This is a primary source activity. Students will read and analyze an excerpt from Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points speech, delivered to Congress in January 1918. The classroom activity is both an individual and a cooperative learning activity.
Students must understand Wilson’s idealism, codified in the Fourteen Points, in order to understand the difficulties he faced at the Versailles peace talks. The ideals presented in the Fourteen Points recur in history, namely in the Atlantic Charter signed in 1941. Understanding the Fourteen Points also presents the students with the opportunity to critically evaluate the effectiveness of Wilson’s proposals in the post-World War I world.
- The student will analyze the text of Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points speech.
- The student will evaluate the effect of the Fourteen Points on the Versailles peace talks.
- The student will draw conclusions about the viability of the Fourteen Points within the context of the carnage of the Great War.
- Kansas State Social Studies Standards – High School: U.S. History, Benchmark 1, Indicator 6
- Kansas State Social Studies Standards – High School: U.S. History, Benchmark 5, Indicator 3
- Kansas State Social Studies Standards – High School: World History, Benchmark 3, Indicator 1
Missouri Standards
1. Principles expressed in the documents shaping constitutional democracy in the United States
2. Continuity and change in the history of Missouri, the United States and the world
7. The use of tools of social science inquiry (such as surveys, statistics, maps, documents)
- Textbook – The Americans (McDougal Littell), chapter 11, section 4
- chart for the analysis of Wilson’s Fourteen Points speech
Primary Source Analysis Worksheet
Excerpt from Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points speech – January 8, 1918
(Source: http://net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/1918/14points.html)
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It will be our wish and purpose that the processes of peace, when they are begun, shall be absolutely open and that they shall involve and permit henceforth no secret understandings of any kind. The day of conquest and aggrandizement is gone by; so is also the day of secret covenants entered into in the interest of particular governments and likely at some unlooked-for moment to upset the peace of the world. It is this happy fact, now clear to the view of every public man whose thoughts do not still linger in an age that is dead and gone, which makes it possible for every nation whose purposes are consistent with justice and the peace of the world to avow nor or at any other time the objects it has in view.
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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. What we demand in this war, therefore, is nothing peculiar to ourselves. It is that the world be made fit and safe to live in; and particularly that it be made safe for every peace-loving nation which, like our own, wishes to live its own life, determine its own institutions, be assured of justice and fair dealing by the other peoples of the world as against force and selfish aggression. All the peoples of the world are in effect partners in this interest, and for our own part we see very clearly that unless justice be done to others it will not be done to us. The program of the world’s peace, therefore, is our program; and that program, the only possible program, as we see it, is this:
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I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.
II. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of international covenants.
III. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance.
IV. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety.
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V. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the government whose title is to be determined.
VI. The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a settlement of all questions affecting Russia as will secure the best and freest cooperation of the other nations of the world in obtaining for her an unhampered and unembarrassed opportunity for the independent determination of her own political development and national policy and assure her of a sincere welcome into the society of free nations under institutions of her own choosing; and, more than a welcome, assistance also of every kind that she may need and may herself desire. The treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months to come will be the acid test of their good will, of their comprehension of her needs as distinguished from their own interests, and of their intelligent and unselfish sympathy.
VII. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacuated and restored, without any attempt to limit the sovereignty which she enjoys in common with all other free nations. . . .
VIII. All French territory should be freed and the invaded portions restored, and the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the world for nearly fifty years, should be righted, in order that peace may once more be made secure in the interest of all.
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IX. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along clearly recognizable lines of nationality.
X. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest opportunity to autonomous development.
XI. Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacuated; occupied territories restored; Serbia accorded free and secure access to the sea; and the relations of the several Balkan states to one another determined by friendly counsel along historically established lines of allegiance and nationality; and international guarantees of the political and economic independence and territorial integrity of the several Balkan states should be entered into.
XII. The Turkish portion of the present Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure sovereignty, but the other nationalities which are now under Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted security of life and an absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous development, and the Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a free passage to the ships and commerce of all nations under international guarantees.
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XIII. An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenant.
XIV. 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.
In regard to these essential rectifications of wrong and assertions of right we feel ourselves to be intimate partners of all the governments and peoples associated together against the Imperialists. We cannot be separated in interest or divided in purpose. We stand together until the end.
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For such arrangements and covenants we are willing to fight and to continue to fight until they are achieved; but only because we wish the right to prevail and desire a just and stable peace such as can be secured only by removing the chief provocations to war, which this program does remove. We have no jealousy of German greatness, and there is nothing in this program that impairs it. We grudge her no achievement or distinction of learning or of pacific enterprise such as have made her record very bright and very enviable. We do not wish to injure her or to block in any way her legitimate influence or power. We do not wish to fight her either with arms or with hostile arrangements of trade if she is willing to associate herself with us and the other peace- loving nations of the world in covenants of justice and law and fair dealing. We wish her only to accept a place of equality among the peoples of the world, -- the new world in which we now live, -- instead of a place of mastery. . . .
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We have spoken now, surely, in terms too concrete to admit of any further doubt or question. An evident principle runs through the whole program I have outlined. It is the principle of justice to all peoples and nationalities, and their right to live on equal terms of liberty and safety with one another, whether they be strong or weak.
Unless this principle be made its foundation no part of the structure of international justice can stand. The people of the United States could act upon no other principle; and to the vindication of this principle they are ready to devote their lives, their honor, and everything they possess. The moral climax of this the culminating and final war for human liberty has come, and they are ready to put their own strength, their own highest purpose, their own integrity and devotion to the test.
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- excerpted text of Wilson’s “Fourteen Points” speech (attached)
No technology is required for this activity.
- As homework for the night before, the students will have read The Americans, chapter 11, section 4. This section gives an overview of the Fourteen Points and the Treaty of Versailles.
- Prior to the start of class, place the 8 sections of Wilson’s speech (see attached) into individual envelopes. Each envelope will contain one section of the speech. Hand one envelope to each student at the start of the class period. For a class of 24 students, you will need 3 copies of each section of the speech.
- Each student must read his/her section of the speech, and identify 4 summary points for the section. These summary points should be written in the column to the right of the text of the speech. Each student must be able to explain and interpret his/her section of the speech to the class.
- Once each student has successfully interpreted his/her section of the speech, divide the class into 3 large groups (8 students per group). Each student in the group will have read a different excerpt from the Fourteen Points speech; by combining together, they will have interpreted the full excerpt. At this time, hand each student a copy of the full text excerpt with space for the summary points (see attached).
- Within each group, the students will share their summary points about each section of text. The students should go in order (1-8). Each student should write the summary points on his/her full text excerpt.
- After each group has finished its analysis, the activity turns to a class discussion.
- Example of class discussion questions:
- Which of the Fourteen Points do you feel is the most important? Why?
- In what order would you rank the fourteen points, from most important to least important?
- What was Woodrow Wilson trying to accomplish with the Fourteen Points?
- This speech was given in January 1918, nearly ten months before the armistice was signed. What influence did the Fourteen Points have on the remainder of the war? What effect did the Fourteen Points have on the Versailles peace talks?
- How realistic were Wilson’s ideas? Explain.
- How idealistic were Wilson’s ideas? Explain.
- Do the Fourteen Points address the causes of World War I? If yes, which ones?
- Which current-day issues can be traced back to the flawed peace of Versailles? Would the full adoption of Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points have prevented these problems?
The unit test for World War I will include the following question about the Fourteen Points:
“At the end of World War I, Woodrow Wilson presented a plan to create a lasting peace. His plan, known as the Fourteen Points, met stiff opposition at both the Paris peace talks and back home in the United States. Describe the ideals expressed in this document and how well it addressed the causes of the war. Explain why many Europeans and Americans objected to the Fourteen Points. In your opinion, was Wilson’s plan a viable proposal? Explain.”
The students will write a 3-5 paragraph essay in answer to the question.