Wednesday, November 10, 2010
The League of Nations
After WWI ended Wilson created his 14 Points, one of which was the creation of a League of Nations. He believed that it was necessary to promote peace and help prevent future wars. But, even though he thought it was such a good idea, the US never joined. There was a lot of division in the US government over the issue. Some agreed with Wilson, that it would be a positive cooperation, but others opposed the idea. They thought it would make the US to involved and committed to European affairs. However, Wilson could have compromised with the opposition and gotten the US to join the League, but he didn't. If he believed it was so important, why didn't he work to make sure the US was a part of it?
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It does seem silly for Wilson to not more readily support arguably his greatest work. I think it's possible that he was, at that point, more concerned with maintaining unity in America than trying to create it throughout the world. I do think it seems unrealistic that by joining the League of Nations the US would automatically be dragged into all European affairs. Rather I think it would have given the US more influence, and allowed them to end conflicts before they got started and the US got dragged in.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a really intersting question, and has quite a few paralells to today. People were scared of more tradgey (like we are today with the fiscal crisis) and any changes were regarded as scary and liable to bring about more war. And often people can't quite see past their fears to what is truly likely to happen.
ReplyDeleteGreat question Katie- which provoked great responses! In retrospect it is easy to point out what Wilson should have done, but as the responses alluded to he was up against a lot.
ReplyDeleteWas Wilson brilliant and ahead of the world with his 14 Points, or was he an unrealistic idealist?
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