Fourteen Points were a set of principles proposed by United States President Woodrow Wilson as the basis for ending World War I (1914-1918) and for keeping the peace. On Jan. 8, 1918, in an address before the U.S. Congress, Wilson stated these proposals, which became famous as the Fourteen Points. The proposals included “open covenants openly arrived at,” removal of barriers to trade among nations, and “adjustment of all colonial claims.” The Fourteen Points also proposed arms reductions, the formation of a “general association of nations,” and the principle of self-determination, under which no ethnic group would have to be governed by a nation or state it opposed.
Wilson never offered any detailed explanation of how the Fourteen Points might work. In spite of this vagueness, millions hailed the principles as the basis for a free, peaceful world. But at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, Wilson encountered much opposition to the Fourteen Points. His principles were often modified in the compromises he was forced to make in negotiating the peace treaties.
