World War one left a lasting effect on the world today through the devastation and the treaties that took place during this time. Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Point Speech helped influence the making of the Treaty of Versailles after World War One. These documents were made to spread peace throughout the world. Both these documents changed the United States and the world and lead to the resistance of Germany and the rise of the Nazi Party during World War Two.
As president, he had a hard decision to make when he entered the war and the fact that it was finally over was a huge relief to not only him but all of America. After the war, all the details of what was going to happen to the losing countries had to be sorted out. Wilson created what he called the Fourteen Points Speech which included many ideas that he thought could instil peace throughout the world. He created it as a way for the other countries to show that there could be peace and to make sure that the United States could stay away for a war in the future and any disagreements that may arise later. On January 8th, 1918, he presented his speech “declaring that ww1 was being fought for a moral cause and calling for post war peace in Europe” (add in citation (5)). Some of these included “peace agreements should not be in secret”, “economic barriers to free trade should be removed”, “free use of the seas for all nations in peace or wartime” and “arms should be reduced to a point that would allow nations to defend themselves, but not threaten their neighbors” (add citation (7)). These parts of the Fourteen Points speech were mostly pushed aside but one stood out as a relatively good idea to keep the world at peace and this was the League of Nations.
In January and June of 1919 the winning countries began to negotiate a plan for a new treaty. They began to create a document called the Treaty of Versailles that would prove to be one of the leading causes of the next world war only 15 years later (8). Although “a handful of senators believed that the United States should not get entangled in the world politics or involved in world organizations” Wilson still put his input into the making of the Treaty of Versailles (add in citation (12)). His views were much different than those of the other countries because the “US had no intention at punishing Germany for their actions, but France called for heavy punishments and eventually got their way” (add citation (9)). If France hadn’t gotten their way, World War II could have been avoided, because Germany would not have had a reason to revolt against the rest of the world. After a long time of negotiation, they finally came to a decision on how they should spit up Germany land. Alsace Lorraine was given to France, Eupen and Malmedy was given to Belgium, Northern Schleswig to Denmark, Hultschin to Czechoslovakia and West Prussia, Posen and Upper Selesia were all given to Poland (1). There was no clear cut way for the representatives to provide a just punishment for the other countries, so they had to do as best they could to create a treaty that would be able to make sure that the losing countries would lose anything that would make it possible for them to defend themselves in another war.