List

Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points are in the tradition of the great list-style documents in American history, like 25 Photos You'll Only Understand If You're Unbelievably Lazy, 23 Pictures That Will Make Every Petty Person Say "LOL, True," and—oh, yeah—the Bill of Rights.

Circulated around the country and the world to build support for his ideas, the speech needed to have a concise format, with clear goals for negotiation. A life hack from Woodrow: number your goals, so you can know which ones you've met.

How it Breaks Down

Intro

Wilson claims the moral high ground. He promises an "open" peace process (Intro.1) and says that the U.S. entered the war in order to fight for the world's freedom. Basically, he's playing the part of Team America and asking everybody else to follow along.

Rules for Peace

The first four points lay the framework for the international process. Instead of nobles and heads of state secretly negotiating with each other, Wilson argues for transparent treaties. He probably had the infamous Zimmerman telegram in mind.

Questions of Borders

Points V through XIII deal with specific border questions affecting various European countries. Basically: who gets what?

League of Nations

Wilson's final and most significant point calls for the creation of a "general association of nations" to monitor the peace (XIV.1).

Conclusion

Wilson declares that the free world will be unified in the coming peace and promises not to treat Germany unfairly. Given what actually happened, he probably should have spoken for himself.