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Wilsons Fourteen Points were a decent attempt at peace and restitution after the Great War; however, there were many inherent problems with the Wilsonian agenda. These problems were caused by many things, including Allied bias, American ambition, and Western European dominance. While trying to fix many problems in Europe, the Fourteen Points mainly concentrated on the things that were important to the Allied powers: France was bent on revenge, Great Britain was looking to further its power over the seas, and America was keen on becoming an even more powerful trade nation. The Allied Powers made it very hard for Germany and Austria and the newly formed countries in Eastern Europe to carry out many of the things set down in the Fourteen points, in particular, the idea of self-determination that is evident in over half of the points. Reading the Fourteen Points might lead a person to believe that the Allies were in favor of all forms of self-determination unconditionally; in fact, just the opposite was true. They used self-determination as a formula for rearranging the balance of power in their own interests (Keynes pp. 2).
Point Five of the Wilsonian agenda was a testament to this. It called for the free, open-minded adjustment of all colonial claims. Essentially, what this did was allow countries to practice limited forms of self-determination, mainly by switching European rule from the more obvious direct control method, to indirect European control. Some countries were allowed independence, but those countries that were denied it became mandates; Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon are examples of the ladder.
The main thing Point Five accomplished was that it allowed more colonial holdings to fall into Allied hands, especially those of Britain. The fact that the Allies used self-determination for their own interests is also the reason the people of Austria were not allowed to become a part of Germany. Allowing the union of Austria and Germany would only make Germany stronger, something France especially did not want. Self-determination was also used against Germany in other ways. By allowing Poland to become a country with access to the sea, Germany would be split in half, and former German territory would now be known as the Polish Corridor. Territory was also taken away from Germany to create the nation of Lithuania.
The war had other consequences for Germany besides loss of territory. Germany was punished tremendously by the Wilsonian agenda and, ultimately, the Treaty of Versailles. Although Germany was seen as the main aggressor in World War I, they were only upholding an alliance, as did every other European country involved in World War I. In losing the war, Germany was subjected to the harsh will of neighboring France, whose ego, still bruised from the Franco-Prussian War could now be healed. France used the Fourteen Points to try and undo, what, since 1870 the progress of Germany had accomplished (Keynes pp 2).
This included taking back the disputed regions of Alsace-Lorriane, returning the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein to Denmark, demilitarizing the country, which included the dismantling of rail roads, taking away all colonial holdings as well as the new territories Germany had acquired from Russia during the war. As discussed earlier, these territories either become countries, as in Eastern Europe, or fell under the control of Allied powers, like German South West Africa, which became a part of the British dominion of South Africa. The Allies were not only biased when it came to the principle of self-determination, they were also very selfish. Both the second the third points do not seem to benefit any country in the world besides the two major Allied powers, Great Britain and the United States. The second point calls for the freedom of navigation on the seas.
In and of itself, this idea seems beneficial to every nation in the world, but looking at the post World War I circumstance of the world, this freedom would mainly benefit Great Britain. Great Britain as well as the United States was a trading power, but Britain was the largest naval power in the world, and freedom of the seas at this point in time meant essentially, British control of the seas, especially now that Germany was no longer allowed to have a large or sufficient navy. Coupled with Point Thirteen, which put the Dardanelles under international guidelines, Britain now had complete control over the Mediterranean. The Third Point of the Agenda calls for the removal of all economic barriers and seems universally beneficial, but again, just the opposite was true. This would only be favorable to the larger more industrialized nations, principally the United States who was the largest trading power in the world at the time. This would be detrimental to smaller less industrialized states, because it would allow the larger countries to flood their markets free of charge, making them even poorer in the process.
The idea of an open door was a long-standing American principle, which became a large part of American diplomacy after it was inflicted upon China in the early 20 th century. This Point of the Wilsonian agenda is very selfish, as it only directly benefits the Allies, yet in Wilsons own speech he calls for an end to selfish aggression. This is one of the many instances of Wilsons agenda that seems inherently hypocritical. When President Wilson arrived at the Paris Peace conference it was believed that the President and his advisers had thought out a comprehensive scheme for the league of nations and for the embodiment of the Fourteen Points in an actual Treaty of Peace (Keynes pp. 4). Unfortunately the opposite was true.
The points were considered vague in detail, nebulous, and incomplete (Keynes pp. 4). Ironically this is just the thing Wilson had set out not to do. In the speech he delivered before he read out the Fourteen Points, Wilson said that there was no confusion between the Allied powers, no uncertainty of principle and no vagueness of detail. Wilson goes on to say that the only failure to make definite statement of the objects of the war lies with Germany and her allies, when in fact this failure of definite statement was also true of the Allied Powers. The Fourteen Points did accomplish something in that they set out terms for a treaty, but unfortunately the Points failed because they severely lacked in detail and succinct. Furthermore, if the Points had been written with the sole objective of peace and restitution and not ambition or revenge, the ultimate Treaty of Versailles may have led to a lasting peace in Europe.
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