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Dbq Treaty Of Versailles

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Many factors contribute to a group of people failing to accomplish a goal, but the stubbornness of participants often is a leading cause. The Senate’s failure to ratify the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 shows this idea, due to the feud between President Woodrow Wilson and the Internationalists, and Henry Cabot Lodge and the Reservationists. The Internationalists fully supported the passing of the Treaty of Versailles, whereas the Reservationists believed it was necessary to change the Treaty, specifically Article Ten. Similarly, Borah and the Irreconcilables believed that the League of Nations was in conflict with one of the ideals the nation was founded on; to not engage in foreign entanglements. As Senator William Borah, put it, the League …show more content…

The Republicans resisted the Treaty because they believed that if it were to be ratified, Wilson’s prestige would soar and he might even be re-elected for a third time (Bailey, 184). Thus, the Republican Party was against the Treaty of Versailles in its original form out of fear. Wilson fully believed that the Treaty was going to bring world peace, and regardless of this belief, the Republican Party voted against it because of who came up with it. Wilson fought greatly for it and said that if the Treaty failed that he would gather all the soldiers who fought in World War One and tell them “I told you before you went across the seas that this was a war against wars and I did my best to fulfill the promise, but I am obliged to come to you in mortifications and shame and say I have not been able to fulfill the promise,” (Wilson). Wilson was willing to take blame for the hypothetical failure of the Treaty of Versailles and the Republicans still voted against it because they did not want Wilson’s popularity to go up. Wilson believed so strongly in Article Ten that he believed that the League of Nations would justify the United States’ honor and bring peace to the world (Wilson). The belief that the Republican Party did not ratify the Treaty because they did not want to risk another Wilson presidency is absurd. This idea perpetuates the idea that if one person, in a position of power, strongly believes in something, then it must good. One can apply this idea to how strongly Wilson believed in the Treaty of Versailles, yet it was not enough to convince the Senate that the League of Nations’ Collective Security Covenant was a good idea. It was not the Republican Party’s fear of a third term of Wilson that caused the death of the Treaty, but Wilson himself. The belief that if

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