APUSH DBQ Versailles Treaty

 	Many people have supported the league of nations, though some showed more support than others. Some of the opponents of the treaty of Versailles, the cornerstone of the League of Nations, did not support the treaty on the grounds that it had multiple faults. The writers of The New Republic believed that Liberals made the treaty into a punishment of Germany rather than a solution to the causes of The Great War (Doc.B). Others did not support the treaty as they were against the League of Nations itself, and not the idea behind the League itself. Women of the Woman's Peace Party agreed that an international organization was necessary, though they were divided as to whether it was the League that was needed or another organization (Doc.I). Despite all of the support that the Treaty of Versailles and League of Nations faced however, and after three votes in the Senate, it was ultimately the United States representative who negotiated the Treaty, Woodrow Wilson, who caused it to be voted down. It was ultimately the stubbornness and pride that Wilson had that caused the Treaty of Versailles to fail in the senate.
	Though it was Wilson that caused the Treaty to fail, it was ultimately the senate that voted down and defeated the treaty. William Borah, like many other senators ultimately chose not to support the Treaty because if it were ratified it would necessitate United States involvement in foreign affairs (Doc.A), as the U.S. was to be one of the five leaders of the League. At the time the treaty was not ratified, many people were still heeding the call of George Washington not to get entangled in foreign affairs, and many people were afraid that foreign governments working together could dominate the United States. Many were fearful of communism in the wake of the end of the Great War, and if Europe were to fall to communism while the United States was in the league, The U.S. could be made to follow directives that were not in the interests of democracy. In some cases, the senators did have a personal vendetta against the President, and decided to vote down the treaty to defy Wilson. It was very well known that Henry Cabot Lodge hated then President Wilson, and as Wilson decided to exclude even senators from the negotiations of the Treaty of Versailles, they used their constitutional right to not ratify the treaty(Doc.E). Wilson went so far as to not even let Lodge carry the treaty into the chambers of the senate, which widened the gap between them and likely became the cause for Lodge to go against the treaty. The pride in the treaty that Wilson had coupled with his idealistic goals made him an easy target for the senators, who then had no problem voting down the treaty.
	 Wilson in his pride was so bold as to refuse the senate's modifications to the Treaty of Versailles gave them an ultimatum: ratify the treaty or vote it down, and the senate ultimately decided on three separate occasions not to ratify the treaty. Herbert Hoover personally told Wilson to accept the reservations the senate had or the american people would not distinguish between The League of Nations and the wrongdoings of the treaty(Doc.D). Wilson's steadfast dedication to the League of Nations ultimately lead to the compromising away of all but one of his fourteen points. Clemenceau's ideas ultimately came to dominate the treaty, even though the terms were abhorrent and detestable(Doc.F) and if Wilson had given up on the League and given lighter terms to Germany, than it is likely that the treaty would have passed. The fact that a large portion of the country was made up of Germans meant that Wilson was alienating a large portion of the american people by proposing a treaty that ultimately punished Germany for a war that was not their fault. W.E.B. Du Bois, a prominent political figure of the time for the African American community, believed that Wilson's stubbornness was one of the main reasons that the Senate decided to exclude the U.S. from the League of Nations (Doc.H). His opposition to Wilson likely caused a great deal of African Americans to withdraw their support from the treaty of Versailles. Because Du Bois was a leader in the academic field, he also spread his ideas to many college bound students that, although a smaller percentage of the population than today, was still significant in that his students were among the few to receive a college education at the time. Amidst all of the disapproval, Wilson launched a campaign to garner support for the treaty. One of his most effective arguments was that the people will not see peace in the world, and that the League would fail if the senate failed to ratify the treaty (Doc.C). Although it will never be known whether or not Radicals in Germany could have risen to power without U.S. support of the treaty, it is certain that the League of Nations failed because the U.S. was not a part of it. To quell the fears of the strict constructionists, Wilson argued that the League of Nations would help to uphold the dream of the founders to protect the assertion of the rights of man (Doc.G). Some of the senators against the treaty believed that making a treaty without consultation from the senate was unconstitutional, and the assertion that the founders of the country supporting the ideals of the treaty convinced some to support the treaty. Ironically Wilson was paralyzed while trying to gain support for the Versailles Treaty, and he eventually died shortly after the treaty was defeated.
	Despite Wilson's pleas to the American people, he was not able to convince enough to influence the senate to ratify it. Wilson's stubbornness ultimately led to the failure of the treaty, as too many Americans were unwilling to get involved in foreign entanglements. Though Wilson wanted the League of Nations more than anything else, he would have done better to keep some of his fourteen points and lose the League than compromise away all but one.