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in 1918, Woodrow Wilson arrived in France to help put together a peace that would put an end to all wars

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worried whether the Russian Revolution could spread

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the victors discussed this peace in the shadow of disease and economic troubles

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personal tragedy behind the scenes

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Woodrow Wilson's daughter Margaret had gotten the influenza

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came close to dying in a hospital in Brussels

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influenza was affecting Wilson's aid, and also French Prime Minister George Clemenceau, British Prime Minister Lloyd George

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the world leaders were groping for new principles

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Wilson

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was a political scientist at Princeton

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governor of New Jersey

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the role intellectuals are playing in thinking about public policy

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these principles were presented in fourteen points

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had a fear that as old regimes would collapse, radical new regimes would emerge

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after 1917

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a concern for the contagion of Communism

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Lenin promised an end to war by creating a new socialist utopia, for all oppressed people

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there could be no peace without everyone being beneficiaries of the new order

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in October of 1917 the old Russian regime capitulated

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but there was a kind of civil war behind the lines

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Bolcheviks called for the support from different nationalities in what used to be the Russian Empire

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Lenin argued that capitalism was the source of the problem for minorities

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Lenin's communism was attractive to colonies

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the rest of the world had to respond to this

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Wilsom saw in Lenin someone who had to be responded to

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14 points

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1918

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what would be the new principles of peace

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particularly in Russia and Germany

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we had to prevent Bolshevism from spreading

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the contagion of Communism

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open trade

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open agreement

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self determination

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liberal democracy

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liberal democracies that can trade with each other won't fight

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Woodrow Wilson's liberal utopia

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the Leninist and Wilsonian models posed a challenge to the Old World of the 19th century

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how to reconcile a world of former empires

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1919: the end of empires all broken up into different nation-states

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Ottoman Empire

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Russian Empire

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German Empire

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Austria-Hungarian Empire

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former colonies would enjoy sovereignty

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but how to govern these

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many were not ready for self-government

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became protectorates of the winning side

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Wilson was an optimist and idealist

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but he had blind spots

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disappointed in his own allies inability to share in his principles

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British and French quarreling

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French insistence that Germany pay a heavy penalty

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Wilson saw this as petty

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faced with national interests

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Wilson had a series of strokes toward the end of his presidency

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downplayed it

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the 30 years of world war

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1914-1918 was the first phase

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the Treaty of Versailles was a truce, not a peace

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it only put a temporary end to the conflicts of Europe itself

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planted seeds of future conflicts

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1919-1944 second phase