North America 1919: Treaty of Versailles

US involvement helped the Allies win the Great War in 1918. The next year, Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles, acknowledging its guilt in starting the War. Among the Allied signatories was Canada, which had begun to assert its independence from Britain. The US senate, on the other hand, refused to either ratify the Treaty or help guarantee the peace under the newly formed League of Nations, despite President Woodrow Wilson's pivotal role in its construction, marking the beginning of two decades of American isolationism.

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Main Events

14 Jun 1917 U.S. First Expeditionary Division ▲

The first units of the United States First Expeditionary Division sailed from New York City and Hoboken for the Western Front in Europe. Despite arriving in June 1917, the American Expeditionary Force would not enter combat until late October. in wikipedia

Aug 1917 Sugar Intervention ▲

In the “Sugar Intervention”, United States marines occupied Oriente province, Cuba, at the formal request of Mario García Menocal’s Cuban government to train in a warm climate. However, the real reason for Menocal’s request was to provide security to sugar plantations in the wake of anti-government insurrections. The intervention lasted until 1922. in wikipedia

7–8 Nov 1917 October Revolution ▲

On 7 November (25 October Old Style) 1917, Bolshevik Red Guards, led by Leon Trotsky, mounted an armed insurrection in Petrograd, capital of the Russian Republic, capturing several government buildings. The following day they seized the Winter Palace, the seat of Alexander Kerensky’s Provisional Government. The Bolsheviks declared a new government, the Council of People’s Commissars, with Vladimir Lenin as its head. Simultaneously and over the following days, other Bolshevik uprisings took place in towns and cities across Russia. in wikipedia

11 Mar 1918–? ?? 1919 Spanish Flu in North America ▲

On 11 March 1918, a patient at Fort Riley, Kansas, was diagnosed with a new strain of influenza; similar cases were soon reported across the United States. Which country the flu ultimately came from was uncertain, but, by the end of 1918, it had spread across the world. The pandemic would kill up to 675,000 in the US, 50,000 in Canada, and large but uncertain numbers in Mexico and the Caribbean. in wikipedia

15 Aug 1918 US troops arrive in Siberia ▲

The first troops of American Expeditionary Force Siberia arrived in Vladivostok 15 August 1918. in wikipedia

11 Nov 1918 Armistice of Compiègne ▲

At 5am Paris time, Germany signed an armistice with the Allies in railway carriage No. 2419 D at Compiègne, France, to end its involvement in World War I. The armistice went into effect at 11am and, although not a formal surrender, demanded that the Germans withdraw their troops to behind their own borders, renounce the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, release all prisoners, promise to pay reparations, and surrender their fleet and materials. in wikipedia

28 Jun 1919 Treaty of Versailles ▲

Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles, officially ending its state of war with the Allied Powers. The treaty required Germany to accept War Guilt, disarm, cede 65,000 square km of territory containing 7 million people to its neighbors, and pay considerable reparations (assessed to be 132 billion Marks in 1921). in wikipedia