In 1919, the Paris Peace Conference was about to be held, and the conference to discuss the world order after World War I had first entered a state of excitement, even fanaticism, for Chinese intellectuals before it was convened.
This sentiment was felt by Chinese intellectuals not only because China had become a victorious power by sending labor to the Allies (mainly Britain and France), but more importantly because of an American slogan: Axiom triumphs over power.
This slogan once made Chinese, who had experienced too much at that time and were still experiencing arbitrary bullying by the powerful, see hope, chinese intellectuals were full of infinite vision for the future of the new world dominated by axioms, everything in the future world seemed to be so beautiful, and Chinese intellectuals fell into this beautiful vision and could not extricate themselves, so that they ignored the background of the slogan and whether it could really be realized.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > "first-good man" and national self-determination</h1>
The man who coined the slogan was Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States.
U.S. President Wilson
Wilson was born in Virginia in 1856, the famous southern slave state.
Wilson's father was a priest, and according to the normal script, Wilson might have followed his father to become a cleric, but became obsessed with politics because he accidentally came across a british parliamentary flash report while in college.
Wilson did not enter politics early, but wilson spent most of his time teaching at universities before entering politics, and in 1902 Wilson became president of Princeton University.
During his tenure as president, Wilson tried to solve the problem of upper-class students, for which he and the trustees engaged in a heated debate, which was later portrayed by the media as a struggle between elites and democracy, of course, Wilson was the one who represented democracy.
Wilson, who was obsessed with politics, spent half his life in college, which seemed to be a bit unambitious, but the blessings and misfortunes were interdependent, and the first half of his life was far away from politics, which became a major help for Wilson after he entered the political arena.
In 1910 Wilson ran for governor of New Jersey as a Democratic candidate, and he easily defeated Republican candidate Lewis.
Wilson was able to win the election in large part because of his claim to be separate from the political machine.
In 1912, Wilson ran for president as a Democratic candidate and was elected by an overwhelming margin.
Wilson's status as a scholar won him a lot of support because americans at the time were fed up with the extreme reality of politicians under the control of capital, and Wilson's idealism was particularly attractive compared to them.
Strike after strike
It has to be said that Wilson's idealism has brought certain benefits to Americans to a certain extent, and he introduced the eight-hour workday for railroad workers and strengthened antitrust laws, which really hit some of the core social problems in the United States.
But for the Americans, Wilson also made some controversial moves, such as getting involved in World War I.
Before Wilson, the diplomatic principles of the United States pursued the isolation principle of the Monroe Doctrine, that is, the United States should not intervene in European affairs, and even if the European countries killed people, the United States should not care, but Wilson changed the previous principles and chose to join the First World War and then intervene in European affairs.
Wilson led the United States to intervene in world war I is not without reason, before the first world war, the size of the Us economy and the total output of industry have been ranked first in the world, but the international influence and discourse power of the United States is far inferior to Britain and France.
In world war I, because it was not involved in the war in the early stages of the war, the US economy not only did not suffer losses, but also benefited a lot by selling war materials, this mismatch between strength and influence made the United States eager to gain a greater right to speak, and the first world war was also accelerated by the intervention of the United States.
In his speech to Congress on January 4, 1918, Wilson proposed that the postwar world should follow the following principles, including: open diplomacy, freedom of navigation on the high seas, freedom of trade, general disarmament, fair handling of colonial disputes, and national self-determination.
Since then, Wilson has supplemented the Fourteen-Point Plan by proposing four principles of U.S. diplomacy, including:
1. The United States has no intention of seizing the territory of other countries.
2. The primary means of U.S. diplomacy is peace negotiations rather than conquest by force.
3. The United States does not recognize any foreign government that has taken power through violence.
4. The United States will abide by its credibility and morality in international relations.
In the final analysis, these fourteen-point principles were put forward because the United States wanted to seek to expand world influence and even gain world leadership, but these principles were simply a long drought in the eyes of Chinese, especially Chinese intellectuals.
Since the Opium War, China has been bullied by the Western powers, the country has become a semi-colony, losing its complete sovereignty, and the great powers have acted arbitrarily on Chinese soil, and no one of the great powers is willing to listen to the Chinese's ideas. All kinds of powers have ravaged the Chinese people at will, and the voice of the Chinese cannot be heard at all.
And when Wilson put forward slogans such as "national self-determination" and "axiom triumph over power", the Chinese people who were struggling in suffering seemed to see hope, Chinese really needed justice too much, too much wanted self-determination, for a time, the worship of Wilson from all walks of life in China reached an almost crazy level, and Wilson's speech was snapped up in China.
Chen Duxiu was deeply impressed by Wilson's statement that "axioms triumph over power", saying: Axioms can never be ignored.
As for Wilson himself, Chen Duxiu did not hesitate to praise, and he even called Wilson "the first good man in the world"
Before the Paris Peace Conference, the Chinese side also contacted the United States, and the United States also expressed its willingness to try to help safeguard China's rights and interests.
Wilson's "Fourteen-Point Principle", China's own status as a victorious power, and the support promised by the United States made the Chinese intellectuals at that time have a strong vision for the future, they believed that the world had been completely changed, Chinese would take back their rights and dignity at the Paris Peace Conference, and with this desire, the Chinese delegation came to Paris, France, to participate in the conference that they thought could completely change China's destiny.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the purpose of each country</h1>
The Paris Peace Conference was attended by more than 1,000 delegates from the 27 victorious countries in World War I, including 70 plenipotentiary delegates.
The first blow to the Chinese delegation came from the seats it won, and the Paris Peace Conference divided the seats into three grades according to the size of the country: 5 seats, 3 seats and 2 seats, and China won 2 seats, which is a small country treatment.
The Chinese delegation tried to use the good offices of the United States to allow China to gain more seats, and the United States did provide help in this regard, but due to the resolute opposition of Britain and France, China's demands on the seats were not met.
However, the number of seats does not involve China's core demands, and China's core demands include the following 7 points: First, abolish the sphere of influence; second, withdraw foreign troops and patrol police; third, abolish foreign post offices and cable and wireless telegraph agencies; fourth, revoke consular jurisdiction; fifth, return the leased land; sixth, return the concession; and seventh, the right to customs freedom.
The above seven points boil down to one purpose: to free China from its semi-colonial status and become a normal country with independent sovereignty.
Gu Weijun, a Chinese diplomat in The Age of Awakening
After reading China's demands, let's look at the core demands of other countries, and if we understand these, it will be easier to understand what happens after that.
There are a total of 27 countries participating in the Paris Peace Conference, but with the five major powers of "Britain, France, the United States, Italy and Japan" as the core, of course, the core of the core is Britain, France and the United States.
Britain, France, the United States, Britain and France are vested interests and staunch defenders of the old colonial system, and the United States is the initiator of the new international order of "national self-determination"; therefore, Britain and France have a natural consistency in safeguarding the supreme interests of the existing colonial system, but there are also contradictions between the two, which is discussed in detail below.
Well, look at the core demands of the "Five" of Britain, France, the United States, Italy and Japan:
Britain, which has two identities, the hegemon under the old order and a maritime power, Britain's core appeal is very simple: to maintain its hegemonic status, Britain's challenger seems to have only one: the United States, which is also a maritime power. But in fact, there are two, the other is a land-sea complex state: France.
An extremely important condition for the domination of the world by maritime powers is that a single power will not rise on the continent.
Thus, the logic of Britain's behavior was about to come out: on the one hand, trying to make a way to give the new principle of national self-determination put forward by the President of the United States tripping up, and national self-determination could not be allowed to replace colonialism; on the other hand, a single power could not be allowed to rise on the European continent, And Germany, which originally wanted to be a single power, had been beaten down, and France could not be allowed to become a single power on the European continent on the corpse of Germany, nor could Germany be allowed to slow down too quickly and get the opportunity to become a single power again.
Understanding this, we understand the contradiction between Britain and France, and we understand why Britain imposed lighter sanctions on Germany than France.
France, the country with the greatest losses in World War I, is nominally the second oldest in the world, the second largest beneficiary of the world colonial system, and a land-sea complex state.
France's status as a land-sea complex gives France an advantage, with the opportunity to become a single power on the European continent.
As a result, France demanded the most severe sanctions against Germany, and the French side also simply and rudely demanded that German industrial facilities and various resources be transported to France to make up for France's losses in World War I. So France is the country that demands the division of German interests the most.
The United States, in fact, the world's first power, the challenger of the old order, the initiator of the new order, the United States is vast, rich in resources, does not need too many overseas colonies, of course, there are not many overseas colonies, for this reason, the United States has good reason not to maintain the world colonial system, so the United States proposed national self-determination, if the countries really withdraw from the colonies at the same time, Britain and France will suffer much more than the United States.
The United States is also a maritime country, and its diplomatic genes also have the tradition of Britain's "balance of power diplomacy", but the United States plate is larger, not only concentrated in the European continent, but in the whole world, so the United States hopes that there are many countries in Europe (including Britain), so the United States advocates that the punishment of Germany is the lightest.
When Britain and France competed for Germany's reparations distribution: France 50%, Britain 30%, France 58%, and Britain 22%, U.S. President Wilson said: The United States does not want a penny.
The reason why the United States is so "generous" is because the US economic situation was very good at that time, American commodities enjoyed advantages in global competition, American capital groups earned huge amounts of capital from the domestic market, and wanted to seek investment objects in the world, however, due to some political reasons, Us capital and commodities could not enter some countries and regions, and the biggest economic demand of the United States at the Paris Peace Conference was the principle of "open doors", so that American capital and commodities could enter the world more smoothly.
Politically, the United States hopes to promote its new concept of national self-determination, the way is to create an organization called the "League of Nations", the United States does not have much interest in dividing up the defeated countries such as Germany, promote its concept of "national self-determination", the establishment of the "League of Nations" is the highest demand of the United States. Understanding this will give us a better understanding of the causes and consequences of Wilson's future betrayal of China's interests.
Paris Peace Conference "Big Three"
Compared with Britain, France and the United States, the pattern of Italy and Japan is smaller.
Italy's aim was to grab some territory, specifically the port of Fuem, in order to make it an Italian expansion base in the Balkans.
Japan's central demand was to expand its sphere of influence in Asia and the Pacific by seizing German leases in Shandong, China, and important islands in the Pacific.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > whose Shandong? </h1>
Shandong is one of the important birthplaces of Chinese civilization, since ancient times is China's inherent territory, in 1897, Shandong occurred in the "Juye Teaching Case", Kaiser Wilhelm II said that Chinese finally provided us with the coveted dispute excuse, quickly sent troops to occupy Qingdao, and forced the Qing government to sign a 99-year lease of Jiaozhou Bay.
Relying on Jiaozhou Bay, Germany quickly penetrated its power range to other parts of Shandong, and Shandong became Germany's power range.
After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Japan brazenly declared war on Germany on Chinese territory in spite of China's opposition, forcibly controlled Shandong, and occupied Germany's rights and interests in Shandong.
Yuan Shikai was originally very angry about Japan's demands, but under the circumstances at that time, he did not dare to openly offend Japan, and could only hope that Japan would lower its requirements by means of negotiation, and then react passively in the process of implementation.
However, Japan's intention to invade and occupy Shandong has long existed, and it will not be shelved because of Yuan Shikai's passive response, and Japan's power will soon spread throughout Shandong.
After the end of The First World War, Germany, as a defeated country, could not enjoy any privilege in Shandong, while China and Japan, which were also victorious countries, had different demands, China wanted to recover all the rights and interests of Shandong, and Japan wanted to take over all the privileges of Germany in Shandong.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > "racial equality" and Wilson's betrayal</h1>
In the early stages of the meeting, US President Wilson's attitude was slightly inclined toward China, but after that, two things that had nothing to do with the Shandong issue made Wilson finally choose to give up China's rights to win over Japan.
The first thing was the withdrawal of Italy, although Italy was also a great power, but it contributed less to the Allies, and there was a suspicion of stepping on two ships in the early stages of the war, and its request to obtain the port of Fuum was categorically rejected by Britain and France, Italian Prime Minister Orlando left the scene in anger, and the five powers became four powers.
At this time, the Japanese side proposed a principle that seemed incomparable: racial equality.
At the same time, the Japanese side hopes that the principle of "racial equality" will be written into the "League of Nations" covenant.
Japan's demand for racial equality is of practical significance, at that time in Europe and the United States, especially in the United States, the call for rejection of Asians was very high, and the infamous "Chinese Exclusion Act" was one of the clear proofs, of course, the Influence of Japanese people who invested and lived in the United States at that time was greater than that of Chinese, so in a sense, Japan was more troubled by racism in the United States than in China.
As far as the facts are concerned, there is nothing wrong with Japan proposing this principle, and even in this matter, China, which is also a yellow race, has a common demand with Japan. But no one imagined that it was the chain reaction triggered by this seemingly favorable proposal for China that would eventually turn the great powers, especially the United States, from sympathizing with China to turning to Japan on the Shandong issue.
Chinese Exclusion Act
Japan's proposal for "racial equality" seems very correct today, but it was completely unacceptable to the three countries of Britain, France and the United States at that time, as far as Britain and France were concerned, racial equality seriously affected their colonial interests, which was categorically unacceptable.
Wilson was a staunch supporter of apartheidism, spending his childhood in Virginia, before the Civil War began and slavery was still prevalent, and it is not known whether this had an impact on Wilson's apartheid ideas.
This seems to be a contradiction, but Wilson, who strongly supports "national self-determination", is strongly opposed to "racial equality", which is indeed a somewhat magical thing, in short, the result of this matter is that Japan's proposal for "racial equality" was rejected by the three major powers of Britain, France and the United States. In this regard, Japan is extremely disappointed.
On the issue of "racial equality," U.S. President Wilson felt he owed Japan a debt of gratitude.
At that time, Italy had withdrawn, Japan showed disappointment with the Conference, and if Japan was later withdrawn for some reason, Wilson's desire to establish the League of Nations might be in vain, and the establishment of the League of Nations was one of the main reasons for Wilson's participation in the Paris Peace Conference.
Baron Makino, the representative of the Japanese side of the Paris Peace Conference, saw this opportunity and immediately proposed to discuss the ownership of Shandong in China on the second day of Italy's withdrawal.
In 1911, Britain had established an "Anglo-Japanese Alliance" with Japan, and on this issue, the two had established a secret treaty, so Britain chose to support Japan, and France also chose to support Japan with Britain.
For all these reasons, U.S. President Wilson also supported Japan's prerogatives in Shandong, China, on the grounds that China and Japan had the "Twenty-One Articles" of 1915.
Wilson previously supported China out of moral considerations, but now he has turned to support Japan because of complete interests, and for the sake of tangible interests, Wilson has abandoned the morality he had previously adhered to.
However, after some discussion, several other countries have ceded the rights and interests of other countries to other countries.
In the face of interests, justice has not triumphed over power.
In "The Age of Awakening," U.S. President Wilson said to the Chinese representative, "If you knew that, why did you do it in the first place?" ”
This was used to justify the betrayal of China's interests, but I wonder if Wilson ever thought about the twenty-one articles signed with Japan under what circumstances the poor and weak China at that time signed.
The actions of the great powers at the Paris Peace Conference also made People of Insight in China realize that the era of justice is far from coming, and this is still a world dominated by power.
If we want to gain more voice in the international community, there is only one way to enhance national strength.
Chinese, who had experienced setbacks, finally began to wake up.
Of course, the fact that it is a weak country for the time being is difficult to change quickly, but this does not mean that it can only swallow its voice when it is bullied, and The Chinese plus official Gu Weijun refuted the Japanese side's views in a righteous and righteous manner at the Paris Peace Conference, and issued China's voice in front of the world.
The Chinese delegation refused to sign at the Paris Peace Conference as a sign as a sign of determination.
Moreover, this is not the end, Chinese diplomats still have not given up the fight for Shandong's rights and interests, although the right to speak is far inferior to the Japanese side, they still run around, their efforts are not completely futile, and soon, China has a new opportunity to discuss the Shandong issue with Japan tit-for-tat, a new battlefield, in Washington.
bibliography:
[1] Lu Cong." Fourteen-point principle " Why Wilson's ideal of peace fell short[J].National HumanIties and History, 2019(06):54-58.
Shao Yong. The Shandong Issue and the Paris Peace Conference[J].Qunyan,2019(03):49-52.
[3] Ma Jianbiao." The Moment of Suffering": The Decision of the Shandong Issue at the Paris Peace Conference and Wilson's Identity Crisis[J].Modern History Research, 2018(03):23-38+160.