Liberalism: Power, Economic Crisis, Reform, War 99not because he believed that the mostly non-white people in colonies were
equal or deserved to be treated well, but because empires had closed doors
for trade, and American businesses were being shut out of commerce in the
colonies. Wilson also wanted to create a system of collective security, an
arrangement where all the nations would join together to keep global peace.
Now, if one country acted aggressively or invaded other nations, as Germany
in 1914, an organization of states, not just the enemy of the aggressor, would
join together to stop the hostilities and punish the country which started the
fight.
Even though Wilson did not have a huge military backing him, his views
had to be taken seriously because the U.S. had emerged from the Great War
with more economic power than ever. The Americans had entered the war as
a debtor nation, owing over $10 billion to international creditors; but by the
time the war ended, the situation was reversed and the U.S. was the world’s
biggest creditor itself, with other states owing it more than $10 billion.
Money, Wilson understood, was power. The conference at Versailles would be
complex and long, covering a great number of topics. Three issues, however,
stood out, both for their importance at the time and maybe even more
because the failure to successfully address them led directly to a second World
War; they were the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, Germany, and the League
of Nations.
The Great War had begun when Germany invaded Russia in August, 1914.
The Russians at the time were allied with the French, and were led by a Tsar,
an autocratic ruler who dominated and oppressed his people and had no
desire to create a democracy. Inside Russia, various groups had been trying
to overthrow the tsar and a group known as the Bolsheviks, communists led
by Lenin, were gaining support by promising “peace, land, and bread” to the
Russian people—an end to the war, land reform for the peasants, and food
for those suffering from the famine. In March, 1917 another group overthrew
the tsar, making Wilson more comfortable with having Russia in his “war for
democracy,” but just months later, in November, the Bolsheviks took over.
Lenin and his comrades then established a government unlike any seen before.
They immediately made peace with Germany, and were forced to give a large
amount of Russian land to the Germans. They eliminated private property
and the state took over banks, factories, huge farms, and other businesses.
They began to give land taken from the wealthy to the peasants. The