Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
¶ … speech in history, Woodrow Wilson gave his now famous Fourteen Points Speech on January 8, 1918. In this speech he outlined fourteen elements he felt were integral for a lasting peace. These elements were meant to establish ethical aims for America's participation in the arduous World War I. In writing the speech, Wilson hoped to encourage the end of hostilities between Central powers. "The Fourteen Points in the speech were based on the research of the "Inquiry," a team of about 150 advisers led by Colonel Edward M. House, Wilson's foreign policy advisor, into the topics likely to arise in the anticipated peace conference." (Newworldencyclopedia.org) While there was an initial failure on the plan, there was a notable impact from Wilson's actions.
Instead of peace talks, there was intensification of effort on Germany's part in the European western front. While this was alarming, after ten months, the world witnessed the German Army concede, appealing to Wilson and initiating a series of peace talks with the foundation consisting of the Fourteen Points. On November 11, 1918, they declared an armistice. As an observer at the time could see, the impact of Wilson's speech was evident, even though it took longer to affect outcomes than anticipated.
From Wilson's Fourteen Points or fourteen main areas, eight of these concerned particular geopolitical problems that could only see resolution after the war. The other six described...
One of the most impactful points in Wilson's speech is the liberty of the seas, an end to secret negotiations and treaties, establishing free and equal trade, granting self-government to various peoples in the Balkans and Central Europe, arms reduction, the welcoming of a remade Soviet Russia into the global community, independence for Poland and Turkey, and building a forum of countries to guarantee peace and freedom for all. Seeing as this was a way to establish order and maintain liberty, Wilson made sure to provide the basis from which to build a lasting peace.
Going back to the entirety of Wilson's Fourteen Points, they were often interpreted as unique for several reasons. The main being the speech was unprecedented. This was the first time a major world leader declared such grand and loft goals and objectives meant to establish peace. Not only that, but these points were in a sense, a way to educate other world leaders on what could be achieved in regards to peace, freedom, and independence.
Secondly, the Fourteen Points were created from a foundation of righteousness and morality. (MacMillan) Wilson's points, unlike the others, were meant to guide people instead of simply aiming to gain the spoils of war or vengeance. This was shown by Wilson not wanting to punish the Central powers and Germany for their acts of aggression. And finally, Wilson's Fourteen Points…
Works Cited
Auchincloss, Louis. Woodrow Wilson. New York: Viking, 2000. Print.
MacMillan, Margaret. Paris 1919. New York: Random House, 2002. Print.
Newworldencyclopedia.org,. "Fourteen Points - New World Encyclopedia." N.p., 2016. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.
To whom their respective representatives were politically beholden domestically (Goldfield, Abbott, & Argersinger, 2004). By the time of the Conference, Wilson had himself already violated two of his own Fourteen Points by acceding to Britain's demands that contradicted Wilson's proposal for unrestricted international rights to the seas and by sending U.S. troops to Russia in connection with support for the anti-Communists instead of respecting Russia's right to self-determination (Goldfield,
Woodrow Wilson and the Great War Before War broke out in Europe in 1914, The United States practiced a foreign policy of non-involvement and isolationism. The decision by President Wilson to enter into the war was therefore a difficult one. In a speech he made to Congress upon formally entering the war in 1917, the President stated, "I have called the Congress into extraordinary session because there are serious, very serious,
Woodrow Wilson and Human Rights The issue of human rights is to this day one of the most important aspects of international law and often seen as the cornerstone of international cooperation and the basis of legal adjustments on a constant basis. However, despite the fact that this issue is on the front pages of most newspapers almost on a daily basis nowadays, the human rights movement traces its roots to
Woodrow Wilson Wilson's idealism was the progenitor of the modern human rights movement President Wilson delivered a speech to the Pan American Union in December, 1913 the Monroe Doctrine was "unfolding into a new doctrine -- the Wilson Doctrine of Pan Americanism" (Brooks, et al., 2007). Wilson said his proposal was based "…upon the principles of absolute political equality among states, equality of right, not equality of indulgence" (Brooks) But to ward off the expansion
Thirdly, the approach Woodrow Wilson had put forward at the Peace Conference was based on the mutual agreement between the states of the world to avoid any military confrontation in the future. The final point which demanded for the creation of a world body to guarantee "political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike" would have implied certain equality between the parts of this Pact. The actual
Present day international affairs are done to a level much greater than Wilson wanted them to, making it especially intriguing for him to examine them and to cooperate with a professional team in looking over the world's problems and finding solutions to them. Although Wilson supported the concept of intervening in the affairs of other countries when democracy seemed to be threatened in these territories, he also supported the theory