A Rhetorical Analysis Of Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points

Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States of America, was a very erudite man. Prior to entering politics, he held the title of president of Princeton University for 8 years, having previously received a PHD in Political Science himself from Johns Hopkins University. Following a stint as the Governor of New Jersey, Wilson entered the White House in 1913, less than a year before World War 1. When the United States did finally declare war on Germany in 1917, they did so as an independent power that was allied to the Allies. Roughly one year prior to the American entrance into World War 1, the British and the French had carved up the holdings of the former Ottoman Empire in the Arab world to add to their overseas colonies in the Sykes-Picot

agreement . The lands acquired in this agreement added to the British stable of overseas colonies, including India and Egypt. Egypt had been administered and occupied by the British since 1882 (following the conclusion of the failed Urabi Revolt), and serves as a perfect case study for how a more established colony in the Middle East would react to colonialism following the conclusion of World War 1. The treatment of Egypt during World War 1 by the British gave rise to far more widespread anti-British sentiment in the country . Just as anti-British sentiment began to rise to ubiquity in post World War 1 Egypt, US President Woodrow Wilson had what has become known as his “Wilsonian moment”. The Wilsonian moment has been viewed domestically as a major turning point in American foreign policy relations, and internationally as a dramatic shift in the moral acceptance of colonization. The Wilsonian moment wasn’t so much a direct address, as it was a sentiment given by Wilson from 1918 to the end of the 1919 Paris Peace conference, that people should have the right to be governed by their own consent, which is to say that they approve of those who are governing them . Though the Wilsonian moment didn’t have a direct legislative impact on anti-colonial nationalism in the Middle East, it did serve as the main impetus and ideological rallying point for these movements, as his beliefs provided them with an ideal to follow, a way to convince their countrymen that a large western power supported them, and a shift that took power away from colonial rulers internationally.
The Wilsonian moment, and specifically his fourteen points, provided anti-colonial nationalists in the Middle East with an ideal to support and to sell to their followers.

Though the Wilsonian moment encompasses all of Wilson’s rhetoric between 1918 and the 1919 Paris Peace conference , his most important and precise declaration against colonization was in his fourteen points speech. Given on January 8th, 1918, the fourteen points speech was meant by Wilson to set out his goals for the post-war period and sustainable peace. In the fourteen points, Wilson outlined what he felt were the main causes for World War 1 and, therefore, what he felt needed to be fixed to protect enduring peace. Among other issues, namely secret treaties and an excess of armaments, Wilson directly took aim at the legitimacy of colonial claims. Wilson effectively suggested that these claims were being made in the name of colonists, not in the interests of the native peoples and the freedom of the seas . In response to the issue of colonization, Wilson proposed the “removal of economic barriers between nations, the promise of ‘self-determination’ for those oppressed minorities, and a world organization that would provide a system of collective security for all nations.” . Within America, Wilson surprisingly found some opposition to his ideas. Robert Lansing, the Secretary of State at the time, believed that there was a danger in putting the idea of “self-determination” in the minds of certain races. While Wilson obviously stood by his vision for peace in the fourteen points, some of his counterparts in other allied nations were slightly less enthused. When all the allied powers met in Versailles in 1919 to discuss the terms of peace and end World War 1, Wilson quickly realized that not everyone agreed with his opinion. Wilson felt that England, France, and Italy were mostly interested in retrieving property they had lost in the war, and then expanding upon those holdings as a way to punish the

Germans. Additionally, some Germans felt that Wilson’s fourteen points weren’t going to apply for them . Despite these concerns from all sides of the issue, the fourteen points were cited as the basis for the German Armistice in November 1918, and eventually had a great deal of influence on the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. Wilson’s reasons for making his fourteen points speech, which directly challenges the power structure enjoyed by some of his country’s greatest allies, are the subject of debate. All of these progressions in the West led the now anti-colonial Egyptians to be very excited by time the armistice was signed, as they believed that they would finally be getting the opportunity to break free from the harsh colonial rule, which had forced inflation, requisitions, and conscription upon an unwilling Egyptian people. They felt that the post-war world order would reflect Wilsonian rhetoric, which matched other liberal western rhetoric, and that it was only a matter of time before they would be able to free themselves from the shackles of colonial rule . The Wilsonian moment gave them an idea to look too, a concept that was being preached by some of the most powerful men in the world in the west. It gave them a legitimate ideological goal to work towards, and to sell potential followers on. A combination of this logical, and coherent, ideology, and the atrocious wartime conditions faced by the Egyptian people at the hands of their colonial rulers, allowed Egyptian nationalists to gather the support they needed back home, and to a certain extent abroad, to launch a major independence movement. Though the Wilsonian moment didn’t directly legislate this action, its rhetoric and overarching message certainly gave the Egyptian nationalist movement, and many other future nationalist movements in the Middle East, the impetus it needed to push forward and succeed. What’s perhaps most incredible about the use of the fourteen points as a point of motivation and ideology for Middle Eastern nationalists is that it was used to inspire a violent series of revolts and uprisings, something that Wilson never intended. Wilson issued the fourteen points as a guideline for a process of democratic deliberation and regime change, never as a spark point for violence . The fact that the fourteen points could be used as a doctrine to inspire violent and urgent revolt against an oppressive power, when it was designed to be used as a basis for democratic deliberation and peace making negotiations, shows just how relevant and powerful the fourteen points were to Middle Eastern nationalists, and how easy it was for the leaders of nationalist movements to sell the ideologies from the Wilsonian moment to their followers. In fact, the rhetoric of the Wilsonian moment was so popular in Egypt, that when Wilson would go on to recognize the British protectorate in 1919, many Egyptians didn’t blame him and felt that other government officials forced him to do so. Unbeknownst to the majority of the public at the time, this theory was actually was true, as Wilson was convinced by British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour that it was Wilson’s fourteen points speech that was driving much of the violence against Britain at Egypt at the time .
Though the Wilsonian moment didn’t directly liberate Egypt and other Middle Eastern nations from colonial rule, it did give nationalist groups a sense of legitimacy because they were able to claim that they were following a rhetoric set by the great western superpower that was America. Before World War 1, the colonial rule of the British wasn’t universally seen as a bad thing in Egypt. From 1882 the politics and economy of the country were stable, engendering a period of sustained economic growth . During the war, however, Egyptian support for the colonial powers began to wane. England failed to protect Egypt during the war, forcing conscription, requisitions, and inflation upon the Egypt. During World War 1, Egypt effectively became a military base for the allied powers. Following the war, Sa’d Zaghul and his Wafd nationalist party gained prominence for their aggressively anti-nationalist stances. Zaghul himself was always against British rule, going so far as to resign from his government post in 1913. Throughout the war, Zaghul remained peaceful, as he still believed there was hope for peaceful negotiation. In fact, Sa’d and his Wafd party weren’t the only one who used Wilson’s fourteen points to sell their campaign. In early 1918, Sultan Fu’ad of Egypt proclaimed his desire for a “Home Rule for Egypt along the lines of President Wilson's Fourteen Points.” These invocations of the fourteen points were also matched by other members of the ruling class in Egypt, such as Prince ‘Umar Tusun. Regardless of who in Egypt was supporting the fourteen points, and therefore Wilsonian moment thinking, they almost all seem to specifically invoke President Wilson as a way of tacitly suggesting that a western superpower would unequivocally support their desire for independence. The ultimate symbol of the swaying power of the fourteen points is that when Sa’d Zaghul was arrested on his way to the 1919 Paris Peace conference, he only had one thing in his possession: a newspaper clipping that had all of Wilson’s fourteen points on it. This arrest is crediting the 1919 Revolution in Egypt, a bloody affair that killed 800 Egyptians and 60 British Soldiers .
In suggesting the establishment of the League of Nations, The Wilsonian moment helped to shift power on the international stage away from the three notorious colonisers England, France, and Britain. Though the concept of the League of Nations was far from being an invention of Wilson’s, his support for such a concept during the Wilsonian moment helped advance the creation of such a group . The League of Nations was conceived as “a universal organization entrusted with the lofty task to maintain peace and security throughout the world.” Despite this noble goal, and some success in its first decade of existence, the League of Nations failed as a concept, eventually dissolving in 1946, 26 years after its creation. Though some claim that this was due to the League’s inability to punish Japan, Italy, and Germany for aggressive militaristic actions leading up to World War 2, Wilson himself felt that it was the lack of American participation, due to disapproval of the League in the US Senate, that made another world war inevitable. While the League of Nations failed due to its weak nature, and America wasn’t involved in it, it’s limited existence, and the American influence in its creation, represented a major shift in power in the international landscape, one that would spread power more equitably among developed western nations.
The Wilsonian Movement had a vitally important, though indirect, effect on nationalization movements in the Middle East. Wilson’s rhetoric throughout 1918 and 1919 gave nationalists an ideal to conform to, gave nationalists a way to convince their countrymen that a western superpower supported them, and shifted international power away from colonial rulers Britain and France. All in all, though the Wilsonian moment never directly intervened with the legislation of independence and freedom in the Middle East, it can’t be denied that the Wilsonian Moment had a profound impact on anti-colonial nationalism in the Middle East.