President Wilson's "fourteen Points"

President Wilson was an extremely powerful and influential man. Not only was he an

American President, but he possessed more power than many other presidents before or

after him. On January 1918, while the war was still raging, President Wilson had drawn up a series of proposals. Known as the Fourteen Points, outlined a plan to ensure world peace in the future. The first five points dealt with major principles. Point first renounced secret treaties which many had come to see as a cause of the War. Point second dealt with freedom of the seas, the issue that brought America into the War. The third point called for the removal of worldwide trade barriers. This was a major issue both in American domestic politics as well as international diplomat. The fourth point advocated arms reductions. Point five suggested the international arbitration of all colonial disputes. The sixth through thirteenth points were specific suggestions for changing borders and creating new nations. The sixth point was Russia to be assured independent development and international withdrawal from occupied Russian territory. The seventh point called restoration of Belgium to antebellum national status. Point eight was dealt with Alsace-Lorraine returned to France from Germany. The ninth point dealt with Italian borders redrawn on lines of nationality. The tenth point was, to Autonomous development of Austria-Hungary as a nation, as the Austro-Hungarian Empire dissolved. The eleventh point dealt with Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, and other Balkan states to be granted integrity, have their territories de-occupied, and Serbia to be given access to the Adriatic Sea. Point twelfth dealt with sovereignty for the Turkish people of the Ottoman Empire as the Empire dissolved, autonomous development for other nationalities within the former Empire. The thirteenth point was to establishment of an independent Poland with access to the sea. The final point was the most controversial and yet most important to President Wilson which is a "general association of nations" that would protect "great and small states alike." This reflected Wilson's hope for an organization that could peacefully negotiate solutions to world conflicts.

In the speech, President Wilson directly addressed what he perceived as the causes for the world war, which is "We entered 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 secure once for all against their recurrence." (Paragraph 1, First line). This line is referred based on the incidents which caused President Wilson to declare war. From January 1917, Germany started unrestricted submarine warfare. As a result Americans merchant ships were being sunk, and Americans merchant seamen killed, even though America was neutral. Furthermore, merchant ships of other neutral countries sailing to and from America were being sunk. All this was having an adverse effect on the America economy, and the best way to stop it was to join the war on the Allied side and help defeat the Germans quickly. At the same time, the British intercepted a message, called the "Zimmerman Note", asking the government of Mexico to declare war on the U.S., if war broke out between the U. S. and Germany. The note also