At the end of WWI. President Woodrow Wilson was the first sitting U.S. president to travel to Europe while he was president. He met with other Allied leaders to draft what would hopefully be a "lasting peace," for the world. But we know this was not to be as WWII will begin 20 years later. Aggression among certain nations continued. Europe was trying to rebuild from the devastation of mankind's first mechanized war. President Wilson introduced his "14 Points Plan" for peace, but England and France didn't consider them. They were concerned with rebuilding. In the end, many countries that hoped to gain independence after WWI did not achieve this status.Germany was forced to pay reparations to the European nations it attacked in WWI. The German people suffered in the aftermath of WWI, as well and Germany was not able to make these reparations payments.