Truly Modern History

Woodrow Wilson’s fourteen points illustrate the kind of political thought that today, we consider logical. The horrors of the Great War rocked the world so hard that it became more humane. It was after the second great wave of colonization that the War began; a war in which there were great advances in technology that had not been met by advances in strategy, leading to absolutely senseless killings and sacrifices. It appears to me that the officers and soldiers were either too stupid or lazy to realize their mistakes, which were never corrected until the very end of the war. The hundreds of thousands of deaths on all sides showed the world that something was wrong with it, and it needed to be fixed everywhere. In his fourteen points Wilson calls for free trade, shared waters, the restoration of a more balanced Europe, and a covenant of nations—in a sense uniting the world into one nation that cares for all of its citizens equally. This is a radical change from common interests and opinions prior to the war. He shows a concern for the interests and sovereignty of colonial populations, considering their well being to be as important as the economic interests of the homeland. To me this is very significant; I have gotten used to interpreting history as motivated by peoples’ self-interest, either for leisure or wealth. Humanity was never a motivation, its sudden appearance is truly modern.