With World War One coming to an end, all of the major world power leaders met for the first big peace meeting. President Wilson had come up with the idea that he thought would become the start of everlasting peace throughout the world. He called it his Fourteen Points, and believed that they were brilliant. Others, however, thought otherwise and were skeptical of these Fourteen Points. Much so that a lot of these points were never even put into use. Wilson surrendered many of his points in order to pass what he thought was the best shot for world peace: his fourteenth point, or better known as the League of Nations. The League of Nations was a committee of nations that promoted worldwide peace and cooperation with one another. It was intended to be an international group discussion designed to talk about diplomatic crises like the ones that provoked the First World War. The League of Nations was indeed one of the best options for maintaining peace and preventing war at the time. It was a must for the United States to join. The original idea supporting the start of the League of Nations was that countries should discuss and fix major issues by discussing it rather than going to war. Its purpose was intended to reinforce the relationships between the countries and improve the cooperation amongst them. As a result, this would eventually create a world of peace with no war. If there had been a system like this in place before the start of the First World War, It would have helped tremendously in stopping the war. Many countries were fighting over the Balkland Peninsula before the start of WWI. Russia was trying to obtain access to the Mediterranean Sea, and Austria Hungary had taken control of Bosnia in 1878 ... ... middle of paper ... ... that it would limit the right of our people to rule themselves free from all restriction, legal or moral, of foreign powers. Wilson assured congress that the League would not hold such power and explained that the League was not a constraint, but a vehicle of life. Despite Wilson’s hard efforts, congress was still indifferent about it and ended up not approving the League of Nations. The League of Nations was the world’s greatest choice for building the foundation of a lasting peace. The US Congress did not see it like that, but rather as a threat to our nation’s rules. They even went as far as declaring that the League would revoke the Declaration of Independence. Not only could war have been prevented, but a peaceful and cooperative society could have been the result if the US and the rest of the world powers would have joined the League of Nations.
On January 8, 1918 Wilson presented to Congress his speech The Fourteen Points. This was a plan for freedom and peace after the war (http://www.angelfire.com/in3/wilson/wilson.html). Without going into details of the entire Fourteen Points, a quote from u-s-history.com list the following:
As part of his fourteen points, Wilson proposed formation of a body that will be assigned to handle international disputes which was later named League of
The League of Nations did not prevent another World War due to numerous different reasons. First of all, the League of Nations whole identity was to maintain peace, discourage aggression from any nation, and to inspire other countries to cooperate especially in the field of trading different resources. One of the main ideas involved in the non-prevention of another war by the League of Nations was the Treaty of Versailles. The League of Nation was fully responsible for the process of the treaty going through the International Court of Justice. One the treaty was signed, Germany was reprimanded unethically. The Germans soon started cheating and developed military forces like submarines in the region of the Netherlands and placed tanks in Russia.
Following World War I, President Woodrow Wilson became the mastermind for the creation of an international organization (Dudley 72). Eventually he was successful in the creation of the League of Nations and fighting for it to become a part of the Treaty of Versailles (Dudley 72). Although the League became a point in the Treaty of Versailles, the United States still had to ratify the Treaty to become a part of the League themselves (Dudley 76). Americans became split about whether the United States should have a place in the League or not, and the U.S. Senate had a decision to make (Dudley 76). On one side of the argument was a Democratic senator of California, James D. Phelan (Dudley 74). Mr. Phelan believed that the United States should join the League of Nations because it is the duty of the U.S. to uphold our ideals and support Democracy (Dudley 76). However, on the opposing side of this argument was people like Lawrence Sherman, a Republican senator from Illinois (Dudley 76). Mr. Sherman felt that the United States should not join the League of Nations because that would go against the policies of isolationism he felt the U.S. should follow, and he believed that the League of Nations would bring America too much into the conflicts of Europe (Dudley 76).
World War I, or the Great War, lasted from 1914 to 1918. In harsh battles between some of the world’s strongest economic powers, millions of people were killed and wounded. Woodrow Wilson was the President of the United States during these years, and he yearned for peace. Towards the end of the conflict, Wilson delivered a speech called “Fourteen Points” on January 8, 1918. His goal in doing so was to create some stability in a time of crisis. Even though the leaders of some countries did not jump on board right away, they eventually agreed to signing the Treaty of Versailles, officially ending the war. Through emphasizing peace, security, and freedom, President Woodrow Wilson’s “Fourteen Points” paid off overall, ultimately revealing that
What started with an assassination of an Austrian prince unpopular in with royalty in Vienna and plotters in Belgrade ended in war. Four years of artillery, machine guns, and poison gas had ruined the countryside of Europe. Woodrow Wilson put the blame for dead millions at the feet of secret diplomacy, excessive armament, imperialism, and the lack of international cooperation. His plan for a lasting peace was presented to the world in the form of the Fourteen Points, some of which were present in the final plan for peace, the Treaty of Versailles, which faced internal opposition at home. It was the strength of this opposition, from self or fawning-historian labeled "progressives" to conservatives and isolationists, in conjunction with the intractability and incompetence of President Wilson that encouraged the Senate defeat of the Treaty of Versailles.
In 1919 Woodrow Wilson wrote a statement to Henry Cabot Lodge the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in order to convince him to be in favor of the League of Nations. Woodrow Wilson believed, that the League of Nations was the best way for achieving an equitable peace for all the nations in the world. He said, that the United States should not interfere in any case, where one nation has their own restriction. In addition, Wilson mentioned that the United States is not going to be involved with immigration, tariff or naturalization of other nations, because each country have their own rights to deal with those question. Moreover, Wilson established that the United States will have to agree to “respect and persevere as against
Wilson’s idealism further resulted in the Europeans nations having a challenge to pursue the fourteen elements, predominantly the issue of self-governance which prevailed throughout most of the points. In reading the article, one might quickly conclude that the Allies favored all aspects of self-governance without partiality and/or favor but presumably this was not the case, as there were a lot of biases to it. Self-governance was in favor of self-interest for the US; this is evident in point five which states that “all decisions regarding the colonies should be impartial”. Basically, this has in fact restricted self-governance for most nations, by interchanging the European rule in a more discrete manner. A few countries, for example Poland was allowed independence, whereas others were being denied, as a consequence they became mandates. The meat of the matter was that the fifth proposal allowed the Allies a greater advantage of controlling colonialism in particular Great Britain. This whole issue of self-governa...
&., 2005, p. 67) , the United States Congress refused to cooperate with America joining the League and viewed Woodrow Wilsons idea of the League and his foreign policy as too ‘ideational’. With the absence of the US rendering the League without access to Americas forceful military and economic power- which left the Covenants ability stated within Article 16 to “institute economic or military sanctions against a recalcitrant state” (Orjinta, 2010, p. 10) considerably weaker- German, Japanese and Italian dictatorships rejected the sovereignty of the League (Wilkinson, 2007, p. 86). Yet although it can be agreed the League failed in regards to its main purpose of maintaining peace and security, it did however provide a desire among states for an Intergovernmental Organisation (IGO) to ‘recognise that it is in their [governments] national interests to obtain multilateral agreements and pursue actions to deal with threats, challenges, or problems that cannot be dealt with effectively at the unilateral level’ (Wilkinson, 2007, p. 79). From this perspective, the League of Nations opened up a place for the United Nations to thus continue on a path of maintaining peace in an improved and effective manner. It is true that the UN Charter commandeered elements of the Leagues
The Treaty of Versailles was a treaty created at the end of World War I, in hopes of establishing peace among nations. Although it sought after harmony, the United States’ Senate refused to ratify the treaty due to the distasteful idea of the United States’ involvement in the League of Nations, and Woodrow Wilson’s unwillingness to compromise with Henry Cabot Lodge’s revisions of The Treaty of Versailles.
The League of Nations sounds like a superhero team and in a sense, the goal that The League was trying to achieve could have been something straight out of a comic book. Originally proposed by President Woodrow Wilson during World War I, The League was born after some alterations. The League of Nations’ main intention was to bring an end to the war and prevent another one of the same atrocious proportions from happening in the future. Forty zealous countries joined this fight, but the most powerful country of all was not among them: The United States of America. While many Americans agreed with the goal of The League, many did not and those that did not were ones in power. The portion of the “mission statement” for The League that caused
Wilson's 14 Points vs. the Treaty of Versailles. When the peace processes were to start after the end of World War One, there were four people who were major components in the treaty of Paris: Clemenceau, George, Orlando, and Wilson. Clemenceau wanted revenge on the Germans by punishing them through the treaties because he believed that they were at fault for the war; George was in agreement with Clemenceau although he did not feel that Germany should suffer severe punishment; Orlando who wanted the irredenta to be re-established; and President Wilson of the United States of America wanted to create a mild peace with Germany in a fair way. In view of this, Wilson created fourteen points that he wanted accomplished in full as a result of the peace treaties. His fourteen points were his plan for a world peace and included plans for the end of secret treaties, freedom of the seas, free trade, arms reduction, the just settlement of colonial claims, the establishment of a League of Nations, and the evacuation of occupied territories and national self-determination.
In the United States the league was met with fierce opposition from those who thought it unwise to enter America into a collective organization, which would restrict its power and influence. Congress especially concerned with Article X, which morally bound the U.S. to aid any member of the League of Nations that was victimized by aggression, and revoke...
Wilson believed that peace could be obtained through diplomacy, and this is exhibited through his address to a joint session of Congress on the Conditions of Peace. Wilson states, “What we demand in this war….is that the world be made fit and safe to live in; particularly that it be made safe for every peace-loving nation.” Wilson believed that the fourteen points that he addressed to that joint session of Congress would lead the world to a happier, safer world, a peaceful world. He first points out that all “covenants of peace” (Wilson) should proceed in the eyes of everyone. Secondly, he points out that there should be “absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas” (Wilson) during a time of war or peace. For his third point, he states that should be a decrease in trade barriers and an “establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace” (Wilson). For his fourth point, he believes that there should be a reduction in the amount of “national armaments…to the l...
The League of Nations was an international organisation formed in 1920 with its primary objective being to uphold world peace and promote collective security. This was based on the idea that if one of the League’s members was invaded, the other countries would stand up against the aggressor together. The League had a variety of successes, including settling the Aaland Islands dispute between Sweden and Finland, as well as failures, such as the Corfu incident between Greece and Italy.