Reviewed by Canon Mike D Williams
President Trump resets the world order. History tells us that it has happened before during World War One. The then President Wilson called for a “peace without victory” and produced a unilateral fourteen-point plan. In October 1918, he conducted bilateral talks with the Germans in Berlin, without coordination with the Entente nations.
President Wilson had been elected in November 1916 to keep America out of the war. He attempted to preserve neutrality and end the war on terms that would place America as the pre-eminent global leader. Money became the point of leverage for the President as the Entente nations struggled to fund the fight and achieve any breakthrough on the battlefield.
Whilst the war ended, Wilson’s efforts to create a new world order were held back by the imperialist old order led by Britain and France. Revolution in Russia, China struggling to achieve a position of strength and the Versailles Treaty not approved by the Senate in Washington are all part of the complicated story. Peace brought a range of economic and political challenges as countries sought to recover and sustain a liberal order.
Adam Tooze provides a very wide and detailed assessment of how the Americans were drawn into the war and the consequent diplomatic and economic consequences that were felt around the world from 1916 through to the Great Depression in the early 1930s. It requires commitment to read the 518 pages with a couple of picture sections, but it is worth the effort. Tooze brings to life many interesting and detailed facts about the interactions between, and within, nations around the world.
There are four sections. First, he explores the ‘Eurasian crisis’ and the dynamics of the war years. Russia, driven by their revolutionary ambitions, agree a unilateral peace with Germany. German U-boats attack America shipping in the Atlantic, drawing them into the war and, in section two, President Wilson tries to impose his peace without a victory plan.
The eventual peace is far from easy to establish and hold. The President is personally involved in the Versailles Treaty and the difficult discussions about reparations. Tooze explores in section three the compliance with the Treaty in Europe and Asia including France forcibly occupying the German Ruhr region to extract coal in part payment to help rebuild. The beleaguered League of Nations sought to hold the peace without the Americans at that table which meant a muted response to the rise of “nightmare forces” of Stalinism, Nazism and Japanese imperialism.
The final section, and the one that informs us about the emergent world order and the rise of Hitler, is perhaps the most interesting. The emergence of communism and fascism, the declining power of Britain and its Empire and a dominant America to whom large debts were owed, the protectionism in trade and subsequent global economic depression all speak to our world today.
Reading history can help put current events in perspective and reminds us that difficult global power struggles are not new.