Analyse Woodrow Wilson's objectives in entering World War I and assess his success in achieving them

The Fourteen Points speech explained the terms Wilson considered essential to a fair peace settlement, or as Wilson had earlier called it, a ‘peace without victory.’  Wilson believed that a one-sided settlement of the conflict would be of no value, because the loser would later feel compelled to reclaim what had been lost.  Instead, the only basis for a lasting peace would be a peace forged among equals on the principles of justice and democracy.  Wilson’s Fourteen Points were based on these beliefs.

Eight points related to territorial changes of evacuating Germany out of Allied lands.  Five related to general principles of international behaviour such as freedom of the seas, open peace covenants, equality of economic activity, the reduction of armaments and the respect of self-determination of colonial populations.  The last and most important point provided for the League of Nations.  President Wilson himself drafted the League covenant.  The fourteen points had been seemingly well received, however the allied people stood firmly behind their leaders.  These points had been disseminated without consulting the Allied leaders and ran contrary to what they wanted.  The Allies wanted to extract huge reparations on Germany including annexing huge parts of their territories.  These differences came to the fore in negotiations in November 1918, in which Germany approached Wilson for an armistice on the basis of the fourteen points.  However the Allies would only accept the fourteen points with reservations for reparation and the freedom of the seas.  Had the United States not threatened a separate peace with Germany, the Allies would have asked for more.

At the Paris Peace Conference on January 18th, 1919, the drawing up of a formal peace settlement and the shape of the settlement was squarely in the hands of three men in particular: France’s Premier Georges Clemenceau, Woodrow Wilson, and Britain’s Prime Minister David Lloyd George.  Wilson had convinced Lloyd George and Clemenceau to take the Fourteen Points as a blueprint for negotiating the peace treaty, since Germany had signed the armistice ending the fighting on the expectation that the resulting peace would implement Wilson’s objectives.  Unfortunately the war had been long and brutal, and the sentiments among the Allies toward the Germans were nothing short of hatred.  Soon thereafter, the blueprint was functionally discarded, and the conference shifted towards the singular purpose of punishing Germany to prevent it from future aggression.  The resulting Treaty turned into an attempt by the Allies to make the world better for themselves.  

President Wilson, though unable to obtain complete agreement from the Allies, was able to achieve some success of the fourteen points.  He was able to get the map of Europe redrawn nearer to the principle of self determination of the colonial population, by inducing Clemenceau to abandon his claim to the left of the Rhine.  He had to agree however, to a treaty which said that Great Britain and the United States would come to France’s aid in the event of unprovoked German aggression.  This treaty was never ratified.  He was also able to incorporate the League of Nations as an integral part of the peace treaty and there was nothing more important than this to him.  Unfortunately, Wilson had to make concessions before he could secure an agreement on the League.  He yielded to the demand of huge reparations from Germany for both France and Britain and yielded to some territorial arrangements, in which Italy acquired the Austrian Tyrol and Japan the Chinese province of Shantung.  This went completely against the principles of self determination and through this principle the Allies obtained the control they needed to take possession of Germany’s former colonies, though President Wilson was able to prevent this from happening in an overt manner.  In this way president Wilson was able to secure a settlement in accordance with the fourteen points.  Without Wilson’s influence, the Treaty of Versailles would not have even accommodated the League Covenant.

The Treaty of Versailles was the formal and final agreement reached and embodied Wilson’s fourteen points after the many concessions had been made and the formulation of the League Covenant.  While Wilson was in Paris, opposition at home grew steadily.  The ratification of the treaty proved harder to obtain than formulating it.  The Republicans refused to accept the treaty in its existing form.  Though Wilson was extremely angered, on his return to Paris, he opted to make more modifications but he would not amend article 10, which was the main Republican target.  These amendments provided for the withdrawal of members from the League, made acceptance of the mandates optional, and made sure that the League could not interfere with such domestic matters as tariffs, immigration policy or to infringe on the Monroe Doctrine.  

On his return from Paris, there was still much animosity towards the treaty.  Some jealous Republicans generally did not want Wilson to succeed in the treaty as that might ensure a victory in the 1920 elections; others actually had genuine concerns about article 10.  They demanded that the treaty be further amended but Wilson refused to do so.  In November the Senate Foreign Relations Committee recommended that the treaty be ratified but with a series of stipulations.  Twice the treaty was voted on and rejected.  The treaty with stipulations was voted down the first time and the Democrats urged Wilson to amend the treaty in order to save it.  On the second time around the vote was in favour of the reservations but there was no two-thirds majority to ratify the treaty.  The Public had long lost interest in the treaty and the elected Republican, Warren G. Harding, interpreted his victory as a denunciation of the treaty.  In the end the United Stated did not join the League and made a separate peace with Germany on the 2nd of July 1921.

In entering the 1st world war, President Wilson wanted to see a few things achieved on an international scale.  He was moralistic and idealistic and these ideals were the basis of his fourteen points.  Wilson achieved actual success in the majority of his objectives, however, the principles underlying them were compromised in such a way as to diminish this success.  Wilson believed in a ‘peace without victory’ but this was not possible.  Wilson believed that a one-sided settlement of the conflict would cause the loser to feel the need to reclaim what it had lost.  This was exactly what resulted.  The Allies were the victors and wanted to exact harsh reparations from Germany.  Wilson’s objectives in this regard were contradictory to what the Allies wanted.  

The Allies wanted so much for Germany and her allies to suffer that Wilson had to make concessions that went against the principles of the fourteen points in order to secure an agreement.  Bit by bit Wilson’s objectives began to lose power.  The Treaty of Versailles also helped to diminish the success of the Wilson’s objectives.  When Wilson was finally able to construct an agreement suitable to the Allies, which became the essence of the Versailles Treaty, he could not get it ratified by the senate.  President Wilson had bent all that he was able to and as a result the treaty was repudiated.

Wilson was successful in almost each of the first eight territorial points, having the map of Europe redrawn so as to accord nearly to the principle of self determination.  However in allowing Italy and Japan to acquire territory of the Central Powers to secure an agreement with the Allies, went directly against that principle and undermined the success of those points.  The point about freedom of the seas had been jeopardized early on as Wilson conceded reservation on this point as the Allies had wanted.  Wilson’s second great success came in his ability to have the League of Nations incorporated into the peace treaty.  In formulating the Versailles Treaty, however, the Republicans demanded modifications which weakened the League Covenant.  It now provided for a withdrawal from the League and made the mandates of the Covenant optional.  This sent the message that the member states would not have to what the Covenant mandated and that when they were ready to leave they could.  It becomes almost difficult to measure Wilson’s success in his objectives.

The success of President Wilson’s objectives in entering World War I was quite marginal.  Although he was finally able to secure an agreement between the Allies and the Central Powers in accordance to the majority of the fourteen points, he did so at great cost to the principles underlying them.  He was a visionary, whose fourteen points lead to the creation of a League of Nations and League Covenant.  He was a visionary who saw the ingredients needed for a lasting peace.  He was not entirely successful because he allowed the principles of his vision to be compromised by the Allies, though under the circumstances it would have been impossible to prevent.  He conceded to too many of his points in order to push ones which he deemed to be most important but this weakened his vision overall.  Wilson warned in vain against the principle of a harsh peace and many historians believe this was the cause of German vengeance in the 2nd World War.

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