![]() (The aim of cloture is to end debate and effectively make proceedings “filibuster proof.”) Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution gives Senate the power to ratify treaties a two-thirds majority is required. On November 15, 1919, the Senate invoked cloture for the first time in U.S. While Lodge’s dissent was in some ways politically motivated-he a Republican, Wilson a Democrat-much of what he took issue with dealt with the treaty’s dividing and delegating power away from the United States. In response, Republican Senator Henry Cabot Lodge penned his “reservations” about the treaty. The Treaty of Versailles was heavily modeled on Wilson’s Fourteen Points. presidents would eventually enter European palaces again. As evidenced by events ranging from the Vienna Summit to President Barack Obama’s visit to robe-clad Prince George earlier this spring, U.S. Still, despite Congress’ isolationist agenda, globalism would ultimately prevail. Set against the palaces of a once absolutist Europe, the treaty wasn’t well regarded by a constitutionally minded Congress. The Allied Powers were victorious, but America didn’t adopt the treaty. With no more teeth than the Kellogg-Briand Pact, the document forbidding war that would be introduced less than a decade later, Wilson’s plan was never adopted.Įxactly five years after Franz Ferdinand’s assassination, on June 28, 1919, the war ended in a treaty signed at Versailles, the famous French palace. ![]() ![]() However, the ideals promoted were as lofty as they were impractical. Democratic and classically liberal, they called for freedom of the seas, restoration of territories and a strong League of Nations where no one power was dominant. Wilson’s Fourteen Points, then, should have been well received. With causalities estimating more than 38 million, World War I proved one of the deadliest conflicts in human history. They did so on Decemand the United States followed its British allies “ over there” to engage in combat and trench warfare. territory, President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war against the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1917, following the sinking of the Lusitania, a passenger ship with 128 Americans on board, including Alfred Vanderbilt, and the uncovering of an aggressive Zimmerman Telegram, in which Germany tempted Mexico with U.S. In reality, the times were hostile and few players could plead blameless. The “war to end all wars” seemed to be capable of resolving territorial claims in Asia and Africa between European powers, not to mention an excellent stage on which a newly unified Germany could flex its military muscle. As binding alliances and an arms race had been building for years, increasing displays of nationalism and imperialism created a hotbed for aggression. Giesel had been instructed that, “however the Serbs react to the ultimatum, you must break off relations and it must come to war,” due to the growing tensions which plagued all of Europe, not merely the “ Sick Man.” Historians generally agree the assassination was the immediate cause of war, more the final straw than anything else. Yet even before Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, Europe was far from peaceful. In what is known today as the July Crisis, a series of ultimatums and forged alliances resulted in the declaration of World War I. The result was an ultimatum issued by Wladimir Giesl, the Austro-Hungarian minister in Belgrade. Shot by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip, Ferdinand and wife Sophie died later that day. Perhaps it was in that very room on June 28, 1914, that Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph received word of his heir apparent Franz Ferdinand’s assassination in Sarajevo. Yet before Kennedy met the Soviet premier, and his fate in Dallas, an assassination nearly a half-century earlier would change history. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev would meet in the palace’s Great Gallery during the Vienna Summit. Sumptuous and decadent in the Baroque and Rococo styles, the Hapsburg family’s summer retreat looks not a thing like the rustic Camp David or the rambling Kennedy compound at Hyannis Port. There is a palace in Vienna called Schönbrunn. Gavrilo Princip killing Archduke Franz Ferdinand (credit: Wikimedia Commons)
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