<em>Note: It's </em><em><u>14</u></em><em> Points (not 4).</em>
The 14 Points were set forth by US President Woodrow Wilson in a speech he delivered to Congress in January, 1918. The 14 Points were his proposals for how to end the Great War (World War I) and establish international peace. The key idea was Point #14, establishing an organization like the League of Nations.
Quickly summarized, these were Wilson's 14 points:
1. Agreements between countries must be open, not secret.
2. Freedom of navigation on the seas by all nations at all times.
3. Free trade between countries accepting the peace, removing economic barriers between them.
4. All nations reduce their weapons and armies "to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety."
5. Adjustment of colonial claims in a fair and impartial way.
6. All German troops will leave Russian territory.
7. All foreign troops leave Belgium, and Belgian independence and sovereignty be restored.
8. French territory should be restored, including the disputed region of Alsace-Lorraine.
9. Readjustment of the borders of Italy "along clearly recognizable lines of nationality."
10. Austria-Hungary retain a place among the nations, but the peoples of Austria-Hungary should be granted the accorded for independence if they so choose.
11. The Central Powers' troops will leave the Balkans, and the Balkan states should enjoy political and economic independence.
12. Turkey shall remain as its own country, but other nationalities under the Ottoman Empire "should be assured an undoubted security of life" and "opportunity of autonomous development."
13. Poland is to be an independent country.
14. "A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike." - I quoted the 14th point in full, as this idea from Woodrow Wilson led to the formation of the League of Nations.
