America's Failure to Join the League of Nations Essay

In the aftermath of World War I, during the years 1917-1921, President Wilson advocated the Treaty of Versailles, which called for the principle of self-determination, the formation of a League of Nations, and general amnesty towards Germany, as the solution for peace. However, his unwillingness to compromise led to widespread disagreement. The opposition forces in the U.S. senate consisted of the reservationists, who were willing to ratify the Treaty of Versailles with amendments, and the irreconcilables, who refused to join the League of Nations under any circumstances. If President Wilson was only willing to modify the language of the treaty, ratification may have occurred.

As a PhD and former president of Princeton University, Wilson had a bit softer of approach to the presidency. Wilson, like Roosevelt, was a progressive reformer, instituting federal institutes, such as the Federal Reserve and the Federal Trade Commission, but Wilson had quite the opposite ideas of war and conquest. Wilson was slow to enter The Great War, and only did so to preserve American life when Germany began targeting passenger ships carrying American citizens. When America entered the war and helped a achieve a quick, decisive victory for the Allies, he was hailed overseas as the “hero from the West.” His creation of The League of Nations, which was shot down by the Senate during his infirm years following a stroke, likely could have helped prevent further unrest in European nations that led to World War

The end of World War I left much of America confused on the country’s role in world affairs. Many people believed that the United States should primarily worry about its own issues and problems, and let the world handle their own problems. But President Woodrow Wilson was not one of those people. He believed that the United States should be directly involved in the issues affecting all of the countries of the world. He also wanted the United States to be the country to make a push for a League of Nations. “The people of the United States could act upon no other principle; and to the vindication of this principle they are ready to devote their lives, their honor, and everything that they possess. The normal climax of this the culminating and final war for human liberty has come, and they are ready to put their own strength, their own highest purpose, their own integrity and devotion to the test.” Wilson believed that if the United States needed to be a part of a League of Nations in charge of keeping peace around the world, this would keep America

Wilson abandoned the imperialist policy and brought to the White House a new way of looking at America’s relations with the outside world. Wilson believed that the United States was the most politically enlightened in a sense under god, he felt that people throughout the world had their right to choose their own governments. Wilson was only protecting people rights to democracy.

I believe the two most important factors leading up to this were the United States’ economic interests favoring Great Britain and Wilson’s insatiable need to have a voice at the peace talks in Europe. The United States had just invested too much in Britain winning that it couldn’t risk losing its investment if Britain lost the war. They had to enter to insure the victory and to insure that their money would not be lost. Also, the most important reason why the United States entered World War I was that Wilson wanted to be a part of the peace talks and he couldn’t achieve that goal unless he entered the war. This fact was made clear after years of trying to facilitate peace with no avail. Also, the American public added much pressure when the Germans started their unrestricted submarine. Woodrow Wilson forever changed the face of history and U.S. foreign policy. Without his decision to go into World War I, the U.S. may never have gotten involved in World War II and we may very well all might be speaking German today. Wilson’s ego and lust for peace might have saved

President Wilson was a person who believed that there was a peaceful solution for any conflict. When World War I broke out in Europe President Wilson spent several years trying to keep America from entering the war. President Wilson even went as far to offer to be a mediator between the two conflicting sides to help bring the war to an end. In addition President Wilson was heavily criticized by other great American leaders when he declined to build up the U.S. Army to prepare for War. As much as President Wilson tried to fight against the war events such as the Zimmerman Telegraph, Unrestricted Submarine Warfare, and the decisive shift in American pro-war sentiment made American entering the war inevitable.

The League of Nations was an organization created following the year after the concession of World War I in 1918. The purpose of this union was to maintain world stability and peace. The League of Nations was proposed by President Woodrow Wilson in his Fourteen Points and was considered relatively controversial. Congress had to vote upon whether the United States would join or not. Two of the Senators gave speeches, Senator Gilbert Hitchcock and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, advocating their parties’ views.

The United states should not have joined the league of nations in 1919. The United States shouldn’t have joined the league of nations because we would be supplying the troops and food a lot and not getting anything out of it, and we were in no danger of an attack.

Before his election, Wilson promoted American neutrality. He endorsed what he believed his Americans wanted, for this would get him elected into office. However, after his election, Wilson had a change of heart. A few events, such as the German sinking of the Lusitania and the Zimmerman telegram swayed President Wilson’s stance on the war. He started a movement toward war. A large variety of pro-war propaganda was produced and American troops were sent to Europe to fight.

Wilson believed that the League of Nations would be able to deal with any issues as they arose. He also hoped the League would be able to make changes to the treaties later if there were any injustices; this meant the League was the most vital element of the peace settlement as far as the Americans were concerned. However, the Senate voted against USA membership of both the League of Nations and the Treaty of Versailles, and Henry Cabot Lodge spoke out against the League on the grounds that membership might endanger the existence of the USA by involving it in unnecessary wars. This demonstrated a lack of appreciation at home for Wilson’s peace-making efforts, which was enhanced by economic problems such as high inflation and issues in the job market caused by the rapid demobilisation of the armed forces. There was a sense of war weariness and many people began to feel that the rewards of the war had not been worth the costs; 117,000 Americans were killed. His ideals and policies were decisively rejected in 1920 and the Democratic Party suffered a catastrophic defeat in the presidential election. Wilson had become seriously ill after suffering a stroke but would not allow anyone else to take over, so it was difficult for them to focus on choosing a new presidential candidate. By then Most of the country supported isolationism.

In his mind, the establishment of this “League of Nations” as it would come to be called, would be an essential part of the post-war peace treaties. In Wilson’s opinion, the USA would have to play a major role in this League of Nations. In Wilson’s eyes, that was the only way to guarantee a lasting peace.

Wilson ended America’s neutrality needlessly during World War I, supplied arms to Germany’s enemies, at the behest of banking and commercial interests, and got our ships sunk. Wilson got his declaration of war after German Minister Zimmerman’s intercepted telegram urging Mexico to attack the U.S. if we declared war on Germany. La Follette’s futile filibuster couldn’t stop the war. Unintentionally, Wilson probably caused WWII, the Cold War and war in the Middle East.

America had a strict policy of neutrality set by Wilson and did not want to interfere in conflict that didn’t concern the Country as a whole. Wilson did not want to waste American lives on a war that did not concern America.

In August 1914, Europe descended into war, without the support of U.S. Wilson refuses to get involve in the European conflict, until German forced Wilson to declare war on the central powers because of German’s declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare. When the war ended in November 11, 1918, Wilson negotiated a covenant for the League of Nation that he believed would sustain a world order. However at home, the congress rejected the League of Nations. Now, Wilson is admired by some scholars while hated by others. Some has praised him for his vision, while others criticized him for his impractical ideal.

It incorporated the arranged development of the League of Nations, which would serve both as a universal gathering and a worldwide aggregate security course of action. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson was a solid supporter of the League as he trusted it would forestall future wars. Arrangements at the Paris Peace Conference were confused. The United Kingdom, France, and Italy battled together as the Allied Powers amid the First World War. The United States entered the war in April 1917 as an Associated Power. While it battled close by the Allies, the United States was will undoubtedly respect previous assertions among the Allied Powers.