As we go into January of 1918,
let's remind ourselves of the context,
the background that's going on,
especially relative to World War I.
First of all in April of 1917,
a lot of the context is what happened in 1917,
you have the U.S. declares war on Germany.
The main argument they give
is this unrestricted submarine warfare
that the Germans are undertaking.
You also have the fall of the Russian Empire.
... Fall of Russian Empire...
You have the revolution that overthrows the Czar
in February, March of 1917,
and then in October, you have
the Bolsheviks take over in a coup.
This essentially, the Bolsheviks,
once they take over,
they have no interest in terms of
continuing the war with Germany.
So you have an armistice declared
and the Russians are in the process
of negotiating the terms
of a treaty with the Central Powers.
They're kind of negotiating
the Brest-Litovsk Treaty as we speak.
On top of that, you have, because
the central powers don't have to focus
on Russia on the eastern front anymore,
they're trying to bring their,
especially Germany,
is trying to bring its troops back
to the western front,
and they want to do it before the U.S.
can mobilize in any significant way.
So, race on western front ...
western front ...
Between, essentially, can Germany get
its troops and do an offensive
that can put probably France out of the war
before the U.S. has a chance to
significantly reinforce the western front?
This is essentially between German,
redeploy troops from the eastern front,
German troops ... troops from eastern,
from eastern front versus
new American troops ...
versus new Americans.
This is the backdrop.
No one really knew what exactly
was going to happen on the western front.
Certain military analysts will say
Germany was able to prosecute this
two front war against a major empire
and Russia, now they're going to be able
to focus completely on the western front,
Germany might be able to
deal the decisive blow.
Others would say the U.S. it's this
emerging power, it's bringing
fresh troops in, it has a major
industrial capacity.
The U.S. could, especially if the war
were to last a good bit, the U.S. might be
the decisive element for the allies.
So that's the background in which
President Wilson, President Woodrow Wilson
on January of 1918, January 8th,
gives a speech to the joint sessions of congress.
This is part of the text of the speech,
I'm just going to read through it,
I'm not going to read the entire speech.
He talks about many things, essentially;
why are we in World War I,
what is the moral causes of World War I,
and his speech is most famous for
his articulation of the "Fourteen Points".
Let's just read into it because
it really informs a lot of what happened
in the Treaty of Versailles,
which is essentially the peace treaty
with Germany, which the U.S. ironically
did not ratify, but it also lays out the
tension in the Paris Peace Conferences
after World War I between those who were
more idealistic like Woodrow Wilson,
and those who might have been
a little bit more vengeful, especially
against the Central Powers.
Here we go, this is part of the speech:
"We enter this war because violations of right
had occurred which touched us to the quick
and made the life of our own people impossible
unless they were corrected and the world
secured once for all against their
recurrence. What we demand in this war,
therefore, is nothing peculiar to ourselves.
it is that the world be made fit and safe
to live in ..."
This is very idealistic.
Remember, all these others, especially
these European powers are all about
who gets what land, who gets what empire,
who gets to take advantage of whatever colony.
"... and particularly that it be made safe for
every peace-loving nation which, like our own,
wishes to live its own life,
determine is own institutions,
be assured of justice and fair dealing
by the other peoples of the world
as against force and selfish aggression.
All the peoples of the world are in effect
partners in this interest,
and for our own part, we see very clearly
that unless justice be done to others
it will not be done to us.
The program of the world's peace, therefore,
is our program; and that program,
the only possible program, all we see it,
is this:"
These are his Fourteen Points and
I'll try to kind of give some context for each of them.
The first is:
"Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at,
after which there shall be no private
international understandings of any kind
but diplomacy shall proceed always
frankly and in the public view."
The context here is actually after
the Bolsheviks took over,
they started releasing all these secret
covenants and understandings that the
Russian Empire had been getting into.
We've already talked about all the entanglements
and the alliances that led to World War I,
so this is Wilson's attempt to say,
"Hey, let's just do everything out in the open.
That'll let everyone kind of know,
give more transparency, what may or may not
occur, based on their actions."
Number 2, "Absolute freedom of navigation
upon the seas, outside territorial waters,
alike in peace and in war, except
as the seas may be closed in whole
or in part by international action for the
enforcement of international covenants."
So no more of these British blockades,
no more of this unrestricted submarine warfare,
the only time we can dictate what happens
in open waters is if the international
community trying to decide that it wants
to enforce international covenants.
Number 3, "The removal of all economic barriers
and the establishment of equality
of trade conditions among
all the nations consenting to the peace
and associating themselves for its maintenance."
So essentially, it's free trade.
... free trade ...
Number 4, "Adequate guarantees given and taken
that national armaments will be reduced to the
lowest point consistent with domestic safety."
So he's trying to undo some of this
militarism, this buildup of arms that essentially
allowed World War I to happen with the
ferocity that it did and with the
quickness with which it did.
Number 5, "A free,open-minded, and absolutely
impartial adjustment of all colonial claims,
based upon a strict observance ot the
principle that in determining all such
questions of sovereignty the interests of
the populations concerned must have equal
weight with the equitable claims of the
government whose title is to be determined."
This is a big deal that probably did not
make the British or the French happy.
This is essentially saying self-determination,
the people who are in those nations,
in those states,
their interests matter just as much.
"A free open-minded absolutely impartial
adjustment of all colonial claims."
This is a pretty big deal.
Remember, we're kind of exiting this period
of empires, most of the European powers still
think that these international empires
are essentially part of their prestige.
Number 6, "The evacuation of all Russian
territory and such a settlement of all questions
affecting Russia as will secure the best and freest
cooperation of the other nations of the world
in obtaining for her an unhampered and
unembarrassed opportunity for the
independent determination of her own political
development and national policy and assure her
of a sincere welcome into the
society of free nations under institutions
of her own choosing ..."
This is still one sentence and then you put period there,
semi-colon ... And I guess he had to read that himself,
" ... And, more than a welcome,
assistance also of every kind that she may
need and may herself desire.
The treatment accorded Russia by her
sister nations in the months to come ..."
Remember, they're negotiating with the Central Powers
on Brest-Litovsk,
" ... to come will be the acid test of their good will,
of their comprehension of her needs
as distinguished from their own interests,
and of their intelligent and unselfish sympathy."
So it's saying look, Wilson doesn't know
whether the allies or the Central Powers
are going to win on the western front,
but they know that the Central Powers
are dictating terms to Russia with Brest-Litovsk.
It's like, this is going to be a test
of your good will, of your comprehension
of the need of this newly-emerging of
state now that the Bolsheviks have taken over.
Obviously at this point, you don't have
the antagonism between the U.S. and the
future Soviet Union that is going to emerge.
They're saying give Russia a chance to be herself.
Number 7, "Belgium, the whole world will agree,
must be evacuated and restored,
without any attempt to limit the sovereignty
which she enjoys in common with all other
free nations."
This is kind of obvious. When the Germans rolled
through Belgium, that's how they got to France.
It was a justification that Great Britain used for
entering the war, so get out of Belgium.
Number 8, "All French territories should be freed
and invaded portions restored,
and the wrong done to France by Prussia
in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine,
which has unsettled the peace of the world
for nearly fifty years, should be righted,
in order that peace may once more be made
secure in the interest of all."
Alsace-Lorraine, we've touched on it
several times.
That's this region right over here.
It was taken by Germany, essentially the
unification of Germany during the Franco-Prussian War,
which was a [unintelligible] region.
This was one of the justifications,
this was why France might have gone
into a war with Germany,
and what Germany almost wanted to be
preemptive against France because they
said France might want to take some of that
territory back.
9, "A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy
should be effected along clearly
recognizable lines of nationality."
Hey, where do people speak Italian?
10, "The peoples of Austria-Hungary,
whose place among the nations we wish to see
safeguarded and assured, should be accorded
the freest opportunity
of autonomous development."
This is another big deal.
It's another breaking up of an empire.
It's another self-determination point
of the "Fourteen Points".
Austria-Hungary, we've already said
it was an empire.
It included many, many, many nationalities.
You have the Czechs right around there.
You have the Slovacs right around there.
You have the Austrians, German-speaking
people, right over there.
You have the Hungarians, roughly over there.
You have the Slovenians roughly over there.
You have the Croatians roughly over there.
You have the Bosnians roughly over there.
You have many, many other nationalities
especially as you get close to the border
with Romania and the border with the Ukraine.
It's like, let these people determine,
let them determine their own fate
to some degree.
There are all these nationalities.
That was number 10.
"The freest opportunity to
autonomous development."
He's not saying that they necessarily
need their own states,
but that they should have the opportunity
to self-govern in some way.
Number 11, "Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro
should be evacuated; occupied territories restored;
Serbia accorded free and secure access
to the sea; and the relations of the several
Balkan states to one another determined
by friendly counsel along historically
established lines of allegiance and nationality;
and international guarantees of the
political and economic independence
and territorial integrity of the several
Balkan states should be entered into."
This is kind of laying the groundwork
for the future state of Yugoslavia,
which is going to be roughly over there.
It's kind of the state of the southern Slavs,
which is what the whole motivation
[unintelligible] for assassinating Archduke Ferdinand
which some would argue was kind of the
spark that lit World War I.
"The Turkish portions of the present
Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure
sovereignty, but the other nationalities
which are now under Turkish rule should
be assured an undoubted security of life
and an absolutely unmolested opportunity
of an autonomous development ..."
Once again, self-determination.
"... and the Dardanelles should be
permanently opened as a free passage
to the ships and commerce of all nations
under international guarantees."
So the Dardanelles, we've talked about it before,
that is, that's this right over here,
so that you have access between the
Aegean Sea and the Black Sea.
And we are almost there.
So then you have, "An independent Polish state
should be erected which should include
the territories inhabited by indisputably
Polish populations, which should be assured
a free and secure access to the sea,
and whose political and economic independence
and territorial integrity should be
guaranteed by international covenant."
Poland did not exist as its own state
prior to World War I.
Now you have Woodrow Wilson is
advocating it.
It will be carved out roughly of this
area right over there.
Then finally, point 14,
"A general association of nations must be formed
under specific covenants for the purpose of
affording mutual guarantees of political
independence and territorial integrity
to great and small states alike."
This is essentially, this is the point,
that leads to the formation of
the League of Nations.
When we talk about big ideas,
this is a big idea, especially back then.
You have Europe who keeps getting into
wars with each other.
Hey, why don't we all cooperate at
this middle level and we have this
club of all of the nations to resolve disputes
and make sure that we don't have
another World War I.
So, very, very, very big idealistic idea,
it gets formed as an outcome of
the Treaty of Versailles,
which is drafted during the
Paris Peace Conferences after World War I.
The unfortunate thing of the League of Nations
is that even though this was kind of,
the idea was coming from Woodrow Wilson,
the Treaty of Versailles and
the League of Nations was not ratified by the U.S.
The U.S. never entered the League of Nations,
which kind of made it a little bit hollow,
and the League of Nations did not have
the power to stop World War II from
happening only a few decades later,
and would later be replaced by the United Nations.
This is a really, really, really, really big idea.
Because of these big ideas,
Woodrow Wilson, these very idealistic ideas,
everyone in Europe is talking about
territory and imperialism and how do they
take control of other people,
take control of their resources,
and now you have the American President
saying it's all about self-determination.
It's about making the world safe
for democracy, safe for commerce,
about open agreements.
It's a very powerful idea.
This would kind of form the basis,
the more idealistic side of
American Foreign Policy over the 20th Century.
Some would say that there's another
very cynical side that takes into account self-interest,
but this is the idealistic side of
American Foreign Policy, especially
through the 20th Century.
For this, for his work in this in this area,
Woodrow Wilson wins the Nobel Prize
a few years later.
This right here is a picture of
the Nobel Prize looks like, both sides of it.
Now, just to kind of foreshadow some
of the tension as we get into the
Paris Peace Conference,
not everyone was as idealistic.
You obviously these European powers
who bled much harder than the Americans did,
although the Americans did contribute
significant cost, or troops, to the effort
and they lost many, many folks.
Obviously if you're French,
you had these Germans on your territory.
You lost a significant fraction of
your population, a huge fraction of
your male population.
You might be a little bit angrier.
So of course, you have Georges Clemenceau
who was the Prime Minister of France.
He was a little bit more skeptical of
the "Fourteen Points".
This is a quote from him,
he actually has many slightly entertaining quotes,
"Mr. Wilson bores me with his "Fourteen Points"
while God Almighty has only ten."
This will kind of foreshadow some of the
tension between Clemenceau and the British,
and European allies on one side,
and the Americans as we go to the
Paris Peace Conference.
They were a little bit looking out more
for revenge, especially against the
Germans while the Americans, especially
Woodrow Wilson, was a lot more idealistic.