Although Woodrow Wilson was stoic about many of his viewpoints, his shaping of the Treaty of Versailles and the way he compromised on so many of his Fourteen Points truly shows his lack of strength in international affairs. Wilson, who was President throughout the First World War, stalled the United States from entering until it was absolutely necessary. During the war, in a meeting with advisors, he formulated a set of fourteen suggestions, which subsequently dropped into enemy territory and eventually helped form the Treaty of Versailles. Unfortunately, between the stubbornness of countries like France, who were severely disabled after the war, and Warren Harding’s determination to stay out of the League of Nations, many of Wilson’s Fourteen Points were underpowered or altogether unmet.
This is not to say that Wilson’s Fourteen Points were completely inconsequential in relation to the Treaty of Versailles, but instead that some of the suggestions were taken to extremes, while others were misconstrued and would eventually set the stage for World War II. The most important result of the Fourteen Points would have been an effective League of Nations. For the League of Nations, however, great concessions were made by Wilson on the other thirteen points. Primarily affected was the state of post-war Germany. Heavily taxed not only financially but also territorially, the suppression of the German state essentially paved the way for the Nazi advancement in Germany and was the prime cause of World War II. The Treaty of Versailles was in one way, a means to suppress Germany to such a severe state that they could never mount such an offensive again. In another way, it was revenge from the battered European countries. France demanded upon...
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...ions that had to be made immediately, the lack of power the League of Nations had without America, and the lack of support from the American public. Wilson did attempt to go to the people and convince them to speak with their representatives, but the vote in congress still failed. Overall, Wilson’s fourteen points were a valiant effort in attempt at world peace, but it fell short in the worst places and was introduced at a time when people were still looking for isolationism.
Works Cited
House, Edward M. "Interpretation of President Wilson's Fourteen Points by Colonel House." Mount Holyoke College. http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/doc31.htm (23 March 2010).
Tindall, George B., and David E. Shi. America A Narrative History. 7th ed. Vol. 2. London: W.W. Norton, 2007.
White House. http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/Presidents/warrenharding (24 March 2010).
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. Furthermore, the Rhineland was to be permanently disarmed and occupied by the Allies for fifteen years to ensure that there would be no attacks against France that might start another war. In addition to this, it was stated that Germany would never be allowed to unite with Austria because they would form an incredibly strong fighting force. This resulted in much complaining by the Germans on the account that they believed they were being left without a military force significant enough to protect themselves. Also, the treaty did not require any of the other countries to perform even the slightest demilitarization.
Tindall, G.B. & Shi, D.E. (2010). America a narrative history 8th edition. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. p.205-212.
...sm was growing less and less practical as World War II continued to rage on. The world had changed since Wilson’s presidency. Wilson had believed that World War I was the “war to end all wars,” that the creation of an international institution such as the League of Nations would help ensure that such a bloody, global conflict would not occur again. The onset of World War II proved that World War I had not solved the world’s problems, which Roosevelt recognized. For Roosevelt, it appeared that Wilsonian solutions were ineffective, and cooperation among the world powers was the way in which peace would be found. While Wilson had believed that the League of Nations would create a world in which war would not have to be waged, Roosevelt’s idealism turned to realism as he watched the Second World War tear apart not only the League, but the entire European continent.
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:
Tindall, George B., and David E. Shi. America: A Narrative History. 7th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 2007.
Tindall, George Brown and Shi, David Emory. America: A Narrative History. 8th Ed. Brief. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2010).
7. Schoenherr, Steve ed. “The Versailles Treaty”, History Dept. at the University of San Diego. January 20, 2000 (last update). University of San Diego. January 20, 2000 (last visited). .
Document 3 has a description on top and a list of the Fourteen Points. The description explains that Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points were a list of specific proposals for postwar peace. It would have helped settle national border disputes and military cutbacks, proposed lower tariffs and banned secret agreements between nations and more. Wilson’s had a belief in the right for the people to choose their own political status. But then European leaders disagreed with Wilson’s vision of peace and just wanted to straight up punish Germany for its role in the war. This shows that there weren’t much benefits and if they haven’t punish Germany they may had those Fourteen Points, which would have been a benefit for the countries and create peace. Instead they just wanted to punish Germany which didn’t bring any benefits except for more chaos and unorganization for peace. As you can see this document shows that there would have been benefits, but the European leaders didn’t want that, which caused to not outweigh the
The Treaty of Versailles was a violation of Wilson’s ideals. The Treaty is one of the most important agreements (or disagreements) that shaped 20th century Europe socially and physically. Woodrow Wilson on January 22, 1917 in an address to the United States Senate called for a peace without victors, but the Treaty signed by the participating nations was everything but that. The blame for the war was placed on Germany and justified the reparations that were outlined by the treaty for the war. The terms of the treaty were very harsh to the Germans and they took on great resentment. It was a fragile peace agreement that would be used as fuel to keep hostilities going 20 years later.
Basing his diplomatic action in his very American democratic and Christian values, his intentions were misinterpreted by nations globally, as his basis of morality differed from the nations he attempted to deal with. Governments were taken over on Wilson’s basis of morality and those views were impressed and forced upon them. In addition, forced was resorted to, although on a much smaller scale than previously exercised. Wilson’s brief instance in which Mexico was not recognized as a country displayed the gap between his moral foreign policy and actual foreign necessary for global relations. All in all, Wilson gained a “preachy” reputation that was not well received, and followed him into the drafting of the Treaty of
... the actual Fourteen Points as proposed. Prior to reading the points, he made mention of that there were “no confusion between the Allied powers, no uncertainty of principle and no vagueness of detail”. He further stated that “only failure to make definite statement of the objects of the war lies with Germany and her allies”. Wilson’s “Fourteen Points” yielded minimal success as it regards to post World War peace and many of the points failed because they were severely deficient in detail and succinct. The last point that spoke about the “League of Nations” was accepted. In addition the points were based exclusively on US ideals without any input from the other countries that were affected.
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
... 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.
As Wilson’s attempt to ratify started to form controversy in America, Lodge presented amendments suggesting the only way the Senate would approve the treaty is if revisions could be made. Wilson in fact, refused the offer because he asserted it would enervate the whole treaty (Bailey 1957, 7). As the decision of ratification came closer, Wilson made a final attempt to help authorize the treaty. He went around America to try and advocate the treaty to the people of the United States. He gave thirty-two speeches until September 25, 1919 in Colorado where he suffered a severe stroke. Wilson’s obstinacy strengthened after his stroke, making him nearly impossible to compromise with. While Wilson was recovering from his stroke, Lodge made fourteen alterations to the treaty; most of the modifications were to the League of Nations (Tindall and Shi 2013, 1014). Bailey writes, But the iron hand of circumstance had forced Wilson to compromise away many of his points in order to salvage his fourteenth point, the League of Nations, which he hoped would iron out the injustices that had crept into the treaty. He was like the mother who throws her younger children to the pursuing wolves in order to save her sturdy first-born son” (Bailey 1957, 5). Wilson was not happy about the changes but one thing he would not let change was the last point,
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