In our previous episode, we covered American entry into World War I,

Woodrow Wilson's 14 points and his vision for a new world, and Theodore Roosevelt's demise.

As thousands of Americans fought and died in Europe, Wilson had a dream for a new world order.

How that dream played out is the subject of this episode of this American president. Throughout 1918, the battles raged on.

But as Germany feared, America's entry into the war spelled doom for the central powers.

Soon, America was sending about 10,000 fresh soldiers to fight every day.

While America would suffer massive casualties in the Muse Argon offensive in France,

by the fall of 1918, the Allies finally forced the Germans into retreat during what was

called the Hundred Days Offensive.

Exhausted by years of a two-front war, and demoralized by the new losses, civil unrest broke out in Germany,

undermining Kaiser Wilhelm's rule. By the end of October, 1918, German sailors had mutinied.

The German Empire was swept up in revolution. On November 9th, the imperial government was overthrown, and the Kaiser abdicated.

In its place was the new Weimar Republic.

On November 11th, Germany and its dying allies, the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires, signed an armistice with the allies.

The fighting had ended.

After four years of war, an estimated 40 million dead, the worst war in history had ceased. But for Wilson, the real work was just

beginning. The final peace treaty had yet to be worked out. He now hoped to make his glorious vision of a peaceful, free world

a reality by participating in the treaty talks in Europe. He took the unprecedented and dramatic step

of traveling abroad to Paris to personally represent America at the negotiations.

He arrived on December 14, 1918.

Wilson's proposals of self-determination may have been controversial at home and among world leaders,

but they captured the imagination of millions in Europe who had suffered under authoritarianism and the catastrophe of war. He was greeted

...