip Sousa. Public domain.
Performed by the United States Marine Band. Public domain recording. Source.

Goldberg Variations No. 25
Composed in 1741 by Johann Sebastian Bach. Public domain.
Performed by Shelley Katz. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme

203: 1919 – The United States I

July 19, 2020July 13, 2020 Mark Podcast

The year 1919 saw unprecedented levels of unrest and violence in the United States, as it did in many other places.

The continual outbreaks of strikes, rioting, labor unrest, and anarchist terror made it easy to believe that behind it all was a Bolshevik plot to undermine the US government.

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Fanfare

Opening Theme

“The Memphis Blues”
Composed in 1912 by W.C. Handy. Public domain.

Closing Theme

202: 1919 – Mexico

July 12, 2020July 5, 2020 Mark Podcast

The new constitution of 1917 marked the beginning of big changes for Mexico, although President Venustiano Carranza would resist many of them, until he was overthrown and killed.

The year 1924, though, would see the first peaceful transfer of the Mexican presidency since 1884, and as revolutionary violence faded, Mexico remade itself.

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Fanfare

Opening Theme

“El atole” from Aires Nacionales Mexicanos
Composed in 1895 by Ricardo Castro Herrera. Public domain.
Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme

201: 1919 – Latin America

July 5, 2020 Mark Podcast

In the years leading up to the Great War, the larger and more prosperous Latin American nations, notably Brazil, Argentina, and Chile, were peers of the most advanced Western nations.

The Great War would trigger economic and political changes that would deeply affect the Latin American nations, even those that had remained neutral.

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Fanfare

Opening Theme

Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun)
Composed in 1894 by Claude Debussy. Public domain.
Performed by the Columbia University Orchestra. Public domain recording. Source.

Piano Sonata. Op. 1
Composed in 1910 by Alban Berg. Public domain.
Performed by Jonathan Biss, and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. Source.

“La cumparsita”
Composed in 1916 by Gerardo Matos Rodríguez. Public domain.
Public domain recording. Source.

200: 1919 – China

June 21, 2020June 19, 2020 Mark Podcast

Mr. and Mrs. Wellington Koo arrive in New York City in 1915.

The compromise under which the other Allies agreed to grant Japan Germany’s concessions in China infuriated the Chinese.

China became the only country represented at the Paris Peace Conference to refuse to sign the Treaty of Versailles. The perceived betrayal of the Western powers, along with the seeming failure of democracy at home turned many Chinese leaders against Western values.

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Fanfare

Opening Theme

“Jasmine Flower”
Traditional. Public domain.

“Wa Ha Ha”
Traditional. Public domain.

Closing Theme

199: 1919 – Japan

June 14, 2020June 7, 2020 Mark Podcast

Japan, like Italy, went into the Paris Peace Conference with demands the other Allies were reluctant to embrace.

The Italian walkout gave Japan the leverage it needed to win its territorial claims, but the debate on racism left the Japanese feeling humiliated.

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Fanfare

Opening Theme

“Sakura Sakura”
Traditional. Public domain.

Closing Theme

198: 1919 – Italy II

June 7, 2020 Mark Podcast

Period political cartoon commenting on the Italian Fascist politician’s warning that “either the state will embrace Fascism or Fascism will replace the state.”

Vittorio Orlando’s walking out on the Paris Peace Conference backfired, and his government lost a vote of no confidence.

Angry Italian socialists clashed in the streets with disgruntled Italian fascists over the future of Italy until, faced with the choice of crushing the fascists or inviting them into government, the King chose the latter.

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Fanfare

Opening Theme

“Giovinezza”
Composed in 1909 by Giuseppe Blanc. Public domain.
Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme

197: 1919 – Italy I

May 31, 2020May 29, 2020 Mark Podcast

Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando went into the Paris Peace Conference with an extensive list of territorial demands for Italy.

When the Allies, and particularly Woodrow Wilson, refused to endorse the Italian claims, Orlando chose to walk out of the conference.

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Fanfare

Opening Theme

Cello Sonata in E minor.
Composed c. 1725 by Antonio Vivaldi. Public domain.
Performed by The Telemann Trio. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme

196: 1919 – Turkey & Greece III

May 17, 2020May 17, 2020 Mark Podcast

Fires raging in Smyrna on September 14, 1922, as seen from the deck of an Italian warship.

The Turkish nationalists remained defiant. With his Cabinet divided and the British public opposed to war, David Lloyd George hopes the Greeks can subdue the Turks and salvage the situation.

But the Greek offensive failed. The Greeks were ultimately driven from Anatolia in a bitter war that left hard feelings on both sides and brought down the Lloyd George government.