Ever the idealist, President Wilson, backed by a group of around 150 experts on the political and social sciences, composed fourteen points--stepping stones for, supposedly, world peace. Points one through five dealt with the agreement upon international standards of peace and respect; they concern openly arriving at peace covenants, allowing free sea navigation, removing barriers to free trade, reducing the armaments of nations, and adjusting colonial claims, respectively. Points six through thirteen pertain to countries involved in the First World War and their respective evacuations, restorations, and general readjustments. Most of these were compromised, and only Belgium, France, and Poland were completely restored by Wilson's suggestions. Later, in the Treaty of Versailles, the country of Czechoslovakia was created in addition to Poland. Wilson's final point was perhaps the one he most promoted at the peace conference in Paris in 1919. The creation of a League of Nations was Wilson's shining star among his promotions of peace. However, due to discord in the Senate, many of Wilson's efforts went unachieved.
Wilson's own shorthand draft of his announcement of his Fourteen Points
Divine, Robert A., T. H. Breen, George M. Fredrickson, and R. Hal Williams. America Past and Present. Revised Sixth Edition, AP* Edition . Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers Inc., 2003. 727, 728-9. Print.
President Wilson's Message to Congress, January 8, 1918; Records of the United States Senate; Record Group 46; Records of the United States Senate; National Archives.
"Wilson's Fourteen Points." Future. U.S. Department of State, n.d. Web. 19 Mar 2011. <http://future.state.gov/when/timeline/1914_timeline/wilson_14_pts.html>.
""Fourteen Points Address" draft." Web. 19 Mar 2011. <http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/s59.4p1.jpg>.
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