Wilson announces his 14 Points - Jan 08, 1918 - HISTORY.com Wilson announces his 14 Points Share this: Wilson announces his 14 Points Author Wilson announces his 14 Points URL Publisher A+E Networks In an address before a joint meeting of Congress, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson discusses the aims of the United States in World War I and outlines his “14 Points” for achieving a lasting peace in Europe. The peace proposal called for unselfish peace terms from the victorious Allies, the restoration of territories conquered during the war, the right to national self-determination, and the establishment of a postwar world body to resolve future conflict. The speech was translated and distributed to the soldiers and citizens of Germany and Austria-Hungary and contributed significantly to their agreeing to an armistice in November 1918. After the war ended, Wilson traveled to France, where he headed the American delegation to the conference at Versailles. Functioning as the moral leader of the Allies, Wilson struggled to orchestrate a just peace, though the other victorious Allies opposed most of his 14 Points.

The final treaty called for stiff reparations payments from the former Central Powers and other demanding peace terms that would contribute to the outbreak of World War II two decades later. However, Wilson’s ideas on national self-determination and a postwar world body were embodied in the treaty. In 1920, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Price for his efforts. Related Videos SparkNotes: Woodrow Wilson: Fighting for Peace: 1918 World War I: 1917–1919 Fighting for Peace: 1918, page 2 page 1 of 2 On January 8, 1918, Wilson gave what was to become his most famous speech. Known as the Fourteen Points Speech because it outlined the fourteen elements Wilson felt were essential to a lasting peace, it was delivered to establish moral goals for America's participation in World War I. Wilson also hoped the speech would encourage the Central powers to end the hostilities. The plan initially backfired; instead of signaling for peace talks, the German Army actually intensified its efforts on the European western front. Within ten months, however, the German Army conceded and appealed to Wilson to begin a series of peace talks based on the Fourteen Points.

An armistice was declared on November eleven, 1918. Of the fourteen key areas Wilson described, eight concerned specific geopolitical issues that had to be resolved after the war, while the remaining six dealt with general ideology necessary for peace. The most significant of the points included freedom of the seas, an end to secret treaties and negotiations, establishing equal and free trade, arms reduction, welcoming the new Soviet Russia into the international community, granting self-government to the peoples in Central Europe and the Balkans, independence for Turkey and Poland, and establishing a forum of nations to ensure freedom and peace for all peoples of the world. Wilson's Fourteen Points were unique for several reasons. To begin with, the speech was unprecedented: no major world leader had ever declared such lofty war aims and objectives for establishing peace. In fact, Wilson referred to his vision of the postwar settlement as "peace without victory." Second, Wilson's Fourteen Points were based purely on a sense of morality and righteousness, unlike most of the Allied aims, which were based on vindictiveness and a desire for war spoils. In other words, Wilson's idea of peace did not include punishing Germany and the Central powers for their aggressiveness, nor did it include taking land or money.

Finally, the Fourteen Points were based on a sense of liberalism that was new to international politics. The final and perhaps the most famous of the Fourteen Points, for example, called for global cooperation in order to secure true peace. One of Wilson's primary reasons for entering the war–aside from the immediate threat to American shipping and sovereignty–had ironically been to establish peace. Since the early years of the war, he had believed that no lasting peace would ever be established unless he, or another such impartial statesman, attended the peace accords. Otherwise he felt certain the European powers would fall into further fighting over land and colonial rights. It is no surprise that after the armistice Wilson personally went to Europe to attend the peace conference, despite the protests and advice for his political allies and friends. No previous President had ever done such a thing. Wilson took with him a large team of advisors, including Secretary of State Lansing, and Col. Edward M. House. The First Lady, Edith Bolling Wilson, accompanied him as well. Wilson chose only those men he felt he could trust implicitly, and therefore did not take any powerful Republicans or members of the Republican controlled Senate. This decision proved to be a mistake.

Wilson landed in Brest, France, in December 1918 and then proceeded to Paris. His welcoming party in the capital proved to be unlike anything he or any other American President had seen before. Hundreds of thousands of Parisians lined the streets cheering Wilson's name and celebrating his arrival. Many in the country and throughout Western Europe saw Wilson as their savior and hero. He was given similar greetings in London and Rome. In Italy, Wilson met with Pope Benedict XV, becoming the first U.S. President to meet with a Pope while in office. Wilson also visited American soldiers stationed throughout Europe and celebrated the Allied victory with them; however, he refused to visit any of the battle sites because he feared that seeing such horrors would prejudice him against Germany and prevent him from achieving a just peace. After a brief tour of Western Europe, Wilson settled down in Paris to discuss peace and to draft a formal treaty to end the war. The treaty convention became known as the Paris Peace Conference. Although thirty-two nations from around the world were represented at the conference, Wilson worked primarily with British Prime Minister Lloyd George, French Premier Georges Clemenceau, and Italian Premier Vittorio Orlando. Collectively, the men were known as the Big Four.

The President often found it difficult working with them because, though they admired Wilson's ideology and desire for peace, they also wanted reparations from Germany including money and land. Wilson knew that if he allowed the other European nations to destroy Germany, the continent would eventually dissolve into war again. 1 Lesson 4: Fighting for Peace: The Fate of Wilson's Fourteen Points | EDSITEment Lesson 4: Fighting for Peace: The Fate of Wilson's Fourteen Points The Lesson Introduction In the aftermath of the First World War, Woodrow Wilson tried to push a comprehensive and enlightened peace plan. Credit: Image courtesy of American Memory at the Library of Congress. In January 1918, less than one year after the United States entered World War I, President Woodrow Wilson announced his Fourteen Points to try to ensure permanent peace and to make the world safe for democracy. Wilson's aims included freedom of the seas, free trade, and, most important, an international organization dedicated to collective security and the spreading of democracy. The other Allied powers tacitly and cautiously accepted Wilson's plan as a template for a postwar treaty; however, numerous obstacles lay in the path of the Fourteen Points at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference.

Wilson reluctantly made several concessions, yet he successfully protected the Fourteenth Point, the League of Nations, which was written into the Versailles Treaty. After enduring months of bruising, frustrating negotiations, Wilson finally returned to the United States. Despite obvious Senate reservations about the League of Nations, Wilson was certain the Versailles Treaty would be ratified. He was wrong. Through the use of primary source documents and maps, this lesson will introduce students to Wilson's Fourteen Points, as well as his efforts to have them incorporated into the final peace treaties. Guiding Questions Did the Versailles Treaty represent the fulfillment of Wilson's Fourteen Points, or their betrayal? Learning Objectives Discuss how the Fourteen Points, especially the League of Nations, demonstrated Wilsonian principles. Summarize the aims of the other Allied powers at the Paris Peace Conference. Identify which of the Fourteen Points became part of the final peace settlement. Background In January 1918, Woodrow Wilson unveiled his Fourteen Points to the U.S. Congress. The speech was a natural extension of the proposals he had offered in his "Peace without Victory" address and his request for a declaration of war.

Presuming an Allied victory, the President proposed freedom of the seas and of trade, arms reductions, and fair settlement of colonial claims and possessions. He insisted that "open covenants of peace, openly arrived at," must be the benchmark of postwar negotiations. He suggested that a repentant and reformed Germany would not be oppressed, but rather welcomed into the international community. That community, Wilson concluded, would be bound together in a league of nations devoted to collective security and spreading democracy. Although the Allied powers cautiously agreed to use the Fourteen Points as a treaty template, the circumstances of the war and the specific postwar aims of numerous nations combined to make a formidable obstacle. In 1915, the secret London agreements had proposed ceding the German territory of the Saar (rich in coal) to France, and South Tyrol, controlled by Austria-Hungary, to Italy. Japan hoped to take German claims in the North Pacific and China, while Great Britain hoped to secure claims in Africa and south of the equator in the Pacific. By the war's end, in November 1918, these tensions had mounted. France and Great Britain both wanted Germany to pay extensive war reparations.

Great Britain, with an eye toward protecting its far-flung empire, also resisted freedom of the seas. Wilson hammered out a compromise. Together, the Allies would precisely define "freedom of the seas," and Germany would have to pay some reparations. Meanwhile domestic political tensions were rising. In the midterm elections, Republicans gained control of Congress. Nevertheless, Wilson opted only for token Republican representation on the U.S. delegation headed to Paris, the site of the postwar peace proceedings, which began in January 1919. This snub did not pass unnoticed by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge (R-Mass.), who now chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The proceedings were raucous and confusing. Wilson, who had rejected advice that he might better fulfill his Fourteen Points by remaining in Washington, immersed himself in the day-to-day negotiations. His greatest challenge was the spirit of vengeance that animated the other Allied leaders. Not only did they want to punish Germany, they also wanted to use victory to obtain new territory in Europe and to divvy up Germany's colonial possessions. Wilson struggled to balance pragmatism and idealism. On the colonial question, he agreed to substitute the "mandate system" for full and fair self-determination.

Under this system, the Allied powers assumed governing control over the colonies of Germany and areas such as Syria and Lebanon that had belonged to the Ottoman Empire. The expectation was that the Allied powers would eventually free their "mandates." He also accepted the transfer of some one million square miles of territory between nations; in return, the covenant of the League of Nations was embedded into the Versailles Treaty. In June 1919, Germany's defiant representatives, who had been excluded from the proceedings, grudgingly signed the Versailles Treaty. Wilson's decision to now present the Versailles Treaty to the Senate as a fait accompli was quite risky. Republican doubts about the League had hardened; indeed, a group of Senators known as the "Irreconcilables," led by William Borah of Idaho, had proclaimed they would not support American membership in the League. Much opposition resulted from Article Ten of the League's covenant, which committed nations to the protection of the territorial integrity of all other members. This seemed to undermine Congressional authority to declare war, though the precise obligations of the United States were not clear. Lodge and the "Reservationists" were, at least initially, ready to act on the Versailles Treaty if Wilson separated the covenant.

They also seemed willing to accept U.S. membership provided Congress kept the power to decide whether or not the United States would intervene militarily on behalf of the League. But Wilson refused to yield, as did Lodge and his allies. The debate over the League spilled over onto the 1920 presidential campaign, and while the election of Republican Warren G. Harding, who declared his opposition to the League, cannot be assessed only as a referendum on Wilsonian diplomacy, it was clear that the American public had grown weary of crusades, domestic and international. The United States never joined the League, finally ending the official state of war with Germany in the summer of 1921 through the Treaty of Berlin . For an overview of the League of Nations and the Versailles Treaty, visit From Revolution to Reconstruction , accessible via the EDSITEment-reviewed Internet Public Library ). For another EDSITEment lesson plan on this subject, see The Debate in the United States over the League of Nations: League of Nations Basics .

Preparation Instructions This lesson may be used in sequence with the other plans in this unit on Wilsonian foreign policy, or it may be used in conjunction with the lessons in the EDSITEment curriculum unit The Debate in the United States over the League of Nations . While this lesson concentrates on Wilson's Fourteen Points, the Paris Peace Proceedings, and the Versailles Treaty, the other lessons focus on domestic political and public reaction to the League of Nations. See The Great War: Evaluating the Treaty of Versailles . Bookmark or print out the referenced websites. You should also bookmark or print the Text Document that accompanies this lesson and distribute the relevant pages to your students as handouts. The Text Document provides excerpts of the online documents used in this lesson, thus allowing your students to read only the pertinent portions of the source. For the card game in Activity 3 , cut out the cards found on pages 12-20 of the Text Document and place them in two decks—one called "Wilson's Fourteen Points" (consisting of the cards on pages 12-16 of the Text Document ) and the other called "Versailles Treaty" (consisting of the cards on pages 17-20 of the Text Document ).

Analyzing primary sources To provide your students with the skills needed to examine primary sources, you may find it helpful to visit the Learning Page from the Library of Congress. In particular, students may find the Mindwalk activity useful in preparing to work with primary sources. At the National Archives website, the Digital Classroom provides worksheets to practice analysis of various primary sources, including photographs. Another exercise involving interpretation of historic photographs can be found at History Matters Lesson Activities Excerpt of report from the Commission to Determine War Guilt, May 6, 1919 . From the EDSITEment-reviewed resource First World War.com Activity 3. The Fourteen Points and the Treaty of Versailles The third and final activity is a card-based game in which students attempt to match up Wilson's Fourteen Points to specific terms of the Versailles Treaty. Complete rules of the game may be found on pages 10–11 of the Text Document —these should be handed out to students. In addition, students should have access to maps showing the boundaries of Europe both before and after World War I. Such maps may be found at the site of the United States Military Academy at West Point , accessible via History Matters.

Copies of the map may be distributed to the students, or they may be projected onto a screen for the class to view. Pages 12–20 of the Text Document contain a total of 26 cards—15 marked "Wilson's Fourteen Points," and 12 marked "Versailles Treaty." Divide the students into two teams; give each member of the first team a card from the "Wilson's Fourteen Points" deck, and give each member of the second a card from the "Versailles Treaty" deck. Begin by asking a student holding the lowest-numbered "Versailles Treaty" card to stand and read his or her card aloud. At that point any member of the "Fourteen Points" team who believes that his or her card pertains to that particular clause of the Versailles Treaty should also stand and read the contents of his or her card, and explain why it fits. If more than one student from the "Fourteen Points" team responds, the teacher should lead a brief discussion (no more than five minutes) before asking the class to decide which of the cardholders has the closest connection to the Versailles peace term.

If a geographic location is mentioned on any of the cards, ask the students to note that location on the map. Each time that a member of the "Fourteen Points" team is matched up with a member of the "Versailles" team, that pair should write the contents of their cards on the board. The game continues until each member of the "Versailles" team has read his or her card, and has been matched with a member of the "Fourteen Points" team. At this point there should still be three members of the latter team who have not read aloud the contents of their cards. They should do so now. To conclude the activity, teachers should lead students in a discussion touching on the following questions: Which parts of the Fourteen Points were represented in the Versailles Treaty? Which parts of the Fourteen Points were dealt with only partially in the Treaty? What parts of the Fourteen Points were ignored completely in the Treaty? If you were a believer in Wilsonian foreign policy, would you support the Treaty of Versailles? Why or why not? Assessment After completing this lesson, students should also be able to write brief (1-2 paragraph) essays answering the following questions: How did the Fourteen Points promote Wilsonian ideas?

How did the Versailles Treaty affect the boundaries of Europe? How well did the Versailles Treaty represent the Fourteen Points? Students should be able to identify and explain the significance of the following: Fourteen Points Wilson`s Search for Peace Blog Wilson`s Search for Peace The Fourteen Points . In January 1918, Woodrow Wilson outlined Fourteen Points that he hoped would form the basis of peace at the conclusion of World War I. Boiled down to their essentials, Wilson wanted the following: (1) fair treatment for Germany as a means to lessen the prospect of future conflict, (2) consultation with resident nationalities in determining postwar international boundaries, (3) the curbing of maritime excesses by Germany and Britain through the establishment of freedom of the seas, (4) an end to arms races through disarmament, and (5) the creation of an international association of nations for the promotion of peaceful means to settle international disputes. Reaction from international leaders was not encouraging. The Germans launched a major offensive in the spring of 1918 and initially made great progress on the Western Front; at this point they were more interested in acquiring additional territory than in discussing peace.

Leaders of the other Allied powers had little interest in Wilson's idealism and were dedicated to imposing stiff terms on their enemies, hoping that a weakened Germany would not be able to make war in the future. Armistice . The beginning of a string of Allied victories in mid-1918 encouraged Wilson to devote more of his energies to his peace effort. Discussion regarding an armistice began in October and led to the cessation of hostilities on November 11. Wilson, in an effort to strengthen his hand at the coming peace conference, called upon American voters to return the Democrats to power in the congressional elections later in November; the electorate shut its ears to the president's appeal and gave the Republicans majorities in both houses. Competing War Aims. Despite this embarrassing setback, Wilson announced his intention to lead the American peace delegation personally and sailed for Europe in early December. He was initially heartened by thunderous welcomes from adoring crowds in a number of European capitals, but quickly had to face the reality that the war aims of allies Britain , France , Italy and Japan did not necessarily mesh with the Fourteen Points. Paris Peace Conference .

Wilson's spoken hopes for implementing a just peace under the Fourteen Points provoked conflict with Allies in Paris and began to stir opposition at home. Treaty of Versailles . The President pinned his hopes for future world order on the League of Nations and reluctantly abandoned principles advanced in the Fourteen Points. Covenant of the League of Nations . The creation of the League of Nations offered the hope of avoiding future wars, but the prospect of continuing involvement in Europe dampened the enthusiasm of important American leaders. Struggle for Ratification . Partisan factions within the U.S. Senate were unable to muster the necessary two-thirds vote to ratify the Treaty of Versailles, either with the Lodge reservations or in the original form favored by the president. Election of 1920. The American public, exhausted by war and weary of Wilson's unceasing idealism, voted overwhelmingly for Harding, Republicans and "normalcy." Woodrow Wilson - U.S. Presidents - HISTORY.com Google Woodrow Wilson’s Early Years Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born on December 28, 1856, in Staunton, Virginia .

(Because his mother said he arrived around midnight, some sources list Wilson’s birthday as December 29.) His father, Joseph Ruggles Wilson (1822-1903), was a Presbyterian minister, and his mother, Janet Woodrow Wilson (1826-1888), was a minister’s daughter and originally from England. Tommy Wilson, as he was called growing up, spent his childhood and teen years in Augusta, Georgia , and Columbia, South Carolina . During the American Civil War (1861-1865), Wilson’s father served as a chaplain in the Confederate army and used his church as a hospital for injured Confederate troops. Did You Know? Woodrow Wilson, who had an esteemed career as an academic and university president before entering politics, did not learn to read until he was 10, likely due to dyslexia. Wilson graduated from Princeton University (then called the College of New Jersey ) in 1879 and went on to attend law school at the University of Virginia. After briefly practicing law in Atlanta, Georgia, he received a Ph.D. in political science from Johns Hopkins University in 1886. (Wilson remains the only U.S.

president to earn a doctorate degree.) He taught at Bryn Mawr College and Wesleyan College before being hired by Princeton in 1890 as a professor of jurisprudence and politics. From 1902 to 1910, Wilson was president of Princeton, where he developed a national reputation for his educational reform policies. In 1885, Wilson married Ellen Axson (1860-1914), a minister’s daughter and Georgia native. The couple had three daughters before Ellen died of kidney disease in 1914, during her husband’s first presidential term. The following year, Wilson married Edith Bolling Galt (1872-1961), a widow whose husband had owned a Washington , D.C., jewelry business. Woodrow Wilson’s Rise in Politics In 1910, Woodrow Wilson was elected governor of New Jersey, where he fought machine politics and garnered national attention as a progressive reformer. In 1912, the Democrats nominated Wilson for president, selecting Thomas Marshall (1854-1925), the governor of Indiana , as his vice presidential running mate.

The Republican Party split over their choice for a presidential candidate: Conservative Republicans re-nominated President William Taft (1857-1930), while the progressive wing broke off to form the Progressive (or Bull Moose) Party and nominated Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), who had served as president from 1901 to 1909. With the Republicans divided, Wilson, who campaigned on a platform of liberal reform, won 435 electoral votes, compared to 88 for Roosevelt and eight for Taft. He garnered nearly 42 percent of the popular vote; Roosevelt came in second place with more than 27 percent of the popular vote. Woodrow Wilson’s First Administration At the age of 56, Woodrow Wilson was sworn into office in March 1913. He was the last American president to travel to his inauguration ceremony in a horse-drawn carriage. Once in the White House , Wilson achieved significant progressive reform. Congress passed the Underwood-Simmons Act, which reduced the tariff on imports and imposed a new federal income tax.

It also passed legislation establishing the Federal Reserve (which provides a system for regulating the nation’s banks, credit and money supply) and the Federal Trade Commission (which investigates and prohibits unfair business practices). Other accomplishments included child labor laws, an eight-hour day for railroad workers and government loans to farmers. Additionally, Wilson nominated the first Jewish person to the U.S. Supreme Court, Louis Brandeis (1856-1941), who was confirmed by the Senate in 1916. When World War I broke out in Europe in the summer of 1914, Wilson was determined to keep the United States out of the conflict. On May 7, 1915, a German submarine torpedoed and sank the British ocean liner Lusitania , killing more than 1,100 people (including 128 Americans). Wilson continued to maintain U.S. neutrality but warned Germany that any future sinkings would be viewed by America as “deliberately unfriendly.” In 1916, Wilson and Vice President Marshall were re-nominated by the Democrats.

The Republicans chose Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes (1862-1948) as their presidential candidate and Charles Fairbanks (1852-1918), the U.S. vice president under Theodore Roosevelt, as his running mate. Wilson, who campaigned on the slogan “He kept us out of war,” won with a narrow electoral margin of 277-254 and a little more than 49 percent of the popular vote. Woodrow Wilson’s Second Administration: World War I Woodrow Wilson’s second term in office was dominated by World War I. Although the president had advocated for peace during the initial years of the war, in early 1917 German submarines launched unrestricted submarine attacks against U.S. merchant ships. Around the same time, the United States learned about the Zimmerman Telegram, in which Germany tried to persuade Mexico to enter into an alliance against America. On April 2, 1917, Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany, stating, “The world must be made safe for democracy.” America’s participation helped bring about victory for the Allies, and on November 11, 1918, an armistice was signed by the Germans.

At the Paris Peace Conference, which opened in January 1919 and included the heads of the British, French and Italian governments, Wilson helped negotiate the Treaty of Versailles . The agreement included the charter for the League of Nations, an organization intended to arbitrate international disputes and prevent future wars. Wilson had initially advanced the idea for the League in a January 1918 speech to the U.S. Congress in which he outlined his “Fourteen Points” for a postwar peace settlement. When Wilson returned from Europe in the summer of 1919, he encountered opposition to the Versailles treaty from isolationist Republicans in Congress who feared the League could limit America’s autonomy and draw the country into another war. In September of that year, the president embarked on a cross-country speaking tour to promote his ideas for the League directly to the American people. On the night of September 25, on a train bound for Wichita, Kansas , Wilson collapsed from mental and physical stress, and the rest of his tour was cancelled. On October 2, he suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. Wilson’s condition was kept largely hidden from the public, and his wife worked behind the scenes to fulfill a number of his administrative duties.

The Senate voted on the Treaty of Versailles first in November 1919 and again in March 1920. Both times it failed to gain the two-thirds vote required for ratification. The treaty’s defeat was partly blamed on Wilson’s refusal to compromise with the Republicans. The League of Nations held its first meeting in January 1920; the United States never joined the organization. However, in December 1920, Wilson received the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to include the Covenant of the League of Nations in the Treaty of Versailles. Woodrow Wilson’s Second Administration: Domestic Issues Woodrow Wilson’s second administration saw the passage of two significant constitutional amendments. The era of Prohibition was ushered in on January 17, 1920, when the 18th Amendment, banning the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcohol, went into effect following its ratification one year earlier. In 1919, Wilson vetoed the National Prohibition Act (or Volstead Act), designed to enforce the 18th Amendment; however, his veto was overridden by Congress.

Prohibition lasted until 1933, when it was repealed by the 21st Amendment. Also in 1920, American women gained the right to vote when the 19th Amendment became law that August; Wilson had pushed Congress to pass the amendment. That year’s presidential election–the first in which women from every state were allowed to vote–resulted in a victory for Republican Warren Harding (1865-1923), a congressman from Ohio who opposed the League of Nations and campaigned for a “return to normalcy” after Wilson’s tenure in the White House. Woodrow Wilson’s Final Years After leaving office in March 1921, Woodrow Wilson resided in Washington, D.C. He and a partner established a law firm, but poor health prevented the president from ever doing any serious work. Wilson died at his home on February 3, 1924, at age 67. He was buried in the Washington National Cathedral, the only president to be interred in the nation’s capital. Access hundreds of hours of historical video, commercial free, with HISTORY Vault . Start your free trial today.

Tags Modern History Sourcebook: Woodrow Wilson: Fourteen Points, 1918 Modern History Sourcebook: Woodrow Wilson: Speech on the Fourteen Points Jan 8, 1918 President Woodrow WiIson put forth his Fourteen Points proposal for ending the war in a speech on January 8, 1918. In it he established the basis of a peace treaty and the foundation of a League of Nations. We entered this war because violations of right had occurred which touched us to the quick and made the life of our own people impossible unless they were corrected and the world secured once for all against their recurrence What we demand in this war, therefore, is nothing peculiar to ourselves. It is that the world be made fit and safe to live in; and particularly that it be made safe for every peace­loving nation which, like our own, wishes to live its own life, determine its own institutions, be assured of justice and fair dealing by the other peoples of the world as against force and selfish aggression. All the peoples of the world are in effect partners in this interest, and for our own part we see very clearly that unless justice be done to others it will not be done to us.

The programme of the world's peace, therefore, is our programme; and that programme, the only possible programme, as we see it, is this: I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understanding 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, except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of international covenants. III. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance. IV. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety. V. A free, open­minded, 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. 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 in obtaining for her an unhampered and unembarrassed opportunity for the independent determination of` her own political development and national policy and assure her a sincere welcome into the society of free nations under institutions of her own choosing; and, more than a welcome, assistance also of every kind that she may need and may herself desire. The treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months to come will be the acid test of their good will, of their comprehension of her needs as distinguished from their own interests, and of their intelligent and unselfish sympathy. 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. No other single act will serve as this will serve to restore confidence among the nations in the laws which they have themselves set and determined for the government of their relations with one another. Without this healing act the whole structure and validity of international law is forever impaired. 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 Alsace­Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the world for nearly fifty years, should be righted, in order that peace may once more be made secure in the interest of all. IX. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along clearly recognizable lines of nationality. X. The peoples of Austria­Hungary, whose place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest opportunity of autonomous development. XI. Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacuated; occupied territories restored; Serbia accorded free and secure access to the sea; and the relations of the several Balkan states to one another determined by friendly counsel along historically established lines of allegiance and nationality; and international guarantees of the political and economic independence and territorial integrity of the several Balkan states should be entered into. XII.

The Turkish portions 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 an absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous development, 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, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenant. 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.... From Woodrow Wilson, "Speech on the Fourteen Points," Congressional Record, 65th Congress 2nd Session, 1918, pp. 680­681. This text is part of the Internet Modern History Sourcebook . The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts for introductory level classes in modern European and World history. Unless otherwise indicated the specific electronic form of the document is copyright.

Permission is granted for electronic copying, distribution in print form for educational purposes and personal use. If you do reduplicate the document, indicate the source. No permission is granted for commercial use of the Sourcebook. (c)Paul Halsall Aug 1997 Woodrow Wilson | whitehouse.gov Air Force One Woodrow Wilson Woodrow Wilson, a leader of the Progressive Movement, was the 28th President of the United States (1913-1921). After a policy of neutrality at the outbreak of World War I, Wilson led America into war in order to "make the world safe for democracy." Like Roosevelt before him, Woodrow Wilson regarded himself as the personal representative of the people. "No one but the President," he said, "seems to be expected ... to look out for the general interests of the country." He developed a program of progressive reform and asserted international leadership in building a new world order. In 1917 he proclaimed American entrance into World War I a crusade to make the world "safe for democracy." Wilson had seen the frightfulness of war.

He was born in Virginia in 1856, the son of a Presbyterian minister who during the Civil War was a pastor in Augusta, Georgia, and during Reconstruction a professor in the charred city of Columbia, South Carolina. After graduation from Princeton (then the College of New Jersey) and the University of Virginia Law School, Wilson earned his doctorate at Johns Hopkins University and entered upon an academic career. In 1885 he married Ellen Louise Axson. Wilson advanced rapidly as a conservative young professor of political science and became president of Princeton in 1902. His growing national reputation led some conservative Democrats to consider him Presidential timber. First they persuaded him to run for Governor of New Jersey in 1910. In the campaign he asserted his independence of the conservatives and of the machine that had nominated him, endorsing a progressive platform, which he pursued as governor. He was nominated for President at the 1912 Democratic Convention and campaigned on a program called the New Freedom, which stressed individualism and states' rights. In the three-way election he received only 42 percent of the popular vote but an overwhelming electoral vote. Wilson maneuvered through Congress three major pieces of legislation.

The first was a lower tariff, the Underwood Act; attached to the measure was a graduated Federal income tax. The passage of the Federal Reserve Act provided the Nation with the more elastic money supply it badly needed. In 1914 antitrust legislation established a Federal Trade Commission to prohibit unfair business practices. Another burst of legislation followed in 1916. One new law prohibited child labor; another limited railroad workers to an eight-hour day. By virtue of this legislation and the slogan "he kept us out of war," Wilson narrowly won re-election. But after the election Wilson concluded that America could not remain neutral in the World War. On April 2,1917, he asked Congress for a declaration of war on Germany. Massive American effort slowly tipped the balance in favor of the Allies. Wilson went before Congress in January 1918, to enunciate American war aims--the Fourteen Points, the last of which would establish "A general association of nations...affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike." After the Germans signed the Armistice in November 1918, Wilson went to Paris to try to build an enduring peace.

He later presented to the Senate the Versailles Treaty, containing the Covenant of the League of Nations, and asked, "Dare we reject it and break the heart of the world?" But the election of 1918 had shifted the balance in Congress to the Republicans. By seven votes the Versailles Treaty failed in the Senate. The President, against the warnings of his doctors, had made a national tour to mobilize public sentiment for the treaty. Exhausted, he suffered a stroke and nearly died. Tenderly nursed by his second wife, Edith Bolling Galt, he lived until 1924. The Presidential biographies on WhiteHouse.gov are from “The Presidents of the United States of America,” by Frank Freidel and Hugh Sidey. Copyright 2006 by the White House Historical Association. Learn more about President Wilson's first wife, Ellen Axson Wilson, who died during her term.

Question: How many 'points for peace' did President Wilson announce in 1918?
Answer: 14