The Messenger - Unit V

President Wilson's 14 Points

The Allies negotiations show the chance of a League of Nations

26/01/1919  New York

It’s been some months since the end of the Great War in Europe, in which the United States fought against the Central Powers. It's now when the Allied Powers, the United States, Italy, France and Britain, have begun to meet in order to establish the peace terms for the defeated countries.

President Woodrow Wilson

In the latter leg of the war, President Woodro Wilson announced fourteen proposals that would help bring the impact of the war away. In his speech, Wilson set out a model that could bring security to all countries and that was meant to evacuate countries occupied during the war, but some points have not been to everyone's liking when they were presented in Europe.

In Germany the existence of these measures was part of the reason why they called for armistice and peace, thus ending the war. However, many of the fundamental ideas haven’t convinced the Entente Powers. The freedom proposals did not entirely satisfy colonialist governments, which have other countries conquered, and it seems that the Allies want to impose greater punishments on Germany. But there’s one of the points that has been attracting the attention of several countries for a while.

In the fourteenth and final point, a community of peaceful nations is proposed to serve to reach agreements between countries. The idea was born more than a century ago in Germany and, although it was relevant at the time, it’s begun to stand out more since the beginning of the war. It was an idea that had already taken on importance in France, which proposed annual meetings and an international army, but it was in Britain that it had the most impact, reaching the point of creating the League of Nations Union, which promotes international justice, in October last year.

At least in the beginning of the agreement, this is the most relevant idea in Europe, although in the United States it has not to fit in, Senator William Borah finds it a "treacherous idea that should be buried in hell". Even former President Theodoore Roosevelt published an article in which he addressed all of Wilson's points, but especially the last, of a loud, empty and meaningless discourse.

For our part, we can only wait for the situation to progress and the problems that have arisen to be solved, stay strong!

The signing of Peace in the Hall of Mirrors, Versailles