It was the strength of the opposition forces, both liberal and conservative, rather than the ineptitude and stubbornness of President Wilson that led to the Senate defeat of the Treaty of Versailles.
World War One introduced a new and terrifying concept to a nave and unsuspecting world: total war. Nationalism and delusions of world conquest turned civilians into soldiers. In the years previous to the war, humans had begun to develop technology at the fastest rate in history. As the war ended, President Wilson and the rest of the Allied leaders were faced with an unenviable challenge; these men were responsible for putting Europe back together the way one might piece together a jigsaw puzzle. Unfortunately, in a turn of events that would prove disastrous for the future of the world, President Wilson's ineptitude and stubbornness led to the Senate defeat of the Treaty of Versailles.
President Wilson went to Europe as an idealistic progressive. He had grand plans for the future of Europe. When he met with the other leaders, his ideas were destroyed. However, Wilson still consented to the terms of the Treaty simply because it contained what he saw as his legacy: the League of Nations. This League of Nations was not embraced by the world as a positive idea. "Will anyone advocate that those matters which are of vital importance to our people shall be submitted to a tribunal created other than by our own people and give it an international army subject to its direction and control to enforce its degrees? .The proposition is force to destroy force, conflict to prevent conflict, militarism to destroy militarism, war to prevent war." (Document A) Wilson's description of the future under the League of Nations was not a pleasant one: "[The founders of the Government] thought of America as the light of the world as created to lead the world in the assertion of the rights of peoples and the rights of free nations.
