Effects Of Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points

The Fourteen Points of Woodrow Wilson

In January 1918 (a few months before the end of the war), the president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, presented his Fourteen Points to the Congress. Shortly after, in June 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed and the Central Powers suffered heavy penalties. As a consequence to this treaty and the world’s situation, Germany along with the Central Powers, suffered an economic and social crisis which led to World War II. However, Wilson’s points were only partially applied to the Treaty of Versailles. If Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points had been executed totally, would WWII had started ?

The Fourteen Points could have strengthened the economy and united Europe, but a social crisis would have

The majority of the fourteen points (eight out of fourteen) were focused on territorial claims and the creation of new and autonomous countries. Those eight points included the evacuation and restitution of Belgium, Serbia, Montenegro, Alsace-Lorraine, Romania and part of Russia by the Central Powers and were respected by the Allies. Those points had little effect over Germany, who returned at the state it was before 1870 (without Alsace-Lorraine and the countries it had conquered during the first World War. However, Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points included the creation of Poland and the corridor of Dantzig. The creation of Poland and the corridor of Dantzig cut in half Germany (East Prussia was separated from the rest of the country) and triggered the second World War because Germany wanted to unite it’s territory and recover Dantzig (the city identified itself as 96% German). This point was humiliating for Germany, and is one of the failures of the Fourteen Points.Woodrow Wilson’s points also mentioned the independence of the different peoples in Austria-Hungary (a point that was partially respected, and led to the creation of Czechoslovakia, Austria, part of Poland and Hungary) and the dismantlement of the Ottoman Empire (the SDN later decided on its division in 1922, creating Armenia along with numerous

Although they were highly idealistic, they were the most viable option to a long-term peace and a stable economy for the Central Powers. In this sense, they represented America’s goals in the war and a continuation of a seemingly imperialist politic where the Americans could continue their trade in their area of domination (South America, Pacific, anywhere besides the so called Old Continent). However, the Europe needed money more than economic precepts, and economic assistance (such as the Marshall plan in WWII) would have had more impact on the destroyed European economy (active population had decreased, the industrial regions were in ruins…) in the short term. Although Germany’s economy could have been stable with less reparations to pay and with their colonies sustaining the production, a political (rise of the extremism) and social crisis was inevitable because of the humiliation of the Central Powers (death of the Triple-Alliance, creation of Poland). The Fourteen Points could have helped but WWII was