League Of Nations Dbq

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After the end of World War One, President Woodrow Wilson traveled to Paris to partake in peace talks to end the war. Wilson came prepared with his Fourteen Points, a list of fourteen objectives that he wished to put into the Treaty of Versailles to achieve a world peace. He believed his Fourteen Points could create a new, better world. Unfortunately, Wilson was unable to have all fourteen of his points included in the treaty. However, Wilson was able to achieve one point that he saw as one of the most important of his points: The League of Nations, a collective group of nations working to solve problems peacefully. This was Wilson’s top priority. While this was perhaps one of Wilson’s greatest achievements in the treaty, it also played …show more content…

Lodge was a Republican senator from Massachusetts and one of Wilson’s rivals. In fact, Lodge had “a profound contempt for Wilson, and almost a sardonic scorn for Wilson’s international ideals.” Lodge was very much a nationalist, and his solution to the war would have included harsh consequences for Germany, and an alliance between Great Britain, France, and the United States only. His views contrasted greatly from those of Woodrow Wilson. Lodge had very little faith in the effectiveness of the League of Nations, and doubts about it working for the United States in its current form. In what is known as the Round Robin resolution, Lodge presented the signatures of thirty seven senators, enough to outvote the Treaty, who said that the League of Nations was unacceptable. This was one of the first signs that the treaty ratification would not be easy. Lodge also formed a coalition against Wilson and his ideals, a group of strong reservationists who wanted large changes to the treaty before it was passed and irreconcilables who did not support the bill in any manner. This group was the “Senate Foreign Relations Committee,” headed by Lodge. They commenced in hearings to come to a common ground on the Treaty of Versailles for the Republicans. Lodge had to suppress many personal feelings of Wilson and the treaty, as he was the chairman of this committee. However, Lodge always believed that reservations could make the League of Nations safe for the United States, and both he and Wilson knew reservations could have a large influence on