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Speech on the fourteen points woodrow wilson analysis
US entry into WWI
What are the 14 points of woodrow wilson
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In 1917, the United States entered World War I on the side of the Allies. Previously angered by such events as the sinking of “Lusitania”, American President Woodrow Wilson led the nation to war after learning of the Zimmermann Telegram and Germany's resumption of UNRESTRICTED SUBMARINE WARFARE! As the war came to a close with an Allies victory, President Woodrow Wilson devised a core list of points which stressed self-determination of people, free trade, and open diplomacy. Wilson believed that it could serve as the basis for a peace agreement between the fighting European nations and the United States. Going before a session of Congress on January 8, 1918, Wilson outlined American intentions and presented his ideas as the Fourteen Points. He believed that international acceptance of the points would lead to a just and lasting peace.
The first of his fourteen points was the restriction of secret agreements between nations. This point was rejected by other leaders at the Paris Peace conference as the British and French made private understandings as the meeting went on. However, I believe that the motivation for making this point stemmed from an important event during WWI. This event is known as the “Zimmerman Telegram”. Infuriating Americans, German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmerman secretly proposed a German-Mexican alliance, tempting Mexico with promises of recovering Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico from the United States. This event nearly catapults the United States into the war against Germany. It’s only logical that Woodrow Wilson would include a point such as this to protect the United States and other nations from secret deals such as this one.
Wilson’s second point was absolute freedom of navigat...
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...nt. Unfortunately, Wilson couldn’t rally enough votes in Senate or the Public to get America into the League at the time, American influence had created a global government that Wilson thought would bring peace to the fighting Europeans. It did for a short time, but it wasn’t until long in the future until this League of Nations (Today known as the United Nations) adopted countries such as the U.S. and started making decisions as one unit instead of a lot of countries.
Even though most of them were not accepted into the Treaty of Versailles, the Fourteen Points were an earnest step in the direction of peace for winners and losers of WW1 after German surrender, even though British and French leaders rejected most of them. However, the points that were accepted were drafted by Americans and obtained as a result of the United States’ decision to enter the war in 1917.
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:
... to be President afterwards. His unwillingness to compromise with the Senate caused the Treaty of Versailles along with the League of Nations never to be ratified by the United States. The notion of the League of Nations that won Wilson a Noble Peace Prize in 1920 was never joined his own country.
Mobilizing a Nation: America’s Entry Into World War I. Works Cited Missing Woodrow Wilson delivered his now-famous War Message to Congress on April 4, 1917. Four days later, Congress declared war and the United States became a formal partner in the war to end all wars. As the Wilson administration discovered, however, declaring war and making war were two very different propositions. The former required only an abstract statement of ideals and justifications and a two-thirds Congressional majority; the latter required the massive mobilization of virtually every sector of American society - military, industrial, and economic, as well as public opinion.
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 United States hoped to stay out of the way because war was viewed as wasteful, irrational, and immoral. There was no reason for the U.S. to intervene with European affairs. In addition, Wilson was aware of the huge immigrant populations whom have come to the United States just recently from those nations currently at war. Many immigrants, such as the Irish, would not support the war because of their previous hatred toward Great Britain.
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
When War broke out in Europe in 1914 Wilson determined it was in the best interest of the United States to stay out of the conflict. In spite of the fact that president Wilson hoped to stay out of the war and wanted peace, in mid 1917 German submarines started attacking U.S. dealerships. On April 2, 1917, Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany, stating,“The world must be made safe for democracy.(History.com Staff)” In the following year and a half the United States constructed a army of 4 million men by enrollment, and sent 2 million men abroad to France, and joined the whole populace behind the war effort. After the war Wilson went before Congress in January 1918, to enunciate American war aims - the Fourteen Points, the last of which would establish "A general association of nations... affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.(Duffy)”Woodrow Wilson did a good job in when joining the war finishing it in a rather fast manner and then quickly making sure a conflict like this never happened
When the details of the treaty were published in June 1919 most Germans were horrified. Germany had not been allowed to the Peace Conference and was told to accept the terms or else. Most Germans however, had believed that the Treaty would be lenient because of Wilson's Fourteen Points.
The United States (US) President Woodrow Wilson “Fourteen Points” speech was initially thought to be an acceptable proposal for peace following the First World War; however, they sparked many controversial issues and were not readily accepted by all the nations involved. His idealistic views were in favor of American Foreign Policies, Allied bias and additional powers in Western Europe. The Fourteen Points were less beneficial to the problem that Europe was encountering and more favorable to the Allied Powers, as the United States main focus was to become a more dominant nation, while the Great Britain wanted more rule over the seas and France on the other hand was seeking vengeance.
On April 2nd 1917, President Woodrow Wilson of the United States of America, ??went before Congress and called for a declaration of war. Both the House and the Senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of going to war with Germany.?# This was an act that led to much resistance among the American people. Not four months earlier the American people re-elected President Wilson, partly because of his success in keeping the United States out of this European war. However, a series of events, such as the Germans continuing submarine warfare and the attacks on five American ships, led President Wilson to sever diplomatic relations with Germany and send the United States into what would be labeled as World War I. As a result of the war the
If you think about it, throughout the course of several years a country could possibly run into hundreds of disputes and small wars. If America had to come to that country’s aid time and time again, it could get very draining on the population, economy, and government. Joining The League may also have allowed foreign hands to grasp hold of America and possibly try to take over. If one of the countries had tried this, there would have been another, very large war much sooner than
Many of his points were carried out in the Treaty of Versailles, although not all of them were successful or followed completely. Wilson's fourth point in his plan was the reduction of national armaments. He stated that there should be "adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments [would] be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety." In the Treaty of Versailles, it was stated that the German army was to be limited to 100,000 and that Germany was not allowed to draft its citizens or to have an air force. Also, Germany was no longer allowed to operate submarines because of the unrestricted submarine warfare that they had displayed during the war, and their naval ships were limited in size and in the amount that they were permitted to own.
United States President Woodrow Wilson was horrified by the crimes committed by “civilized” nations and set idealistic goals for peace in his “Fourteen Points Address” (which included the League). President Wilson was willing to bargain with hostile Great Britain and France to ensure that the League would be created, resulting in the War Guilt Clause (Germany would take blame for the War and would pay a debt of thirty-three billion dollars). Ironically, the United States would vote against entering into the league.
Lenin’s decree states good points on how to achieve a brief period of peace and opens it up to negotiations on how to alter the decree to better serve the purpose of peace. The Fourteen Points directly say exactly what Wilson believes is needed and is included in his declaration of entering the war. The Fourteen Points possibly would have been the best plan for the world and did help with the good aspects of the conclusion of the war; however, every country in Europe had it’s own agenda that did not adhere to the wants of the foreign United States of America. In the course of human history, what is best for the people of the world is not what transpires and this is evidently seen in the ambitious ideals put forth by Vladimir Lenin and Woodrow