USA HISTORY

AMERICAN IMPERIALISM(1890 1919)

END OF WWI

[SOURCES]
President Woodrow Wilson wanted peace, but the rest of the “Big Four” wanted to punish

(A) Austria-Hungry

(B) Russia

(C) ** Germany

(D) The Ottoman Empire

EXPLANATIONS BELOW

Concept note-1: -Wilson did not think that Germany should be punished for the war, and therefore he did not want to treaty on Germany to be too harsh. It was a worry of Wilson that if Germany was treated particularly badly then it could provoke another war.

Concept note-2: -The two countries’ leaders wanted to see Germany pay reparations for the cost of the war and accept the blame for causing the war. Wilson’s intentions were very different. Wilson desired to create a system that would keep future wars from happening, as well as promoting a U.S. vision of democracy and peace.

Concept note-3: -Wilson thought that the United States alone could shape an effective peace settlement because he believed that the combatants were politically and morally bankrupt. Wilson felt that American intervention in 1917 would ensure that the United States would play a decisive role and dominate the postwar peace conference.

Concept note-4: -Stating that “victory would mean peace forced upon a loser, a victor’s terms imposed upon the vanquished, ” Wilson predicted that in a conflict of such scale, any declaration of victory by one side would force the other to accept under duress “an intolerable sacrifice and humiliation” by admitting defeat.