Thomas Woodrow Wilson(English) Thomas Woodrow Wilson, usually without a first name - Woodrow Wilson; December 28 ( 18561228 ) , Strawton, Virginia - February 3, Washington, DC) - 28th President of the United States (-). He is also known as a historian and political scientist. Winner of the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to him for his peacekeeping efforts.

Origin

Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born in Staunton, Virginia, to Joseph Wilson (-) and Janet Woodrow (-). His family is of Scottish and Irish descent, with his grandparents emigrating from Strabane, Northern Ireland, while his mother was born in Carlisle to Scottish parents. Wilson's father was from Steubenville, Ohio, where his grandfather was the publisher of an abolitionist newspaper. His parents moved to the South in 1851 and joined the Confederacy. His father defended slavery, ran a Sunday school for slaves, and also served as a chaplain in the Confederate army. Wilson's father was one of the founders of the Southern Presbyterian Church Society after it broke away from the Northern Presbyterian Church in 1861.

Childhood, youth

Thomas Woodrow Wilson did not learn to read until about age 12 and experienced learning difficulties. He mastered shorthand and made significant efforts to compensate for the lag in his studies. He studied at home with his father, then at a small school in Augusta. In 1873 he entered Davidson College in North Carolina, then entered Princeton University in 1879. Starting from the second year of study, he was actively interested in political philosophy and history. He was an active participant in the informal discussion club and organized the independent Liberal Debating Society. In 1879, Wilson attended law school at the University of Virginia, but did not receive a higher education there. Due to poor health, he went home to Wilmington (North Carolina), where he continued his independent studies.

Legal practice

In January 1882, Wilson decided to begin practicing law in Atlanta. One of Wilson's classmates at the University of Virginia invited Wilson to join his law firm as a partner. Wilson joined the partnership in May 1882 and began practicing law. There was fierce competition in the city with 143 other lawyers, Wilson rarely took cases and quickly became disillusioned with legal work. Wilson studied law with the goal of entering politics, but realized that he could pursue academic research while practicing law to gain experience. In April 1883, Wilson applied to Johns Hopkins University to study for a PhD in history and political science, and in July 1883 left the practice of law to begin an academic career.

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 he needed to do.

Wilson introduced primaries in New Jersey to elect candidates within the party and a number of social laws (for example, workers' accident insurance). Because of all this, he became known beyond one region.

Presidential election of 1912

Woodrow Wilson ran for the Democratic presidential nomination while serving as Governor of New Jersey. His candidacy was put forward by the Democratic Party as a compromise in Baltimore at a meeting from June 25 to July 2, after a long internal party crisis.

In the elections, Wilson's main rivals were the then-current 27th US President William Taft from the Republican Party and the 26th US President Theodore Roosevelt, who, after his resignation, broke relations with Taft and the Republican Party and created the Progressive Party. Roosevelt and Taft competed for the Republican vote, causing division and confusion in their camp, which made the task much easier for Democrat Wilson. According to American political scientists, if Roosevelt had not taken part in the elections, Wilson would hardly have won against Taft. Additionally, U.S. 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 the 531 electoral votes. Thomas Marshall was elected Vice President of the United States.

Woodrow Wilson became the first Southern president since Zachary Taylor was elected in 1848. He was the only US president to hold a doctorate and one of only two presidents, along with Theodore Roosevelt, who was also president of the American Historical Association.

First presidential term (1913-1917)

During his first presidential term, Woodrow Wilson pursued a New Freedom policy economic reforms- creation of the Federal Reserve System, banking reform, antimonopoly reform, foreign policy took a neutral position, trying to keep the country from joining the First world war.

Foreign policy

During 1914–1917, Woodrow Wilson kept the country from entering World War I. In 1916, he offered his services as a mediator, but the warring parties did not take his proposals seriously. Republicans, led by Theodore Roosevelt, criticized Wilson for his peace-loving policies and reluctance to create a strong army. At the same time, Wilson won the sympathy of pacifist-minded Americans, arguing that the arms race would lead to the US being drawn into war.

Wilson actively opposed the unrestricted submarine warfare that Germany had unleashed. As part of unrestricted submarine warfare, the German navy destroyed ships entering 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, causing 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 a complication of Anglo-American relations.

Presidential election of 1916

In 1916, Wilson was re-nominated as a presidential candidate. Wilson's main slogan was “He kept us out of war.” Wilson's opponent and Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes advocated for greater emphasis on mobilization and preparation for war, and Wilson's supporters accused him of dragging the country into war. Wilson came out with a fairly peace-loving program, but put pressure on Germany to end unrestricted submarine warfare. In the election campaign, Wilson emphasized his achievements, refraining from directly criticizing Hughes.

Wilson narrowly won the election, with vote counting taking days and causing controversy. Thus, Wilson won in California by a small margin of 3,773 votes, in New Hampshire by 54 votes, and lost to Hughes in Minnesota by 393 votes. In the electoral vote, Wilson received 277 votes and Hughes 254. Wilson is believed to have won the 1916 election largely due to voters who supported Theodore Roosevelt and Eugene Debs in 1912.

Second presidential term (1917-1921)

During Wilson's second term, he focused his efforts on World War I, which the United States entered on April 6, 1917, little more than a month into Wilson's second term.

The decision on US participation in the war

When Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917, Wilson decided to bring the United States into World War I. It did not sign alliance agreements with Great Britain or France, preferring to act independently as an "associated" (rather than allied) country. He formed a large army through conscription and appointed General John Pershing as commander, leaving him considerable discretion in matters of tactics, strategy, and even diplomacy. He called for "a declaration of war to end all wars" - this meant that he wanted to lay the foundations for a world without war, to prevent future catastrophic wars that would cause death and destruction. These intentions served as the basis for Wilson's Fourteen Points, which were developed and proposed to resolve territorial disputes, ensure free trade, and create a peacekeeping organization (which later emerged as the League of Nations). Woodrow Wilson by that time decided that the war had become a threat to all humanity. In his speech declaring war, he stated that if the United States had not entered the war, the entire Western civilization might have been destroyed.

Economic and social policy at the beginning of the war

To quell defeatism at home, Wilson passed through Congress the Espionage Act (1917) and the Sedition Act (1918), aimed at suppressing anti-British, anti-war, or pro-German sentiment. 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 rising wages under the Wilson administration. However, there was no price regulation, and retail prices increased sharply. When income taxes were increased, knowledge workers suffered the most. War bonds issued by the Government were a great success.

Wilson created a Committee on Public Information headed by George Creel, which disseminated patriotic anti-German messages and various forms carried out censorship, 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, which became known as the “Fourteen Points.”

Wilson's Fourteen Points (summary):

• I. Elimination of secret agreements, 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, resolution 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 based on nationality.
• X. Free development of the peoples of Austria-Hungary.
• XI. Liberation of the territories of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, providing Serbia with reliable access to the Adriatic Sea, guaranteeing 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 for the 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 union 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 and its allies. France wanted reparations from Germany because French industry and agriculture had been destroyed by the war, and 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 negotiations, trying to ensure that Clause 14 was implemented and the League of Nations was created. In the end, the agreement on the League of Nations was defeated 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 American countries, especially Mexico, Haiti, Cuba, and Panama. The US sent troops into Nicaragua and used them to support one of the Nicaraguan presidential candidates, then forced them to enter into the Bryan-Chamorro Agreement. American troops in Haiti forced the local parliament to choose a candidate supported by Wilson, and occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934.

After Russia experienced the October Revolution and emerged from the war, the Allies sent troops to prevent either the Bolsheviks or the Germans from appropriating weapons, ammunition, and other supplies that the Allies were providing to aid 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 tasks did not include fighting the Bolsheviks, but several clashes with them took place. Wilson withdrew the main force on April 1, 1920, although separate formations remained until 1922. At the end of World War I, Wilson, along with Lansing and Colby, laid the foundations for cold war and containment policies.

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 tried 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."

"Council of Four" at the Versailles Peace Conference

After the end of the First World War, Wilson participated in negotiations that resolved issues of statehood for oppressed nations and the establishment of an equal world. On January 8, 1918, Wilson gave a speech to Congress in which he voiced his peace theses, as well as the idea of ​​a League of Nations to help preserve the territorial integrity and political independence of nations large and small. He saw in his 14 theses the path to ending the war and achieving an equal peace for all nations.

Wilson spent six months in Paris, attending the Paris Peace Conference, and becoming the first US president to visit Europe while in office. job responsibilities. He constantly worked to promote his plans, and achieved the inclusion of a provision for the League of Nations in the Versailles Agreement.

Wilson, for his efforts to maintain peace, received in 1919 Nobel Prize peace (in total, four US presidents received the Nobel Peace Prize). However, Wilson was unable to obtain Senate ratification of the League of Nations agreement, and the United States did not join. The Republicans, led by House Henry, held the majority in the Senate after the 1918 elections, but Wilson refused to allow the Republicans to negotiate in Paris and rejected their proposed amendments. The main disagreement centered on whether the League of Nations would limit Congress's power to declare war. Historians have recognized the failure to join the League of Nations as the greatest failure of the Wilson administration.

End of the war

Wilson paid insufficient attention to the problems of demobilization after the war, this process was poorly managed and chaotic. Four million soldiers were sent home with little money. Soon problems arose in agriculture, many farmers went bankrupt. In 1919, there were riots in Chicago and other cities.

Following a series of attacks by radical anarchist groups in New York and other cities, Wilson directed Attorney General Mitchell Palmer to put an end to the violence. A decision was made to arrest internal propagandists and expel external ones.

IN recent years Wilson broke ties with many of his political allies. He wanted to run for a third term, but the Democratic Party did not support him.

Presidential Incapacity (1919-1921)

In 1919, Wilson actively campaigned for the ratification of the League of Nations agreement and traveled around the country to give 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, Colorado, on September 25, 1919, Wilson became seriously ill, and on October 2, 1919, he suffered a severe stroke, which left him paralyzed on the entire left side of his body and blind in one eye. For several months he could only move in a wheelchair; subsequently he was able to walk with a cane. It remains unclear who was responsible for executive decision-making during Wilson's incapacity, but it is believed that it was most likely the First Lady and presidential advisers. The president's inner circle, 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 risk taking on the responsibility of accepting the powers of the acting president, although some political forces called on him to do so.

Wilson was almost completely incapacitated for the remainder of his presidency, but this fact was hidden from the general public until his death on February 3, 1924.

After resignation

In 1921, Woodrow Wilson and his wife left White House and settled in Washington in the Embassy Row. In recent years, Wilson had a hard time with the failures to create the League of Nations, believed that he had deceived the American people and needlessly dragged the country into the First World War. Woodrow Wilson died on February 3, 1924, and was buried at the Washington Cathedral.

Hobbies

Woodrow Wilson was an avid car enthusiast and took daily road trips even while president. The president’s passion also influenced the financing of work on the construction of public roads. Woodrow Wilson was a baseball fan, played for the varsity team as a student, and in 1916 became the first current president USA attending the World Baseball Championship.

Representation in art. Memory

Woodrow Wilson is depicted on the $100,000 bill, the largest in the country's history.

Cabinet Woodrow Wilson
Vice President	Thomas Marshall (1913-1921)

Woodrow (Thomas) Wilson, US President

(1856–1924)

The first US president, under whom America began to exert a decisive influence on the course of events in Europe, Woodrow (Thomas) Wilson, was born on December 28, 1856 in the town of Stanton (Virginia), in the family of a very wealthy pastor, Joseph Ruggles Wilson, where he was the third child. Due to poor health, Thomas was forced to receive his primary education at home. Only at the age of 13 he entered the Dery School in Augusta (Georgia). Two years later, the family moved to Columbus (South Carolina), where he graduated from a local private school. Thomas was not a very diligent student, preferring to play baseball instead of studying. At the end of 1873, Wilson entered Davidson College in North Carolina, where ministers of the Presbyterian Church were trained, but in the summer of 1874 he left classes due to illness. In 1875, Wilson entered Princeton College, where he majored in government and special attention devoted to biographies of great British politicians: Disraeli, William Pitt the Younger, Palmerston, etc. His article on the US government was awarded a Princeton medal.

In 1879, Wilson entered the University of Virginia Law School, but already next year fell ill and returned to Wilmington (North Carolina), where his father had a wealthy parish. Here he independently studied the history, law and politics of England and the USA for three years. While still studying at the University of Virginia, Wilson fell in love with his cousin Henrietta Wood, but she refused to marry him because she was too closely related. In memory of his beloved, Wilson adopted the new name Woodrow in 1882. That same year in Atlanta, he successfully passed the exam at the local university to practice law. Together with a friend from the University of Virginia, Edward Resnik, they opened the law office of Resnik and Wilson, but very quickly went bankrupt.

In 1883, Wilson entered graduate school at Johns Hopkins University. In 1885, his voluminous monograph, The Government of Congress: A Study of American Politics, was published. There he, in particular, argued: “The decline in the reputation of presidents is not a reason, but only an inevitable evidence of the decline of the presidential office. This high office fell into decline as the power associated with it faded. And it faded because the power of the Congress began to predominate.” For this work, Wilson was awarded a special prize from Johns Hopkins University. That same year he married Elden Exxon, a beautiful and intelligent girl. In 1899, Wilson's main work, The State, was published, which provided a comparative analysis of systems of government in different countries.

After receiving his doctorate, Wilson went to teach history. He changed several educational institutions until he settled down as a teacher at Princeton College political sciences. Here Wilson made a successful career and in 1902 became rector of Princeton University. He tried to undertake a number of reforms at the university, but they were blocked by the reactionary professors. In 1910, Wilson cast his political lot with the Democratic Party and became governor of New Jersey. In this state he passed a number of laws on social insurance workers and thereby gained all-American fame.

In 1912, Wilson won the presidential election under the slogans of “new democracy” and “new freedom.” As president, during his first three years he achieved the passage of a number of laws ensuring freedom of competition and individual liberty and security. In 1913–1914, Wilson implemented tariff and banking reforms and passed antitrust legislation. He said that from now on the president should not be occupied almost exclusively internal affairs, as has happened before in American history. Wilson sincerely believed that "if the world really wants peace, it must follow America's moral precepts."

Wilson tried to create a league of countries of the Western Hemisphere, whose members would undertake to resolve all disputes peacefully, would mutually guarantee each other territorial integrity, non-interference in internal affairs and a republican form of government. In December 1914, a draft agreement was sent to all Latin American governments. The idea of ​​a Pan-American non-aggression pact was supported by the majority of states. However, due to opposition from Chile, which did not want to return the territory recently seized from Peru, the treaty was never concluded.

Wilson proclaimed the principle of democracy in politics and a free market in economics. At the same time, he undertook military interventions in Central American countries five times to protect the lives and property of American citizens, twice in Mexico, where there was a civil war.

At the beginning of 1914, the president's beloved wife died. This was a real tragedy for Wilson.

With the outbreak of World War I, the United States declared neutrality. Wilson said that the United States should be neutral not only in words but also in deeds, remaining “impartial in thought and action” and avoiding steps that could be seen as supporting one side in the fight against the other.

By the summer of 1915, Wilson was firmly established with his idea that it was necessary to create an international organization that would establish the rules of international life and take care of preserving peace. In this organization, he assigned the role of arbitrator to the United States in resolving international disputes. On May 27, 1916, speaking in New York to members of the Peace Enforcement League, the President spoke about new role America in the world: “The United States is not an outside observer. We are concerned about what the end of the war and the prospects for the post-war world will be like. The interests of all nations are our own interests." He proclaimed the basic principles that America would defend in international affairs: the right of any people to freely choose their own government; equality of rights of large and small states; respect for the rights of all peoples. Wilson promised that the United States would join any organization whose goal was to maintain peace and promote the principles he proclaimed.

The president conducted the 1916 election campaign under the slogan “He kept us out of war.” Wilson played the role of an impartial arbiter, to whom both warring coalitions would sooner or later be forced to turn. However, during the war the United States could only maintain trade relations with the Entente countries, since nothing could be transported to blockaded Germany.

On December 12, 1916, Germany made a proposal to begin peace negotiations. Wilson decided it was time to go on the diplomatic offensive. A week later, he issued a note calling on the warring states to make their war aims public. Germany, in a rather insulting manner, rejected the American proposal and refused to recognize the possible role of the United States as a mediator. After this, the Entente powers gave Wilson the most favorable answer, knowing full well that after Berlin’s negative reaction there would still be no peace negotiations. Wilson was supported by neutral countries: Switzerland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Encouraged by the success, Wilson called for a “peace without victory” in the Senate on January 22, 1917. He also outlined the American conditions for a future world: equality of peoples, freedom of the seas and trade, peace without annexations and indemnities.

Germany's introduction of "unrestricted submarine warfare" in January 1917, which bore the brunt of American shipping, became a pretext for declaring war on Germany that was convincing to millions of Americans. Now the principle of “freedom of the seas” - freedom of commercial shipping - has come to the fore. After Germany rejected US demands to abandon unrestricted submarine warfare, Wilson declared war on Germany on April 2, 1917.

Having entered the war, the United States did not join the Entente, but only became associated with it. Thus, Wilson emphasized the independent role of America, which in the future was to become the leading force in the anti-German coalition. On January 8, 1918, Wilson unveiled the American program for the post-war world - the famous “Fourteen Points”. They proclaimed open diplomacy, mandatory publication of treaties, freedom of the seas and trade, limitation of armaments, and the application of the “principle of nationalities”, according to which peoples and national minorities could choose in which state they would live. Wilson also insisted that Russia should be returned to the family of civilized states and have the right to freely choose its own form of government. The last paragraph spoke of the future League of Nations - “a general association of nations for the purpose of providing mutual and equal guarantees of the independence and integrity of states large and small.”

After Germany's surrender, the Fourteen Points were formally adopted as the basis for the work of the Paris Peace Conference. At this conference, Wilson, along with Lloyd George and Clemenceau, played a leading role. In particular, he achieved that, instead of simple section German colonies and Turkish possessions created the institution of mandate territories, which were administered by the powers under the mandate of the League of Nations and under its control. This administration was temporary in nature and was intended to prepare the relevant territories for gaining political independence. The United States itself did not take a single mandated territory.

Wilson, along with Lloyd George, opposed Clemenceau over the issue of continuing intervention in Russia. Unlike the French leader, they insisted that it was necessary to begin negotiations with the Bolsheviks.

Wilson sincerely believed that he was acting “according to the will of God.” In Paris, he repeatedly found himself against the united front of Lloyd George and Clemenceau and was forced to retreat. At times the American president found himself on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He considered his main victory to be the adoption of the Charter of the League of Nations at the Paris Conference. On February 14, 1919, Wilson declared that through the Covenant of the League of Nations, “we make ourselves dependent primarily on one great power- from the moral strength of world public opinion - from the cleansing, clarifying and coercive influence of publicity... The forces of darkness must perish under the all-penetrating light of unanimous condemnation of the whole world... The veil of mistrust and intrigue has been thrown off, people look at each other and say: we are brothers, we have something in common goal... This is our agreement of brotherhood and friendship.” But the actual post-war political reality had very little in common with this beautiful declaration.

The greatest tragedy for Wilson was that, having convinced European politicians of the need for the League of Nations, he could not convince the American people of its usefulness for US interests. He was never able to obtain the necessary two-thirds vote in the Senate to ratify the Treaty of Versailles. And the stumbling block was precisely the point about the League of Nations. Many Americans feared that by participating in this organization the United States would become too closely involved in European affairs.

Wilson rejected these demands. He did not give up and undertook a series of propaganda trips around the country, defending the idea of ​​the League of Nations. But in September 1919, in Pueblo (Colorado), the president suffered a stroke and became paralyzed. However, the bedridden president continued to fight. He spoke on the radio, arguing that the League of Nations was necessary to prevent another war. It's all in vain. The only consolation was the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to the creator of the League of Nations in November 1919. Chairman of the Norwegian Parliament A.I. Bouin, reporting the decision, thanked the laureate for introducing the “fundamental law of humanity” into world politics. The American ambassador to Norway, who accepted the award, read out Wilson's address. It said, in particular: “Humanity has not yet gotten rid of the unspeakable horror of war... I believe that our generation has made a significant step forward. But it would be wiser to consider that the work has just begun. It will be a long job."

Wilson's most important domestic political initiative, Prohibition, introduced in 1919 as the Volstead Act to implement the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, also ended in complete failure. However, its implementation in practice turned out to be impossible. Alcohol smuggling in the United States has reached unprecedented proportions. Off the American coast there was a huge flotilla of ships with smuggled alcohol from Canada, which was constantly delivered ashore by thousands of boats, yachts and boats. The American mafia consolidated in the trade in illegal alcohol, smuggled and produced in America. The Volstead Act and the 18th Amendment were repealed only in 1933 through the 21st Amendment to the Constitution under President Franklin Roosevelt. Wilson, based on Christian values, tried to rebel against human nature and failed.

On February 3, 1924, Woodrow Wilson, who had experienced the collapse of many of his endeavors, died. Under Wilson, America was recognized great power, made a decisive contribution to the victory of the Entente in the First World War, became the sole creditor of war-weary Europe, and laid the foundations of a new international system.

1856 I And now the possessed wanderer is again in Germany - in Gotha, in Weimar, greetings shake the whole country. In Germany, he learned that on June 26, the Academy of Fine Arts was the first on the list to represent him in a new vote; However, Félicien David and Gounod appear on the list.