Biography of Woodrow Wilson. America decides

Thomas Woodrow Wilson(English) Thomas Woodrow Wilson, usually without a first name - Woodrow Wilson; December 28th ( 18561228 ) , Strawton, Virginia - February 3, Washington, DC) - 28th President of the United States (-). He is also known as a historian and political scientist. Winner of the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to him for his peacekeeping efforts.

Origin

Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born in Staunton, Virginia, to Joseph Wilson (-) and Janet Woodrow (-). His family is of Scottish and Irish descent, with his grandparents emigrating from Strabane, Northern Ireland, while his mother was born in Carlisle to Scottish parents. Wilson's father was from Steubenville, Ohio, where his grandfather was the publisher of an abolitionist newspaper. His parents moved to the South in 1851 and joined the Confederacy. His father defended slavery, ran a Sunday school for slaves, and also served as a chaplain in the Confederate army. Wilson's father was one of the founders of the Southern Presbyterian Church Society after it broke away from the Northern Presbyterian Church in 1861.

Childhood, youth

Thomas Woodrow Wilson did not learn to read until about age 12 and experienced learning difficulties. He mastered shorthand and made significant efforts to compensate for the lag in his studies. He studied at home with his father, then at a small school in Augusta. In 1873 he entered Davidson College in North Carolina, then entered Princeton University in 1879. Starting from the second year of study, he was actively interested in political philosophy and history. He was an active participant in the informal discussion club and organized the independent Liberal Debating Society. In 1879, Wilson attended law school at the University of Virginia, but did not receive a higher education there. Due to poor health, he went home to Wilmington (North Carolina), where he continued his independent studies.

Legal practice

In January 1882, Wilson decided to begin practicing law in Atlanta. One of Wilson's classmates at the University of Virginia invited Wilson to join his law firm as a partner. Wilson joined the partnership in May 1882 and began practicing law. There was fierce competition in the city with 143 other lawyers, Wilson rarely took cases and quickly became disillusioned with legal work. Wilson studied law with the goal of entering politics, but realized that he could pursue academic research while practicing law to gain experience. In April 1883, Wilson applied to Johns Hopkins University to study for a PhD in history and political science, and in July 1883 left the practice of law to begin an academic career.

Governor of New Jersey

In November 1910, he was elected governor of New Jersey. As governor, he did not follow the party line and decided for himself what he needed to do.

Wilson introduced primaries in New Jersey to elect candidates within the party and a number of social laws (for example, workers' accident insurance). Because of all this, he became known beyond one region.

Presidential election of 1912

Woodrow Wilson ran for the Democratic presidential nomination while serving as Governor of New Jersey. His candidacy was put forward by the Democratic Party as a compromise in Baltimore at a meeting of June 25 - July 2, after a long internal party crisis.

In the elections, Wilson's main rivals were the then-current 27th US President William Taft from the Republican Party and the 26th US President Theodore Roosevelt, who, after his resignation, broke relations with Taft and the Republican Party and created the Progressive Party. Roosevelt and Taft competed for the Republican vote, causing division and confusion in their camp, which made the task much easier for Democrat Wilson. According to American political scientists, if Roosevelt had not taken part in the elections, Wilson would hardly have won against Taft. Additionally, U.S. Vice President James Sherman died on October 30, 1912, leaving Taft without a vice presidential candidate.

According to the election results, Woodrow Wilson received 41.8% of the vote, Theodore Roosevelt - 27.4%, William Taft - 23.2%. Woodrow Wilson won most of the states and subsequently received 435 of the 531 electoral votes. Thomas Marshall was elected Vice President of the United States.

Woodrow Wilson became the first Southern president since Zachary Taylor was elected in 1848. He was the only US president to hold a doctorate and one of only two presidents, along with Theodore Roosevelt, who was also president of the American Historical Association.

First presidential term (1913-1917)

During his first presidential term, Woodrow Wilson, as part of the “New Freedom” policy, carried out economic reforms - the creation of the Federal Reserve System, banking reform, anti-monopoly reform, and took a neutral position in foreign policy, trying to keep the country from entering the First World War.

Foreign policy

During 1914–1917, Woodrow Wilson kept the country from entering World War I. In 1916, he offered his services as a mediator, but the warring parties did not take his proposals seriously. Republicans, led by Theodore Roosevelt, criticized Wilson for his peace-loving policies and reluctance to create a strong army. At the same time, Wilson won the sympathy of pacifist-minded Americans, arguing that the arms race would lead to the US being drawn into war.

Wilson actively opposed the unrestricted submarine warfare that Germany had unleashed. As part of unrestricted submarine warfare, the German navy destroyed ships entering the zone adjacent to Great Britain. On May 7, 1915, a German submarine sank the passenger liner Lusitania, killing more than 1,000 people, including 124 Americans, causing outrage in the United States. In 1916, he issued an ultimatum against Germany to end unrestricted submarine warfare, and also dismissed his pacifist Secretary of State, Brian. Germany agreed to Wilson's demands, after which he demanded that Great Britain limit the naval blockade of Germany, which led to a complication of Anglo-American relations.

Presidential election of 1916

In 1916, Wilson was re-nominated as a presidential candidate. Wilson's main slogan was “He kept us out of war.” Wilson's opponent and Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes advocated for greater emphasis on mobilization and preparation for war, and Wilson's supporters accused him of dragging the country into war. Wilson came out with a fairly peace-loving program, but put pressure on Germany to end unrestricted submarine warfare. In the election campaign, Wilson emphasized his achievements, refraining from directly criticizing Hughes.

Wilson narrowly won the election, with vote counting taking days and causing controversy. Thus, Wilson won in California by a small margin of 3,773 votes, in New Hampshire by 54 votes, and lost to Hughes in Minnesota by 393 votes. In the electoral vote, Wilson received 277 votes and Hughes 254. Wilson is believed to have won the 1916 election largely due to voters who supported Theodore Roosevelt and Eugene Debs in 1912.

Second presidential term (1917-1921)

During Wilson's second term, he focused his efforts on World War I, which the United States entered on April 6, 1917, little more than a month into Wilson's second term.

The decision on US participation in the war

When Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917, Wilson decided to bring the United States into World War I. It did not sign alliance agreements with Great Britain or France, preferring to act independently as an "associated" (rather than allied) country. He formed a large army through conscription and appointed General John Pershing as commander, leaving him considerable discretion in matters of tactics, strategy, and even diplomacy. He called for "a declaration of war to end all wars" - this meant that he wanted to lay the foundations for a world without war, to prevent future catastrophic wars that would cause death and destruction. These intentions served as the basis for Wilson's Fourteen Points, which were developed and proposed to resolve territorial disputes, ensure free trade, and create a peacekeeping organization (which later emerged as the League of Nations). Woodrow Wilson by that time decided that the war had become a threat to all humanity. In his speech declaring war, he stated that if the United States had not entered the war, the entire Western civilization might have been destroyed.

Economic and social policy at the beginning of the war

To quell defeatism at home, Wilson passed through Congress the Espionage Act (1917) and the Sedition Act (1918), aimed at suppressing anti-British, anti-war, or pro-German sentiment. He supported the socialists, who, in turn, supported participation in the war. Although he himself had no sympathy for radical organizations, they saw great benefits in rising wages under the Wilson administration. However, there was no price regulation, and retail prices increased sharply. When income taxes were increased, knowledge workers suffered the most. War bonds issued by the Government were a great success.

Wilson created a Committee on Public Information, headed by George Creel, which disseminated patriotic anti-German messages and carried out various forms of censorship, popularly called the "Creel Commission" ("basket committee").

Wilson's Fourteen Points

In his speech to Congress on January 8, 1918, Woodrow Wilson formulated his theses on the objectives of the war, which became known as the “Fourteen Points.”

Wilson's Fourteen Points (summary):

• I. Elimination of secret agreements, openness of international diplomacy.
• II. Freedom of navigation outside territorial waters
• III. Freedom of trade, removal of economic barriers
• IV. Disarmament, reducing the armament of countries to the minimum level necessary to ensure national security.
• V. Free and impartial consideration of all colonial issues, taking into account both the colonial claims of the owners of the colonies and the interests of the population of the colonies.
• VI. Liberation of Russian territories, resolution of its issues based on its independence and freedom to choose the form of government.
• VII. Liberation of the territory of Belgium, recognition of its sovereignty.
• VIII. Liberation of French territories, restoration of justice for Alsace-Lorraine, occupied in 1871.
• IX. Establishing the borders of Italy based on nationality.
• X. Free development of the peoples of Austria-Hungary.
• XI. Liberation of the territories of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, providing Serbia with reliable access to the Adriatic Sea, guaranteeing the independence of the Balkan states.
• XII. The independence of the Turkish parts of the Ottoman Empire (modern Turkey) simultaneously with the sovereignty and autonomous development of the peoples under Turkish rule, the openness of the Dardanelles for the free passage of ships.
• XIII. Creation of an independent Polish state uniting all Polish territories and with access to the sea.
• XIV. Creation of a general international union of nations in order to guarantee the integrity and independence of both large and small states.

Wilson's speech caused a mixed reaction both in the United States and its allies. France wanted reparations from Germany because French industry and agriculture had been destroyed by the war, and Britain, as the most powerful naval power, did not want freedom of navigation. Wilson made compromises with Clemenceau, Lloyd George and other European leaders during the Paris peace negotiations, trying to ensure that Clause 14 was implemented and the League of Nations was created. In the end, the agreement on the League of Nations was defeated by Congress, and in Europe only 4 of the 14 theses were implemented.

Other military and diplomatic actions

From 1914 to 1918, the United States repeatedly intervened in the affairs of Latin American countries, especially Mexico, Haiti, Cuba, and Panama. The US sent troops into Nicaragua and used them to support one of the Nicaraguan presidential candidates, then forced them to enter into the Bryan-Chamorro Agreement. American troops in Haiti forced the local parliament to choose a candidate supported by Wilson, and occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934.

After Russia experienced the October Revolution and emerged from the war, the Allies sent troops to prevent either the Bolsheviks or the Germans from appropriating weapons, ammunition, and other supplies that the Allies were providing to aid the Provisional Government. Wilson sent expeditions to the Trans-Siberian Railway and the key port cities of Arkhangelsk and Vladivostok to intercept supplies for the Provisional Government. Their tasks did not include fighting the Bolsheviks, but several clashes with them took place. Wilson withdrew the main force on April 1, 1920, although separate formations remained until 1922. At the end of World War I, Wilson, along with Lansing and Colby, laid the foundations for the Cold War and containment policies.

Treaty of Versailles 1919

American diplomat Robert Murphy, who worked in Munich in the first half of the 1920s, wrote in his memoirs: “From everything I saw, I had great doubts about the correctness of Woodrow Wilson’s approach, who tried to resolve the issue of self-determination by force. His radical ideas and superficial knowledge of the practical aspects of European politics led to even greater European disintegration."

"Council of Four" at the Versailles Peace Conference

After the end of the First World War, Wilson participated in negotiations that resolved issues of statehood for oppressed nations and the establishment of an equal world. On January 8, 1918, Wilson gave a speech to Congress in which he voiced his peace theses, as well as the idea of ​​a League of Nations to help preserve the territorial integrity and political independence of nations large and small. He saw in his 14 theses the path to ending the war and achieving an equal peace for all nations.

Wilson spent six months in Paris, attending the Paris Peace Conference, and becoming the first US president to visit Europe while in office. He constantly worked to promote his plans, and achieved the inclusion of a provision for the League of Nations in the Versailles Agreement.

Wilson received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919 for his efforts to maintain peace (in total, four US presidents received the Nobel Peace Prize). However, Wilson was unable to obtain Senate ratification of the League of Nations agreement, and the United States did not join. The Republicans, led by House Henry, held the majority in the Senate after the 1918 elections, but Wilson refused to allow the Republicans to negotiate in Paris and rejected their proposed amendments. The main disagreement centered on whether the League of Nations would limit Congress's power to declare war. Historians have recognized the failure to join the League of Nations as the greatest failure of the Wilson administration.

End of the war

Wilson paid insufficient attention to the problems of demobilization after the war; the process was poorly managed and chaotic. Four million soldiers were sent home with little money. Soon problems arose in agriculture, many farmers went bankrupt. In 1919, there were riots in Chicago and other cities.

Following a series of attacks by radical anarchist groups in New York and other cities, Wilson directed Attorney General Mitchell Palmer to put an end to the violence. A decision was made to arrest internal propagandists and expel external ones.

In recent years, Wilson broke ties with many of his political allies. He wanted to run for a third term, but the Democratic Party did not support him.

Presidential Incapacity (1919-1921)

In 1919, Wilson actively campaigned for the ratification of the League of Nations agreement and traveled around the country to give speeches, as a result of which he began to experience physical strain and fatigue. After one of his speeches in support of the League of Nations in Pueblo, Colorado, on September 25, 1919, Wilson became seriously ill, and on October 2, 1919, he suffered a severe stroke, which left him paralyzed on the entire left side of his body and blind in one eye. For several months he could only move in a wheelchair; subsequently he was able to walk with a cane. It remains unclear who was responsible for executive decision-making during Wilson's incapacity, but it is believed that it was most likely the First Lady and presidential advisers. The president's inner circle, led by his wife, completely isolated Vice President Thomas Marshall from the course of presidential correspondence, signing papers and other things; Marshall himself did not risk taking on the responsibility of accepting the powers of the acting president, although some political forces called on him to do so.

Wilson was almost completely incapacitated for the remainder of his presidency, but this fact was hidden from the general public until his death on February 3, 1924.

After resignation

In 1921, Woodrow Wilson and his wife left the White House and settled in Washington in the Embassy Row. In recent years, Wilson had a hard time with the failures to create the League of Nations, believed that he had deceived the American people and needlessly dragged the country into the First World War. Woodrow Wilson died on February 3, 1924, and was buried at the Washington Cathedral.

Hobbies

Woodrow Wilson was an avid car enthusiast and took daily road trips even while president. The president’s passion also influenced the financing of work on the construction of public roads. Woodrow Wilson was a baseball fan, played for the college team as a student, and in 1916 became the first sitting US president to attend the World Baseball Championship.

Representation in art. Memory

Woodrow Wilson is depicted on the $100,000 bill, the largest in the country's history.

(December 28, 1856, Strawton, Virginia - February 3, 1924, Washington, DC)

en.wikipedia.org

Biography

Origin

Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born in Stoughton, Virginia, to Joseph Wilson (1822-1903), a doctor of divinity, and Janet Woodrow (1826-1888). His family is of Scottish and Irish descent, with his grandparents emigrating from what is now Northern Ireland, while his mother was born in London to Scottish parents. Wilson's father was from Steubenville, Ohio, where his grandfather was the publisher of an abolitionist newspaper. His parents moved to the South in 1851 and joined the Confederacy. His father defended slavery, ran a Sunday school for slaves, and also served as a chaplain in the Federal Army. Wilson's father was one of the founders of the Southern Presbyterian Church Society after it broke away from the Northern Presbyterian Church in 1861.

Childhood, youth

Thomas Woodrow Wilson did not learn to read until about age 12 and experienced learning difficulties. He mastered shorthand and made significant efforts to compensate for the lag in his studies. He studied at home with his father, then at a small school in Augusta. In 1873 he entered Davidson College in North Carolina, then entered Princeton University in 1879. Starting from the second year of study, he was actively interested in political philosophy and history. He was an active participant in the informal discussion club and organized the independent Liberal Debating Society. In 1879, Wilson attended law school at the University of Virginia, but he did not receive a higher education there. Due to poor health, he went home to Wilmington (North Carolina), where he continued his independent studies.

Legal practice

In January 1882, Wilson decided to begin practicing law in Atlanta. One of Wilson's classmates at the University of Virginia invited Wilson to join his law firm as a partner. Wilson joined the partnership in May 1882 and began practicing law. There was fierce competition in the city with 143 other lawyers, Wilson rarely took cases and quickly became disillusioned with legal work. Wilson studied law with the goal of entering politics, but realized that he could pursue academic research while practicing law to gain experience. In April 1883, Wilson attended Johns Hopkins University to study for a PhD in political science and history, and in July 1883, he left the practice of law to begin an academic career.

Governor of New Jersey

In November 1910, he was elected governor of New Jersey. As governor, he did not follow the party line and decided for himself what he needed to do.

Wilson introduced primaries in New Jersey to elect candidates within the party and a number of social laws (for example, workers' accident insurance). Because of all this, he became known beyond one region.

Presidential election of 1912

Woodrow Wilson ran for the Democratic presidential nomination while serving as Governor of New Jersey. His candidacy was put forward by the Democratic Party as a compromise in Baltimore at a meeting of June 25 - July 2, after a long internal party crisis.

In the elections, Wilson's main rivals were the then 27th President of the United States, William Taft, from the Republican Party, and the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, who, after his resignation, broke relations with Taft and the Republican Party and created the Progressive Party. Roosevelt and Taft competed for the Republican vote, causing division and confusion in their camp, which made the task much easier for Democrat Wilson. According to American political scientists, if Roosevelt had not taken part in the elections, Wilson would hardly have won against Taft. Additionally, US Vice President James Sherman died on October 30, 1912, leaving Taft without a vice presidential candidate.

According to the election results, Woodrow Wilson received 41.8% of the vote, Theodore Roosevelt - 27.4%, William Taft - 23.2%. Woodrow Wilson won most of the states and subsequently received 435 of the 531 electoral votes. Thomas Marshall was elected Vice President of the United States.

First presidential term (1913-1917)

During his first presidential term, Woodrow Wilson, as part of the “New Freedom” policy, carried out economic reforms - reform of the Federal Reserve System, banking reform, anti-monopoly reform, and took a neutral position in foreign policy, trying to keep the country from entering the First World War.

Foreign policy

During 1914-1917, Woodrow Wilson kept the country from entering World War I. In 1916, he offered his services as a mediator, but the warring parties did not take his proposals seriously. Republicans, led by Theodore Roosevelt, criticized Wilson for his peace-loving policies and reluctance to create a strong army. At the same time, Wilson won the sympathy of pacifist-minded Americans, arguing that the arms race would lead to the US being drawn into war.

Wilson actively opposed the unrestricted submarine warfare that Germany unleashed. As part of unrestricted submarine warfare, the German navy destroyed ships entering the zone adjacent to Great Britain. On May 7, 1915, a German submarine sank the passenger liner Lusitania, killing more than 1,000 people, including 124 Americans, causing outrage in the United States. In 1916, he issued an ultimatum against Germany to end unrestricted submarine warfare, and also dismissed his pacifist Foreign Secretary, Brian. Germany agreed to Wilson's demands, after which he demanded that Great Britain limit the naval blockade of Germany, which led to a complication of Anglo-American relations.

Presidential election of 1916

In 1916, Wilson was re-nominated as a presidential candidate. Wilson's main slogan was “He kept us out of war.” Wilson's opponent and Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes advocated for greater emphasis on mobilization and preparation for war, and Wilson's supporters accused him of dragging the country into war. Wilson came out with a fairly peace-loving program, but put pressure on Germany to end unrestricted submarine warfare. In the election campaign, Wilson emphasized his achievements, refraining from directly criticizing Hughes.

Wilson narrowly won the election, with vote counting taking days and causing controversy. Thus, Wilson won in California by a small margin of 3,773 votes, in New Hampshire by 54 votes, and lost to Hughes in Minnesota by 393 votes. In the electoral vote, Wilson received 277 votes and Hughes 254. It is believed that Wilson won the 1916 election mainly due to voters who supported Theodore Roosevelt and Eugene Debs in 1912.

Second presidential term (1917-1921)

During Wilson's second term, he focused his efforts on World War I, which the United States entered on April 6, 1917, little more than a month into Wilson's second term.

The decision on US participation in the war

When Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917 and made an unsuccessful attempt to win Mexico over, Wilson decided to bring the United States into World War I. It did not sign alliance agreements with Great Britain or France, preferring to act independently as an "associated" (rather than allied) country. He formed a large army through conscription and appointed General John Pershing as commander, leaving him considerable discretion in matters of tactics, strategy and even diplomacy. He called for "a declaration of war to end all wars" - this meant that he wanted to lay the foundations for a world without war, to prevent future catastrophic wars that would cause death and destruction. These intentions served as the basis for Wilson's Fourteen Points, which were developed and proposed to resolve territorial disputes, ensure free trade, and create a peacekeeping organization (which later emerged as the League of Nations). Woodrow Wilson by that time decided that the war had become a threat to all humanity. In his speech declaring war, he stated that if the United States had not entered the war, the entire Western civilization might have been destroyed.

Economic and social policy at the beginning of the war

To quell defeatism at home, Wilson passed through Congress the Espionage Act (1917) and the Sedition Act (1918), aimed at suppressing anti-British, anti-war, or pro-German sentiment. He supported the socialists, who, in turn, supported participation in the war. Although he himself had no sympathy for radical organizations, they saw great benefits in rising wages under the Wilson administration. However, there was no price regulation, and retail prices increased sharply. When income taxes were increased, knowledge workers suffered the most. War bonds issued by the Government were a great success.

Wilson created a Committee on Public Information, headed by George Creel, which disseminated patriotic anti-German messages and carried out various forms of censorship, popularly called the "Creel Commission" ("basket committee").

Wilson's Fourteen Points

In his speech to Congress on January 8, 1918, Woodrow Wilson formulated his theses on the objectives of the war, which became known as the “Fourteen Points.”

Wilson's Fourteen Points (summary): I. Elimination of secret agreements, openness of international diplomacy. II. Freedom of navigation outside territorial waters III. Freedom of trade, elimination of economic barriers IV. Disarmament, reducing the armament of countries to the minimum level necessary to ensure national security. V. Free and impartial consideration of all colonial issues, taking into account both the colonial claims of the owners of the colonies and the interests of the population of the colonies. VI. Liberation of Russian territories, resolution of its issues based on its independence and freedom to choose the form of government. VII. Liberation of the territory of Belgium, recognition of its sovereignty. VIII. Liberation of French territories, restoration of justice for Alsace-Lorraine, occupied in 1871. IX. Establishing the borders of Italy based on nationality. X. Free development of the peoples of Austria-Hungary. XI. Liberation of the territories of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, providing Serbia with reliable access to the Adriatic Sea, guaranteeing the independence of the Balkan states. XII. The independence of the Turkish parts of the Ottoman Empire (modern Turkey) simultaneously with the sovereignty and autonomous development of the peoples under Turkish rule, the openness of the Dardanelles for the free passage of ships. XIII. Creation of an independent Polish state uniting all Polish territories and with access to the sea. XIV. Creation of a general international union of nations in order to guarantee the integrity and independence of both large and small states.

Wilson's speech caused a mixed reaction both in the United States and its allies. France wanted reparations from Germany because French industry and agriculture had been destroyed by the war, and Britain, as the most powerful naval power, did not want freedom of navigation. Wilson made compromises with Clemenceau, Lloyd George and other European leaders during the Paris peace negotiations, trying to ensure that Clause 14 was implemented and the League of Nations was created. In the end, the agreement on the League of Nations was defeated by Congress, and in Europe only 4 of the 14 theses were implemented.

Other military and diplomatic actions

From 1914 to 1918, the United States repeatedly intervened in the affairs of Latin American countries, especially Mexico, Haiti, Cuba, and Panama. The US sent troops into Nicaragua and used them to support one of the Nicaraguan presidential candidates, then forced them to enter into the Bryan-Chamorro Agreement. American troops in Haiti forced the local parliament to choose a candidate supported by Wilson, and occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934.

After Russia experienced the October Revolution and emerged from the war, the Allies sent troops to prevent the Bolsheviks from appropriating or transferring to the Germans weapons, ammunition, and other supplies that the Allies were providing to aid the Tsarist government. Wilson sent expeditions to the Trans-Siberian Railway and the key port cities of Arkhangelsk and Vladivostok to intercept supplies for the Tsarist government. Their tasks did not include fighting the Bolsheviks, but several clashes with them took place. Wilson withdrew the main force on April 1, 1920, although separate formations remained until 1922. At the end of the World War, Wilson, along with Lansing and Colby, laid the foundations for the Cold War and the policy of containment.

Treaty of Versailles 1919

After the end of the First World War, Wilson participated in negotiations that resolved issues of statehood for oppressed nations and the establishment of an equal world. On January 8, 1918, Wilson gave a speech to Congress in which he voiced his peace theses, as well as the idea of ​​a League of Nations to help preserve the territorial integrity and political independence of nations large and small. He saw in his 14 theses the path to ending the war and achieving an equal peace for all nations.

Wilson spent six months in Paris attending the Paris Peace Conference and becoming the first US president to visit Europe while in office. He constantly worked to promote his plans, and achieved the inclusion of a provision for the League of Nations in the Versailles Agreement.

Wilson received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919 for his efforts to maintain peace. However, Wilson was unable to obtain Senate ratification of the League of Nations agreement, and the United States did not join. The Republicans, led by House Henry, held the majority in the Senate after the 1918 elections, but Wilson refused to allow the Republicans to negotiate in Paris and rejected their proposed amendments. The main disagreement centered on whether the League of Nations would limit Congress's power to declare war. Historians have recognized the failure to join the League of Nations as the greatest failure of the Wilson administration.

End of the war

Wilson paid insufficient attention to the problems of demobilization after the war; the process was poorly managed and chaotic. Four million soldiers were sent home with little money. Soon problems arose in agriculture, many farmers went bankrupt. In 1919, there were riots in Chicago and other cities.

Following a series of attacks by radical anarchist groups in New York and other cities, Wilson directed Attorney General Mitchell Palmer to put an end to the violence. A decision was made to arrest internal propagandists and expel external ones.

In recent years, Wilson broke ties with many of his political allies. He wanted to run for a third term, but the Democratic Party did not support him.

Presidential Incapacity (1919-1921)

In 1919, Wilson actively campaigned for the ratification of the League of Nations agreement and traveled around the country to give speeches, as a result of which he began to experience physical strain and fatigue. After one of his speeches in support of the League of Nations in Pueblo, Colorado, on September 25, 1919, Wilson became seriously ill, and on October 2, 1919, he suffered a severe stroke, which left him paralyzed on the entire left side of his body and blind in his left eye. For several months he could only move in a wheelchair; subsequently he was able to walk with a cane.

Wilson was almost completely incapacitated for the remainder of his presidency, but this fact was hidden from the general public until his death on February 3, 1924.

After resignation

In 1921, Woodrow Wilson and his wife left the White House and settled in Washington in the Embassy Row. In recent years, Wilson had a hard time with the failures to create the League of Nations, believed that he had deceived the American people and needlessly dragged the country into the First World War. Woodrow Wilson died on February 3, 1924 and was buried in the Washington National Cathedral.

Biography

US statesman and politician. President of the USA (1913-1921). In January 1918, he put forward a peace program (“Wilson’s Fourteen Points”). One of the initiators of the creation of the League of Nations.

On December 28, 1856, in the town of Stanton, Virginia, a third child was born into the family of Pastor Joseph Ruggles Wilson. The son was named Thomas in honor of his grandfather. Due to poor health, the boy received his primary education at home. Thomas only entered the Derry School (Academy) in Augusta, Georgia at the age of 13. Two years later, his family moved to Columbia (South Carolina), and Wilson continued his studies at a private school. He did not shine with success. The boy's favorite pastime was playing baseball.

At the end of 1873, Joseph Wilson sent his son to study at Davidson College (North Carolina), which trained ministers of the Presbyterian Church. In the summer of 1874, Wilson left college due to illness and returned to his family, who now lived in Wilmington. He attended church and listened to his father preach in a wealthy parish (North Carolina).

In 1875, Wilson entered Princeton College, where he paid special attention to government studies and studied the biographies of Disraeli, Pitt the Younger, Gladstone and others. Wilson's article, "Cabinet Government in the United States," was noted in Princeton academic circles.

In 1879, Wilson continued his education at the University of Virginia Law School. But at the end of the next year he fell ill and returned to Wilmington, where for three years he studied independently, studying law, history, and political life in the United States and England. While attending the University of Virginia, Wilson fell in love with his cousin Henrietta Woodrow. However, Henrietta, citing her close relationship with Wilson, refused to marry him. In memory of his first novel, the young man took the name Woodrow in 1882.

In the summer of 1882, he arrived in Atlanta, where he soon passed the examination for the right to practice law. Woodrow and his friend from the University of Virginia, Edward Renick, opened the office of Renick and Wilson. Lawyers,” but their business failed.

After this, Wilson entered graduate school at Johns Hopkins University (1883). In January 1885, his major book, The Government of Congress: A Study of American Politics, was published. The author stated that “the decline in the reputation of presidents is not a reason, but only a concomitant demonstration of the decline in the prestige of the presidential office. This high office fell into decline... as its power faded. And its power has dimmed because the power of Congress has become predominant.”

For this book, the author was awarded a special prize from Johns Hopkins University. In the summer of 1885, changes occurred in Woodrow's personal life. Nature endowed his wife Ellen Exon with beauty and intelligence. She was fond of literature and art, drew well, and was familiar with the works of philosophers. Wilson once said that without her support he would hardly have been able to take the presidency in the White House.

Having received his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University, Wilson went to teach history at Bryn Mawr Women's College, near Philadelphia, after which he moved to Wesleyan University (Connecticut), but did not stay there either - he was invited to teach political science at Princeton College.

In 1902, Wilson took over as chancellor of Princeton University. The rector's extraordinary personality attracted the attention of the leaders of the Democratic Party: already in 1903 he was mentioned among possible presidential candidates. But first he became governor of New Jersey.

Woodrow Wilson won the 1912 presidential election. His domestic policy went down in history as the “new democracy” or “new freedom”; it boiled down to three points: individualism, personal freedom, freedom of competition. It is believed that within three years Wilson managed to accomplish more in the legislative field than anyone since President Lincoln.

In foreign policy, Wilson “outlined the goals, established the methods and determined the character of US foreign policy in this century,” writes the American historian F. Calhoun. Wilson emphasized that “the President cannot be the domestic figure that he has been for so long a period in our history. Our state has taken first place in the world both in terms of its strength and resources... therefore, our president must always represent one of the great world powers... He must always stand at the head of our affairs, his post must be equally prominent and as influential as the one who occupies it.”

During his first years as president, Wilson largely adhered to the framework of “dollar diplomacy.” Wilson was convinced that "if the world really wants peace, it must follow America's moral precepts."

The President made a lot of efforts to unite the countries of the Western Hemisphere into a kind of Pan-American League, under the auspices of which all disputes would be resolved peacefully, with a mutual guarantee of territorial integrity and political independence under republican forms of government. In December 1914, the State Department sent a draft agreement to Latin American governments. Brazil, Argentina and six other countries expressed support for the pact. However, Chile, fearing to lose the territory seized from Peru, criticized the project, and the idea of ​​a kind of Pan-American non-aggression pact did not take on tangible shape - the agreement did not take place.

Despite proclaiming the principles of democracy in politics and free markets in economics, Wilson intervened in the affairs of Central American and Caribbean countries. According to F. Calhoun's calculations, during Wilson's presidency the United States intervened militarily in the internal affairs of other countries seven times: twice - in Mexico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, on the European continent during the First World War, in northern Russia and in Siberia.

When war broke out in Europe, the United States took a position of neutrality. The first months of the war coincided with personal tragedy for Wilson. At the beginning of 1914, his deeply revered wife died.

On August 4, 1914, President Wilson delivered the first of 10 National Neutrality Proclamations to Congress. Two weeks later, he clarified his statement, emphasizing that the United States must be “neutral in word and deed,” “impartial in thought as well as in action, and avoid behavior that could be interpreted as supporting one side in its struggle.” against the other."

Having declared neutrality, Wilson sent a telegram to the capitals of the warring powers offering to promote peace in Europe “at this time or at any time that may be appropriate.” Back in July, American ambassadors in London, Paris and Berlin offered the governments of the powers the services of the United States as a mediator. However, the proposal did not find a response. Wilson wisely noted: “We must wait until the time is right and not spoil the matter with chatter.”

He believed that America's special position gave it the right to offer its mediation. It was the only great power not to enter the war. By the summer of 1915, Wilson had decided on the need to create an organization that would regulate international development and control the main forces of the world. It was envisaged that Washington in this organization would play the role of a kind of arbitrator, on whom the resolution of controversial issues depended. Wilson first announced the new role of the United States in world politics when delivering a speech to 2,000 members of an organization called the Peace Enforcement League (PLL), who gathered in New York on May 27, 1916.

“The United States,” the president said, “is not outside observers; they are concerned about the end of the war and the prospects for the post-war world. The interests of all nations are our own." Wilson called on all nations of the world to cooperate and proclaimed a number of principles in which America believes: the right of the people to choose their government; small states have the same rights as large ones; respect for the rights of peoples and nations. The United States, the president promised, would be a partner in any association to defend peace and the principles set out above. Thus, Wilson declared the United States' readiness to share responsibility for world affairs with the countries of the Old World.

Woodrow Wilson's 1916 campaign slogan was "He Kept Us Out of War." By asserting that “the objects pursued by the statesmen of both belligerents in a war are essentially the same,” Wilson pretended to be an impartial arbiter.

The President hesitated for a long time before entering the war. The Entente countries, reproaching the United States for failing to fulfill allied obligations, increased pressure; at the same time, anti-war sentiment was strong in the United States itself. The determining factor was the military orders of the Entente countries.

Finally, the White House decided that neutrality had exhausted itself. On December 12, 1916, Germany published a note in which, in the tone of a winner, it invited the Allies to begin peace negotiations. A week later, Wilson issued his own note, calling on the warring countries to make their goals in the war public. The Germans responded by refusing to acknowledge America's role at all in any peace negotiations, which the US press regarded as a "hurtful slight and insult."

At the same time, the American note turned out to be the beginning of a kind of “peaceful offensive” by neutral countries. Switzerland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark came out in support of it, which made an “unpleasant impression” on the allies. Nevertheless, the Entente prepared a peaceful response for Wilson.

On January 22, 1917, Wilson, speaking in the Senate, called for “peace without victory” and proposed adopting the Monroe Doctrine as a worldwide document. American conditions for peace were also set out: equality of peoples, freedom of the seas and trade, a democratic peace without annexations and indemnities. Wilson's speech, noted Italian Foreign Minister Sonino, was assessed as a sign of America's growing "dangerous desire to interfere in European affairs."

Wilson's authority as a peacemaker and humanist grew. This is what the president's speeches at the end of 1916 - beginning of 1917 were designed for. On the evening of April 2, 1917, Wilson appeared in Congress and announced to a crowded hall to loud applause that the United States was at war with Germany. True to his tactics, he chose the formula “state of war” rather than declaration, which made it possible to place the burden of responsibility on Germany.

Entering the war, the United States declared itself an “associated”, that is, an allied ally, emphasizing its claims to an independent course. The United States intended to take first a special and then a leading place in the anti-German coalition, which would allow them to dominate the establishment of the post-war world. Wilson dreamed of creating a World Association of Nations in which the United States would play a leading role.

As early as December 18, 1917, Wilson expressed the idea that it was necessary to prepare an address designed to become “the moral turning point of the war.” The main one of his speeches was delivered on January 8, 1918 and contained the American program for ending the war and the post-war organization of the world - Wilson's famous “Fourteen Points”. This speech was sharply at odds with the Monroe Doctrine and Theodore Roosevelt's "big stick" policies. Wilson's rival T. Roosevelt called them "fourteen pieces of paper" and argued that they foreshadowed "not the unconditional surrender of Germany, but the conditional surrender of the United States."

The “Fourteen Points” demanded different relations between states, and as a result, an armistice agreement was built on their basis, and Wilson was declared the forerunner of a new political order, the defender of small nations, the leader of liberal and peace-loving forces, and the founder of the world community of the League of Nations. The “Fourteen Points,” in particular, proclaimed open diplomacy and open treaties; freedom of navigation; freedom of trade; reduction of armaments, etc. The 6th paragraph talked about the settlement of all issues related to Russia, to ensure its cooperation with other nations, so that it independently decides its fate and chooses its own form of government. The last, 14th paragraph proclaimed the creation of “a general association of nations with the aim of providing mutual and equal guarantees of the independence and integrity of both large and small states.”

The publication of the Fourteen Points was a major diplomatic effort by the US government. It showed Wilson's desire to take control of future peace negotiations and hinted to Germany that it should appeal to the United States for peace. The Americans launched a massive Fourteen Point propaganda campaign, creating an image of a great democratic power around the world.

Wilson also spoke in the spirit of the Fourteen Points at the Paris Peace Conference in early 1919. During the conference, when representatives of England, France and Italy wanted to divide the German colonies, Wilson, after a long struggle, insisted on the transfer of these colonies to temporary, limited administration, under the instructions (mandate) of the League of Nations and under its control. None of the mandated territories became an American colony.

Intervention in Soviet Russia is one of the most vulnerable points in Wilson's foreign policy. There were lengthy debates on this issue between Woodrow Wilson and US Secretary of War N. Baker. American historian R. Ferrell writes that “Wilson rejected half a dozen proposals to participate in military intervention.” In July 1918, the president was under intense pressure from England and France after he rejected many of their demands. The Entente reproached America for failing to fulfill allied obligations. But, as Wilson said, “having taken one wrong step under pressure from the Entente, he is not going to take a second.” When the question of continuing the intervention in Russia arose during the Paris Peace Conference, Wilson and Lloyd George found themselves in opposition, they demanded its end and proposed to begin negotiations with the Soviets, while Churchill and Clemenceau advocated continued military intervention and the economic blockade.

Maintaining the role of impartiality as an arbitrator during peace negotiations was not easy. The Entente countries demanded that Germany pay huge indemnities and divide up the German colonies. France insisted on annexing the left bank of the Rhineland. Sharp conflicts constantly arose between the members of the Big Four (Clemenceau, Lloyd George, Wilson and Orlando). Wilson's policies seemed idealistic to the leaders of the Allied states. At the same time, from the minutes of the conference it follows that Wilson did not change his position and more than once celebrated victory over the allies.

The US President, confident that he was right and that he was acting “according to the will of God,” fought alone, clearly overestimated his capabilities and more than once found himself on the verge of a nervous breakdown in Paris. On February 14, 1919, he stated: “...By means of this instrument (the Charter of the League of Nations) we make ourselves dependent first and foremost on one great force, namely, on the moral force of world public opinion - on the purifying and clarifying , and the coercive influence of publicity... the forces of darkness must perish under the all-penetrating light of unanimous condemnation of them on a global scale.”

As a result, a peace treaty was signed, and the charter of the League of Nations - Wilson's favorite brainchild - was adopted. The functions of the President in Paris were exhausted. The goal of the US President was obvious - at minimal cost, to bring the largest economic power to the forefront in world politics. And he succeeded. Having entered the war a year and a half before its end, with a relatively small number of casualties, the United States extracted maximum economic and political benefits, turning from a debtor to Europe, which they were in 1914, into its creditor, at the same time becoming a truly great world power in all respects.

The position of the American president on many issues was diametrically opposed to the position of the US ruling circles. That is why Wilson became a triumphant in Europe, but did not receive recognition at home. By the time of his return, an anti-Wilson campaign was already underway in the country. Two powerful opposition groups appeared in the Senate, led by G. Lodge and R. LaFollette. The Senate refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles and insisted on introducing a number of amendments to the charter of the League of Nations.

However, the president was not going to give up. He went on a propaganda tour in support of the League of Nations. But his health could not stand it: in September 1919, in Pueblo (Colorado), Wilson suffered from paralysis. Nevertheless, the president continued to fight. He spoke on the radio, trying to convince Americans that in order to avert a new world war, the creation of the League of Nations was a necessity. Woodrow Wilson remained confident that he was right until the very last day of his life - February 3, 1924.

Life story

Thomas Woodrow Wilson, educator and 28th President of the United States, was born into a Scottish family in Staunton, Virginia. He was the third of four children and the eldest son of Presbyterian minister Joseph Ruggles Wilson and Janet Woodrow. Father Woodrow Wilson, a pious and learned man, devoted a lot of time to raising his son.

In 1875, Woodrow Wilson entered the College of New Jersey (later transformed into Princeton University), where he studied the theory of government. After graduating from college in 1879, he opened a legal practice, but soon took up academic work in history at Johns Hopkins University. In 1885, Woodrow Wilson married Ellen Louise Exxon, who bore him three daughters. After publishing his work “Government of Congress,” an analysis of American legislative practice, Woodrow Wilson received his Ph.D. in 1886.

Woodrow Wilson taught at Bayan Moor College and the University of Walesley, and in 1890 became professor of law and political economy at Princeton University. Woodrow Wilson gained fame thanks to his brilliant eloquence and inspired lectures, which were given as if impromptu. In 1902, the board of trustees unanimously elected him president of the university.

In this position, Woodrow Wilson demonstrated all the strengths and weaknesses that would later characterize his policies. He revised the curriculum, changed the reward system, and increased the level of training. Convinced of the need for individual learning, Woodrow Wilson introduced a system of small discussion groups. Deepening the reform, in 1907 Woodrow Wilson decided to separate students into colleges, but opposition forced him to abandon this plan. In 1910, after another conflict with the trustees, Woodrow Wilson resigned.

At the same time, Woodrow Wilson accepted an offer to run for governor of New Jersey from the Democratic Party. To the surprise of professional politicians, he won by perhaps the most impressive margin in state history. With his energetic assistance the legislature passed important reforms; laws were passed on primary elections, on corruption, on business debt, and on public utility enterprises. Woodrow Wilson's meteoric rise brought him national fame. At the 1912 Democratic National Convention he was nominated as a candidate for president; In the elections in November of the same year, Woodrow Wilson defeated the Republican candidate and became President of the United States.

Although a Southerner with many prejudices against people of color, Woodrow Wilson nevertheless took steps to gain their support in the election. Black leaders, including W. Du Bois, could not help but pay attention to Woodrow Wilson's statement against racial discrimination. Woodrow Wilson's call for "fair dealing" won the votes of many Northerners. It cannot be said that Woodrow Wilson betrayed the trust placed in him, since he promoted more people of color to leadership positions than either of his Republican predecessors, Theodore Roosevelt or William Taft, but even during World War I, Woodrow Wilson did nothing to abolish segregation in the troops.

Coming to power at the height of the Progressive movement, Woodrow Wilson adopted a program aimed at restoring free enterprise and eliminating special privileges. Under the influence of the president, Congress approved lower tariffs, a graduated income tax, adopted the Federal Reserve Act, and strengthened control over business through the Federal Trade Commission. Before the 1916 election, Woodrow Wilson passed several laws on loans to farmers, on inheritance, on railroads, and secured the allocation of funds for road construction. These progressive measures marked an increased role for the federal government in American life.

In the field of foreign policy, Woodrow Wilson took an anti-imperialist position. He tried to bring a spirit of fairness, respect and goodwill into US relations with other countries. “It is extremely dangerous to frame foreign policy in terms of material interests,” Woodrow Wilson said in 1913. At Woodrow Wilson’s proposal, Congress repealed the treaty clause that exempted the United States from paying duties on the Panama Canal, and Woodrow Wilson also promised that the United States would not use the doctrine Monroe for intervention in Latin America. Unfortunately, it was during his leadership that American troops were sent to Nicaragua, Santo Domingo, Haiti, and Mexico. A member of the American Peace Society since 1908, Woodrow Wilson hoped to make the United States a leading advocate for peace. He supported international arbitration, extended the treaties prepared by Elihu Root, and advocated arms reduction.

From the very beginning of the First World War, Woodrow Wilson proclaimed a policy of neutrality and repeatedly tried to bring the warring parties to the negotiating table. In 1916, Woodrow Wilson was re-elected president, and on January 22, 1917, he presented to Congress a plan for establishing peace through the creation of the League of Nations. Nine days later, Germany announced the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare. After German submarines torpedoed three American ships in March, Woodrow Wilson called a special session of Congress, where he recalled that the United States was “one of the chief defenders of the rights of mankind.” Declaring that “right is more valuable than peace,” Woodrow Wilson proposed declaring war, which was done on April 6, 1917.

Based on the fact that the United States entered the war to prepare the world for democracy, Woodrow Wilson saw a new world order based on reason and mutual cooperation. On January 8, 1918, he outlined a 14-point peace program. The first five points included open diplomacy, freedom of navigation, equality in international trade, arms reduction, and harmonization of colonial policies. The next eight points concerned the revision of borders on the basis of self-determination of peoples. The 14th point provided for the creation of a “General Association of Peoples, which would give mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to large and small states.”

In November 1918, Germany requested an armistice. In 1919, Woodrow Wilson and other representatives of the Allied countries met in Paris to hammer out a treaty. In February, the commission unanimously approved the League of Nations project. It became part of the Treaty of Versailles, signed in June. The newly created League of Nations proclaimed open diplomacy, registration of treaties, gradual reduction of armaments, declared a desire to prevent war through collective action, commitment to international arbitration; The headquarters of the League was located in Geneva (Switzerland). Woodrow Wilson spoke at the first meeting of the League Council on January 16, 1920.

After accepting the award, US Ambassador to Norway Albert G. Schmedeman read out a message from Woodrow Wilson, which said: “Humanity has not yet escaped the unspeakable horror of war... I think our generation has made a wonderful step forward. But it would be wiser to consider that the work has just begun. It will be a long job."

Despite Woodrow Wilson's best efforts, the Treaty of Versailles did not live up to hopes of post-war pacification. With ruinous reparations, forced admissions of guilt and unilateral disarmament, the treaty gave rise to a new wave of militarism that gradually led to a new world war in 1939.

Returning home in 1919, Woodrow Wilson began lobbying the Senate for ratification of the Treaty of Versailles and the country's entry into the League of Nations. “There is no question of us ceasing to be a world power,” explained Woodrow Wilson. “The question is whether we will refuse the moral leadership that is offered to us.” The Senate, dominated by Republicans, was divided between supporters of the League, moderates who demanded amendments, and irreconcilables. Deciding to appeal directly to the people, Woodrow Wilson went on a trip to the states. Speeches, interviews and travel exhausted his strength, and at the end of September 1919 he fell ill, and on October 2 he suffered a stroke. Seven weeks later, he had recovered enough to instruct Democrats to reject the treaty amendments. However, in November both versions of the treaty were defeated by the Senate.

In March 1920, public opinion forced senators to return to the issue of the Treaty of Versailles. Once again, Woodrow Wilson fell seven votes short of the two-thirds required for ratification. At the end of the year, re-elections to Congress finally buried the idea; it was revived only after the Second World War in the form of the United Nations.

Woodrow Wilson's health was undermined, and in 1920 he left his post. The former president settled in Washington, D.C., with his second wife, Edith Bolling Gault, whom he married on December 18, 1915, six months after his first wife's death. Having been defeated on the League issue, Woodrow Wilson was still confident that the future would prove him right. “Ideals rule the world,” he told his friend, “only fools think differently.” In a 1923 Armistice Day radio broadcast, Woodrow Wilson called on Americans to “abandon selfish motives and return to the highest ideals and aims of foreign policy.” Three months later, Woodrow Wilson died in his sleep. A sword is carved on his grave, the handle of which is shaped like a cross.

Woodrow Wilson's policies have been the subject of lengthy debate. Internationalists and pacifists rejected the Treaty of Versailles due to the departure from the principles of Woodrow Wilson, on the other hand, Germany suffered from overly harsh peace conditions. Isolationists and moderates accused Woodrow Wilson of allegedly ignoring his advisers in Paris, conducting secret negotiations, and not taking into account the interests of sovereignty, including the idea of ​​the League of Nations in the treaty.

Historians attribute the failure of the League project in the Senate to the intolerance, dogmatism, complacency of Woodrow Wilson, the bitter dispute with Henry Lodge, the inertia and inability of the Senate to be imbued with the international ideals of Woodrow Wilson

We should not forget about the achievements of Woodrow Wilson. He had a clear understanding of the role of the president and skillfully used his rights. Woodrow Wilson entered office with a deep knowledge of government and ensured the passage of reform laws. Remaining a defender of disadvantaged Americans until the end, Woodrow Wilson tried to help the poor abroad. The all-conquering eloquence of Woodrow Wilson created a vision of universal peace and brotherhood among Western Europeans. For Europeans, Woodrow Wilson became a symbol of the human desire for improvement and for a world free of war, injustice and hatred. Although the United States rejected the moral leadership offered by Woodrow Wilson, his enduring legacy is the establishment of the first world organization dedicated to preserving peace.

Crusade for Democracy

In the post-Lincoln gallery of American presidents, Woodrow Wilson rises as an outlier. If they, as a rule, came from among professional politicians, lawyers or leading groups in economics, then Wilson initially belonged to the university-academic stratum of his country. In addition, unlike most presidents of that era, he was from the southern states. His childhood memories included the Civil War. He was born December 28, 1856, the son of Presbyterian pastor and teacher Joseph R. Wilson and his wife Janet in Stockton, Virginia, and was in no way destined for the profession of politics. He, of course, inherited his father’s talent as an orator and organizer. But in his parents' home he was brought up in a strict Calvinist faith, and at first everything indicated that he would follow his father's profession. It turned out differently: as a freshman and a popular student representative at Princeton University, he became more and more interested in a political career. His ideal was the English Christian liberal statesman William Gladstone. Only decades later did he achieve this goal.

By studying legal sciences, he seemed to be heading straight towards his goal. But legal sciences did not satisfy him. A few months of work as a lawyer in Atlanta, Georgia was enough for him. Meanwhile, what attracted him more was political and journalistic writing. Here he more and more discovered his real talent. He wanted to use it to influence the public. To improve his qualifications, in 1883, as a graduate, he enrolled in a course in political science at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, which even then belonged to the leading American universities. He defended his degree with a book that immediately made him famous outside the university world: Congressional Government (1885). It was a convincing critique of the ineffective, ultimately undemocratic, way of working for American popular representation. I became more and more involved in the comparative study of constitutions and for this I learned to read German. After a series of small works, the main fruit of his study appeared in 1899, the work “The State,” a comparative doctrine of government.

Meanwhile, he made an academic and journalistic name for himself. In 1890, Princeton University invited him to the law department. What he did teach with increasing success was more in the realm of political science. But even beyond the walls of the university his popularity grew. Increasingly, he expressed his views on current political topics in polished, broad-reaching essays. In 1902, Princeton University appointed him as its president. It seemed that at the age of 46 he had reached the pinnacle of his life - he was highly respected at the university and outside the university, was economically secure, lived in a happy marriage with his wife Helen, née Exxon, with whom he had three daughters.

The experience gained as president of the university in a unique way predetermined Wilson's future career as a politician.

Progress in fundamental reforms of academic teaching was countered by a total collapse at the end of his presidency. In his missionary zeal for reform, he made enemies of some of Princeton's academic luminaries (such as the classical philologist Andrew F. West). Completely at odds with his university and with poor health, he gave up and resigned in 1910. But he had almost no time for disappointment and grief. University conflicts took place in front of the entire public and made him known throughout the country as a politician of higher education. Already in 1906, his name appeared in the conservative wing of the Democratic Party as a possible candidate for the presidency. Wilson offered himself to the Democratic party leaders, who raised him to the shield as a descendant of one of the families of the southern states and as a publicist who thought conservatively in economic matters. A year after the break in Princeton in November 1910, he was elected governor of New Jersey. During the election campaign, and even more so while in office, he disappointed his conservative political donors. For the first time, a reproach of disloyalty was heard behind his back, since he, in order to improve his chances in the elections, openly switched to the camp of progressivism. This reformist movement, which gained more and more supporters in both major parties, agitated for the democratization of political practice, for social and state measures, environmental protection and for economic reforms that would stop the formation of such concentrations of power as cartels and monopolies, and more did not submit to the free development of the market. In the spirit of his program, Wilson introduced primaries in New Jersey to elect candidates within the party and a series of social laws (for example, workers' accident insurance). Because of all this, he became known beyond one region. During the second phase of his tenure as governor, his legislative affairs became thoroughly confused, but this in no way diminished his authority. In 1912, he was elected as the Democratic presidential candidate against William Bryan, an eloquent populist voice primarily for the agrarian reform interests of the American West. By the time of his nomination, the presidential chances for him and the Democratic Party could not have been better, as the rival Republican party was mired in controversy and disagreement. A new progressive party entered the election race with Republican ex-President Theodore Roosevelt as its candidate. Republican voters are split. Wilson entered the election campaign with his party's traditional call for free trade and a progressive economic reform program that emphasized the self-regulating forces of the economy rather than government control, as demanded by his opponent Roosevelt. He won the election on November 3, 1912, with a clear, although relative, majority.

On March 4, 1913, accompanied by the expectations of American supporters of reform, he entered the White House. It would be “ironic,” he said, if he, who was completely focused on domestic policy interests, had to deal a lot with foreign policy in the future.

This time Wilson did not disappoint his supporters. The system of reforms that he carried through Congress with great skill under the slogan “New Freedom” within one year of his election was realized: American tariffs were lowered, banking and the monetary circulation system were radically modernized and subordinated (which had not happened before!) central government (Federal Reserve Board); Finally, in the interests of preventing distortions of competition, federal-state control over industrial concerns was transformed and strengthened through the creation of a federal trade commission. However, to ensure the passage of this law by Congress, Wilson was forced to pay a price to conservative Democrats. Among other things, this included, which was not difficult for representatives of the southern states, the temporary restoration of apartheid provisions in some Washington federal bodies.

Sooner than expected, the progressive democratic principles of his "New Freedom" were questioned from outside. Without recognizing himself as truly a foreign policymaker, Wilson cherished the idea that democracy also promoted peaceful progressive development outside the United States. He distanced himself from the imperialist-motivated "dollar diplomacy" of his predecessor Taft and canceled, for example, American participation in the international consortium to develop China. But the integrity of his outward hopes for democratization was truly tested only in the neighboring country of Mexico. Here he established a didactic position that is still in force today on the problem of the humane-democratically inspired policy of intervention of a developed country in relation to a “third world” country. In Mexico, at the beginning of 1913, as a result of a coup, the general of Indian origin, Victornano Huerta, came to power. Should he be recognized diplomatically? The European powers, primarily England and Germany, demanded this as did American oil interests. Wilson objected. He wanted to recognize only a democratically legitimate Mexican government and provided military assistance to Huerta's internal opponents under the leadership of the reform-oriented politician Venusgiano Carranza. The United States itself was drawn into the war that thus became inevitable in April 1914. Wilson received a double experience: even a progressively understood intervention in another country exposes its initiator to reproaches for interference; such an intervention is quite easy to start, but it is infinitely difficult to finish. It was not until late 1916 that the last parts of the United States left northern Mexico. But Wilson achieved his goal: Huerga was overthrown, Carranza took the helm, elections and the constitutional development of Mexico were ensured.

Meanwhile, a war began in Europe, which required broader action from Wilson as a foreign policymaker. The first months of the war passed for him in the shadow of a personal family crisis. At the beginning of 1914, his deeply revered wife died. However, he could not, even if he wanted to, ignore the effects of the world war on his country. Like all the great European wars before it, this one urgently required American neutrality. Despite his personal attachments to Great Britain and its spiritual life - his ancestors were from Scotland, he himself traveled to England many times - Wilson tried to maintain an honest and dispassionate neutrality. Given the minority population in the United States, he had no other choice. Despite this, American relations with the German Empire quickly deteriorated in early 1915. The reason for this was the so-called unrestricted U-boat war, that is, the decision of the German naval military leadership to sink without warning all merchant ships, neutral or not, within the military zone it declared around England. Incidents with American ships and human losses were thus already programmed. The disaster occurred on May 7, 1915. A German submarine torpedoed the British passenger ship Lusitania in a military zone in front of Ireland. Most of the passengers - more than 1,000 men, women and children - drowned, including 124 Americans. In the United States, such terrorism at sea caused a wave of indignation. For the first time, we talked about the war with Germany. Wilson insisted on the German government to conduct submarine warfare according to the rules of cruising warfare, that is, to spare the lives of neutrals. After further incidents, finally the torpedoing of the French steamer Sussex, on April 18, 1916, he backed up his demand with an ultimatum. His tough stance towards Germany had already led to a rift between him and his pacifist Foreign Secretary, Brian, as early as 1915. His successor was Robert Lansing, a long-time British-sympathetic legal expert in the American Foreign Office.

Subsequently, critics argued that it was Wilson who chose the course of collision with Germany taking into account the interests of weapons. There is no evidence for this. But Wilson persistently, even harshly defended existing international law and the prestige of the United States as a great power. Economic motives were taken into account only when, at the end of 1914, the emerging conditions of the American economy largely depended on the flow of goods from the United States to the European Western powers. Wilson understood this. If he wanted to prevent the country from falling into the stagnation it experienced before the war, he could not allow the German war under water to choke off these exports.

The German-American conflict, which the Western powers had so hoped for, did not take place because Germany, back in April 1916, with the so-called “Sussex Pledge”, finally submitted to the American demand and stopped unrestricted submarine warfare. After this, the British blockade practice towards the United States led to tension in British-American relations. Wilson learned how fragile American neutrality was. Through his trusted adviser Colonel Edward House, he repeatedly tried to mediate between the warring parties - in vain. For the upcoming presidential election in November 1916, Wilson announced his candidacy with the slogan “Don't keep us out of the war.” To these tactics he owed, at least in part, his narrow victory over the newly rallying Republican candidate, Charles E. Hughes.

In reaffirming his presidency, Wilson saw an obligation to intensify his efforts to promote peace. To make his allies more amenable to peace, he was not even afraid to apply financial pressure. On December 18, 1916, Wilson publicly offered American mediation to the belligerents, but was met with refusal on both sides. Unwaveringly he continued his secret soundings and his public campaign for a "peace without victory." The German government initially gave the appearance of some willingness to meet halfway, but then destroyed all hopes of peace and completely undermined its credibility when, on January 31, 1917, it announced that in the following days it would again return to unrestricted submarine warfare. If Wilson did not want to lose face, then after his ultimatum of April 18, 1916, he could do nothing more than break off diplomatic relations with Berlin. After the sinking of the first American ships by German submarines, the American government declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, with almost unanimous approval from Congress. Wilson could count on the loyalty of his compatriots, especially since the inhabitants of the American West already felt threatened. In January 1917, the German government offered Mexico an alliance with the so-called Zimmermann Note and promised to return to it the areas from Texas to Arizona that had been ceded to the United States in the 19th century. The British Secret Service intercepted this note and provided it to Wilson. He published it on March 1, 1917 and caused a sensation.

Wilson was deeply aware of the gravity of the step that the United States took by declaring war on Germany. He predicted an outbreak of war hysteria and cruelty also in his own country - the end would be peace on enslaving terms. However, he saw no other way out after the German government provoked the United States as a world power and defender of international law. Now a concession, he believed, would damage the authority of the United States as a global mediator. Now the United States, due to its contribution to the victory over the countries of Central Europe, had to create the preconditions for a progressive world in the American sense. The question was what such a world should look like. Wilson was aware of the fact that his new European partners were in no way pursuing the "progressive" or overtly imperialist military goals that they had stipulated in numerous secret agreements. In order not to involve the United States in such interests, Wilson called his country only “part of the association” (not an “alliance”) of the Entente. Such a diplomatic distinction was all the more necessary because the Bolsheviks came to power in Russia in the fall of 1917 and hastily published the secret treaties of the allies in order to discredit the Western powers as imperialist conquerors in the eyes of their own population. . When, at the end of 1917, precisely as a militaristic Germany entered into peace negotiations with Russia, there was an acute danger of a severe crisis of confidence within the Allied countries, especially in the sphere of the political left, a crisis that threatened to harm the will of the entire population of the Entente countries to hold out to the end and thus most call the victory of the Western powers into question. To counteract this, at the same time to commit the European "unionists" to a specifically progressive American program of war goals, to, moreover, push Russia to return to the Western alliance and to mobilize left factions among the enemies against their governments, on January 8, 1918, Wilson proclaimed his the famous “Fourteen Points” are the leading line in the struggle for a progressive world. The future world, as the President declared before the solemnly assembled Congress, must rest on the principles of open diplomacy, global free trade, general disarmament and drawing borders according to the map of nationalities. The peoples of the Habsburg Monarchy should enjoy broad autonomy, and the new Russia should be given all the advantages of such a progressive world. In paragraph 14, Wilson named the creation of a union of peoples as the most important guarantee of peace. As for Germany, it must compensate for the injustice done to France by the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, restore the sovereignty of Belgium and repair the damage, and finally give Poland free access to the sea. Wilson added that he would talk about such a peace only with the German government, which relies on the majority (center and left) in the Reichstag, and not with the German imperialist “war party.”

First of all, it was necessary to defeat the German military power. To achieve this, Wilson mobilized the entire American economy. Key industries were placed under state control during the war. The money needed to finance the war was obtained through war loans, as well as taxes, which were imposed primarily on the high-income segments of the population. The vast majority of Americans supported their government with unconditional enthusiasm. Potential critics, primarily among the German minority or among American socialists and pacifists, were intimidated or silenced through postal censorship. Since the beginning of 1918, an ever-increasing flow of American soldiers rushed to Europe - in the fall there were 1.2 million of them. In order for the European Western powers to hold out, the moral, material and military contribution of the United States to the joint prosecution of the war was necessary. This was finally decisive in the offensive on the Western Front, which the Western powers switched to in July 1918 in France.

On October 3, 1918, it was all over: in the face of looming defeat, Germany asked for a cessation of hostilities and peace based on Wilson's Fourteen Points. The global political influence of the American president has reached its highest point. The decision about war and peace fell to his lot. Germany gave him the opportunity to formally commit also the European Western powers to his peace program. The readiness for this was the higher, the less the military defeat of Germany seemed established in reality in the eyes of the Western European allies. That is why Wilson exchanged notes with Germany. However, as a prerequisite for an armistice (and thus avoiding capitulation) and for "Wilson's Peace", he demanded that the German people abandon their old military system. What exactly was meant by this remains an open question. After difficult negotiations, he, through his emissary Colonel House, obtained from the European allies in Paris that they accede to Germany's request - and thus simultaneously, although with certain reservations, accepted his peace program. On November 11, 1918, a truce was concluded in Compiegne. After more than four years of war, which gradually grew into a world war, the guns fell silent.

Wilson saw the fact that peace had been achieved in the spirit of his “Fourteen Points” as a decisive test of his abilities as a statesman and at the same time the fulfillment of a world-historical mission. Therefore, he insisted that this peace be concluded even with his European partners. The enthusiasm with which he was greeted by the population of London, Paris and Rome awakened his wildest hopes. In fact, he and his advisers had prepared thoroughly for the substantive issues ahead—the idea of ​​Americans being clueless about European affairs at the 1919 peace conference is the stuff of legend. What Wilson underestimated was the real difficulties of making peace and the lack of willingness to compromise - which meant: the lack of respect for his Fourteen Points on the part of Europeans when it came to their national interests.

So the Paris peace negotiations of the victors (January - May 1919) became a nerve-wracking test of patience for Wilson. One of the negotiating partners repeatedly threatened to withdraw: successively France, Japan, Italy and, finally, Great Britain. Each attempt at a solution excluded the problem of Russia, where the civil war was raging between the Bolsheviks and the “White Guards” and the Allied (also American) troops kept strategically important zones occupied, especially the ports - in general, of course, a limited intervention, which, however, in political and military aspects was meaningless after the armistice and which did not prevent the Bolsheviks from establishing themselves politically in Central Europe in the spring of 1919 (among others in Hungary). Wilson himself took to heart, first of all, the development of a charter for a union of peoples (in the Scottish-Biblical tradition, he spoke of the Covenant). This was achieved already in the first weeks of the conference. The ingenious arbitration system was supposed to avoid the outbreak of military conflicts: if this failed, then sanctions were provided distributed by category. Treaties or provisions no longer meeting the requirements of the time, the observance of which threatened the peace, had to be examined for possible modification. The Charter of the League of Nations, as Wilson understood it, was supposed to establish the Treaty of Versailles on all counts, not for all time. Germany was initially denied membership in the League of Nations. It lost its colonies, which were mandated by the League of Nations.

For some of the most important controversial issues, more or less unstable compromises were found, as for example for the Rhineland, which politically remained part of Germany, while being occupied for a long time by the Western powers and demilitarized. The League of Nations was ultimately and differently responsible for the Saarland and Danzig. Other questions remained more or less open, such as the Italian-Yugoslav border (Fiume) or the amount of reparations that should be imposed on Germany as one of the powers responsible for starting the war. The new German government was forced under massive pressure to sign the Treaty of Versailles. This happened on June 28, 1919. Wilson was convinced that the treaty was in the spirit of the Fourteen Points, which he had strongly advocated in secret conferences with his allies. However, this was not the complete truth, as some contemporaries also among the victorious powers, and later the famous national economist John Maynard Keynes, understood. First of all, it was completely impossible to make Germany and the new Russia loyal bearers of the new world order.

With the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, Wilson faced another critical task: according to the American Constitution, the treaty must be approved in the US Senate by a two-thirds majority before it can be ratified by the United States. Specifically for Wilson, this meant that he had to win over part of the Senate faction of the Republican Party for his system of peace. This was all the more difficult because the Republicans emerged victorious from the November 1918 midterm elections. Since the Republicans, for their part, were not united in their position on the treaty, Wilson's chances of winning the vote were not so bad. Republican criticism concerned not at all those parts of the treaty that related to Germany, but to a large extent the Charter of the League of Nations, which was a single integral part of the entire treaty, here outweighed the concern that the United States, as a member of the League of Nations, would be obliged to comply with the Versailles Peace Treaty for the foreseeable future order and that they can simultaneously be automatically involved in all conceivable military conflicts on Earth. This criticism is clearly exaggerated, since the main and primarily disputed Article 10 of the League of Nations Charter was only advisory in nature, but concerned the main question of whether the United States as a world power was ready, and to what extent, to allow a world organization to curtail its own sovereign power in any way. freedom of decision, i.e., one’s ability to declare war. The criticism leveled at the League of Nations was fundamentally nationalist, but provided additional fodder for Wilson's disillusioned leftist factions, who completely rejected the Versailles treaty system as "imperialist." From the point of view of Wilson's opponents, these debates were the most important because they concerned the constitutional and legal competence of Congress, and above all the power to declare war. It was feared that the guarantees of the League of Nations charter would confer upon the president the decision on questions of war and would contribute to an immeasurable expansion of his powers - a suspicion especially appropriate in relation to Wilson, to whom his opponents in the war constantly attributed dictatorial attacks. Finally, the Republican opposition received a boost thanks to the desire of many Americans, who were tired of the “great times,” to return to normal life. Inflationary trends in the American post-war economy, the resulting social conflicts, the political opposition of the radical left, and not least Wilson's own secrecy during the world conference and his intractability did not make the president's position easier. His inclination to accede to the republican desires to change Article 10 of the Charter of the League of Nations was not in the least increased by these criticisms and these difficulties.

In this uncertain situation, he decided to make a long trip around the country in order to personally convey his aspirations to the American people and thus put pressure on the Senate. For tactics aimed at excluding critical senators, the American Constitution did not offer any means, since each senator was practically invulnerable during his six-year mandate. Wilson's doctors also warned him against the stress on his health associated with his intention. They knew that the peace conference had already undermined the resistance of the president’s body. However, Wilson insisted on his own, despite these doubts. Like the biblical prophet, he was deeply imbued with his destiny to promote the success of a good work for the future of the whole world. With stirring eloquence he campaigned in the great cities of the Middle and Far West for his system of peace. If the United States remained aloof from it, the next world war would soon break out, he predicted. However, all of his speeches ultimately failed to achieve success and impact: while delivering a speech in Pueblo, Colorado, he suddenly began to experience severe headaches and nausea. Although he was immediately taken back to Washington, there he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on October 2, 1919. which left the left side paralyzed. He recovered slowly and incompletely. Thus, the supervision of government affairs fell into the hands of his wife. Wilson married in 1915 the widow Edith Bolling Gault, an attractive representative of the Washington business world, who, without thinking about politics, had only one desire - to protect her husband from all the unrest that put his health at risk. Based on this humanly understandable interest, she decided what could be said to the patient and what could not be said.

No other situation could have been more fatal to the defense of the Treaty of Versailles in the United States than this. Since Wilson's actual illness was kept secret, wild rumors about his mental state circulated, which discredited him and his cause.

The conflict in the Senate reached its climax in November 1919. Wilson refused to make any concession to his political opponents, led by Republican Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, which, in his understanding, contradicted the main goals of the League of Nations charter. Attempts to reach an agreement between Democratic senators supporting Wilson and moderate Republicans willing to make concessions failed due to the stubbornness of the ailing president. “It must not be forgotten,” he wrote on March 8, 1920, “that this article (10 of the League of Nations Charter) represents a renunciation of the misleading ambition of the strong nations with whom we were allies in the war... As for me, I am as intolerant of the imperialist intentions of other nations as I am intolerant of the same intentions of Germany." In two votes - on November 19, 1919 and March 19, 1920 - the Senate rejected the Versailles Treaty as presented. The United States refused to be the guarantor of the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations. The Anglo-American guarantee agreed in Paris to maintain the demilitarized status of the Rhineland also turned out to be invalid. However, Wilson’s contribution to the content of the treaty was not in vain, since after ratification by other counterparties, it entered into force in an unchanged form without the United States.

Nevertheless, Wilson viewed the Senate decision as a bitter personal defeat. Although half paralyzed, he did not want to accept this end to his political career. Secretly he thought about running for president again. Realizing how far he was moving from reality, serious politicians of his party did not even take this desire into account. Wilson now hoped for an overwhelming victory for his party in the next elections, in which he saw a “great and solemn referendum” on the charter of the League of Nations. But these hopes were dashed, and thoroughly. The Democrats suffered the worst defeat in their history in the November 1920 presidential election. The American people have already turned their backs on their prophet. Wilson's political career had a tragic end, not entirely undeservedly for him. The ex-president has several years left, marred by chronic illness and growing loneliness. He died on February 3, 1924. He found his final rest in the neo-Gothic National Cathedral in Washington.

Regardless of his final downfall, Wilson is one of the great American presidents who gave a new turn to the development of the United States. Starting with him and thanks to him, the United States became a nation that turned to Europe, interested in the fate of the non-American world as a whole. This was true even after leaving office, when his successors were still unclear about the extent of America's role as a world power in Europe from a security policy perspective. But nine years after his death, the new American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, after initial hesitation, joined his legacy. The idea of ​​an internationally organized world experienced a triumphant awakening during the Second World War, also in the United States, and found its expression in the Charter of the United Nations. The European Allies owe their victory in the First World War, or at least the scale of that victory. The United States, led and inspired by Wilson. Even here, he showed himself to be a morally impeccable, incorruptible and materially disinterested reformer, imbued with deep and strict religiosity, perhaps not always personally accessible to outsiders, not always completely frank, nevertheless a clear mind, a captivating speaker, an outstanding organizer, and last but not least turn a passionate, sometimes unyielding fighter for what he considered a good cause. Despite his apparent downfall, his political successes moved the United States significantly forward toward greater modernity and greater openness to the world.

Comparative Lives: Bush and Wilson

The United States first added the idea of ​​spreading democracy to its foreign policy concept after the end of the First World War. The author of this idea was President Woodrow Wilson (Nobel Peace Prize winner), who led the United States in 1913-1921. Since then, this ideology and the methods of its application have gone through many metamorphoses. Some of Wilson's postulates can be traced in the foreign policy of George Bush.

Wilson was considered one of the most brilliant minds in the United States - he came to politics from science (history and political science), for a long time he headed Princeton University. In modern historical studies, Wilson is also called a "political evangelist" (he was the son of a Presbyterian preacher) and a "holy simplicity" because his contemporaries often had the impression that Wilson tended to appeal to God and to the highest moral ideals of mankind (data from Robert Saunders\Robert Saunders, author of the book In Search of Woodrow Wilson: Beliefs and Behavior. George W. Bush seems to hold similar views (for example, a similar conclusion is made by historian and political scientist Robert McElwain\Robert S . McElvaine), who also has strong religious beliefs, which he tries to put into practice. Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said that George Bush applies his religious principles in practice - when designing US foreign policy.

Historian Margaret MacMillan, author of Paris 1919. Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World, which describes the vicissitudes of the Versailles Peace Conference, describes Wilson declaring that freedom and democracy are “American principles.” Among other things, he stated, that “these are the principles and policies of all leading men and women, of every modern nation and of every enlightened society. These are the principles of all mankind, and they will prevail." Wilson's other aphorisms about democracy include the following: "Democracy is not a form of government, but a set of principles," "Monarchy does not become democracy if a peasant can become a king."

It is significant that the US National Security Strategy (published in 2002) literally repeats Wilson’s thought: “The values ​​of freedom are important for any person living in any society,” and in the speeches of President George W. Bush similar sounding phrases and formulations are found constantly. For example, in his traditional speech after the inauguration ceremony (in 2005, when Bush's second presidential term began), he used the word "freedom" 62 times and the words "democracy" and "democracies" 21 times. Then Bush, in particular, stated: “It is the policy of the United States to support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every country and culture with the ultimate goal of eliminating tyranny in our world.”

Historian David M. Kennedy, a professor at Stanford University, notes in an article published by the Atlantic that Wilson believed that World War I demonstrated the destructive capabilities of modern industrialized nations. The development of democracy can make the authorities truly accountable to the people of their countries, which will help avoid armed conflicts in the future. George Bush holds similar views. His speeches constantly state that only democracies can make the world a safe place, since democracies do not fight each other, they guarantee their citizens a higher standard of living and best ensure respect for their rights and freedoms.

David C. Whitney, author of The American Presidents: Biographies of the Chief Executives from George Washington to George W. Bush, points out that Wilson was of the opinion that the United States was the “chosen people” capable of saving the world from self-destruction, since it was in the USA that a republic was created and is successfully functioning - unlike European monarchies (before Wilson, all US presidents thought in a more traditional way, believing that the country they ruled should be a powerful state capable of standing up for itself). Wilson argued that the United States "must do justice and defend the rights of mankind." Bush considers the United States the leader of world democracy, its defender and guarantor.

Wilson, like Bush, used military force. During his reign, the United States carried out military interventions in Mexico, Haiti, Cuba and Panama. At the same time, in Nicaragua and Haiti, American troops were used to ensure that the “correct” (that is, chosen by Wilson) presidents of these countries came to power. Wilson also sent troops to Russia, which was engulfed in civil war. Initially, American troops appeared in Arkhangelsk and Murmansk to prevent them from falling into German hands. Subsequently, they were there to protect civilians. At the same time, in his famous “14 points” plan, Wilson indicated that the people of Russia should choose for themselves the power they consider necessary.

Wilson's contemporaries were very skeptical of the preacher of freedom and democracy. British Prime Minister David Lloyd George respected the sincerity and progressive views of the US President, but considered him a stubborn and rather limited person. French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau later claimed that talking to Wilson was like talking to Jesus Christ (Clemenceau did not use this image as a compliment). At the Versailles Conference, Wilson proposed his 14-point peace plan, which contained many of the principles now used in international relations. For example, Wilson (like Bush) advocated the development of international trade, ending the arms race (here his views differ from Bush), the creation of international organizations that should maintain peace, etc. However, after reading this document, Clemenceau pathetically exclaimed: “ There are 14 points here, and the Lord Almighty only got by with ten!” It is significant that the US Senate refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles, which was largely based on Wilson’s ideas, and the United States never joined the League of Nations.

Bush's contemporaries don't like him either. Bush initially became a favorite target of cartoonists and satirists. His ratings in the United States after September 11, 2001 were extremely high, but subsequently the Americans began to refuse to support Bush. It is premature to talk about how George Bush will go down in history. However, in 2005, George Mason University surveyed 415 American historians - 338 of them called the Bush presidency a “failure”, 77 - “successful”. 12% of historians called the Bush presidency the worst in US history (for reference, Ronald Reagan was recognized as the worst of the worst in the sphere of domestic policy, Bill Clinton - the most dishonest, and Woodrow Wilson - the worst of the worst in the sphere of influence religion on state affairs).

However, there are important differences between Bush and Wilson. They led completely different states and acted in completely different conditions. Under Wilson, the United States only began to enter the international arena, largely remaining on the margins of big world politics. Bush rules the world's only superpower. Over the century, the system and ideology of international relations have changed dramatically: in particular, colonial empires are a thing of the past, wars have become a rarity, international non-governmental organizations, the media and transnational corporations have acquired enormous influence.

The name of Wilson is associated with the entry of the United States into the First World War. Thomas Knock, author of To End All Wars: Woodrow Wilson and the Quest for a New World Order, notes that Wilson was elected president of the United States on a promise to keep the country out of the “European conflict.” ". However, he subsequently changed his views - this required him to make painful decisions. On April 2, 1917, he addressed the US Congress with an appeal calling for a declaration of war on Germany, Austria-Hungary and their allies because “the world must be made safe for the development of democracy” - this phrase was met with thunderous applause from congressmen and senators. That evening, Wilson told his aides literally the following: “Think about what they applauded. I spoke today about the death of our young people.” Dozens of books have been published in recent years about George W. Bush and his administration. None of them emphasizes that the current owner of the White House was overwhelmed by doubts of this kind.

Wilson sought to strengthen peace and democracy through the creation of international organizations - it was on his initiative that the League of Nations was created, which became the forerunner of the UN. While creating the League of Nations, Wilson faced fierce opposition from the US Senate. George Bush and his administration prefer to act independently, believing that the UN and similar structures are too slow, ineffective and often unable to respond to the realities of our time.

Wilson's ideas, unlike Bush's, cannot be considered universal. Wilson expressed views that, from a modern perspective, could be considered racist. In the US government, he de facto pursued a policy of racial segregation. Wilson advocated for the self-determination of peoples, but did not always include peoples with black and yellow skin among them (data from the book Woodrow Wilson: World Statesman by Kendrick Clements). George Bush believes that democracy should and can work everywhere in the world.

Wilson insisted on leniency towards the powers defeated during the World War, advocated for the self-determination of peoples (the result of this was the formation of new states on the ruins of the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman and Russian empires), etc. In fact, his ideas conflicted with the interests of the then existing colonial empires and, in fact, became the basis for the future process of decolonization. George Bush holds similar views, however, in his case, the principle of national self-determination periodically comes into conflict with the principle of the inviolability of state borders. Wilson's ideas about the need for self-determination of peoples collided with harsh reality. Eastern Europe and, especially, the Balkans and the Middle East - it was the future of these regions that he discussed at Versailles - were and remain an “ethnic mosaic” - the indisputable rights of one or another people to one or another territory were incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to prove. However, in an effort to achieve lasting peace, the victorious states re-drew the map of the world, which within two decades led to the outbreak of the Second World War.

Woodrow (Thomas) Wilson, US President

(1856–1924)

The first US president, under whom America began to exert a decisive influence on the course of events in Europe, Woodrow (Thomas) Wilson, was born on December 28, 1856 in the town of Stanton (Virginia), in the family of a very wealthy pastor, Joseph Ruggles Wilson, where he was the third child. Due to poor health, Thomas was forced to receive his primary education at home. Only at the age of 13 he entered the Dery School in Augusta (Georgia). Two years later, the family moved to Columbus (South Carolina), where he graduated from a local private school. Thomas was not a very diligent student, preferring to play baseball instead of studying. At the end of 1873, Wilson entered Davidson College in North Carolina, where ministers of the Presbyterian Church were trained, but in the summer of 1874 he left classes due to illness. In 1875, Wilson entered Princeton College, where he specialized in government and paid special attention to the biographies of great British politicians: Disraeli, William Pitt the Younger, Palmerston, etc. His article on the US government was awarded a Princeton medal.

In 1879, Wilson entered law school at the University of Virginia, but the following year he became ill and returned to Wilmington, North Carolina, where his father had a wealthy parish. Here he independently studied the history, law and politics of England and the USA for three years. While still studying at the University of Virginia, Wilson fell in love with his cousin Henrietta Wood, but she refused to marry him because she was too closely related. In memory of his beloved, Wilson adopted the new name Woodrow in 1882. That same year, in Atlanta, he successfully passed the exam at the local university to practice law. Together with a friend from the University of Virginia, Edward Resnik, they opened the law office of Resnik and Wilson, but very quickly went bankrupt.

In 1883, Wilson entered graduate school at Johns Hopkins University. In 1885, his voluminous monograph, The Government of Congress: A Study of American Politics, was published. There he, in particular, argued: “The decline in the reputation of presidents is not a reason, but only an inevitable evidence of the decline of the presidential office. This high office fell into decline as the power associated with it faded. And it faded because the power of the Congress began to predominate.” For this work, Wilson was awarded a special prize from Johns Hopkins University. That same year he married Elden Exxon, a beautiful and intelligent girl. In 1899, Wilson's main work, The State, was published, which provided a comparative analysis of systems of government in different countries.

After receiving his doctorate, Wilson went to teach history. He changed several educational institutions until he settled at Princeton College as a teacher of political science. Here Wilson made a successful career and in 1902 became rector of Princeton University. He tried to undertake a number of reforms at the university, but they were blocked by the reactionary professors. In 1910, Wilson cast his political lot with the Democratic Party and became governor of New Jersey. In this state he passed a number of laws on social insurance for workers and thereby gained all-American fame.

In 1912, Wilson won the presidential election under the slogans of “new democracy” and “new freedom.” As president, during his first three years he achieved the passage of a number of laws ensuring freedom of competition and individual liberty and security. In 1913–1914, Wilson implemented tariff and banking reforms and passed antitrust legislation. He said that from now on the president should not be occupied almost exclusively with internal affairs, as had previously been the case in American history. Wilson sincerely believed that "if the world really wants peace, it must follow America's moral precepts."

Wilson tried to create a league of countries of the Western Hemisphere, whose members would undertake to resolve all disputes peacefully, would mutually guarantee each other territorial integrity, non-interference in internal affairs and a republican form of government. In December 1914, a draft agreement was sent to all Latin American governments. The idea of ​​a Pan-American non-aggression pact was supported by the majority of states. However, due to opposition from Chile, which did not want to return the territory recently seized from Peru, the treaty was never concluded.

Wilson proclaimed the principle of democracy in politics and a free market in economics. At the same time, he undertook military interventions in Central American countries five times to protect the lives and property of American citizens, twice in Mexico, where there was a civil war.

At the beginning of 1914, the president's beloved wife died. This was a real tragedy for Wilson.

With the outbreak of World War I, the United States declared neutrality. Wilson said that the United States should be neutral not only in words but also in deeds, remaining “impartial in thought and action” and avoiding steps that could be seen as supporting one side in the fight against the other.

By the summer of 1915, Wilson was firmly established with his idea that it was necessary to create an international organization that would establish the rules of international life and take care of preserving peace. In this organization, he assigned the role of arbitrator to the United States in resolving international disputes. On May 27, 1916, speaking to members of the Peace Enforcement League in New York, the president spoke about America's new role in the world: “The United States is not an outside observer. We are concerned about what the end of the war and the prospects for the post-war world will be like. The interests of all nations are our own interests." He proclaimed the basic principles that America would defend in international affairs: the right of any people to freely choose their own government; equality of rights of large and small states; respect for the rights of all peoples. Wilson promised that the United States would join any organization whose goal was to maintain peace and promote the principles he proclaimed.

The president conducted the 1916 election campaign under the slogan “He kept us out of war.” Wilson played the role of an impartial arbiter, to whom both warring coalitions would sooner or later be forced to turn. However, during the war the United States could only maintain trade relations with the Entente countries, since nothing could be transported to blockaded Germany.

On December 12, 1916, Germany made a proposal to begin peace negotiations. Wilson decided it was time to go on the diplomatic offensive. A week later, he issued a note calling on the warring states to make their war aims public. Germany, in a rather insulting manner, rejected the American proposal and refused to recognize the possible role of the United States as a mediator. After this, the Entente powers gave Wilson the most favorable answer, knowing full well that after Berlin’s negative reaction there would still be no peace negotiations. Wilson was supported by neutral countries: Switzerland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Encouraged by the success, Wilson called for a “peace without victory” in the Senate on January 22, 1917. He also outlined the American conditions for a future world: equality of peoples, freedom of the seas and trade, peace without annexations and indemnities.

Germany's introduction of "unrestricted submarine warfare" in January 1917, from which American ships suffered the most, became a pretext for declaring war on Germany that was quite convincing to millions of Americans. Now the principle of “freedom of the seas” - freedom of commercial shipping - has come to the fore. After Germany rejected US demands to abandon unrestricted submarine warfare, Wilson declared war on Germany on April 2, 1917.

Having entered the war, the United States did not join the Entente, but only became associated with it. Thus, Wilson emphasized the independent role of America, which in the future was to become the leading force in the anti-German coalition. On January 8, 1918, Wilson unveiled the American program for the post-war world - the famous “Fourteen Points”. They proclaimed open diplomacy, mandatory publication of treaties, freedom of the seas and trade, limitation of armaments, and the application of the “principle of nationalities”, according to which peoples and national minorities could choose in which state they would live. Wilson also insisted that Russia should be returned to the family of civilized states and have the right to freely choose its own form of government. The last paragraph spoke of the future League of Nations - “a general association of nations for the purpose of providing mutual and equal guarantees of the independence and integrity of states large and small.”

After Germany's surrender, the Fourteen Points were formally adopted as the basis for the work of the Paris Peace Conference. At this conference, Wilson, along with Lloyd George and Clemenceau, played a leading role. In particular, he ensured that instead of a simple division of the German colonies and Turkish possessions, the institution of mandate territories was formed, which the powers governed under the mandate of the League of Nations and under its control. This administration was temporary in nature and was intended to prepare the relevant territories for gaining political independence. The United States itself did not take a single mandated territory.

Wilson, along with Lloyd George, opposed Clemenceau over the issue of continuing intervention in Russia. Unlike the French leader, they insisted that it was necessary to begin negotiations with the Bolsheviks.

Wilson sincerely believed that he was acting “according to the will of God.” In Paris, he repeatedly found himself against the united front of Lloyd George and Clemenceau and was forced to retreat. At times the American president found himself on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He considered his main victory to be the adoption of the Charter of the League of Nations at the Paris Conference. On February 14, 1919, Wilson declared that through the Covenant of the League of Nations, “we make ourselves dependent primarily on one great power—the moral force of world public opinion—the purifying, clarifying, and coercive influence of publicity... The forces of darkness must perish under the all-pervading light of unanimous condemnation of the whole world... The veil of mistrust and intrigue has been lifted, people look at each other and say: we are brothers, we have a common goal... This is our agreement of brotherhood and friendship.” But the real post-war political reality had very little in common with this beautiful declaration.

The greatest tragedy for Wilson was that, having convinced European politicians of the need for the League of Nations, he could not convince the American people of its usefulness for US interests. He was never able to obtain the necessary two-thirds vote in the Senate to ratify the Treaty of Versailles. And the stumbling block was precisely the point about the League of Nations. Many Americans feared that by participating in this organization the United States would become too closely involved in European affairs.

Wilson rejected these demands. He did not give up and undertook a series of propaganda trips around the country, defending the idea of ​​the League of Nations. But in September 1919, in Pueblo (Colorado), the president suffered a stroke and became paralyzed. However, the bedridden president continued to fight. He spoke on the radio, arguing that the League of Nations was necessary to prevent another war. All in vain. The only consolation was the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to the creator of the League of Nations in November 1919. Chairman of the Norwegian Parliament A.I. Bouin, reporting the decision, thanked the laureate for introducing the “fundamental law of humanity” into world politics. The American Ambassador to Norway, who accepted the award, read out Wilson's address. It said, in particular: “Humanity has not yet gotten rid of the unspeakable horror of war... I believe that our generation has made a significant step forward. But it would be wiser to consider that the work has just begun. It will be a long job."

Wilson’s most important domestic political initiative, Prohibition, introduced in 1919 as the Volstead Act to implement the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, also ended in complete failure. However, its implementation in practice turned out to be impossible. Alcohol smuggling in the United States has reached unprecedented proportions. Off the American coast there was a huge flotilla of ships with smuggled alcohol from Canada, which was constantly delivered ashore by thousands of boats, yachts and boats. The American mafia was consolidated in the trade in illegal alcohol, smuggled and produced in America. The Volstead Act and the 18th Amendment were repealed only in 1933 by the 21st Amendment to the Constitution under President Franklin Roosevelt. Wilson, based on Christian values, tried to rebel against human nature and failed.

On February 3, 1924, Woodrow Wilson, who had experienced the collapse of many of his endeavors, died. Under Wilson, America was recognized as a great power, made a decisive contribution to the victory of the Entente in the First World War, became the sole creditor of war-weary Europe, and laid the foundations of a new international system.

1856 I And now the possessed wanderer is again in Germany - in Gotha, in Weimar, greetings shake the whole country. In Germany, he learned that on June 26, the Academy of Fine Arts was the first on the list to represent him in a new vote; However, Félicien David and Gounod appear on the list.