The Defeat of the Treaty of Versailles

It was not the power of the opposition forces, liberal or conservative, of the U.S. that led to the final defeat of the Treaty of Versailles, but rather the political ignorance, inability and inflexibility of the President, Woodrow Wilson. With the surrender of Germany after WW1, it presented many different ways to create peace. Wilson in 1918 offered his plans for peace in the "Fourteen Points", the most important of which he believed was Article …

…changed now that he foreign powers had accepted it. Congress was already angry over the negations and because Wilson tried to undercut them, they basically refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles. Three contributing factors that lead to the defeat of the Treaty of Versailles were the strength of opposing forces, opposition to the League of Nations, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's discontent from not being involved in the negotiations of the Treaty's terms.