Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points _ History

The 14 Points. On January 8th, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson delivered his famous 14 Points speech, where he outlined a plan to end World War I and secure world peace. When the war broke out in 1914, Wilson adopted a policy of neutrality with no intention of involving the U.S. in a foreign war. But the U.S. couldn't remain isolated for long. In January 1917, British intelligence intercepted and decoded a message, known as the Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany asked Mexico to ally with them against the United States. Then, on February 1st of the same year, Germany announced unrestricted submarine warfare and started sinking merchant and passenger ships with U.S. citizens on board, something they had agreed not to do after sinking the Lusitania in 1915. The Lusitania, a British ocean liner, was torpedoed without warning, leading to the deaths of over 1,100 people, including 128 Americans. This was the final straw. On April 2nd, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson went before a joint session of Congress to request a declaration of war against Germany. Just two days later, on April 4th, Congress declared war. The war was brutal and expensive. In a little under two years of fighting, the U.S. had spent $32 billion and lost over 116,000 men. Wilson wanted the war to end, but when announcing his 14 points in January of 1918, Wilson didn't just want to end the war to protect America. He hoped to prevent wars from ever happening again. So together with his advisor and friend, Colonel Edward M. House, President Wilson organized a group of 150 political and social scientists to study Allied and American policy all over the globe, collecting nearly 2,000 reports and 1,200 maps. This would inform the idealistic 14 points, which would address causes of the World War and also propose solutions to ensure world peace in the future through policy and negotiations. Eight of the 14 points were aimed at resolving specific territorial issues among the countries involved in combat and securing borders and statehood for Italy, the Turkish part of the Ottoman Empire, Poland, and Austria-Hungary. Five points covered general principles for a peaceful world, open treaties and agreements, freedom of the seas, free trade, reduction of armaments, and adjustment of colonial claims to land. These were all based on the principles of self-determination, the idea that nations should have the right to govern themselves without interference from other countries. The 14th and most influential point proposed that countries form an alliance to guarantee the political independence and territorial integrity of great and small states alike. The 14-point speech reflected a tradition of diplomatic idealism that would come to define Wilson's presidency. But how did that idealism translate into action? Well, most of Wilson's points were never fully realized, but one point in particular would have a big impact on the Treaty of Versailles and the end of World War I. When the Allies met in Versailles to create a treaty to end the war, they were less interested in Wilson's idealistic vision and more interested in regaining what they had lost and punishing Germany. To Wilson's disappointment, the points were barely integrated, and only to the benefit of the Allies. Most of them weren't actually adopted or honored by anyone after the treaty was signed. However, the 14th point was incorporated, the creation of a world organization providing collective security. This would later be known as the League of Nations. Ironically, despite a campaign from Wilson, the U.S. never actually joined the League of Nations, and Wilson foreshadowed that without American membership in the League, there would be another world war within a generation. Sure enough, World War II would break out just 20 years later.