President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points (1918)

Cartoon supporting the US declaration of war (1917)

Cartoon accusing Wilson's proposal for a League of Nations of being unrealistic (1919)

Cartoon rejecting US involvement in the League of Nations (1919)

A page of the Fourteen Points (1918)

Wilson proposed a plan intended to prevent another world war:

1. No more secret alliances
2. Freedom of the seas
3. No economic barriers
4. Reduction of arms
5. Self-government in the colonies
6. Evacuation of Russian territory
7. Evacuation and restoration of Belgium
8. Evacuation and restoration of French territories
9. Readjustment of Italy's borders
10. Austria-Hungary accorded the freest opportunity to autonomous development
11. Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacuated and restored
12. The Turkish portion of the Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure sovereignty
13. Polish independence
14. Creation of an association of nations

President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points were delivered to a joint Congress on January 8th 1918. They translated many of the principles of American domestic reform into foreign policy including free trade, open agreements, democracy and self-determination. Points 1 to 13 were rejected at the Paris Conference of 1919. Only point 14 was adopted and the League of Nations was set up. The US Congress did not ratify the Versailles Treaty and the USA never became a member of the League of Nations.