Topic 12 - Imperialism and World War I (1853-1919)

Lesson 7 - Wilson and Isolationism

On board the American naval ship George Washington were President Woodrow Wilson and his advisers. They were sailing to France in late 1918 to help the Allies set the terms of peace following World War I. As the ship passed the Statue of Liberty, a hopeful Wilson waved his hat to the crowd. At last, he would have a chance to keep his promise of making the world “safe for democracy.”

GET READY TO READ

Start up

The war won, American troops like these were eager to come home. Preview the rest of the lesson. Write some sentences about how the war might have affected these soldiers and the nation.

Guiding Questions

What were the components and the purpose of Wilson’s fourteen-point peace plan?
What did Wilson achieve at the Paris Peace Conference?
Why did the Versailles Treaty and the League of Nations fail to win support in the United States?

Vocabulary

Academic Vocabulary

negotiate
incur

The Fourteen Points

President Wilson was determined to do whatever was needed to achieve his vision of a just and lasting peace. In the end, however, Wilson failed. The other Allied leaders, it turned out, did not share his vision or his hopes. Even the American people disagreed over how to approach the postwar world.

In Europe, Wilson visited Paris, London, Milan, and Rome. Everywhere, cheering crowds welcomed him. He thought that the crowds shared his goal of peace without victory. In fact, he was wrong. The Europeans who greeted Wilson so warmly scoffed at his high-minded proposals for peace. They and their leaders were determined to punish the Germans for the war.

In January 1918, even before the war ended, Wilson outlined his peace plan. Known as the Fourteen Points, it was meant to prevent international crises from causing another war.

The first point in Wilson’s plan called for an end to secret agreements. Secrecy, Wilson felt, had encouraged the web of rival alliances that had helped lead to war. Next, he called for freedom of the seas, free trade, and a limit on arms. He urged peaceful settlement of disputes over colonies. He also supported the principle of national self-determination, that is, the right of national groups to have their own territory and forms of government.

President Woodrow Wilson

For Wilson, however, the fourteenth point was the most important. It called for a “general association of nations,” or League of Nations. Its job would be to protect the independence of all countries, large or small. His goals were clear:

Primary Source

“An evident principle runs through the whole program that I have outlined. It is the principle of justice to all peoples and nationalities, and their right to live on equal terms of liberty and safety with one another, whether weak or strong.”

—Woodrow Wilson, Speech, January 8, 1918

Wilson persuaded the Allies to accept the Fourteen Points as the basis for making peace. However, the plan soon ran into trouble. Some goals were too vague. Others conflicted with reality. In the peace conference, Wilson faced a constant battle to save his Fourteen Points. He discovered that the Allies were more concerned with protecting their own interests than with forging a lasting peace.

Analyze Charts

This chart summarizes several of the major ideas in Wilson’s Fourteen Points.

Cite Evidence Which do you think is the most important point in terms of maintaining peace? Why?

READING CHECK

Summarize What was the purpose of creating a League of Nations?

Peace Treaties Shape the Postwar World

Diplomats from more than 30 nations met in Paris and Versailles (vuhr si) to negotiate five separate peace treaties known as the Peace of Paris. Key issues were decided by the leaders of the Allied nations known as the Big Four: Woodrow Wilson of the United States, David Lloyd George of United Kingdom, Georges Clemenceau (kleh mahn soh) of France, and Vittorio Orlando of Italy.

Analyze Images

The “Big Four” Allied leaders (from left, George, Orlando, Clemenceau, and Wilson) met in Paris in 1919 to negotiate a peace treaty after World War I.

Infer Why did the Allies grant four countries special peace-making powers?

Allied Nations Disagree

Each leader had his own aims. Wilson had called for “peace without victory.” He opposed punishing the defeated powers.

The other Allies, however, ached for revenge. Germany must pay, they said. They insisted on large reparations, or cash payments, for the losses they had incurred during the war. Further, they wanted to include a “war guilt clause” that would force Germany to accept responsibility for the war.

The Allies were also determined to prevent Germany from rebuilding its military strength. In particular, Clemenceau wanted to weaken Germany so that it could never again threaten France. “Mr. Wilson bores me with his Fourteen Points,” he complained. “Why, God Almighty has only ten!”

The haggling continued for months. In the end, Wilson had to compromise on his Fourteen Points in order to save his key goals, especially the League of Nations. However, he would not budge on the League. With the League in place, he believed, any mistakes made in Paris could later be corrected.

Humiliation for Germany

By June 1919, the Treaty of Versailles, the most important treaty of the Peace of Paris, was ready. None of the Allies was satisfied with it. Germany, which had not even been allowed to send delegates to the peace talks, was shocked by the terms of the treaty. Still, its representatives had no choice but to sign.

Under the treaty, Germany had to take full blame for the war.

Primary Source

“The Allied and Associated Governments affirm, and Germany accepts, the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed on them by the aggression of Germany and her allies.”

—Article 231, Versailles Treaty, June 28, 1919

Germany also had to pay the Allies huge reparations, including the cost of pensions for Allied soldiers or their widows and children. The total cost of German reparations would come to over $300 billion.

Other provisions of the Treaty of Versailles were aimed at weakening Germany. The treaty severely limited the size of the German military. It returned Alsace-Lorraine to France. In addition, the treaty stripped Germany of its overseas colonies, which were put under the control of Britain or France. The Germans, wrote one reporter, “suffered a horrible humiliation.”

Britain and France were also given mandates, or authorization, by the League of Nations to govern territory in what had been parts of the Ottoman Empire. The purpose of the mandates was to govern these territories until they could function as independent nations. The British would control the former Turkish provinces of Iraq and Palestine, while the French would control Syria and Lebanon.

Analyze Images

Twenty-seven countries sent delegates to the Versailles Peace Conference, but Russia and the Central Powers were not invited.

Cite Evidence What resulted from excluding the defeated countries from the peace conference?

Wilson Preserves the League of Nations

Despite opposition to many of his Fourteen Points, Wilson succeeded in keeping some of them. In Eastern Europe, the Allies provided for several new nations to be formed on the principle of self-determination, including Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. They were created out of lands once ruled by Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary. In addition, Poland regained its independence as a nation.

Some people were dissatisfied with the new boundaries. Many Germans, for example, had settled in Poland and Czechoslovakia. Before long, Germany would seek to regain control of German-speaking peoples in Eastern Europe.

To Wilson, however, his greatest achievement was persuading the Allies to include the League of Nations in the treaty. Wilson was certain that the League would prevent future wars by allowing nations to talk over their problems. If talk failed, members would join together to fight aggressors. “A living thing is born,” he declared. The League “is definitely a guarantee of peace.”

GEOGRAPHY SKILLS

The map shows how Europe changed as a result of World War I.

Region Which new countries bordered Russia?
Understand Effects What effect might these new nations have on the relationships between European countries?

READING CHECK

Identify Central Ideas How was the Treaty of Versailles a humiliation for Germany?

How Did Wilson Fight for the Peace Treaty?

When President Wilson returned home, he faced a new battle. He had to persuade the Senate to approve the Versailles Treaty and American participation in the League of Nations.

Analyze Images

After returning from Paris, President Wilson (third from left) led a march of peace in Washington, D.C.

Infer Why would the President march in a public demonstration?

American Opposition

Most Americans favored the treaty, but a vocal minority opposed it. Some believed that it was too soft on the defeated powers. Many German Americans felt that it was too harsh. Some Republicans hoped to embarrass President Wilson, a Democrat, by rewriting or defeating the treaty. Isolationists, people who wanted the United States to stay out of world affairs, opposed the League of Nations. They considered the League a dangerous “entangling alliance.” Other people who were against the League felt that it did not have enough authority to solve any pressing economic problems. They thought that it could lead to another war.

Senator Lodge Opposes the Treaty

Critics of the treaty found a leader in Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts. Lodge, a Republican, chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which would have to approve the treaty before it could be presented to the entire Senate for a vote.

Lodge accepted the idea of the League of Nations, but he wanted changes in some provisions relating to the League. He believed that Americans were being asked to “subject our own will to the will of others.”

Specifically, Lodge objected to Article 10 of the treaty. It called for the League to protect any member whose independence or territory was threatened. Lodge argued that Article 10 interfered with United States sovereignty because it could compel the United States to join in future European wars. He wanted changes in the treaty that would ensure that the United States remained independent of the League. He also wanted Congress to have the power to decide on a case-by-case basis whether the United States would follow League policy.

Wilson believed that Lodge’s changes would hobble the League. Advisers urged the President to compromise, to give up some of his demands in order to save the League. Wilson replied, “Let Lodge compromise.” He refused to make any changes.

The Senate Rejects the Treaty

As the battle grew hotter, the President took his case to the people. In early September 1919, Wilson set out across the country. He traveled nearly 8,000 miles and made 37 speeches in 29 cities. He urged Americans to let their senators know that they supported the treaty.

Wilson kept up a relentless pace. On September 25, the exhausted Wilson complained of a headache. His doctors canceled the rest of the trip, and President and Mrs. Wilson returned to Washington. A week later, his wife Edith found the President unconscious. He had suffered a stroke that left him bedridden for weeks.

For the remainder of his term, Edith Wilson would manage the executive branch, protecting the President from the pressures of his office.

Wilson had done all he could. In November 1919, the Senate rejected the Versailles Treaty. “It is dead,” Wilson mourned, “[and] every morning I put flowers on its grave.” Gone, too, was Wilson’s cherished goal—American membership in the League of Nations.

The United States did not sign a peace treaty with Germany until 1921. Many nations had already joined the League of Nations. Without the United States, though, the League failed to live up to its goal of protecting members against aggression. Wilson’s dream of a world “safe for democracy” would have to wait.

Analyze Political Cartoons

This 1919 cartoon shows President Wilson giving an olive branch marked “League of Nations” to a dove.

Infer What does the size of the branch suggest about the League of Nations?

READING CHECK

Check Understanding Why did some Americans including Henry Cabot Lodge oppose the Treaty of Versailles?

Lesson Check

What was Wilson’s view on the principle of self-determination as it applied to national groups?
Why did the Allies, apart from the United States, seek large reparations from Germany, and how did Germany feel about it?
Why was there opposition to the Treaty of Versailles?
Summarize What were the main components of President Wilson’s Fourteen Points?
Compare and Contrast What did Wilson and the other members of the Big Four at the Paris Peace Conference disagree about?
Writing Workshop: Write a Conclusion Write a concluding paragraph for your essay on U.S. expansion and intervention. Summarize the main idea of your essay and tell why it is important.

Google Sites

Report abuse