Civ 1919: Treaty of Versailles 13 – The Economic Consequences of the Peace

Jon Elmer joins. We discuss the beginning of the third Ceasefire in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

Reading the first two chapters of Michael Hudson’s Superimperialism, we study the transformation of the world financial system after World War I. That transformation is driven by a surprising decision by the US to insist on repayment of its loans to its allies, which in turn leads the allies (UK and France) to insist on … Continue reading "Interwar 1919-1931 episode 1:The Looting System"

A final roundup of critics of the Treaty of Versailles, including some big names.

Yves Engler is a lifelong Palestine activist – fighting Canada’s complicity in the Gaza genocide – who is running for leadership of Canada’s New Democratic Party. We talk about the platform of policies that Yves is presenting in the run for the nomination, including Land Back, Anticolonization, Anti-Imperialism, and Socialism.

The second-last episode on the Treaty of Versailles 1919 is about Keynes’s critique of the treaty, the Economic Consequences of the Peace. What he got right, what he got wrong, critics of him at the time, and the impact of his book on the way the Interwar period unfolded.

Was the treaty too hard on Germany? German, English, and American reactions after 1919.

Details of how Ataturk foiled the imperialists’ final plans to partition Anatolia. Once he secured Turkey, he modernized it and it became a model that other Central Asian countries tried to emulate (with varying degrees of success). Here’s why this secular leader is still revered in Turkey a century later.

On November 2, 1917, England’s foreign secretary sent a letter to an English Baron, declaring that the land of Palestine, which was in the process of being taken militarily from the Ottoman Empire by England, would be given to the Jewish people as their homeland. Known to history as the Balfour Declaration, the first draft … Continue reading "Civ 1919 – Treaty of Versailles 10: England gives Palestine to the Zionists"

Carl Zha joins for our occasional Kung Fu Yoga series where we talk about India and China. Trump’s slapped new tariffs on India and given China another break. We go back to the Independence era, talk about Import Substitution Industrialization vs Export-Led Growth, the Chip War, the short India-Pakistan war a few months ago, and … Continue reading "AER 150: Kung Fu Yoga with Carl Zha on the new Trump Tariffs"

Mustafa Kemal foils the Great Powers’ plan to carve up Anatolia, but they do tear up the Arab lands. The fate of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, where local elites’ belief in the Fourteen Points were crushed by the Powers as they set the table for Zionism and neocolonial mandates.