US president whose Fourteen Points and League of Nations failed to win the Senate’s ratification
Born in Virginia, he was president of Princeton University and governor of New Jersey before winning the presidency in 1912, and in his first year imposed racial segregation across the federal bureaucracy. In April 1917 he asked Congress to declare war over unrestricted submarine warfare, and in January 1918 set out the Fourteen Points, with a League of Nations and self-determination. At the Paris Peace Conference he presided over the drafting of the League Covenant but conceded much to the other powers to get it. A stroke in October 1919 incapacitated him, and his refusal of a compromise sank the Senate’s ratification of the treaty. The Palmer Raids of the Red Scare came in the same years. He received the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize and died in 1924.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1902–1910President of Princeton University
- 1911–1913Governor of New Jersey
- 1913–1921President of the United States
- 1918Announced the Fourteen Points
- 1919Paris Peace Conference; chaired the League Covenant committee
Related historical events
- 1914–1918First World WarPresident of the United StatesTook the United States into the war in April 1917 and set out the Fourteen Points in January 1918, on which Germany asked for an armistice.
- 1918–1923The aftermath of the First World War: peace treaties and the revolutionary waveUS President; one of the Big FourSet the starting point of the peace with the Fourteen Points and championed the League of Nations, but the US Senate refused to ratify the treaty.