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HIST 112 US 1877- present Chapter 20 Part 5 World War I Making the Peace — Transcript

by History Class with Dr. W · 2,584 words · 465 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:01[Music]
0:11making the situation
0:13even worse during world war one was the
0:16outbreak
0:16of the worst influenza pandemic
0:19that the world has ever known uh
0:23over the course of 1918 to 1919
0:27influenza broke out at first in the
0:30areas of
0:31combat it flourished in the trenches and
0:34the miserable and harsh and cold
0:36conditions
0:37in the trenches and spread across the
0:40countryside of europe and then
0:41eventually made its way
0:43across the atlantic and into the united
0:47states as well
0:49the influenza pandemic ultimately
0:51claimed more victims
0:53than the war itself tens of millions of
0:56people around the world
0:58were killed in this outbreak of
1:01influenza
1:03and it really does make the transition
1:05at the end of the war into peace time
1:08even more difficult than it otherwise
1:11might have been
1:12as the country uh is frightened
1:16and in some ways kind of stricken into
1:18inactivity
1:19because so many people were sick and
1:22many many others were
1:23simply frightened to engage in contact
1:26with other
1:26people and so they were more inclined to
1:28stay isolated or
1:30stay home as a result of this
1:34the influenza outbreak of 1918
1:37continues to have ripple effects
1:40even today those of you who
1:44at certain times of year you're reminded
1:47uh to go get your flu shot and there's a
1:51tremendous emphasis in the country on
1:54on getting that flu shot maybe you do
1:57maybe you don't but
1:58part of the reason that the medical
2:00community is
2:01so concerned with influenza
2:05is because they look back to this deadly
2:08outbreak in 1918 1919 which
2:12uh could be replicated at any time today
2:15it was a particularly
2:16deadly strain of influenza which
2:19uh obviously and thankfully every year
2:22we don't have a
2:24as deadly a strain as this but
2:27at any time we could have another
2:30outbreak
2:31along these lines that's part of why the
2:33medical community
2:35insists that so many of us get that flu
2:38shot every year
2:42so with the assistance of that influx of
2:45fresh american troops in 1918
2:48the allied forces forged ahead to
2:51victory
2:52with the final armistice being signed on
2:54november 11
2:561918 ending the war
2:59woodrow wilson played a key role in the
3:02formation of the peace of this war
3:06at the end of the war wilson in 1917
3:10announced that he wanted a peace without
3:13victors
3:14he talked about not holding any grudges
3:17against the germans he talked about not
3:18worrying about
3:19who to blame at the end of the war or
3:22who is going to pay
3:23for what uh he had a very idealistic
3:27vision of the peace at the end of this
3:29war
3:30wilson traveled to france in 1918
3:33to assist the allied effort in drawing
3:36up
3:36a specific plan for the peace
3:40and he was greeted as a great hero
3:43by the french people it was wilson who
3:46had sent the american troops which had
3:48contributed
3:48to the victory and so he was cheered
3:52as he walked through the streets in in
3:55france and this certainly invigorated
3:57him
3:59at the same time he confronted in the
4:03uh negotiating room some very tough
4:06and determined uh leaders of the other
4:09allied
4:10nations uh british and french leadership
4:14in particular
4:16do you imagine that the french wanted
4:19peace
4:19without victory the french who had seen
4:23four thousand french towns destroyed the
4:26french who had seen their countryside
4:28left in ruins they don't want peace
4:31without victors the french wanted
4:33revenge the french wanted the germans
4:36to have to pay uh and the british as
4:39well
4:39and they certainly wanted to see that
4:41the germans would not be allowed
4:43to ever do anything like this again
4:47and so uh wilson is criticized in uh
4:50in many ways by historians for his role
4:53in this peace
4:54process he uh has sort of a wide-eyed
4:57vision a very idealistic vision
5:00for the piece which is not necessarily
5:02grounded
5:03in reality whereas the other allied
5:06leaders
5:06uh come to the table with very concrete
5:10demands wilson's plan
5:13which he laid out in a speech before
5:15congress in january of nineteen
5:18uh eighteen was known as the fourteen
5:20points
5:21and you can see on the right hand side
5:23of your screen there a brief
5:25list outlining these points if you wish
5:30they again were rooted in ideas many of
5:32them were based on
5:34the idea of self-determination there are
5:36a number of different elements that are
5:38related to the former colonies and how
5:41they were going to be treated
5:42by the imperial powers
5:46again most of them sort of lofty or
5:49idealistic
5:50goals there aren't as many specific
5:53concrete things on the map
5:55and when they arrived at the negotiating
5:57table wilson
5:59was confronted with the other allied
6:02leaders who had very specific
6:04territorial demands here is a map here
6:07is territory that we want
6:09here is a dollar amount that we want the
6:11germans to have to pay
6:12and wilson gradually saw his 14 points
6:16being chipped away and chipped away
6:19until
6:20he was left with only the 14th
6:23point the creation of an association of
6:27nations which we will talk about
6:28shortly for the most part the rest of
6:31his 14 points were gradually worn down
6:35by the other allied leaders
6:40and so when the war is finally ended by
6:43the treaty of versailles
6:46what we see is that it is not peace
6:48without
6:49victors it is not uh a sort of generous
6:52settlement for the germans uh the other
6:55allies held sway
6:57and the treaty of versailles in fact was
6:59incredibly harsh
7:00against the germans as
7:04part of the treaty the germans were
7:06forced to
7:07admit or concede absolute
7:10guilt for the war itself and while i
7:13didn't go into great detail you can look
7:15back in your
7:16textbook or review the lesson
7:19the outbreak of the war was much more
7:22hazy than that the germans
7:24were no more or less to blame than any
7:26of the other powers
7:28the war had been triggered by a series
7:30of alliances
7:31uh kind of falling into place on both
7:33sides
7:35but having been defeated the germans had
7:38no choice but to sign this treaty and
7:40accept
7:41guilt for the war what that meant also
7:44was that the germans were going to have
7:45to pay
7:46for the destruction of the war uh this
7:49went into some negotiation and
7:51eventually was settled at the
7:53uh astronomical figure of 33
7:56billion dollars which is
7:59obviously a lot of money even today but
8:01in 1918
8:04uh there was no way that the germans
8:07were going to pay for this and also bear
8:09in mind
8:09that germany was itself a war-torn
8:13nation run down heavily damaged
8:16infrastructure
8:17not in place and so you're looking at a
8:21country
8:22without the capability to raise this
8:24kind of money we will come back to this
8:27point
8:28a few times as we go along certainly
8:30when we talk about the great depression
8:32this incredible debt that the germans
8:35are going to have to pay i mean
8:37i think i struggle to come up with a
8:39good parallel
8:40in the modern setting but it would be as
8:42if someone uh
8:44forced you to assume let's just say a
8:47hundred thousand dollars of credit card
8:49debt
8:50and you were just going to have to come
8:51up with a way to pay for that now i'm
8:53not sure how any individual among you
8:55might handle that
8:56but it would certainly be a difficult
8:58thing and maybe even an impossible thing
9:00for you to ever pay that off and that's
9:02essentially what happened with the
9:04german war debt
9:07as it turns out the germans finished
9:10paying off that
9:11debt just a handful of years ago
9:15and again we'll come back to that later
9:18the last element of the treaty that i
9:20want to mention is this idea
9:22of the league of nations which was that
9:25last of the 14th point 14 points that
9:29woodrow wilson was able to cling to
9:32and the league of nations did make it
9:34into
9:35the final treaty of versailles
9:38we can view this as sort of a precursor
9:41to the modern united nations a league of
9:44of nations um eventually there will be
9:48about 60 of them from around the
9:50world who all are more or less unified
9:53in their vision for the world they won't
9:56declare war on each other they won't
9:57attack each other and in fact they would
9:59assist each other
10:00if there were uh ever an attack
10:04this was again wilson's pride and joy it
10:08was the one point that he had clung to
10:10and
10:10refused to allow it to be eliminated
10:14and so now woodrow wilson comes back
10:17from
10:19helping to create this treaty of
10:20versailles comes back to the united
10:22states
10:23for the process of having the united
10:27states approve
10:28the treaty and what we will find is that
10:31in many ways it
10:32is his own idea of the league of nations
10:35that created great concern in the united
10:37states itself
10:42woodrow wilson found that many americans
10:44and
10:45in particular many american congressmen
10:48and senators in positions of power
10:51were not in support of the league of
10:53nations
10:54he was in some way surprised and
10:57dismayed
10:58when this became clear and yet he also
11:01set about with fierce determination
11:04to convince the nation that this was the
11:07right thing to do and why we needed the
11:09league of nations and so once again
11:11we see woodrow wilson the professor the
11:14speaker
11:16heading out to try to win over the
11:18support
11:19of the american people you see on the
11:21right a cartoon
11:23indicating this woodrow wilson steering
11:27this canoe down
11:28the rapids the ratification rapids to
11:30try to get the treaty
11:31of versailles ratified what troubled
11:35many congressmen most of all was article
11:3810 of the league of nations covenant
11:42and that particular article in essence
11:45guaranteed that
11:46all members of the league of nations
11:49would
11:50support other members if
11:53anyone declared war against one of those
11:55nations in other words
11:56any nation within the league would come
11:59to the defense of another nation if they
12:00were attacked or if someone declared war
12:03against them so this is sort of a grand
12:06alliance among these nations
12:09many americans persisted in their view
12:12that the united states should remain
12:14isolated should remain neutral uh and
12:17they were certainly not
12:18in favor of anything that uh sort of
12:21entangled them this goes back to george
12:23washington who
12:25uh as part of his final speech said that
12:27the country should avoid entangling
12:29alliances don't get yourself caught up
12:31in something that you don't have to
12:33be involved in and so article 10
12:36created a great deal of discussion and
12:39controversy and in fact
12:41congress uh did not support
12:44the league of nations and the treaty and
12:47it seemed they were not going to accept
12:50the treaty of versailles
12:53and so in september of 1919
12:57president wilson embarked on a massive
12:59whistle-stop
13:00speaking tour to promote the treaty of
13:03versailles
13:04again this is wilson the professor the
13:07communicator
13:08uh the person who wants to win over the
13:10will of the american people
13:13he gave 36 speeches in a 23 day
13:16period and so he's out there riding the
13:19the rails and he would stop and give a
13:21speech then he would ride on
13:22to the next stop on that 23rd day
13:27the president had a stroke
13:30he was stricken and disabled
13:33for quite a lengthy period now the
13:36stroke did not
13:37kill him um but it certainly knocked him
13:40out for a time he was
13:42not of sound mind for several months
13:46and essentially was unable to lead the
13:49country during that time let alone
13:51uh get out there and give speeches uh in
13:54defense
13:54of the league of nations and the treaty
13:58and so perhaps cruelly but it's a
14:02reality of politics while
14:04president wilson was disabled congress
14:08met to discuss the treaty and in fact
14:10voted
14:12to reject the league of nations and
14:16the treaty of versailles and so it is
14:19perhaps ironic that the united states
14:21never signed the treaty of versailles
14:24which was drawn up and
14:26uh largely written by its own president
14:29wilson
14:31you might wonder does that mean that
14:33somehow the united states is still at
14:34war
14:35with germany it's not the case the
14:38united states
14:39drew up separate peace treaties over the
14:42following few years
14:44with all of the combatant nations and so
14:46in fact we're not still at war we did
14:48sign
14:49peace treaties with them but it was not
14:51the treaty of versailles
14:56so let's take just a moment to think
14:58about the
14:59significance of world war one and some
15:02of its lasting
15:03impact it certainly cast a long shadow
15:06over at least the next 20 years of
15:10american history and in fact world
15:12history
15:13and so we can look at a few things that
15:16evolved out of the war in the short term
15:19and in the longer term as well
15:21first of all it might be said that world
15:23war one created the groundwork
15:26for the red scare on the home front
15:28which we'll be talking about
15:30in the next chapter the red scare
15:33was a fear of communism and for a brief
15:36period in 1919
15:38a time when anyone associated with
15:41communism
15:42on the home front was kind of rooted out
15:46and subjected to questioning and
15:48humiliation and perhaps other
15:52mechanisms we can say that this kind of
15:56atmosphere was created directly by the
15:59cpi
16:00and those world war one efforts that
16:03during the war were directed against the
16:05germans
16:07after the war they're directed against
16:09uh
16:10communism and in some ways against the
16:12russians but it was the same
16:14idea of fear and suspicion and kind of
16:17rooting out
16:18these people within american society
16:22world war one also lays the groundwork
16:24for the great depression which of course
16:27is a global
16:28depression but in some ways the great
16:30depression originates
16:31in germany which is crippled by that
16:35war debt that was forced upon them by
16:38the allies
16:39in the treaty of versailles the germans
16:41couldn't pay it
16:42they were hopelessly in debt and so
16:44their society
16:46by the mid to late 20s began to sink
16:49into a severe
16:50depression in some ways worse even than
16:53the american
16:54great depression and
16:58their debt begins to seep
17:01around the globe and have its effects
17:04uh in other european nations and
17:06eventually within
17:08the united states itself we'll talk
17:09about that more when we get to
17:11the chapter on the great depression and
17:14finally
17:15world war one uh in many ways lays the
17:18groundwork
17:19for world war ii uh in fact there
17:22is a school of historians that makes the
17:25argument that
17:26uh world wars one and two are
17:28essentially the same war
17:30uh just with an interlude in between
17:33they really don't recognize the peace
17:35established by the treaty of versailles
17:38such as it was
17:39but certainly world war one creates
17:42the bitterness and the resentment among
17:47germans that would inspire them
17:50to begin to launch what becomes world
17:52war ii
17:53and in particular a young
17:56german lieutenant named adolf hitler who
17:59was there
18:00at the end of world war one uh sickened
18:03and
18:04embittered by uh the fact that the
18:06germans were forced
18:08to accept guilt for the war and blame
18:10for the war
18:11and in fact adolf hitler made it his
18:14mission
18:15from that point forward to avenge uh
18:18germany's defeat after world war one
18:29[Music]
18:40so
18:45you

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