WILSON'S FOURTEEN POINTS: BACKGROUND AND HOW IT AFFECTED GERMANY - HISTORY - 2024

The Fourteen Points of Wilson were proposals made by the president of the USA Woodrow Wilson aimed at favoring the end of the First World War. The US president made them public on January 8, 1918, during a speech before the Congress of his country.

The First World War had broken out in Europe in 1914, confronting the great Central Empires (Triple Alliance) and the Triple Entente, the alliance formed by Great Britain, Russia and France. The United States entered the war in 1917, strengthening the Allies.

Woodrow Wilson- Source: Harris & Ewing

For its part, the Russian Revolution of 1917 caused the new leaders of that country to begin preparing their exit from the conflict. For this, Leon Trotsky proposed the beginning of talks to achieve peace. The allies, however, preferred a victory that was unanswerable.

Wilson, with his Fourteen Points, tried, on the one hand, to counter the Soviet proposal and, on the other, to create the conditions so that a conflict of this magnitude could never break out. Despite this, when the Allies defeated the powers of the Triple Alliance, they preferred not to follow the American's recommendations.

Historical background

The First World War faced the great powers of the time. In principle, the contenders were the Triple Alliance, made up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the German Empire and Italy, against the Triple Entente, made up of Great Britain, France and Russia. Over time, many other countries joined the conflict.

At first, all the participants thought it was going to be a short war. However, the conflict was lengthening in time until reaching 1917, when two events of different signs altered its development.

Russian Revolution

The defeats on the battlefield, in addition to the poor economic situation and a socio-political structure anchored almost in feudalism, were the main causes of the Russian Revolution of 1917.

In October of that year, the Bolsheviks seized power in the country. From the beginning, they had been against participating in the war, so they began to study how to leave the conflict. Thus, they proposed to the rest of the contestants that they hold meetings to achieve peace and that there be no sanctions for anyone.

The allies were against it, and eventually the Soviet Union signed its own peace treaty with the central empires.

United States entry

That same year, 1917, was the time chosen by the United States to enter the conflict. At that time, the war was very stagnant, with neither side gaining sufficient advantage to defeat the enemy.

The American participation gave new strength to the allies, who were able to advance their objectives.

The Fourteen Points

Months before the end of the First World War, the president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, gave a speech before the Congress of his country in which he detailed a series of points to achieve peace.

The Fourteen Points, presented on January 8, 1918, were based on suggestions issued by a board of Congress itself, formed to prepare future negotiations that would take place at the end of the conflict.

The spirit of these points was to establish the conditions for the European powers to stop the war and lay the foundations so that a conflict of that magnitude could not occur again.

Wilson also tried to counter the good image achieved by the Soviet Communists with his proposal to end the war.

Points on diplomacy, economics and weaponry

The first four points made by Wilson were about what diplomacy should be like from that moment on and about the economy and weapons.

1.- For the US president, secret diplomacy should disappear. All agreements had to be made publicly, without any private international agreements.

2.- Wilson advocated complete freedom of navigation outside jurisdictional waters, whether in times of peace or war.

3.- Following the American liberal policy, he advocated the disappearance of economic barriers.

4.- Finally, he called for the reduction of the armaments of each nation.

Territorial points

The most controversial points were those dedicated to territorial reorganization. Borders, the appearance of nationalisms and the race for the colonies had been some of the main causes of the outbreak of the conflict.

5.- Wilson requested that the colonial claims be readjusted. For him, the interests of each people deserved the same consideration as the aspirations of governments.

6.- As for Russia, the American president asked that all foreign forces leave their territory. He also advocated giving him the opportunity to improve his situation, with the help of the powers.

7.- Full restoration of Belgium in its complete and free sovereignty.

8.- Likewise, he requested the liberation of all the territory of France and that Prussia pay reparations for the damages produced in 1871.

9.- He also asked that the Italian borders be adjusted according to the principle of nationality, something that affected the northern regions.

10.- A very controversial point was his request for autonomous development for the peoples that formed the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

11.- In the Balkans, one of the most complicated areas of Europe, he called for the evacuation of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, that Serbia have access to the sea and that relations between the States in the area be based on their national realities.

12.- He requested something similar for the non-Turkish peoples of the Ottoman Empire, to whom he wanted to grant the possibility of developing autonomously.

13.- The last point of this block called for the establishment of Poland as an independent state with access to the sea.

Society of nations

The last of the fourteen points was intended to prevent a new war.

14.- Wilson proposed the creation of an assembly in which all countries were represented. Among its functions would be to establish agreements that guarantee political independence and territorial integrity, avoiding frictions that could lead to war.

This point led to the creation of the League of Nations, the antecedent of the current United Nations (UN). Curiously, Wilson was unable to get his country, the United States, to agree to join the body.

How did they affect Germany?

Most European countries accepted Wilson's points as the basis for achieving peace. However, the great powers, such as France, the United Kingdom or Italy, showed their skepticism about its effectiveness.

A year after Wilson made his points, the Paris Conference began, with the war over. This meeting brought together the winners of the conflict to negotiate peace treaties with the defeated. The 14 points began as the basis of the Conference, but were soon put aside before the claims of the winners.

Reactions

Historians point out that Wilson's 14 points were the basis of the discussions at the Paris Conference. However, the treaties that emerged from it did not follow the recommendations of the US president.

The future and the sanctions against Germany, as defeated in the war, were collected in the Treaty of Versailles. In this agreement, the only one of Wilson's points expressly collected was that of the creation of the League of Nations.

Other aspects, such as the prohibition of secret diplomacy or political independence, were put aside.

Wilson had stated that the goal of the United States was to fight against the autocratic German government, but not against its people. The French claim to obtain the payment of hard reparations, together with the territorial distribution that made Germany lose many territories, caused the United States to not be very satisfied with the result.

In fact, the US Congress rejected the Treaty of Versailles. The US and Germany ended up signing their own armistice in November 1918.

Treaty of Versailles

Wilson had drafted his fourteen points with the intention of creating the conditions for a lasting peace, as well as to avoid future disagreements regarding the identity of each nation.

The American president appeared at the Paris Conference with the idea that the victorious countries of the war would support his manifesto. However, these countries demanded a series of reparations and conditions from the losers that went beyond fourteen points.

In the end, Wilson had to accept the claims of the rest of the powers in order to save one of his main purposes: the creation of the League of Nations. To do this, he had to sacrifice some of his ideas about self-determination or open diplomacy.

Although it is not possible to know what would have happened in the event that the points proposed by Wilson had been followed, the consequences of the Treaty of Versailles are known.

The imposition on Germany of large economic reparations, the loss of territories and the obligation to declare that they were the only culprits of the conflict, created the conditions for the emergence of the National Socialist Party of Adolf Hitler and, therefore, for it to explode, 20 years then the Second World War.

References

1. Arancibia, Mercedes. Wilson's 14 Points: Centennial. Obtained from journalists-es.com
2. Dipublico. Fourteen Points from President Wilson (1918). Obtained from dipublico.org
3. Taibo, Manuel. Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924). Retrieved from aporrea.org
4. Nelson, Ken. Fourteen Points. Retrieved from ducksters.com
5. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Fourteen Points. Retrieved from britannica.com
6. History.com Editors. Fourteen Points. Retrieved from history.com
7. Nolo. Woodrow Wilson's "Fourteen Points." Retrieved from nolo.com
8. Hamon, Caitlin. President Woodrow Wilson debuts Fourteen Points, January 1918. Retrieved from worldwar1centennial.org