Sal Khan at Adobe Digital Marketing Summit 2013

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Kind: captions
Language: en

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Male: Please join me in
welcoming Salman Khan.

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(audience applauding)

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Welcome, Salman. Thank you so much.

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Khan: Good to be here. Thanks a bunch.

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Very exciting to be here.

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So before I start, I'd like
to get a sense of where the

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audience is and how much
they might know about Khan

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Academy. How many of y'all
have either used it or

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somewhat familiar with the
site to a certain degree?

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Oh, very good, very good.
How many of you have

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used it with your kids, your
kids actively use the site.

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Oh, this is very exciting.
All right, very good.

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So just to start off. There
were some of y'all that

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didn't raise your hands.
To get everyone on the same

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page, Khan Academy is most known for this

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collection of videos and I'll
talk a little bit about how

00:00:43.201 --> 00:00:45.515
all of this got started, but
I literally started making

00:00:45.515 --> 00:00:48.015
for my cousins and so I'll
show a montage of those

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videos and you'll see what
they feel like and then

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you'll also see some of
the other video direction

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we're going in, not all
of them are made by me

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anymore and we're starting
to experiment with some

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other styles. So, let me show
you what that looks like.

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We could integrate over the
surface and the notation

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usually is a capital sigma.

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All these interactions are
just through the gravity

00:01:08.341 --> 00:01:11.577
over interstellar or almost you
could call it intergalactic.

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This animal's fossils are
only found in this area of

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South America, a nice clean band here.

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Notice this is an aldehyde
and it's an alcohol.

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It's their 30,000,000
plus the $20,000,000 from

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the American manufacturer.

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They created The Committee
of Public Safety,

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which sounds like a very nice committee.

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Steven: This is not Eve.

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Beth: No, Botticelli's portrayed
the ancient goddess of love.

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Voiceover: This is 6x6x6 or 216.

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LeBron: I'm told the humidity
makes it feel hotter. Why is this?

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Khan: Excellent question Lebron.

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Voiceover: Let's just like make it eleven.

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Khan: Play with the pendulum
and get a feel for how it moves.

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Voiceover: Function as a bridge rectifier.

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Voiceover: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8.

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Khan: If this does not blow your
mind, then you have no emotion.

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(audience laughing)

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Khan: I can ... I can always tell
the intelligence of an audience

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based on how much they
appreciate Euler's identity,

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so y'all have ... y'all have
passed that, passed that.

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So just to give a snapshot
of where we are now,

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we've reached 75 million
unique students since kind of

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this adventure began.

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Over ... I think actually
the numbers are now

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240 million videos have been watched.

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We actually just crossed our
billionth exercise. I know the

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slide says 900 million,
but our billionth exercise

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literally a couple of weeks
ago. We're being used in

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20,000 classrooms and
what you saw now are just

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the videos, but what I want
to do is rewind a little bit

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and tell, talk about how all
of this got started and then

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talk about where we see Khan Academy going

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because we think it's a lot
more than just the videos

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that I initially started
making for family.

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So if you were ... If you
rewind back to 2004, I was a,

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my background is originally
in computer science, but

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I had gone to business
school. I now found myself,

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I was an analyst at a hedge
fund and I had just gotten

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married and I had some
family visiting me from

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New Orleans, which is
where I grew up. They were

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visiting me up in Boston
and while they were there,

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it was three of my
cousins and their parents,

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my uncle and aunt and
the oldest of my cousins,

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Nadia, who was 12 years old
at the time, it just came

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out in conversation at some
point that she was having

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trouble in mathematics and
so I said, "Nadia, you seem

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like a very bright young
woman. What seems to be

00:03:29.648 --> 00:03:34.084
the problem?" and she said
it was unit conversion.

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And I said, "You know, I'm
completely convinced that

00:03:36.152 --> 00:03:38.158
you can tackle unit conversion."
and she thought it was

00:03:38.158 --> 00:03:40.324
just one of these empty
pep talks. I could kind of

00:03:40.324 --> 00:03:43.157
sense that she was rolling
her eyes inside of her brain

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and so I said ... I kind of
viewed that as a little bit of

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a challenge. So I said,
"Okay, how about this?"

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"You go back to New
Orleans.", I'm in Boston.

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"Every day after work for
me, after school for you,"

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"I tutor you and we try to
get you past this threshold."

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and I think she was excited
that someone was willing

00:04:00.624 --> 00:04:04.220
to take this, the time out
for her and so she agreed

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and so they went back to
New Orleans and long story

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short, you know, every
day we worked together.

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It was difficult at first. She
kind of psyched herself out,

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convinced herself that she
was no good at mathematics,

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but about a month into it, she
was able to ... things clicked

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and she was able to catch
up. Then she actually started

00:04:19.431 --> 00:04:21.736
to get a little bit ahead of the
curve, a little bit ahead of where

00:04:21.736 --> 00:04:24.737
her class might be and at
that point I'd like to say I

00:04:24.737 --> 00:04:30.955
became what I call a "tiger
cousin" and I called up her

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school and I said, "You know,
I really think Nadia needs

00:04:34.070 --> 00:04:36.571
to retake the placement
exam, go into the faster

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math track." and they
said, "Well, who are you?"

00:04:39.094 --> 00:04:41.030
(audience laughing)

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"I'm her cousin." and, uh,
but you know it's a theme

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that I guess you'll see
many times over the next few

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minutes, but I've seen many
times over the last few

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years starting with Nadia
is that the same girl who

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entering 7th grade thought
she was no good in math

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and thought that she couldn't
comprehend unit conversion,

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by her sophomore year in
high school was taking

00:05:01.650 --> 00:05:04.588
Calculus at the local
university and something we're

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going to see over and over
again is that people who

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thought they were bad at
something are able to just

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if they're able to fill in
the gaps in their knowledge

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are able to all of sudden race ahead.

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But I was kind of hooked,
I worked with Nadia then I

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started working with her
younger brothers. Then the

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firm that I was working
for, I use "the firm"

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very broadly, it was my
boss and his dog, we, uh,

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the dog was the chief economist.

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We ended up moving out
to northern California.

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My boss' wife got a job as
a professor at Stanford Law

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and the first Khan
Academy, most people don't

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realize it because the
videos have kind of,

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kind of have a life of their own,

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the first Khan Academy was
actually a little piece

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of software that I had
written for my cousins,

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to kind of give them practice
problems. I noticed that

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they didn't, they weren't really
proficient in a lot of things

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that you would expect
someone in 5th or 6th or 7th

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grade to know. I was
somewhat suspicious of

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whether they were doing the
work, so I put a database

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behind it and you fast
forward to 2006. I was at a

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dinner party with a friend
and all my friends knew I

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had this kind of crazy
project with my cousins

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and I was showing off the
software that I had written,

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this things that generate
exercises for them and they

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all knew that I had this
project, but word had gotten

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around in the family that
free tutoring was going on

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and so I found myself now
tutoring every day after

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work about ten or fifteen
cousins and family members

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and whatever else and my friend he's like,

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"Oh Sal, this software is
really cool but how are you

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dealing with, you know,
being able to coordinate"

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"all of these tutoring
sessions" and I'm like,

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"You know, it's actually getting
really, really difficult."

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and he's the first person to
tell me, "Well, there's this"

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"YouTube thing. Why
don't you make some of,"

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"Why don't you make videos
of some of your lessons,"

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"put them up on YouTube,
maybe your cousins would"

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"find it useful." and I
immediately thought it was a

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horrible idea. I said,
"No, no, no, no, no."

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"YouTube is for cats playing
piano. It's not for serious"

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"mathematics.", but I literally
went home that weekend

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got over the idea that it wasn't
my idea and I gave it a shot

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and you know, those first
few videos were kind of on

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algebra and pre-algebra and
whatever else and I made

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about ten or twenty of
them. There were little

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10-minute long videos and I
started telling my cousins,

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"Look, if you're confused
about something, you"

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"want to review something,
there's these videos that"

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"are there for you" and
after about a few months,

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I asked for feedback and
you know, they somewhat

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backhandedly told me that
they preferred me on YouTube

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than in person and viewing
the positive angle of that

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feedback, I think it
actually made a lot of sense.

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They were saying look, they
appreciated the time I was

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spending with them. They
appreciated the tutorials,

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but the first time that
you learn something, it's

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stressful to have someone
say, "Oh are are, do you"

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"understand this now?" or a
lot of times, you might be

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in 7th or 8th or 9th grade
and you forgot some concept

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from 4th or 5th grade and
you might be embarrassed

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to tell your cousin and so you
can now review it at your own

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time and pace. When people
coordinate time, you know,

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they might have other things
going on in their day.

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They might have a lot
of homework that night.

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Now they could access the
content when they're ready,

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when they're ready to access it.

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So I view that as positive
feedback and I just kept

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going adding more and more
and more and more content.

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Then it became clear,
soon enough on YouTube,

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that there were people who
were not my cousins who

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were watching and you
know at first the comments

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were just, you know, thank
you, this really helped,

00:08:29.453 --> 00:08:32.244
I really appreciated this
and even that was a pretty

00:08:32.244 --> 00:08:35.245
big deal. I don't know how
much time y'all have spent

00:08:35.245 --> 00:08:37.286
on YouTube, but the
comments don't always be,

00:08:37.286 --> 00:08:38.787
aren't always that positive.

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(audience laughter)

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or even G-rated and then
the comments got really

00:08:44.870 --> 00:08:46.620
interesting. They started
to be things like, you know,

00:08:46.620 --> 00:08:48.702
hey this is the reason why I
was able to go back to college,

00:08:48.702 --> 00:08:51.596
this is the reason why I'm now
a physics major, this is the

00:08:51.596 --> 00:08:54.656
reason why after leaving
the military I can go back

00:08:54.656 --> 00:08:57.710
and major in engineering
and you know, I got crazy

00:08:57.710 --> 00:09:01.294
e-mails. One family said,
"Thank you so much for this"

00:09:01.294 --> 00:09:05.400
"resource. My entire family
prays for your entire family"

00:09:05.400 --> 00:09:07.935
"every evening." and you
have to put things in

00:09:07.935 --> 00:09:11.772
perspective. I was an
analyst at a hedge fund.

00:09:11.772 --> 00:09:13.294
We didn't have a lot of
people praying for us.

00:09:13.294 --> 00:09:15.676
(audience laughing)

00:09:15.676 --> 00:09:17.377
Maybe our investors every now and then.

00:09:17.377 --> 00:09:19.627
(audience laughing)

00:09:19.627 --> 00:09:24.918
So I just kept going and
going and going. In 2008,

00:09:24.918 --> 00:09:27.522
I set it up as a not for profit.
Even at that point, I didn't

00:09:27.522 --> 00:09:30.626
really imagine that it
was, you know my I guess my

00:09:30.626 --> 00:09:33.466
for profit career was going
well and I just assumed

00:09:33.466 --> 00:09:35.968
that hey maybe I'll just
do the for profit thing.

00:09:35.968 --> 00:09:38.613
I'll set this up as a not for
profit. Maybe at some point

00:09:38.613 --> 00:09:40.634
I could get some grants for
it or maybe get a couple

00:09:40.634 --> 00:09:42.800
of people to work on it, but
I didn't really think of that

00:09:42.800 --> 00:09:45.521
as something that might
overtake my life, but then as

00:09:45.521 --> 00:09:48.879
little as a year after that,
2009, it had taken over my life.

00:09:48.879 --> 00:09:51.349
At this point, there were
several hundred thousand

00:09:51.349 --> 00:09:54.182
people who were using the site
every month. I was getting

00:09:54.182 --> 00:09:57.440
hundreds of e-mails every
week. I was sneaking away and

00:09:57.440 --> 00:10:01.130
making videos in every kind
of free time that I had and so

00:10:01.130 --> 00:10:04.499
I sat down with my wife. We
had a little bit of savings.

00:10:04.499 --> 00:10:06.691
Sometimes I'm introduced
as a hedge fund manager

00:10:06.691 --> 00:10:08.690
and I make it very clear now,
I was the analyst. There's a

00:10:08.690 --> 00:10:10.228
different pay grade otherwise
it would have been a much

00:10:10.228 --> 00:10:12.409
easier decision and I would be
dressed a little bit better.

00:10:12.409 --> 00:10:14.783
(audience laughing)

00:10:14.783 --> 00:10:17.970
But I was an analyst and so we
had some savings about enough,

00:10:17.970 --> 00:10:20.277
about a year's worth of
savings, but we didn't own a

00:10:20.277 --> 00:10:24.306
house, our son had just
been born but you know,

00:10:24.306 --> 00:10:26.424
my wife understood that this
is kind of, had overtaken

00:10:26.424 --> 00:10:28.289
my life and I said, "Look,
you know, someone's gotta"

00:10:28.289 --> 00:10:31.063
"appreciate it in the next year."
We'll give ourselves a year,"

00:10:31.063 --> 00:10:32.751
"someone should appreciate
that there's almost"

00:10:32.751 --> 00:10:35.500
"infinite social return on
investment here. That I could"

00:10:35.500 --> 00:10:37.750
"keep on making videos. We
could do the interactive"

00:10:37.750 --> 00:10:40.071
"software, etc., etc. It could
reach millions and millions"

00:10:40.071 --> 00:10:42.642
"and millions, maybe one day
billions of students." and so I

00:10:42.642 --> 00:10:45.499
kind of took that leap of faith and
I think like a lot of entrepreneurial

00:10:45.499 --> 00:10:49.101
stories, you start off very
naively optimistic. You're already

00:10:49.101 --> 00:10:51.433
starting to talk to some
foundations, you just assume

00:10:51.433 --> 00:10:53.583
yeah, this is a no-brainer
for them, they're definitely

00:10:53.583 --> 00:10:57.183
going to fund this and they don't.

00:10:57.183 --> 00:11:00.995
A few months go by and in
all honesty about nine months

00:11:00.995 --> 00:11:04.349
went by and I started getting
pretty insecure and there

00:11:04.349 --> 00:11:06.085
was even a night where I
started literally updating my

00:11:06.085 --> 00:11:09.635
resume and thinking that I
would go back into the world

00:11:09.635 --> 00:11:12.769
that I had come from and
right when I was, right around

00:11:12.769 --> 00:11:15.640
that same time, I had some
... I had a place where

00:11:15.640 --> 00:11:16.974
people could send in donations.

00:11:16.974 --> 00:11:18.554
There was a little PayPal
link and I was getting

00:11:18.554 --> 00:11:21.611
$50 donations, $5 donations
every now and then $100

00:11:21.611 --> 00:11:24.748
donation would come in and
that did help pay the bills,

00:11:24.748 --> 00:11:27.586
but we were digging into our
savings to the tune of about

00:11:27.586 --> 00:11:31.754
5 or $6,000 a month and
right when that was happening

00:11:31.754 --> 00:11:35.472
all of a sudden a $10,000
donation came in and so I

00:11:35.472 --> 00:11:37.274
immediately see who this
is from, her name was

00:11:37.274 --> 00:11:41.999
Ann Doerr. She was based in
Palo Alto. So I immediately

00:11:41.999 --> 00:11:44.329
sent her an e-mail, I said,
you know, "Thank you so much

00:11:44.329 --> 00:11:46.923
"for this very generous
donation. This is the largest"

00:11:46.923 --> 00:11:49.553
"donation that the Khan
Academy has ever received."

00:11:49.553 --> 00:11:51.526
"If we were a physical
school, you would now have a"

00:11:51.526 --> 00:11:53.050
"building now named after you."

00:11:53.050 --> 00:11:54.550
(audience laughing)

00:11:54.550 --> 00:11:57.246
which I've now discovered
is quite inexpensive.

00:11:57.246 --> 00:12:00.234
It gets you a bench at most universities.

00:12:00.234 --> 00:12:02.238
And she immediately
e-mailed me back and said,

00:12:02.238 --> 00:12:06.482
"Well, I'm fascinated by what
you're doing. Let's have lunch."

00:12:06.482 --> 00:12:09.240
and so we literally, I think
it was like a week later,

00:12:09.240 --> 00:12:11.420
we had lunch in downtown
Palo Alto in a little Indian

00:12:11.420 --> 00:12:15.271
buffet restaurant and Ann
said, "Well, you know,"

00:12:15.271 --> 00:12:18.021
"what are you trying to do?
What's your goal?" and I said,

00:12:18.021 --> 00:12:20.003
"Look, when I filled out
the paperwork with the IRS,"

00:12:20.003 --> 00:12:22.253
"they have a little line
that says mission statement"

00:12:22.253 --> 00:12:24.372
"and I said, well I don't
know, a free world-class"

00:12:24.372 --> 00:12:27.209
"education for anyone,
anywhere." and Ann said,

00:12:27.209 --> 00:12:30.630
"Well, that's optimistic.
That's ambitious."

00:12:30.630 --> 00:12:32.699
"How do you plan on
doing that?" and I said,

00:12:32.699 --> 00:12:36.450
"Well, I want to keep making
videos, but I could imagine"

00:12:36.450 --> 00:12:38.386
"building the interactive software
even more, the stuff that"

00:12:38.386 --> 00:12:41.784
"I started making with my
cousins, feedback, dashboards,"

00:12:41.784 --> 00:12:45.327
"tools for teachers, ways for
kids to communicate online,"

00:12:45.327 --> 00:12:47.664
"we can internationalize
it, so anyone on the planet"

00:12:47.664 --> 00:12:50.783
"can possibly access it."
and she said "Well, you know"

00:12:50.783 --> 00:12:53.569
"this is strangely enough,
it seems like your on track"

00:12:53.569 --> 00:12:56.461
"to do this. How are you
supporting yourself?"

00:12:56.461 --> 00:13:00.430
and in as a proud of a way as
possible I said, "I'm not."

00:13:00.430 --> 00:13:01.514
(audience laughing)

00:13:01.514 --> 00:13:05.065
And so Ann kind of nodded
and we parted ways,

00:13:05.065 --> 00:13:09.399
she got on her bicycle, I got
into my car and I drove home

00:13:09.399 --> 00:13:11.314
ten minutes later I'm driving
into the driveway and I got

00:13:11.314 --> 00:13:15.146
a text message from Ann and
it said "you really need"

00:13:15.146 --> 00:13:19.065
"to be supporting yourself.
I've just wired you $100.000."

00:13:19.065 --> 00:13:20.618
So, it was a good day.

00:13:20.618 --> 00:13:24.622
(audience laughing)

00:13:24.622 --> 00:13:27.900
And frankly that was
the beginning of a whole

00:13:27.900 --> 00:13:31.929
cascade of stranger and stranger
events. You fast forward

00:13:31.929 --> 00:13:34.399
two months, I was running,
you know I was like this

00:13:34.399 --> 00:13:36.625
virtual teaching guy and I
was curious what could you

00:13:36.625 --> 00:13:38.458
do with a physical environment
if it's not based on

00:13:38.458 --> 00:13:41.517
lecture anymore and so I
had this little summer camp

00:13:41.517 --> 00:13:45.208
where I had about twenty-five
middle school students

00:13:45.208 --> 00:13:48.491
and I had six of them play a
game of Risk and then I had

00:13:48.491 --> 00:13:50.626
the other, the remainder of the
students trade securities based

00:13:50.626 --> 00:13:54.764
on the outcome of the game
of Risk and one 12-year-old

00:13:54.764 --> 00:13:57.002
actually invented naked
shorting and I told them I could

00:13:57.002 --> 00:13:59.557
introduce them to some people,
they could ... they could

00:13:59.557 --> 00:14:04.390
do quite well. But, while that
was happening I got another

00:14:04.390 --> 00:14:06.807
actually series of text messages
from Ann and at this point

00:14:06.807 --> 00:14:08.544
I take her text messages very seriously.

00:14:08.544 --> 00:14:11.193
(audience laughing)

00:14:11.193 --> 00:14:13.568
They ... they, it was actually
hard to read but it read

00:14:13.568 --> 00:14:17.486
along the lines of "I'm at
the Aspen Ideas Festival right

00:14:17.486 --> 00:14:22.153
now. In the main pavilion.
Bill gates on stage talking

00:14:22.153 --> 00:14:25.261
about Khan Academy last
five minutes" and so I

00:14:25.261 --> 00:14:28.265
immediately boot the nearest
7th grader off of a computer

00:14:28.265 --> 00:14:32.106
and I start looking for
evidence that this, what is Ann

00:14:32.106 --> 00:14:35.152
talking about and I soon found
people tweeting about it.

00:14:35.152 --> 00:14:37.476
I was finding even blog posts
were starting to come out,

00:14:37.476 --> 00:14:39.746
in a few hours I was able to
find actual footage of the

00:14:39.746 --> 00:14:43.786
event and Bill Gates on stage
with Walter Isaacson talking

00:14:43.786 --> 00:14:46.536
about how he uses this thing
called the Khan Academy

00:14:46.536 --> 00:14:50.356
with his kids, he uses it himself
which actually was a little bit

00:14:50.356 --> 00:14:55.022
scary for me. Those videos were
for Nadia, not for Bill Gates.

00:14:55.022 --> 00:14:57.563
(audience laughing)

00:14:57.563 --> 00:14:59.996
And then I went home that
evening kind of just confused

00:14:59.996 --> 00:15:04.067
and not sure what to do
next. I mean, do I call him?

00:15:04.067 --> 00:15:06.638
Do I ... What's the protocol here?

00:15:06.638 --> 00:15:09.340
And they left me in that
somewhat bizarre state for the

00:15:09.340 --> 00:15:13.140
next two weeks and so two weeks
later I'm literally in the

00:15:13.140 --> 00:15:15.148
world headquarters of the
Khan Academy which was our

00:15:15.148 --> 00:15:18.762
walk-in closet and I was making
a video and then all of a

00:15:18.762 --> 00:15:22.211
sudden I get a call from
Seattle. This is intriguing,

00:15:22.211 --> 00:15:26.320
I answer the phone, "Hello."
and on the other side,

00:15:26.320 --> 00:15:29.154
you know, "This is Larry Cohen.
I'm Bill Gates' chief of staff"

00:15:29.154 --> 00:15:30.729
"You might have heard that Bill's a fan."

00:15:30.729 --> 00:15:32.190
"Yeah, I heard that."

00:15:32.190 --> 00:15:33.736
(audience laughing)

00:15:33.736 --> 00:15:35.799
"If you have some time in
the near future, we would"

00:15:35.799 --> 00:15:38.400
"love to fly you up to Seattle
and figure out how we can"

00:15:38.400 --> 00:15:40.904
"support you." and at that
moment I was looking at my

00:15:40.904 --> 00:15:43.808
calendar for the month, completely blank.

00:15:43.808 --> 00:15:45.856
(audience laughing)

00:15:45.856 --> 00:15:47.648
So I said, "Yeah, you know
I gotta cut my nails on"

00:15:47.648 --> 00:15:49.981
"Wednesday, but other than
that I think I can fly up"

00:15:49.981 --> 00:15:51.145
"and meet Bill Gates."

00:15:51.145 --> 00:15:55.152
So all of that worked out,
went and met with Bill Gates.

00:15:55.152 --> 00:15:58.254
They decided to support us,
be able to hire up a team.

00:15:58.254 --> 00:16:00.019
Right around that same
time, we were also meeting

00:16:00.019 --> 00:16:02.265
with the folks at Google. I
mean, all of these things were

00:16:02.265 --> 00:16:03.776
just these independent events
that just came together

00:16:03.776 --> 00:16:07.360
all at once. They also
decided to support us in a

00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:10.357
significant way and about
this time two and a half years

00:16:10.357 --> 00:16:13.109
ago, not that long ago,
we were up and running and

00:16:13.109 --> 00:16:16.026
we were kind of ready to build
what I had first described

00:16:16.026 --> 00:16:19.521
to Ann and what you see
here, this is kind of a,

00:16:19.521 --> 00:16:21.871
I like to show this because
it kind of gives a framework

00:16:21.871 --> 00:16:24.748
for how we think about how
kids can interact and learn

00:16:24.748 --> 00:16:26.982
with the system. This is what
we call our knowledge map.

00:16:26.982 --> 00:16:30.451
Each of those nodes are
concepts in mathematics,

00:16:30.451 --> 00:16:32.702
so you saw the videos.
They go much broader than

00:16:32.702 --> 00:16:34.990
mathematics. Right now
our interactive portion is

00:16:34.990 --> 00:16:37.596
mainly math. Over time, we
hope that the interactive

00:16:37.596 --> 00:16:42.104
will also be in quite possibly
every subject, but what

00:16:42.104 --> 00:16:45.685
you see here is that the higher
you go, there are more basic

00:16:45.685 --> 00:16:47.875
concepts and as students
show proficiency or mastery

00:16:47.875 --> 00:16:51.127
in the more basic concepts,
it then moves them down to

00:16:51.127 --> 00:16:54.293
more advanced concepts and
it's kind of an obvious idea,

00:16:54.293 --> 00:16:56.310
it's how you would play a
video game. You master level

00:16:56.310 --> 00:16:58.378
one, then you go to level
two. That's how you would

00:16:58.378 --> 00:17:00.280
learn a martial art. That's
how you would learn a musical

00:17:00.280 --> 00:17:02.481
instrument, but the thing that
I always point out is this

00:17:02.481 --> 00:17:06.285
is not the way that you are
taught in a traditional classroom.

00:17:06.285 --> 00:17:10.145
In a traditional classroom,
you group kids by age.

00:17:10.145 --> 00:17:13.102
You push them through in
a kind of a assembly line

00:17:13.102 --> 00:17:15.434
factory model and it's actually
no coincidence, this model

00:17:15.434 --> 00:17:19.402
was developed really during
the industrial revolution.

00:17:19.402 --> 00:17:21.644
At different points in time,
usually state mandated, you

00:17:21.644 --> 00:17:24.647
kind of try to apply
information to them. Some kids

00:17:24.647 --> 00:17:27.550
get the information, some
kids don't. Even if a kid gets

00:17:27.550 --> 00:17:31.107
a "C" on say basic exponents,
that's and you identify

00:17:31.107 --> 00:17:33.711
those weaknesses, you move
on to negative exponents

00:17:33.711 --> 00:17:36.014
or fractions or something
more advanced, even though

00:17:36.014 --> 00:17:39.117
you know that they had
weaknesses in something more

00:17:39.117 --> 00:17:41.784
basic and the analogy I
draw there is imagine if you

00:17:41.784 --> 00:17:45.575
were building a house and
you get the contractors and

00:17:45.575 --> 00:17:47.513
you tell the contractors,
"Look, we have ... the state

00:17:47.513 --> 00:17:50.462
tells me we have exactly three
weeks to build this foundation."

00:17:50.462 --> 00:17:53.190
"Do what you can.", so the
contractor does what they can

00:17:53.190 --> 00:17:56.784
You get the inspector to show
up after two, three weeks

00:17:56.784 --> 00:17:58.433
and the inspector says,
"Well, yeah I don't know the"

00:17:58.433 --> 00:18:01.224
"concrete's still a little bit wet
right over there. This part right"

00:18:01.224 --> 00:18:05.824
"over here isn't quite up to
code. I would give it an 85%."

00:18:05.824 --> 00:18:09.990
and you say, "Great, that's a
'C'. Let's build a first floor."

00:18:09.990 --> 00:18:13.281
and you build a first floor,
you know, two weeks of you know

00:18:13.281 --> 00:18:15.227
you tell the contractor, "Look,
you just have to spend two weeks."

00:18:15.227 --> 00:18:17.621
"I don't care if the supplies
don't show up. I don't care"

00:18:17.621 --> 00:18:20.811
"if it rains. Do what you
can." Inspector shows up, 75%.

00:18:20.811 --> 00:18:23.441
"Great, let's build the
second floor" and you do that

00:18:23.441 --> 00:18:25.194
floor after floor after floor
and then all of a sudden while

00:18:25.194 --> 00:18:27.410
you're building the fourth
floor and the whole thing

00:18:27.410 --> 00:18:29.911
collapses, you blame the
contractor. You say, "Oh my

00:18:29.911 --> 00:18:32.066
God, I had a horrible
contractor." or maybe you say,

00:18:32.066 --> 00:18:34.963
"Oh, we didn't inspect good
enough.", but the reality is

00:18:34.963 --> 00:18:38.441
maybe those things were fine,
but the process was broken.

00:18:38.441 --> 00:18:40.510
The inspector was identifying
weaknesses, but you

00:18:40.510 --> 00:18:42.386
completely ignored them
and you moved onto the

00:18:42.386 --> 00:18:44.246
next concept and this is
essentially what's happening

00:18:44.246 --> 00:18:47.391
in our schools every day
and so what we're saying is,

00:18:47.391 --> 00:18:49.971
look, instead of holding fixed
when and how long you have

00:18:49.971 --> 00:18:52.695
to learn something and the
variable is how well you

00:18:52.695 --> 00:18:54.864
learn it pretty much ensuring
that you end up with all of these

00:18:54.864 --> 00:18:56.972
gaps that are going to make
you hit a wall later on in

00:18:56.972 --> 00:19:01.440
your career, let's make the
variable how long you have to

00:19:01.440 --> 00:19:03.477
learn it and when you learn
it essentially personalize the

00:19:03.477 --> 00:19:06.502
instruction for your needs,
but the fixed thing is that

00:19:06.502 --> 00:19:11.534
you have a high-level,
a high-level of mastery.

00:19:11.534 --> 00:19:14.205
Now this is just an example
of what some of these

00:19:14.205 --> 00:19:16.780
exercises look like. I
showed, you know, we mentioned

00:19:16.780 --> 00:19:19.373
that a billion of these
have been done and I like to

00:19:19.373 --> 00:19:21.373
show this one. This is kind of
like montessori for Calculus.

00:19:21.373 --> 00:19:23.588
It kind of shows you that
you can change the slope of

00:19:23.588 --> 00:19:26.455
the tangent line at any point
and by doing that you're

00:19:26.455 --> 00:19:30.873
essentially plotting the derivative.

00:19:30.873 --> 00:19:33.229
You know when I ... When we
started this whole thing,

00:19:33.229 --> 00:19:35.332
I assumed Khan Academy was
just going to be this thing

00:19:35.332 --> 00:19:38.205
outside of classrooms. You
know, the school system

00:19:38.205 --> 00:19:40.955
was this beaurueacratic thing
with a lot of inertia, but

00:19:40.955 --> 00:19:42.707
right when we got some of
that first funding, a local

00:19:42.707 --> 00:19:45.440
school district reached out
to us, Los Altos, and said,

00:19:45.440 --> 00:19:47.191
"Look, what would you do
with a 5th grade classroom,"

00:19:47.191 --> 00:19:49.747
"now with your tools?" and we
said, "Look, we don't think"

00:19:49.747 --> 00:19:52.073
"there's a reason to use
class time for this passive"

00:19:52.073 --> 00:19:54.691
"one size fits all lecture.
Like, students can get it"

00:19:54.691 --> 00:19:56.634
"On Demand". I told them
how my cousins liked that

00:19:56.634 --> 00:19:59.322
even more and we can
use class time for more

00:19:59.322 --> 00:20:01.822
valuable things, for
interacting with the teacher,

00:20:01.822 --> 00:20:04.655
for peer to peer instruction.
The irony here is if the kids

00:20:04.655 --> 00:20:07.573
can learn at their own time
and pace when they're not

00:20:07.573 --> 00:20:09.406
in the classroom, the
classroom could become a more

00:20:09.406 --> 00:20:13.489
human experience because
they had this technology

00:20:13.489 --> 00:20:16.062
and somewhat surprising to us, they said,

00:20:16.062 --> 00:20:18.717
"Yeah, this is exactly
consistent with differnentiated

00:20:18.717 --> 00:20:21.118
instruction, mastery based
learning, these concepts

00:20:21.118 --> 00:20:23.098
that have been in education
circles forever and we want

00:20:23.098 --> 00:20:27.342
to do it." So, we started a
pilot and what you see here is

00:20:27.342 --> 00:20:29.762
some of the dashboards
from that initial pilot and

00:20:29.762 --> 00:20:32.522
it gives you an idea how
these classrooms could work.

00:20:32.553 --> 00:20:34.684
So each row is kind of like
a spreadsheet, each row there

00:20:34.684 --> 00:20:38.189
is a student in the class.
Each of those columns is one

00:20:38.189 --> 00:20:40.390
of those concepts you saw
in that knowledge map.

00:20:40.390 --> 00:20:42.626
Green means that a student is
proficient. Blue means that

00:20:42.626 --> 00:20:44.942
they're working on it and
red means that a student is

00:20:44.942 --> 00:20:47.444
stuck on it and the model
is the teacher can walk

00:20:47.444 --> 00:20:49.614
around, it literally updates
in real time. It shows up on

00:20:49.614 --> 00:20:52.229
their tablet and they can
say, "Okay, that student is

00:20:52.229 --> 00:20:54.552
having trouble with exponents
3. There's a couple of

00:20:54.552 --> 00:20:56.954
students who have already
mastered that, maybe I can set up

00:20:56.954 --> 00:20:59.003
a little peer tutoring between
them or if they're still

00:20:59.003 --> 00:21:00.858
having trouble, maybe I
can sit down and do a very

00:21:00.858 --> 00:21:03.360
focused intervention or
maybe if a bunch of students

00:21:03.360 --> 00:21:05.874
have already mastered a certain
concept, I can now do more

00:21:05.874 --> 00:21:12.941
interactive maybe a project based
on, based on that type of a concept.

00:21:12.941 --> 00:21:15.485
This next chart or graph,
I mean we have a ton of

00:21:15.485 --> 00:21:17.211
dashboards for teachers, so
that we can really give them

00:21:17.211 --> 00:21:19.346
the type of analytics, frankly
the type of analytics that

00:21:19.346 --> 00:21:21.450
we were seeing before in the
marketing analytics or the

00:21:21.450 --> 00:21:23.718
type of analytics that I had
when I was an analyst at a

00:21:23.718 --> 00:21:25.955
hedge fund, we can finally give
that to a teacher so they can

00:21:25.955 --> 00:21:28.972
in real time slice and dice
what all other students are up

00:21:28.972 --> 00:21:32.589
to, but I like to show this
one because above and beyond

00:21:32.589 --> 00:21:35.589
to showing a report, it talks
about a very powerful narrative,

00:21:35.589 --> 00:21:37.674
essentially the same narrative
that I had first seen

00:21:37.674 --> 00:21:40.638
with Nadia. The horizontal
axis there is just time.

00:21:40.638 --> 00:21:44.339
It's just days on the site. The
vertical axis is just a count

00:21:44.339 --> 00:21:47.090
of how many of those
modules a student has shown

00:21:47.090 --> 00:21:50.146
proficiency in and each of
those lines is a student in a

00:21:50.146 --> 00:21:53.816
classroom and what you
see is, just like any math

00:21:53.816 --> 00:21:56.090
classroom, right when you
start there's a group of kids

00:21:56.090 --> 00:21:58.454
very steep slope, they
start advancing really fast.

00:21:58.454 --> 00:22:00.535
There's a group of kids in
the middle and then there's

00:22:00.535 --> 00:22:02.668
a group of kids who are really
slow to start, those are

00:22:02.668 --> 00:22:05.709
the flatter lines and in a
traditional model, you say oh

00:22:05.709 --> 00:22:08.777
those kids who are racing
ahead, those are the honors

00:22:08.777 --> 00:22:10.998
students. Those are the kids
who are, you know, gonna go to

00:22:10.998 --> 00:22:13.635
to college, become engineers
and doctors and all the rest.

00:22:13.635 --> 00:22:16.312
We have the kids in the middle
and there are kids, the slow

00:22:16.312 --> 00:22:19.473
kids. Maybe those kids are the
remedial students, but what

00:22:19.473 --> 00:22:21.584
we're seeing is if you let
every student learn at their own

00:22:21.584 --> 00:22:25.166
pace, if you let them fill in
the gaps that you thought that

00:22:25.166 --> 00:22:27.461
they weren't able to fill in
before. The same students that

00:22:27.461 --> 00:22:32.056
we thought were remedial
ten days into the process or

00:22:32.056 --> 00:22:34.250
mediocre ten days in the
process and this blue student

00:22:34.250 --> 00:22:36.498
is one of them and it actually
clips off a little bit on the right,

00:22:36.498 --> 00:22:40.489
but on the right it, even at
day 70-something you see that

00:22:40.489 --> 00:22:42.477
there's a third best student,
but this student actually ends up

00:22:42.477 --> 00:22:44.859
becoming the second best
student in the class and we're

00:22:44.859 --> 00:22:46.965
seeing this over and over
and over again in every

00:22:46.965 --> 00:22:49.009
classroom that we've worked
with, whether we're talking

00:22:49.009 --> 00:22:51.971
about public schools, private
schools, rich neighborhoods,

00:22:51.971 --> 00:22:54.629
poor neighborhoods, where
ever it is many of the kids

00:22:54.629 --> 00:22:57.357
that even in the two months
that you thought were slow,

00:22:57.357 --> 00:23:00.346
you thought were remedial,
you let them fill in that gap

00:23:00.346 --> 00:23:01.312
even though it's in algebra
class, you let them make sure

00:23:01.312 --> 00:23:03.167
they know their multiplication
tables, know they're

00:23:03.167 --> 00:23:06.375
multiplying decimals, adding
fractions, negative numbers,

00:23:06.375 --> 00:23:08.339
they can become the best
student in the class.

00:23:08.339 --> 00:23:21.500
(audience applauding)

00:23:21.500 --> 00:23:23.872
Right now, 20,000 classrooms
are using us in some

00:23:23.872 --> 00:23:26.134
way shape or form. I want to
make it clear, all of this is

00:23:26.134 --> 00:23:28.743
completely free, it's not for
profit. All these dashboards that

00:23:28.743 --> 00:23:31.120
I'm showing you, you could start
using it with your cousins,

00:23:31.120 --> 00:23:33.888
you can volunteer at your local
boys and girls club or your

00:23:33.888 --> 00:23:36.317
local school and you can be the
coach and you would have the

00:23:36.317 --> 00:23:40.112
same tools that the teachers
in Los Altos have, but with

00:23:40.112 --> 00:23:42.758
that we like to remind ourselves
that still the bulk of our

00:23:42.758 --> 00:23:45.528
users even though we have
400,000 in classrooms, the bulk

00:23:45.528 --> 00:23:50.067
of our users, the other 5,500,000
are just people out there

00:23:50.067 --> 00:23:53.670
just trying to tap into their
potential and what this next

00:23:53.670 --> 00:23:56.327
video at least shows us and
hopefully shows you as well,

00:23:56.327 --> 00:23:59.431
is just how much potential there
is out in the world if we just give

00:23:59.431 --> 00:24:04.362
people the tools to actually tap into it.

00:24:04.362 --> 00:24:07.947
Mark: My name is Mark Halverstedt.
Growing up, I was really

00:24:07.947 --> 00:24:11.976
always a "C" student. I think
I was really pretty much always

00:24:11.976 --> 00:24:15.168
pretty pitiful in school. I
don't think I've ever gotten

00:24:15.168 --> 00:24:19.820
higher than a B+ in any math
class ever particularly.

00:24:19.820 --> 00:24:21.919
I pretty much thought that
the only thing I was good

00:24:21.919 --> 00:24:26.192
enough to do in college was
major in music and I went off

00:24:26.192 --> 00:24:30.128
and I got a music degree
in saxophone, but I sort of

00:24:30.128 --> 00:24:33.684
almost felt that it was more
I was getting it because I

00:24:33.684 --> 00:24:37.500
was terrible at everything
else. I worked as a saxophone

00:24:37.500 --> 00:24:41.683
player for a few years, really
what I wanted to do was do

00:24:41.683 --> 00:24:44.600
electrical engineering and
the last thing that I remember

00:24:44.600 --> 00:24:48.382
completely not getting was
trig identities. So, I went to

00:24:48.382 --> 00:24:52.262
YouTube and I did a search
for trig identities and Khan

00:24:52.262 --> 00:24:55.154
Academy was the first thing
that popped up. I watched a

00:24:55.154 --> 00:24:57.356
bunch of videos in the trig
playlist to kind of get caught up to

00:24:57.356 --> 00:25:00.826
speed. I watched all of the
videos in the calculus playlist.

00:25:00.826 --> 00:25:03.523
I watched all the videos in
the physics playlist. I watched

00:25:03.523 --> 00:25:07.236
a bunch of videos on dividing
decimals and even on a

00:25:07.236 --> 00:25:11.240
subtraction by borrowing. I
watched a lot of videos on

00:25:11.240 --> 00:25:16.311
arithmetic. That was in 2007.
I did that until the fall

00:25:16.311 --> 00:25:21.164
of 2010 and then in the fall
2010, I took a leap. I decided

00:25:21.164 --> 00:25:25.330
to go back to school and
went to Temple University,

00:25:25.330 --> 00:25:29.163
majored in electrical engineering
getting a second bachelors

00:25:29.163 --> 00:25:31.961
and keep in mind, I don't
think I've ever gotten above a

00:25:31.961 --> 00:25:37.498
B+ in math classes and I was
really a straight "C" student

00:25:37.498 --> 00:25:41.058
growing up and I just finished
this year, first year back

00:25:41.058 --> 00:25:46.107
in college, I got a 4.0 GPA for
the entire year. I got perfect

00:25:46.107 --> 00:25:50.386
scores on both of my Calc
final exams and also on

00:25:50.386 --> 00:25:55.859
my Chemistry final exams. I
ended Calculus, Chemistry,

00:25:55.859 --> 00:25:58.860
both Calculus classes, Calc I
and II and Chemistry with an

00:25:58.860 --> 00:26:03.584
average higher than 100%.
There are some Khan Academy

00:26:03.584 --> 00:26:07.309
videos that I probably
listened to the same concept

00:26:07.309 --> 00:26:13.822
over twenty or thirty times
and there is no tutor in the

00:26:13.822 --> 00:26:17.323
world I could have paid
to have sat next to me and

00:26:17.323 --> 00:26:21.204
repeated the same thing
over twenty or thirty times

00:26:21.204 --> 00:26:24.157
without at least them getting
a little bit judgmental

00:26:24.157 --> 00:26:27.289
or at least them thinking like
oh, well this guy really is never

00:26:27.289 --> 00:26:30.228
going to get this concept
and he should just give up.

00:26:30.228 --> 00:26:32.762
Where the understanding
really happened was watching

00:26:32.762 --> 00:26:35.666
those videos and also working
through the Khan Academy

00:26:35.666 --> 00:26:38.835
software and everything. The
impact for me in my life,

00:26:38.835 --> 00:26:43.004
I really see it growing
exponentially over the next twenty

00:26:43.004 --> 00:26:47.376
or thirty years. So from the
bottom of my heart, thank you.

00:26:47.376 --> 00:26:50.644
(audience applauding)

00:26:50.644 --> 00:26:54.012
And Mark is now a junior
and still has a 4.0 GPA,

00:26:54.012 --> 00:26:56.011
so he's doing quite well.
Maybe he'll apply for an

00:26:56.011 --> 00:26:59.788
internship with some of you
guys, so keep a look out.

00:26:59.788 --> 00:27:02.344
So the one thing that might,
some of y'all might have been

00:27:02.344 --> 00:27:04.057
thinking about and I even
saw that map where some of

00:27:04.057 --> 00:27:05.761
y'all are from is everything
that I've been focused on so

00:27:05.761 --> 00:27:08.843
far has been the English
speaking world, the developed

00:27:08.843 --> 00:27:11.300
world, but the implications
on the developing world

00:27:11.300 --> 00:27:15.008
could be even larger where
you have lack of resources or

00:27:15.008 --> 00:27:16.674
even if you have the resources,
you might not be able to

00:27:16.674 --> 00:27:19.334
find teachers where the kids
have all sorts of, they're all at

00:27:19.334 --> 00:27:22.850
different types of skill levels
and so we've started to have

00:27:22.850 --> 00:27:26.185
other groups take what we're
doing, other not for profits,

00:27:26.185 --> 00:27:28.829
for the most part but even
some governments, take our

00:27:28.829 --> 00:27:31.233
stuff and start to deploy it
all over the world and these

00:27:31.233 --> 00:27:33.768
are pictures of Khan Academy
being used in various

00:27:33.768 --> 00:27:36.167
parts of the world and each
of these are exciting stories.

00:27:36.167 --> 00:27:38.772
But the one for us that's
kind of been the most mind

00:27:38.772 --> 00:27:41.500
blowing is the one up there
in the top right. You know,

00:27:41.500 --> 00:27:43.834
I used to give talks like
this about a year ago and say

00:27:43.834 --> 00:27:48.348
one day, this might be used
in Mongolia and about a little

00:27:48.348 --> 00:27:50.717
after that I got an e-mail
from Mongolia. It was actually

00:27:50.717 --> 00:27:53.579
from Zaya, the girl on the top
right and she actually sent

00:27:53.579 --> 00:27:55.935
a YouTube thank you not too
different than what you saw from

00:27:55.935 --> 00:27:58.908
Mark Halberstadt and I
assumed she must be a middle-

00:27:58.908 --> 00:28:02.798
class girl. She has access
to YouTube and whatever else,

00:28:02.798 --> 00:28:05.381
but then I read the e-mail in
more depth and it turned out

00:28:05.381 --> 00:28:08.005
that there was a group from
Silicon Valley who in their

00:28:08.005 --> 00:28:11.819
vacation time, a group of
engineers was going to Mongolia

00:28:11.819 --> 00:28:16.385
and setting up a kind of a
computer labs in orphanages

00:28:16.385 --> 00:28:20.359
and what you see there the
top right, those are girls

00:28:20.359 --> 00:28:24.053
in a Mongolian orphanage
using Khan Academy and Zaya

00:28:24.053 --> 00:28:28.385
was one of the orphans and
that by itself was cool enough

00:28:28.385 --> 00:28:31.877
but then Zaya herself who is
now 17 and got so into it,

00:28:31.877 --> 00:28:34.681
that she's our now, she's
now, this is a 17-year-old

00:28:34.681 --> 00:28:37.553
orphan girl is now our prime
producer of content in the

00:28:37.553 --> 00:28:39.786
Mongolian language. She is
essentially the teacher for

00:28:39.786 --> 00:28:42.858
her country and so it's kind
of one of these surreal,

00:28:42.858 --> 00:28:45.995
sci-fi type of things and so
what I want to show you now

00:28:45.995 --> 00:28:49.156
is the direction we're going in,
in terms of internationalization.

00:28:49.156 --> 00:28:52.273
We have 4,000 videos in
English. We now have 7,000

00:28:52.273 --> 00:28:54.862
in, I think, twenty languages
and our goal is to frankly have

00:28:54.862 --> 00:28:58.519
80,000 in twenty languages
and maybe more and maybe

00:28:58.519 --> 00:29:01.094
even have regional specific
content and so this next

00:29:01.094 --> 00:29:04.436
montage shows you a little
taste of what those other

00:29:04.436 --> 00:29:06.187
videos look like and they're
already available on the

00:29:06.187 --> 00:29:08.807
site, if you, at the bottom
there's a little bit of a drop down

00:29:08.807 --> 00:29:14.808
and it ends with a little
part of Zaya's original video.

00:29:50.605 --> 00:29:55.321
Zaya: I'm Zaya from
Mongolia. Your videos are so

00:29:55.321 --> 00:30:02.554
interesting and funny. Make more lessons.

00:30:02.554 --> 00:30:06.968
I watch that, I watch
that when I get lazy.

00:30:06.968 --> 00:30:12.864
(audience applauding)

00:30:12.864 --> 00:30:15.268
So I like to point out, I
mean you know it started with

00:30:15.268 --> 00:30:18.203
me and my cousins, but I like
to emphasize that it's not

00:30:18.203 --> 00:30:21.274
just me anymore. It's a team
of folks. We're approaching

00:30:21.274 --> 00:30:24.276
40 people and I like to
emphasize I think we're in a

00:30:24.276 --> 00:30:26.905
special time in history,
literally, a Gutenberg moment,

00:30:26.905 --> 00:30:28.905
not even a once in a lifetime
opportunity. I literally think

00:30:28.905 --> 00:30:32.018
it's a once in a millenia
opportunity where you could have

00:30:32.018 --> 00:30:34.881
real reach and real scale
and what I point out is,

00:30:34.881 --> 00:30:37.423
you know, our team over
the last year averaged 24

00:30:37.423 --> 00:30:39.826
employees. We've been
growing quite fast, but we've

00:30:39.826 --> 00:30:42.328
been able to reach 43
million unique students over

00:30:42.328 --> 00:30:44.785
the past year and I point
out that if that was actually

00:30:44.785 --> 00:30:47.067
drawn to scale, that second bar should be

00:30:47.083 --> 00:30:50.974
20 kilometers high.

00:30:50.974 --> 00:30:54.568
So, you know, big picture,
the original tagline on that

00:30:54.568 --> 00:30:58.377
was just the necessities, but there was a.

00:30:58.377 --> 00:31:00.717
You know, big picture,
education has traditionally

00:31:00.717 --> 00:31:03.760
viewed as a very scarce thing,
a thing that's expensive,

00:31:03.760 --> 00:31:06.095
a thing that really differentiates
between the haves and

00:31:06.095 --> 00:31:09.058
have nots, even when people
did philanthropy, it was

00:31:09.058 --> 00:31:11.127
always what do the rich
have? Well, that's expensive.

00:31:11.127 --> 00:31:13.509
Let's create a cheaper
approximation of it and let's try

00:31:13.509 --> 00:31:15.163
to give it to the poor because
they had nothing before

00:31:15.163 --> 00:31:17.839
so it's better than nothing,
but what's exciting now is

00:31:17.839 --> 00:31:20.508
I think we're entering a
reality where we don't even have

00:31:20.508 --> 00:31:23.426
to give the poor a cheaper
approximation. We can give

00:31:23.426 --> 00:31:26.694
students like Zaya and the
other girls in her orphanage

00:31:26.694 --> 00:31:29.839
the exact same thing that
Bill Gates' children have, so

00:31:29.839 --> 00:31:31.546
we're going into a world
where education isn't this

00:31:31.546 --> 00:31:34.951
scarce thing, isn't this
expensive thing so ten, twenty

00:31:34.951 --> 00:31:38.837
thirty years in the future, I
firmly believe that it will be

00:31:38.837 --> 00:31:41.062
viewed as a human right and it
will be viewed as just one of

00:31:41.062 --> 00:31:44.400
these necessitites like clean
drinking water, shelter or

00:31:44.400 --> 00:31:48.105
electricity and with that I'd
just like to thank you for

00:31:48.105 --> 00:31:50.211
having us here. Thanks a bunch.

00:31:50.211 --> 00:31:56.977
(audience applauding)

00:31:56.977 --> 00:32:04.318
Male: Wow.

00:32:04.318 --> 00:32:11.659
(audience applauding)

00:32:11.659 --> 00:32:19.000
Khan: Thanks.


United States enters World War I

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.500 --> 00:00:04.300
Despite the fact that Wilson
had just won reelection in 1916

00:00:04.300 --> 00:00:07.420
based on a platform of keeping
the United States out of war,

00:00:07.420 --> 00:00:13.640
by April of 1917,
the administration

00:00:13.640 --> 00:00:16.149
had decided that Germany
had gone too far.

00:00:16.149 --> 00:00:17.630
And in particular,
had gone too far

00:00:17.630 --> 00:00:20.440
with the unrestricted
submarine warfare.

00:00:20.440 --> 00:00:22.600
So this right over
here is a picture

00:00:22.600 --> 00:00:28.560
of President Wilson on
April 2, 1917, giving a war

00:00:28.560 --> 00:00:31.490
message to Congress
as to why the US needs

00:00:31.490 --> 00:00:34.810
to declare war on Germany.

00:00:34.810 --> 00:00:39.790
And April 4, Congress passes
the resolution to declare war.

00:00:39.790 --> 00:00:42.000
And then the President
approves it on April 6.

00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:47.586
So by early April, the United
States was at war with Germany.

00:00:47.586 --> 00:00:49.460
Which is a good time to
start thinking about,

00:00:49.460 --> 00:00:51.214
why did all of this happen.

00:00:51.214 --> 00:00:52.630
Now, the things
that are typically

00:00:52.630 --> 00:00:54.129
cited, and these
are the things that

00:00:54.129 --> 00:00:57.790
are inflamed public opinion in
the US and that many of which

00:00:57.790 --> 00:01:00.040
were cited by President
Woodrow Wilson.

00:01:00.040 --> 00:01:01.570
And in this tutorial
that this is

00:01:01.570 --> 00:01:03.630
part of on
khanacademy.org, I put

00:01:03.630 --> 00:01:06.440
the entire text of his speech,
which I highly recommend

00:01:06.440 --> 00:01:09.260
reading to see all of the
things the President Wilson

00:01:09.260 --> 00:01:10.704
cited in his speech.

00:01:10.704 --> 00:01:13.120
But just as a summary of that,
the things that tend to get

00:01:13.120 --> 00:01:17.010
cited most often are the
unrestricted submarine warfare

00:01:17.010 --> 00:01:18.070
on the part of Germany.

00:01:22.740 --> 00:01:24.960
And particular cases
or the most cited

00:01:24.960 --> 00:01:27.522
example of that is the
sinking of the Lusitania.

00:01:27.522 --> 00:01:29.480
The Germans had stopped
doing that for a little

00:01:29.480 --> 00:01:30.310
under two years.

00:01:30.310 --> 00:01:35.120
But then, as we enter into
1917, they began doing it again.

00:01:35.120 --> 00:01:38.430
And it also made the
Americans quite angry

00:01:38.430 --> 00:01:40.340
to realize that the
Germans were trying

00:01:40.340 --> 00:01:42.010
to incite the
Mexicans against them.

00:01:42.010 --> 00:01:47.250
So you have the
Zimmerman telegram.

00:01:47.250 --> 00:01:50.660
Zimmerman telegram
is also a reason

00:01:50.660 --> 00:01:53.770
that the Wilson administration,
and why people in general,

00:01:53.770 --> 00:01:56.600
were fairly angry about things.

00:01:56.600 --> 00:02:00.260
Now, on top of that,
there were atrocities

00:02:00.260 --> 00:02:02.860
committed by the
Germans in their march

00:02:02.860 --> 00:02:04.830
through Belgium as
they were trying

00:02:04.830 --> 00:02:07.210
to execute on the
Schlieffen Plan.

00:02:07.210 --> 00:02:10.690
So Belgian atrocities.

00:02:10.690 --> 00:02:13.380
And these were earlier in the
war in 1914, which immediately

00:02:13.380 --> 00:02:16.530
made many Americans not
like what's going on.

00:02:16.530 --> 00:02:18.450
Belgian atrocities.

00:02:18.450 --> 00:02:20.570
And to put on top
of that, the British

00:02:20.570 --> 00:02:24.370
were able to leverage the
Belgian atrocities to fairly,

00:02:24.370 --> 00:02:31.350
to execute a fairly effective
propaganda campaign in America.

00:02:31.350 --> 00:02:33.100
Now on top of that--
and this is something

00:02:33.100 --> 00:02:36.200
that Wilson speaks very
strongly about in his speech--

00:02:36.200 --> 00:02:38.420
is the notion of
fighting for democracy.

00:02:44.160 --> 00:02:47.650
And what you have here, in the
First World War, the Central

00:02:47.650 --> 00:02:48.150
Powers.

00:02:48.150 --> 00:02:49.560
You're talking about
the German Empire,

00:02:49.560 --> 00:02:51.370
you're talking about
the Austro-Hungarians.

00:02:51.370 --> 00:02:52.700
These are monarchies.

00:02:52.700 --> 00:02:54.880
These are emperors who
are controlling it.

00:02:54.880 --> 00:02:56.950
And even though the
UK, the United Kingdom,

00:02:56.950 --> 00:03:00.724
was nominally a kingdom,
it was really a democracy.

00:03:00.724 --> 00:03:02.140
At least for those
who could vote.

00:03:02.140 --> 00:03:04.290
We're not talking about
the entire British Empire.

00:03:04.290 --> 00:03:09.230
So UK is functionally a
democracy, democratic.

00:03:09.230 --> 00:03:13.650
And so was the Third
French Republic.

00:03:13.650 --> 00:03:15.030
And so was France.

00:03:15.030 --> 00:03:16.830
So there's this
argument that the US

00:03:16.830 --> 00:03:22.120
is fighting for the
representation of people.

00:03:22.120 --> 00:03:24.470
Now, there is a more
cynical argument

00:03:24.470 --> 00:03:25.660
that some people have made.

00:03:25.660 --> 00:03:28.850
And I think it's reasonable
to give that to due time.

00:03:28.850 --> 00:03:30.260
And one of the
cynical arguments,

00:03:30.260 --> 00:03:32.120
or more cynical
arguments, is that the US

00:03:32.120 --> 00:03:34.880
had close financial and
trade ties to Britain,

00:03:34.880 --> 00:03:36.790
not to mention cultural ties.

00:03:36.790 --> 00:03:41.310
Financial ties to the British.

00:03:41.310 --> 00:03:45.800
On top of that, you had very
successful British propaganda.

00:03:45.800 --> 00:03:48.500
One, talking about the
atrocities in Belgium,

00:03:48.500 --> 00:03:49.800
which did actually happen.

00:03:49.800 --> 00:03:51.590
But the British
were able to exploit

00:03:51.590 --> 00:03:53.350
this as a propaganda machine.

00:03:53.350 --> 00:03:54.900
Successful propaganda.

00:03:54.900 --> 00:03:57.640
But they also spread rumors
that after the sinking

00:03:57.640 --> 00:03:59.630
of the Lusitania
that the Germans

00:03:59.630 --> 00:04:01.570
had their school
children celebrating.

00:04:01.570 --> 00:04:03.415
And these were all
made up propaganda.

00:04:07.410 --> 00:04:10.802
And then, more
cynical view of why

00:04:10.802 --> 00:04:12.510
the US entered the
war-- and this is true

00:04:12.510 --> 00:04:14.530
of probably most
wars-- is that there

00:04:14.530 --> 00:04:17.360
was a lot of lobbying on
the part of war profiteers.

00:04:20.459 --> 00:04:23.137
In fact, in "Little Orphan
Annie," Daddy Warbucks,

00:04:23.137 --> 00:04:25.220
the name, the reason why
his last name is Warbucks

00:04:25.220 --> 00:04:29.450
is because he made his
fortune as a war profiteer

00:04:29.450 --> 00:04:31.600
during World War I.
And war profiteers,

00:04:31.600 --> 00:04:35.190
these are people who might be
selling arms to the Allies.

00:04:35.190 --> 00:04:37.060
Or who might sell arms
to the US government

00:04:37.060 --> 00:04:39.560
if the US were to get into
a war that might somehow

00:04:39.560 --> 00:04:40.690
supply the troops.

00:04:40.690 --> 00:04:43.440
And it includes, potentially,
folks on Wall Street.

00:04:43.440 --> 00:04:46.180
There were significant
lending to the Allies,

00:04:46.180 --> 00:04:49.260
and mainly the Allies,
not the Central Power.

00:04:49.260 --> 00:04:50.980
And so the view is
if the Allies win,

00:04:50.980 --> 00:04:53.440
those loans are going
to be made good.

00:04:53.440 --> 00:04:56.020
And I had the entire
text of the speech

00:04:56.020 --> 00:05:00.920
from Senator George Norris
who was one of five senators,

00:05:00.920 --> 00:05:04.320
or sorry, one of six senators
to vote against the resolution

00:05:04.320 --> 00:05:04.920
to go to war.

00:05:04.920 --> 00:05:09.150
There were 50 representatives
who also voted against it.

00:05:09.150 --> 00:05:11.302
This is a little excerpt
but also in this tutorial,

00:05:11.302 --> 00:05:12.760
I have the full
text of his speech.

00:05:12.760 --> 00:05:15.790
And I highly, highly, highly
recommend reading that

00:05:15.790 --> 00:05:20.820
along with Wilson's text of his
speech to Congress in his war

00:05:20.820 --> 00:05:21.741
message.

00:05:21.741 --> 00:05:23.990
But I'll just read this part
because it does, I think,

00:05:23.990 --> 00:05:26.720
point out that the US,
from the beginning,

00:05:26.720 --> 00:05:30.060
did have biases that
were more pro-British.

00:05:30.060 --> 00:05:31.850
And so this is
part of his speech.

00:05:31.850 --> 00:05:33.530
"The reason given
by the President

00:05:33.530 --> 00:05:36.370
in asking Congress to
declare war against Germany

00:05:36.370 --> 00:05:39.390
is that the German government
has declared certain war zones,

00:05:39.390 --> 00:05:41.780
within which by the
use of submarines,

00:05:41.780 --> 00:05:43.880
she sinks, without
notice, American ships

00:05:43.880 --> 00:05:45.910
and destroys American lives.

00:05:45.910 --> 00:05:49.070
The first war zone was
declared by Great Britain.

00:05:49.070 --> 00:05:51.720
She gave us and the
world notice of it

00:05:51.720 --> 00:05:54.410
on the 4th day of November 1914.

00:05:54.410 --> 00:05:58.190
The zone became effective
November 5, 1914.

00:05:58.190 --> 00:06:00.610
This zone, so declared
by Great Britain,

00:06:00.610 --> 00:06:02.670
covered the whole
of the North Sea.

00:06:02.670 --> 00:06:04.840
The first German war
zone was declared

00:06:04.840 --> 00:06:07.520
on the 4th day of
February, 1915,

00:06:07.520 --> 00:06:10.910
just three months after the
British war zone was declared.

00:06:10.910 --> 00:06:13.750
Germany gave 15 days
notice of the establishment

00:06:13.750 --> 00:06:15.600
of her zone, which
became effective

00:06:15.600 --> 00:06:18.480
on the 18th day
of February, 1915.

00:06:18.480 --> 00:06:21.150
The German war zone
cover the English Channel

00:06:21.150 --> 00:06:24.060
and the high seawaters
around the British Isles.

00:06:24.060 --> 00:06:26.470
It is unnecessary
to cite authority

00:06:26.470 --> 00:06:30.570
to show that both of these
orders declaring military zones

00:06:30.570 --> 00:06:34.290
were illegal and contrary
to international law.

00:06:34.290 --> 00:06:37.350
It is sufficient to say that
our government has officially

00:06:37.350 --> 00:06:40.000
declared both of
them to be illegal

00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:43.020
and has officially protested
against both of them.

00:06:43.020 --> 00:06:46.220
The only difference is
that, in the case of Germany

00:06:46.220 --> 00:06:48.130
we have persisted
in our protest,

00:06:48.130 --> 00:06:51.210
while in the case of
England, we have submitted."

00:06:51.210 --> 00:06:54.180
And I encourage you,
once again, to read

00:06:54.180 --> 00:07:00.220
the text of both Wilson's speech
and Senator Norris' speech

00:07:00.220 --> 00:07:02.480
and come up to your,
with your own decisions.

00:07:02.480 --> 00:07:04.940
And it might be a
little bit of both.


Zimmermann Telegram

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.770 --> 00:00:04.640
As we enter into 1917,
the United States

00:00:04.640 --> 00:00:07.390
has been able to maintain
its neutrality in World War

00:00:07.390 --> 00:00:10.690
I. In fact, President Wilson
has just won a re-election based

00:00:10.690 --> 00:00:14.090
on the platform that
he kept us out of war.

00:00:14.090 --> 00:00:17.150
And to large degree, he was
able to keep the US out of war

00:00:17.150 --> 00:00:19.590
because the German
Empire had pulled back

00:00:19.590 --> 00:00:22.000
from its unrestricted
submarine warfare.

00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:23.460
After the sinking
of the Lusitania

00:00:23.460 --> 00:00:25.764
and how angered
America had gotten,

00:00:25.764 --> 00:00:27.430
they said, OK, we're
not going to attack

00:00:27.430 --> 00:00:28.690
passenger vessels anymore.

00:00:28.690 --> 00:00:31.460
We're only going to attack
things that are definitely

00:00:31.460 --> 00:00:34.230
British, non-passenger vessels.

00:00:34.230 --> 00:00:39.350
But as we go into January
1917, the British blockade

00:00:39.350 --> 00:00:41.734
on the Central Powers
was having its effect.

00:00:41.734 --> 00:00:43.650
And the Central Powers
were getting desperate,

00:00:43.650 --> 00:00:45.160
in particular Germany.

00:00:45.160 --> 00:00:47.850
And so they are eager
to essentially do

00:00:47.850 --> 00:00:49.030
the same to the British.

00:00:49.030 --> 00:00:53.190
Once again, go with the
unrestricted submarine warfare.

00:00:53.190 --> 00:00:55.040
But the Germans
knew that if they

00:00:55.040 --> 00:00:58.600
were to go back to this, that
it's likely that the US would

00:00:58.600 --> 00:01:01.400
enter the war on the
side of the Allies.

00:01:01.400 --> 00:01:03.690
So knowing that was
likely to happen.

00:01:03.690 --> 00:01:05.700
They said, well, how
could we slow the US down.

00:01:05.700 --> 00:01:07.790
And the thinking was, well,
maybe we could somehow

00:01:07.790 --> 00:01:10.280
enlisted the help of
Mexico which at the time

00:01:10.280 --> 00:01:13.190
was not the best terms
with the United States.

00:01:13.190 --> 00:01:19.410
And so Arthur Zimmerman who was
the German Foreign Secretary,

00:01:19.410 --> 00:01:21.730
the equivalent of the United
States Secretary of State.

00:01:21.730 --> 00:01:24.340
The Foreign Minister,
Arthur Zimmerman

00:01:24.340 --> 00:01:28.825
sends an encoded a
telegram to the Mexicans.

00:01:28.825 --> 00:01:30.450
And it's encoded,
especially because it

00:01:30.450 --> 00:01:34.680
has to go over lines that are
controlled by the Americans.

00:01:34.680 --> 00:01:38.740
And in it, he actually
proposes an alliance

00:01:38.740 --> 00:01:41.430
to slow the Americans down.

00:01:41.430 --> 00:01:42.510
So this is what he wrote.

00:01:42.510 --> 00:01:44.050
So this is a coded telegram.

00:01:44.050 --> 00:01:46.560
And then, it was
actually intercepted

00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:49.710
by British intelligence
and decoded and then shared

00:01:49.710 --> 00:01:51.620
with the Americans,
and then that

00:01:51.620 --> 00:01:55.144
was also then made public
to the American public.

00:01:55.144 --> 00:01:57.310
And so this is why it's
fascinating to actually read

00:01:57.310 --> 00:01:57.809
this stuff.

00:01:57.809 --> 00:02:00.120
This is January 1917.

00:02:00.120 --> 00:02:02.730
This is the Germans
talking to the Mexicans.

00:02:02.730 --> 00:02:05.890
"We intend to begin on
the first of February

00:02:05.890 --> 00:02:09.030
unrestricted submarine warfare.

00:02:09.030 --> 00:02:11.039
We shall endeavor
in spite of this

00:02:11.039 --> 00:02:13.870
to keep the United States
of America neutral.

00:02:13.870 --> 00:02:16.290
In the event of
this not succeeding,

00:02:16.290 --> 00:02:18.960
we make Mexico a
proposal alliance

00:02:18.960 --> 00:02:22.360
on the following basis--
make war together, make peace

00:02:22.360 --> 00:02:26.860
together, generous financial
support, and an understanding

00:02:26.860 --> 00:02:32.450
on our part that Mexico
is to reconquer the lost

00:02:32.450 --> 00:02:37.090
territory in Texas, New
Mexico, and Arizona.

00:02:37.090 --> 00:02:39.435
The settlement in
detail is left to you.

00:02:39.435 --> 00:02:41.177
You will inform the
President--" they're

00:02:41.177 --> 00:02:42.760
talking about the
president of Mexico.

00:02:42.760 --> 00:02:46.530
"--of the above most secretly
as soon as the outbreak of war

00:02:46.530 --> 00:02:50.840
with the United States of
America is certain and add

00:02:50.840 --> 00:02:53.190
the suggestion that he
should, on his own initiative,

00:02:53.190 --> 00:02:56.830
invite Japan to immediate
adherence and at the same time

00:02:56.830 --> 00:02:59.510
mediate between
Japan and ourselves.

00:02:59.510 --> 00:03:02.030
Please call the President's
attention to the fact

00:03:02.030 --> 00:03:06.760
that the ruthless
employment of our submarines

00:03:06.760 --> 00:03:09.800
now offers the prospect
of compelling England

00:03:09.800 --> 00:03:12.110
in a few months to make peace.

00:03:12.110 --> 00:03:14.190
Signed Zimmerman."

00:03:14.190 --> 00:03:15.830
Now, the Mexicans,
when they read this,

00:03:15.830 --> 00:03:17.270
they really didn't
take it too seriously.

00:03:17.270 --> 00:03:19.061
They didn't think that
they could seriously

00:03:19.061 --> 00:03:20.136
engage the US in a war.

00:03:20.136 --> 00:03:21.510
They couldn't
seriously take back

00:03:21.510 --> 00:03:23.156
or occupy these territories.

00:03:23.156 --> 00:03:24.780
So they didn't really
think much of it.

00:03:24.780 --> 00:03:26.590
The real effect of
this telegram was

00:03:26.590 --> 00:03:30.060
to make the American
public angry.

00:03:30.060 --> 00:03:32.580
They were going to go back
into the unrestricted submarine

00:03:32.580 --> 00:03:33.280
warfare.

00:03:33.280 --> 00:03:36.810
And the Germans, themselves,
talk about ruthless-- "ruthless

00:03:36.810 --> 00:03:40.260
employment of our
the submarines."

00:03:40.260 --> 00:03:42.790
So when people talk about,
what were the causes.

00:03:42.790 --> 00:03:44.910
What brought the US into war?

00:03:44.910 --> 00:03:46.630
The ones that are
typically cited

00:03:46.630 --> 00:03:49.330
are the unrestricted
submarine warfare.

00:03:49.330 --> 00:03:50.570
The sinking of the Lusitania.

00:03:50.570 --> 00:03:52.520
The Zimmerman telegram
that was trying

00:03:52.520 --> 00:03:56.300
to get Mexico to somehow
get into a war with the US

00:03:56.300 --> 00:03:59.250
and reclaim these territories.

00:03:59.250 --> 00:04:02.250
And as we'll see, a
few months after this,

00:04:02.250 --> 00:04:06.170
the US actually does
declare war on Germany

00:04:06.170 --> 00:04:09.100
and enter into World War I.


Blockades, u-boats and sinking of the Lusitania

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.540 --> 00:00:02.710
Entering into World
War I, the British

00:00:02.710 --> 00:00:04.320
had the world's dominant navy.

00:00:04.320 --> 00:00:06.450
And they use it immediately
to their advantage.

00:00:06.450 --> 00:00:09.100
You might remember
from previous videos,

00:00:09.100 --> 00:00:12.180
Britain declared war on Germany
because of their invasion

00:00:12.180 --> 00:00:15.650
into Belgium in
early August of 1914.

00:00:15.650 --> 00:00:23.620
And it was in November of
1914 that the British declared

00:00:23.620 --> 00:00:26.200
the entire North
Sea area a war zone.

00:00:31.660 --> 00:00:34.160
Which essentially is
telling any ship, come here

00:00:34.160 --> 00:00:34.916
at your own risk.

00:00:34.916 --> 00:00:36.790
You might be destroyed,
and especially you're

00:00:36.790 --> 00:00:38.690
not allowed to carry
any contraband.

00:00:38.690 --> 00:00:41.250
But they included
food as a contraband.

00:00:41.250 --> 00:00:43.410
So this essentially
began the blockade

00:00:43.410 --> 00:00:45.320
of Germany and Austria-Hungary.

00:00:45.320 --> 00:00:53.740
So this is the blockade
of the Central Powers.

00:00:53.740 --> 00:00:56.120
And this had major
implications for the war.

00:00:56.120 --> 00:00:59.030
It continued throughout
the entire war.

00:00:59.030 --> 00:01:01.780
It essentially caused the
Germans, or the Central Powers,

00:01:01.780 --> 00:01:04.670
especially the Germans
and the Austrians

00:01:04.670 --> 00:01:05.970
to have to ration food.

00:01:05.970 --> 00:01:08.640
We're talking about
1,000 calories a day.

00:01:08.640 --> 00:01:11.140
You could look at the number
of calories in your average Big

00:01:11.140 --> 00:01:13.762
Mac and think about how
little food that was.

00:01:13.762 --> 00:01:15.720
And there's many estimates
of what that caused.

00:01:15.720 --> 00:01:18.460
That obviously made it
hard for the Central Powers

00:01:18.460 --> 00:01:20.430
to get war munitions
and things like that.

00:01:20.430 --> 00:01:22.850
But it also made it very
difficult for them to get food.

00:01:22.850 --> 00:01:26.770
And there are estimates that
this rationing, this inability

00:01:26.770 --> 00:01:29.920
to get food, lead to
malnutrition, even led

00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:30.660
to starvation.

00:01:30.660 --> 00:01:32.201
And there's estimates
that this might

00:01:32.201 --> 00:01:39.000
have led to in excess of
400,000 civilian deaths

00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:41.960
either directly or indirectly
due to malnutrition

00:01:41.960 --> 00:01:48.180
or starvation amongst
the Central Powers.

00:01:48.180 --> 00:01:52.770
So this was a pretty serious
tactic that was undertaken.

00:01:52.770 --> 00:01:56.500
Now, the Germans did not
have as dominant of a Navy.

00:01:56.500 --> 00:01:58.930
Most of their Navy was
actually focused right off

00:01:58.930 --> 00:02:02.430
of the coast of Germany, right
around there, in the North Sea.

00:02:02.430 --> 00:02:05.770
But they also wanted to
disrupt trade with the British.

00:02:05.770 --> 00:02:08.300
They recognized the British
Isles, they're islands.

00:02:08.300 --> 00:02:12.260
They're dependent on trade
for food and for supplies.

00:02:12.260 --> 00:02:19.320
So in 1915 in February, the
Germans declared the seas

00:02:19.320 --> 00:02:22.290
around the British Isles,
they declared this whole area,

00:02:22.290 --> 00:02:23.280
a war zone.

00:02:32.260 --> 00:02:38.590
Similarly, they declared
that a war zone as well.

00:02:38.590 --> 00:02:40.810
And because their surface
fleet was concentrated

00:02:40.810 --> 00:02:41.960
right over here,
the way that they

00:02:41.960 --> 00:02:43.709
would enforce that,
they would essentially

00:02:43.709 --> 00:02:48.430
try to keep people from
trading with the British Isles

00:02:48.430 --> 00:02:50.610
is through submarine warfare.

00:02:50.610 --> 00:02:52.110
And World War I
is the first time

00:02:52.110 --> 00:02:54.644
that submarine warfare
becomes a significant factor.

00:02:54.644 --> 00:02:56.560
We're talking about very
primitive submarines.

00:02:56.560 --> 00:02:58.470
But we are talking
about these vessels that

00:02:58.470 --> 00:03:00.140
could go underwater
and essentially

00:03:00.140 --> 00:03:02.800
send torpedoes into boats.

00:03:02.800 --> 00:03:06.030
Now, thinking about
that as a backdrop,

00:03:06.030 --> 00:03:09.950
we now forward to May of 1915.

00:03:09.950 --> 00:03:14.190
So let's go to May of 1915.

00:03:14.190 --> 00:03:18.600
You have the passenger
liner, the RMS Lusitania.

00:03:18.600 --> 00:03:20.790
And RMS literally stands
for Royal Mail Ship

00:03:20.790 --> 00:03:22.410
because it carried some mail.

00:03:22.410 --> 00:03:23.357
It's a big ship.

00:03:23.357 --> 00:03:24.940
If you've ever seen
the movie Titanic,

00:03:24.940 --> 00:03:26.800
think of a ship like that.

00:03:26.800 --> 00:03:32.630
And it was setting sail from
New York to Liverpool, England.

00:03:32.630 --> 00:03:35.030
And it was apparently
a passenger ship,

00:03:35.030 --> 00:03:37.440
but it was also carrying cargo.

00:03:37.440 --> 00:03:39.300
But the Germans,
they said, look,

00:03:39.300 --> 00:03:41.450
this could be fair game
for us, especially if it's

00:03:41.450 --> 00:03:44.170
carrying munitions, especially
if it's a British ship.

00:03:44.170 --> 00:03:46.230
And in the
advertisement that was

00:03:46.230 --> 00:03:48.890
in New York for
the Lusitania that

00:03:48.890 --> 00:03:58.770
was going to leave
on May 1, 1915,

00:03:58.770 --> 00:04:01.950
the German embassy actually
placed an advertisement.

00:04:01.950 --> 00:04:03.470
And this is worth reading.

00:04:03.470 --> 00:04:06.970
They wrote, "Notice,
travelers intending

00:04:06.970 --> 00:04:08.920
to embark on the
Atlantic voyage are

00:04:08.920 --> 00:04:10.940
reminded that a
state of war exists

00:04:10.940 --> 00:04:14.000
between Germany and
her allies and Great

00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:15.550
Britain and her allies.

00:04:15.550 --> 00:04:18.170
That the zone of war
includes the water

00:04:18.170 --> 00:04:20.250
adjacent to the British Isles.

00:04:20.250 --> 00:04:23.190
That in accordance with
formal notice given

00:04:23.190 --> 00:04:26.560
by the Imperial German
government, vessels flying

00:04:26.560 --> 00:04:30.000
the flag of Great Britain,
or any of her allies,

00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:31.955
are liable to destruction
in those waters.

00:04:34.630 --> 00:04:36.780
And that travelers
sailing in the war zone

00:04:36.780 --> 00:04:41.270
on ships of Great Britain or her
allies do so at their own risk.

00:04:41.270 --> 00:04:43.990
From the Imperial
German embassy."

00:04:43.990 --> 00:04:47.830
And this is dated April 1915.

00:04:47.830 --> 00:04:49.430
So that's the backdrop.

00:04:49.430 --> 00:04:56.150
The Lusitania sets
sail May 1, 1915.

00:04:56.150 --> 00:04:59.150
On May 7, 1915--
the number 15 keeps

00:04:59.150 --> 00:05:06.400
jumping into my
brain-- on May 7, 1915,

00:05:06.400 --> 00:05:09.320
it's almost reached its
destination of Liverpool.

00:05:09.320 --> 00:05:13.450
That's Liverpool
right over here.

00:05:13.450 --> 00:05:17.490
It's around 10 or 15 miles
off the coast of Ireland.

00:05:17.490 --> 00:05:21.030
And right there it
encounters a German U boat.

00:05:21.030 --> 00:05:24.630
So this right over here
is a German U boat.

00:05:24.630 --> 00:05:29.550
And that German U boat sends
a torpedo into the Lusitania.

00:05:29.550 --> 00:05:32.550
Now the torpedo, as you could
imagine, rams into the ship.

00:05:32.550 --> 00:05:34.310
And then shortly after
the torpedo hits,

00:05:34.310 --> 00:05:35.755
you have this huge explosion.

00:05:35.755 --> 00:05:37.460
And the huge
explosion is actually

00:05:37.460 --> 00:05:40.220
one of those question
marks of history.

00:05:40.220 --> 00:05:43.480
Now, the ship goes down,
taking down with it

00:05:43.480 --> 00:05:45.420
most of its passengers.

00:05:45.420 --> 00:05:50.130
So there were 1,959 total
passengers and crew.

00:05:55.030 --> 00:05:59.110
And 1,195 of them actually died.

00:05:59.110 --> 00:06:03.360
Now there were other ships
that went down due to German U

00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:06.390
boats, but what was
famous about this one,

00:06:06.390 --> 00:06:08.500
at least from an American
history point of view,

00:06:08.500 --> 00:06:15.380
is that there were 128 Americans
who also died on board.

00:06:15.380 --> 00:06:20.930
And so you could imagine,
this led to a lot of people

00:06:20.930 --> 00:06:22.670
were concerned on
the American side.

00:06:22.670 --> 00:06:23.890
Why did this happen?

00:06:23.890 --> 00:06:25.560
These were American civilians.

00:06:25.560 --> 00:06:28.370
And it essentially led
to a harsh reprimand

00:06:28.370 --> 00:06:30.300
from Woodrow Wilson.

00:06:30.300 --> 00:06:33.140
And just as a little bit of
context, once war broke out--

00:06:33.140 --> 00:06:35.090
and war had broken
not even a year

00:06:35.090 --> 00:06:37.470
before the sinking
of the Lusitania--

00:06:37.470 --> 00:06:40.480
the Americans' position
was to be neutral.

00:06:40.480 --> 00:06:43.540
It did not want to enter
into this European conflict.

00:06:43.540 --> 00:06:47.040
With that said, the Americans
were disproportionately

00:06:47.040 --> 00:06:50.620
trading with the Allies
not the Central Power.

00:06:50.620 --> 00:06:56.140
They were providing supplies, at
a minimum, at a trading level.

00:06:56.140 --> 00:06:58.880
And they were providing
monetary support.

00:06:58.880 --> 00:07:02.190
They were providing loans to
the Allies disproportional

00:07:02.190 --> 00:07:03.290
to the Central Powers.

00:07:03.290 --> 00:07:09.050
So even though there was
this formal neutrality,

00:07:09.050 --> 00:07:13.360
there was more implicit
connection to the Allies.

00:07:13.360 --> 00:07:16.410
So Woodrow Wilson, he still
wants to keep America out

00:07:16.410 --> 00:07:18.030
of the war at this point.

00:07:18.030 --> 00:07:20.730
So we're talking about May 1915.

00:07:20.730 --> 00:07:23.790
And so he essentially
just sends a stern warning

00:07:23.790 --> 00:07:25.940
to the German empire.

00:07:25.940 --> 00:07:27.580
Says, you must apologize.

00:07:27.580 --> 00:07:30.820
You must take action to
prevent this type of thing

00:07:30.820 --> 00:07:32.570
happening in the future.

00:07:32.570 --> 00:07:34.690
And the German empire
actually complies.

00:07:34.690 --> 00:07:40.060
On September 9-- let me
write this on the timeline.

00:07:40.060 --> 00:07:41.010
So right over here.

00:07:41.010 --> 00:07:42.920
So in May, you have
the Lusitania sunk.

00:07:48.700 --> 00:07:54.390
And then in
September, the Germans

00:07:54.390 --> 00:07:56.695
agree to not attack
passenger ships.

00:08:08.890 --> 00:08:11.440
And so even though the
sinking of the Lusitania,

00:08:11.440 --> 00:08:13.440
especially in a lot of
American history classes,

00:08:13.440 --> 00:08:17.460
is often given as a trigger
for America entrance into war,

00:08:17.460 --> 00:08:20.160
this whole thing happened
and America stayed neutral

00:08:20.160 --> 00:08:21.410
throughout this entire period.

00:08:21.410 --> 00:08:26.310
And America wouldn't actually
enter the war until April 1917.

00:08:26.310 --> 00:08:28.630
So the Lusitania was
just one of many things

00:08:28.630 --> 00:08:31.481
that happened in the years
running up to the war.

00:08:31.481 --> 00:08:32.980
And if we fast
forward a little bit,

00:08:32.980 --> 00:08:36.780
in 1916 the next presidential
election where Wilson

00:08:36.780 --> 00:08:39.960
won re-election, he
ran on a platform of,

00:08:39.960 --> 00:08:41.290
he kept us out of war.

00:08:48.050 --> 00:08:51.590
So the sinking of the Lusitania
was a significant event.

00:08:51.590 --> 00:08:54.580
One could argue because
the Germans did not

00:08:54.580 --> 00:08:57.060
want the US to enter on
the side of the Allies,

00:08:57.060 --> 00:08:59.950
it was why the Germans
agreed to loosen up,

00:08:59.950 --> 00:09:03.110
at least for a couple of years,
on their U boat campaigns.

00:09:03.110 --> 00:09:06.010
As we'll see, once we get
into 1917, the Germans,

00:09:06.010 --> 00:09:07.880
out of desperation,
start to become

00:09:07.880 --> 00:09:09.530
more aggressive on
their U boat attacks

00:09:09.530 --> 00:09:11.490
again, which is one
of the catalysts

00:09:11.490 --> 00:09:18.140
that the US claims drove
them into World War I.

00:09:18.140 --> 00:09:20.010
But with that said,
just as a little bit

00:09:20.010 --> 00:09:23.650
of context-- and oftentimes
when we look back at history,

00:09:23.650 --> 00:09:25.020
it seems very cut and dry.

00:09:25.020 --> 00:09:25.810
It seems obvious.

00:09:25.810 --> 00:09:29.600
Oh yes, we had to go to
war, et cetera, et cetera.

00:09:29.600 --> 00:09:34.040
I have a few quotes here
from William Jennings Bryan,

00:09:34.040 --> 00:09:36.470
who was Woodrow Wilson's
secretary of state.

00:09:36.470 --> 00:09:40.470
And a few of these
are pretty telling.

00:09:40.470 --> 00:09:42.245
So this first one
is September 1914.

00:09:42.245 --> 00:09:44.620
This was before any of the
stuff happened with Lusitania,

00:09:44.620 --> 00:09:47.340
but war had broken
out in Europe.

00:09:47.340 --> 00:09:49.730
And he had this
message that he wrote

00:09:49.730 --> 00:09:51.800
to Woodrow Wilson to
essentially advocate

00:09:51.800 --> 00:09:53.470
why we should stay
out of the war

00:09:53.470 --> 00:09:55.500
and why there should be
some type of mediation

00:09:55.500 --> 00:09:57.130
to try to get the
war to end as opposed

00:09:57.130 --> 00:09:58.970
to just letting
it run its course.

00:09:58.970 --> 00:10:01.300
And he wrote to Wilson,
"it is not likely

00:10:01.300 --> 00:10:04.240
that either side will win
so complete a victory as

00:10:04.240 --> 00:10:06.290
to be able to dictate terms.

00:10:06.290 --> 00:10:11.310
And if either"-- and this
is interesting and strangely

00:10:11.310 --> 00:10:16.600
foreshadowing-- "and if either
side does win such a victory,

00:10:16.600 --> 00:10:19.890
it'll probably mean
preparation for another war.

00:10:19.890 --> 00:10:24.540
It would seem better to look
for a more rational basis

00:10:24.540 --> 00:10:25.890
for peace."

00:10:25.890 --> 00:10:29.670
Now, the other quotes here--
and this is the question mark

00:10:29.670 --> 00:10:34.010
around that second explosion--
William Jennings Bryan wrote,

00:10:34.010 --> 00:10:36.290
"ships carrying contraband
should be prohibited

00:10:36.290 --> 00:10:37.530
from carrying passengers.

00:10:37.530 --> 00:10:39.560
It would be like putting
women and children

00:10:39.560 --> 00:10:41.180
in front of an army."

00:10:41.180 --> 00:10:43.990
And so this is one of those
big questions of history.

00:10:43.990 --> 00:10:49.080
It was known that the Lusitania
was carrying light ammunition.

00:10:49.080 --> 00:10:54.135
So it was carrying
a light munitions.

00:10:54.135 --> 00:10:56.010
Now, the Germans claimed
that it was actually

00:10:56.010 --> 00:10:57.090
carrying heavy munitions.

00:10:57.090 --> 00:10:59.160
And to some degree,
that second explosion

00:10:59.160 --> 00:11:00.200
tends to back that up.

00:11:00.200 --> 00:11:03.660
And there was all sorts of shady
things about a lot of the cargo

00:11:03.660 --> 00:11:06.360
that the Lusitania was carrying,
even though they claimed

00:11:06.360 --> 00:11:07.850
that it was these
perishable goods.

00:11:07.850 --> 00:11:11.940
It wasn't being stored in a
refrigerated part of the ship.

00:11:11.940 --> 00:11:13.550
And so there was
reason to believe

00:11:13.550 --> 00:11:16.630
that it was carrying
actually heavy munitions.

00:11:16.630 --> 00:11:21.180
And that second explosion seems
to point in that direction

00:11:21.180 --> 00:11:21.930
as well.

00:11:21.930 --> 00:11:25.920
And then even after World War
I, the British Navy actually

00:11:25.920 --> 00:11:27.770
spent multiple times
trying to destroy

00:11:27.770 --> 00:11:29.420
the wreck of the Lusitania.

00:11:29.420 --> 00:11:33.550
And some people say in order to
maybe get rid of some evidence

00:11:33.550 --> 00:11:35.550
that it was actually
carrying far more munitions

00:11:35.550 --> 00:11:38.170
and maybe was, from the
Germans' point of view,

00:11:38.170 --> 00:11:43.300
a fairer target than
was actually made out.

00:11:43.300 --> 00:11:45.740
So regardless, it's a
very interesting incident,

00:11:45.740 --> 00:11:50.010
not necessarily directly
tied to America's entrance

00:11:50.010 --> 00:11:53.700
into World War I. But it
is one of many events.

00:11:53.700 --> 00:11:56.750
And this whole idea of
blockades and German U boats

00:11:56.750 --> 00:11:58.750
against civilians,
this was something

00:11:58.750 --> 00:12:03.420
that was a cause of repeated
concern for the Americans.