1919 ★^773recognizing the equality of all people, regardless of race. Hundreds of letters,
petitions, and declarations addressed to President Wilson made their way to
the Paris headquarters of the American delegation to the peace conference. Few
reached the president, as his private secretary, Gilbert Close, carefully screened
his mail.
Outside of Europe, however, the idea of “ self- determination” was stillborn.
When the peace conference opened, Secretary of State Robert Lansing warned
that the phrase was “loaded with dynamite” and would “raise hopes which can
never be realized.” Wilson’s language, he feared, had put “dangerous” ideas “into
the minds of certain races” and would inspire “impossible demands, and cause
trouble in many lands.” As Lansing anticipated, advocates of colonial inde-
pendence descended on Paris to lobby the peace negotiators. Arabs demanded
that a unified independent state be carved from the old Ottoman empire in the
Prague
ViennaLondon BerlinParisRomeSarajevo
ConstantinoplePetrogradMoscowBRITAINGREATFRANCEBELGIUMNETHERLANDSDENMARKNORWAY
SWEDENSPAINPORTUGAL ITALYSWITZERLANDGERMANYAUSTRO-HUNGARIANEMPIRE
ROMANIAMONTENEGROSERBIA BULGARIA
ALBANIA
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(OTTOMAN EMPIRE)TURKEYRUSSIALUXEMBOURGSicilyCrete CyprusNorth
SeaMediterranean SeaBaltic^ Sea^Black^ Sea^Atlantic
Ocean0
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250500 miles
500 kilometersAlliesCentral Powers
Neutral nationsEUROPE IN 1914World War I and the Versailles Treaty redrew the map of Europe and the Middle East. The
Austro- Hungarian and Ottoman empires ceased to exist, and Germany and Russia were
reduced in size. A group of new states emerged in eastern Europe, embodying the principle of
self- determination, one of Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points.
Why was 1919 such a watershed year for the United States and the world?