America in World War I: Crash Course US History #30 episode transcript - U.S. History by Crash Course

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America in World War I: Crash Course US History #30

From: U.S. History by Crash Course

In which John Green teaches you about American involvement in World War I, which at the time was called the Great War. They didn't know there was going to be a second one, though they probably should have guessed, 'cause this one didn't wrap up very neatly.

Full Transcript

America in World War I Crash Course US History 30

speaker01 00:00:00

Hi I'm John Green, this is Crash Course us history and today we're finally going to make military history buffs happy. That's right, today we're going talk about how the United with its superior technology, innovative tactics and remarkable generalship turn the tide of World War 1. Mr Green Mr Green, finally I've been waiting for months to learn about tanks and airplanes and Ernest Hemingway. Well, that's a shame me from the past because I was kidding about this being an episode full of military details. But I do promise that we will mention Ernest Hemingway and in a few weeks I will tell you about how he liberated the martinis of Paris.

speaker01 00:41:00

Americans were only involved in the Great War for 19 months, and compared with the other belligerents, we didn't do much fighting. Still, the war had profound effects on America at home, on its place in the world, and it also resulted in an amazing number of war memorials right here in Indianapolis. The Great War, which lasted from 1000 thousand 992000 thousand and 1918 and featured a lot of men with hats and rifles, cost the lives of an estimated 10 million soldiers.

speaker01 01:06:00

Also, the whole thing was kind of horrible and pointless, unless you love art and literature about how horrible and pointless World War 1 was, in which it was a real bonanza.

speaker01 01:15:00

So when the war broke out, America remained neutral because we were a little bit isolationist owing to the fact that we were led, of course, by President Wilson. But many Americans sided with the British because by 1000 and 914, we'd pretty much forgotten about all the bad parts of British rule like all that tea and monarchy. Plus, they're so easy to talk to with their English. But there were a significant number of progressives who worried that involvement in the war would get in the way of social reforms at home. In fact, Wilson courted these groups in the 1000 and 916 presidential campaign running on the slogan he kept us out of war and will continue to keep us out of war until we re-elect him, and then he gets us into war. But for that slogan 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, what I haven't even said anything yet, but you were about to me from the past.

speaker01 02:01:00

Because if I had asked you what event led the us to enter World War One, you would have surely told me that it was the sinking of the cruise ship Lusitania by German submarines 124 American passengers died in the ship, which had been carrying arms and also guns was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland, even though Secretary of 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, Brian promptly resigned. So how do I know it wasn't the immediate cause of our involvement in the war because the United States declared war on Germany in the Central Powers on April 2, 1917 almost two years after the sinking of the Lusitania. So 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 in early 1000 and 917? Was it the interception and publication of the Zi German Telegram in which the German Foreign Secretary promised to help Mexico get back California if they join Germany 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?

speaker01 03:09:00

Yes, yes, and yes. Also, there was our inclination to help Britain, to whom we had won 2 billion. That's the thing about wars. They never start for easy, simple reasons, like Lusitania sinking, stupid truth, always resisting simplicity.

speaker01 03:22:00

Oh, it's time for the mystery document. The rules here are simple, I guess. The author, the mystery document.

speaker01 03:29:00

I'm either right or I get shocked. I, or possibly one open covenants of peace openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind. But diplomacy shall proceed always, frankly and in the public view. I I'm starting to think these are Roman numerals, absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas outside territorial waters alike 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 Covenant 3, the removal so far as possible of all economic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all nations consenting to the peace and dissociating themselves for its maintenance and 14 I'm going to we skip some a general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity of great and small states alike. Stan, thank you for throwing me softball that's my favorite kind of ball Other than you, Wilson, with its mention of self determination, tomino, freedom of the seas, open diplomacy, and liberal use of Roman numerals. I know it is Woodrow Wilson's 14 Points, our second consecutive Woodrow Wilson weekend, my second consecutive non shock given all of his quasi-simple andism, there's something a little bit ideologically inconsistent about Wilson, but his 14 points are pretty admirable as a statement of purpose. Most of them deal specifically with colonial possessions and we're pretty much ignored, but I suppose if we've learned anything, it's that in American history, it's the thought that counts.

speaker01 05:07:00

America's primary contribution to the Entente powers winning the war was economic, as we sent all sorts of arms and money over there. Troops didn't arrive until the spring of 19009 18, and eventually over 1 million American Doe boys served under General John Jy Pershing. Not all of these people saw combat. They were much more likely to die of flu than bullet wounds, but their sheer numbers were enough to force the defeat of the exhausted Germans.

speaker01 05:29:00

And now, as 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 1000 and 920 SS and tried to make sense of everything. Turns out it's pretty hard to make sense of and you're just going to end up with a lot of six towed cats and then eventually suicide.

speaker01 05:49:00

OK, so I said earlier that a lot of American progressives were antique war, but certainly not all of them. Like according to Randolph, born war is the health of the state. And for progressives like him, the war offered the possibility of reforming American society along scientific lines, instilling a sense of national unity and self-sufficient fore and expanding social justice. Let's go to the thought bubble.

speaker01 06:09:00

World War 1 made the national government much more powerful than it had ever been. Like in May 1917 Congress passed the Selective Service Act, which required 24 million men to register for the draft and eventually increased the size of the army from 120000 to 5 million. The government also commandeered control of much of the economy to get the country ready to fight, creating new agencies to regulate industry, transportation, labor relations, and agriculture. The War Industries Board took charge of all elements of wartime production, setting quotas and prices, and establishing standardized specification for almost everything, even down to the color of shoes The railroad administration administered. Transportation agency rationed coal and oil. This regulation sometimes brought about some of the progressives goals, like the War Labor Board, for instance, pushed for minimum wage, 8 hour work days, and the rights of workers to form you. Wages rose substantially in the era, working conditions improved and union membership skyrocketed. But then so did taxes, and the wealthiest Americans ended up on the hook for 60% of their income, Also in World War 1, as never before, the government used its power power to shape public opinion.

speaker01 07:15:00

In 1917, the Wilson administration created the Committee on Public Information, which only sounds like it's from an Orwell novel headed by George Creel. The Cpi's team created a wave of propaganda to get Americans to support the war, printing pamphlets, making posters and advertising and swanky motion pictures. The best known strategies were the speeches of 75004 minute men, who in that amount of time delivered messages of support for the war in theaters, schools and other public venues.

speaker01 07:41:00

Concept In the CPI propaganda effort where democracy and freedom Creo believed that the war would accelerate movement towards solving the age old problems of poverty, inequality, oppression and unhappiness, because obviously war is the most effective antidepressant, thanks thought bubble. So the aforementioned Randolph Borne might have had good things to say about war, but he was also correct when he suggested that the war would encourage and empower the, quote, least Democratic forces in American life.

speaker01 08:07:00

World War 1 may have been a war to make the world safe for democracy, but according to one historian, the war inaugurated the most intense repression of civil liberties the nation has ever known, or suppressing civil liberties. Am glad those days have passed.

speaker01 08:20:00

Speaking of the repression of civil liberties, the MSA is about to start watching this video because I'm about to use the word espionage. The Espionage Act of 1917 prohibited spying, interfering with the draft and quote false statements that might impede military success. Even more troubling was the Sedition Act, passed in 19009 18, which criminalized statements that were intended to cast contempt, scorn, or disrepute on our form of government or that advocated interference with the war effort. So basically, these laws made it a crime to criticize either the war or the government. In fact, Eugene Debs, the socialist who ran for president in 1000 and 912, was one of those convicted for giving an antique war. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and he served three of them. But he ran for president from prison and got 900000 votes.

speaker01 09:04:00

Fortunately, thanks to checks and balances, you can turn to the courts. Unfortunately, they weren't very helpful like in Shank 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 citizens. This was when Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes introduced the famous exception to free speech that it is not OK to shout 5 in a crowded theater, nor apparently, is it OK to we should'nt be in this war. I don't think just my opinion, but someone even further, the 250000 strong American Protective League helped the Justice Department identify radicals by harassing people and what were called slacker raids. Good thing, though, stop before you got to high school, right? Me from the past slacker in bisbe Arizona vigilantes went so far to put striking copper miners in box cars, shipped them out to the middle of the desert and left them there, also raised the question of what it meant to be a real American, like public schools, Americanized immigrants, and sought to implant in their children.

speaker01 10:03:00

So far as can be done, the Anglo Saxon conceptions of righteousness, law and order, and popular government. Many cities sponsored Americanization pageants, especially around 4 July, which the CPI in 1018 rechristened Loyalty Day. Hamburgers is a German word, became a Liberty sandwiches.

speaker01 10:22:00

World. War One certainly didn't create antique immigrant feeling in the United States, but it was used to justify it, like iqta introduced to screen, army applicants were soon used to argue that certain immigrant groups were inferior to white Protestants and could never be fully assimilated into the United States. Now, of course, those tests were tremendously biased, but no matter. But to return to the questions of dissent and speech, the suppression continued after the war with the 1000 and 919 Palmer Raids, for instance, named after Attorney General Ay Mitchell Palmer and headed up by a young J Edgar Hoover. To be fair, someone did try to blow up Palmer, so there was some dissent related to the suppression of dissent. Also, more than 4 million workers engaged in strikes in the United States in 1919, but that didn't legally justify the arrest of more than 5000 suspected radicals and labor organizers. Most of them were arrested without warrants and held without charge, sometimes for months. And it's difficult to imagine that all of this would have happened without the heightened sense of patriotism that always a company's war.

speaker01 11:18:00

However, there were a handful of good things to come out of the Great war and not just the 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 had actually granted the franchise to women before the war. In Montana, for instance, women didn't just vote, they held office. Congresswoman Jeanette Rankin voted against the declaration of War in 1917 and was the only member 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, thus beginning the sole Carell, the Great Migration, and the growth of black populations in northern cities like Chicago and New York. The biggest gain was in Detroit, where between 1910 and 1920, the black population from 5741 to 40838, a 611% increase. So it's true that World War 1 provided some new opportunities for African Americans and women.

speaker01 12:10:00

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 implement his 14 points, raised hope for a new diplomatic order. But the results of the treaty made the 14 points look hypocritical. I, especially when Britain, France, took control of Germany's former colonies and carved up the Arabian provinces of the Ottoman Empire into new spheres of influence. Wilson's dream of a League of Nations was realized, but the us never joined it, largely because Congress was nervous about giving up its sovereign power to declare war and disappointment over the outcome of World War One led the us to, for the most part, retreat into isolationism until World War Two, and therein lies the ultimate failure of World War One.

speaker01 12:54:00

It's not called the world. It's called World War One because then we had to go and have a frickin other one. We'll talk about that in a few weeks. But next week we get to talk about suffrage. Yes, we finally did something right. I'll see you then.

speaker01 13:06:00

Crash Course is producer, directed by Stan Muller, our script supervisor is Meredith Danko, the associate producer is Danica Johnson. The show is written by my high school history teacher Ro Maya rosiana Rojas and myself, and our graphics team is Thought Cafe. Every week there's a new caption for the liberto. If you'd like to suggest one, you can do so in comments where you can also ask questions about today's video that will be answered by our team of historians. Thanks for watching Crash Course. And as we say in my hometown, don't forget to be awesome. Stan, can you do some movie magic to get me out of here, perfect?