The Rise of Industry- Maija

    The industrial revolution reached the U.S. in the early 1800s. Business and industry grew pretty rapidly in America after the Civil War. A population of 30 million Americans had only 1.3 million working in industry. The U.S. was the world’s leading industrial nation by the late 1800s. In 1914 the nation’s Gross Natural Product was eight times larger than when the Civil War ended in 1865. The U.S. had a vast amount of natural resources like timber, coal, iron, and copper. It saved the U.S. money because there was no need to import these products. The wealth of the raw materials is said to be a major part in the success of the industry. In the late 1800s people began living by laissez-faire; relied on supply and demand and helped regulate prices and wages.

       The oil industry in the U.S. was built because of the need for kerosene. Kerosene could be made by oil and was used for lanterns and stoves. In 1859 Edwin Drake drilled the first oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Oil fields from Pennsylvania to Texas were drilled by the early 1900s. The faster oil companies grew the better the economy did. The triple of population in the U.S. between 1860 and 1910 provided the industry with greater demands for factory made goods. Towards the end of the 1800s the U.S. was one of the largest trade areas in the world.

Titusville, Pennsylvania 1859 – Edwin Drake

The Railroads - Madison

              

              The railroads were constructed rapidly after the Civil War ended.  In 1865, the U.S. had approximately 35,000 miles of tracks that ran along to almost the entire eastern part of the Mississippi River.  There was 200,000 miles of tracks at the beginning of the 1900’s, which was a significant jump from the previous 35 years.  All of this would not have been possible if it weren't for Abraham Lincoln, who signed the Pacific Railway Act in 1862, starting the production of these railroads.  It forced two corporations of railroad contractors and laborers to work together and form the Transcontinental Railroad.  The government enticed them with the offer of bountiful land to build the tracks over.

                One of the corporations, the Union Pacific, employed Civil War veterans, Irish immigrants, miners, farmers, cooks, and ex-convicts.  They had a total of 10,000 of these workers, sweating and exerting themselves every day to help construct this ridiculously long railroad that stretched clear across the continental U.S.  It began building westward from Omaha, its goal along the lines of the Pacific Ocean.  The workers had to eventually face the arid heat of the scorching desert and the wrath of the angry Native Americans.

The other railroad corporation was the Central Pacific Railroad.  This railroad company was led by four Sacramento merchants named Charley Crocker, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Collis P. Huntington.   They hired around 10,000 workers too, but these were from California and China.  Their daily wages were a dollar, and it was enough to keep them from quitting.  They used new, industrial equipment to build the tracks and the locomotives, and all of it was supplied from the eastern U.S.

Big Business - Jenn

After the 1830’s and the Civil War, business was beginning to boom because of the rise of corporations.  With these newly formed corporations, many people could own a specific share of the company by buying stocks.  The benefits of this included that the corporation as a whole could grow and raise more money and spread out the financial dangers that might happen if the sales and distribution went down.  Additional income gave the companies an opportunity to invest in new technologies and hire more people, which ended up lowering the manufacturing prices of their goods because they were made swiftly and profusely.

A couple of the front-runners of big business were, unquestionably, Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller.  Carnegie started out inevitably poor; he was an immigrant from Scotland and had started working at the age of 12 in a textile factory.  He managed to work his way up to become a telegraph messenger, and after a few years of hard work and dedication, he became the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad.   With his experience, he found it wise to invest in the railroad industry, and he ended up quitting his job after he started making $50,000 a year to focus on these investments.  In 1875, Carnegie founded a steel company stationed in Pittsburgh, and he started copying an efficient steel producing process created by Sir Henry Bessemer.  His company began to become successful, and in order to preserve that, Carnegie started the vertical integration of his industry to own all of the businesses incorporated into his larger one, including coal mines and iron ore fields.  This made his company transform into an enormous industry and made him unfathomably wealthy.

The second most successful entrepreneur was John D. Rockefeller, who built the largest oil refinery company in America.  Many people were creating their own little businesses to try and drill for the “black gold”, but 90% of them were ended up being bought out by Rockefeller’s company!  This is an example of horizontal integration, which combines companies with the same products into an overall larger corporation.  Standard Oil ended up making a staggering amount of money and helped boost the nation’s economy significantly.  

Unions - Isaac

In the 1830’s craft workers began to form trade unions. By 1873 there were 32 national trade unions in the United States, for all the different businesses like glass making and coal mines.  Unions came into play because people believe the work place should be safe and that workers should have a voice, so the union protects them at work and keeps the work places safe and workable.

These unions weren’t always effective and they never got the respect that they thought they deserved.  Most of the time, when the employees went on strike, these revolts would only end in bloodshed.  An example of this is the Great Railroad Strike, which happened because of the troubling recession in 1873.  The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad declared that it would continue cutting wages for its employees, and they became fed up with it.  A strike formed with 80,000 workers who went out of control and vandalized the railroad company’s property.  The government had to send out militias to end the dispute, and when it ended, there was $10 million in damage inflicted on the railroads and 100 casualties from a fight that never should have happened.

Immigration - Madison

         Around the time the Civil War ended and World War I started, 25 million Europeans immigrated to the U.S.  In the late 1890's over half the immigrants in the U.S. were from eastern and southern Europe, including Italy, Greece, Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Serbia.  This time period was known as the "new" immigration, while before the 1890's it was known as the "old" immigration, and those people were from northern and eastern Europe.

Urbanization - Isaac

  

Urbanization forced many things upon the government.  As cities became more crowded and there were more filthy people, most women demanded reform for things like meat inspections, building inspections and better treatment of child workers. This also was focused on taking down big businesses because they had so much power.   The workers had none and they couldn’t stand up to the bosses, and if they tried, they would just get fired.

                Political machines also reigned in urban cities.  Party bosses were powerful and controlled the assets of the city they ran.  The government would become so corrupted because of all the bribes and graft.  The party bosses made sure to give gifts to the people who resided in their city in exchange for their vote in the next election.  These machines struck another idea for government reform among the future progressives.

The Gilded Age - Jenn

           

           This period was a commencement of new philosophies and inventions.  The new technologies allowed for the swift growth of industrialization, which in turn expanded cities, improved the architectural structures of buildings, and blessed the common people with electricity.  Great writers like Mark Twain and Charles Warner were not fooled by the lavished improvements in this time, and they could tell that they would eventually lead to horrible crimes and economic problems. 

Many new beliefs were developed that revolutionized the relationships of the people of the United States.  One of the biggest philosophies is individualism, which caused people to think that no matter what their background was, they could reach as far as their talents and determination would let them.  This corresponds closely with Social Darwinism, which was a belief based off of Darwin’s theory of evolution.  Followers believed that natural selection was going on in their contemporary society, and that they were evolving through their competitions.  Realism was also born an emphasized in this time period, which is an artistic movement that portrayed the life in the paintings as it essentially is.  Popular culture was then roused and people began to spend more money on entertainment.

President Garfield was assassinated in the Gilded Age because he didn't support the spoils system, which would allow him to hand out government jobs to his friends and the people who supported him the most.  It was soon realized that it was about time for the political system to be reformed.  Congress passed the Pendleton Act to force certain jobs to be won through competitive written tests.  There was also a problem with poor urban dwellers, which desperately needed reform as well.  The Social Gospel movement strived for better conditions in cities, and was supported by the sacred morals of charity.  Salvation Armies provided more aid and help by teaching the principles of religion to poor people.  The YMCA established libraries, auditoriums, and gymnasiums in their buildings for the needy people who could not afford the privileges to go to one.  Settlement houses were constructed in immigrant neighborhoods to provide them with medical care and education.  Public schools also implemented the Americanization of the new immigrants, and taught them the culture, history, and language of the Americans.

Populism- Maija

Populism was a movement to help increase the political power of farmers. The newly found technology allowed farmers to produce more crops, but in return the supply increased and their prices fell. The high tariffs made it hard for farmers to sell their goods overseas. Millions of dollars began to be issued by a paper currency called Greenbacks. Greenbacks were not allowed to be traded in for gold. The increase in the supply of money without any increase in sold goods caused inflation. Most farmers had to borrow money so they could afford seed and other farming equipment. Prices began to fall and farmers began selling their crops for lower prices.

The Rise of Segregation - Madison

             In 1870, Benjamin Singleton was a former slave that had become convinced that African Americans would never have a chance to get ahead and receive the respect they deserve in the South.  He helped move African Americans to the West, around Kansas, so that they could form their own independent communities and prosper together.  Nine years later, the African American communities in Mississippi, Texas, and Louisiana were swept with religious enthusiasm, and in about two months, 6,000 of them left their homes and moved to Kansas. 

                Some of the African Americans left the South, and the another portion of them stayed to join with the poor, Caucasian farmers who had created the Farmers Alliance.  By 1886, African Americans took advantage of this to form the Colored Farmers National Alliance, which totaled 1.2 million members in 1890.  The 15^th amendment was passed to prohibit the states from denying people the right to vote based on color.  During the late 1890’s, Southern states had made it difficult or impossible for African Americans to vote, and Mississippi was known for requiring the citizens who had registered to vote to pay a poll tax.

The Imperialist Vision - Madison

        Several European nations were expanding overseas in a development called the New Imperialism.  The reason for this expansion included how factories depended on raw materials, but no single country could supply all of the resources.  The Imperialism and Anglo-Saxonism beliefs had started to gain popularity, and so the United States increased its involvement in foreign affairs to have more influence over the other countries.  There were three international crises that illustrated this new approach.  The first, in 1888, the country risked a war in order to prevent Germany from taking control of Samoa in the south Pacific.  Three years later, an infuriated mob in Chile attacked American sailors.  Lastly, in 1895, the U.S. backed up Venezuela against Great Britain in a border dispute with British Guiana.

The Spanish-American War - Isaac

The Spanish-American war was fought from April 25, 1898 – August 12, 1898 (3 months, 2 weeks and 4 days). It was fought over the freedom of Cuba because America wanted Spain to release its control over the small nation. Before the war, America supported Cuba in its rebellion against Spain because their economies had become intertwined.  Cuba eventually succeeded and became the Republic of Cuba in 1895, but Spain refused to let this be the end.  They sent in 200,000 troops to take back power, and President McKinley decided that he did not want to be involved in this war. 

In January 1898, McKinley grew worried about the Americans stationed in Cuba, so he ordered the USS Maine to go pick them up in case of an emergency.  In February, the USS Maine exploded in the Havana Harbor, and the Americans blamed the Spanish for it.  “Remember the Maine!” was the new slogan that was shouted among the Americans who wanted to go to war with Spain.  This put McKinley under a lot of pressure, and he eventually had no choice but to agree to go to war or else he would lose his job.  The troops on both sides of the war were not prepared for the intense battles and the new tropical diseases.  The Americans eventually prevailed and protected Cuba, and they helped out Puerto Rico too.  

An American Empire - Jenn

             At the conclusion of the Spanish-American War, America had acquired the islands of Guam and Puerto Rico.  The Philippines remained a gray area because America could not decide what to do with them.  If they annexed them, then that would mean that America would lose its republican ideals and gain imperial control over a country forcefully without agreement with its people.  People who supported the annexation thought that having control over the Philippines would give economic and militaristic benefits.  Some of them also believed that it was imperative to help the “less civilized” country.  On the opposite side of the totem pole were the anti-imperialists, which included a few notable people including Andrew Carnegie and Mark Twain.  Carnegie spawned an excellent argument that seizing control of the Philippines would cost more money than what would be profited from the economic benefits of selling and distributing goods there.   In the end, President McKinley agreed to annex the Philippines by paying Spain $20 million and became an imperial power. 

                Another problem faced by the United States was Cuba.  With the signing of the Treaty of Paris, the United States reluctantly granted Cuba their independence, but in a way they had to keep Cuba linked to them for political purposes.  President McKinley allowed them to write their own constitution with the exception of an added amendment.  This amendment, called the Platt Amendment, required Cuba to keep its ties with other nations limited to the United States,  gave the United States the right to buy and lease naval stations there, kept Cuba’s debt low, and allowed the U.S. to intervene when Cuba’s independence was threatened.  Soon after, Congress passed the Foraker Act to establish a civil government for Puerto Rico.  Things were peaceful, for a short time.

                The Philippines were not content with the new annexation, so they rebelled in the Philippine-American War.  This war lasted for around three years, and there were 4,300 American casualties and 50,000-200,000 Filipino casualties.  The United States turned to hypocrisy and used the same military tactics that they had convicted Spain for when they used them on Cuba.  They established reconcentration camps and separated the guerrillas (Filipino soldiers) from the innocent civilians.  Many people died from disease and starvation.  William Howard Taft, the future president and the first governor of the islands, tried to win back the respect of the people by implementing education, transportation, and health care into their society.  A month after America captured the leader of the guerrillas, they surrendered, and the war ended.  It wasn’t until 1946 that the Philippines were granted independence from the U.S. 

New American Diplomacy - Maija

In 1894 China and Japan broke into a war over Korea. The war showed Japan mastered the western technology and industry. Germany, France, Britain, and Russia wanted “leaseholds” with China. President McKinley and John Hay were opposed to this but both of them still supported the “Open Door Policy” meaning all countries could trade with China. In 1899 John Hay sent notes to the 4 countries asking them not to discriminate against nations that were interested in doing business with them. The Society of Harmonious Fists (The Boxers) destroyed “Foreign Devils” and “Chinese Christian Coverts” in 1900. The boxers killed more than 200 foreigners and took others as their prisoners.

       After the German ambassador of China was killed eight nations: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the U.S. began to intervene. Together they all formed an international force of nearly 50,000 troops. Of those troops 3,400 of them were American. The force landed in China to rescue foreigners that had been captured and to destroy the Boxers. The U.S. retained access to China’s trade of tea, spices, and silk. In 1901 President McKinley was attacked by a man named Leon Czolgosz and died a few days after the attack. Theodore Roosevelt then took over the presidency. He was 42 years old and the youngest President to ever take office. The people didn’t like the idea of Roosevelt being anything more than the Vice President. They feared he was too young to know what was best for the people.

The Roots of Progressivism - Isaac

The roots of progressivism arise from a mixture of things.  Intelligent women wanted the government to step in and make a bunch of regulations for children, work places, and food processing.   Middle class workers were a big part of it too because they had the most time on their hands, a decent sum of money, and a well-rounded education.  The catalyst for all this was a terrible fire in which 100+ people died in and a book called The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, which talked about how horrible the meat-packing industry was. 

Muckrakers were the people who spoke out about these ideas in the first place.  They were influential journalists who uncovered political corruption and problems with the workforce.  People began to form ideas about how to stop the political machines and reform the government.  There were so many problems that the progressives wanted to stop, and they thought that they would all get better if they pushed for prohibition, the banishment of alcohol in their society.  Women and African Americans took advantage of this period of reform and started protesting for the rights and suffrage that they deserved.  

Roosevelt and Taft - Jenn

                Theodore Roosevelt was the youngest president to win an election, and he believed in the rising philosophy of Social Darwinism.  Roosevelt formed a reform program called the Square Deal, in which he tried to keep the “common” people safe from the supremacy of big business.  He was a strong believer of regulating big businesses; he didn’t believe it would be for the benefit of the nation as a whole to eradicate them.  The Sherman Antitrust Act was put into effect on behalf of this argument to regulate trusts and prevent these businesses from turning into monopolies.  Another problem that presented itself during his presidency was the Coal Strike of 1902.  A group of labors called the United Mine Workers went on strike in the eastern mines of Pennsylvania, demanding increased pay with better working conditions, less hours, and the right to establish an effective union.  He reasoned with them, and they finally agreed upon arbitration, which was the interference by an outside party to negotiate a settlement.  In this case, the outside party was the federal government, and this became one of the first steps in letting the national government act as an advisor in uncontainable situations like this. 

                In this time period, consumer protection was of the utmost importance.  Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle had many people outraged and sick of what was happening in the meatpacking industry.  In order to ease and retain the citizens’ piece of mind, Roosevelt helped pass the Meat Inspection Act, which required that the government inspects the meat being sold, and that the Agriculture Department is in charge of setting what rules and criteria that the companies must abide by.  On the same day, the Pure Food and Drug Act was also passed to ensure that all labels on drug containers and food packages are authentic.  Another situation that Roosevelt became passionate about was the conservation of nature.  He implemented around 100 million acres of forests to the national reservations and set up five new national parks.  Roosevelt really did what he could to please the “common” folk.

                William Howard Taft was the next president in office after Roosevelt.  Taft had made some dumb decisions during his presidency, but nothing was more obstructive than the Payne-Aldrich Tariff.  This tariff was a compromise between two contradictory acts that cut and raised taxes.  Naturally, this tariff didn’t solve anything, and caused more problems than it did solutions.  Roosevelt had warned that something like this might cause the Republican Party to split, and later on they did.  It is said that Taft had abandoned the application of progressivism by doing many things Roosevelt disagreed with.  One of the most important things that he wanted was to completely break apart trusts, and he had launched an antitrust lawsuit against U.S Steel.  This completely went against Roosevelt’s ideals, and so he eventually lost his support.  Taft did complete a few good actions during his presidency though.  He established the Children’s Bureau to investigate the injustices of child labor and present evidence of this publically to raise awareness.

The Wilson Years - Maija

         The election of 1912 was a competition between two candidates; Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Taft failed to live up to progressive ideals. Woodrow Wilson was the former governor of New Jersey and lived by what he called “New Freedom”. Woodrow Wilson won the election with 435 votes. Wilson signed laws introducing the direct primary, establishing utility regulatory boards, and gave the people a voice. He believed in destroying monopolies and signed laws to levy income tax. He signed the Federal Reserve Act, Federal Trade Commission, Unfair Trade Practices, Clayton Antitrust Act, and the first law against child labor. The law made it impossible to have children under the age of 14 working in factories.

Militarism and Alliances - Madison

              The roots of the issues that caused World War I started back in the 1860s, while America was stuck in the Civil War.  Prussia, the German kingdom, won a series of wars to gain more land and support, and by 1871 it had reunited all of the Germany puzzle pieces to form the German Empire.  During these wars, Prussia attacked and defeated France, and they became indignant enemies.  From this mutual hatred, two alliances arose: the Triple Alliance and the Franco-Russian Alliance.  The Triple Alliance was composed of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy.  The Franco-Russian Alliance was between France and Russia.  Later, it added Great Britain and turned into the Triple Entente. 

                In Europe, militarism was expanding exponentially throughout its countries.  This caused the countries to be wary of each other and they continued to increase their militarism for protection.  Germany began to construct a strong Navy to intimidate the British, and the tension between them grew when they started to compete in building warships.  Great Britain joined France and Russia in their alliance because they were threatened by Germany.

Imperialism and Nationalism - Isaac

          Nationalism is the respect and pride of one’s country, and in Europe, it had become a powerful idea that contributed to the causes of World War I.  Those countries had become so arrogant that they never stopped competing with each other and they thought that they were entitled to expand their borders without caring about the other countries.  Imperialism was also increasing, which is the belief that a country can become more powerful and influential by spreading their rule across other countries.  This contrast caused Europe to slowly lack order.  Many different groups fought for independence, like the Serbs, Bosnians, Croats, and Slovenes, but other countries wanted to add other nations to their growing empire, like Austria-Hungary. 

A Terrorist Attack Brings War - Jenn

               

               The tension between the European countries grew, and the trigger that caused them to snap was an assassination. In the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife were shot to death by a man named Gavrilo Princip.  Princip was a member of the Black Hand, a revolutionary Serbian nationalist group who purposefully wanted to start a war with the Austria-Hungarian Empire. 

                Austria-Hungary was furious and decided to attempt to punish the Serbians, just like they had planned.  It became even more serious when Austria-Hungary utilized their alliance with Germany for backup and necessary precautions in the war to come. The Serbians recruited the Russians, and the Russians were sure to count on the French.  In the matter of a couple days, on July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary made the first move in declaring war on Serbia.  Russia immediately responded and sent their troops over, also surrounding the eastern Germany border simultaneously.  The anxious Germans immediately retaliated by declaring war on Russia, and not even two days later it began to commence war with France. 

                Germany had finally got what it wanted: a chance to win a war and claim more territory and authority.  They were ultimately too arrogant to see the flaws in their plan though.  The German troops had to travel though Belgium in order to get to France, but Belgium happened to be a neutral territory aided by the British.  This caused Great Britain to join the war.  Then, much faster than Germany had expected, Russia invaded their land.  Germany had to bring some troops back from the battle with France and have them ward off the Russians.  This was to the Allies’s (France, Russia, Great Britain, and soon Italy) advantage because they would get to fight a two-front war.  The Battle of Marne stopped the German’s further invasion into France, but locked them in a stalemate with the French.  However, the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria) persevered on the eastern front and were successfully able to invade Russia.  

The Americans Take Sides - Maija

             The President repeatedly stressed to Americans about not taking sides during the war. The U.S. had 8 million German Americans and 4.5 million Irish Americans. Many of the German Americans sided with Germany because it was their homeland and there was a possibility that they had family and friends remaining in Germany. Many of the Irish Americans sympathized with Central Powers. A vast majority of Americans valued the heritage, language, and political ideals Britain shared with them. Others came to value the link America had created with France during the Revolutionary War.

           The U.S. remained neutral for more than two years. In 1915 Carrie Chapman Catt and Jane Adams (both leaders of the Women’s Suffrage Movement) created the women’s peace party. They worked alongside the League of Limit Armament to keep America out of the war by telling the President not to build up the military.

Organizing the Economy - Madison

               To manage the economy during World War I, Congress founded many new agencies to promote effective relationships between the federal government and America’s private corporations.  The War Industries Board was made in July 1917 to control the distribution of resources, construct more factories, and tell the factories what they should manufacture.  To make sure that the troops would receive plenty of food without the expense of the civilian’s starvation, the Food Administration was developed.   Daylight savings time was introduced to conserve the energy of the working factories, which was one of the goals of the Fuel Administration.  Even after Congress’s implementation of taxes and the government’s use of bonds, the U.S. still lost around $32 billion by the end of the war.

                The National War Labor Board was established in March 1918 to prevent worker strikes and involve more people in the workforce.  Factories and other workplaces began to hire women, and African Americans started to move north for work.  The Mexicans wanted to obtain more jobs, so they migrated north too to help extinguish the employee shortage.  To keep people supporting the war efforts, the Committee on Public Information advertised excessively for their noble cause.  The Espionage Act and Sedition Act were passed to prohibit people from stealing government information to aid the enemy and state your opposition to the war publicly.  

Building the Military - Isaac

                At the beginning of the war, America only had a total of 300,000 soldiers, so they had to find new ways to recruit more people.  The selective service was created to draft men into the Army since most people wouldn’t volunteer.  Progressives weren’t very fond of this idea, but they didn’t have a choice.  There were around 2.8 million people drafted, and they were chosen by a random lottery.

Approximately 2 million citizens were brave enough to volunteer, mainly because they thought it was their duty to stand up for their country and protect their democracy.  As you can see though, many more people were drafted instead.  It was understandable because so many people were afrais of the war; afterwards, 50,000 had died and 200,000 were wounded from their efforts.  African Americans and women also took part in the war.  The African Americans still were discriminated against and were sent to aid the French, and they eventually proved themselves as worthy soldiers.  Women were often recruited to be nurses, and about 20,000 nurses were a part of the Army Nursing Corps.

A Bloody Conflict - Jenn

              

              During World War I, artillery fire caused major destruction and was the cause of death for thousands.  A network of trenches was dug so that the troops had a way to avoid the rapid-fire bullets.  Poison gas was also concocted and used successfully by the Germans.  The British were quick to react with their new prototype of a tank.  These tanks were unreliable and only served the purpose of shielding its passengers and busting through barbed wire.  On all sides, aircraft became a popular weapon to effectively drop bombs onto the enemies.

                Around two million “doughboys” fought for America, inexperienced and giddy.  Americans sailed across the seas in groups called convoys, which transported the troops to Europe.  The war started to heat up and the Russians broke out in riots because of the war’s impact on the government and society.  Czar Nicholas II abdicated his throne and kick-started the Russian Revolution.  Russians were soon under the authority of a Communist government after Vladmir Lenin, leader of the Bolsheviks, took office.  Another substantial change that Russia faced was the loss of a large expanse of territory with Lenin’s signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany. 

                After the Battle of the Argonne Forest, the Americans punctured through Germany’s defense and caused them to retreat.  The Austria-Hungarian Empire began to break apart into separate countries and Germany experienced changes too when Emperor Kaiser resigned.  Germany became a republic and signed an armistice on the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month in 1918.  Later, the Big Four (Wilson, George, Clemenceau, and Orlando) would come together to help form the Treaty of Versailles.  President Wilson proposed his Fourteen Points, which would be the basis of how the League of Nations was born.  His Fourteen Points were accepted, but America’s senate refused to sign the treaty because they thought this League of Nations would go against the Founding Father’s ideals.