Seeking to rally Americans to the war effort in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson promised a “war to end all wars,” and pledged to “make the world safe for democracy.” Making the world safe for democracy seemed a noble and just pursuit to Americans who watched as Europeans and Russians struggled with increasingly limited freedoms and leaders who acted out of vengeance, creating economic turmoil.

President Wilson believed that the United States should serve as a moral compass to the rest of the world. He differentiated the United States’ goals in the war from the goals of the other warring powers. To Wilson, the United States had not entered the war with the hope of gaining wealth or territory; instead, Americans entered the war to shape a new international climate and to ensure the well being and continued growth of democracy. Wilson’s campaign succeeded with the American public. On the home front, Americans responded to Wilson’s idealistic aims and rallied behind him and the war effort.

During the summer and fall of 1917, large numbers of U.S. troops arrived in Europe to support the Allied Powers. About two million Americans served overseas and about 75 percent of those saw combat action during the next 18 months.

America’s troops arrived as the peril in Europe increased. Russia, reeling from a revolution, established a separate peace with Germany in 1918 and pulled out of the war. With Russia no longer a threat to the Central Powers, Germany began moving troops to the war’s western front for a major offensive move into Allied territory. Fresh American troops arrived in France just in time to be catapulted against the German advance and hold off the German armies.

American troops also played an important role in the last Allied assault that took place in France in the fall of 1918—one major objective of this offensive was to cut off the German railroad lines feeding the western front. The Meuse-Argonne offensive, which at the time was the largest battle in American history, lasted 47 days and engaged 1.2 million American troops. Although more than 120,000 American troops were wounded or killed, this triumph paved the way for Allied victory.

As the war drew toward its conclusion, many began to consider what would be the outcome. Recognizing the need for a plan, Wilson devised an outline for peace that would become known as his Fourteen Points.

On January 18, 1918, Wilson delivered his Fourteen Points Address to Congress to encourage the Allies to victory. In it, he hoped to keep a reeling Russia in the war and to appeal to the Central Powers’ disenfranchised minority members. The points, which represented Wilson’s lofty goals for the future of the world, included five general principles for a peace settlement: (1) “Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at” should replace secretive diplomacy; (2) a guaranteed freedom of the seas should exist during wartime and peace time; (3) nations should be able to trade freely without fear of retribution; (4) armaments should be drastically reduced; and (5) colonial claims should be adjusted to reflect the needs of native peoples.

Most of the additional points involved specific territorial adjustments: lost territory should be returned to Russia, Belgium should be a free and independent state, France should regain the Alsace-Lorraine, and Italian boarders should be adjusted along easily recognizable lines of nationality. Under the Fourteen Points, oppressed minority groups such as the millions of Poles who lived under the rule of Germany and Austria-Hungary, would benefit from an era of self-determination. The final point called for the creation of a “general association of nations” that would work to guarantee political independence and sovereignty for all countries. This general association, an early version of Wilson’s League of Nations, would provide international order in the post-war era.

Although the reaction to the Fourteen Points was largely positive, some leaders of the Allied Powers, hoping for territorial gain, grumbled at Wilson’s idealistic aims. Republicans at home who favored isolationism openly criticized Wilson’s world vision and mocked what they referred to as the “fourteen commandments.”

Copyright 2006 The Regents of the University of California and Monterey Institute for Technology and Education