Date: January 8th, 1918

Country of Origin: The United States of America

The Fourteen Points were a speech given by 28th President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson on January 8th, 1918. Addressing a joint session of Congress, Wilson delivered the speech in order to reassure the United States that World War I (then referred to as “The Great War”) was being fought for a morally good cause, that cause being peace throughout Europe. This was due to the fact that many Americans were still strict isolationists, feeling that the United States should have never become involved in World War I in the first place. Wilson desperately had to validate the United States’ participation in the war.

The Fourteen Points are notable for their approach to the post-war dealings with Germany. While many of the European countries that had been ravaged by the ferocity of World War I, the United States had not faced any of the wide spread destruction. Therefore, Wilson was much more reverent and considerably less vindictive against the Germans. While the rest of the Entente (France, Great Britain, and Italy) were looking to forever cripple Germany. However, after Wilson’s Fourteen Points, the Germans were much more eager to surrender a war they were losing.

Prince Maximilian of Baden, Chancellor of Germany in 1918, sent a note to Woodrow Wilson, stating that Germany would agree to an armistice with the hopes that the post-war treaty would be based on Wilson’s Fourteen Points. Unfortunately, for Germany, the rest of the Entente were not willing to agree to such a condition. While the Entente owed a great deal to the United States for their intervention, they were angrier at Germany. While aspects of the Fourteen Points did make it into the Treaty of Versailles (treaty formally ending World War I), the actual Treaty was much more damaging to Germany, without any semblance of reverence.

(Author’s Note: Hi!)