Politics

Self-determination

The principle that peoples should be free to choose their own sovereignty and form of government. President Wilson championed it, and it inspired nationalist movements from Eastern Europe to Egypt, India and Korea, though the peacemakers applied it unevenly.

Mentioned in

• Chapter VII The Last Gamble §1 Wilson's Fourteen Points
• Chapter VIII The Reckoning and the Remaking Overview§2 Paris, 1919: The Peacemakers and the League§4 The Other Treaties and the New Map§9 Empire, Independence and the Wilsonian Moment
• Chapter XIII A World on Fire §10 Legacies: Nationalism After the War