Name:__________________ Period____

14 Points Translated
Directions: The language of 1918 can make it difficult to understand the major components of the 14
Points, President Wilson’s plan for peace following WWI. With a partner, translate each point into
modern language. Each translation should be at least a sentence. Be prepared to share your
translations.

Point: Translation:

#1 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.
Wilson's first point is that international treaties between
nations should not be formed in secret; he calls for diplomacy
to be "in the public view" (I.1.). Show your cards, gentlemen.

#2 Absolute freedom of navigation The second point suggests "freedom of navigation upon the
upon the seas, outside territorial seas" (II.1), even during war. The U.S. didn't like Germany's
waters, alike in peace and in war, habit of launching submarine attacks on American and British
except as the seas may be closed in ships.
whole or in part by international action
for the enforcement of international
covenants.

#3 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.
Wilson calls on the nations participating in the peace process
to remove economic barriers to international trade. This
could include things like reducing tariffs, or trade taxes, and
giving free access to shipping ports.

#4 Adequate guarantees given and Wilson calls on nations to reduce their weapons stockpiles to
taken that national armaments will be "the lowest point consistent with domestic safety" (IV.1).
reduced to the lowest point consistent
with domestic safety.

#5 A free, open-minded, and absolutely A call for fair resolution of disputes over colonial territory.
impartial adjustment of all colonial Wilson famously calls for self-determination, or giving
claims, based upon a strict observance conquered people the right to have a say in their future
of the principle that in determining all governments.
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.
Name:__________________ Period____

#6 The evacuation of all Russian Wilson calls for all nations to vacate Russian territory and
territory and such a settlement of all allow Russia to determine its own "political development and
questions affecting Russia as will secure national policy" (VI.1).
the best and freest cooperation of the
other nations of the world in obtaining He goes so far as to suggest that Russia should be treated
with "intelligent and unselfish sympathy" (VI.2).
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.

#7 All French territory should be freed Wilson demands that Belgium must have all its territory
and the invaded portions restored, and restored to freedom and sovereignty.
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.

#8 An independent Polish state should Wilson calls for all French territory invaded by the Central
be erected which should include the Powers to be restored.
territories inhabited by indisputably
He demands Germany return the territory of Alsace-Lorraine,
Polish populations, which should be
assured a free and secure access to the which they took from France in 1871, during the Franco-
Prussian War.
sea, and whose political and economic
independence and territorial integrity
should be guaranteed by international
covenant.

#14 A general association of nations The most significant of Wilson's points: he suggests creating a
must be formed under specific "general association of nations" (XIV.1) in order to police the
covenants for the purpose of affording postwar agreements and prevent another world war
mutual guarantees of political
independence and territorial integrity
to great and small states alike.
Name:__________________ Period____

Concluding Question: Why do you think the 14 Points were a failure in that the majority were not
incorporated into the Treaty of Versailles?

____The biggest failure was that the Point about ethnic self determination was a recipe for violence,
chaos and ultimately led to the Second World War. Wilson seemed to believe that there were only a few
ethnic groups in Europe, and that they lived in distinct, homogeneous regions.
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