On this day, January the 8th, in the year of 1918, former President Woodrow Wilson declared the Fourteen Points, a decree of fourteen points of peace outlining a post World War One world, most notably a call for an international organization for peace keeping among the world’s nations. 

America entered WWI with goals such as to shape the world towards conflicts on the scale of WWI not happening again and for democracy to be the world’s prevailing way of rule.

To achieve these goals, President Wilson came up with ways to achieve this, which boiled down to fourteen key points.

Addressing them to Congress, most of the goals were among the lines of addressing problems which caused WWI, like Balkan independence and broader points, like fair trade, more open diplomacy, and the aforementioned international organization.

Heading to Europe after the war ended to negotiate peace talks, Wilson intended for all nations to support and implement the implementable policies. However, to get the peacekeeping organization to be formed, he had to compromise on some of his other points, such as the world moving towards moving past colonialism. 

However, the Treaty of Versailles (the product of the post war negotiations) met resistance in the Senate, as it would weaken U.S. power to declare war on overall sovereignty. With Wilson unwillingness to compromise more on his goals and falsely hoping the public’s support of the points would make the opposing Senators change their minds, America did not sign on to the treaty.

A result of this was America not joining the League of Nations (the peacekeeping organization), which would fail to stop a war on the scale of WW1 from happening again (World War Two), but laid out the framework for today’s foremost world peacekeeping organization, the United Nations (National WWI Museum and Memorial) (Britannica).

To read more daily facts and tidbits, American involvement in wars, and the United Nations, see the Barron Perspectives “On this Day Archives” webpage and articles such as “(Saddam Hussein Captured) On This Day – December 13th”, “(Pearl Harbor) On This Day – December 7th”, and “On This Day – October 24th (United Nations)”.