President Wilson presented these to the US Congress as a proposal for the basis of a peace settlement at the end of the war. He stated America's aim of making the world "fit and safe to live in", particularly for every peace-loving nation which, like our own, determines its own institutions, and be assured of justice and fair dealing by the other peoples of the world against force and selfish aggression.
1) Open covenants of peace openly arrived at - no private international understandings.
2) Freedom of navigation upon the seas in peace and war.
3) The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers to world trade.
4) The reduction of national armaments to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety.
5) Colonial claims to be dealt with according to the principle that the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the claims of the colonial power.
6) The evacuation of all Russian territory. Russia to be welcomed into the society of free nations under institutions of her choice, and to be give assistance of every kind she might need and desire.
7) Belgium to be evacuated and restored.
8) All French territory to be freed and the invaded portions restored. Alsace-Lorraine should be returned to France, thus righting the wrong done to France by Germany in 1871.
9) Italy's frontiers should be adjusted along clearly recognizable lines of nationality.
10) The peoples of Austria-Hungary to be given the freest opportunity for self-government.
11) Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro to be evacuated and guaranteed their political and economic independence. Serbia to be given a coastline.
12) The Turkish parts of the Ottoman Empire should form a separate state, but the other peoples ruled by the Turks should be given independence. The Dardanelles should be open at all times to the ships of all nations.
13) An independent Polish state should be set up and given access to the sea.
14) A general association of nations should be formed to preserve future peace.