This study critically examines Woodrow Wilson''s acceptance of the principle of national self-determination and his role in implementing it at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. The assessment includes judgements by his contemporaries and historians of Wilson and the peace settlement. A survey of the manner in which national self-determination shaped the settlement leads to a discussion of the subsequent effects of the idea on the states and territories subject to the Versailles Treaty and related treaties.

This study critically examines Woodrow Wilson''s acceptance of the principle of national self-determination and his role in implementing it at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. The assessment includes judgements by his contemporaries and historians of Wilson and the peace settlement. A survey of the manner in which national self-determination shaped the settlement leads to a discussion of the subsequent effects of the idea on the states and territories subject to the Versailles Treaty and related treaties.