Wilson And China A Revised History Of The Shandong Question

Download or read book Wilson and China: A Revised History of the Shandong Question written by Bruce Elleman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-06-03 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on sources in Japanese, Chinese, and American archives and libraries, this book reassesses another facet of Woodrow Wilson's agenda at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference at the end of World War I. Breaking with accepted scholarly opinions, the author argues that Wilson did not "betray" China, as many Chinese and Western scholars have charged; rather, Wilson successfully negotiated a compromise with the Japanese to ensure that China's sovereignty would be respected in Shandong Province. Rejecting the compromise, Chinese negotiators refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles, creating conditions for the Soviet Union's entry into China and its later influence over the course of the Chinese revolution.