Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Why was the 14 point plan by Woodrow Wilson passed in the first place?

Actually, only parts of Wilson's Fourteen Points were adopted.  The nation of Poland was established and Belgium was reestablished after a four-year hiatus during the war.  Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France.  However, the victorious powers wanted to gain from this war.  France wanted to see Germany punished so that she would never make war again.  Britain would not adopt the "freedom of the seas" clause in the Fourteen Points, as naval blockade was one of...

Actually, only parts of Wilson's Fourteen Points were adopted.  The nation of Poland was established and Belgium was reestablished after a four-year hiatus during the war.  Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France.  However, the victorious powers wanted to gain from this war.  France wanted to see Germany punished so that she would never make war again.  Britain would not adopt the "freedom of the seas" clause in the Fourteen Points, as naval blockade was one of the key weapons used against Germany during the war.  During peace negotiations, Germany still faced a naval blockade that was killing many of her people due to starvation.  Wilson compromised on so much of his Fourteen Points in order to see the League of Nations passed, which was his fourteenth and final point.  While Wilson was popular and hailed as a hero in France as the one who ended the war and could promise peace, his Fourteen Points were mainly laughed at as being too ideological.  Senate Republicans killed the League of Nations here in America since they were not invited to go to the peace conference and they used European bickering over land as a way to convince the American people that the war was never for democracy, but about territorial squabble. The Fourteen Points in their entirety were never passed.  

No comments:

Post a Comment

Is Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre a feminist novel?

Feminism advocates that social, political, and all other rights should be equal between men and women. Bronte's Jane Eyre discusses many...