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Essay on President Wilson and the Treaty of Versailles

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President Wilson and the Treaty of Versailles

President Wilson’s righteous views of his efforts were so strong that not even the advice and urging of his closest confidants could sway his stance. While it is true that opposition forces helped to defeat the treaty, it was ultimately Wilson’s stubbornness that led to its defeat in the Senate.

There were many factors that led to the initial outbreak of World War I in Europe. A constant struggle to gain the upper hand in the “balance of power” existed, and it resulted in the formation of many alliances between European nations. For the most part, these agreements stipulated that the nations would aid one another if one of them were to be attacked by an enemy. Eventually two distinct …show more content…

The United States, tied to British trade, and supporters of their system of democracy, broke their official neutrality policy that dated back to the days of George Washington and joined the Allied powers. U.S. support would prove to be enough of a boost to strike down the Central Powers’ attack, and it also signaled America’s entrance into the peace negotiations that followed.

During a speech to Congress while the war was still going on, President Woodrow Wilson introduced his “Fourteen Points,” which called for a new Europe and a peaceful world. Ideas expressed in the speech included a policy of open diplomacy with no secret treaties, freedom of the seas, removal of tariffs, arms reduction, fair colonial policies, as well as several boundary changes in Europe. But most important of all was point fourteen. This item called for “a general association of nations for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.” This association, which would come to be known as the League of Nations, was conceived by the idealistic Wilson to keep the peace after the war and to promote open diplomacy between countries of varying types of size and power. In order to maintain peace the league was to be given the authority to impose economic sanctions against offending states, and it

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