World+War+I

** "The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as secure as the faith and the freedom of nations can make them." ** Woodrow Wilson's War Message //April 2, 1917//

media type="custom" key="12731184" Although this can easily be exaggerated, the United States was a relatively “innocent” country in that the United States was not a nation focused on competing with the other “great powers” of the earth. For example, as Europe navigated perilously into battleship building contests, secret alliances, and continental intrigue, the United States went about its business of trying to make money and go about its business. And when World War I started and the large-scale killing began in earnest, the United States was outside of the fight. The idea that the United States might get involved and send millions of its boys overseas to fight in that war was far from the minds of the vast majority of Americans. In fact, if you were to tell an American that hundreds of thousands of Americans would die in Europe in two horrendous world wars, they would have been incredulous. Violent foreign affairs – “wars and rumors of war” – were about to become a staple of American life in the 20th century.

media type="custom" key="12731242" This lecture deals with a divided America and Woodrow Wilson wrestling with the possibility of entering WWI on the side of the Allies - and then finally doing so in April of 1917. Initially called on to be neutral both in spirit and in deed, Wilson finds it difficult to either help resolve WWI -- or even to stay out of it. We look at ethnic and geographic loyalties inside the United States, as well as links to Allies and submarine warfare by the Germans.

media type="custom" key="12731264" Even if it did not scrupulously live up to Wilson’s admonition to be “neutral in thought as well as deed,” almost no Americans wanted to get involved in WWI when it started in late 1914, even if they did mostly sympathize with Great Britain and France. But that changed dramatically after a German submarine sank the RMS Lusitania off the coast of Ireland in May 1915. The economic and banking ties between the Allies and the United States tilted the Americans towards those countries, and perhaps the Germans cannot be blamed for targeting a civilian passenger liner carrying weapons also to Great Britain… but with almost a thousand civilians dead (including many infants) and 128 American dead, the damage is done in the eyes of public opinion. The Lusitania was a clearly dramatic step for America towards entry into WWI.

media type="custom" key="12731272" This lecture deals with America fighting World War I: civil rights, propaganda, conscription, internal migrations, etc. We look at how President Wilson very vigorously prosecuted the war and promised the American people much in terms of war goals and desired outcomes. We will examine the popularity of the war, the training of and fighting by soldiers and sailors, the dissenters, and how life changed in America during this supercharged time.

media type="custom" key="12731284" It had been the worst war in human history up until that point, and when it finally ended almost the entire world could heave a sigh of relief -- even as a late entry into the war, the United States managed to lose some 100,000 men in the fight! But in November 1918 the war finally came to an end with an exhausted Germany falling apart and surrendering, and the celebrations could commence. But the happiness was premature, as the subsequent peace would merely lay the seeds for later and even more destructive wars. But at least it was over for now...

media type="custom" key="12731294" This short video about the role of American photography during WWI does an excellent job of showing just how far Woodrow Wilson went to craft and control the public's view of the battlefields in Europe in late 1917 and in 1918. In addition to the Sedition and Espionage Acts, the censorship of battlefield photography by the government illustrates precisely how much coercion and control Woodrow Wilson was prepared to employ in the name of prosecuting and winning World War I.

media type="custom" key="12731300" Wilson initially wanted to end WWI with neither losers nor victors, and eventually his “Fourteen Points” were an idealistic and generous appeal to Germany to lay down her arms, an appeal that eventually was taken up. But Great Britain and France were more interested in revenge: they wanted to make sure Germany was punished and reduced to the point where it could never threaten continental peace again in Europe. The compromises that Wilson got he felt could be vindicated by a “League of Nations,” but in the end he did not even get his own country to sign on to that organization. Few will be the historians who ever argue the Versailles Peace Treaty was successful. It simply set the stage for WWII, a continuation of WWI in many, with millions of men dying on sometimes the exact same ground as before.

media type="custom" key="12731326" We look here at Woodrow Wilson and his policy regarding the Versailles Peace Conference and negotiations revolving around the ratification debates of 1919, Wilson's subsequent stroke, the failure of the Treaty in Congress, and the doom of Wilson's presidency. This will conclude the story of Woodrow Wilson and we will see how his story (the tragic hero!) of Princeton and New Jersey repeats itself in 1919 and 1920. Wilson promised his people that he would wage a “war for democracy” and a “war to end war,” and this idealism fueled enthusiasm for the war effort. But with the reality, Wilson notwithstanding was that the Versailles Treaty would not result in either “democracy” or an “end to war.” In fact, it would mean just the opposite, and Wilson’s fall from power and popularity would be almost complete. Wilson’s meteoric rise would be accompanied by a fall as dramatic – a true Shakespearean hero whose flaws eclipse his strengths. The fact that Wilson (a modern “Cassandra”) would correct in his prognostications for the failure of the League of Nations makes it even more tragic.