Fourteen Points: Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points

After the end of World War I the United States entered into a period of isolationist foreign policy. On January 8, 1918, Woodrow Wilson announced the United States’ objectives through his Fourteen Points. His fourteenth point proposed a league of nations to protect international security and stability. After the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, the Treaty

Wilson’s fourteen points summarise the quest for international cooperation in achieving and maintaining peace. However, this can be questioned as the first paragraph also suggests a self-centred approach taken by Wilson. The speech suggests that the USA is the only ones with the capacity to achieve such peace, the programme of the world's peace, therefore, is our programme; and that programme, the only possible programme. It reflects a world view and hierarchy, suggesting one big American alliance rather than an idea of international cooperation. This is also further illustrated on in Wilson’s speech, his concern for the safety of the USA is key in the way he treats countries such as Russia and Germany, and his disagreement with some of the terms in the Treaty of Versailles. In point six of the speech when dealing with Russia it talks of securing the best and freest cooperation of the other nations of the world. Wilson was careful in how he achieved peace, as he wanted to maintain relationships with countries within Europe, whilst keeping USA dominance ad not upsetting France and Clemenceau who wanted harsh treatment of Germany. This is illustrated in point eight of Wilson’s fourteen points.

World War I was a period when countries faced economic, political, social, and cultural problems, which threatened the survival of democracy and freedom and needed a fast and effective resolution which was presented to the world by Woodrow Wilson called the Fourteen Points. The Fourteen Points offered the world a democratic resolute, that was effective, reliable and a basis for long lasting peace, unlike the Treaty of Versailles which was a non democratic approach to the problem since it contained a war-guilt clause which forced Germany to admit sole responsibility for starting World War I, although other European nations had been guilty of provoking diplomatic crises before the war, also the treaty excluded Russia which was a major

Out of the many speeches given by President Woodrow Wilson regarding World War One, two in particular serve as a sort of showcase of the changing role of the United States in global politics during the early 20th century. The first is Wilson’s Address to the Senate of the United States: “A World League for Peace” (“World League”). The second is Wilson’s Address to a Joint Session of Congress on the Conditions of Peace, also known as his 14 Points. Although the themes of these speeches have similar ideals such as the quest for self-determination and multiple countries uniting to prevent aggression, the proceedings at Brest-Litovsk make 14 Points speech both a continuation and a shift from the “World League” one. Wilson’s 14 Points speech reflects the commitment of the United States to enter the war and enforce its own agenda (as well as that of the other Allies), a drastic change from its earlier neutrality.

Despite Wilson’s best efforts to stay neutral during World War One, he was was not able to accomplish that task. Entering the war was not going to be a fruitless endeavor, however. The main goals of American participation during World War One was to protect freedom and democracy, and to spread it to the other countries of the world, to help ensure financial stability, and to protect the ships that the German U-Boats were destroying. Wilson’s 14 points helped to reflect the goals of freedom and democracy by generally pushing for a more peaceful world. One of the main reasons for the 14 points existence was to share Wilson’s postwar hope for the world. In the fourteen points, he also lays out a proposition for freedom of the seas. This

President Wilson was determined to achieve peace. He based his peacemaking efforts in the academic argument Fourteen Points. Ideas of freedom of the seas, internationalism and justice for all were embedded in his idealistic approach, in an attempt to making long lasting peace.

Many historians continue to argue about president Woodrow Wilson’s success at the Paris Peace Conference, however the conference is regarded as one of Wilson’s biggest failures during his days. The Paris Peace Conference’s main goal was to establish the terms of peace after World War One. Moreover France and Britain which are known as the dominant powers of the Triple Entente, were seeking revenge and wanted to make Germany suffer after their glorious victory against the Triple Alliance. On the other hand president Woodrow Wilson was looking to “make the world safe for democracy (1).” President Woodrow Wilson outlined what he wanted in his famous fourteen points. His polices led to economic instability in addition to “ he invaded a number of

Wilson's Fourteen Points were a decent attempt at peace and restitution after the Great War; however, there were many inherent problems with the Wilsonian agenda. These problems were caused by many things, including Allied bias, American ambition, and Western European dominance. While trying to fix many problems in Europe, the Fourteen Points mainly concentrated on the things that were important to the Allied powers: France was bent on revenge, Great Britain was looking to further its power over the seas, and America was keen on becoming an even more powerful trade nation.

In January 1918, Wilson made a major speech to Congress in which he laid out "Fourteen Points" that he believed would, if made the basis of a postwar peace, prevent future wars. Trade restrictions and secret alliances would be abolished, armaments would be curtailed, colonies and the national states that made up the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires would be set on the road to independence, the German-occupied portions of France and Belgium would be evacuated, the revolutionary government of Russia would be welcomed into the community of nations, and a League of Nations would be created to maintain the peace. Believing that this revolutionary program required his personal support, Wilson decided that he would lead the American peace delegation to Paris, becoming the first President ever to go to Europe while in office. Despite Wilson's best efforts, however, the Treaty of Versailles, signed in June 1919, departed significantly

In his Fourteen Points speech, he said, “A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.” He believed states should work together and not let differences divide them so as to avoid another large-scale war like this one was. Leaders and delegates from all over the world met at this conference to discuss rules and regulations for how the League would operate, with meetings lasting for months, arguing over clauses and what should the League of Nations should be allowed to do or take control of. After four months of discussions and negotiations, the League of Nations adopted their “covenant”, as Wilson called it, and would rule as an assembly of countries to meet

Most of the World’s major Nations were in a state of turmoil from the year 1914-1918, during the conflict of World War I. This War to End all Wars began with the German’s pushing other European Nation’s buttons, including the progression of militarism, imperialism, nationalism, and the creation of alliances among all of the Nations. After the course of three years of grueling trench warfare the tide of the Germans was receding, and President Woodrow Wilson of the United States presented his famous Fourteen Points, in hope that he would direct all Nations to aspire for the establishment of world peace.

The Fourteen Points was a speech that was given by Woodrow Wilson to be used as peace negotiations after World War I. Woodrow Wilson was president at the time and the speech was broadcasted all over the world. There were fourteen points given in the speech, as the name implies. This was actually pretty unsuccessful because many of the countries wanted to punish Germany more so they only kept one point, the final one. This point established a league of nations.

A devastating war had left much of Europe in ruin and smoke, but a task almost as difficult as the war was still ahead for the allies, devising a treaty. President Woodrow Wilson had come up with a fourteen point plan, which he proposed to the allied leaders of France, Italy, and Britain. Although this plan was eventually voted down by the senate, and never passed, several key points were put into the treaty that was accepted by the senate.

In the early months of 1918, the dynamics of The Great War ravaging Europe changed dramatically. On March 3rd, Germany and the Russian Bolsheviks signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, officially ending Russia’s involvement in the war and freeing Germany’s forces previously occupied on the Eastern Front . That same month, Germany launched an extensive attack in France along the Somme River, knocking a devastating blow to the Allies. By the summer of 1918, the United States had escalated it’s involvement in the war, sending over mass amounts of troops and coordinating with European powers to essentially back the German offensive into a position of little advancement. As Germany recognized its failing position in the war, the officials in the German High Command began quietly pursuing negotiations of peace and cease fire, not from their European counterparts, but from American President Woodrow Wilson . Germany was hoping to benefit from President Wilson’s ideals of peace and justice for all, ideals he had laid out publicly that year in a January speech outlining his “blueprint for a new democratic world order.” These Fourteen Points became the cornerstone of Wilson’s contribution to the peace negotiations following the armistice that ended the war in November of 1918. Focusing on the belief that an established system of democracy, communication and peace would prevent further atrocities like World War I, the Fourteen Points centered on equal representation and opportunity

Assess the impact of Woodrow Wilson’s fourteen points on the Paris Peace Settlement and determine whether Wilson was successful in his goals.