On January 8, 1918, Woodrow Wilson laid down the Fourteen Points for a final settlement. These included phrases that called for self-determination of the various nations. It is immaterial how far he had intended to press this policy, for in Europe his words were taken in their full meaning and each and every group, large or small, prepared to take advantage of them. From this time on there could be no doubt that Austria-Hungary was going to disintegrate. The only questions were when and how and what would be the fate of the territory. It was almost the same day that the Ukrainian delegates to the Brest Litovsk Conference passed through Lviv, to establish contact with the Ukrainian leaders there and to tell them of the intention of Ukraine to declare its full independence of Russia. This act alone served to increase tension in the Ukrainian lands in the Dual Monarchy and to arouse more energetic work during the summer, so that the Ukrainians in Western Ukraine would be ready when the moment for action arrived. They were not alone in this, for the Poles also were planning to revive their state. The Polish National Committee working with the Allied nations elaborated plans for recovering the territory which they had held in 1772 at the time of the First Partition of the country. The Council of the Regency and the various groups around Joseph Pilsudski, which were more bitterly anti-Russian, looked for the establishment of some form of independent Poland in case of a German victory. The events of 1917 brought both groups together and there was a general agreement among Poles of all factions and trains of thought that there must emerge from the war a great Poland. In Galicia, they made ready to take over the country as soon as the Austrian grip showed signs of weakening. In the same way the various Ukrainian groups determined not to be outdone through inaction. They organized a Ukrainian Council with members in Eastern Galicia, in Carpatho-Ukraine and in Bukovina and then on October 18, as the hour of decision was approaching, they held a large conference in Lviv and made plans to declare their independence when the time came. So weak and disintegrated was Austria-Hungary already that it was possible to hold such a meeting without too great danger to the participants. It was already clearly realized that the dangers confronting Western Ukraine came not from the dying Empire but from the claims of the Poles and of the other succession states, each of which put forward demands to take over the same territory. Again Allied diplomacy was destined to be ineffective and the disagreements among the victorious nations prepared the way for a series of wars and disturbances that were to leave new causes of bitterness behind them. The disintegration of Austria-Hungary was not to be brought about under the control of the victorious powers but under the conflicting demands of local populations and improvised military forces.