Wilson Woodrow
Woodrow Wilson - the 28th US President ( 1913 - 1921 ). He is also known as a historian and political scientist. Laureate of the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize , awarded to him for his peacekeeping efforts.
A Democratic nominee , he was elected Governor of New Jersey in 1910 and President of the United States in 1912 when Republican votes split between Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft . He was re-elected in 1916 . His second term in office was marked by the entry of the United States into World War I (March 1917 ) and Wilson's active diplomatic efforts towards a peaceful settlement, expressed in the Fourteen Points . Wilson became the first US president to pay an official visit to Europe (to participate in the work Paris Peace Conference ). Wilson's proposals formed the basis of the Versailles Treaty. Wilson was one of the initiators of the creation of the League of Nations, but the US Senate refused to join this organization. In 1913, Wilson signed a bill to create the Federal Reserve System , which serves as the central bank of the United States, has instruments of state influence, but the form of ownership of capital is private - joint stock with a special status of shares. He was heavily influenced by Colonel House .
Woodrow Wilson: Origin
Woodrow Wilson was born in Staunton (State of Virginia ), the son of Dr. Joseph Wilson's theology ( 1822 - 1903 ) and Janet Woodrow ( 1826 - 1888 ). The mother's surname became his second (and later - the first) name.
Scottish and Irish blood predominated in Woodrow Wilson's veins. His paternal grandparents emigrated to the United States in 1807 from Strabane, County Tyrone , Northern Ireland . Having settled in Ohio , Wilson's grandfather soon began publishing the abolitionist and protectionist newspaper The Western Herald and Gazette. In Steubenville, Ohio , he had a son, Joseph Ruggles, who did not follow in his father's footsteps.
Presbyterian theologian Joseph Ruggles Wilson married Janet Woodrow, a native of Carlisle ( Cumberland, England ). Her father, Dr. Thomas Woodrow, and mother, Marion Williamson, were Scottish. In 1851, Joseph and Janet moved to the South, where Joseph Ruggles Wilson soon bought slaves and declared himself an ideological defender of slavery . However, being a relatively humane man, Joseph organized a Sunday school for his slaves. In 1861, the Wilsons came out in support of the Confederation... At the church, they opened a hospital for the wounded soldiers. Joseph Ruggles Wilson co-founded the Southern Presbyterian Church Society (which split from the Northern in 1861). Joseph Ruggles soon joined the Confederate Army as a chaplain. Of Woodrow Wilson's childhood memories, the most vivid words of his father were: " Abraham Lincoln was elected president - that means there will be war!" and meeting with General Robert Lee .
Woodrow Wilson: Childhood and Youth
Thomas Woodrow Wilson did not learn to read until about 12 years old, having difficulty learning. Then he mastered stenography and made significant efforts to compensate for the gap in studies. He studied at his father's home, then - in a small school in August.
In 1873 he entered Davidson College in North Carolina , which trained ministers of the Presbyterian Church. In the same year, Woodrow joined the Columbian First Presbyterian Church and remained a member until the end of his days. Due to illness, he left college in the summer of 1874 and settled in Wilmington, North Carolina, where his family now lived.
In 1879, Wilson entered the University of Virginia Law School , but in late 1880, due to poor health, he went home to Wilmington, where he continued his independent studies.In 1875 he entered Princeton University , graduating in 1879. Starting from the second year of study, he was actively interested in political philosophy and history, was an active participant in the informal discussion club, organized an independent Liberal Discussion Society.
Woodrow Wilson: Legal practice
In 1882 in Atlanta, he successfully passed the exam for the right to practice law. One of Wilson's fellow students at the University of Virginia invited him to join his law firm as a partner. Wilson joined the partnership in May 1882 and began his legal practice. There was fierce competition in the city with 143 other lawyers, Wilson rarely dealt with cases and quickly became disenchanted with legal work. Wilson studied legislation in order to enter politics, but realized that he could not continue his scientific research and at the same time practice law in order to gain experience, and in July 1883 he left legal practice to pursue an academic career.
Woodrow Wilson: Academic career
In April 1883, Wilson entered graduate school at Johns Hopkins University to study for a Ph.D. in history and political science. In January 1885, he published his book "Rule of Congress: A Study of American Politics", which proposed a reform of state power in the United States by strengthening the executive power - the president and members of his cabinet. For this book, Wilson was awarded a Special Prize from Johns Hopkins University.
After receiving his doctorate in 1886, Wilson went to teach history at Bryn Mawr Women's College, near Philadelphia, then moved to Wesleyan University in Connecticut. In 1890 he was invited to teach political science at Princeton University. Wrote A History of the American People. Vol. 1-5, 1902. In 1902-1910 he was rector of Princeton University.
Woodrow Wilson: Governor of New Jersey
In November 1910, he was elected Governor of New Jersey. As governor, he did not follow the party line and decided for himself what to do.
Wilson held a primary in New Jersey for the inner-party election of candidates and a number of social laws (for example, workers' accident insurance). Because of all this, he became known outside of one region.
Woodrow Wilson: 1912 Presidential Election
Woodrow Wilson ran for the Democratic presidency as Governor of New Jersey. His candidacy was nominated by the Democratic Party as a compromise in Baltimore at a meeting June 25 - July 2 after a prolonged internal party crisis.
In the election, Wilson's main rivals were the then 27th President of the United States, William Taft of the Republican Party, and the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, who, after resigning, broke off relations with Taft and the Republican Party and created the Progressive Party . Roosevelt and Taft vied for the Republican votes, causing division and confusion in the camp of their supporters, which greatly facilitated the task of Democrat Wilson. According to American political scientists, if Roosevelt did not participate in the elections, Wilson would hardly have won against Taft. In addition, US Vice President James Sherman died on October 30, 1912 , leaving Taft without a vice presidential candidate.
According to the election results, Woodrow Wilson received 41.8% of the vote, Theodore Roosevelt - 27.4%, William Taft - 23.2%. Woodrow Wilson won most of the states and subsequently received 435 of 531 electoral votes. Thomas Marshall was elected Vice President of the United States.
Woodrow Wilson became the first Southerner president since Zachary Taylor , who was elected in 1848 . He was the only US president to hold a doctorate and one of two presidents, along with Theodore Roosevelt, who was also president of the American Historical Association.
Woodrow Wilson: First presidential term (1913-1917)
During his first presidential term, Woodrow Wilson, within the framework of the New Freedom policy , carried out economic reforms - the creation of a federal reserve system, banking reform, antimonopoly reform, he held a neutral position in foreign policy, trying to keep the country from entering the First World War.
Foreign policy
During 1914-1917, Woodrow Wilson kept the country from entering the First World War . In 1916, he offered his services as an intermediary, but the warring parties did not take his proposals seriously. Republicans, led by Theodore Roosevelt, criticized Wilson for his peaceful policy and unwillingness to create a strong army. At the same time, Wilson won the sympathy of pacifist Americans, arguing that the arms race would lead to the United States being drawn into the war.
Wilson actively opposed the unlimited submarine war that Germany unleashed. As part of unrestricted submarine warfare, the German naval forces destroyed ships in the area adjacent to Great Britain. On May 7, 1915, a German submarine sank the passenger liner Lusitania , killing more than 1,000 people, including 124 Americans, which caused outrage in the United States. In 1916, he issued an ultimatum against Germany to end unrestricted submarine warfare, and also dismissed his pacifist secretary of state, Brian. Germany agreed to Wilson's demands, after which he demanded that Great Britain limit the naval blockade of Germany, which led to the complication of Anglo-American relations.
Woodrow Wilson: 1916 Presidential Election
In 1916, Wilson was re-nominated as a presidential candidate. Wilson's main slogan was "He saved us from war." Wilson's opponent and Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes advocated a greater focus on mobilization and preparation for war, and Wilson's supporters accused him of dragging the country into the war. Wilson came out with a rather peaceful program, but put pressure on Germany in order to end unrestricted submarine warfare. In the election campaign, Wilson focused on his achievements, refraining from direct criticism of Hughes.
Wilson won the election with difficulty, counting the votes lasted for several days and caused controversy. So, in California, Wilson won by a small margin of 3,773 votes, in New Hampshire by a margin of 54 votes, and lost to Hughes in Minnesota by a difference of 393 votes. In the electoral vote, 277 votes were cast for Wilson, 254 for Hughes. It is believed that Wilson won the 1916 election mainly due to the voters who supported Theodore Roosevelt and Eugene Debs in 1912 .
Woodrow Wilson: Second presidential term (1917-1921)
During his second term as president, Wilson focused his efforts on World War I, which the United States entered on April 6, 1917, just over a month after the start of Wilson's second presidential term.
Decision on US participation in the war
When Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917, Wilson made the decision for the United States to enter World War I. He did not sign allied agreements with Great Britain or France, preferring to act independently as an "associated" (not allied) country. He formed a large army through conscription and appointed General John Pershing as commander , leaving him considerable margin of appreciation in matters of tactics, strategy, and even diplomacy. He called for "declaring war to end all wars" - which meant that he wanted to lay the foundations for a world without war, to prevent future catastrophic wars that would sow death and destruction. These intentions served as the basis for the " Fourteen PointsWilson, which were developed and proposed with the aim of resolving territorial disputes, ensuring free trade, creating a peacekeeping organization (which later appeared as the League of Nations ). Woodrow Wilson by that time decided that the war had become a threat to all mankind. In his speech on the declaration of war, he stated that if the United States did not get involved in the war, the entire Western civilization could be destroyed.
Economic and social policy at the beginning of the war
To suppress defeatism at home, Wilson passed the Espionage Act (1917) and the Rebellion Act (1918) through Congress to suppress anti-British, anti-war, or pro-German sentiments. He supported the socialists, who, in turn, supported participation in the war. Although he himself had no sympathy for radical organizations, they saw great benefits in the rise in salaries under the Wilson administration. However, there was no price regulation and retail prices rose sharply. When the income tax was increased, knowledge workers were hardest hit. War bonds issued by the Government were very successful.
Wilson created a Public Information Committee headed by George Creel, which distributed patriotic anti-German messages and censored in various forms, popularly called the Creel Commission (basket committee).
Wilson's Fourteen Points
In his speech to Congress on January 8, 1918, Woodrow Wilson formulated his theses on the objectives of the war, known as the "Fourteen Points".
Fourteen points of Wilson (summary):
- I. Exclusion of secret agreements, the openness of international diplomacy.
- II. Freedom of navigation outside territorial waters
- III. Freedom of trade, removal of economic barriers
- IV. Disarmament, reducing the armament of countries to the minimum level necessary to ensure national security.
- V. Free and impartial consideration of all colonial issues, taking into account both the colonial claims of the owners of the colonies and the interests of the population of the colonies.
- Vi. Liberation of Russian territories, solution of its issues based on its independence and freedom to choose the form of government.
- Vii. Liberation of the territory of Belgium, recognition of its sovereignty.
- VIII. Liberation of French territories, restoration of justice for Alsace-Lorraine, occupied in 1871.
- IX. Establishing the borders of Italy on a national basis.
- X. Free development of the peoples of Austria-Hungary.
- XI. The liberation of the territories of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, providing Serbia with a reliable outlet to the Adriatic Sea, guarantees of the independence of the Balkan states.
- XII. The independence of the Turkish parts of the Ottoman Empire (modern Turkey), simultaneously with the sovereignty and autonomous development of the peoples under Turkish rule, the openness of the Dardanelles to free passage of ships.
- XIII. Creation of an independent Polish state, uniting all Polish territories and with access to the sea.
- XIV. Creation of a general international unification of nations in order to guarantee the integrity and independence of both large and small states.
Wilson's speech caused a mixed reaction both in the United States itself and among its allies. France wanted reparations from Germany, since French industry and agriculture were destroyed by the war, and Great Britain, as the most powerful naval power, did not want freedom of navigation. Wilson made compromises with Clemenceau, Lloyd George and other European leaders during the Paris peace talks, trying to get the fourteenth point to be fulfilled, and the League of Nations was created. In the end, the League of Nations agreement was ruined by Congress, and in Europe, only 4 of the 14 theses were implemented.
Other military and diplomatic actions
From 1914 to 1918, the United States repeatedly intervened in the affairs of Latin America, especially Mexico, Haiti, Cuba, Panama. The US brought troops into Nicaragua and used them to support one of the Nicaraguan presidential candidates, then forced them to enter into the Brian-Chamorro agreement. American troops in Haiti forced the local parliament to select a candidate supported by Wilson and occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934.
After the October Revolution took place in Russia and it withdrew from the war, the Allies sent troops to prevent the Bolsheviks or Germans from appropriating weapons, ammunition and other supplies that the Allies were carrying out to help the Provisional Government . Wilson sent expeditions to the Trans-Siberian Railway, to the key port cities of Arkhangelsk and Vladivostok, in order to intercept supplies for the Provisional Government. Their task was not to fight the Bolsheviks, but there were several clashes with them. Wilson withdrew the main force from April 1, 1920, although individual formations remained until 1922. At the end of World War I, Wilson, along with Lansing and Colby, laid the foundations for the Cold War and containment.
Treaty of Versailles 1919
American diplomat Robert Murphy, who worked in Munich in the first half of the 1920s, wrote in his memoirs: “From everything I saw, I had great doubts about the correctness of Woodrow Wilson's approach, who was trying to resolve the issue of self-determination by force . His radical ideas and superficial knowledge of the practical aspects of European politics led to even greater European disintegration ”.
After the end of the First World War, Wilson participated in negotiations at which the issues of statehood of oppressed nations and the establishment of an equal peace were resolved. On January 8, 1918, Wilson delivered a speech in Congress in which he announced his theses of peace, as well as the idea of the League of Nations to help preserve the territorial integrity and political independence of large and small nations. He saw in his 14 theses the way to end the war and achieve an equal peace for all nations.
Back in 1918, in a conversation with S. Exxon, Wilson stated that
Wilson spent six months in Paris attending the Paris Peace Conference and becoming the first US president to visit Europe in office. He constantly worked to promote his plans, achieved the inclusion of a provision on the League of Nations in the Versailles Agreement. Wilson supported the independence of Czechoslovakia .
Wilson received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919 for his efforts to maintain peace (a total of this prize was awarded to four US presidents). However, Wilson was unable to get the Senate to ratify the League of Nations agreement, and the United States did not join. Republicans, led by Sen. Henry Lodge, formed the majority in the Senate after the elections of 1918, but Wilson refused to allow Republicans to the Paris talks and rejected their proposed amendments. The main disagreement was whether the League of Nations would limit the right of Congress to declare war. Historians have recognized the failed attempt to enter the League of Nations as the biggest failure of the Wilson administration.
The end of the war
Wilson paid insufficient attention to the problems of demobilization after the war, the process was poorly managed and chaotic. Four million soldiers were sent home with little money. Soon there were problems in agriculture, many farmers went bankrupt. In 1919, riots took place in Chicago and other cities.
After a series of attacks by radical anarchist groups in New York and other cities, Wilson sent Attorney General Mitchell Palmer to end the violence. It was decided to arrest internal propagandists and expel external ones.
In recent years, Wilson has severed ties with many of his political allies. He wanted to run for a third term, but the Democratic Party did not support him.
The incapacity of the president (1919-1921)
In 1919, Wilson actively campaigned for the ratification of the agreement on the League of Nations, traveled around the country with speeches, as a result of which he began to experience physical strain and fatigue. After one of his speeches in support of the League of Nations in Pueblo, on September 25, 1919, Wilson fell seriously ill, and on October 2, 1919, he suffered a severe stroke , as a result of which his entire left side of the body was paralyzed and he was blind in one eye. For several months he could only move in a wheelchair, later he could walk with a cane. It remains unclear who was responsible for making executive decisions during Wilson's disability period. It is believed that most likely it was the first lady.and presidential advisers. The inner circle of the president, led by his wife, completely isolated Vice President Thomas Marshall from the course of presidential correspondence, signing papers and other things. Marshall himself did not dare to assume the responsibility of assuming the powers of acting president, although some political forces urged him to do so.
After the resignation]
In 1921, Woodrow Wilson and his wife left the White House and settled in Washington in the Embassy Row . In the same year, Woodrow became an honorary doctor of the University of Warsaw. In recent years, Wilson grieved at the setbacks in creating the League of Nations, believed that he had deceived the American people and in vain dragged the country into the First World War. Woodrow Wilson died on February 3, 1924, and was buried in Washington Cathedral .
Woodrow Wilson: Hobbies
Woodrow Wilson was a passionate car enthusiast and made daily car trips even as president. The president's passion also influenced the financing of the construction of public roads. Woodrow Wilson was a baseball fan who played for the student team as a student, and in 1916 became the first incumbent US president to attend the Baseball World Cup.
Woodrow Wilson: Display in art. Memory
In 1944 about Wilson was filmed biopic " Wilson " ( Eng. Wilson ) directed by Henry King, with Alexander Knox in the title role (the film won five " Oscars ").
Woodrow Wilson is depicted on the banknote with a nominal value of 100 thousand. Dollars, the largest in the history of the country.
In 1968 in his memory-based International Research Center Woodrow Wilson [ (Washington).
In the Polish city of Poznan, there is a monument to Woodrow Wilson, erected on the site of the transferred monument to the leader of the Polish workers' movement Marcin Kaspshak.
On November 5, 2011, a monument to Woodrow Wilson was unveiled in Prague ( Czech Republic ). This is the second monument, and the first was destroyed during the Second World War.
In the episode " Bart the Lover " of the animated series "The Simpsons" Bart arranged a correspondence with Miss Crabapple, introducing himself as Woodrow
