HIST 112 US 1877- present Chapter 20 Part 1 World War I Begins — Transcript

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1. 0:01[Music]
2. 0:12the united states and the first world
3. 0:14war
4. 0:17on june 28 1914 a group of young
5. 0:21serbian nationalists carried out the
6. 0:23assassination
7. 0:24of the heir to the austro-hungarian
8. 0:26throne the archduke
9. 0:28franz ferdinand it seemed an unlikely
10. 0:31time to start a war
11. 0:33the american president woodrow wilson
12. 0:36who was preoccupied with caring for his
13. 0:38wife
14. 0:39hardly noticed the assassination the
15. 0:42king and queen of england were on
16. 0:43vacation
17. 0:44the kaiser of germany was away on a
18. 0:47yachting cruise
19. 0:48and the leaders of france and russia as
20. 0:50well were vacationing at the time
21. 0:53no one in the world thought that this
22. 0:55assassination would soon throw
23. 0:57europe into utter chaos
24. 1:01but nations quickly lined up in support
25. 1:03of one another
26. 1:04based on a series of alliances forged
27. 1:07over the preceding years
28. 1:10no one could seem to find a way to avoid
29. 1:13declaring war
30. 1:14and what seemed an isolated incident
31. 1:17eventually sparked the most horrible
32. 1:19conflict
33. 1:19that the world had known up to that
34. 1:21point
35. 1:23germany found itself confronted with a
36. 1:26two-front war
37. 1:27with france on one side and russia on
38. 1:30the other
39. 1:32their plan was to achieve a quick and
40. 1:34decisive victory they decided
41. 1:36to invade france first through belgium
42. 1:39and deal with the russians later
43. 1:42but in fact quick victory was elusive
44. 1:46and by the fall of 1914 the two sides
45. 1:49had bogged down
46. 1:51into the bloody and futile trench
47. 1:53warfare
48. 1:54which made world war one infamous
49. 2:02the president of the united states
50. 2:04during our involvement in world war one
51. 2:07was woodrow wilson a democrat elected
52. 2:10in the very difficult and famous 1912
53. 2:14presidential election
54. 2:17i want to share a little bit about
55. 2:18woodrow wilson's life and background
56. 2:21not to burden you with unnecessary
57. 2:24details and facts
58. 2:25but rather to give you a little bit of
59. 2:27context
60. 2:29much of the information influences his
61. 2:32decisions
62. 2:32during his presidency
63. 2:36he was born in virginia in 1856
64. 2:40the last american president born prior
65. 2:42to the civil war
66. 2:45and it's important to note that he
67. 2:47indeed lived through
68. 2:49the civil war and while he was a young
69. 2:51man it certainly
70. 2:52left an indelible mark upon his memories
71. 2:55of that era
72. 2:57he spent some of his childhood in
73. 3:00augusta georgia not too far
74. 3:02from greenwood south carolina and there
75. 3:05is a
76. 3:05historic home there it's actually a nice
77. 3:08little museum
78. 3:09marking many of the the things that
79. 3:12woodrow wilson
80. 3:13grew up with as a young boy he was
81. 3:16the son of a presbyterian minister and
82. 3:19was raised in a
83. 3:21strictly religious household
84. 3:25it's also important to note not only did
85. 3:27he live through the civil war but he
86. 3:30lived through the civil war as
87. 3:32a southerner so he experienced
88. 3:35the losing side of a significant war and
89. 3:39again that that's a
90. 3:41relatively rare quality among american
91. 3:45presidents
92. 3:46few of them had witnessed the losing
93. 3:49side of a major war
94. 3:51woodrow wilson was in atlanta at the
95. 3:54time when sherman's armies
96. 3:56marched through the south leaving
97. 3:59ruin and destruction in their wake
98. 4:03and these recollections of the civil war
99. 4:07were seared into wilson's brain as
100. 4:10wilson commented later he said when i go
101. 4:13to the south
102. 4:15nothing need be explained to me he
103. 4:17understood
104. 4:18what it was like to lose a war and this
105. 4:21is going to be a significant factor
106. 4:24in wilson's decision-making process as
107. 4:26he contemplates american involvement
108. 4:29in world war one and in fact delays that
109. 4:32involvement as long as he possibly could
110. 4:37wilson was one of our most highly
111. 4:39educated
112. 4:40presidents he was a powerful
113. 4:43intellectual
114. 4:44and the president of princeton
115. 4:46university prior to running for
116. 4:48the presidency of the country
117. 4:53and so he is a teacher in some ways
118. 4:57and we see this reflected during his
119. 4:59presidency in a couple of different ways
120. 5:01on the one hand
121. 5:03he's very much interested in
122. 5:04communicating and teaching
123. 5:07the american people what he is doing why
124. 5:10he's making certain decisions
125. 5:12at the same time there is something of a
126. 5:15loftiness
127. 5:16uh and aloofness in the way he speaks
128. 5:20during his speeches the way he tries to
129. 5:22communicate and so he fails to connect
130. 5:25with the american people in the same way
131. 5:28that
132. 5:28teddy roosevelt had done in the years
133. 5:31before
134. 5:32wilson's presidency
135. 5:35and frankly wilson is is somewhat
136. 5:37envious of this quality in teddy
137. 5:39roosevelt to
138. 5:40so easily and readily connect with the
139. 5:43american people
140. 5:45and so we might say wilson is inspired
141. 5:47by teddy roosevelt
142. 5:49while he was at princeton woodrow wilson
143. 5:52studied and wrote
144. 5:54quite a bit about political science and
145. 5:57political history
146. 5:58he was very much interested in the
147. 6:01workings of the political system
148. 6:03and wilson's thesis while he was a
149. 6:05student was based on the idea
150. 6:08that the greatest source of power in the
151. 6:10country
152. 6:12lay in the legislature
153. 6:15witnessing teddy roosevelt as president
154. 6:18wilson
155. 6:18changed his thinking on this topic
156. 6:21he came to believe that there was no
157. 6:23more powerful force in the country
158. 6:26and indeed no more powerful force in the
159. 6:28world
160. 6:29than the president of the united states
161. 6:32when he had the support of the american
162. 6:34people
163. 6:36and so wilson as president tried to
164. 6:39emulate teddy roosevelt in this regard
165. 6:41and tried to
166. 6:42recreate that sort of powerful
167. 6:45connection
168. 6:46that teddy roosevelt had with the
169. 6:48american people
170. 6:50i must say uh in frankness that wilson
171. 6:53was not as successful in that regard as
172. 6:56teddy roosevelt had been but he aspired
173. 6:58to it woodrow wilson was also
174. 7:02uh very much a believer that the press
175. 7:05was
176. 7:05an important part of this relationship
177. 7:08between the president and the american
178. 7:10people
179. 7:11and wilson more than perhaps any
180. 7:13president
181. 7:14before and teddy roosevelt might be an
182. 7:16exception
183. 7:17but more than almost any president tried
184. 7:19to use the press
185. 7:21to communicate with the american people
186. 7:23he was constantly having press
187. 7:25conferences
188. 7:26and constantly connecting with members
189. 7:28of the press and sending
190. 7:30them updates and sending them
191. 7:31information to relay to the american
192. 7:34people
193. 7:34and again this was part of that process
194. 7:36of trying to teach the american people
195. 7:38trying to win them over
196. 7:40have the support of the people as he was
197. 7:42making the decisions
198. 7:44that he made and we will see this at
199. 7:46work
200. 7:47as we talk about wilson and the first
201. 7:50world war
202. 7:51so let me summarize a few of these
203. 7:54qualities about woodrow wilson
204. 7:57he was cautious about war this is
205. 8:00obviously very important as we are
206. 8:02considering
207. 8:03uh whether the united states should
208. 8:05enter world war one but his memories of
209. 8:07the civil war
210. 8:08made him very reluctant to join world
211. 8:11war one
212. 8:13he was well spoken and convincing he was
213. 8:16very well
214. 8:17trained in the art of forming an
215. 8:19argument making a convincing argument
216. 8:21and trying to win over people to his
217. 8:24viewpoint
218. 8:25and yet even as i say that i would also
219. 8:27add the caveat that there are times
220. 8:30when his language his communication
221. 8:33uh the arguments he made were perhaps a
222. 8:35touch too sophisticated
223. 8:37to reach the average american citizen
224. 8:40and so he does struggle at times
225. 8:42to win over the american people and yet
226. 8:45he was very concerned
227. 8:47with the will of the people again he
228. 8:49believes the president of the united
229. 8:50states to be
230. 8:51the most powerful figure in the world
231. 8:54but only if
232. 8:55he has the support of the american
233. 8:57people and so we will see
234. 8:59him making these efforts during his
235. 9:01presidency
236. 9:03and one last point that i haven't
237. 9:05mentioned yet but that does become
238. 9:06important as world war one breaks out
239. 9:09and that is that woodrow wilson was
240. 9:12an anglophile and that's just sort of a
241. 9:15fancy word for saying that he loved
242. 9:17england he his family had a
243. 9:20summer home in england and he spent
244. 9:22several summers in england he loved the
245. 9:24country the people
246. 9:26and bore a great affection for them
247. 9:30and so as world war one erupts and we'll
248. 9:33be talking about this
249. 9:34shortly america's role as a neutral
250. 9:38nation we are in theory not
251. 9:41choosing sides but in his heart and mind
252. 9:44there's never really any doubt
253. 9:46which side woodrow wilson is supporting
254. 9:49he
255. 9:50very much favors the english
256. 9:57the war that breaks out in the summer of
257. 9:591914
258. 10:00comes to consume very nearly the entire
259. 10:04globe it is truly a world
260. 10:07war on the allied side
261. 10:10the core nations were great britain
262. 10:14france russia and italy
263. 10:17and eventually of course the united
264. 10:18states joins the war on the allied
265. 10:21side their enemies and opponents were
266. 10:25known as the central
267. 10:26powers and at their core were germany
268. 10:30austral hungary and turkey as well
269. 10:34playing a role this is truly a
270. 10:38horrific war and one could make the
271. 10:41argument and i would be inclined
272. 10:43to support this argument that world war
273. 10:45one
274. 10:46was in many ways the most horrific war
275. 10:49in the history of the world what we see
276. 10:52in world war one
277. 10:54is the moment when technology
278. 10:57has essentially caught up to
279. 11:00the ability of any one human being
280. 11:03to make any difference in the war we see
281. 11:06introduced during world war one horrible
282. 11:09destructive new technologies
283. 11:11like the machine gun poisoned gases
284. 11:15tanks airplanes and bombs and
285. 11:18although all of these uh technologies
286. 11:21are still
287. 11:22relatively new and will be radically
288. 11:24improved
289. 11:25in the decades to come they still
290. 11:29overwhelmed the ability of the
291. 11:31individual
292. 11:32soldier to make much difference at the
293. 11:34same time
294. 11:37we still see that human beings are
295. 11:40the the sort of core element of this war
296. 11:43and so there are many many battles in
297. 11:45which hundreds of thousands of
298. 11:47men uh stream across the battlefield
299. 11:50only to be
300. 11:51moaned down by these machine guns or
301. 11:54dropped by
302. 11:55poison gases and things of that nature
303. 11:58and so the the horrible
304. 12:02struggles and uh injuries that were done
305. 12:05upon human beings during world war one i
306. 12:08think from the perspective of the
307. 12:10soldiers fighting the war it might just
308. 12:12be the most horrible war
309. 12:14ever fought and we see the casualties
310. 12:17exacted were simply staggering
311. 12:20in this war and we'll we'll talk a
312. 12:21little bit more
313. 12:23later about the means that the war was
314. 12:26fought and why
315. 12:27perhaps it might have been so uh so
316. 12:29deadly
317. 12:30but we see in the first year of the war
318. 12:33alone 1.3 million french
319. 12:35killed 850 000 germans
320. 12:39killed 300 000 british killed
321. 12:43and over the course of the war we would
322. 12:45see more than
323. 12:4620 million civilian casualties
324. 12:50as europe was torn to pieces by this war
325. 12:54so this is the conflict that breaks out
326. 12:57and woodrow wilson
327. 12:58needs to make decisions regarding
328. 13:00america's
329. 13:01stance and in the early years of the war
330. 13:05the decision was made to maintain
331. 13:07american
332. 13:08neutrality we are in many ways going to
333. 13:12stay out of the war at the same time
334. 13:15neutrality can mean
335. 13:16different things and in the case of the
336. 13:18united states
337. 13:20what neutrality meant over the first
338. 13:22couple of years was trying to
339. 13:24capitalize on these two sides that were
340. 13:28warring with each other and so the
341. 13:30united states
342. 13:31was attempting to trade with both sides
343. 13:34and to sell goods
344. 13:35with both sides and so it was a delicate
345. 13:39game and in some ways a dangerous game
346. 13:41to
347. 13:42both stay out of the war maintaining
348. 13:45neutrality
349. 13:46while at the same time negotiating
350. 13:49and trading and participating with both
351. 13:52sides
352. 13:53of the war in the early years
353. 14:03[Music]
354. 14:14so
355. 14:17you