100 Documents That Changed the World

by Scott Christianson

  He continued, ‘All the peoples of the world are in effect partners in this interest, and for our own part we see very clearly that unless justice be done to others it will not be done to us.’

  By promising a just peace, Wilson’s ‘14 Points’ were designed to lessen the Central Powers’ will to fight at a decisive moment in the war. His speech was broadcast on radio throughout the world and German-language copies were dropped behind enemy lines as a propaganda tool.

  Wilson’s proposal helped to prompt peace discussions leading to the Armistice that would occur 11 months later. In 1919, Wilson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.

  Wilson’s original shorthand draft of his ‘14 Points’ speech is kept at the Library of Congress.

  The last three of Wilson’s 14 Points and the conclusion that became a blueprint for world peace: ‘We cannot be separated in interest or divided in purpose. We stand together until the end.’

  The passing of the 19th Amendment was a landmark in American history. Women were finally able to exercise the same rights and responsibilities of citizenship as men.

  19th Amendment

  (1919)

  After eight decades of struggle by women suffragists, an all-male Congress finally passes legislation for a constitutional amendment forbidding the federal government or the states from abridging the right of US citizens to vote based on gender, and it is ratified – yet women are still excluded from an historic signing ceremony.

  The original Constitution of the United States granted the right to vote to only a fraction of adult Americans. Exclusions based on property qualifications, race and gender continued to be permitted for many years, well into the 20th century.

  In 1869, Wyoming became the first state to allow women to vote and in 1871 women’s groups began petitioning Congress to amend the Constitution. A constitutional amendment was introduced seven years later by Sen. Aaron A. Sargent of California, but it did not receive a vote by the full Senate until 1887, when it was rejected by a margin of 34 to 16.

  The movement was revived in the Progressive Era with increased parades, debates and strikes that resulted in many protesters being heckled and jailed. But they persisted. After New York adopted women’s suffrage in 1917, President Wilson removed his opposition and the climate in Congress became less hostile.

  On 21 May 1919, the House of Representatives passed the amendment, and the Senate followed on 4 June. When Tennessee approved the measure on 18 August 1920, marking the necessary ratification by three-quarters of the states, suffragists jubilantly prepared to celebrate their greatest victory. Leaders of the two major suffragist factions urged Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby to hold a formal signing ceremony in front of movie cameras and reporters.

  But Colby insisted on signing the official certification papers in private, without any women or news media present, claiming that he did not want to detract from the ‘dignity’ of the event.

  ‘It was quite tragic,’ said Mrs. Abby Scott Baker of the National Woman’s Party. ‘This was the final culmination of the women’s fight, and, women, irrespective of factions, should have been allowed to be present when the proclamation was signed.’

  For decades at least, the political impact of women’s suffrage turned out to be less significant than many analysts had predicted. African Americans were still excluded in many states and voting remained largely limited to middle-class citizens, with many women voting along the same lines as their spouses. A women’s voting bloc did not emerge until the 1950s.

  Ratification by the southern states was slow in coming. It did not happen in Maryland until 1941; in Virginia, it was 1952; Alabama, 1953; South Carolina and Florida, 1969; Louisiana and Georgia, 1970; North Carolina, 1971; and Mississippi did not ratify the 19th Amendment until 1984.

  Suffragists celebrate in Tennessee on 18 August 1920, as it becomes the all-important 36th state to ratify the amendment. Three-quarters of the states were required for ratification.

  Treaty of Versailles

  (1919)

  After the fighting has stopped, the victors impose harsh settlement terms on Germany for starting the World War; however as one French commander warns, the result is not a recipe for peace but ‘an Armistice for 20 years’ – and the seeds of German resentment are planted.

  By the time the Armistice for the Great War finally occurred at the 11th hour on 11 November 1918, the number of dead was estimated to have reached 16 million and the total wounded was 20 million.

  In January 1919 the Paris Peace Conference was convened at Versailles to set the terms of victory and defeat. Although President Wilson’s high-minded ‘14 Points’ had helped to end the fighting, the formal peace agreement proved harder to achieve. While nearly 30 nations participated, the proceedings were dominated by the ‘Big Four’ (Great Britain, France, the United States and Italy), who often bickered. Russia’s new Bolshevik government was excluded, and Germany and the rest of the vanquished Central Powers had no voice. In the end, the domineering English and French delegations retreated from many of Wilson’s 14 Points in favour of their own nationalistic claims, leaving the Germans feeling they had been tricked.

  The Great War Treaty was signed on 28 June 1919. It penalized Germany for waging aggressive war and imposed measures that were intended to prevent future aggression. Germany accepted responsibility for ‘causing all the loss and damage…as a consequence of the ... aggression of Germany and her allies.’ It also became liable to pay hefty financial reparations to certain Allies, although the actual amount remained to be determined. (The ultimate assessment was 132 billion marks, roughly equivalent to US $442 billion in 2014.)

  Germany also had to relinquish 10 per cent of its prewar territory in Europe and all of its overseas possessions. The German Army and Navy were greatly reduced in size and the nation was prohibited from keeping an air force and submarines. Several top German officials, including Kaiser Wilhelm II, were subject to trial for alleged war crimes. The treaty also included a plan for an international League of Nations that would serve as a forum and security watchdog in keeping with President Wilson’s vision.

  One critic, the French Marshal Ferdinand Foch, warned that the treaty was destined to result in future warfare on the continent. ‘This is not peace,’ he said. ‘It is an armistice for 20 years.’ And many Germans also bitterly resented the terms of the Versailles document and wanted to repudiate it.

  Although American public opinion overwhelmingly supported joining the League, Republicans mounted intense opposition in the Senate and Wilson suffered a debilitating stroke that ended his advocacy. Because the final vote fell short of ratification, the US ended up signing a separate treaty with Germany in 1921, never agreeing to the terms of Versailles or joining the international government its own leader had proposed.

  The treaty and a photograph of the signing in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. It was in the exact same venue, in 1871, that Wilhelm of Prussia was proclaimed Emperor of the German Empire after the French were defeated in the Franco-Prussian War.

  Hitler’s 25 points stated that only those born of German blood could be considered German citizens. His plan declared that Jews should be segregated from Aryan society and stripped of all their political, legal and civil rights.

  Hitler’s 25-Point Programme

  (1920)

  Speaking to a crowd of his cronies in a Munich beer hall, a gaunt and embittered German soldier unveils a list of political demands for his party to follow. Afterwards, he comments on the powerful effect he has had on his audience.

  On 24 February 1920, Adolf Hitler was still drawing his soldier’s pay; his discharge from the army was five weeks away. A veteran of the Great War, who had twice been awarded the Iron Cross, the brooding Austrian seethed with resentment over Germany’s ignominious surrender and its ‘victimization’ in the Treaty of Versailles. Blaming foreigners, Jews and corrupt officials for ‘betraying’ his country, he vowed that strong action must be taken to put the fatherl
and on the right course.

  Working with Anton Drexler, the founder of the German Workers’ Party (DAP), Hitler had drafted a list of demands for the party to espouse. Now he was stepping to the speaker’s platform to unveil the plan.

  The cavernous meeting room of Munich’s noisy Hofbrauhäus was crammed with 2,000 beer-guzzling party members, making it difficult for Hitler to make himself heard. But the 30-year-old Austrian nailed down his 25 points. They included: abrogation of the treaty and more land for an expanding population… the denial of German citizenship to Jews and foreigners… the removal of unfit and corrupt officials and death to all traitors and usurers. ‘[T]he State must assume the responsibility of organizing thoroughly the entire cultural system of the people,’ teaching children the importance of the State… and improving national health. ‘Newspapers transgressing against the common welfare shall be suppressed.’ Action must be taken ‘against those tendencies in art and literature that have a disruptive influence upon the life of our folk.’ Germans must be guided by the principle of ‘COMMON GOOD BEFORE INDIVIDUAL GOOD.’

  To carry out this programme, he said, Germany would need to create ‘a strong central authority in the State.’ The leaders of the party must stop at nothing to achieve these goals, ‘if necessary at the sacrifice of their own lives.’

  No newspaper reported on how Hitler’s remarks were received that day. But afterwards the would-be leader confided that he felt his speech had achieved some strong effect, leading to ‘a new conviction, a new faith, a new will.’

  Two months later, Hitler advocated that the party change its name to the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP or Nazi), which it did. Soon after that he was arrested and convicted for his radical activities. While in prison he wrote a longer version of his twisted ideas, which was published as Mein Kampf.

  The document of 1920 proved to be a harbinger of Hitler’s fateful agenda.

  Uncovering Tutankhamun’s Tomb

  (1922)

  With funding from a wealthy sponsor back in England, a veteran archaeologist and Egyptologist spends years futilely searching for the tomb of a pharaoh known as the ‘boy king’, meticulously recording each step – until he makes a wondrous discovery.

  Howard Carter (1874–1939) had spent the last 30 years digging around Egypt for ancient tombs. As one of the world’s leading experts in the field, he often operated at the behest of the fabulously wealthy collector of antiquities, Lord Carnarvon, who had hired him to supervise his excavations in the Valley of the Kings along the River Nile.

  Carter lived there in a modest mud-brick house as he roamed the area in search of an elusive tomb which he believed might still hold the remains of Tutankhamun, a mysterious pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, who had ruled between 1332 and 1323 BC. King Tutankhamun had taken the throne at the age of nine or 10 and died at about 18, making his story all the more intriguing.

  In 1922, however, Lord Carnarvon informed Carter that he would fund that quest for only one more year unless they struck gold. That time was running out when, on 4 November 1922, Carter’s water boy stumbled across steps in the sand that led to an important burial site. An ebullient Carter immediately wired his employer and the excited Lord Carnarvon soon arrived with his entourage to visit the site.

  Carter’s hands were trembling when he exposed the tomb in Carnarvon’s presence. ‘At first I could see nothing, the hot air escaping from the chamber causing the candle flame to flicker,’ Carter later wrote, ‘but presently, as my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues and gold – everywhere the glint of gold.’ Carter was dumbstruck with amazement, prompting the impatient Lord Carnarvon to ask, ‘Can you see anything?’ The gaping archaeologist eventually composed himself enough to reply, ‘Yes, wonderful things!’

  Together they had uncovered the best preserved and most intact pharaoh’s tomb in the Valley of Kings. A year and a half later, Carter’s team entered the burial chamber to find gold-covered shrines and jewel-studded chests. Raising the lid of Tutankhamun’s sarcophagus revealed a coffin of pure gold that held the mummified remains of the boy, ‘King Tut’. Word of the discovery flashed across the globe, igniting the world’s latest craze and turning Carter into a major celebrity.

  Lord Carnarvon was not so lucky. While in Egypt he suffered a mosquito bite that became infected and he died three weeks later – an event that journalists famously ascribed to the ‘Mummy’s Curse’. The tale became a staple for Hollywood moviemakers. Carter’s journal and subsequent public writings, photographs, and documentary film related details about the 20th century’s most exciting archaeological discovery.

  Howard Carter and one of his assistants examine the body of Tutankhamun. Historians nowadays take a more critical view of the looting of Egypt’s antiquities by colonialist collectors such as Carnarvon and Carter.

  Howard Carter’s diary and notes are part of the Griffith Institute collection at the University of Oxford.

  One of Shreve, Lamb and Harmon’s isometric projections from October 1929. All of the preliminary drawings were completed within two weeks.

  Empire State Building

  (1929–31)

  Conceived and built according to masterful plans, the tallest building of its day shoots up to become the world’s most famous skyscraper – an architectural marvel and astonishing feat of engineering and construction that remains an American icon.

  Oblivious to the impending Great Crash of the stock market, a group of industrialists connected to General Motors banded together in 1929 behind the idea of erecting the world’s tallest building in Manhattan. Their aim was to eclipse the nearby Chrysler Building owned by their competitor. The site at Fifth Avenue between 33rd and 34th Streets had previously been occupied by the exclusive Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, until they tore it down for their new symbol of sky-high American corporate power – the Empire State Building.

  The architecture firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon Associates was chosen to design the colossus. William F. Lamb (1893–1952) produced the drawings in only two weeks, selecting an art-deco style that looked like a pencil. Lamb used earlier designs for the Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and the Carew Tower in Cincinnati, Ohio as inspiration. His design later won several awards, including the gold medal from the Architectural League in 1931.

  From a broad, five-story base covering two acres, the structure would tower 102 stories, rising 1,454 feet to the top of the antenna spire, making it the world’s tallest skyscraper. Another distinctive feature would include windows that were flush instead of recessed.

  The general contractor was Starrett Brothers & Eken, the recognized leader in skyscraper construction. Indeed, one of the brothers, William A. Starrett, had recently authored the book, Skyscrapers and the Men Who Build Them, in which he wrote: ‘Building skyscrapers is the nearest peacetime equivalent of war… The analogy of war is the strife against the elements.’ In 1930–31 the firm compiled a notebook on the project, entitled Notes on Construction of the Empire State Building, consisting of 77 pages of text typed on blue-lined graph paper and put in a three-ring binder. The presentation also included black-and-white photographs mounted with black corners on 32 sheets of brown pressboard. Both the text and the photos provided a detailed, step-by-step account of the building process for the historic skyscraper.

  Starting in the early years of the Great Depression, the project employed as many as 3,400 construction workers on any single day, many of them immigrants from Europe, as well as hundreds of fearless Mohawk Indian iron workers. At least five workers died during the frenetic building.

  The whole project took an amazing 20 months, from the signing of the first architectural contract in September 1929 to the formal opening on 1 May 1931; the construction was completed in an astonishing 410 days. The final cost was $40,948,900 (equivalent to $635,021,563 in 2015). As of 2007, it was still the second-largest single office complex in the US after the Pen
tagon. Immortalized in innumerable books and movies, it was most famously scaled by King Kong, who fended off attacking planes from its celestial spire in 1933.

  On 24 April 1930 the building was two stories high. A year later it would be complete.

  Edward VIII’s Instrument of Abdication

  (1936)

  After refusing to back out of the scandal over his intention to marry an American divorcé, England’s bachelor king sits down at his desk to sign a historic document. With a few strokes of a pen he will announce his intent to become the first British monarch to voluntarily abdicate his throne.

  Edward VIII (1894–1972) became King of England upon the death of his father, George V, on 20 January 1936, though he had not yet been crowned.

  But when the 41-year-old bachelor revealed his wish to marry a divorced American woman named Wallis Warfield Simpson, whose second divorce was still pending, he faced staunch disapproval. Religious, legal and political objections were raised. As nominal head of the Church of England, King Edward came up against the Church’s longstanding policy barring any divorced person from remarriage if his or her ex-spouse was still alive. And there were other impediments as well.

  Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin told him that Mrs. Simpson wasn’t fit to be queen. Amid the many rumours swirling about her alleged adulterous affairs, J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI secretly reported that the woman was romantically involved with Germany’s then-Ambassador Joachim von Ribbentrop; and the American ambassador, Joseph Kennedy, described her as a ‘tart’.