Woodrow wilson foreign policy
Woodrow wilson - foreign policyWoodrow Wilson was a significant presence in the world during the early 1900’s. As America’s President, Wilson was extremely influential in setting tone for the rest of the nation to follow in regards to foreign policy. Whether it was total neutrality or outrage the rest of the US followed their Presidents lead.
Determined to avoid entering World War I in its early years, Wilson rigorously pursued neutrality. At first Wilson merely proclaimed neutrality, even when German U-boats (submarines) sank a US tanker. Then he tried "Peace without victory" because he realized that the only lasting peace was one in which the conquered nations were not left poverty-stricken, embittered and biding their time for revenge. Neither the Allies nor the Central powers responded. Keeping America out of the war proved to be an extremely difficult, and eventually impossible, job. Wilson's greatest problems concerned shipping. Britain had a blockade against Germany, seizing any cargoes bound for Germany. The British paid for the goods confiscated but the United States thought the interference in its sea trade was a violation of both freedom of the seas and neutral rights. The United States' problems with Britain were serious, but its troubles with Germany were worse. The Germans continued to sink ships with Americans on board. After the Sussex, a French channel streamer was sunk, killing 80 civilians, some American, Wilson declared that if these attacks did not stop "the United States would have no choice but to sever diplomatic relations"5 with Germany.
In the end not even Woodrow Wilson could keep the United States out of World War I. When the Germans declared unlimited submarine warfare, Wilson knew the United States would have to get involved. Still he hesitated, hoping for some event that would make an American declaration of war unnecessary. Instead two events occurred destroying all hopes of neutrality. The first was the Zimmerman telegram. This was a message intercepted by Britain proposing a secret alliance between Germany and Mexico. The next event that pushed the US into the war was the Russian Revolution, in which Russia withdrew from the war, this meant the Allies lost a major part of their team, and without the United States, Germany would have surely won. In April 1917 Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany. He appointed able men to mobilize the economy and to command the armed forces, never interfering with either. By September 1918 Germanys army was in retreat, its civilians hungry and exhausted.
Wilsons' real heart was in peace. He insisted on going to the Paris Peace conference himself, where he was greeted by European crowds cheering wildly. He and three other men, known as the Big Four, including Premier Vittorio Orlando of Italy, Prime Minister David Lloyd George of Britain, and Premier Georges Clemenceau of France drew up the Treaty of Versailles, based on Wilsons Fourteen Point address. Aspirations of world order were represented in his Fourteen Points: Open...
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