Woodrow Wilson 14 Points Analysis

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Wilson’s Fourteen Points Analysis
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.
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...

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... 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.

Works Cited
"Fourteen Points." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Encyclopedia.com, 2013. Web. 2 April 2014. .

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