On January 8, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson delivered his Fourteen Points speech to a joint session of Congress. Appalled by the carnage of World War I, Wilson, a former Princeton professor, recognized that the future national security of the United States would depend largely on restoring international stability. He had an inkling of the coming Global economy that we recognize today. Wilson defended his speech against American isolationists, saying the world must “be made fit and safe to live in; and particularly that it be made safe for every peace-loving nation which, like our own, wishes to live its own life, determine its own institutions, be assured of justice and fair dealing by the other peoples of the world against force and selfish aggression.”
His speech was the basis for American diplomacy in the 20th Century. It was translated and distributed to soldiers in Germany and Austria Hungary, helping to move them towards an armistice. Wilson called for the formation of a governing group of nations united for the purpose of guaranteeing political independence and protecting the territorial integrity of great and small countries alike. His ideas gave birth to the League of Nations, an organization charged with resolving conflicts before they exploded into bloodshed and war.
Wilson refuted the claim by Henry Cabot Lodge that the League would undermine U.S autonomy. Wilson took the debate to the American people on a 27-day train journey of stump speeches selling the treaty. The tour was shortened by Wilson’s exhaustion. He had a stroke when he arrived back in Washington, D.C.
The American isolationists prevailed, and the U.S. Congress refused to join the League. It was more popular in Europe, particularly at the Paris Peace Conference. However, Wilsons concept of “peace without victory” was not very popular and he abandoned it to push forward his pet project, the League of Nations. The structure and processes of the League was formulated at the Peace Conference and ratified by 42 nations in 1919. The Covenant of the League of Nations became effective January 10, 1920.
The League was successful in settling some disputes between equal size countries, protecting minorities, and working against chemical and biological warfare. But the advent of World War II weakened the League when many members chose to remain neutral in the face of advancing Nazi Germany.
League members Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and France all fell to Hitler in 1940. Switzerland no longer wished to host an organization perceived as Allied and the offices were dismantled. The Allies endorsed the idea of the United Nations, and it held its first planning conference in San Francisco in 1944. There was no need for the League of Nations to make a post-war return.