Treaty Of Versailles Dbq

President Wilson's own ineptitude and stubbornness is what led to the Senate's defeat of the Treaty of Versailles, rather than the strength of the opposing forces. Even Wilson's closest and most trusted advisors could not sway his stance. Wilson was strong in his stance and incorporated the idea of the 14 points. While it is true that opposing forces contributed to defeat the treaty, it was Wilson's unmovable position that led to its ultimate defeat in the Senate.

After winning the election of 1916 barring the slogan, “We kept us out of war!” Wilson began his “peace without victory” crusade. (Zieger, 44) He failed to identify the secret treaties that were entered between the Allies during the war and Germany’s unwillingness to concede anything from a war they did not lose. When it was apparent that a “peace without victory” would be unattainable all that was left was a catalyst and the United States

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.

The treaty of the Versailles was an agreement between France, England and the United states. Its intentions were to prevent a second world war however, it was a total fail. An obvious reason for not being effective could be because not everyone was included in the conference such as Russia, and Central Powers. Instead, Prime minister George Clemenceau had thought he would speak for all of europe and wanted to be the strongest of europe. Clemenceau seeked revenge towards Germany, in fact he desired most dismantle the best of Germany 's military and their nationalist pride. As for the United States, Wilson implemented the fourteen points which focused on self determination of people. Only few of his points were included in the treaty but these points had been the reason for conflicts happening in europe. Participation from everyone is important and not allowing everyone 's input could lead to negative outcomes such as, The league of nations which most likely failed because the United States wasn’t allowed to participate.

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

The statement is invalid because although the strength of the opposition forces, both liberal and conservative, were a factor in the Senate defeat of the Treaty of Versailles, it was ultimately President Wilson's ineptitude and stubbornness that led to its defeat. This is because the Senate was split on the decision, and one group of Senators were willing to agree if some amendments were made to the Treaty. However, President Wilson was not willing to compromise on the League of Nations, the most controversial point of the Treaty. The debate in congress was President Wilson against the Reservationists in the Senate more than one group in the Senate against another. President Wilson was a liberal, meaning he favored progressive change,

With Woodrow Wilson being a democrat, ratification of the Treaty would be difficult in a Republican led senate. The Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles based primarily on objections to the League of Nations. One of the main objections to the League of Nations was that it would eventually lead to a loss of American Sovereignty. William Borah said during a speech in United States Senate “Will anyone advocate that those matters which are of vital importance to our people shall be submitted to a tribunal created other than by our own people and give it an international army subject to its direction and control to enforce its decrees?” (Document A)

President Woodrow Wilson had secured the political clout to establish foreign policy after World War I. However, the Europeans, especially the two major powers in Europe, England and France had the right to be circumspect of several aspects of Wilson’s plan. The German Delegation utilized President Wilson’s analogy that, “no single fact caused the war, but that in last analysis the whole European system is in a deeper sense responsible for the war…” (Comments of the German Delegation, 1919). European leaders could have taken offense to Wilson’s plan. President Wilson’s represented a nation that was protected by thousands of miles of oceans, and during the war the United States suffered no loss of infrastructure and economically their markets made money during the war. However, that was not the case for the European political leaders. They truly had an ax to grind against Germany. France with closer proximity to Germany than England elected to be protective and leery of Germany’s intentions after the war. Germany on the other hand was distraught over the terms laid before them by the Europeans at the Paris Peace Conference. The Germans believed they were being singled out, and that through the attrition of their sovereign territory they were losing vast economic resources and their ability to establish self-determination and self-preservation.

The Treaty of Versailles was a peace settlement between Germany and the Allied Powers signed on June 28, 1919. The Treaty of Versailles officially ended World War 1. However, since the conditions in the treaty were so punitive towards Germany many believe that it was also partly responsible for starting World War 2. Before the treaty was signed President Woodrow Wilson and his opponent in congress, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge debated over the membership in the League of Nations and about the mortality of the treaty. Many debated that the United States should have signed the Treaty of Versailles and joined the League of Nations while others oppose both the treaty and the alliance. I believe that the United States did the right thing by rejecting the Treaty of Versailles, and avoiding the entangling commitments overseas which the alliance would have brought upon us.

World War I was one of the most brutal and bloodiest war ever fought in the early twentieth century. The war left ten million soldiers dead, seven million civilians dead, and another ten million people to be wounded (Background Essay). It was the Triple Alliance, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey, against the Triple Entente, France, Britain, Russia, and Italy (Background Essay). The war ended with the Paris Peace Conference where world leaders meet up to discuss about a creation of a treaty to settle the peace terms. President Woodrow Wilson of the U.S. simply wanted to create a League of Nations to settle future conflicts and to avoid war (Background Essay). However, Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau of France and Prime Minister David Lloyd George of England wanted even more; revenge and humiliation on Germany. They are forcing Germany to pay hundreds of billions of dollars for

There are many things that the Treaty of Versailles help cause World War II. Economic losses, territory loss, overpowered by size, reparation and war guilt were causes that led to World War II. The Treaty of Versailles brought World War I to an end but began World War II.

The Republicans resisted the Treaty because they believed that if it were to be ratified, Wilson’s prestige would soar and he might even be re-elected for a third time (Bailey, 184). Thus, the Republican Party was against the Treaty of Versailles in its original form out of fear. Wilson fully believed that the Treaty was going to bring world peace, and regardless of this belief, the Republican Party voted against it because of who came up with it. Wilson fought greatly for it and said that if the Treaty failed that he would gather all the soldiers who fought in World War One and tell them “I told you before you went across the seas that this was a war against wars and I did my best to fulfill the promise, but I am obliged to come to you in mortifications and shame and say I have not been able to fulfill the promise,” (Wilson). Wilson was willing to take blame for the hypothetical failure of the Treaty of Versailles and the Republicans still voted against it because they did not want Wilson’s popularity to go up. Wilson believed so strongly in Article Ten that he believed that the League of Nations would justify the United States’ honor and bring peace to the world (Wilson). The belief that the Republican Party did not ratify the Treaty because they did not want to risk another Wilson presidency is absurd. This idea perpetuates the idea that if one person, in a position of power, strongly believes in something, then it must good. One can apply this idea to how strongly Wilson believed in the Treaty of Versailles, yet it was not enough to convince the Senate that the League of Nations’ Collective Security Covenant was a good idea. It was not the Republican Party’s fear of a third term of Wilson that caused the death of the Treaty, but Wilson himself. The belief that if

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.

President Wilson was seen as an the only idealistic person from the influential people in the conference. As a matter of fact the Treaty of Versailles is seen from historians’ point of views as one of the main reasons that lead to World War Two. The questions that remains a mystery is where is the peace that President Wilson wanted and promised for

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.