Wilson and the Treaty of

Versailles
Lecture 4

It was the strength of the opposition

forces , both liberal and conservative ,
rather than the ineptitude and
stubbornness of President Wilson that led
to the Senate defeat of the Treaty of
Versailles.
Using the documents and your knowledge
of the period 1917-1921 , assess the
validity of this statement.
USE American Spirit Readings:
Pages 248-253
Pages 258-264

TO DO :
Define the terms in the question
Determine the essence of the
question
Brainstorm relevant outside information

To Do :
Read each document try to write a
quick one sentence summary of each
document
Categorize documents into three groups
Wilson supporters and liberal internationalists
Reservationists conservative
internationalists
Irreconcilables isolationists

Who in your opinion was MOST

responsible for the demise of the
Treaty of Versailles?
You must be able to categorize evidence.
What evidence supports placing the
responsibility for the demise of the Treaty
ratification on each potentially responsible
group?

Liberal v. Conservative

Liberal Interventionists /Internationalists

Conservative Isolationist
Terms: Liberal and Conservative meanings differ
when applied to foreign vs. domestic affairs.
Progressives were liberal on domestic issues
but many of the irreconcilables were
progressive although they were isolationist
(conservative) when it came to the Treaty of
Versailles.)
Reservationists - Internationalists

It was the strength of the opposition

forces , both liberal and conservative ,
rather than the ineptitude and
stubbornness of President Wilson that led
to the Senate defeat of the Treaty of
Versailles.
Using the documents and your knowledge
of the period 1917-1921 , assess the
validity of this statement.

Recognize the complexity of the question

The tension between:
Wilsons ineptitude and stubbornness
vs.

The strength of the opposition forces, both liberal

and conservative

The thesis may argue for one of these

contributing factors over the other but the
best answers recognize the other sides role
in the defeat , if only in a few references or
sentences

DO the DBQ Thesis Worksheet on this

question

The 96 senators who were eligible to vote

on the treaty belonged to one of three
groups:
1. Wilson Supporters and liberal
Internationalists
2. Reservationists led by Henry Cabot
Lodge
3. Irreconcilables who were mostly
isolationists

I. WILSON'S FOURTEEN
POINTS
JANUARY 8, 1918
a speech to Congress which was
his proposal for peace after
World War I

Fourteen Points
a mixture of :
Human rights principles
Preventive medicine in dealing
with the causes of warfare
European territorial division of
spoils
Wilsonian idealism with the
proposed League of Nations

1. No secret treaties (A)

Secret diplomacy abolished
Nations would practice diplomacy
openly and make no secret treaties
All treaties open covenants
arrived at openly

2. Freedom of the seas (M)(I)

Ships allowed to move freely
during peace and war

3. No economic barriers between

nations (I)
Removal of tariff (taxes on
imports) barriers to allow free
trade

4. Arms cuts (M)

Nations would reduce their
armaments

5. A voice for colonized peoples (N)

Self determination for former colonies

Competing claims over colonies settled
impartially in the best interests of the
colonial peoples
National borders adjusted to allow for self
rule
Protection of ethnic and national groups
under foreign rule
prevent genocide
attempted by Ottoman Turks against Armenians

6. Germany out of Russian (I)

7. Germany out of France and Belgium (I)
8. Alsace - Lorraine to France (I)
9. Expansion of Italy (I)

10. Autonomy for Czechs, Magyars, Bulgars

(N)
11. Poland's independence (N)
12. Autonomy for Greeks, Armenians, etc (N)
13. Free passage thru the Dardanelles (I)

14. A league of nations

"A general association of nations
should be formed on the basis of
covenants designed to create mutual
guarantees of the political
independence and territorial integrity
of States, large and small equally."

Wilson was also against

war reparations

2. Woodrow Wilson Versus

Theodore Roosevelt on the
Fourteen Points (1918)

II. TREATY OF
VERSAILLES
JUNE 28 1919

A. The four leaders who dominated the

conference:
President Wilson (US)
Prime Minister David Lloyd George
(Britain)
Premier Georges Clemencaeau
(France)
Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando
(Italy)

B. Germany is required to:

1. Admit guilt
2. Pay war reparations

Allies take temporary control of the German

economy

3.Return the rich Alsace - Lorraine region to

France
4. Surrender her overseas colonies
5. Disarm

German rearmament is strictly limited

C. Redrew Map of Europe

Divided the Austria-Hungary empire into
four nations
Sudetenland

Created mandates in the former Ottoman

Empire and Germanys former colonies

D. Executive
Established
the
League
of
Nations
Council (like the Security
Council)
Decisions would require unanimous approval
for action

Agreed to not make war without arbitration

Unilateral action amounted to war against the
entire league

Article X
Executive Council could advise upon measures
necessary to maintain order and keep peace in
the world.

Woodrow Wilson
on the League of Nations

I think I can say of this document

that it is at one and the same time
a practical and humane document.
There is a pulse of sympathy in it.
It is practical, ad yet it is intended
to purify to rectify to elevate

Wilsons Reasons for Ratification

Collective Security
League of Nations would simply
make the world a safer place by
reducing the chances for war
stopping needless arms building

Enable US to assume its rightful

role in
the forefront of world affairs
where we could use our best intentions and
leadership to promote world peace
We are participants in the world, whether
we wish to be or not What affects
mankind is inevitably our affair as well

III. THE RATIFICATION

FIGHT

TIMELINE

February ,1919 trip to Washington

listened to harsh criticism
March, 1919 - Wilson allows 4 changes
July , 1919 presented the Treaty to
Congress
August , 1919 Wilson met with entire
Senate Foreign Relations Committee
DOCUMENTS - Read: 1,2,3,4 The Text of Article X; Wilson testifies for Article X (1919) ; The
Lodge-Hitchcock Reservations(1919) ; The Aborted Lodge Compromise (1919)

late in the summer of 1919- Wilson

took his case to the people

Speech Wilson 1919

When you read Article X, therefore you will see

that it is nothing but the inevitable , logical
center of the whole system of the Covenant of
the League of nations, and I stand for it
absolutely. If it should ever in any important
respect be impaired, I would feel like asking the
Secretary of War to get the boys who went
across the water to fight and I would stand up
before them and say, Boys I told you before you
went across the seas that this war was a war
against wars, and I did my best to fulfill the
promise, but I am obliged to come to you in
mortification and shame and say I have not been
able to fulfill the promise. You are betrayed. You
have fought for something that you did not get.

Wilsons speech defends Article X

of Treaty as essential to achieve
goals for which the war was
fought.

TIMELINE

November , 1919 Senate voted

with reservations 39- 55 defeated
DOCUMENTS - Read: 5. Wilson Defeats Henry Cabot Lodges Reservations (1919)

without reservations 38 53 defeated

DOCUMENTS - READ : 6. Lodge Blames Wilson (1919)

March 19, 1920- with reservations 49

for 35 against (7 short of 2/3 needed for
approval)
November - 1920 Presidential
Election - Wilson believed it would be
solemn referendum on the League

Woodrow Wilson Appeal to the Country

October 3, 1920

This election is to be a genuine national

referendum The chief question that is put to
you is, of course: Do you want your countrys
honor vindicated and the Treaty of Versailles
ratified? Do you in particular approve of the
League of Nations as organized and empowered
in that treaty? And do you wish to see the United
States play its responsible part in it?... [The
founders of the Government] thought of America
as the light of the world as created to lead the
world in the assertion of the rights of peoples
and the rights of free nations this light the
opponents of the League would quench.

Wilsons appeal to the country

views election of 1920 as a
referendum on the Treaty.

Factors that Defeated the Treaty

Ratification:
1. Climate of post war U.S.
A. Rising intolerance towards things
un-American
Ku Klux Klan reborn
Red Scare
The Great Migration

1. Climate of post war U.S.

B. Backlash against the Great War
Questioning the wisdom of having
participated in a war that had caused many
American deaths and wounded
Stories of Allied greed and desire for
revenge disillusioned many who thought
that the war had been fought to make the
world safe for democracy
revulsion of the treaty led to desire to return
to isolationism

2. Political Opposition
Irish Americans
German Americans
Italian Americans
Conservatives
Liberals
Isolationists
Senate Republicans
Anti-Wilsonites

1a. Wilson
supported ratification un- amended
Democrat
Internationalist
Liberal foreign policy because he was
an internationalist

1b.Other Internationalists
Liberals who believe the treaty does not do enough
to change the old world order or enough to put in
place the protections against future war; against the
treaty with any restrictions on the power of the
League of Nations

The New Republic May 24,1919

Liberals
all over the world have hoped that a
an editorial from the new liberal periodical
war ,which was so clearly the fruit of
competition and imperialist and class-bound
nationalism , would end in a peace which
would moralize nationalism by releasing it
from class bondage and exclusive
ambitions. The Treaty of Versailles does not
even try to satisfy these aspirations. Instead
of expressing a great recuperative effort of
the conscience of civilization which for its
own sins has sweated so much blood, it
does much to intensify and nothing to heal
the old and ugly dissensions.

refers obliquely to issues (war guilt and

reparations) that sully the treaty from the
editors viewpoint; students should make
those issues explicit
Based on the excerpt / document do you think
The New Republic editorial is for or against the
Treaty ratification
LIBERAL
For or Against ???
Probably Against liberal internationalist
against

The New Republics liberal position

that war was caused by
imperialism and nationalism and
that Treaty intensifies dissension
and will not heal wounds.

1b.John Maynard KeynesEconomic Consequences of the Peace,1920

According to [the French] vision of the future,

European history is to be a perpetual prize-fight ,
of which France has won this round, but of which
this round is certainly not the last. For
Clemenceau made no pretense of considering
himself bound by the Fourteen Points and left
chiefly to others such concoctions as were
necessary from time to time to save the scruples
or the face of the President [Wilson].
The policy of reducing Germany to servitude for a
generation of degrading the lives of millions of
human beings and of depriving a whole nation of
happiness should be abhorrent and detestable
abhorrent and detestable , even if it were possible
even if it enriched ourselves, even if did not sow
the decay of the whole civilized life of Europe.

Based on the excerpt / document do you

thin John Maynard Keynes is for or against
the Treaty ratification
For or Against ???
Seeds for future war sewn in the treaty

J.M. Keynes foresees that the

Treatys destruction of Germany
will lead to the decay of European
civilization.

1b.WEB Du Bois

The League of Nations, Crisis, 1921

Forty-one nations , including nearly every Negro

and mulatto and colored government of the world
, have met in Geneva and formed the assembly
of the League of Nations. This is the most forward
looking event of the century. Because of the
idiotic way in which the stubbornness of Woodrow
Wilson and the political fortunes of the
Republicans become involved, the United States
was not represented , but despite its tumult and
shouting this nation must join and join on the
terms which the World lays down. The idea that
we single-handed can dictate terms to the World
or stay out of the World , is an idea born of the
folly of fools.

WEB Du Bois

The League of Nations, Crisis, 1921

Liberal- represent the disappointment and

dismay that lingered in the years after the
treaty fight.
Editorial in the NAACP periodical Crisis
one can still hear echoes of the hopes
that Wilson had raise when he spoke of
anti colonialism and self determination of
his 14 points.
Du Bois still on the road to being
radicalized wishes a plague on both the
Internationalist and Reservationists
houses but his sympathies still rest with
the League

W.E.B. Du Bois editorial in Crisis

argues that U.S. must join League
and that both Wilson and
Republicans are responsible for the
defeat of the Treaty.

1b.Jane Addams Peace and Bread in time of War, 1922

The League of nations afforded a wide
difference of opinion in every group. The
Womans Peace Party held its annual
meeting in Chicago in the spring of
1920 and found our branches fairly
divided upon the subject. The
difference of opinion was limited always
as to the existing League and never for
a moment did anyone doubt the need
for continued effort to bring about an
adequate international organization.

Jane Addams
after noting the sharp division of opinion
among members of the Womens Peace
Party regarding the treaty itself
notes that her (liberal) group is still
virtually unanimous on the need for an
adequate international organization.

Jane Addams admits that women

are divided on the League of
Nations, but some international
organization is needed.

2. Lodge
supported ratification amended
Reservationists? supported ratification with
amendments (mostly Republicans led by
Lodge)

Republican
Internationalist
Liberal foreign policy

2. Herbert Hoover (R) to Wilson, November 19, 1919

I take the liberty of urging upon you the
desirability of accepting the reservations now
passed . I have the belief that with the
League once in motion it can within itself and
from experience and public education
develop such measures as will make it
effective. I am impressed with the desperate
necessity of early ratification. The delays
have already seriously imperiled the
economic recuperation of Europe. In this we
are vitally interested from every point of
view. I believe that the Covenant will steadily
lose ground in popular support if it is not put
into constructive operation at once because
the American public will not appreciate the
saving values of the Covenant as
distinguished from the wrongs imposed in the
Treaty.

Herbert Hoovers letter asks

President Wilson to accept
reservations ; peace can be
developed with reservations and
public support may decline over
time.

based on the brides homeliness

(undesirable Foreign Entanglements)
and the grooms (Uncle Sam) nervous
look
Political Cartoon can be interpreted as
pro-Reservationists
grasp the cartoons viewpoint, not merely
as descriptive

Cartoon shows U.S. Senate

opposing foreign entanglements
and infringement of its
Constitutional rights.
Show you understand this issue
remember Lodge Hitchcock
reservations re: Article X

3. Irreconcilables
opposed ratification
Conservative - Isolationist
many of the irreconcilables were
progressive although they were
isolationist (conservative) when it came
to the Treaty of Versailles

3. William Borah Idaho Senator (Irreconcilable)

speech in US Senate , December 6, 1918
The first proposition connected with the proposed
league is that of a tribunal to settle the matters of
controversy which may arise between the different
nations.
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? I doubt if anyone
will advocate that If you do not do so, Mr. President,
what will your league amount to?
In its last analysis the proposition is force to destroy
force, conflict to prevent conflict, militarism to destroy
militarism, war to prevent war. In its last analysis it
must be that -- if it has any sanction behind its
judgment at all. There is where the difficulty lies

Senator Borahs isolationist

position that fears loss of U.S.
sovereignty and contends that
Treaty encourages the use of force,
conflict , militarism, and war.

WRITE YOUR ESSAY

45 minutes

I. Attempts to mediate a
peace in Europe, 1916-17

A. 1916- Wilson offered to mediate a peace

A.

Britain rejected the proposal

Therefore never extended to the Central Powers

B. The Development of Wilsons Ideas on a peace

settlement
1. Formation of a world federation (an association
of nations ) to end future wars
2. 1917 Peace without Victory speech to Congress
a. US had a right to a voice in the peace talks at
the end of the war as a neutral whose rights
had been violated
b. US would insist upon a just and lasting peace
i. No victors peace
ii. Peace without victory

3. Difficulties in Wilsons position

A. impartial mediator inconsistent with US
policies
toward Britain
B. the US as a powerful neutral
1. by March 1917 Wilson had concluded
that
the US could play an important
role in the
peace negotiations only by
becoming a
belligerent

II. Wilson as spokesman for

the Allies

A. Declaration of the Fourteen Points

(basis
for a just
peace)
1. First
five points
aimed
at elimination of the
fundamental causes of war
a. abandonment of secret diplomacy
b. freedom of the seas
c. elimination of economic barriers
d. reduction of armaments
e. recognition of subject colonial peoples rights

2. Next 8 points dealt with various territorial restitution

and adjustments, and with the political self
determination of peoples
3. Last point , Wilson felt most important, creation of a
general association of nationsunder specific
covenants for the purpose of affording mutual
guarantees of political independence and territorial
integrity to great and small states alike.
4. Wilson closed by stating that the Allies would never
make peace with a German Government controlled by
the military ; invitation to the German people to revolt

B. The Fourteen Points and the Armistice

1. October 4, 1918 Germany asked Wilson to arrange for
the negotiation of an armistice and a treaty based on
the Fourteen Points
2. November 11, 1918 Armistice signed
Germany forced to agree to
Provisions designed to ensure that she would not
start war again in the near future
Surrender her navy and heavy armaments of all
types
Allied forces occupied portions of German territory
British blockade was continued until June 1919

III. Wilsons Troubles on the

Home Front

A. Republican Victory in the Election of 1918

1. Republicans won control of both houses of Congress
a. Negated his claim to speaking for the whole
American people
b. Although continued to be the spokesman for the
Allies

B. Costly Mistakes Before the Peace

Conference
December 1918 :
Wilson
Decided he would attend the peace conference in
person
Hoped to be the presiding officer at the
conference

Costly mistakes.

1. Selection of a Democratic Delegation

1.

Treaty would have to be ratified by a Republicancontrolled Senate

2. Failure to Consult Senators

1.

Attitude toward the senate extremely arrogant cost him

support of Democrats as well as Republican Senators

3. Failure to Understand European Economic

Problems
1.

Primarily concerned with political aspects of the

formation of a league of nations

IV. Wilsons Reception in

Europe

A. Accepted as a great democratic champion by the

people of Europe
B. Example of misunderstandings:
1.French people supported Wilsons idea of a just
peace but
a. A just and lasting peace for France would strip
and dismember Germany
b. Not what Wilson had in mind

V. Wilsons Defeats at the Paris

Conference

A. Character of the Conference itself

1. Not actually a peace conference
A. The defeated powers were not allowed to send
delegates
B. Decisions made by a small minority of delegates
1. A committee of 10 out of the 32 victor nations set up
2. The committee of 10 turned into the Big Four who met
in secret violation of one of the 14 Points that called for
open covenants, openly arrived at
a. France Clemenceau
b. Britain Lloyd George
c. Italy Orlando
d. US Wilson

C. Passions and hatreds of war would dominate the

conference

B. French and British demands for revenge

1.

Georges Clemenceau
a. Alsace-Lorraine
b. Mr. Wilson bores me with his Fourteen Points; why ,
God Almighty has only ten !
2. David Lloyd George
a. German Reparations
b. When I talk to Woodrow Wilson, I always feel that I
am addressing Jesus Christ !

C. Secret Agreements Among the Allies

1. Dating back to 1915 ,
a. provided for dismemberment of German and Austrian
empires
b. Distribution of the spoils among the victors
2. Critics claimed that Wilson should have insisted that the
Allies give up these treaties as a condition of US
participation and aid
a. Wilson claimed he had no knowledge of these secret
agreements

D. Difficulties with the Fourteen Points

1.

Principle of Self Determination

a. Polish Corridor
b. Ethnic groups in Central Europe & the Balkans
2. Wilsons faith in the League of Nations to establish
security and prevent war not shared by European
governments
a. Member nations:
i. not required to give up any of their sovereignty
ii. Would retain the right to maintain their own armed
forces

E. The Treaty of Versailles

1. June, 1919
a. Presented to Germans
b. Signed by Germany
after protest of harsh conditions
and
ultimatum : sign or Allies would resume war
against
Germany

Robert Lansing
US Secretary of State
Memorandum not made public until 1945
Regarded the treaty as too harsh , the
League used to enforce the harsh
conditions , and the arbitrary placing of
peoples under government not of their
choosing would lead to future war

VI. Analysis of Alternative

Solutions
Would the treaty have ensured peace
if it had been based entirely on
Wilsons plan?

A. Wilsons Peace Program

A.
B.
C.
D.

Germany retain colonies

Few boundaries in Europe would have been drawn
differently
Japan would not have been awarded the Shantung
Peninsula
No reparations would have been imposed on
defeated German nations

B. These differences would probably not have

prevented the outbreak of future wars because
1.
2.
3.

The League of Nations was inadequate as a guarantor

of peace.
No provision designed to deal with the basic problems
of imperialism
Wilsons program would not have achieved correction
or removal of the fundamental economic causes of
the war

VII. The Fight for

Ratification in the U.S.
July 1919 submitted to the
Senate

A. Reasons for Hostility to the treaty

1. Small group , led by Senator Robert M. La Follette ,
opposed ratification on idealistic grounds , seeing
in the treaty a betrayal of Wilsonian idealism
2. Personal feelings of Wilsons enemies in both parties
; his aloofness

3.Opposition by certain national groups

Irish Americans opposed as Ireland remained under
British Rule
German Americans opposed because of harsh
conditions on Germany

4.Traditional American attitude of avoiding

involvement in the affairs of Europe
1. Now that Germany defeated, semblance of balance of
power
restored, feeling of security ; desire for
isolationism

5. Partisan politics
1. Republican leaders opposed in part due to Wilsons
actions
towards Republicans in Congress

B. Four Groups of Opinion in the Senate

1.

23 Senators
a. Supported Wilson and wanted the treaty ratified
without changes or reservations
2. Approved of the treaty but would accept moderate
changes
a. Mostly Democrats
3. Group led by Henry Cabot Lodge
a. Insisted on drastic changes and reservations
b. Mostly Republicans
4. Irreconcilably opposed smallest group
a. La Follette, Hiram Johnson and William Borah

C. Defeat of the Treaty

1.
2.

The Senate Foreign Affairs Committee recommended

ratifications with 42 amendments
Wilson went on tour for public support of the unamended treat

a.
b.

3.

Suffered a physical collapse (stroke)

Mrs. Wilson served as his unofficial secretary

Compromise might have secured passage

a.

Vote : 49 for / 35 against (less that 2/3 needed)

i. 12 of 35 against were the irreconcilables
ii. 23 of the 35 against were Wilsons friends who he told not to vote
for a compromise
a. Wilson partly responsible for defeat
b. If Wilson not so stubborn about compromise the treaty would have
been accepted without basic alterations