World War I: Negotiating the Peace

Woodrow Wilson – An Innocent Abroad

I Course of War

A Declaration of War – April 1917

B Wilson’s Vision

1 Stalemate = Negotiated Peace

2 Declaration of War = Unconditional Surrender

C Armistice – November 1918

D Wilson’s War Aims

1 January 1917 – Peace Without Victory

2 Fourteen Points

(1) January 1918

(2) Main Ideas suggested in “Peace Without Victory” Speech

II Wilson’s Vision and Innocence

A American Isolationism

B Personality

III Understanding Fourteen Points

A Liberal Progressivism

1 Faith in Efficient Government

2 Rule in Law as method for solving international problems

3 Free Trade and Commercial Development as Key to Spreading Prosperity

4 Democratic Capitalism – mediating force between old world autocracy and revolutionary socialism

5 Moral purpose: only road to a lasting and humane peace

B Three Categories

1 National Determination

2 List of General Principles or Laws

3 League of Nations

IV Wilson in Paris (film clip – The Great War)

A Popular with the people

B Lost in Negotiations

V Treaties ending World War I

A Treaty of Versailles – Germany

B Separate Treaty with Austria – Hungary

C Separate Treaty with the Ottoman Empire (today’s Turkey)

VI Treaty of Versailles – Germany

A War Guilt Clause: Germany Caused the War

B Reparations: Germany Required to Pay for Damages Caused by the War.

V The Treaty and Fight for Ratification

A Wilson’s rigidity

B Issue: League of Nations

C Treaty Never Ratified by United States Senate

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