In 1917, President Wilson decided to draft a proposal that might eventually lead to a peace agreement. World War I was not yet over, and German troops remained entrenched in Belgium. However, since U.S. troops were likely to be very important in deciding the outcome of the war, it seemed to the government that an early effort should be made to influence the provisions of any peace treaty.
Two years later, when the war was over, Wilson's Fourteen Points speech represented the only formal recommendation for establishing and maintaining peace after World War I. Most of the nations that were fighting kept their post-war intentions a secret throughout the conflict. Since it wasn't clear exactly what France, Germany, and Britain expected after the war, Wilson through it wise to exchange his Fourteen Points proposal with leaders of all the Allies and Central Powers.
Study the tabs below to learn exactly what kind of peace agreement President Wilson wanted them all to accept.
Trade and Neutrality
Allied Territory
Central Powers and Statehood
League of Nations and Equality
The first five points dealt with the ways in which nations would behave and interact with one another in the future. As such, these points addressed issues related to international trade and militarization.
I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.
II. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in war...
III. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations...
IV. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety.
V. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the government whose title is to be determined.
The next four points focused on how to return the territories of the Allied nations to their control. Most nations would simply resume their previous borders, before they were invaded, but Wilson knew that French negotiators would have something more specific in mind.
VI. The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a settlement of all questions affecting Russia as will secure the best and freest cooperation of the other nations of the world...
VII. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacuated and restored, without any attempt to limit the sovereignty which she enjoys in common with all other free nations.
VIII. All French territory should be freed and the invaded portions restored, and the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the world for nearly fifty years, should be righted...
IX. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along clearly recognizable lines of nationality.
The next set of points designated what would become of the nations who had lost the war.
X. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest opportunity to autonomous development.
XI. Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacuated. . .
XII. The Turkish portion of the present Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure sovereignty, but the other nationalities which are now under Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted security of life . . . and the Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a free passage to the ships and commerce of all nations under international guarantees.
XIII. An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations. . .
Wilson's final point called for the establishment of what would become the League of Nations, an international association charged with keeping the peace.
XIV. 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...We cannot be separated in interest or divided in purpose. We stand together until the end...We wish her [Germany] only to accept a place of equality among the peoples of the world, -- the new world in which we now live, -- instead of a place of mastery.
The Fourteen Points were first outlined in a January 8, 1918 speech that Wilson delivered to the U.S. Congress. Their impact was felt far beyond U.S. borders, however. Wilson's Fourteen Points were largely responsible for convincing the Germans to negotiate for peace. They also led directly to the introduction of a League of Nations in 1919 and, much later, to the establishment of the United Nations in 1945. Finally, they provided a framework for negotiations about the partition of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey and its colonies), the removal of German forces from the Ukraine, Belgium and France, and the future of Russia.
The principles in the Fourteen Points were actually drafted by a special team of 150 foreign policy experts known as "the Inquiry," which was led by Colonel Edward House. Most members of the Inquiry had been associated with the foreign policies of McKinley, Roosevelt, and Taft--which did not endear them to members of Congress serving during Wilson's term. The key to U.S. intervention in regional disputes had always been its ability to enforce decisions made in Washington, through a strong military presence, and the League of Nations asked for more of the same. For this reason, the League of Nations was never ratified by Congress. In an era of isolationism, the Republican party, in particular, refused to consider allowing American troops to serve the interests of other countries.
Question
Why were Wilson's recommendations for peace the only ones put forth as the World War I ended?
