The Treaty of Versailles, as the most substantial document in the twentieth century, was supposed to end future wars and to bring in new world order, as the treaty tried to change the unequal treatments regarding gender, class and race in the prewar period (p.66-67). However, it instead planted seeds for subsequent escalated conflicts and hostilities and kept the world enmeshed in the imperialism-centered system. Many reasons caused the ineffectiveness of the treaty. In The Treaty of Versailles: A Concise History, Michael Neiberg provides detailed narratives from the aspects of complex world of 1919, the players, their respective considerations and the political environment to account for the dysfunction of the treaty. To begin the book, Neiberg …show more content…
France’s Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, Great Britain’s Prime Minister David Lloyd George and American President Woodrow Wilson were collectively called The Big Three and took charge of the setup of the new world order. However, they did not share fundamental goals for the post-war world. While France wanted to keep self-safety in Europe and Britain thought about imperial expansion, Wilson tried hard to spread his Fourteen Points across the globe and to build a supranational institution to maintain the new world order. Several factors constrained the full function of his vision. For Europe, Wilson’s shallow understanding of the region and his arrogant attitude made his plan unacceptable for approval among European leaders. His idealism resulted in his failure to utilize the most effective weapon, America’s status as creditor of Europe, to push Europe to regard participation in the League of Nations as an obligation, rather than a right that European powers could use to bargain for more benefits. Instead, Wilson hoped all countries would voluntarily accept his idea. While for non-European nations, Wilson’s vision of self-determination was set up in the context of racism and power politics. As evidence, the Big Three ignored the position of Japan, the only Asian …show more content…
President Wilson was eager to establish a new world order based on his Fourteen Points. Therefore, he, together with other European leaders, supported the establishment of new nations in order to fill the gap that was left by the collapsed empires. However, these new nations could not completely fulfill this political task because of their sizes and interrelated tensions. Race/ethnicity was used by Wilson to define a nation and to decide who was qualified to be included in national borderlines. Yet, the diverse and heterogeneous nature of Europe made Wilson’s vision hard to practice. Instead, it reinforced the distinction between self and others and fostered a hostile atmosphere on the ruins of previous
...n and defeated, Wilson believed firmly that his vision of America leading a world community of nations would eventually be embraced by the American people. Twenty-five years later, the United Nations built its headquarters in New York, a tangible symbol of the bipartisan support that Wilsonian ideals had gained after a second world war. But Wilson's legacy was not confined to foreign policy. His progressive domestic programs helped stabilize and humanize a huge industrial system, and his success in making the presidency the intellectual and political leader of the American government enabled the United States to deal effectively with the challenges and threats of the modern world. But don't forget the credit of Roosevelt's "New Imperialism", it became the hallmark of American foreign policy in the new century, positioning America as the leader of the western alliance.
In 1919, Lloyd George of England, Orlando of Italy, Clemenceau of France and Woodrow Wilson from the US met to discuss how Germany was to be made to pay for the damage caused in World War One. This produced the creation of the Treaty of Versailles. German people were unhappy with this. They couldn’t afford to pay the money because they were really poor after the war. The only solution they had was to choose a man who promises to rip up the treaty. His name was Adolf Hitler, the man who started the World War II and generated an incredible change in many countries where United States was included. “This is a challenge to all American people, but to none of them more directly than to its women. They hold the key position of national defense” remarked (N.R).
Link’s book was published in 1979 and was written based upon privet manuscript collections, government archives from the U.S, Brittan, France and Germany, as well as newspapers. Link also reaches from monographs, biographies, and articles from numerous colleagues. (Link.pg 129) Each of these sources are solid and reliable sources, and were well used to put together a book packed with information on Woodrow Wilson’s life. Link uses many firsthand accounts from Wilson himself, but seems almost suspicious of accounts that were not presented first hand. Though Link is extremely selective in what he chose to present, the book clearly presents these facts, but has a very bias opinion of Wilson as discussed earlier. Link’s evidence, though selective, fits nicely in the monograph and makes the aspects of Wilson that he does cover clear and easy to read
There is no excuse for the horrible things Nazi Germany did during World War II. But one can get a better idea how that war started by learning about how World War I ended. The Treaty of Versailles was created by the winners of World War I, like France, Great Britain, and the United States, to make peace. So how did it help contribute to an even worse war less than twenty years later? It was mainly because it was too hard on Germany’s territory, military, economy, and national pride.
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924) was the 28th President of the United States, in office from 1913 to 1921. After being victorious in World War I, Wilson outlined his vision of world peace through his “Fourteen Points” speech delivered to Congress in January 1918. It called for a "new diplomacy". No more secret treaties, like the ones that had pulled the world into war. Also all territories occupied during the war must be evacuated. Wilson wanted to stop imperialism in many of the countries and declaring them to immediate independence. He also proposed a general disarmament after the war. Other points included freedom of the seas at all times and free trade all over the world. Wilson stressed that the seas were neutral passageways for international business such as trade and that it is meant to be peaceful and scarce from threats. But Wilson's most important proposal, the fourteenth point, called for a league of nations open to all democratic states. This new world body would be in charge of disarmament and the dismantling of colonial possessions. Most impo...
The Origins of the Second World War, by A.J.P. Taylor, proposes and investigates unconventional and widely unaccepted theories as to the underlying causes of World War Two. Taylor is a British historian who specialized in 20th century diplomacy, and in his book claims that as a historian his job is to “state the truth” (pg. xi) as he sees it, even if it means disagreeing with existing prejudices. The book was published in 1961, a relatively short time after the war, and as a result of his extreme unbias the work became subject to controversy for many years. Studying history through his lens of objectivism, Taylor’s theory is that Hitler’s design wasn’t one of world dominance; rather his methods, especially his foreign policies, didn’t differ from his predecessors.
President Woodrow Wilson had hopes for a New World. For Wilson, the war had been fought against autocracy. A peace settlement based on liberal-democratic ideals, he hoped, would get rid of the foundations of war. None of Wilson's hopes seemed better than the idea of self-determination -- the right of a people to have its own state, free of any foreign domination. In particular, this goal meant the return of Alsace and Lorraine to France which had been lost to Germany in the Franco-Prussian war, the creation of an independent Poland, the changing of the frontiers of Italy to include Austrian lands where Italians lived, and an opportunity for Slavs of the Austro- Hungarian Empire to form their own states.
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...
It was supposed to be a layout for peace and negotiations after the end of World War 1. It included free world trade and free access to the oceans. He clashed several times with George Clemeneau and David Lloyd George over how the defeated powers should be dealt with. The last of the Fourteen Points was the League of Nations, the basis of the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles was one of the treaties that ended World War 1 and forced Germany to take responsibility for her actions. Wilson campaigned across the country in order to gain favor for this treaty, and ended up collapsing and becoming bedridden after a stroke. The League of Nations was proposed by Wilson, but Congress didn’t approve it, so America never joined. In an attempt to spread Democracy, Wilson sent the Marines to Haiti and the Dominican Republic during their revolutions, but he failed to make Democratic states. Wilson also led the Philippines to the road of independence. It was said that the reason Wilson sent troops to Russia was because of how against communism he was. He was very motivated to making the world safe for democracy and was willing to do anything for it. Although Wilson became very ill while this was going on, he tried his hardest to make things work and was able to succeed in many ways, as shown above. He wanted to spread the ideas of the Fourteen Points, so he traveled through Europe, France, and
Not unlike the man himself, Wilson’s Fourteen Points were liberal, democratic and idealistic. Herein lies the main weaknesses of the Points in both Speech and Legislature. His elocution consisted of exceedingly grand and aspiring terms, but was far less certain of the specifics of how his aims would be achieved. It sounds hard to believe, but Wilson had to rigorously compete with the leaders of the other Allied nations, many of whom disagreed with the Fourteen Points and demanded numerous, punitive sanctions against Germany and their allies. The stress and pressure of the trip weighted so heavily on Wilson that he suffered a stroke, handicapping the rest of his
Wilson’s Fourteen Points was a peace program Wilson delivered to Congress; used for peace negotiations leading to the end of World War I (Textbook pg. 568). The League of Nations was an organization in which the nations of the world would join and ensure safety to all members. Only some of Wilson’s Points were successful and The Treaty of Versailles was not ratified. Also The United States failed to join the League of Nations because president Wilson was unwilling to compromise.
The Treaty of Versailles, one of the most controversial international agreements(“D.1. The Treaty of Versailles."), had been negotiated between January and June of 1919 (History. Staff). Although it was negotiated between January and June, the Treaty of Versailles was officially signed on June 28, 1919 (Hashall) at Versailles, a suburb of Paris (Benson). This treaty involved Germany and all allies of World War I (Benson). The peace agreement was established to aid in the termination of World War I.
The Treaty of Versailles is an example of how the neglect of principles proposed by the Catholic Church, namely social restoration, just accords, long-term security and physical reconstruction, can lead to lasting global repercussions and future wars. The sanctions were enforced in the hope of slowing German recovery and eliminating future conflict. However, the United States didn’t sign this treaty because we recognized that it didn’t give the Germans a fair deal or promote long-term security (Treaty).
McKillen, Elizabeth. “The Unending Delete Over Woodrow Wilson and the League of Nations.” Diplomatic History. Nov. (2003): 711-716.
It has been almost a century since the first Paris Peace Conference was hold, but even until now, it is a popular yet also controversial event in the history of the world. The Paris Peace Conference took place in 1919 involving more than 1,000 representatives from over 30 nations. The results of the Conference are five treaties regarding terms that, according to the Conference, shall prevent any upcoming conflicts among nations. Although World War II started only after 15 years, nonetheless, the treaties did function as a buffer between countries. Although many resolutions were discussed, the negotiation of the Conference revolves around four main topics, reparation from the previous war losses or limitations on the main Central Power, Germany, self-recognition, President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points, and the annexation of land.