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No world war ll was like that one time you're

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tone deaf uncle tried to sing karaoke e it was

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terrible and everyone wanted to make sure nothing like it

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ever happened again Well president woodrow wilson in particular was

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interested in finding a way to prevent future god awful

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global conflicts On january eighth nineteen eighteen he presented his

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fourteen points in a speech to congress Wilson wasn't just

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interested in bringing world war to a close He wanted

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to find a path to world peace kind of sort

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of forever The fourteen points were the result of this

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vision and months of research carried out by a group

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of social scientists known as the inquiry wilson's first five

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points related to diplomatic issues he called for transparency in

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international relations Since secret alliances had brought europe to its

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knees in nineteen fourteen wilson believed that all treaties should

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be public He called for free trade freedom of navigation

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and arms control Wilson also wanted to be careful about

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how territories one from the central powers were divvied up

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in the wake of the war He thought the people

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who lived in a particular territory ought to get a

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say in the future of their country we're guessing the

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colony hungry allies weren't amused by that idea Wilson's next

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eight points dealt with questions about territory He wanted russia

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to get the land it had forked over to germany

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in the treaty of breast little disks back He also

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wanted russia to ditch the bolsheviks A man can dream

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right While the fourteen points also called for an independent

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polish state and evacuated belgium and the return of all

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sauce love into france the turks would get a piece

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of the old ottoman empire as what all of the

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empire's minorities other nations affected by the fourteen points included

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italy austria hungary romania serbia and montenegro And now for

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the point you've all been waiting for point number fourteen

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of fourteen points otherwise known as wilson's call to create

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a league of nations well the league according tto wilson

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would prevent wars in unsettle international disputes peacefully It would

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also deal with problems that crossed international boundaries such as

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public health issues and human trafficking The allies went into

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the nineteen nineteen paris peace conference having pretty much agreed

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that fourteen point should be the basis for negotiations with

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germany and its loser friends But then wilson got sick

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and things went downhill fast As it turned out french

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were mighty peeved at the germans for well everything The

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french prime minister georges clemenceau threw aside wilson's desire for

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everyone to make nice and went straight for germany's throat

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Hence the treaty of versailles Hence world war two While

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the league of nations actually was created in the wake

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of the paris peace conference it didn't have any teeth

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as a peacekeeping organization This was mostly because wilson in

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massachusetts senator henry cabot lodge got into a catfight over

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the league with the end result being that the u

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s senate refused to give the league the thumbs up

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that's right wilson's brainchild was slayed by his own countrymen

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Wilson was a bit of a dreamer and his fourteen

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points were more than a little idealistic However the world

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he envisioned would have been a way nicer place than 00:03:11.025 --> [endTime] the one we got stuck with

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