Fourteen Points Statement by Woodrow Wilson

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On January 8th, 1918, United States President Woodrow Wilson gave his “Fourteen Points” statement, which declared that World War I was being fought for a moral cause and calling for postwar peace in Europe. Most of the time Europeans welcomed Wilson’s intervention, but his allies Georges Clemenceau of France, David Lloyd George of Great Britain, and Vittorio Emanuele Orlando of Italy were all skeptical of the applicability of Wilson’s idealism. The speech Wilson made on January 8th, 1918 laid out a policy (free trade, open agreements, democracy and self-determination). The speech was the only explicit statement of war aims by any of the nations fighting in World War I.

For Wilson’s 1st point he states how there shall be no more secret agreements, “Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.” This point basically says that there shall be no private international understandings of any sort. The public is allowed to see any treaties that have been created.

Wilson’s second point is somewhat similar to the first one because they both allow independence. His second point talks about how people have free navigation of all seas. “Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of international covenants.” This point basically allows freedom of the seas in peace and in war. However, the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action to enforce international covenants.

In his third point he says that all international trade ba...

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...ns. The points that were achieved and put into the Treaty of Versailles were probably points 4,7-14; they were all successfully achieved into the Treaty and a result of American participation in World War I. For instance Germany was to demobilize sufficient soldiers by March 31, 1920, and to leave an army of no more than 100,000 men in a seven maximum and three cavalry divisions. The points that I think weren’t achieved in the treaty were 1-3,5,6.

Works Cited

• "Fourteen Points." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 02 Mar. 2014. Web. 05 Feb. 2014.

• "Fourteen Points." HowStuffWorks. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2014

• "Treaty of Versailles." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 02 Jan. 2014. Web. 05 Feb. 2014.

• "Treaty of Versailles, 1919." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council, 10 June 2013. Web. 04 Feb. 2014.

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