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157-452: The principles of the AN-PG were self-determination , self-government , anti-colonialism , democracy and the promoting the creation of Galician political forces and had as it main objective the formation of a Galician provisional government after getting power. The AN-PG used the estreleira as its flag and organized protests on July 25, considered as " Día Nacional de Galicia " or

314-515: A "prior condition" to social reform and international alliances. In 1914 Vladimir Lenin wrote: "[It] would be wrong to interpret the right to self-determination as meaning anything but the right to existence as a separate state." Woodrow Wilson revived America's commitment to self-determination, at least for European states, during World War I. When the Bolsheviks came to power in Russia in

471-535: A collegiate secretary," in which Lois Diéguez served as spokesman . After the municipal elections of 1979 , the AN-PG was restructured to promote greater coordination among its counselors, creating local assemblies. In 1981 it suffered a major internal crisis that marked the celebration of V Plenary in March 1982, which led to the departure of the organization of two members of the National Direction and

628-642: A distinction between Germany's "criminal" government and the German people. At least part of the distinction was due to his knowledge of the political crisis in Germany. In 1914, the majority of the Social Democrats (SPD) – the largest party in the Reichstag – supported the war, believing the government's statements that Russia was about to attack Germany. The SPD joined the other Reichstag parties in

785-577: A free association of equal states. As India obtained its independence, multiple ethnic conflicts emerged in relation to the formation of a statehood during the Partition of India which resulted in Islamic Pakistan and Secular India. Before the advent of the British , no empire based in mainland India had controlled any part of what now makes up the country's Northeast, part of the reason for

942-535: A great power. In Foch's viewpoint, France's need for sécurité took precedence over the rights of the Rhinelanders for self-determination. As the Rhineland was overwhelmingly German in population and its people did not wish to be severed from Germany, both Wilson and Lloyd George were completely opposed to Clemenceau's plans for the Rhineland, which they claimed would create "an Alsace-Lorraine in reverse" with

1099-540: A group of 50 militants. Finally, in the last plenary of the organization there were calls for a reformulation of the organizational model. The journey of the AN-PG ended in the same 1982, leading to the formation of the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG). The AN-PG was opposed to the introduction of a Statute of Autonomy for Galiza , that was considered a colony that had to achieve sovereignty through constitutional grounds. The Cultural Front AN-PG

1256-416: A lasting peace would require "saving the free peoples of the world from the menace and the actual power of a vast military establishment controlled by an irresponsible government" that wanted to "dominate the world". Notably, Wilson was vague about what he considered to be a "stable and enduring peace" other than it required the defeat of Germany. Wilson in his speeches and letters was always careful to make

1413-640: A major public statement of war aims, it became the basis for the terms of the German surrender at the end of the First World War . After the speech, House worked to secure the acceptance of the Fourteen Points by Entente leaders. On October 16, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson and Sir William Wiseman , the head of British intelligence in America, had an interview. This interview was one reason why

1570-676: A minority can secede. In the United States Abraham Lincoln acknowledged that secession might be possible through amending the United States Constitution . The Supreme Court in Texas v. White held secession could occur "through revolution, or through consent of the States." The British Parliament in 1933 held that Western Australia only could secede from Australia upon vote of a majority of

1727-492: A minority has long been contested in democracies with majority rule. For instance, in his first inaugural speech Abraham Lincoln argued that: Plainly the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it does of necessity fly to anarchy or to despotism. Unanimity

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1884-483: A people and which groups may legitimately claim the right to self-determination. As World Court judge Ivor Jennings put it: "the people cannot decide until somebody decides who are the people". The norm of self-determination can be originally traced to the American and French revolutions, and the emergence of nationalism . The European revolutions of 1848 , the post-World War I settlement at Versailles , and

2041-754: A plan to protect the Armenians after the hoped for Allied victory, even though the United States was not at war with the Ottoman Empire. The parts of the 14 Points relating to the Near East where the emphasis was upon protecting minority rights were at least in part designed to rebut the criticism that the Wilson administration was indifferent to the genocide being waged in Anatolia. The purpose of

2198-463: A position which conceded as much to the Allies as it could, but took away the poison.... It was all keyed upon the secret treaties." In the speech, Wilson directly addressed what he perceived as the causes for the world war by calling for the abolition of secret treaties, a reduction in armaments , an adjustment in colonial claims in the interests of both native peoples and colonists, and freedom of

2355-404: A separate people, but under current law cannot claim the right to self-determination. On the other hand, she finds that secession within a single state is a domestic matter not covered by international law. Thus, there are no on what groups may constitute a seceding people. A number of states have laid claim to territories, which they allege were removed from them as a result of colonialism. This

2512-449: A sincere welcome into the society of free nations under institutions of her own choosing; and, more than a welcome, assistance also of every kind that she may need and may herself desire. The treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months to come will be the acid test of their good will, of their comprehension of her needs as distinguished from their own interests, and of their intelligent and unselfish sympathy. VII. Belgium,

2669-436: A territory subject to a historic territorial claim are prevented from exercising a right to self-determination. This interpretation is rejected by many states, who argue that Paragraph 2 of UN Resolution 1514(XV) states that "all peoples have the right to self-determination" and Paragraph 6 cannot be used to justify territorial claims. The original purpose of Paragraph 6 was "to ensure that acts of self-determination occur within

2826-530: A topic of debate among historians. The German-born American historian Gerhard Weinberg noted that the entire question of the "justice" of the Treaty of Versailles as a source of European discord is irrelevant. Weinberg noted that the vast majority of Germans in the interwar period believed that their country had actually won World War One with the Reich only being defeated by the alleged " stab-in-the-back " that

2983-486: A waste of American resources. Wilson argued that Germany was an advanced, industrial nation while the Ottoman Empire was a backward nation with almost no modern industries, and as such the defeat of Germany would automatically lead to the defeat of the Ottoman Empire. Both Roosevelt and Cabot Lodge argued in various speeches and columns that the United States had a moral duty to stop the Armenian genocide by declaring war on

3140-512: Is a sizable minority group. In democratic societies, majority rule is often used to determine the outcome in electoral and voting processes. However, a major critique of majority rule is that it may result in the tyranny of the majority , especially in cases in which a simple majority is used in order to determine outcome. This flaw is particularly poignant when there is a large minority group whose interests are not being represented, and who may then seek to secede. The right to self-determination by

3297-428: Is defined as the entire population of the occupied territorial unit, no matter their other differences. Meanwhile, in cases where people lack representation by a state's government, the unrepresented become a defined as a separate people. Present international law does not recognize ethnic and other minorities as separate peoples, with the notable exception of cases in which such groups are systematically disenfranchised by

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3454-522: Is forever impaired. VIII. All French territory should be freed and the invaded portions restored, and the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine , which has unsettled the peace of the world for nearly fifty years, should be righted, in order that peace may once more be made secure in the interest of all. IX. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along clearly recognizable lines of nationality . X. The people of Austria-Hungary , whose place among

3611-461: Is impossible. The rule of a minority, as a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that, rejecting the majority principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left. However, liberal proponents for the right to self-determination by minority groups contradict this notion by arguing that, in cases where the minority is not able to become the majority, and that minority is territorially concentrated and does not want to be governed by

3768-466: Is justified by reference to Paragraph 6 of UN Resolution 1514(XV), which states that any attempt "aimed at partial or total disruption of the national unity and the territorial integrity of a country is incompatible with the purposes and principles of the Charter". This, it is claimed, applies to situations where the territorial integrity of a state had been disrupted by colonisation, so that the people of

3925-467: Is no contradiction between the principles of self-determination and territorial integrity, with the latter taking precedence. Allen Buchanan , author of seven books on self-determination and secession, supports territorial integrity as a moral and legal aspect of constitutional democracy. However, he also advances a "Remedial Rights Only Theory" where a group has "a general right to secede if and only if it has suffered certain injustices, for which secession

4082-547: Is not a recognized legal definition of "peoples" in international law. Indeed, Ivor Jennings called Wilson's doctrine "ridiculous" because, though on the surface it seems reasonable to "let the people decide", in practice "the people cannot decide until someone decides who are the people". Reviewing various international judgements and UN resolutions, Vita Gudeleviciute of Vytautas Magnus University Law School finds that, in cases of non-self-governing peoples (colonized and/or indigenous) and foreign military occupation, "a people"

4239-419: Is the appropriate remedy of last resort." He also would recognize secession if the state grants, or the constitution includes, a right to secede. Vita Gudeleviciute holds that in cases of non-self-governing peoples and foreign military occupation the principle of self-determination trumps that of territorial integrity. In cases where people lack representation by a state's government, they also may be considered

4396-563: Is the right to representative government with full suffrage . Self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law , binding, as such, on the United Nations as an authoritative interpretation of the Charter 's norms. The principle does not state how the decision is to be made, nor what the outcome should be (whether independence , federation , protection , some form of autonomy or full assimilation ), and

4553-543: Is the will of the people that makes a state legitimate. This implies a people should be free to choose their own state and its territorial boundaries. However, there are far more self-identified nations than there are existing states and there is no legal process to redraw state boundaries according to the will of these peoples. According to the Helsinki Final Act of 1975, the UN, ICJ and international law experts, there

4710-528: The Burgfrieden ("peace-within-a-castle-under-siege") in which the parties agreed not criticize the government in its handling of the war. The SPD made it clear, however, that their support was for a defensive war only and that they opposed a war of conquest. From the beginning, the left wing of the Social Democrats opposed the war on the grounds that the German working class had no quarrel with

4867-531: The 1898 U.S. annexation of the Philippines whilst condemning the rebellion of the Philippine nationalist Emilio Aguinaldo , and strongly believed that the U.S. was morally obliged to impose Western ways of life and governance on such countries, so that eventually they could govern independently. In Germany, the 14 Points became a symbol of the promised basis of the peace after the war and, throughout

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5024-487: The American Revolution ) would be sympathetic towards the goals and aspirations they held. A common belief among anti-colonial nationalist leaders was the U.S., once it had assisted them in gaining independence from colonial rule or foreign influence, would establish new relationships which would be more favorable and equitable than what had existed beforehand. However, the nationalist interpretations of both

5181-797: The Atlantic Charter and accepted the principle of self-determination. In January 1942 twenty-six states signed the Declaration by United Nations , which accepted those principles. The ratification of the United Nations Charter in 1945 at the end of World War II placed the right of self-determination into the framework of international law and diplomacy. On 14 December 1960, the United Nations General Assembly adopted United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1514 (XV) subtitled " Declaration on

5338-533: The Central Powers to surrender in the expectation of a just settlement. The German government rejected the 14 Points as the basis of a peace settlement. The duumvirate that ruled Germany that consisted of Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and General Erich Ludendorff were supremely confident that the offensive planned for March 1918 code-named Operation Michael would win the war. The German spring offensive of 1918 did make gains, but fell far short of being

5495-717: The Chinese Civil War . The Korean War shifted the focus of the Cold War from Europe to Asia, where competing superpowers took advantage of decolonization to spread their influence. In 1947, India gained independence from the British Empire . The empire was in decline but adapted to these circumstances by creating the British Commonwealth —since 1949 the Commonwealth of Nations —which is

5652-607: The Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a free passage to the ships and commerce of all nations under international guarantees. XIII. An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations , which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea , and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenant. XIV. A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for

5809-659: The Empire of Japan renounced control over many of its former possessions including Korea , Sakhalin Island , and Taiwan . In none of these areas were the opinions of affected people consulted, or given significant priority. Korea was specifically granted independence but the receiver of various other areas was not stated in the Treaty of San Francisco , giving Taiwan de facto independence although its political status continues to be ambiguous. In 1941 Allies of World War II declared

5966-579: The Indian independence movement . And Italy, Japan and Germany all initiated new efforts to bring certain territories under their control, leading to World War II. In particular, the National Socialist Program invoked this right of nations in its first point (out of 25), as it was publicly proclaimed on 24 February 1920 by Adolf Hitler . In Asia, Japan became a rising power and gained more respect from Western powers after its victory in

6123-712: The October Revolution , they called for Russia's immediate withdrawal as a member of the Allies of World War I . They also supported the right of all nations, including colonies, to self-determination." The 1918 Constitution of the Soviet Union acknowledged the right of secession for its constituent republics. This presented a challenge to Wilson's more limited demands. In January 1918 Wilson issued his Fourteen Points of January 1918 which, among other things, called for adjustment of colonial claims, insofar as

6280-551: The Reich . As a consolation prize, Clemenceau was offered a military alliance with the British empire and the United States, under which Anglo-American forces would come to France's aid in the event of German aggression. However, the British acceptance of the alliance was made conditional upon the American acceptance of the alliance, and the United States Senate voted against the alliance with France, thus rendering

6437-776: The Russo-Japanese War . Japan joined the Allied Powers in World War I and attacked German colonial possessions in the Far East , adding former German possessions to its own empire. In the 1930s, Japan gained significant influence in Inner Mongolia and Manchuria after it invaded Manchuria . It established Manchukuo , a puppet state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia . This was essentially

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6594-480: The Soviet threat of seizing parts of Inner Mongolia induced China to recognize Outer Mongolia's independence , provided that a referendum was held. The referendum took place on October 20, 1945, with (according to official numbers) 100% of the electorate voting for independence. Many of East Asia 's current disputes to sovereignty and self-determination stem from unresolved disputes from World War II. After its fall,

6751-791: The Special Committee on Decolonization to ensure decolonization complete compliance with the principles of self-determination in General Assembly Resolution 1541 (XV). However, the charter and other resolutions did not insist on full independence as the best way of obtaining self-government , nor did they include an enforcement mechanism. Moreover, new states were recognized by the legal doctrine of uti possidetis juris , meaning that old administrative boundaries would become international boundaries upon independence if they had little relevance to linguistic, ethnic, and cultural boundaries. Nevertheless, justified by

6908-750: The Vistula River flowed into the Baltic Sea , be ceded to Poland. At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, the Polish delegation led by Roman Dmowski asked for Wilson to honor point 14 of the 14 points by transferring Danzig to Poland, arguing that the city was rightfully part of Poland because it was Polish until 1793, and that Poland would not be economically viable without it. During the First Partition of Poland in 1772,

7065-733: The "Day of the Galician Fatherland". The AN-PG held its first plenary in April 1976, which resulted in the split of a sector that considered the AN-PG excessively linked to the Galician People's Union (UPG). This sector was the Galician People's Assembly . In the III Plenary held in October 1977 the AN-PG approved its statutes, in which the organization was defined as "interclassist, nonpartisan organization directed by

7222-548: The "harshness" of the Treaty of Versailles has been vastly exaggerated, noting that Germany lost far more land to Poland under the Oder-Neisse line , imposed in 1945, than the Reich had lost to Poland under the Treaty of Versailles, yet the Oder-Neisse line did not cause another war. In 1991, Germany signed a treaty with Poland under which the Oder-Neisse line was accepted as the permanent German-Polish frontier, despite

7379-793: The 1990s Yugoslavia began a violent break up into 6 states. Macedonia became an independent nation and broke off from Yugoslavia peacefully. Kosovo , which was previously an autonomous unit of Serbia declared independence in 2008, but has received less international recognition. In December 1991, Gorbachev resigned as president and the Soviet Union dissolved relatively peacefully into fifteen sovereign republics , all of which rejected Communism and most of which adopted democratic reforms and free-market economies. Inside those new republics, four major areas have claimed their own independence, but not received widespread international recognition. After decades of civil war, Indonesia finally recognized

7536-666: The Allied leaders were only self-interested. The publication was especially embarrassing for the Allies as the former government of Russia had signed no secret treaties with Germany, the Austrian empire, and the Ottoman Empire, and thus the war aims of the Central powers remained secret. Lenin accused the Allied leaders of being selfish while presenting himself as an idealist who sought the betterment of ordinary people by rejecting imperialism. Wilson, similar to other world leaders, feared

7693-472: The Allies to divide up the German-Polish border in a manner consistent with the principles of the 14 points as inevitably some people ended up being struck on the "wrong" side of the frontier. Before 1914, Germany had 1 million Poles living within its borders; after 1918 Poland had 1 million Germans living within its borders. Before 1914, Eastern Europe had dominated by the three great empires, namely

7850-641: The Armenian genocide together with the related genocides against the Pontic Greeks and the Assyrians was to achieve the "homogenization" of Asia Minor. Colonel House advised Wilson that the genocidal "homogenization" of Anatolia required an American response, writing to the president: "It is necessary to free the subject races of the Turkish empire from oppression and misrule. This implies at very least autonomy for Armenia". House wrote in his diary: "After

8007-521: The Austrian, Russian and German empires with the first two being supra-national states where the focal point in the state ideologies was loyalty to the ruling families, namely the House of Habsburg and the House of Romanov. The German-speaking element formed the dominant group in the Austrian empire while the way that the Russian empire defined loyalty to the House of Romanov as the main criterion had allowed

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8164-690: The Catholic Centre Party and various left-liberal parties in July 1917 for the Reichstag Peace Resolution , which called for a negotiated peace without annexations. The resolution was only symbolic with no binding power over the government, but it was an important step towards the Reichstag developing a voice for peace and for parliamentarization. President Wilson subsequently initiated a secret series of studies named

8321-421: The Central Powers and which was more vague in its promises to the non-Turkish subjects of the Ottoman Empire. The Fourteen Points in the speech were based on the research of the Inquiry , a team of about 150 advisers led by foreign-policy adviser Edward M. House , into the topics likely to arise in the anticipated peace conference . The immediate cause of the United States' entry into World War I in April 1917

8478-462: The Constitution before and after the founding the People's Republic of China. The 1947 Constitution of the Union of Burma contained an express state right to secede from the union under a number of procedural conditions. It was eliminated in the 1974 constitution of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma (officially the "Union of Myanmar"). Burma still allows "local autonomy under central leadership". Fourteen Points The Fourteen Points

8635-487: The Fourteen Points and Wilson's views regarding colonialism proved to be misguided. In actuality, Wilson had never established a goal of opposing European colonial powers and breaking up their empires, nor was he trying to fuel anti-colonial nationalist independence movements. It was not Wilson's objective or desire to confront European colonial powers over such matters, as Wilson had no intention of supporting any demands for self-determination and sovereignty that conflicted with

8792-417: The Fourteen Points as the basis for negotiating the Treaty of Versailles , which ended the war. In his speech to Congress, President Wilson declared fourteen points which he regarded as the only possible basis of an enduring peace: 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

8949-451: The Fourteen Points, he also had more practical objectives in mind. He hoped to keep Russia in the war by convincing the Bolsheviks that they would receive a better peace from the Allies, to bolster Allied morale, and to undermine German war support. The address was well received in the United States and Allied nations and even by Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin , as a landmark of enlightenment in international relations. Wilson subsequently used

9106-409: The Fourteen Points. The speech was delivered 10 months before the Armistice with Germany and became the basis for the terms of the German surrender, as negotiated at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. The speech was widely disseminated as an instrument of Allied propaganda and was translated into many languages for global dissemination. Copies were also dropped behind German lines, to encourage

9263-399: The French soldiers while waving about tricolores . At the Paris peace conference, both Wilson and Lloyd George supported Clemenceau's demand for the reunion of Alsace-Lorraine with France. Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France. Under the terms of the Treaty of Locarno in 1925, Germany accepted as permanent the Franco-German border established by

9420-434: The German government accepted the Fourteen Points and the stated principles for peace negotiations. The report was made as negotiation points, and the Fourteen Points were later accepted by France and Italy on November 1, 1918. Britain later signed off on all of the points except the freedom of the seas . The United Kingdom also wanted Germany to make reparation payments for the war, and thought that should be added to

9577-542: The Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples ", which supported the granting of independence to colonial countries and people by providing an inevitable legal linkage between self-determination and its goal of decolonisation. It postulated a new international law-based right of freedom to exercise economic self-determination. Article 5 states: Immediate steps shall be taken in Trust and Non-Self-Governing Territories , or all other territories which have not yet attained independence, to transfer all powers to

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9734-539: The Inquiry , primarily focused on Europe, and carried out by a group in New York which included geographers, historians and political scientists; the group was directed by Edward M. House . Their job was to study Allied and American policy in virtually every region of the globe and analyze economic, social, and political facts likely to come up in discussions during the peace conference. The group produced and collected nearly 2,000 separate reports and documents plus at least 1,200 maps. Walter Lippmann of "the Inquiry" defined

9891-503: The Inquiry's general secretary, Walter Lippmann , and his colleagues, Isaiah Bowman , Sidney Mezes , and David Hunter Miller . Lippmann's draft territorial points were a direct response to the secret treaties of the European Allies, which Lippmann had been shown by Secretary of War Newton D. Baker . Lippmann's task, according to House, was "to take the secret treaties, analyze the parts which were tolerable, and separate them from those which were regarded as intolerable, and then develop

10048-475: The Kaiser to bring about democratic reforms as a way to ensure the responsibility for the defeat fell on the shoulders of others. Ludendorff in particular gave a somewhat distorted version of the 14 points as a way to entice Prince Max of Baden to form a new government that would seek an armistice. Indeed, in a note sent to Wilson, Prince Maximilian of Baden , the German imperial chancellor , in October 1918 requested an immediate armistice and peace negotiations on

10205-474: The League of Nations to decide if Japan had committed aggression or not, stated the majority of people in Manchuria who were Han Chinese who did not wish to leave China. In 1912, the Republic of China officially succeeded the Qing Dynasty, while Outer Mongolia , Tibet and Tuva proclaimed their independence. Independence was not accepted by the government of China . By the Treaty of Kyakhta (1915) Outer Mongolia recognized China's sovereignty. However,

10362-400: The League of Nations was to assign each of the post-Ottoman, Asian and African states and colonies to a European power by the grant of a League of Nations mandate . One of the German objections to the Treaty of Versailles was a somewhat selective application of the principle of self-determination as the Republic of German-Austria , which included the Sudetenland , was seen as representing

10519-410: The October Revolution in 1917. The speech made by Wilson took many domestic progressive ideas and translated them into foreign policy ( free trade , open agreements , democracy and self-determination ). Three days earlier United Kingdom Prime Minister Lloyd George had made a speech setting out the UK's war aims which bore some similarity to Wilson's speech but which proposed reparations be paid by

10676-423: The Ottoman Empire. Roosevelt in his popular newspaper column in the Kansas City Star that was nationally syndicated accused Wilson of crying "crocodile tears" over the Armenian genocide as he maintained that if he was still president the United States would have already ended the genocide. In response to such criticism, Wilson had asked Colonel House and the authors of "the Inquiry" such as Lippmann to come up with

10833-409: The Ottoman Empire; State Shintoism and Japanese identity in Japan; and Han identity in juxtaposition to the Manchurian ruling class in China. Meanwhile, in Europe itself, the rise of nationalism led to Greece , Hungary , Poland and Bulgaria all seeking or winning independence. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels supported some of these nationalist movements, believing nationalism might be

10990-426: The Polish claim to Danzig, but Lloyd George was stoutly opposed as he argued that it would be unjust to force a city whose population was 90% German unwillingly into Poland. An impasse emerged at the Paris peace conference with Clemenceau and Wilson supporting the Polish claim to Danzig while Lloyd-George maintained that the city should remain within Germany. James Headlam-Morley of the British delegation came up with

11147-473: The Rhineland until 1935, through in fact the French occupation ended early in June 1930. One of the thorniest issues at the Paris peace conference was the status of Danzig (modern Gdańsk , Poland). Point 13 called for a reborn Polish state that would have "free and secure access to the sea". Danzig was a deep water port located where the Vistula river flows into the Baltic sea, making it the principal port where goods both came in and out of Poland. Roman Dmowski

11304-459: The Rhinelanders being placed unhappily under French rule. Wilson in particular was strongly for the Rhineland remaining part of Germany and he threatened several times to have the American delegation walk out of the peace conference if Clemenceau persisted with his plans for the Rhineland. Under strong Anglo-American pressure, the French were forced to accept that the Rhineland would remain part of

11461-561: The Russian-owned Chinese Eastern Railroad. This won the new Bolshevik regime much prestige in China, to the discomfort of the other powers that held extraterritorial rights there. The publication of the secret treaties relating to Europe, Africa, China and the Near East caused the governments of Great Britain, France, Italy, and Japan much embarrassment at the time as the secret treaties made it appear that

11618-743: The Soviet Union violated principles of self-determination by suppressing the Hungarian revolution of 1956 and the Prague Spring Czechoslovak reforms of 1968. It invaded Afghanistan to support a communist government assailed by local tribal groups. However, Marxism–Leninism and its theory of imperialism were also strong influences in the national emancipation movements of Third World nations rebelling against colonial or puppet regimes. In many Third World countries, communism became an ideology that united groups to oppose imperialism or colonization. Soviet actions were contained by

11775-485: The Treaty of Versailles and renounced its claim upon Alsace-Lorraine. At the Paris peace conference in 1919, Clemenceau wanted to see the Rhineland severed from Germany. The Rhineland with its steep hills and the broad Rhine river formed a natural defensive barrier and Clemenceau insisted that France needed the Rhineland to have sécurité after the war. Ideally, Clemenceau wanted to see the Rhineland annexed to France, but

11932-608: The Treaty of Versailles was really the monstrous "unjust" peace treaty that Germans had claimed it to be. Under the terms of the armistice of 11 November 1918, the French occupied Alsace–Lorraine . The French wasted no time in promptly proclaiming the reunion of Alsace-Lorraine with France. Many of the Alsatians had been unhappy under German rule, and the French troops who marched into Alsace-Lorraine in November 1918 were greeted as liberators with large crowds coming out to cheer

12089-537: The Turkish paragraph had been written, the President thought it might be more specific and that Armenia, Mesopotamia and other parts be mentioned by name. I disagreed with this, believing that what was said was sufficient to indicate this, and it finally stood as framed". Though the genocidal policies of the Committee of Union and Progress regime were not referenced by name in the 14 Points, the emphasis on protecting

12246-450: The United States in 1918, and that Nazi Germany would do the same. Weinberg noted that for German elites, not just Hitler, it was the alleged "stab-in-the-back" of 1918 that explained the German defeat, and it was taken for granted that the German military was invincible and could never be defeated provided the alleged "internal" enemies such as the Jews were dispatched first. Weinberg wrote

12403-507: The United States which saw communism as a menace to its interests. Throughout the cold war, the United States created, supported, and sponsored regimes with various success that served their economic and political interests, among them anti-communist regimes such as that of Augusto Pinochet in Chile and Suharto in Indonesia . To achieve this, a variety of means was implemented, including

12560-429: The agreements made in the aftermath of the war would be a "readjustment of those great injustices which underlie the whole structure of European and Asiatic society", which he attributed to the absence of democratic rule. The new order emerging in the postwar period would, according to Wilson, place governments "in the hands of the people and taken out of the hands of coteries and of sovereigns, who had no right to rule over

12717-547: The applicability of Wilsonian idealism . The United States had joined the Triple Entente in fighting the Central Powers on April 6, 1917. Its entry into the war had in part been due to Germany's resumption of submarine warfare against merchant ships trading with France and Britain and also the interception of the Zimmermann Telegram . However, Wilson wanted to avoid the United States' involvement in

12874-612: The basis of the Fourteen Points. In Asia Minor, the 14 Points caused some confusion as the Muslim peoples living there defined themselves in terms of religion rather than language and ethnicity. Almost all of the Kurdish population of Anatolia at the time defined themselves as Muslims rather than as Kurds, and were loyal to the Sublime Porte under the grounds that Sultan-Caliph was the supreme leader of all Muslims worldwide. There

13031-724: The beginnings of the process of decolonization . In the Statute of Westminster the United Kingdom granted independence to Canada , New Zealand , Newfoundland , the Commonwealth of Australia , and the Union of South Africa after the British parliament declared itself as incapable of passing laws over them without their consent. Although the Irish Free State had already gained internationally recognized independence at

13188-407: The chief the Polish delegation, argued that allowing Danzig to remain with Germany would give the Reich economic control of Poland and that for Poland to be truly independent required that Danzig go to Poland. At the peace conference, Wilson explained that what he meant by Poland having "free and secure access to the sea" in point 13 was that Danzig should go to Poland. Clemenceau likewise supported

13345-486: The compromise of making Danzig into a Free City that would belong to neither Poland nor Germany. The Treaty of Versailles imposed the compromise solution of severing Danzig from Germany to become the Free City of Danzig , a city-state in which Poland had certain special rights. German public opinion did not accept the loss of Danzig along with the loss of the so-called Polish Corridor and Upper Silesia to Poland, and for

13502-711: The conclusion of the Irish War of Independence , as established in the Anglo-Irish Treaty , it was still included in the Statute of Westminster. This statute built on the Balfour Declaration of 1926 which recognized the autonomy of these British dominions, representing the first phase of the creation of the British Commonwealth of Nations . Egypt , Afghanistan , and Iraq also achieved independence from Britain. Other efforts were unsuccessful, like

13659-674: The cooperation of the U.S. President Ronald Reagan , Gorbachev wound down the size of the Soviet Armed Forces and reduced nuclear arms in Europe, while liberalizing the Soviet economy . In the revolutions of 1989–90 , the communist regimes of Soviet satellite states collapsed in rapid succession in Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, and Mongolia. East and West Germany united, Czechoslovakia peacefully split into Czech Republic and Slovakia , while in

13816-544: The country as a whole; the previous two-thirds majority vote for secession via referendum in Western Australia was insufficient. The Chinese Communist Party followed the Soviet Union in including the right of secession in its 1931 constitution in order to entice ethnic nationalities and Tibet into joining. However, the Party eliminated the right to secession in later years and had anti-secession clause written into

13973-540: The creation of united Malaysia . The Netherlands retained its New Guinea part from the previous Dutch East Indies , but Indonesia threatened to invade and annex it. A vote was supposedly taken under the UN sponsored Act of Free Choice to allow West New Guineans to decide their fate, although many dispute its veracity. Later, Portugal relinquished control over East Timor in the aftermath of Carnation Revolution in 1975, at which time Indonesia promptly invaded and annexed it . In 1999, Indonesian president B. J. Habibie

14130-533: The decisive victory that Hindenburg and Ludendorff had expected. By the summer of 1918, the Allies were winning the war and on 28 September 1918 Ludendorff advised the Emperor Wilhelm II that the Reich was defeated and the best that the Germany can now hope to achieve would be an armistice that preserved Germany as a great power. Neither Hindenburg nor Ludendorff intended to take any responsibility for their failures as generals and rather cynically forced

14287-435: The decolonization movement after World War II shaped and established the norm in international law. The American Revolution has been seen as the earliest assertion of the right of national and democratic self-determination, as well as the concepts of consent and sovereignty by the people governed These ideas were inspired particularly by John Locke 's writings of the previous century. Thomas Jefferson further promoted

14444-563: The diplomatic waste paper basket. Most of these fourteen points... would be interpreted... to mean anything or nothing." Senator William Borah after 1918 wished "this treacherous and treasonable scheme" of the League of Nations to be "buried in hell" and promised that if he had his way it would be " 20,000 leagues under the sea ". Wilson's speech regarding the Fourteen Points led to unintentional but important consequences in regards to countries which were under European colonial rule or under

14601-869: The early 1990s, the legitimatization of the principle of national self-determination has led to an increase in the number of conflicts within states, as sub-groups seek greater self-determination and full secession, and as their conflicts for leadership within groups and with other groups and with the dominant state become violent. The international reaction to these new movements has been uneven and often dictated more by politics than principle. The 2000 United Nations Millennium Declaration failed to deal with these new demands, mentioning only "the right to self-determination of peoples which remain under colonial domination and foreign occupation." In an issue of Macquarie University Law Journal Associate Professor Aleksandar Pavkovic and Senior Lecturer Peter Radan outlined current legal and political issues in self-determination. There

14758-409: The end of secret diplomacy. Lenin repudiated the foreign policy of Imperial Russia, and published the secret treaties that the former regime had signed with the Allies under which the Allies had envisioned extensive territorial changes and divided much of the world up into spheres of influence. Lenin surrendered all Russian extraterritorial rights and concessions in China with the notable exception of

14915-593: The entirety of the interwar period, it was common for Germans to speak of the "open wound in the East". The eastern borders the Treaty of Versailles imposed on Germany, especially the Polish Corridor, were universally viewed in Germany as "unjust" and a "national humiliation". The way that different peoples in Eastern Europe were mixed together in a patch-work of different pockets made it very difficult for

15072-543: The established boundaries of colonies, rather than within sub-regions". Further, the use of the word attempt in Paragraph 6 denotes future action and cannot be construed to justify territorial redress for past action. An attempt sponsored by Spain and Argentina to qualify the right to self-determination in cases where there was a territorial dispute was rejected by the UN General Assembly, which re-iterated

15229-547: The former president Theodore Roosevelt and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge for his unwillingness to ask Congress to declare war on the Ottoman Empire. In a foreshadowing of the "Germany First" strategy of World War Two, Wilson and other senior figures in his administration argued that the United States should commit its power to defeat the German Empire first and that any operations against the Sublime Porte would be

15386-403: The government of the state they live in. Other definitions offered are "peoples" as self-evident (from ethnicity, language, history, etc.) , or defined by "ties of mutual affection or sentiment" ("loyalty", or by mutual obligations among peoples). Professor Uriel Abulof suggests that self-determination entails the "moral double helix" of duality: 1. personal right to align with a people, and

15543-429: The immediate end of the war on the basis of the restoration of pre-1914 status quo , Wilson in a letter to the pontiff on 27 August 1917 rejected the pope's call for peace as he wrote: "Our response must be based on stern facts and upon nothing else...America wanted not a mere cessation of arms, but a stable and enduring peace". Wilson argued that he was rejecting the pope's peace message on moral grounds as he argued that

15700-717: The independence of East Timor in 2002. In 1949, the Communist Party won the Chinese Civil War and established the People's Republic of China in Mainland China . The Kuomintang -led Republic of China government retreated to Taipei , its jurisdiction now limited to Taiwan and several outlying islands. Since then, the People's Republic of China has been involved in disputes with the ROC over issues of sovereignty and

15857-426: The influence of European countries. In many of the Fourteen Points, specifically points X, XI, XII and XIII, Wilson had focused on adjusting colonial disputes and the importance of allowing autonomous development and self-determination . This drew significant attention from anti-colonial nationalist leaders and movements, who saw Wilson's swift adoption of the term "self-determination" (although he did not actually use

16014-611: The information called for under Article 73e of the United Nations Charter in Article 3", which provided that "[t]he inadequacy of political, economic, social and educational preparedness should never serve as a pretext for delaying the right to self-determination and independence." To monitor the implementation of Resolution 1514, in 1961 the General Assembly created the Special Committee referred to popularly as

16171-538: The inhabitants of Danzig fought fiercely for it to remain a part of Poland, but as a result of the Germanisation process in the 19th century, 90% of the people in Danzig were German by 1919, which made the Allied leaders at the Paris peace conference compromise by creating the Free City of Danzig , a city-state in which Poland had certain special rights. Through the city of Danzig was 90% German and 10% Polish,

16328-450: The interests of colonial powers had equal weight with the claims of subject peoples. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918 led to Soviet Russia 's exit from the war and the nominal independence of Armenia, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Georgia and Poland, though in fact those territories were under German control. The end of the war led to the dissolution of the defeated Austro-Hungarian Empire and Czechoslovakia and

16485-443: The interests of the victorious Allies. In reality, Wilson's calls for greater autonomous development and sovereignty had been aimed solely at European countries under the rule of the German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires. He did not explicitly outline this, although it is clear that his calls for greater sovereignty in these regions was in an effort to try and destabilise those enemies' empires. President Wilson's ambitions for

16642-692: The international arena. In November 1917, the Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin overthrew the Russian Provisional Government in Petrograd . The next day, Lenin issued the Decree On Peace which called for the immediate end to the war on the basis of a "just and democratic peace", which he defined as "a peace without annexations or indemnitees"; national self-determination in place of the traditional power politics; and

16799-403: The international order created by the Treaty of Versailles, and the question of the "injustice" of the Treaty of Versailles was irrelevant as a challenge would have been made even if the Treaty of Versailles had been more favorable to Germany. The Dolchstoßlegende claimed that Germany had decisively defeated the combined forces of France, the British empire and the United States in 1918 and it

16956-653: The interwar period, it was common in Germany to attack the Treaty of Versailles as illegitimate, with the argument being made that it was contrary to the 14 Points. Notably, Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles , which would become known as the War Guilt Clause, was seen by the Germans as assigning full responsibility for the war and its damages on Germany; however, the same clause was included in all peace treaties and historian Sally Marks has noted that only German diplomats saw it as assigning responsibility for

17113-519: The language of self-determination, between 1946 and 1960, thirty-seven new nations in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East gained independence from colonial powers. The territoriality issue inevitably would lead to more conflicts and independence movements within many states and challenges to the assumption that territorial integrity is as important as self-determination. Decolonization in the world

17270-524: The long-standing European tensions between the great powers ; if America was going to fight, he wanted to try to separate that participation in the war from nationalistic disputes or ambitions. The need for moral aims was made more important when, after the fall of the Russian government , the Bolsheviks disclosed secret treaties made between the Allies. Wilson's speech also responded to Vladimir Lenin's Decree on Peace of November 1917, immediately after

17427-415: The main American war aim as "the disestablishment of a Prussian Middle Europe" and to find a way to prevent Germany from being "the master of the continent" after the war. The Armenian genocide that began in April 1915 attracted much media attention in the Allied nations at the time, and throughout the summer and fall of 1917 Wilson had been the subject of fierce criticism by Republican politicians such as

17584-447: The majority, it may serve the best interest of the state to allow the secession of this group. Most sovereign states do not recognize the right to self-determination through secession in their constitutions. Many expressly forbid it. However, there are several existing models of self-determination through greater autonomy and through secession. In liberal constitutional democracies the principle of majority rule has dictated whether

17741-629: The model Japan followed as it invaded other areas in Asia and established the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere . Japan went to considerable trouble to argue that Manchukuo was justified by the principle of self-determination, claiming that people of Manchuria wanted to break away from China and asked the Kwantung Army to intervene on their behalf. However, the Lytton commission which had been appointed by

17898-503: The moment if he was going to avoid being eclipsed by Lenin's competing program for the postwar world". On 5 January 1918, the British prime minister David Lloyd George gave a speech in London stating that the British war aims were "self-determination" for the subject peoples of the Austrian and Ottoman empires. The speech, known as the Fourteen Points, was developed from a set of diplomatic points by Wilson and territorial points drafted by

18055-463: The nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest opportunity to autonomous development . XI. Romania , Serbia , and Montenegro should be evacuated; occupied territories restored; Serbia accorded free and secure access to the sea; and the relations of the several Balkan states to one another determined by friendly counsel along historically established lines of allegiance and nationality; and international guarantees of

18212-548: The notion that the will of the people was supreme, especially through authorship of the United States Declaration of Independence , which became an inspiration for European nationalist movements during the 19th century. The French Revolution legitimatized the ideas of self-determination on that Old World continent. Nationalist sentiments emerged inside traditional empires: Pan-Slavism in Russia; Ottomanism , Kemalist ideology and Arab nationalism in

18369-681: The ongoing insurgency in Northeast India . In 1971 Bangladesh obtained independence from Pakistan. Burma also gained independence from the British Empire, but declined membership in the Commonwealth. Indonesia gained independence from the Dutch Empire in 1949 after the latter failed to restore colonial control. As mentioned above, Indonesia also wanted a powerful position in the region that could be lessened by

18526-603: The orchestration of coups, sponsoring of anti-communist countries and military interventions. Consequently, many self-determination movements, which spurned some type of anti-communist government, were accused of being Soviet-inspired or controlled. In Asia, the Soviet Union had already converted Mongolia into a satellite state but abandoned propping up the Second East Turkestan Republic and gave up its Manchurian claims to China. The new People's Republic of China had gained control of mainland China in

18683-401: The peace and associating themselves for its maintenance. IV. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety. V. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims , based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of

18840-573: The people of those territories, without any conditions or reservations, in accordance with their freely expressed will and desire, without any distinction as to race, creed or colour, in order to enable them to enjoy complete independence and freedom. On 15 December 1960 the United Nations General Assembly adopted United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1541 (XV) , subtitled "Principles which should guide members in determining whether or nor an obligation exists to transmit

18997-449: The people's right to determine their politics; and 2. and mutuality (the right is as much the other's as the self's). Thus, self-determination grants individuals the right to form "a people," which then has the right to establish an independent state, as long as they grant the same to all other individuals and peoples. National self-determination appears to challenge the principle of territorial integrity (or sovereignty ) of states as it

19154-426: The people." The League of Nations was established as the symbol of the emerging postwar order; one of its earliest tasks was to legitimize the territorial boundaries of the new nation-states created in the territories of the former Ottoman Empire , Asia, and Africa. The principle of self-determination did not extend so far as to end colonialism; under the reasoning that the local populations were not civilized enough

19311-404: The political and economic independence and territorial integrity of the several Balkan states should be entered into. XII. The Turkish portion of the present Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure sovereignty, but the other nationalities which are now under Ottoman rule should be assured an undoubted security of life and an absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous development , and

19468-500: The political status of Taiwan. As noted, self-determination movements remain strong in some areas of the world . Some areas possess de facto independence, such as Taiwan, North Cyprus , Kosovo , and South Ossetia , but their independence is disputed by one or more major states. Significant movements for self-determination also persist for locations that lack de facto independence, such as East Turkistan ("Xinjiang"), Kurdistan , Balochistan , Chechnya , and Palestine . Since

19625-470: The populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable government whose title is to be determined. VI. The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a settlement of all questions affecting Russia as will secure the best and freest cooperation of the other nations of the world in obtaining for her an unhampered and unembarrassed opportunity for the independent determination of her own political development and national policy and assure her of

19782-457: The possibility of Communist revolutions inspired by the Russian example breaking out elsewhere, and offered his set of idealistic war aims to challenge Lenin's claims to the moral high ground. When drafting the 14 Points alongside his close adviser and friend, Colonel House, Wilson mostly spoke about Russia. The American historian N. M. Phelps wrote that in January 1918 Wilson "...needed to seize

19939-430: The principle was encouraged by both Soviet Premier Vladimir Lenin and United States President Woodrow Wilson . Having announced his Fourteen Points on 8 January 1918, on 11 February 1918 Wilson stated: "National aspirations must be respected; people may now be dominated and governed only by their own consent. 'Self determination' is not a mere phrase; it is an imperative principle of action." During World War II ,

20096-652: The principle was included in the Atlantic Charter , jointly declared on 14 August 1941 by Franklin D. Roosevelt , President of the United States, and Winston Churchill , Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, who pledged The Eight Principal points of the Charter. It was recognized as an international legal right after it was explicitly listed as a right in the UN Charter . Implementing the right to self-determination can be politically difficult, in part because there are multiple interpretations of what constitutes

20253-490: The proposed Anglo-American-French alliance null and void. Clemenceau and the other French leaders always felt that France had been "cheated" as the French made major concessions to the Anglo-American viewpoint in return for alliances that proved to be an illusion. Under the Treaty of Versailles, the Rhineland remained part of Germany, but was made into a permanent demilitarized zone and the French were allowed to occupy

20410-410: The public view. II. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of international covenants. 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

20567-628: The purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike. Wilson at first considered abandoning his speech after Lloyd George delivered a speech outlining British war aims, many of which were similar to Wilson's aspirations, at Caxton Hall on January 5, 1918. Lloyd George stated that he had consulted leaders of "the Great Dominions overseas" before making his speech, so it would appear that Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Newfoundland were in broad agreement. Wilson

20724-401: The right of self-determination does not necessarily include a right to an independent state for every ethnic group within a former colonial territory. Further, no right to secession is recognized under international law. The concept emerged with the rise of nationalism in the 19th century and came into prominent use in the 1860s, spreading rapidly thereafter. During and after World War I ,

20881-407: The right to self-determination was a universal right. In order to accommodate demands for minority rights and avoid secession and the creation of a separate new state, many states decentralize or devolve greater decision-making power to new or existing subunits or autonomous areas . Self-determination can be at odds with the principle of majority rule and equal rights, especially when there

21038-475: The rights of minorities under the Sublime Porte together with what was described with some understatement as the "undoubted security of life" was an implicit response to such policies. The studies culminated in a speech by Wilson to Congress on January 8, 1918, wherein he articulated America's long-term war objectives. The speech was the clearest expression of intention made by any of the belligerent nations, and it projected Wilson's progressive domestic policies into

21195-436: The seas . Wilson also made proposals that would ensure world peace in the future. For example, he proposed the removal of economic barriers between nations, the promise of self-determination for national minorities, and a world organization that would guarantee the "political independence and territorial integrity [of] great and small states alike" – a League of Nations . Though Wilson's idealism pervaded

21352-567: The surrounding countryside around Danzig was overwhelmingly Polish, and the ethnically Polish rural areas included in the Free City of Danzig objected, arguing that they wanted to be part of Poland. Neither the Poles nor the Germans were happy with this compromise and the Danzig issue became a flash-point of German-Polish tension throughout the interwar period. During the 1920s and 1930s there were some successful movements for self-determination in

21509-429: The term in the speech itself) as an opportunity to gain independence from colonial rule or expel foreign influence. Consequently, Wilson gained support from anti-colonial nationalist leaders in Europe's colonies and countries under European influence around the globe who were hopeful that Wilson would assist them in their goals. Around the world, Wilson was occasionally elevated to a quasi-religious figure; as someone who

21666-517: The territorial losses being far greater than those imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. Weinberg also noted that the Allied leaders at the Paris peace conference of 1919 imposed the Minorities treaty on Poland, intended to protect the rights of Poland's Volksdeutsche (ethnic German) minority whereas, in 1945, all of the Germans living in the lands assigned to Poland were forcibly expelled from their homes forever, leading him to ask rhetorically if

21823-417: The third world were rather to attempt to influence its development in order to transform it from 'backward' to 'sophisticated', the aim being to incorporate it into the commercial world, so that the U.S. could further benefit from trade with the global south. Furthermore, Wilson did not believe the third world was ready for self governance, asserting that a period of trusteeship and tutelage from colonial powers

21980-655: The union of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and the Kingdom of Serbia as new states out of the wreckage of the Habsburg empire . However, this imposition of states where some nationalities (especially Poles , Czechs , and Serbs and Romanians ) were given power over nationalities who disliked and distrusted them was eventually used as a pretext for German aggression in World War II . Wilson publicly argued that

22137-428: The war. The Allies would initially assess 269 billion marks in reparations . In 1921, this figure was established at 192 billion marks. However, only a fraction of the total had to be paid. The figure was designed to look imposing and show the public that Germany was being punished, but it also recognized what Germany could not realistically pay. Germany's ability and willingness to pay that sum continues to be

22294-446: The whole world will agree, must be evacuated and restored , without any attempt to limit the sovereignty which she enjoys in common with all other free nations. No other single act will serve as this will serve to restore confidence among the nations in the laws which they have themselves set and determined for the government of their relations with one another. Without this healing act the whole structure and validity of international law

22451-461: The will to join Germany in those regions, while the majority of people in Danzig wanted to remain within the Reich . However, the Allies ignored the German objections; Wilson's 14 Points had called for Polish independence to be restored and Poland to have "secure access to the sea", which would imply that the German city of Danzig (modern Gdańsk , Poland ), which occupied a strategic location where

22608-621: The working classes of France, Britain and Russia. In 1917, the party split over the issue of the war, with the anti-war faction forming the Independent Social Democratic Party . By then, the Majority Social Democrats were also becoming increasingly disenchanted, as discussions about the war often centered on annexations, making it apparent that the allegedly defensive war was in fact a war of conquest. The Majority Social Democrats voted with

22765-421: The year, Wilson sketched out his vision of an end to the war that would bring a "just and secure peace," not merely "a new balance of power." Congress had declared war on Germany on 9 April 1917 and until the 14 Points, Wilson's statements about American war aims had been rather vague, mostly limited to statements about being for democracy and against aggression. When Pope Benedict XV in a 1917 speech called for

22922-571: Was a statement of principles for peace that was to be used for peace negotiations in order to end World War I . The principles were outlined in a January 8, 1918 speech on war aims and peace terms to the United States Congress by President Woodrow Wilson . However, his main Allied colleagues ( Georges Clemenceau of France , David Lloyd George of the United Kingdom , and Vittorio Emanuele Orlando of Italy ) were skeptical of

23079-486: Was an agent of salvation and a bringer of peace and justice. During this 'Wilsonian moment', there was considerable optimism among anti-colonial nationalist leaders and movements that Wilson and the Fourteen Points were going to be an influential force that would re-shape the long established relationships between the West and the rest of the world. Many of them believed that the United States, given its history (particularly

23236-618: Was confusion on the part of both the Allies and the Kurds themselves if the Kurds were one of the "non-Turkish" groups promised autonomy in the Ottoman Empire by the 14 points. Theodore Roosevelt , in a January 1919 article titled, "The League of Nations", published in Metropolitan Magazine , warned: "If the League of Nations is built on a document as high-sounding and as meaningless as the speech in which Mr. Wilson laid down his fourteen points, it will simply add one more scrap to

23393-668: Was contrasted by the Soviet Union 's successful post-war expansionism. Tuva and several regional states in Eastern Europe , the Baltic , and Central Asia had been fully annexed by the Soviet Union during World War II. Now, it extended its influence by establishing the satellite states of Eastern Germany and the countries of Eastern Europe , along with support for revolutionary movements in China and North Korea . Although satellite states were independent and possessed sovereignty,

23550-521: Was one of the most active sections of the AN-PG, where people like Darius Xohán Cabana, Manuel María, or Xesús Picouto Emiliano Vázquez. The Cultural Front of the AN-PG was one of the most active sections of the Assembly, with members like Darío Xohán Cabana , Manuel María , Emiliano Picouto or Xesús Vázquez . Self-determination Self-determination refers to a people 's right to form its own political entity, and internal self-determination

23707-586: Was only at the moment of victory that Germany had been "stabbed-in-the-back" by the November revolution . Weinberg noted that pervasiveness of the Dolchstoßlegende was such that it explained the flippant way that Hitler declared war on the United States in 1941 with the full support of the Wehrmacht elite because it was genuinely believed by all of the German elites that Imperial Germany had crushed

23864-413: Was persuaded by his adviser House to go ahead, and Wilson's speech overshadowed Lloyd George's and is better remembered by posterity. The speech was made without prior coordination or consultation with Wilson's counterparts in Europe. Clemenceau , upon hearing of the Fourteen Points, was said to have sarcastically proclaimed, "The good Lord had only ten !" ( Le bon Dieu n'en avait que dix ! ). As

24021-435: Was pressured by Australia and the United Nations to give East Timor independence. The people of former Indonesian East Timor were given a choice of either greater autonomy within Indonesia or independence . 78.5% of East Timorese voted for independence, rejecting Indonesia's special autonomy proposal. The Cold War began to wind down after Mikhail Gorbachev assumed power as Soviet General Secretary in March 1985. With

24178-447: Was required to manage such a transition. Wilson viewed this approach as essential to the 'proper development' of colonised countries, reflecting his views about the inferiority of the non-European races. Moreover, Wilson was not by character or background an anti-colonialist or campaigner for rights and freedoms for all people, instead he was also very much a racist, a fundamental believer in white supremacy . For example, he had supported

24335-407: Was the German announcement of renewed unrestricted submarine warfare and the subsequent sinking of ships with Americans on board. But President Wilson's war aims went beyond the defense of maritime interests. In his War Message to Congress, Wilson declared that the United States' objective was " to vindicate the principles of peace and justice in the life of the world ." In several speeches earlier in

24492-502: Was the November Revolution of 1918. Weinberg wrote that there was nothing the Allies could have done to reconcile those Germans who believed in the Dolchstoßlegende that Germany had actually won the war in 1918 with the reality of their defeat. Weinberg wrote that given the way that the majority of Germans believed in the Dolchstoßlegende that it was inevitable that Germany would have made some sort of challenge to

24649-405: Was willing to accept having the Rhineland became a French puppet state under a permanent French military occupation. Marshal Ferdinand Foch , France's most respected and honored general, argued that the French needed control of the Rhineland in order to stand a chance of victory in another war with Germany, which Foch believed to be inevitable as the Allies had defeated, but not destroyed Germany as

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