How were President Wilsons 14 Points reflective of his idealistic philosophy?
In order to answer this question, one must examine the context of Wilson’s 14 points. The points were issued after the end of WWI – a time of rising nationalism, but also a time of increased imperialism. Wilson addressed nationalism and imperialism in an ‘idealistic’ fashion in his 14 points. Specifically, look at Point 12. WWI marked the beginning of the end for the Ottoman Empire, which was quite a lot of territory, spanning across the modern states of Iraq, Syria, and Jordan. In Point 12, Wilson claims that these territories that were once under Ottoman rule would now be assured ‘autonomous development’, meaning they would be independent. This is a very idealistic claim because at the end of WWI, all these territories were essentially colonies of Britain and France. Perhaps Wilson truly believed that every people had the right to a nation, but it is very idealistic to claim that this could be an acutality. In short, at this period of time, it was a radical idea to suggest that all p
