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Essay Woodrow Wilson's Peace Agreement from WWI

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In 1917, the United States entered World War I on the side of the Allies. Previously angered by such events as the sinking of “Lusitania”, American President Woodrow Wilson led the nation to war after learning of the Zimmermann Telegram and Germany's resumption of UNRESTRICTED SUBMARINE WARFARE! As the war came to a close with an Allies victory, President Woodrow Wilson devised a core list of points which stressed self-determination of people, free trade, and open diplomacy. Wilson believed that it could serve as the basis for a peace agreement between the fighting European nations and the United States. Going before a session of Congress on January 8, 1918, Wilson outlined American intentions and presented his ideas as the …show more content…

and Britain before the U.S. entered the war. However, this point was useful in that it encouraged Germany to surrender as this among other points was very promising and seductive. Germany had been blockaded by Great Britain and virtually starved of trade since 1914. In his third point, Wilson called for the removal of economic barriers between countries in the League of Nations. It means the destruction of all special commercial agreements, each putting the trade of every other nation in the League on the same basis to equalize trade between nations. This point naturally contemplates fair understanding as to the distribution of raw materials among nations. In WW1, America was the most powerful export economy in the world. In any trading situation of the time, especially after the hit European economies took during the war, America would ultimately dominate. This excessive trade domination of the time bolstered America’s economy and set the stage for the “Roaring Twenties”. Wilson’s fourth point called for nations to reduce their armies to the bare minimum. Militarism, after all, was one of the driving forces that caused the war in the first place. Aggressive nations such as Germany raced to build their armies to be large enough to be imperialists and world police, leading to conflict among world powers, and eventually war. This idea was not obtained because nations such as Britain and France had empires to

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