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Before the armistice of World War I, US President Woodrow Wilson was focused on a more peaceful world. He developed a plan for peace called the Fourteen Points. On January 8, 1918, President Wilson addressed the US Congress and delivered his famous Fourteen Points speech to address his plan for peace after the war.

Interactive exercise. Assistance may be required.

Activity:

Before World War I, the United States had practiced the foreign policy of isolationism, and until the sinking of the Lusitania and the Zimmerman Note, the United States practiced neutrality regarding issues of World War I.

Read the selected points from Wilson's Fourteen Points below and determine if they support the US foreign policy of isolationism:

I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.

III. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance.

XIV. A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.

Point I

Supports isolationism	Interactive popup. Assistance may be required. Check Your Answer Sorry. . . try again. This point involves countries having open agreements with other countries and does not support isolationism.
Does not support isolationism	Interactive popup. Assistance may be required. Check Your Answer You are correct! Entering into agreements with other nations is the opposite of the isolationist practice of staying out of foreign entanglements.

Point III

Supports isolationism	Interactive popup. Assistance may be required. Check Your Answer Not quite. Establishing more trade agreements would promote more engagement between nations.
Does not support isolationism	Interactive popup. Assistance may be required. Check Your Answer Yay! The establishment of trade agreements that promote free trade does not support isolationism.

Point XIV

Supports isolationism	Interactive popup. Assistance may be required. Check Your Answer Hmm…try again. This point was establishing an association of many nations. This does not support isolationism.
Does not support isolationism	Interactive popup. Assistance may be required. Check Your Answer Correct! By establishing an association of many nations, membership would make isolationism impossible.

Although Wilson's Fourteen Points did not support the traditional foreign policies of isolationism and neutrality, the President would take his Fourteen Points to negotiate the end of the war at the Treaty of Versailles.

Do you believe he will have the support of the American people? Continue the lesson to see if you are correct.