History of the United States II / Unit 8 USH2 1103 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Self-Determination and Mandates
The idea
The Fourteen Points promised self-determination, the right of peoples to choose their own governments. The treaty that ended the war placed former Ottoman lands such as Iraq and Palestine under the quasi-colonial rule of France and Britain, and redistributed Germany's colonies among the victors. The principle and the settlement came from the same peace process, a year apart, and Wilson sat at the table that drew the new borders.
In practice
A promise of self-rule, and a map of new territories administered by the victors.
Where people slip
The confusion to avoid is taking the Fourteen Points as a description of the peace. They were Wilson's programme; the treaty was a negotiation among victors who wanted security and compensation. Hold both, and the peace becomes legible as a failure measured by its own stated terms.
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