The First World War – a War for More Democracy?

As Woodrow Wilson at the 6th of April in 1917 addressed the Declaration of War to the congress he said that “the world must be made safe for democracy”. Now, nearly a hundred years later, we know the effects of the decision that were made at this time. Knowing what happened I say that the US involvement in World War I was not a fight for more democracy. The roots of the German dictatorship under Hitler were laid during the peace negotiations of Versailles. So the most important point of what Wilson officially wanted, to bring peace and democracy to the world, to end all wars as he is often cited, failed. The victorious powers missed the chance to reintegrate Germany into Europe. Even so did the United States although their president had the best purposes. With high war-reparations and the complete war guilt the German society could not develop to a healthy democracy and this is the base for the probable most brutal war the world has ever seen. Even though new states like Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Hungary, which were based on the principle of self-determination, emerged, I do not think that democracy at all increased. The United States of America who considers herself as the founder of democracy had lost civil liberty and consequently a big part of her democracy. A nation cannot feel superior and like a combat for freedom and democracy while it bans freedom of opinion and freedom of expression. War abolitionists were prosecuted and at worst even deported. We cannot talk about a triumphal march of democracy while it takes such a big step bag at the country that claims to fight for it. Another point is that the United States are just not credible when it comes to the reason for their entry of the war. According to his speech in front of the congress the aims of Woodrow Wilson and thus the aims of the United States are absolutely idealistic and noble. The US is willing to martyr her money and her blood to stop “a war against