Woodrow Wilson: Fourteen Points

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

Introduction

In his opening, Wilson seizes the moral high ground by reminding his listeners that, unlike the other warning nations, the United States is participating in the war not for selfish purposes such as acquiring new territory but rather to make the world “safe for every peace-loving nation.” He establishes the United States as a moral example and implicitly challenges other nations to follow its example and to look beyond their own selfish interests. Wilson then declares that his intention is to change the international system. The old age, he declares, in which nations pursue their interests through force of arms is “dead and gone.” So, too, is the network of competing alliances and secret treaties aimed at preserving a balance of power that had failed to prevent World War I. In their place Wilson offers a new system, one that would preserve peace and allow the prosperous development of all nations around the world. In this new world order, nations would treat each other with justice and as equals. The strong would not exploit the weak, and all nations would cooperate to punish aggressors and preserve peace. International opinion and the rule of law would replace alliances and national arsenals as the keys to international order, and nations would treat each other with respect and justice.

Point-by-Point Analysis

Wilson then presents a point-by-point enumeration of the requirements for a peace settlement that would prevent future wars and promote international prosperity and stability. These principles, which he hopes would define the postwar international order, fall into three groups: (1) the evacuation of conquered territory, (2) territorial adjustments and the creation of new states to promote national sovereignty and self-determination, and (3) those proposals aimed at remaking the international system. Variations of those proposals in this last category had been suggested by others and embraced by liberal organizations in Europe and the United States, including the British Union of Democratic Control, the Woman's Peace Party, the League to Enforce the Peace in the United States, and the South German Social Democrats. Wilson had broached many of these ideas in previous foreign policy addresses and initiatives and had suggested the creation of a league of nations during his 1916 presidential campaign. Wilson considers the five points related to remaking the international system (Points I–IV and Point XIV), along with the evacuation of Belgian and Russian territory, essential to the peace. He considers the other territorial adjustments, most of which were suggested by a special committee he organized, important but open to negotiation. Wilson, who would expand on these ideas in later speeches, emphasizes that justice should govern the settlement of all issues.

Points I and IV: Causes of War

The first and fourth of his Fourteen Points address what Wilson and many others considered primary causes of World War I: arms races between the major powers that provoked fear and distrust between rival nations and the secret treaties that had brought most of Europe's nations to war. In the twenty years before World War I, the world's major powers had invested increasing sums in new weapons, military technologies, and the infrastructure to support large military forces. The press routinely reported on this arms race, and arms—particularly battleships—became associated as much with status as with military power. Increasingly patriotic populations demanded that their governments match rival nations' new weapons with larger weapons of their own. The reduction of arms to the “lowest point consistent with domestic safety,” Wilson notes in Point IV, would reduce tensions between nations and defuse this powder keg. It would also free industry and labor for peaceful production and trade, which would increase prosperity and further reduce tension.

As Europe's competing nations enlarged their national arsenals, they also sought allies in case war broke out. The assurance of support by secret allies helped lead to war. Austria-Hungary, certain of assistance from its German ally, remained intransigent and refused to negotiate a settlement with Serbia in 1914. Russia, with similar backing from France, also stood firm. Wilson believes that this secrecy and uncertainty helped produce war and argues in Point I that in the future all international treaties must be “open covenants”—that is, they must be announced and published so that everyone is aware of their details. Private negotiations are fine, but the final agreements must be made public.

Points II and III: Free Trade

In Points II and III, Wilson proposes freedom of the seas and free trade. Both had long figured in American foreign policy. Demands for free trade helped provoke the American Revolution and then instigated conflicts between the new nation and France, the Barbary states, and Great Britain. The Monroe Doctrine (1823) opposed European colonialism so as to maintain free trade with the nations of Central and South America, while the Open Door letters circulated by U.S. Secretary of State John Hay in 1899 sought to establish free trade in China. During World War I both Britain's naval blockade of Germany and Germany's submarine campaign had interfered with American shipping and contributed to the American entry into the war.

Wilson sees freedom as a universal value and believes that free enterprise and free trade contribute to freedom and democracy in general. More than that, free trade would increase global prosperity. Nations that trade with one another would come to depend on one another, and this greater interdependence would reduce the chance of war. Nations, particularly democratic nations, bound by trade would not go to war with one another. They would solve disputes peacefully.

Wilson argues in Point II that economic blockades and boycotts would be an important tool for punishing aggressors and makes an exception for closing seas “by international action for the enforcement of international covenants.” Otherwise, he advocates unfettered trade and the unrestricted use of the world's waterways. In Point XII he addresses the specific case of the Dardanelles, which the Ottoman government had periodically closed to shipping from particular nations, and demands that it be “opened as a free passage to the ships and commerce of all nations.” Wilson implicitly means this to apply universally to all water passages, and he gives more weight to this in Points XI and XIII, in which he insists that Poland and Serbia receive outlets to the sea to foster economic development.

Point V: Colonies

The desire for colonies had also contributed to the tense international climate that led to World War I. Germany was a relative latecomer to colonialism, and its leaders envied the large colonial empires of Britain and France. Any peace treaty would necessarily deal with the colonies of the defeated powers. In Point V, Wilson advocates “a free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims” that would consider the “interests of the populations concerned,” giving them “equal weight” to the “equitable claims” of the government desiring to acquire them. Demanding consideration of the opinions of colonial populations is unprecedented and anticipates the Treaty of Versailles's mandate system. in which nations receive colonies as mandates from the League of Nations, which would be tasked with supervising their rule and ensuring the preparation of colonial populations for self-government. While milder in expression than his other points, Point V shares their idealism and Wilson's hope for an international system centered on freedom, free trade, and national self-determination. While it would apply only to the colonies of Germany and the Ottoman Empire, Point V implicitly questions colonialism and advocates self-determination for all colonized peoples.

Point VI: Russia

The question of Russia, which Wilson addresses in Point VI, would become more contentious. A revolution in March 1917 had established a weak democratic government in Russia, but its own internal divisions and efforts to continue the war against Germany fatally weakened it. In November 1917 Communists led by Vladimir Lenin and his Bolshevik Party launched their own revolution and seized control of Russia. In December this new government concluded an armistice with Germany. Wilson hoped to keep Russia in the war, since her defeat would free German and Austrian troops to fight Italy and France.

Wilson assures Russia's new government of independence and the evacuation of its territory of German and other foreign troops, which includes some western soldiers sent to Russia to protect Allied arms shipments and prevent their falling into German or Communist hands. Wilson concludes that the “treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months to come will be the acid test of their good will,” and their willingness to abandon selfish aims and work for the common good. Wilson hopes that Russia will become the test case of his new international system. In this system, other nations—rather than pursuing their own interests and capitalizing on Russia's weakened state—would allow the Russian people to determine their own “political development and national policy.” Events quickly outpaced Wilson's desires, however. In March 1918 the Bolsheviks, who had promised the Russian people “peace, land, and bread,” signed the Treaty of Brest Litovsk, which ceded substantial territory to Germany in exchange for peace. Because Russia made separate peace with Germany and because most European leaders were suspicious of the Bolsheviks, Russia was not invited to the peace conference at Versailles.

Point VII: Belgium

In Point VII, Wilson demands the evacuation of Belgium, most of which Germany had invaded and occupied as a route to invade France. Britain entered the war, in part, because it had pledged to defend Belgian neutrality, and all of the Allied nations advocated the restoration of Belgium. This is the only one of Wilson's points that was assured unanimous support among the war's victors.

Points VIII and IX: French and Italian Territorial Demands

In Points VIII and IX, Wilson addresses the territorial demands of France and Italy, which are leading members of the Allied coalition. Wilson recognized that any peace settlement had to address their demands. France demanded the return of Alsace-Lorraine, seized by Germany following its victory in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, while Italy wanted to annex parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire with large, ethnically Italian populations. Wilson saw justice in both these claims, and he certainly could not dismiss them out of hand. In his address, however, Wilson still seeks to accommodate the claims within his new international framework that privileges national self-determination. As with the lesser powers, which Wilson addresses in his next several points, the borders of the major powers could be adjusted to reflect the desires of local populations and national self-determination.

Points X–XIII

In Points X–XIII, Wilson proposes substantial changes to the borders of Eastern Europe and the creation of several new states. He advocates sovereignty and independence for most of these ethnic minorities in this territory, while protecting the “autonomous development” of the Austrian, Hungarian, and Turkish peoples. Wilson demands independence and territorial integrity for Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, and unspecified other Balkan states and the reduction of the Ottoman Empire to areas of Turkish majority population. Wilson believes that this would defuse tensions among the many peoples of this region and prevent the exploitation of the weak by the strong.

Wilson elaborated on his intentions in later speeches, insisting that any territorial settlements be made for the benefits of their inhabitants and that they recognize their national aspirations whenever possible. He would later say that there must be equal justice for all peoples involved in the peace settlement, although he addressed most of his attention to the national aspirations of European minorities, saying little about the future of the diverse Arab population and other peoples of the Ottoman Empire.

The breakup of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires in the last months of World War I allowed the peacemakers at Versailles to exceed Wilson's suggestions. These negotiators created a new Balkan state—Yugoslavia—centered on Serbia and Czechoslovakia, whose interim government in Paris Wilson had recognized before the war ended. Germany's defeat and Russia's internal turmoil prevented either nation from successfully opposing the creation of a Polish state with a corridor to the Baltic Sea carved through ethnically German territory.

Point XIV: The League of Nations

Wilson saves his most important point for last. In Point XIV, Wilson calls for a general association of nations to maintain and enforce the peace. Wilson became a leading advocate for a league of nations in 1916 and believed that it was critical to maintaining world peace. The league would prevent special interests from overriding the common interests of the world, punish aggressors, and provide a forum for the peaceful settlement of international disputes. It would occupy the central place in Wilson's new world order, and it became a central part of the Treaty of Versailles, which created the League of Nations.

Conclusion

Wilson sums up his philosophy in his conclusion and emphasizes that the Fourteen Points are not specifically aimed at Germany. This qualification and call for Germany to embrace his ideas and a new international system based on “justice and law and fair dealing” could be considered a fifteenth point, similar to earlier assurances aimed at the Austrians and Turks. Wilson argues here that fair treatment of all nations, even the defeated, is an essential part of creating and maintaining peace.

Additional Commentary by Tom Lansford, University of Southern Mississippi

On January 8, 1918, Wilson again addressed a joint session of Congress to detail what he believed were the nation’s war aims. He had developed fourteen specific recommendations. The address refined and detailed many of Wilson’s earlier initiatives, including his call for self-determination and the creation of a world league to resolve future disputes. Wilson begins with a justification of American participation in the war and an assertion that U.S. goals were the same as those of other nations. The president then provides an overview of each of his fourteen points. Wilson reiterates his call for an end to secret treaties and entangling alliances and places emphasis on public diplomacy. He also repeats his demand for freedom of the seas and calls for reductions in trade barriers and “equality of trade conditions” among the nations of the world. To maintain peace in the future, the president sought arms control and the reduction of military capabilities “to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety.”

In line with earlier calls for self-determination, Wilson contends that all colonial issues should be decided on the basis of self-determination. He also stipulates that foreign troops should leave Russia. (U.S. and other Allied forces had occupied parts of the country in 1918 during the civil war that followed the Communist takeover.) Wilson further proposes the removal of all foreign forces from Belgium. In an effort to redress past transfers of territory within Europe, the president puts forward several ideas. First, he suggests that the province of Alsace-Lorraine, which had been captured by Germany in the 1871 Franco-Prussian War, be returned to France. Second, Wilson wants Italy’s borders to be redefined in a way that would be consistent “along clearly recognizable lines of nationality.” Third, he asks that the people of the Austro-Hungarian Empire be granted self-determination. Fourth, Wilson calls for foreign troops to leave Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro; he recommends that the borders of those countries be adjusted to follow historical divisions and that “international guarantees” be made to respect the autonomy of those countries. Fifth, Wilson seeks self-determination for the peoples of the Ottoman Empire. Sixth, the president repeats his demand for an independent Poland.

Wilson’s last point laid the foundation for the League of Nations. He sought to create the collective security organization by establishing “specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.” Wilson endeavored to make his “fourteen points” the basis of peace negotiations that began after an armistice was established in November 1918. However, at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, France and Great Britain opposed Wilson’s calls for self-determination because of their extensive colonies. In addition, despite Wilson’s opposition, the Allied forces sought to punish Germany for its role in the war and demanded that the country pay significant reparations as part of the peace settlement, the Treaty of Versailles. Nonetheless, many of Wilson’s points were adopted in the final peace accord, including an independent Poland and the creation of new states from the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires. The treaty also established the League of Nations.

Wilson returned to the United States and launched a nationwide tour to rally support for the Treaty of Versailles. Notwithstanding the president’s vigorous efforts, the Republican- controlled Senate refused to ratify the treaty. Republicans and conservative Democrats opposed U.S. involvement in the league, seeing it as a violation of George Washington’s long-standing admonishment to avoid “permanent alliances.” The suffering and brutality of World War I led to an era of isolationism in the United States when there was little public support for internationalism. Some U.S. leaders also decried the reparations required of Germany. As a result, the United States never ratified the Treaty of Versailles and never joined the League of Nations (which dramatically undermined its effectiveness). The country had to negotiate separate peace treaties with the Central powers in the 1920s. Exhausted, Wilson suffered a stroke and was partially incapacitated for the remainder of his presidency.