The Treaty of Versailles was a formal peace treaty between the Word War I Allies and Germany. The leaders of Britain, France, Italy and the United States met in Paris in early 1919 to draft the treaty. President Woodrow Wilson presented his Fourteen Points, a series of measures intended to ensure future peace. The points included the formation of an international organization known as the League of Nation, which was adopted in the treaty. Representatives of each country signed the treaty in June 1919. For the United States to accept its conditions, however, it had to be ratified by Congress. Although President Wilson, fought hard to win the Senate's acceptance of the treaty, it was the strength of the opposition forces, both liberal and …show more content…
He took no Republican Senators with him to the peace conference; therefore, there was no Republican input. Wilson was unwilling to compromise on the League of Nations. He was determined to have it his way or not have it at all. In a speech on September 5,1919, regarding the League of Nations, Wilson said “I stand by it absolutely.”(Document C) This just confirmed his unwillingness to compromise. President Wilson also advised his supporters in Senate to vote against the treaty simply because some amendments had been added. His stubbornness was even criticized by liberals such as W.E.B. Du Bois. In March, 1921 Du bois stated “Because of the idiotic way in which the stubbornness of Woodrow Wilson and the political fortunes of the Republicans, became involved, the United States was not represented.” (Document …show more content…
With Woodrow Wilson being a democrat, ratification of the Treaty would be difficult in a Republican led senate. The Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles based primarily on objections to the League of Nations. One of the main objections to the League of Nations was that it would eventually lead to a loss of American Sovereignty. William Borah said during a speech in United States Senate “Will anyone advocate that those matters which are of vital importance to our people shall be submitted to a tribunal created other than by our own people and give it an international army subject to its direction and control to enforce its decrees?” (Document A) William Borah was concerned about the loss of American Sovereignty.
Another issue with the League of Nations was the fear of starting another war. William Borah also had a fear of entangling alliances and starting another war. The fear among the American people was that the US would be dragged into another war. This concern is expressed by the political cartoon showing the U.S. “Marrying” foreign entanglements (with the League of Nations performing the ceremony). (Document E). In the minds of many Americans, the senate did indeed
Wilson failed to gain support from the people about aiding foreign European countries if they were in need, but refused to listen and signed the treaty on June 28,1919 nonetheless. Nationalists created “reservations” that protected the right of the U.S. to make decisions based on its own national interest. By September of 1919, the Treaty faced much opposition because a majority of the U.S. did not want to join the League. Wilson also refused to make any changes to Article X, as he felt it was the main way to prevent future wars. In the end, the Senate refused to ratify the Treaty, which crushed Wilson. Wilsonianism was the ideas of self-determination, disarmament, and the cooperation of nations in-order to create a lasting peace, which many viewed as idealistic. After 1920, many Americans returned to isolationism until the beginning of WWII. President Roosevelt identified “Four Freedoms” worth fighting for: freedom of speech, worship, want and fear. Wilsonianism is seen in many policies today such as the world’s craving for democracy, and Bush’s foreign policies of making America safer by extending
It is true that Henry Cabot Lodge and the Republican majority in the Senate were a force in the defeat of the treaty. By holding off the vote and making his own changes to the treaty, Lodge knew that he was using Wilson's hatred to his advantage. Wilson would have accepted the changes if they had been proposed by one of his fellow Democrats, but the fact that they had been written by Lodge made Wilson see red. He immediately ordered Democrats to vote entirely against the treaty with the added Lodge votes. The only possible path to ratification would be to accept the treaty with the new changes. Wilson chose to block the passing of the treaty by persuading Democrats to vote against it. Unfortunately, Wilson had a stroke, and his last efforts in getting the vote to go his way
Now that world war had once again begun, US involvement seemed inevitable. The United States didn't want to be involved in foreign, political wars. We wanted to be left alone. As a result, the Senate was strongly against the Versailles Treaty and refused to ratify it(4). We made a separate peace with Germany. This would come back to haunt us after we were forced into war by the attack of Pearl Harbor.
When the treaty arrived from France; the Jefferson requested that Congress convene at the earliest day practicable for its ratification and execution. The Federalists in both houses declaimed and voted against it, but they were now so reduced in numbers as to be incapable of serious opposition. The question on its ratification in the Senate was decided by twenty-four to
In the aftermath of World War I, during the years 1917-1921, President Wilson advocated the Treaty of Versailles, which called for the principle of self-determination, the formation of a League of Nations, and general amnesty towards Germany, as the solution for peace. However, his unwillingness to compromise led to widespread disagreement. The opposition forces in the U.S. senate consisted of the reservationists, who were willing to ratify the Treaty of Versailles with amendments, and the irreconcilables, who refused to join the League of Nations under any circumstances. If President Wilson was only willing to modify the language of the treaty, ratification may have occurred.
The treaty of the Versailles was an agreement between France, England and the United states. Its intentions were to prevent a second world war however, it was a total fail. An obvious reason for not being effective could be because not everyone was included in the conference such as Russia, and Central Powers. Instead, Prime minister George Clemenceau had thought he would speak for all of europe and wanted to be the strongest of europe. Clemenceau seeked revenge towards Germany, in fact he desired most dismantle the best of Germany 's military and their nationalist pride. As for the United States, Wilson implemented the fourteen points which focused on self determination of people. Only few of his points were included in the treaty but these points had been the reason for conflicts happening in europe. Participation from everyone is important and not allowing everyone 's input could lead to negative outcomes such as, The league of nations which most likely failed because the United States wasn’t allowed to participate.
After being rejected from the League of Nations, the United States retreated from the international scene and was left isolated from neighboring countries. Threats of war lingering throughout Italy, Japan, and Germany made some Americans apprehensive. The neutrality laws passed through congress made it
The Senate which the liberal democratic President Wilson had to persuade to sign the Treaty of Versailles was comprised mostly of conservative republicans. There were two groups in the Senate that were on opposite sides of the issue, the liberal Internationalists, who agreed with Wilson, and the isolationist Irreconcilables, led by William Borah, who were adamantly against the Treaty the way it was. There was also a third group, the Reservationists, led by the conservative Henry Cabot Lodge; who were willing to ratify the Treaty so long as some adjustments were made. None of these groups held the majority of votes (over 50%); however, the Reservationists would determine the fate of the Treaty depending on whether the President was willing to compromise on some issues within the Treaty. They believed that the issues with the Treaty was that the League of Nations would drag the United States into foreign entanglements, and that the people of the Country didn’t fully support the treaty (Document E). They believed the League would jeopardize the country’s independence in world affairs, that collective security was unlikely to work, and that while it may be worthwhile for the United States to be involved to help prevent major wars, it
The Republicans resisted the Treaty because they believed that if it were to be ratified, Wilson’s prestige would soar and he might even be re-elected for a third time (Bailey, 184). Thus, the Republican Party was against the Treaty of Versailles in its original form out of fear. Wilson fully believed that the Treaty was going to bring world peace, and regardless of this belief, the Republican Party voted against it because of who came up with it. Wilson fought greatly for it and said that if the Treaty failed that he would gather all the soldiers who fought in World War One and tell them “I told you before you went across the seas that this was a war against wars and I did my best to fulfill the promise, but I am obliged to come to you in mortifications and shame and say I have not been able to fulfill the promise,” (Wilson). Wilson was willing to take blame for the hypothetical failure of the Treaty of Versailles and the Republicans still voted against it because they did not want Wilson’s popularity to go up. Wilson believed so strongly in Article Ten that he believed that the League of Nations would justify the United States’ honor and bring peace to the world (Wilson). The belief that the Republican Party did not ratify the Treaty because they did not want to risk another Wilson presidency is absurd. This idea perpetuates the idea that if one person, in a position of power, strongly believes in something, then it must good. One can apply this idea to how strongly Wilson believed in the Treaty of Versailles, yet it was not enough to convince the Senate that the League of Nations’ Collective Security Covenant was a good idea. It was not the Republican Party’s fear of a third term of Wilson that caused the death of the Treaty, but Wilson himself. The belief that if
Senator Gilbert Hitchcock’s address was titled, “The trouble with Senators who oppose the League of Nations”. Hitchcock was a democrat, like President Wilson, and felt that the United States should join the League of Nations. He states, “The trouble with Senators who
President Wilson had upset some of his Republican opponents by breaking the agreement that party politics should be suspended during the war. This was a bad decision by Wilson, because under the US Constitution, the peace treaties, and therefore the entry of the US into the League of Nations, needed the approval of the
In his Fourteen Points speech, he said, “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.” He believed states should work together and not let differences divide them so as to avoid another large-scale war like this one was. Leaders and delegates from all over the world met at this conference to discuss rules and regulations for how the League would operate, with meetings lasting for months, arguing over clauses and what should the League of Nations should be allowed to do or take control of. After four months of discussions and negotiations, the League of Nations adopted their “covenant”, as Wilson called it, and would rule as an assembly of countries to meet
On October 2, 1919, at the White House in Washington, D.C., United States President Woodrow Wilson suffered a massive stroke that left him partially paralyzed on the left half of his body. Wilson had poured all his strength into a last-ditch effort to win public support for the Versailles treaty and its vision of international cooperation through a league of nations after World War 1. After the senate foreign relations committee began it debate on the treaty, Wilson took the unprecedented step of appearing before the committee to argue for ratification, making it clear he would accept no changes to the treaty. While the committee— headed by Wilsons nemesis republican senator Henry Cabot Lodge—voted on many amendments to the treaty, while ignoring
Woodrow Wilson of America, David Lloyd George of Great Britain and Georges Clemenceau of France attended the signing of The Treaty of Versailles, which took place at Versailles Palace located close to Paris. The treaty was the peace settlement after World War I. After months of negotiation the treaty was signed June 28, 1919.
In August 1914, Europe descended into war, without the support of U.S. Wilson refuses to get involve in the European conflict, until German forced Wilson to declare war on the central powers because of German’s declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare. When the war ended in November 11, 1918, Wilson negotiated a covenant for the League of Nation that he believed would sustain a world order. However at home, the congress rejected the League of Nations. Now, Wilson is admired by some scholars while hated by others. Some has praised him for his vision, while others criticized him for his impractical ideal.