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Crash Course 30 on WWI

Added Feb 16, 2017 •

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WWI

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hi I'm John Green this is Crash Course u.s. history and today we're  going to make military history Buffs happy that's right today we're going to talk about how the United States with its Superior technology Innovative tactics and remarkable generalship turn the tide of World War 1 is an Ernest Hemingway from the past because I was kidding about this being an episode full of military details about how we liberated the martinis of Paris Americans were only involved in the Great War for 19 months and compared with the other belligerence we didn't do much fighting still the war had profound Nexon America at home on its place in the world and it also resulted in an amazing number of War memorials right here in Indianapolis 1918 and featured a lot of men with hats and rifles cost the lives of an estimated 10 million soldiers art and literature about how horrible and pointless World War 1 was in which case it was a real Bonanza so when the war broke out America remained neutral fact that we were LED of course by President Wilson sided with the British because by 1914 we pretty much forgotten about all the bad parts of British will like all that tea and Ma do you put there so easy to talk to with their English progressives who worried that involvement in the war would get in the way of social reforms at home in fact Wilson corded these the 1916 presidential campaign running on the slogan he kept us out of war and will continue to keep us out of War until we reelect him and he gets us into war Logan to make sense there had to have been some way in which war was avoided which brings me to one of the classic errors made by American history students anything but you were about to me from the past because if I'd asked you what event led the u.s. to enter World War 1 you would have surely told me that it was the sinking of the cruise ship loose wake me up by German submarines 124 American passengers died when the ship which had been carrying arms and also guns with torpedoed off the coast of Ireland State William Jennings Bryan had warned Americans not to travel on British French or German ships Wilson refused to ban such travel because you know Freedom Brian promptly how do I know it wasn't the immediate cause of our involvement in the war because the United States declared war on Germany and the central powers on April 2nd 1917 two years after the sinking of the Lusitania why did the United States declare war for only the fourth time in its history was it the Germans decision to resume unrestricted submarine warfare where an early 1917 was it the interception in publication of the Zimmermann Telegram and which of the German foreign secretary promised to help Mexico get back California if they join in a war against the us or was it the fall of the czarist regime in Russia which made Wilson's claims that he wanted to fight to make the world safe for democracy a bit more plausible yes and yes also there was our inclination to help Britain to whom we'd wound to billion dollars that's the thing about  for reasons like Lusitania sinking stupid truth always resisting simplicity  the rules here are simple I guess the author the mystery document I'm you're right or I get shocked or possibly One open covenants of Peace openly arrived at after which there shall be no private International understandings of any kind Ribbit diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view I'm starting to think this absolute freedom of navigation is outside territorial Waters awake in peace and in war except as the Seas may be closed in whole or in part by International action for the enforcement of international three the removal so far as possible of all economic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all nations consent the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance and 14 I'm going to guess we skip some a general Association of Nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of a pretty Mutual guarantees of political Independence and territorial Integrity of great and small states alike stand thank you for throwing me a softball are the new Wilson for the dimension of self-determination Freedom of the Seas open diplomacy and liberal use of Roman numerals I know it is 10 points are second consecutive Woodrow Wilson week in my second consecutive non shock give it all the time. inconsistent about Wilson but his 14 points are pretty admirable as a statement of purpose specifically with Colonial possessions and we're pretty much ignored think it's that in American history it's the thought that counts  America's primary contribution to the on top hours turn the war was economic as we said all sorts of arms and money over there John J Pershing promised I will mention Ernest Hemingway he served as an ambulance driver which gave him a close-up view of death and misery and led to his membership in the so-called lost generation of writers who lived in Paris in the 1920s and tried to make sense of everything American progressives were anti-war but certainly not all of them like according to Randolph Bourne war is the health of the state and for progressives like him no more offered the pasta can you performing American society along scientific lines and stealing a sense of national unity and self-sacrifice and expanding social justice let's go to the thought bubble one made the national government much more powerful than it had ever been like in 1917 Congress pass the Selective Service Act which required 24 million men to register for the Captain eventually increase the size of the army from 120000 to 5 million also control of much of the economy to get the country to fight used to regulate industry transportation Labor Relations and agriculture the War Industries Board took charge of all elements of wartime production setting quotas and prices establishing standardized specification for almost everything even down to the color of shoes the Railroad Administration administered transportation and the fuel agency rationed Cole oil this regulation sometimes brought about some of the progressives goals like the war labor board for instance pushed for a minimum wage 8 hour work days and the rights of workers to form wages Rose substantially in the era working conditions improved and Union membership skyrocketed but then so did taxes in the wealthiest Americans ended up on the book for 60% your income also in World War 1 in 1917 the Wilson Administration created the Committee on Public in May sounds like it's from a wave of propaganda to get Americans to support the war posters and advert raising in Swanky motion picture who in that amount of time what's another public venue key concepts of democracy and freedom names of poverty in equality oppression and unhappiness because obviously war is the most effective antidepressant say about war but he was also correct when he suggested encourage and empower the quote least Democratic forces in American Life play for democracy but according to one historian the war in Naga rated the most intense repression of civil liberties the nation has ever known or suppressing civil liberties I'm glad those days a draft and quote false statements that might impede military success Act passed in 1918 which criminalize statements that were intended to what's contempts corn or disrepute on our form of government or that advocated interference with the war effort crime to criticize Eugene Debs the Socialist to ran for president in 1912 with one of those convicted for giving an anti-war speech he was sentenced to 10 years in prison and he served three of them but he ran for president from prison and got 900,000 vote fortunately thanks to checks and balances you can turn to the courts Unfortunately they weren't very helpful I can versus the US the Supreme Court upheld the conviction of a guy named shank for encouraging people to avoid the draft and ruled that the government can punish critical speech when it presents a clear and present danger to the state and its citizen this was when Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes introduced the famous exception to free speech that it is not okay to shout fire in a crowded theater is it okay to shout we shouldn't be in this War I don't think just my opinion with someone even further the 250,000 strong American Protective League help the justice identify radicals by harassing people in what we're called Slacker Radio for you got to high school right me from the past in Bisbee Arizona how far to put striking copper miners in boxcars shipped them out into the middle of the desert and left them there were also raised the question of what it meant to be a real American like book schools Americanized immigrants and sought to implant in their children so far as can be done the Anglo-Saxon conceptions of righteousness Law and Order and popular governor city city sponsored Americanization pageants especially around the 4th of July which the CPI in 1918 rechristened royalty de hamburgers a German word became Liberty sandwiches one certainly didn't create anti-immigrant feeling in the United States but it was used to justify it like IQ test introduce the screen Army applicants resume used to argue that certain immigrant groups were inferior to White Protestants and could never be fully assimilated into the United States South course those tests were tremendously biased how to return to the questions of dissent and Free Speech the suppression continue to after the war with a 1919 Palmer Raids for instance named after attorney general A Mitchell Palmer and head Young & J Edgar Hoover play in the United States in 1919 but that didn't legally justify the arrest of more than 5,000 suspected radicals and labor organizer most of them were arrested without Brenton held without charge sometimes for months that is difficult to imagine that all of this would have happened without the heightened sense of patriotism that always accompanies War things to come out of the Great War and not just this stylings of Irving Berlin like students are often taught that the war led directly to the passage of the 19th Amendment although a number of states and actually Grant my franchise to women before the in Montana for instance women didn't just vote they held office congresswoman Jeannette Rankin voted against the declaration of war in 1917 and was the only number of the house to vote against the declaration of war against Japan in 1941 new opportunities in Wartime industry also provided incentives for African Americans to move north dust begin so-called Great Migration and the growth of black populations in Northern cities like Chicago and New York the biggest game was in Detroit where between 1910 and 1920 the black population what's from 5741 to 40838 a 611% increase the World War 1 provided some new opportunities for African who's in women but if World War 1 was supposed to be an opportunity for America to impose its Progressive ideas on the rest of the world it failed the Versailles Peace conference where Wilson tried to when his 14 points raised hope for a new diplomatic order but the results of the treaty made the Fourteen Points looking for critical I mean especially when Britain France took control of Germany former colonies and carved up the Arabian provinces the Ottoman Empire into new spheres of influence Wilson's dream of the League of Nations was realized but the US never joined it because Congress was nervous about giving up its Sovereign power to declare war and disappointment over the outcome of World War 1 led the US to for the most part Retreat into isolationism until World War II and therein lies the ultimate failure of World War 1 it's not called the world war it's called World War 1 because they talk about that in a few weeks but next week we get to talk about suffrage yes we fine  alright I'll see you then crash course and directed by supervisor if danco the associate producer is Danica Johnson the show is written by my high school history teacher Raoul Mayer Rosie on a Rojas and myself and our Graphics team is Todd Cafe every week There's a new captain for the libertine what does suggest one you can do so in comments where you can also ask questions about today's because it will be answered by our team of historians thanks for watching crash course and stay in my hometown don't forget to be awesome stand can you just magic give me out of here perfect

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Crash Course 30 on WWI

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