Period. 4
11/2/15
President Wilson and His 14 points
When it came to dealing with the terms of peace after WWI, Wilson tried to unite all the conflicting nations to work together for collective security. Unlike the rest of the leaders meeting at Versailles who only cared about revenge and reparations, President Wilson believed in a "peace without victory" and a world "safe for democracy". Wilson projected these ideas to the European leaders through the 14 points and the concept of a group with a goal of preventing future war. This group was to be called the League of Nations. The 14 points were the rules that the league would be based off of. Together the league and the points would be used to prevent future conflict between nations thus keeping collective security and peace. Wilson's issue is that he has trouble finding support for his plan from the other European nations. For example, Britain and France's leaders did not agree with Wilson's "peace without victory", they wanted revenge and reparations for all the lives they lost to Germany in the war. President Wilson's 14 points are flawed in that they don't account for individual interest. Wilson's idea of collective security doesn't account for the human nature of individual interest or greed. Nations will only work together as long as they want to. There is nothing keeping Wilson's plan in place. The terms of peace are discussed at the Peace Conference of 1919. All nations come to this conference with different ideas of how to deal with peace. Britain wants to strengthen themselves and punish Germany to an extent. France wants to punish and weaken Germany. Italy just wants to receive territory. All of these nations differ on the idea of the question of reparations. Since Germany loses the war all of the other nations make Germany the scapegoat. The big European powers want money from Germany as revenge. Germany is clearly not responsible for everything however Britain and France want Germany to admit it was their fault in the Guilt Clause. Wilson's one major victory at this conference is he get everyone to agree to the League of Nations. This is good for Wilson because this is is main belief to achieve collective security. The most controversial point for Wilson to deal with is Article X.
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ReplyDeleteI can tell you have put a lot of effort into this post. No but I actually agree with the way that you try to stay objective in your writting
ReplyDeleteI think it is a really important aspect of life in general, knowing when to stay objective to be professional
DeleteI think it is a really important aspect of life in general, knowing when to stay objective to be professional
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