Fourteen Points

The terms proposed by President Wilson of the USA in his address to Congress of 8 January 1918, as a basis for the settlement of World War I. The creation of the League of Nations was one of the points.

The terms included: open diplomacy; freedom of the seas; removal of trade barriers; international disarmament; adjustment of colonial claims; German evacuation of Russian, Belgian, French, and Balkan territories; the restoration of Alsace‐Lorraine to France; autonomy for the various ethnic groups in Austria, Hungary and the Ottoman Empire; an independent Poland; and a general association of nations (which was to become the League of Nations). Wilson was obliged to compromise on many of the points in light of secret agreements concluded by several of the Allies. The Germans, having agreed to the armistice largely on the basis of the Fourteen Points, felt betrayed by subsequent decisions imposed upon them by the Treaty of Versailles.