Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points

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Kind: captions
Language: en

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As we go into January of 1918,

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let's remind ourselves of the context,

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the background that's going on,

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especially relative to World War I.

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First of all in April of 1917,

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a lot of the context is
what happened in 1917,

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you have the U.S. declares war on Germany.

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The main argument they give

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is this unrestricted submarine warfare

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that the Germans are undertaking.

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You also have the fall
of the Russian Empire.

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... Fall of Russian Empire...

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You have the revolution
that overthrows the Czar

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in February, March of 1917,

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and then in October, you have

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the Bolsheviks take over in a coup.

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This essentially, the Bolsheviks,

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once they take over,

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they have no interest in terms of

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continuing the war with Germany.

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So you have an armistice declared

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and the Russians are in the process

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of negotiating the terms

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of a treaty with the Central Powers.

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They're kind of negotiating

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the Brest-Litovsk Treaty as we speak.

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On top of that, you have, because

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the central powers don't have to focus

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on Russia on the eastern front anymore,

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they're trying to bring their,

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especially Germany,

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is trying to bring its troops back

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to the western front,

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and they want to do it before the U.S.

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can mobilize in any significant way.

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So, race on western front ...

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western front ...

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Between, essentially, can Germany get

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its troops and do an offensive

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that can put probably
France out of the war

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before the U.S. has a chance to

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significantly reinforce the western front?

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This is essentially between German,

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redeploy troops from the eastern front,

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German troops ... troops from eastern,

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from eastern front versus

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new American troops ...

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versus new Americans.

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This is the backdrop.

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No one really knew what exactly

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was going to happen on the western front.

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Certain military analysts will say

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Germany was able to prosecute this

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two front war against a major empire

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and Russia, now they're going to be able

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to focus completely on the western front,

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Germany might be able to

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deal the decisive blow.

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Others would say the U.S. it's this

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emerging power, it's bringing

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fresh troops in, it has a major

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industrial capacity.

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The U.S. could, especially if the war

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were to last a good bit, the U.S. might be

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the decisive element for the allies.

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So that's the background in which

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President Wilson, President Woodrow Wilson

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on January of 1918, January 8th,

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gives a speech to the
joint sessions of congress.

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This is part of the text of the speech,

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I'm just going to read through it,

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I'm not going to read the entire speech.

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He talks about many things, essentially;

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why are we in World War I,

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what is the moral causes of World War I,

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and his speech is most famous for

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his articulation of the "Fourteen Points".

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Let's just read into it because

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it really informs a lot of what happened

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in the Treaty of Versailles,

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which is essentially the peace treaty

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with Germany, which the U.S. ironically

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did not ratify, but it also lays out the

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tension in the Paris Peace Conferences

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after World War I between those who were

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more idealistic like Woodrow Wilson,

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and those who might have been

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a little bit more vengeful, especially

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against the Central Powers.

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Here we go, this is part of the speech:

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"We enter this war because
violations of right

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had occurred which touched us to the quick

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and made the life of our
own people impossible

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unless they were corrected and the world

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secured once for all against their

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recurrence. What we demand in this war,

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therefore, is nothing
peculiar to ourselves.

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it is that the world be made fit and safe

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to live in ..."

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This is very idealistic.

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Remember, all these others, especially

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these European powers are all about

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who gets what land, who gets what empire,

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who gets to take advantage
of whatever colony.

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"... and particularly
that it be made safe for

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every peace-loving nation
which, like our own,

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wishes to live its own life,

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determine is own institutions,

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be assured of justice and fair dealing

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by the other peoples of the world

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as against force and selfish aggression.

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All the peoples of the world are in effect

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partners in this interest,

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and for our own part, we see very clearly

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that unless justice be done to others

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it will not be done to us.

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The program of the
world's peace, therefore,

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is our program; and that program,

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the only possible program, all we see it,

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is this:"

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These are his Fourteen Points and

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I'll try to kind of give some
context for each of them.

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The first is:

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"Open covenants of
peace, openly arrived at,

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after which there shall be no private

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international understandings of any kind

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but diplomacy shall proceed always

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frankly and in the public view."

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The context here is actually after

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the Bolsheviks took over,

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they started releasing all these secret

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covenants and understandings that the

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Russian Empire had been getting into.

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We've already talked about
all the entanglements

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and the alliances that led to World War I,

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so this is Wilson's attempt to say,

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"Hey, let's just do
everything out in the open.

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That'll let everyone kind of know,

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give more transparency,
what may or may not

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occur, based on their actions."

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Number 2, "Absolute freedom of navigation

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upon the seas, outside territorial waters,

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alike in peace and in war, except

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as the seas may be closed in whole

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or in part by international action for the

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enforcement of international covenants."

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So no more of these British blockades,

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no more of this unrestricted
submarine warfare,

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the only time we can dictate what happens

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in open waters is if the international

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community trying to decide that it wants

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to enforce international covenants.

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Number 3, "The removal
of all economic barriers

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and the establishment of equality

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of trade conditions among

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all the nations consenting to the peace

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and associating themselves
for its maintenance."

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So essentially, it's free trade.

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... free trade ...

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Number 4, "Adequate
guarantees given and taken

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that national armaments
will be reduced to the

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lowest point consistent
with domestic safety."

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So he's trying to undo some of this

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militarism, this buildup
of arms that essentially

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allowed World War I to happen with the

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ferocity that it did and with the

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quickness with which it did.

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Number 5, "A free,open-minded,
and absolutely

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impartial adjustment
of all colonial claims,

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based upon a strict observance ot the

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principle that in determining all such

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questions of sovereignty the interests of

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the populations concerned must have equal

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weight with the equitable claims of the

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government whose title
is to be determined."

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This is a big deal that probably did not

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make the British or the French happy.

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This is essentially
saying self-determination,

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the people who are in those nations,

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in those states,

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their interests matter just as much.

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"A free open-minded absolutely impartial

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adjustment of all colonial claims."

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This is a pretty big deal.

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Remember, we're kind
of exiting this period

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of empires, most of the
European powers still

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think that these international empires

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are essentially part of their prestige.

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Number 6, "The evacuation of all Russian

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territory and such a
settlement of all questions

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affecting Russia as will
secure the best and freest

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cooperation of the other
nations of the world

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in obtaining for her an unhampered and

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unembarrassed opportunity for the

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independent determination
of her own political

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development and national
policy and assure her

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of a sincere welcome into the

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society of free nations under institutions

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of her own choosing ..."

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This is still one sentence
and then you put period there,

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semi-colon ... And I guess
he had to read that himself,

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" ... And, more than a welcome,

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assistance also of every kind that she may

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need and may herself desire.

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The treatment accorded Russia by her

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sister nations in the months to come ..."

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Remember, they're negotiating
with the Central Powers

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on Brest-Litovsk,

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" ... to come will be the
acid test of their good will,

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of their comprehension of her needs

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as distinguished from their own interests,

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and of their intelligent
and unselfish sympathy."

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So it's saying look, Wilson doesn't know

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whether the allies or the Central Powers

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are going to win on the western front,

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but they know that the Central Powers

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are dictating terms to
Russia with Brest-Litovsk.

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It's like, this is going to be a test

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of your good will, of your comprehension

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of the need of this newly-emerging of

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state now that the
Bolsheviks have taken over.

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Obviously at this point, you don't have

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the antagonism between the U.S. and the

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future Soviet Union
that is going to emerge.

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They're saying give Russia
a chance to be herself.

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Number 7, "Belgium, the
whole world will agree,

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must be evacuated and restored,

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without any attempt to
limit the sovereignty

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which she enjoys in common with all other

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free nations."

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This is kind of obvious.
When the Germans rolled

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through Belgium, that's
how they got to France.

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It was a justification
that Great Britain used for

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entering the war, so get out of Belgium.

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Number 8, "All French
territories should be freed

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and invaded portions restored,

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and the wrong done to France by Prussia

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in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine,

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which has unsettled the peace of the world

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for nearly fifty years, should be righted,

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in order that peace may once more be made

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secure in the interest of all."

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Alsace-Lorraine, we've touched on it

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several times.

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That's this region right over here.

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It was taken by Germany, essentially the

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unification of Germany during
the Franco-Prussian War,

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which was a [unintelligible] region.

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This was one of the justifications,

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this was why France might have gone

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into a war with Germany,

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and what Germany almost wanted to be

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preemptive against France because they

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said France might want
to take some of that

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territory back.

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9, "A readjustment of
the frontiers of Italy

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should be effected along clearly

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recognizable lines of nationality."

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Hey, where do people speak Italian?

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10, "The peoples of Austria-Hungary,

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whose place among the
nations we wish to see

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safeguarded and assured,
should be accorded

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the freest opportunity

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of autonomous development."

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This is another big deal.

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It's another breaking up of an empire.

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It's another self-determination point

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of the "Fourteen Points".

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Austria-Hungary, we've already said

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it was an empire.

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It included many, many,
many nationalities.

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You have the Czechs right around there.

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You have the Slovacs right around there.

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You have the Austrians, German-speaking

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people, right over there.

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You have the Hungarians,
roughly over there.

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You have the Slovenians
roughly over there.

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You have the Croatians roughly over there.

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You have the Bosnians roughly over there.

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You have many, many other nationalities

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especially as you get close to the border

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with Romania and the
border with the Ukraine.

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It's like, let these people determine,

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let them determine their own fate

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to some degree.

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There are all these nationalities.

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That was number 10.

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"The freest opportunity to

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autonomous development."

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He's not saying that they necessarily

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need their own states,

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but that they should have the opportunity

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to self-govern in some way.

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Number 11, "Romania,
Serbia, and Montenegro

00:11:14.447 --> 00:11:17.565
should be evacuated; occupied
territories restored;

00:11:17.565 --> 00:11:19.649
Serbia accorded free and secure access

00:11:19.649 --> 00:11:21.245
to the sea; and the
relations of the several

00:11:21.245 --> 00:11:23.519
Balkan states to one another determined

00:11:23.519 --> 00:11:25.712
by friendly counsel along historically

00:11:25.712 --> 00:11:28.476
established lines of
allegiance and nationality;

00:11:28.476 --> 00:11:29.977
and international guarantees of the

00:11:29.977 --> 00:11:31.650
political and economic independence

00:11:31.650 --> 00:11:33.811
and territorial integrity of the several

00:11:33.811 --> 00:11:35.977
Balkan states should be entered into."

00:11:35.977 --> 00:11:37.376
This is kind of laying the groundwork

00:11:37.376 --> 00:11:42.584
for the future state of Yugoslavia,

00:11:42.584 --> 00:11:45.514
which is going to be roughly over there.

00:11:45.771 --> 00:11:47.466
It's kind of the state
of the southern Slavs,

00:11:47.466 --> 00:11:48.938
which is what the whole motivation

00:11:48.938 --> 00:11:54.861
[unintelligible] for
assassinating Archduke Ferdinand

00:11:54.861 --> 00:11:56.481
which some would argue was kind of the

00:11:56.481 --> 00:11:59.739
spark that lit World War I.

00:11:59.739 --> 00:12:01.359
"The Turkish portions of the present

00:12:01.359 --> 00:12:03.731
Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure

00:12:03.731 --> 00:12:07.066
sovereignty, but the other nationalities

00:12:07.066 --> 00:12:08.530
which are now under Turkish rule should

00:12:08.530 --> 00:12:11.196
be assured an undoubted security of life

00:12:11.196 --> 00:12:13.263
and an absolutely unmolested opportunity

00:12:13.263 --> 00:12:14.197
of an autonomous development ..."

00:12:14.197 --> 00:12:15.604
Once again, self-determination.

00:12:15.604 --> 00:12:17.197
"... and the Dardanelles should be

00:12:17.197 --> 00:12:18.794
permanently opened as a free passage

00:12:18.794 --> 00:12:21.782
to the ships and commerce of all nations

00:12:21.782 --> 00:12:23.996
under international guarantees."

00:12:23.996 --> 00:12:26.066
So the Dardanelles, we've
talked about it before,

00:12:26.066 --> 00:12:29.944
that is, that's this right over here,

00:12:29.944 --> 00:12:31.729
so that you have access between the

00:12:31.729 --> 00:12:34.327
Aegean Sea and the Black Sea.

00:12:34.327 --> 00:12:38.131
And we are almost there.

00:12:38.131 --> 00:12:40.193
So then you have, "An
independent Polish state

00:12:40.193 --> 00:12:44.025
should be erected which should include

00:12:44.025 --> 00:12:46.726
the territories inhabited by indisputably

00:12:46.726 --> 00:12:48.999
Polish populations,
which should be assured

00:12:48.999 --> 00:12:51.196
a free and secure access to the sea,

00:12:51.196 --> 00:12:52.996
and whose political and
economic independence

00:12:52.996 --> 00:12:54.687
and territorial integrity should be

00:12:54.687 --> 00:12:57.278
guaranteed by international covenant."

00:12:57.278 --> 00:13:00.197
Poland did not exist as its own state

00:13:00.197 --> 00:13:01.860
prior to World War I.

00:13:01.860 --> 00:13:04.194
Now you have Woodrow Wilson is

00:13:04.194 --> 00:13:04.937
advocating it.

00:13:04.937 --> 00:13:06.799
It will be carved out roughly of this

00:13:06.799 --> 00:13:08.995
area right over there.

00:13:08.995 --> 00:13:12.402
Then finally, point 14,

00:13:12.402 --> 00:13:15.399
"A general association
of nations must be formed

00:13:15.399 --> 00:13:17.941
under specific covenants
for the purpose of

00:13:17.941 --> 00:13:20.279
affording mutual guarantees of political

00:13:20.279 --> 00:13:22.398
independence and territorial integrity

00:13:22.398 --> 00:13:25.528
to great and small states alike."

00:13:25.528 --> 00:13:27.067
This is essentially, this is the point,

00:13:27.067 --> 00:13:29.274
that leads to the formation of

00:13:29.274 --> 00:13:30.921
the League of Nations.

00:13:30.921 --> 00:13:33.251
When we talk about big ideas,

00:13:33.251 --> 00:13:35.525
this is a big idea, especially back then.

00:13:35.525 --> 00:13:37.403
You have Europe who keeps getting into

00:13:37.403 --> 00:13:38.514
wars with each other.

00:13:38.514 --> 00:13:40.649
Hey, why don't we all cooperate at

00:13:40.649 --> 00:13:43.585
this middle level and we have this

00:13:43.585 --> 00:13:47.919
club of all of the nations
to resolve disputes

00:13:47.919 --> 00:13:50.917
and make sure that we don't have

00:13:50.917 --> 00:13:52.315
another World War I.

00:13:52.315 --> 00:13:56.523
So, very, very, very big idealistic idea,

00:13:56.523 --> 00:14:00.584
it gets formed as an outcome of

00:14:00.584 --> 00:14:01.922
the Treaty of Versailles,

00:14:01.922 --> 00:14:05.398
which is drafted during the

00:14:05.398 --> 00:14:07.981
Paris Peace Conferences after World War I.

00:14:07.981 --> 00:14:09.817
The unfortunate thing
of the League of Nations

00:14:09.817 --> 00:14:11.250
is that even though this was kind of,

00:14:11.250 --> 00:14:12.917
the idea was coming from Woodrow Wilson,

00:14:12.917 --> 00:14:15.119
the Treaty of Versailles and

00:14:15.119 --> 00:14:18.315
the League of Nations was
not ratified by the U.S.

00:14:18.315 --> 00:14:20.316
The U.S. never entered
the League of Nations,

00:14:20.316 --> 00:14:22.313
which kind of made it a little bit hollow,

00:14:22.313 --> 00:14:24.850
and the League of Nations did not have

00:14:24.850 --> 00:14:26.532
the power to stop World War II from

00:14:26.532 --> 00:14:30.255
happening only a few decades later,

00:14:30.255 --> 00:14:32.317
and would later be replaced
by the United Nations.

00:14:32.317 --> 00:14:35.779
This is a really, really,
really, really big idea.

00:14:35.779 --> 00:14:37.728
Because of these big ideas,

00:14:37.728 --> 00:14:40.476
Woodrow Wilson, these
very idealistic ideas,

00:14:40.476 --> 00:14:42.385
everyone in Europe is talking about

00:14:42.385 --> 00:14:44.901
territory and imperialism and how do they

00:14:44.901 --> 00:14:46.990
take control of other people,

00:14:46.990 --> 00:14:48.854
take control of their resources,

00:14:48.854 --> 00:14:50.385
and now you have the American President

00:14:50.385 --> 00:14:51.847
saying it's all about self-determination.

00:14:51.847 --> 00:14:53.452
It's about making the world safe

00:14:53.452 --> 00:14:55.384
for democracy, safe for commerce,

00:14:55.384 --> 00:14:57.474
about open agreements.

00:14:57.474 --> 00:14:59.311
It's a very powerful idea.

00:14:59.311 --> 00:15:00.482
This would kind of form the basis,

00:15:00.482 --> 00:15:02.407
the more idealistic side of

00:15:02.407 --> 00:15:04.661
American Foreign Policy
over the 20th Century.

00:15:04.661 --> 00:15:06.121
Some would say that there's another

00:15:06.121 --> 00:15:09.063
very cynical side that takes
into account self-interest,

00:15:09.063 --> 00:15:11.720
but this is the idealistic side of

00:15:11.720 --> 00:15:13.192
American Foreign Policy, especially

00:15:13.192 --> 00:15:15.193
through the 20th Century.

00:15:15.193 --> 00:15:17.657
For this, for his work
in this in this area,

00:15:17.657 --> 00:15:20.850
Woodrow Wilson wins the Nobel Prize

00:15:20.850 --> 00:15:21.786
a few years later.

00:15:21.786 --> 00:15:22.982
This right here is a picture of

00:15:22.982 --> 00:15:25.986
the Nobel Prize looks
like, both sides of it.

00:15:25.986 --> 00:15:28.401
Now, just to kind of foreshadow some

00:15:28.401 --> 00:15:29.518
of the tension as we get into the

00:15:29.518 --> 00:15:30.721
Paris Peace Conference,

00:15:30.721 --> 00:15:33.256
not everyone was as idealistic.

00:15:33.256 --> 00:15:34.990
You obviously these European powers

00:15:34.990 --> 00:15:37.934
who bled much harder
than the Americans did,

00:15:37.934 --> 00:15:40.856
although the Americans did contribute

00:15:40.856 --> 00:15:43.716
significant cost, or troops, to the effort

00:15:43.716 --> 00:15:45.181
and they lost many, many folks.

00:15:45.181 --> 00:15:46.654
Obviously if you're French,

00:15:46.654 --> 00:15:49.235
you had these Germans on your territory.

00:15:49.235 --> 00:15:51.749
You lost a significant fraction of

00:15:51.749 --> 00:15:53.250
your population, a huge fraction of

00:15:53.250 --> 00:15:54.487
your male population.

00:15:54.487 --> 00:15:56.326
You might be a little bit angrier.

00:15:56.326 --> 00:15:59.519
So of course, you have Georges Clemenceau

00:15:59.519 --> 00:16:01.524
who was the Prime Minister of France.

00:16:01.524 --> 00:16:03.784
He was a little bit more skeptical of

00:16:03.784 --> 00:16:04.854
the "Fourteen Points".

00:16:04.854 --> 00:16:05.921
This is a quote from him,

00:16:05.921 --> 00:16:08.076
he actually has many
slightly entertaining quotes,

00:16:08.076 --> 00:16:10.719
"Mr. Wilson bores me with
his "Fourteen Points"

00:16:10.719 --> 00:16:14.585
while God Almighty has only ten."

00:16:14.585 --> 00:16:17.049
This will kind of foreshadow some of the

00:16:17.049 --> 00:16:20.854
tension between Clemenceau
and the British,

00:16:20.854 --> 00:16:23.827
and European allies on one side,

00:16:23.827 --> 00:16:25.248
and the Americans as we go to the

00:16:25.248 --> 00:16:26.854
Paris Peace Conference.

00:16:26.854 --> 00:16:28.327
They were a little bit looking out more

00:16:28.327 --> 00:16:29.457
for revenge, especially against the

00:16:29.457 --> 00:16:31.327
Germans while the Americans, especially

00:16:31.327 --> 00:16:34.789
Woodrow Wilson, was a lot more idealistic.


Technology in World War I

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.660 --> 00:00:03.891
World War I shaped our world
in many, many, many ways.

00:00:03.891 --> 00:00:06.140
And it's important to realize
it wasn't that long ago.

00:00:06.140 --> 00:00:08.740
It was not even 100 years ago.

00:00:08.740 --> 00:00:11.970
But it was really the end of
the more traditional empires.

00:00:11.970 --> 00:00:13.760
It was the end of kingdoms.

00:00:13.760 --> 00:00:16.620
It really reshaped much
of the globe much more

00:00:16.620 --> 00:00:20.130
around states defined by nations
rather than states defined

00:00:20.130 --> 00:00:23.310
by monarchies or states
defined by empires.

00:00:23.310 --> 00:00:27.000
And it was also the first war
where technology, or I would

00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:29.224
say modern technology--
technology has always

00:00:29.224 --> 00:00:30.390
played a major role in wars.

00:00:30.390 --> 00:00:33.202
In fact, wars have been a
catalyst for technology often.

00:00:33.202 --> 00:00:34.660
But it was the
first time that much

00:00:34.660 --> 00:00:36.451
of what we consider to
be modern technology

00:00:36.451 --> 00:00:39.852
played a huge role in the
actual carrying out of the war.

00:00:39.852 --> 00:00:41.310
And to a large
degree, this is what

00:00:41.310 --> 00:00:43.460
made the war so much
bloodier, and one

00:00:43.460 --> 00:00:45.660
could argue, even
more protracted.

00:00:45.660 --> 00:00:47.270
So here I have a
bunch of pictures

00:00:47.270 --> 00:00:50.090
of the various technologies
used in World War I.

00:00:50.090 --> 00:00:56.140
Here in this picture you have
a machine gun, which obviously

00:00:56.140 --> 00:00:59.450
allows you to indiscriminately
mow down folks.

00:00:59.450 --> 00:01:01.200
These guys, it looks
like they might

00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:02.662
be in some type of a trench.

00:01:02.662 --> 00:01:04.370
And so you could
imagine that combination

00:01:04.370 --> 00:01:05.440
if viewed from above.

00:01:05.440 --> 00:01:07.386
So let's say that
this is a trench.

00:01:07.386 --> 00:01:08.760
This is a trench
right over here.

00:01:08.760 --> 00:01:09.760
We're looking from above.

00:01:09.760 --> 00:01:11.660
So there's some people
sitting in the trench.

00:01:11.660 --> 00:01:13.630
A couple of these folks
have machine guns.

00:01:13.630 --> 00:01:16.820
The rest of the guys just
have rifles over here.

00:01:16.820 --> 00:01:18.400
If you wanted to
storm this trench,

00:01:18.400 --> 00:01:19.604
you'd be in a bad situation.

00:01:19.604 --> 00:01:21.270
The guy with the
machine gun essentially

00:01:21.270 --> 00:01:24.800
could just mow people down.

00:01:24.800 --> 00:01:26.700
They also tended
to use barbed wire.

00:01:26.700 --> 00:01:28.390
Barbed wire wasn't
invented in World War

00:01:28.390 --> 00:01:31.107
I. It was invented many
decades before in the 1800s.

00:01:31.107 --> 00:01:32.940
But that would make it
very hard for someone

00:01:32.940 --> 00:01:34.100
to cross this period.

00:01:34.100 --> 00:01:35.659
They would get stuck in it.

00:01:35.659 --> 00:01:38.200
At which point these guys in
the trench could shoot him down.

00:01:38.200 --> 00:01:41.490
And it would be very hard to
shoot the guys in the trench.

00:01:41.490 --> 00:01:43.400
So it also, other than
making it very deadly,

00:01:43.400 --> 00:01:45.771
it gave all the
advantages to the defense.

00:01:45.771 --> 00:01:47.520
So any time someone
wanted to gain ground,

00:01:47.520 --> 00:01:50.103
especially in one of the fronts
where trench warfare was being

00:01:50.103 --> 00:01:53.370
used, it was a hugely,
hugely, hugely bloody affair.

00:01:53.370 --> 00:01:56.620
The other technology
that came into mainstream

00:01:56.620 --> 00:01:59.710
use in World War I
was the use of gas,

00:01:59.710 --> 00:02:01.355
and in particular poison gas.

00:02:06.521 --> 00:02:08.479
And as you see these
gentleman right over here,

00:02:08.479 --> 00:02:10.770
they're wearing gas
masks because they're

00:02:10.770 --> 00:02:13.070
afraid that their opponent
is going to use poison gas.

00:02:13.070 --> 00:02:15.959
And the benefit of
gas in particular

00:02:15.959 --> 00:02:18.250
is let's say you have an
artillery shell that you throw

00:02:18.250 --> 00:02:19.940
over and it doesn't hit anybody.

00:02:19.940 --> 00:02:23.210
But then it starts
releasing a canister

00:02:23.210 --> 00:02:25.930
of-- let me do that
in a different color--

00:02:25.930 --> 00:02:28.380
it starts releasing
a canister of gas.

00:02:28.380 --> 00:02:31.710
So the gas I've drawn
in this purplish color.

00:02:31.710 --> 00:02:33.490
And so it doesn't have
to be a direct hit.

00:02:33.490 --> 00:02:36.070
It can just linger there
and infect that trench.

00:02:36.070 --> 00:02:38.390
And it'll affect everyone there.

00:02:38.390 --> 00:02:40.990
And gas warfare was--
actually, the Germans

00:02:40.990 --> 00:02:43.550
weren't first to use
just gas warfare.

00:02:43.550 --> 00:02:46.060
But they were the first
to use very lethal, what

00:02:46.060 --> 00:02:47.340
we would call poison, gas.

00:02:47.340 --> 00:02:51.260
And in particular in 1915,
they used chlorine gas.

00:02:51.260 --> 00:02:53.680
So let me write that down.

00:02:53.680 --> 00:02:56.910
Chlorine gas, which immediately
attacks the respiratory system

00:02:56.910 --> 00:02:58.280
of the person who inhales it.

00:02:58.280 --> 00:03:00.330
And they essentially
choke to death

00:03:00.330 --> 00:03:02.440
within seconds or minutes.

00:03:02.440 --> 00:03:08.250
They also used phosgene
gas because this did not

00:03:08.250 --> 00:03:10.490
stimulate that choking.

00:03:10.490 --> 00:03:11.990
And in some ways
it could infiltrate

00:03:11.990 --> 00:03:13.364
the respiratory
system even more.

00:03:13.364 --> 00:03:14.770
It had a delayed effect.

00:03:14.770 --> 00:03:16.310
So it would linger around.

00:03:16.310 --> 00:03:18.240
And you have the
use of mustard gas.

00:03:18.240 --> 00:03:21.570
Mustard gas was very
hard to protect against.

00:03:21.570 --> 00:03:24.000
It wouldn't immediately
have you choke to death

00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:24.830
like chlorine gas.

00:03:24.830 --> 00:03:26.080
It would be severe blistering.

00:03:26.080 --> 00:03:28.300
It would essentially take
you out of the battle.

00:03:28.300 --> 00:03:30.210
It was very hard
to protect against.

00:03:30.210 --> 00:03:32.280
And it would also linger
around in the trench.

00:03:32.280 --> 00:03:36.790
So it made the trench a very
toxic environment to work in.

00:03:36.790 --> 00:03:38.780
So these are very,
very, very ugly weapons.

00:03:38.780 --> 00:03:41.170
I mean, war itself is ugly.

00:03:41.170 --> 00:03:42.530
Weapons themselves are ugly.

00:03:42.530 --> 00:03:45.290
I mean, the machine gun
is not a pleasant weapon.

00:03:45.290 --> 00:03:47.770
It can mow people down.

00:03:47.770 --> 00:03:49.420
But even folks
who view something

00:03:49.420 --> 00:03:51.850
like a machine gun as
an acceptable thing

00:03:51.850 --> 00:03:56.920
tend to view these things
as particularly ugly things

00:03:56.920 --> 00:03:57.940
to use.

00:03:57.940 --> 00:03:59.960
Other weapons that
showed up in World War I,

00:03:59.960 --> 00:04:01.790
we talked about this
in other videos,

00:04:01.790 --> 00:04:04.562
but the tank started
to become a factor.

00:04:04.562 --> 00:04:06.270
This right over here
is an American tank.

00:04:06.270 --> 00:04:11.690
Obviously, with these treads
it can go in tough terrain.

00:04:11.690 --> 00:04:14.834
It's heavily, heavily armored.

00:04:14.834 --> 00:04:16.750
When you talk about this
trench type of thing,

00:04:16.750 --> 00:04:18.416
well, if you've got
a big hulking beast,

00:04:18.416 --> 00:04:20.779
maybe that could roll
through the barbed wire

00:04:20.779 --> 00:04:23.310
and take some beating
and maybe eventually--

00:04:23.310 --> 00:04:25.992
so you could imagine a tank
over here, it could eventually--

00:04:25.992 --> 00:04:27.450
and actually the
tanks at this time

00:04:27.450 --> 00:04:28.742
did not have these big turrets.

00:04:28.742 --> 00:04:30.866
So they might have looked
something more like that.

00:04:30.866 --> 00:04:32.520
But this might be
able to actually

00:04:32.520 --> 00:04:35.640
be part of an offensive
against a trench like this.

00:04:35.640 --> 00:04:39.030
We've talked extensively
about submarine warfare

00:04:39.030 --> 00:04:42.680
in World War I. The Germans
especially used it, essentially

00:04:42.680 --> 00:04:49.050
to have a chance against
the dominant British Navy.

00:04:49.050 --> 00:04:52.110
Unrestricted U-boat warfare
was one of the primary reasons

00:04:52.110 --> 00:04:54.110
given by the Americans
as to why they entered

00:04:54.110 --> 00:04:56.880
the war on the side
of the entente.

00:04:56.880 --> 00:04:59.670
These are World War
I era US submarines,

00:04:59.670 --> 00:05:02.680
just to give an idea of
how they actually looked.

00:05:02.680 --> 00:05:07.610
And in some ways the best
foreshadowing of what

00:05:07.610 --> 00:05:11.990
would play a major, major,
major role in future wars

00:05:11.990 --> 00:05:15.870
it was the bringing of heavier
than air craft into the war.

00:05:15.870 --> 00:05:18.200
So in particular, we're
talking about airplanes.

00:05:18.200 --> 00:05:21.240
So before this, you had stuff
like balloons and zeppelins

00:05:21.240 --> 00:05:24.760
used for reconnaissance, used
to see where we should aim

00:05:24.760 --> 00:05:26.670
the artillery, things like that.

00:05:26.670 --> 00:05:29.740
But now you had the Wright
brothers only, frankly,

00:05:29.740 --> 00:05:34.200
several years before inventing
the engine powered heavier

00:05:34.200 --> 00:05:35.022
than air craft.

00:05:35.022 --> 00:05:37.480
And at first the airplane, in
the beginning stages the war,

00:05:37.480 --> 00:05:38.680
was used for reconnaissance.

00:05:38.680 --> 00:05:41.360
But as the technology improved,
as the engines improved,

00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:43.675
it started to be
used for bombing.

00:05:43.675 --> 00:05:47.040
It started to actually
used for air to air combat.

00:05:47.040 --> 00:05:50.420
And out of all of the folks
involved in air to air combat,

00:05:50.420 --> 00:05:55.510
this gentleman right over here
is probably the most famous.

00:05:55.510 --> 00:05:57.700
Although you might not
recognize his name.

00:05:57.700 --> 00:06:02.000
He's been turned into a bit of a
caricature in the modern world.

00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:05.200
But this is Manfred
von Richthofen.

00:06:05.200 --> 00:06:09.410
And he was a pilot
for the Germans.

00:06:09.410 --> 00:06:14.229
And he's more famously
known as the Red Baron.

00:06:14.229 --> 00:06:16.520
And he was called the Red
Baron because he was actually

00:06:16.520 --> 00:06:17.020
a Baron.

00:06:17.020 --> 00:06:19.860
It is a title of nobility
in imperial Germany.

00:06:19.860 --> 00:06:21.267
And he painted his plane red.

00:06:21.267 --> 00:06:23.350
So this is a picture of
his plane right over here.

00:06:23.350 --> 00:06:25.870
So if I were to color it in--
I guess this isn't quite red.

00:06:25.870 --> 00:06:28.850
I should actually probably try
to get a more reddish color.

00:06:28.850 --> 00:06:30.810
So maybe this is more of a red.

00:06:30.810 --> 00:06:33.020
So this is obviously a
black and white photograph,

00:06:33.020 --> 00:06:34.577
but maybe if I
color it in for you,

00:06:34.577 --> 00:06:36.160
you'll get more of
the feeling of what

00:06:36.160 --> 00:06:37.534
his plane might
have looked like.

00:06:37.534 --> 00:06:38.620
And it was a triplane.

00:06:38.620 --> 00:06:40.670
It had these three
wings right over here,

00:06:40.670 --> 00:06:42.450
or three levels of wings.

00:06:42.450 --> 00:06:44.040
So whatever, his plane was red.

00:06:44.040 --> 00:06:46.100
That's why he was
called the Red Baron.

00:06:46.100 --> 00:06:51.020
And he was famous for being
the most lethal pilot in all

00:06:51.020 --> 00:06:52.230
of the war.

00:06:52.230 --> 00:06:54.350
He has 80 confirmed kills.

00:06:54.350 --> 00:06:56.840
He was able to down
80 enemy aircraft.

00:06:56.840 --> 00:07:00.260
So 80 confirmed
wins, I guess you

00:07:00.260 --> 00:07:05.050
can say in combat, which is more
than any other folks in World

00:07:05.050 --> 00:07:07.251
War I. So very,
very famous pilot.

00:07:07.251 --> 00:07:09.750
He himself-- when you're talking
about any of the combatants

00:07:09.750 --> 00:07:12.390
in World War I did not have
a long life expectancy.

00:07:12.390 --> 00:07:15.340
The pilots especially
this was a dangerous game.

00:07:15.340 --> 00:07:17.860
And he also, despite
being the top pilot,

00:07:17.860 --> 00:07:21.720
the top ace, amongst all
the pilots in World War I,

00:07:21.720 --> 00:07:25.950
he also ended up getting
shot in the air in 1918.

00:07:25.950 --> 00:07:28.200
He literally got shot through
the lungs and the heart.

00:07:28.200 --> 00:07:30.330
He somehow managed
to land his plane.

00:07:30.330 --> 00:07:32.580
And when the people ran up
to him, the accounts say,

00:07:32.580 --> 00:07:34.700
that his famous last
words as he died,

00:07:34.700 --> 00:07:36.500
right when they ran up
to him, was "kaput".

00:07:36.500 --> 00:07:38.330
So interesting.

00:07:38.330 --> 00:07:39.854
And on top of
that, he's now been

00:07:39.854 --> 00:07:41.270
turned into a bit
of a caricature.

00:07:41.270 --> 00:07:43.300
I mean, us in the
West, in the US,

00:07:43.300 --> 00:07:46.250
we recognize the
brand Red Baron pizza.

00:07:46.250 --> 00:07:49.880
It is named for the Red Baron,
for Manfred von Richthofen.

00:07:49.880 --> 00:07:52.830
Kind of a strange name, I
think, for a pizza company.

00:07:52.830 --> 00:07:54.350
I mean, he's not even Italian.

00:07:54.350 --> 00:07:56.100
But that's, I guess,
what we know him for.

00:07:56.100 --> 00:07:57.990
But you see, this
guy right over here

00:07:57.990 --> 00:08:01.620
looks a lot more like
Tom Selleck than look

00:08:01.620 --> 00:08:04.010
like the real Manfred
von Richthofen.


Serbian losses in World War I

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.620 --> 00:00:03.290
In the last video, we talked
about how the Serbians were

00:00:03.290 --> 00:00:05.562
able to hold back
the Austro-Hungarians

00:00:05.562 --> 00:00:07.520
at the beginning of World
War I. But eventually

00:00:07.520 --> 00:00:09.070
they had to give in.

00:00:11.620 --> 00:00:13.810
They couldn't hold up
against the combined forces

00:00:13.810 --> 00:00:15.630
of the Bulgarians,
the Austro-Hungarians,

00:00:15.630 --> 00:00:16.350
and the Germans.

00:00:16.350 --> 00:00:18.960
And they were able to
roll through in 1915.

00:00:18.960 --> 00:00:21.760
And then we wait until
1918 for the Allies

00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:24.140
to essentially recapture Serbia.

00:00:24.140 --> 00:00:27.486
Now what is noteworthy-- there's
many noteworthy things in World

00:00:27.486 --> 00:00:29.880
War I and obviously we
can't cover all of them--

00:00:29.880 --> 00:00:33.070
is just what a
huge loss World War

00:00:33.070 --> 00:00:36.640
I was to the Serbian people.

00:00:36.640 --> 00:00:39.420
Just as a little bit of
context, very small country--

00:00:39.420 --> 00:00:43.630
we're talking 4.5 million people
as we enter into World War I--

00:00:43.630 --> 00:00:46.060
with a reasonably,
I guess relative

00:00:46.060 --> 00:00:49.110
to the size of the country,
it was a decent-sized army.

00:00:49.110 --> 00:00:52.700
But with an army we're
talking on the order

00:00:52.700 --> 00:00:56.404
of 400,000 soldiers.

00:00:56.404 --> 00:00:58.570
And this was pretty much
everyone in the country who

00:00:58.570 --> 00:01:01.880
could be in the army was
essentially in the army.

00:01:01.880 --> 00:01:04.860
Over the course of
the Serbian campaign

00:01:04.860 --> 00:01:07.470
and the Macedonian
front, you essentially

00:01:07.470 --> 00:01:11.000
have the Serbian army
getting decimated.

00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:15.940
You have 60% of the
Serbian army dies.

00:01:15.940 --> 00:01:20.240
Roughly 60% of the
Serbian army is killed.

00:01:20.240 --> 00:01:22.620
And even from a
population point of view,

00:01:22.620 --> 00:01:26.740
the Serbian population
is reduced by 16%.

00:01:26.740 --> 00:01:31.940
16% of the Serbian population,
civilian and military,

00:01:31.940 --> 00:01:35.495
is dead by the end
of World War I.

00:01:35.495 --> 00:01:39.030
So a lot of countries
suffered horribly

00:01:39.030 --> 00:01:41.990
during World War I. There's
many notable ones, France,

00:01:41.990 --> 00:01:42.900
the Russian Empire.

00:01:42.900 --> 00:01:44.770
We could go on and on and on.

00:01:44.770 --> 00:01:47.660
But it would be hard to argue
that any country suffered

00:01:47.660 --> 00:01:51.670
more than what the Serbians did.

00:01:51.670 --> 00:01:56.597
60% of their military dead,
16% of their population.


Serbian and Macedonian fronts

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.584 --> 00:00:03.278
- [Voiceover] As we've already
talked about multiple times,

00:00:03.278 --> 00:00:06.366
World War I broke out in 1914

00:00:06.366 --> 00:00:07.898
and the beginning of it was all about

00:00:07.898 --> 00:00:10.708
Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia

00:00:10.708 --> 00:00:14.377
using the assassination of
Archduke Franz Ferdinand

00:00:14.377 --> 00:00:16.624
as the pretext for
declaring war on Serbia.

00:00:16.624 --> 00:00:19.178
This was in July, July 28, 1914,

00:00:19.178 --> 00:00:20.897
they declare war on Serbia

00:00:20.897 --> 00:00:23.474
and if you were a military
analyst at the time,

00:00:23.474 --> 00:00:25.355
you would've assumed
that this would've been

00:00:25.355 --> 00:00:27.050
kind of a quick action

00:00:27.050 --> 00:00:28.652
and this is why frankly Austro-Hungary

00:00:28.652 --> 00:00:30.533
was so eager to declare war on Serbia.

00:00:30.533 --> 00:00:32.181
They thought that it would
be very easy for them

00:00:32.181 --> 00:00:34.202
to put the Serbians out of commission.

00:00:34.202 --> 00:00:35.014
Austro-Hungary ,

00:00:35.014 --> 00:00:37.220
you're talking about this empire here.

00:00:37.220 --> 00:00:38.288
Huge economy,

00:00:38.288 --> 00:00:40.564
huge military industrial complex,

00:00:40.564 --> 00:00:41.609
huge army.

00:00:41.609 --> 00:00:42.839
Serbians,

00:00:42.839 --> 00:00:44.511
much smaller country,

00:00:44.511 --> 00:00:45.928
much poorer country.

00:00:45.928 --> 00:00:48.319
They had also fought several recent wars.

00:00:48.319 --> 00:00:49.666
They were very ill-equipped

00:00:49.666 --> 00:00:51.083
so any military analyst would thought

00:00:51.083 --> 00:00:52.708
that this would be a short war,

00:00:52.708 --> 00:00:54.937
but 1914 did not prove that way

00:00:54.937 --> 00:00:56.330
for the Austro-Hungarians

00:00:56.330 --> 00:00:59.163
and this actually could be
viewed as a huge victory,

00:00:59.163 --> 00:01:00.045
a huge surprise,

00:01:00.045 --> 00:01:01.276
for the Serbians,

00:01:01.276 --> 00:01:03.250
that the Serbians were able to keep

00:01:03.250 --> 00:01:05.525
the Austro-Hungarians back.

00:01:05.525 --> 00:01:09.008
Serbians hold.

00:01:09.008 --> 00:01:10.123
Now this isn't to say that it wasn't

00:01:10.123 --> 00:01:12.375
incredibly, incredibly, incredibly bloody.

00:01:12.375 --> 00:01:15.905
You've had several offensives
across the border into Serbia.

00:01:15.905 --> 00:01:18.482
The Austro-Hungarians
briefly captured Belgrade.

00:01:18.482 --> 00:01:19.968
Then the Serbians capture it back.

00:01:19.968 --> 00:01:21.988
In the meantime tens and
hundreds of thousands

00:01:21.988 --> 00:01:24.008
of folks were dying,

00:01:24.008 --> 00:01:25.820
but at the end of 1914,

00:01:25.820 --> 00:01:27.538
you would have surprised
the military analyst

00:01:27.538 --> 00:01:29.163
and the Serbians were able to hold

00:01:29.163 --> 00:01:30.882
despite being less equipped

00:01:30.882 --> 00:01:34.713
and despite just being a smaller country.

00:01:34.713 --> 00:01:36.083
Now the luck for the Serbians

00:01:36.083 --> 00:01:37.940
did not hold out that well

00:01:37.940 --> 00:01:40.843
as we go into 1915.

00:01:40.843 --> 00:01:41.609
By 1915,

00:01:41.609 --> 00:01:44.303
other parties other than
the Austro-Hungarians

00:01:44.303 --> 00:01:48.250
decided to get involved
against the Serbians.

00:01:48.250 --> 00:01:49.248
In particular,

00:01:49.248 --> 00:01:51.849
you have the Bulgarians
that prior to 1915,

00:01:51.849 --> 00:01:53.521
they were kinda trying to figure out

00:01:53.521 --> 00:01:57.143
which side of the war
they want to fall in on,

00:01:57.143 --> 00:01:59.419
but they have had several battles

00:01:59.419 --> 00:02:01.300
or several wars recently with Serbia,

00:02:01.300 --> 00:02:03.622
one as recently as 1913.

00:02:03.622 --> 00:02:06.655
They were eager to capture
back some territory

00:02:06.655 --> 00:02:09.535
so in 1915 the Bulgarians joined the war

00:02:09.535 --> 00:02:11.299
on the side of the Central Powers

00:02:11.299 --> 00:02:13.296
and as we exit 1915,

00:02:13.296 --> 00:02:16.176
you have a joint offensive
between the Bulgarians,

00:02:16.176 --> 00:02:19.148
the Austro-Hungarians and the Germans

00:02:19.148 --> 00:02:23.513
against the small country of Serbia

00:02:23.513 --> 00:02:24.465
and the Germans interest

00:02:24.465 --> 00:02:26.276
other than the fact that
they wanted to support

00:02:26.276 --> 00:02:30.549
their ally, Austria,

00:02:30.549 --> 00:02:32.476
they were also eager to take control

00:02:32.476 --> 00:02:35.843
of the railways between
Berlin and Constantinople

00:02:35.843 --> 00:02:40.843
and that railway went into Serbia

00:02:41.276 --> 00:02:43.018
and so if they were able to capture this,

00:02:43.018 --> 00:02:44.365
take Serbia out of the war,

00:02:44.365 --> 00:02:46.663
then they would be able to send supplies

00:02:46.663 --> 00:02:51.284
much more easily to their other ally,

00:02:51.284 --> 00:02:52.840
the Ottoman Empire.

00:02:52.840 --> 00:02:56.036
So on October of 1915,

00:02:56.036 --> 00:02:57.752
October of 1915,

00:02:57.752 --> 00:03:00.516
you have a joint offensive
between the German army

00:03:00.516 --> 00:03:02.838
and this is what this map
right here is depicting

00:03:02.838 --> 00:03:03.720
right over here.

00:03:03.720 --> 00:03:04.858
This is the third Austrian army,

00:03:04.858 --> 00:03:07.226
this is the 11th German army.

00:03:07.226 --> 00:03:09.107
This is the first Bulgarian army,

00:03:09.107 --> 00:03:11.034
this is the second Bulgarian army

00:03:11.034 --> 00:03:13.867
and their joint offensive
is hugely successful

00:03:13.867 --> 00:03:15.075
for the Central Powers.

00:03:15.075 --> 00:03:17.536
They're essentially able
to roll into Serbia.

00:03:17.536 --> 00:03:19.742
It's actually impressive
on the side of the Serbians

00:03:19.742 --> 00:03:21.344
that it took this much force

00:03:21.344 --> 00:03:23.039
to be able to roll through Serbia,

00:03:23.039 --> 00:03:24.711
but they were able to roll through Serbia,

00:03:24.711 --> 00:03:26.963
essentially occupy all of Serbia.

00:03:26.963 --> 00:03:29.401
They put the Serbian army on the run

00:03:29.401 --> 00:03:32.907
and the only redeeming
thing for the Serbians

00:03:32.907 --> 00:03:34.835
is that some element of the Serbian army

00:03:34.835 --> 00:03:39.479
was actually able to escape
through Montenegro and Albania

00:03:39.479 --> 00:03:41.894
and some of the civilians

00:03:41.894 --> 00:03:43.813
and then they were
transported by the allies,

00:03:43.813 --> 00:03:44.834
by the entente,

00:03:44.834 --> 00:03:46.762
to be able to recuperate and then join

00:03:46.762 --> 00:03:49.493
as we'll see on the Macedonian front.

00:03:49.493 --> 00:03:54.493
So 1915 you have the Central
Powers roll through Serbia

00:04:04.224 --> 00:04:06.459
so to any observer right now,

00:04:06.459 --> 00:04:09.478
Serbia is essentially lost.

00:04:09.478 --> 00:04:11.033
Now right when that was happening,

00:04:11.033 --> 00:04:13.634
the allies had recognized that Serbia

00:04:13.634 --> 00:04:15.979
was in a very difficult situation

00:04:15.979 --> 00:04:17.837
and as we got to the end of 1915,

00:04:17.837 --> 00:04:18.719
they did start...

00:04:18.719 --> 00:04:23.719
The French and British troops
did start to land in Salonica

00:04:24.338 --> 00:04:27.876
right over here in order to,

00:04:27.876 --> 00:04:28.572
one would think,

00:04:28.572 --> 00:04:31.606
help the Serbian forces.

00:04:31.606 --> 00:04:34.439
Now they weren't able to arrive and act

00:04:34.439 --> 00:04:36.645
in enough time to prevent what happened

00:04:36.645 --> 00:04:40.082
in October of 1915.

00:04:40.082 --> 00:04:41.243
You have some French forces

00:04:41.243 --> 00:04:42.775
that were able to essentially distract

00:04:42.775 --> 00:04:44.238
the Bulgarian second army

00:04:44.238 --> 00:04:47.512
that aided to some degree
the Serbian retreat,

00:04:47.512 --> 00:04:51.134
but essentially they started
to build their own forces

00:04:51.134 --> 00:04:53.642
right over here in Salonica.

00:04:53.642 --> 00:04:54.780
Now this is interesting

00:04:54.780 --> 00:04:57.891
because we're talking about
this region right over here,

00:04:57.891 --> 00:05:00.074
kind of Macedonia and Greece

00:05:00.074 --> 00:05:01.607
and at this point in the war,

00:05:01.607 --> 00:05:04.114
Greece had stayed neutral.

00:05:04.114 --> 00:05:05.879
The king was leaning towards...

00:05:05.879 --> 00:05:07.342
King Constantine the first,

00:05:07.342 --> 00:05:10.314
he was leaning towards the Central Powers

00:05:10.314 --> 00:05:12.450
while the prime minister

00:05:12.450 --> 00:05:15.051
and I'm sure I'm going
to say this incorrectly,

00:05:15.051 --> 00:05:16.305
Venizelos,

00:05:16.305 --> 00:05:19.138
he was leaning toward the ally parties

00:05:19.138 --> 00:05:21.413
so you started to have
this kind of disconnect

00:05:21.413 --> 00:05:22.226
between the two

00:05:22.226 --> 00:05:24.246
and the prime minister resigns,

00:05:24.246 --> 00:05:26.104
but he has active support,

00:05:26.104 --> 00:05:30.701
especially in kind of Macedonia and Greece

00:05:30.701 --> 00:05:35.276
and obviously he has
support amongst the allies.

00:05:35.276 --> 00:05:39.354
So as you go into 1916,

00:05:39.354 --> 00:05:43.185
you have a coup for Venizelos
in Macedonia and Greece,

00:05:43.185 --> 00:05:45.577
especially in around Salonica,

00:05:45.577 --> 00:05:47.620
which is essentially
being held by the allies,

00:05:47.620 --> 00:05:49.106
even though Greece is essentially...

00:05:49.106 --> 00:05:51.428
Is officially neutral.

00:05:51.428 --> 00:05:56.428
So coup for Venizelos,

00:05:57.907 --> 00:05:59.880
which leads to a very
interesting situation.

00:05:59.880 --> 00:06:01.831
So after the coup for Venizelos,

00:06:01.831 --> 00:06:03.387
you essentially have Greece,

00:06:03.387 --> 00:06:04.617
kind of Macedonian and Greece

00:06:04.617 --> 00:06:07.845
is under the control of
the supporters of Venizelos

00:06:07.845 --> 00:06:10.213
and supporters of the allies

00:06:10.213 --> 00:06:15.213
while the rest of Greece
is still loyal to the king

00:06:16.041 --> 00:06:18.898
and the king is leaning
towards the Central Powers,

00:06:18.898 --> 00:06:22.473
but it's not really clear
what he wants to do about it.

00:06:22.473 --> 00:06:24.610
Then you get into 1917,

00:06:24.610 --> 00:06:27.210
the allies start to get a
little bit forceful about it.

00:06:27.210 --> 00:06:29.857
In 1917 they have a blockade.

00:06:29.857 --> 00:06:32.481
They apply a blockade of southern Greece.

00:06:32.481 --> 00:06:34.887
Obviously blockades are always
inflict a lot of hardship,

00:06:34.887 --> 00:06:35.862
economic hardship,

00:06:35.862 --> 00:06:37.093
human hardship,

00:06:37.093 --> 00:06:38.184
on civilians,

00:06:38.184 --> 00:06:43.184
but this essentially
forces in June of 1917

00:06:44.897 --> 00:06:48.411
Constantine the first...

00:06:48.411 --> 00:06:52.312
Constantine goes into exhile

00:06:52.312 --> 00:06:53.729
and essentially at this point,

00:06:53.729 --> 00:06:55.586
all of Greece is under...

00:06:55.586 --> 00:06:58.605
Is kind of supporting the allies

00:06:58.605 --> 00:07:01.530
and Greece goes on the side of the allies

00:07:01.530 --> 00:07:02.970
so in this map right over here

00:07:02.970 --> 00:07:05.037
that shows kind of the Allied Powers,

00:07:05.037 --> 00:07:06.523
the entente powers

00:07:06.523 --> 00:07:07.684
and the Central Powers,

00:07:07.684 --> 00:07:09.518
Greece right over here is depicted

00:07:09.518 --> 00:07:10.772
as an Allied Power,

00:07:10.772 --> 00:07:14.603
but it was officially
neutral as we go through 1917

00:07:14.603 --> 00:07:16.809
only after the overthrow as...

00:07:16.809 --> 00:07:19.480
Only after Constantine
the first goes into exile,

00:07:19.480 --> 00:07:24.100
do we have Greece
formally becoming an ally.

00:07:24.100 --> 00:07:28.512
And so that set gives
us the set up into 1918.

00:07:28.512 --> 00:07:30.741
So you had regrouped Serbian forces

00:07:30.741 --> 00:07:31.438
and at this point ,

00:07:31.438 --> 00:07:33.086
it would be called the Macedonian front.

00:07:33.086 --> 00:07:35.385
Serbia has been lost
to the Central Powers.

00:07:35.385 --> 00:07:38.868
You have regrouped Serbian
forces at Salonica.

00:07:38.868 --> 00:07:40.231
They've been transported to Salonica

00:07:40.231 --> 00:07:42.878
and in Greek Macedonian general.

00:07:42.878 --> 00:07:44.340
You now have the Greek army

00:07:44.340 --> 00:07:45.966
who is now on the side of the allies.

00:07:45.966 --> 00:07:48.241
You have the British and the French army

00:07:48.241 --> 00:07:52.282
and so as we get into September 1918,

00:07:52.282 --> 00:07:53.814
they are ready to go on the offensive

00:07:53.814 --> 00:07:54.650
and you need to remember

00:07:54.650 --> 00:07:56.740
what's happening in the rest
of Europe at this point.

00:07:56.740 --> 00:07:59.480
You might remember August 1918,

00:07:59.480 --> 00:08:01.570
this is the beginning of
the 100 days offensive

00:08:01.570 --> 00:08:04.379
that marked the allied
victory on the western front

00:08:04.379 --> 00:08:06.167
so news was already getting in there.

00:08:06.167 --> 00:08:08.838
You had great morale amongst the allies,

00:08:08.838 --> 00:08:13.830
you had not so great morale
amongst the Central Powers

00:08:13.830 --> 00:08:16.129
and so in 1918, September,

00:08:16.129 --> 00:08:21.129
you have the allied offensive

00:08:22.770 --> 00:08:24.488
coming out of Greece,

00:08:24.488 --> 00:08:27.112
coming out of I guess you could
call it Macedonian Greece.

00:08:27.112 --> 00:08:28.087
Hugely successful.

00:08:28.087 --> 00:08:31.709
They were able to retake Serbia

00:08:31.709 --> 00:08:32.986
and actually some of the British forces

00:08:32.986 --> 00:08:36.276
are able to go east and
retake Constantinople

00:08:36.276 --> 00:08:37.785
and so this part,

00:08:37.785 --> 00:08:39.294
this Macedonian front,

00:08:39.294 --> 00:08:42.104
is part of this overall we
saw on the western front,

00:08:42.104 --> 00:08:46.609
kind of the end to the
Central Powers ambitions

00:08:46.609 --> 00:08:48.954
in World War I

00:08:48.954 --> 00:08:51.253
and it ends with an
armistice on this front

00:08:51.253 --> 00:08:52.460
and as we know,

00:08:52.460 --> 00:08:54.945
as we get into November of 1918,

00:08:54.945 --> 00:08:58.706
you have essentially
armistices or cease fires

00:08:58.706 --> 00:09:00.146
on all the major fronts

00:09:00.146 --> 00:09:02.137
and the allies have essentially won.


Deaths in World War I

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.804 --> 00:00:02.906
Narrator: As you might
imagine, World War I was

00:00:02.906 --> 00:00:05.139
one of the bloodiest events in, frankly,

00:00:05.139 --> 00:00:06.269
all of human history.

00:00:06.269 --> 00:00:08.282
I was thinking about
putting some pictures here,

00:00:08.282 --> 00:00:09.866
and I encourage you to do a web search

00:00:09.866 --> 00:00:11.386
for actual photographs from World War I

00:00:11.386 --> 00:00:13.939
of mass graves and people starving

00:00:13.939 --> 00:00:17.020
and soldiers dead in trenches.

00:00:17.020 --> 00:00:19.326
It will make you feel ill.

00:00:19.326 --> 00:00:22.468
It's probably a good
thing to look for those

00:00:22.468 --> 00:00:24.765
images because it will
remind you how disgusting

00:00:24.765 --> 00:00:29.268
and gross and crazy wars can be.

00:00:29.268 --> 00:00:31.474
Sometimes we abstract
it when we look at it

00:00:31.474 --> 00:00:33.553
in hindsight and we just
talk about the numbers.

00:00:33.553 --> 00:00:36.874
World War I was gruesome,
especially because this

00:00:36.874 --> 00:00:38.775
was the first time that
industrialized weapons

00:00:38.775 --> 00:00:42.096
were really put to use in a war context.

00:00:42.096 --> 00:00:44.521
There was far more bloodshed
than I think any of the

00:00:44.521 --> 00:00:47.861
fighting powers actually
believed there would be.

00:00:47.861 --> 00:00:49.554
Just to put things in to numbers,

00:00:49.554 --> 00:00:51.889
and these are huge numbers,
and these are frankly

00:00:51.889 --> 00:00:53.600
abstract numbers; numbers that are hard

00:00:53.600 --> 00:00:54.855
for us to comprehend.

00:00:54.855 --> 00:00:56.784
We don't know the exact numbers,

00:00:56.784 --> 00:00:58.862
as you can imagine, it's
not easy to take a census.

00:00:58.862 --> 00:01:01.174
The military's have a better count of

00:01:01.174 --> 00:01:04.543
who might have been killed
or who might be missing.

00:01:04.543 --> 00:01:07.556
The civilian casualties are
almost impossible to count.

00:01:07.556 --> 00:01:09.599
You have people who are
inadvertently killed

00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:11.566
by a bomb, you have people who are dying

00:01:11.566 --> 00:01:13.481
of starvation, who are
dying due to famine.

00:01:13.481 --> 00:01:15.233
These are very hard numbers to count,

00:01:15.233 --> 00:01:17.673
but there is some consensus on the rough

00:01:17.673 --> 00:01:20.488
estimates on the total
casualties in World War I.

00:01:20.488 --> 00:01:22.435
In particular, I'm going to
focus here on the deaths,

00:01:22.435 --> 00:01:24.607
when people talk about
casualties that often will also

00:01:24.607 --> 00:01:25.929
talk about injured.

00:01:25.929 --> 00:01:28.610
Just the deaths alone,
the estimates I've seen,

00:01:28.610 --> 00:01:30.610
and I encourage you to look up your own

00:01:30.610 --> 00:01:33.438
and try to figure out what
consensus you could get to,

00:01:33.438 --> 00:01:37.125
but the estimates I've
seen have on the order of

00:01:37.125 --> 00:01:41.006
16 million, million deaths during

00:01:41.006 --> 00:01:43.574
or due to World War I.

00:01:43.574 --> 00:01:45.001
If we were to break down those deaths,

00:01:45.001 --> 00:01:47.693
we have 8-10 million in the military.

00:01:47.693 --> 00:01:50.694
So, directly military these
are death of soldiers,

00:01:50.694 --> 00:01:52.317
so this is the military.

00:01:52.317 --> 00:01:55.267
It was roughly, based on
the accounts that I've seen,

00:01:55.267 --> 00:01:58.488
about 60% of these deaths were amongst

00:01:58.488 --> 00:02:01.566
the Entente, and about 40% were amongst

00:02:01.566 --> 00:02:03.633
the central powers, but in either case,

00:02:03.633 --> 00:02:05.937
we're talking about
millions on either side

00:02:05.937 --> 00:02:08.432
of World War I and then the rest,

00:02:08.432 --> 00:02:11.186
if we're talking on the
order of about 6-7 million

00:02:11.186 --> 00:02:12.454
were civilians.

00:02:12.454 --> 00:02:15.817
(writing) 6-7 millions civilians.

00:02:15.817 --> 00:02:18.662
The estimates I've seen
were about 1 million plus

00:02:18.662 --> 00:02:20.723
that were directly due to military action.

00:02:20.723 --> 00:02:24.226
This is military action
impacting civilians.

00:02:24.226 --> 00:02:27.387
This was disproportionately
felt on the side

00:02:27.387 --> 00:02:29.897
of the Entente, on the side of the allies.

00:02:29.897 --> 00:02:32.003
If you look at where,
especially the western front

00:02:32.003 --> 00:02:33.743
was fought, it becomes clear

00:02:33.743 --> 00:02:35.686
and also much of where the
eastern front was fought.

00:02:35.686 --> 00:02:37.926
The eastern front, a lot of it was fought

00:02:37.926 --> 00:02:40.123
on Russian land, or what
was controlled by the

00:02:40.123 --> 00:02:42.986
Russian Empire at the time
and on the western front,

00:02:42.986 --> 00:02:46.069
much of the, or most of
the battle was in France

00:02:46.069 --> 00:02:48.843
and in Belgium and also in Italy,

00:02:48.843 --> 00:02:50.636
that was also where you
had a significant amount

00:02:50.636 --> 00:02:52.990
of the battle actually going on.

00:02:52.990 --> 00:02:55.681
So, this is why the allies, the Entente,

00:02:55.681 --> 00:03:00.006
felt a disproportionate
number of the civilian

00:03:00.006 --> 00:03:02.789
that's directly due to
military casualties.

00:03:02.789 --> 00:03:05.049
But then on top of that, the
rest of the civilian count,

00:03:05.049 --> 00:03:07.216
this is what's, frankly,
very hard to get an exact

00:03:07.216 --> 00:03:09.587
number on, this would be due to famine,

00:03:09.587 --> 00:03:11.542
starvation, disease.

00:03:11.542 --> 00:03:14.083
(writing) disease.

00:03:14.406 --> 00:03:17.293
We've talked before about the blockade

00:03:17.293 --> 00:03:19.200
of the central powers.

00:03:19.200 --> 00:03:24.324
You had definitely
people not being able to

00:03:24.324 --> 00:03:28.465
kind of eat properly,
you had the Spanish Flu.

00:03:28.465 --> 00:03:31.475
It was just an all around ugly situation

00:03:31.475 --> 00:03:33.198
and then to make matters worse,

00:03:33.198 --> 00:03:36.762
and this is what the
history books often forget,

00:03:36.762 --> 00:03:38.832
you often had an explicit extermination

00:03:38.832 --> 00:03:42.229
of peoples' trying to
happen during World War I.

00:03:42.229 --> 00:03:44.617
In fact, the, I guess, most notable,

00:03:44.617 --> 00:03:47.140
but often forgotten was
the Armenian genocide.

00:03:47.140 --> 00:03:49.672
There was actually an explicit campaign

00:03:49.672 --> 00:03:53.016
on the part of the Ottoman's
and this actually started

00:03:53.016 --> 00:03:56.273
before World War I, but
it kind of hit full pace

00:03:56.273 --> 00:03:59.667
during World War I where 1 to ...

00:03:59.667 --> 00:04:01.983
I've seen estimates of
1 million to 1.5 million

00:04:01.983 --> 00:04:04.801
Armenian's were systematically ...

00:04:04.801 --> 00:04:08.816
I'm talking about men, women, children,

00:04:08.816 --> 00:04:12.986
systematically killed by
the Ottoman government.

00:04:12.986 --> 00:04:15.617
War is ugly and it brings out the worst

00:04:15.617 --> 00:04:18.721
in people and you see it
just from these numbers.

00:04:18.721 --> 00:04:21.963
Just to give a context of all this is ...

00:04:21.963 --> 00:04:26.504
it's very easy for us just
to abstract these things,

00:04:26.504 --> 00:04:28.792
but I really wanted to sit
in how horrible this was,

00:04:28.792 --> 00:04:33.604
but just to kind of
bring it all into focus.

00:04:33.604 --> 00:04:37.143
This right here is a passage from

00:04:37.143 --> 00:04:40.004
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume
129 that was published

00:04:40.004 --> 00:04:43.845
in 1922 and it's a passage
on Joseph Tumulty's book.

00:04:43.845 --> 00:04:46.634
Joseph Tumulty was the Private Secretary,

00:04:46.634 --> 00:04:48.337
what is now called the Chief of Staff,

00:04:48.337 --> 00:04:50.075
of President Woodrow Wilson.

00:04:50.075 --> 00:04:53.413
This is about his account of being with

00:04:53.413 --> 00:04:56.268
Woodrow Wilson after the war was declared

00:04:56.268 --> 00:04:58.080
in World War I.

00:04:58.080 --> 00:05:01.152
It's fascinating because
it applies, frankly,

00:05:01.152 --> 00:05:02.868
to most wars, or all wars.

00:05:02.868 --> 00:05:05.821
The War President and the War.

00:05:05.821 --> 00:05:08.024
"At the time of delivering his far-echoed

00:05:08.024 --> 00:05:11.741
"war message, in April
1917, the President was

00:05:11.741 --> 00:05:15.006
"cheered by dense multitudes
thronging the streets

00:05:15.006 --> 00:05:17.823
"as he passed from the
White House to the Capital

00:05:17.823 --> 00:05:19.068
"and back again.

00:05:19.068 --> 00:05:21.869
"This is from Tumulty's,"
that's Woodrow Wilson's

00:05:21.869 --> 00:05:24.003
Chief of Staff, or it was
called Private Secretary then.

00:05:24.003 --> 00:05:25.799
"This is from Tumulty's own description

00:05:25.799 --> 00:05:29.037
of the return: 'For a while he,'"

00:05:29.037 --> 00:05:30.444
and we're talking about Woodrow Wilson,

00:05:30.444 --> 00:05:32.803
"'For a while, he sat silent and pale in

00:05:32.803 --> 00:05:34.073
"'the Cabinet room.

00:05:34.073 --> 00:05:36.787
"'At last he said, 'Think what it was they

00:05:36.787 --> 00:05:38.152
"'were applauding.'"

00:05:38.152 --> 00:05:40.339
"'My message today was a message of death

00:05:40.339 --> 00:05:41.807
"'for our young men.

00:05:41.807 --> 00:05:46.453
"'How strange it seems to applaud that.'"


Sinai, Palestine and Mesopotamia campaigns

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.353 --> 00:00:02.320
So far most of what
we've been focused on has

00:00:02.320 --> 00:00:04.336
been Europe and some of
you all have argued that,

00:00:04.336 --> 00:00:05.883
"Hey, why is this called
World War I? It should

00:00:05.883 --> 00:00:07.901
be called Europe War I." In reality,

00:00:07.901 --> 00:00:10.067
especially because the
major European powers

00:00:10.067 --> 00:00:11.852
had these empires throughout the globe,

00:00:11.852 --> 00:00:15.321
it really was a world
war. The most significant

00:00:15.321 --> 00:00:18.458
fronts were the Western
front and the Eastern front,

00:00:18.458 --> 00:00:20.587
but we have many, many, many other fronts,

00:00:20.587 --> 00:00:22.990
many other campaigns. A
lot of these helped shape

00:00:22.990 --> 00:00:24.723
the modern world,
especially the world of the

00:00:24.723 --> 00:00:29.083
twentieth century. You had
fronts, campaigns in Africa,

00:00:29.083 --> 00:00:32.323
between the various
colonies that the empires

00:00:32.323 --> 00:00:34.988
had in Africa. You had a
front here in the Caucasus

00:00:34.988 --> 00:00:39.356
between the Ottoman empire and Russia.

00:00:39.356 --> 00:00:42.073
You had Japan involved.
Japan, in World War I

00:00:42.073 --> 00:00:44.474
was on the side of the
allies. It wasn't one of

00:00:44.474 --> 00:00:47.213
the major actors in World
War I, but it helped

00:00:47.213 --> 00:00:50.515
provide naval support,
it helped against some

00:00:50.515 --> 00:00:53.668
of Germany's colonies in
the pacific and in China.

00:00:53.668 --> 00:00:56.998
What I really want to
focus on in this video

00:00:56.998 --> 00:01:00.930
is in some ways one of the
most interesting campaigns,

00:01:00.930 --> 00:01:03.600
or I guess several
campaigns of World War I,

00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:06.334
because it really helped shape the modern

00:01:06.334 --> 00:01:09.072
Middle East and a lot
of the way countries are

00:01:09.072 --> 00:01:11.342
shaped now and a lot of
the conflicts we now see

00:01:11.342 --> 00:01:13.470
in the Middle East to
some degree can be tied

00:01:13.470 --> 00:01:16.491
to what happened leading up to World War I

00:01:16.491 --> 00:01:18.832
and what happened after World War I.

00:01:18.832 --> 00:01:20.486
Just as a little bit
of context, this entire

00:01:20.486 --> 00:01:22.483
region right over here,
what we consider to be

00:01:22.483 --> 00:01:25.282
the Middle East now, especially Arabia,

00:01:25.282 --> 00:01:28.159
was nominally under Ottoman control.

00:01:28.159 --> 00:01:30.238
The Ottoman empire had
been losing power for

00:01:30.238 --> 00:01:33.327
centuries leading up to
the twentieth century,

00:01:33.327 --> 00:01:35.828
especially if you look
at the Arabian Peninsula.

00:01:35.828 --> 00:01:38.572
It wasn't direct Ottoman
control. It was very

00:01:38.572 --> 00:01:41.596
hard to control the
various Arab tribes there.

00:01:41.596 --> 00:01:44.737
Egypt by this point, as
we enter into World War I,

00:01:44.737 --> 00:01:49.263
in the late 1800s the
British occupied, began

00:01:49.263 --> 00:01:52.208
to occupy Egypt, essentially
took control of Egypt.

00:01:52.208 --> 00:01:55.073
As we enter into World
War I, Egypt is officially

00:01:55.073 --> 00:01:58.468
a protectorate of the British empire.

00:01:58.468 --> 00:02:04.010
Egypt is, for all purposes, it is British.

00:02:04.010 --> 00:02:06.938
Egypt is of huge
strategic interest at this

00:02:06.938 --> 00:02:08.665
point in time. In fact,
it continues to be of

00:02:08.665 --> 00:02:10.909
huge strategic interest because it has the

00:02:10.909 --> 00:02:14.342
Suez Canal. The Suez
Canal is right over here.

00:02:14.342 --> 00:02:20.157
It's a man-made canal,
made in 1869 by the French,

00:02:20.157 --> 00:02:22.277
and it connects the Mediterranean Sea with

00:02:22.277 --> 00:02:25.074
the Red Sea. To see its
importance, you just have

00:02:25.074 --> 00:02:28.330
to look at the map at a more global scale.

00:02:28.330 --> 00:02:31.930
It's the fastest way to
get from Europe by ship

00:02:31.930 --> 00:02:35.932
into the Red Sea and into the Arabian Sea

00:02:35.932 --> 00:02:38.678
and to India, which was
a significant part of

00:02:38.678 --> 00:02:41.072
the British empire there,
or to go further East,

00:02:41.072 --> 00:02:43.739
go into the Indian Ocean and
go to places further East.

00:02:43.739 --> 00:02:46.875
It was of huge, huge,
huge strategic interest.

00:02:46.875 --> 00:02:50.264
That lays the groundwork
for, essentially, the

00:02:50.264 --> 00:02:53.409
various campaigns. Oftentimes
they would be collectively

00:02:53.409 --> 00:02:55.436
called the Middle East
campaigns, or they're

00:02:55.436 --> 00:02:59.434
separated sometimes as the
Sinai and Palestine campaign

00:02:59.434 --> 00:03:01.202
and the Mesopotamia campaign.

00:03:01.202 --> 00:03:04.158
Mesopotamia, that's in modern-day Iraq.

00:03:04.158 --> 00:03:08.061
The Sinai Peninsula, that's
part of modern-day Egypt.

00:03:08.061 --> 00:03:14.696
Palestine in 1914, what was
then considered Palestine,

00:03:14.696 --> 00:03:19.007
is now part of Israel,
part of the West Bank,

00:03:19.007 --> 00:03:21.748
part of the Gaza Strip, part Lebanon.

00:03:21.748 --> 00:03:24.490
As we'll see, all of these
countries that we now

00:03:24.490 --> 00:03:25.933
recognize as different countries,

00:03:25.933 --> 00:03:30.930
Lebanon, Jordan, Syria,

00:03:30.930 --> 00:03:33.213
these were all kind of
carved and shaped by

00:03:33.213 --> 00:03:36.263
what happened during World War I

00:03:36.263 --> 00:03:38.575
and at the end of World War I.

00:03:38.575 --> 00:03:41.325
As we get to the beginning,
right at the outset

00:03:41.325 --> 00:03:46.262
in 1914, the British
land right over here at

00:03:46.262 --> 00:03:50.656
the southern end of Mesopotamia.

00:03:50.656 --> 00:03:52.342
Over the course of the war they just keep

00:03:52.342 --> 00:03:56.006
driving northward along the Tigris River.

00:03:56.006 --> 00:03:58.986
They keep driving northward and northward

00:03:58.986 --> 00:04:00.860
and northward. By the
end of the war, they've

00:04:00.860 --> 00:04:02.863
essentially captured
what you would consider

00:04:02.863 --> 00:04:07.088
most of modern-day
Iraq. For the most part,

00:04:07.088 --> 00:04:10.407
it was a very successful
campaign for the British,

00:04:10.407 --> 00:04:12.661
although they did have
some significant setbacks.

00:04:12.661 --> 00:04:19.594
In particular, at the end
of 1915 you have the British

00:04:19.594 --> 00:04:24.600
who are held up in Kut.
They were essentially

00:04:24.600 --> 00:04:29.263
sieged by the Ottoman
empire, 147 days siege.

00:04:29.263 --> 00:04:32.662
After the 147 days they had to surrender.

00:04:32.662 --> 00:04:35.272
They were starving in there.
They couldn't get supplies.

00:04:35.272 --> 00:04:37.133
They were dying of
sickness. This is actually

00:04:37.133 --> 00:04:41.821
a picture of an Indian soldier
after the siege of Kut,

00:04:41.821 --> 00:04:44.662
after they were taken
by the Ottomans after

00:04:44.662 --> 00:04:48.190
they surrendered. Even
though the Mesopotamian

00:04:48.190 --> 00:04:50.330
campaign was successful
for the British, the

00:04:50.330 --> 00:04:55.203
siege of Kut is recorded in
British military history,

00:04:55.203 --> 00:04:57.082
or global military history,
as one of the biggest

00:04:57.082 --> 00:04:59.739
humiliations for the
British army, where you had

00:04:59.739 --> 00:05:02.581
that many troops who had
to surrender. They were

00:05:02.581 --> 00:05:05.663
starving, literally, to
death. One thing I should

00:05:05.663 --> 00:05:07.580
point out: I'm going to be
talking about the allies,

00:05:07.580 --> 00:05:10.934
the British troops, but
in the Middle Eastern

00:05:10.934 --> 00:05:15.663
campaigns and the Sinai
and Palestinian campaign

00:05:15.663 --> 00:05:19.266
and in the Mesopotamian
campaign, Indian troops,

00:05:19.266 --> 00:05:21.332
which were part of the
British empire, played a

00:05:21.332 --> 00:05:23.411
significant factor,
especially in the Mesoptomian

00:05:23.411 --> 00:05:26.407
campaign, and so did the Australian and

00:05:26.407 --> 00:05:28.996
New Zealand troops. When
we talk about British

00:05:28.996 --> 00:05:31.147
troops, we're also talking
about all of the various

00:05:31.147 --> 00:05:34.889
nationalities that were
part of the British empire.

00:05:34.889 --> 00:05:38.070
By 1918, they were able
to capture much of what

00:05:38.070 --> 00:05:40.825
is now modern-day Iraq, or
much of I guess you could say

00:05:40.825 --> 00:05:43.536
Mesopotamia. On the other side of, I guess

00:05:43.536 --> 00:05:45.909
you could call it on the Egyptian side

00:05:45.909 --> 00:05:51.074
of the campaign, the
first few offensives were

00:05:51.074 --> 00:05:54.239
actually taken by the
Ottomans. They say, "Hey look,

00:05:54.239 --> 00:05:57.748
the British hold the Suez
Canal. If we could take back

00:05:57.748 --> 00:05:59.796
the Suez Canal, that would
be a pretty crippling

00:05:59.796 --> 00:06:02.265
blow for the British,
especially in their ability

00:06:02.265 --> 00:06:05.598
to get to the various
ports of their empire."

00:06:05.598 --> 00:06:09.496
So in 1915, you have
the Ottomans try to make

00:06:09.496 --> 00:06:11.902
an offensive to try to
capture the Suez Canal.

00:06:11.902 --> 00:06:15.987
It's repulsed. It fails.
They try again in 1916.

00:06:15.987 --> 00:06:19.993
That fails again. After
that, the British then

00:06:19.993 --> 00:06:22.552
take the offensive. Once
again, it's the British,

00:06:22.552 --> 00:06:24.666
but we're talking, they
have Egyptian troops,

00:06:24.666 --> 00:06:27.597
they have Arab troops;
well, Egyptians are Arabs.

00:06:27.597 --> 00:06:29.796
They have Australian troops with them.

00:06:29.796 --> 00:06:30.932
They have Indian troops with them.

00:06:30.932 --> 00:06:33.663
They start to make an
offensive. That offensive

00:06:33.663 --> 00:06:35.673
essentially continues
through the course of

00:06:35.673 --> 00:06:45.657
World War I. In 1915 they are
able to defend the Suez Canal.

00:06:45.657 --> 00:06:49.009
In 1916 they defend it
again. By 1917, they're

00:06:49.009 --> 00:06:54.929
making an offensive. After
several tries, they're

00:06:54.929 --> 00:06:59.160
able to take Gaza in 1917.
Then they're able to take

00:06:59.160 --> 00:07:03.070
Jerusalem, which was
kind of a major source of

00:07:03.070 --> 00:07:05.996
prestige. Obviously
Jerusalem has a thousands

00:07:05.996 --> 00:07:09.128
of years history of
various armies trying to

00:07:09.128 --> 00:07:13.199
take Jerusalem. Then they
continue on and as they

00:07:13.199 --> 00:07:15.599
saw that the end of the war
was imminent, especially

00:07:15.599 --> 00:07:19.238
as we get into 1918, the
British were, and the allies

00:07:19.238 --> 00:07:22.246
were, essentially on a land
grab. They knew that as

00:07:22.246 --> 00:07:24.269
soon as an armistice is
called, it's kind of your

00:07:24.269 --> 00:07:26.825
last chance to grab more
land, and then it goes

00:07:26.825 --> 00:07:29.135
to the bureaucrats to
start negotiating things.

00:07:29.135 --> 00:07:31.604
So in 1918 the British
are essentially on a

00:07:31.604 --> 00:07:33.933
land grab, especially the allies.

00:07:33.933 --> 00:07:38.468
They take Damascus. They
get all the way north

00:07:38.468 --> 00:07:45.072
to Aleppo. By the end
of 1918 you essentially

00:07:45.072 --> 00:07:48.199
have the end of the war.
You have an armistice

00:07:48.199 --> 00:07:50.598
at the end of October
with the Ottoman empire.

00:07:50.598 --> 00:07:52.320
We know that the Austro-Hungarians signed

00:07:52.320 --> 00:07:54.826
their armistice in early
November, and so do

00:07:54.826 --> 00:07:57.806
the Germans and World War I is over.

00:07:57.806 --> 00:07:59.731
Now, there's a bunch of
interesting things here

00:07:59.731 --> 00:08:03.069
and I'm kind of doing
a very broad survey of

00:08:03.069 --> 00:08:05.335
these campaigns. One is the famous movie

00:08:05.335 --> 00:08:08.742
Lawrence of Arabia. It
took place during these

00:08:08.742 --> 00:08:11.460
campaigns. This is a
picture of of T.E. Lawrence,

00:08:11.460 --> 00:08:16.330
who was many, many, many
things, but he was this

00:08:16.330 --> 00:08:21.247
interesting character
who helped the Arabs rise

00:08:21.247 --> 00:08:24.074
up against the Ottomans,
against the Turkish rule.

00:08:24.074 --> 00:08:26.908
He was heavily involved
in helping to coordinate

00:08:26.908 --> 00:08:30.282
the Arabs' uprising against the Ottomans.

00:08:30.282 --> 00:08:32.845
In this case, the Arabs
were helping the allies

00:08:32.845 --> 00:08:37.489
essentially push the Ottomans back.

00:08:37.489 --> 00:08:39.840
The most interesting
thing, the outcome of this,

00:08:39.840 --> 00:08:41.664
and we'll probably talk
into a lot more detail

00:08:41.664 --> 00:08:44.577
about this in future
videos, is because by the

00:08:44.577 --> 00:08:47.801
end of the war you have
the allies in control

00:08:47.801 --> 00:08:50.406
of all of this territory
... in control ... let me do

00:08:50.406 --> 00:08:54.793
that in a better color
... in control of all of

00:08:54.793 --> 00:08:57.471
this territory, right
over here, it was really

00:08:57.471 --> 00:09:01.794
left to them to carve up
the modern Middle East.

00:09:01.794 --> 00:09:05.535
It was agreed to ahead
of time that the French

00:09:05.535 --> 00:09:10.865
would gain control of what
is now Syria and Lebanon.

00:09:10.865 --> 00:09:13.955
This is roughly, Lebanon's
right over there.

00:09:13.955 --> 00:09:18.120
Syria, we're talking roughly this region,

00:09:18.120 --> 00:09:21.435
including Damascus, so
roughly this region right

00:09:21.435 --> 00:09:24.065
over here, and it left
the British in control of

00:09:24.065 --> 00:09:34.998
what is now Israel,
Palestine, Jordan and Iraq.

00:09:34.998 --> 00:09:37.413
As we'll see as we go
into the 1920s, this was

00:09:37.413 --> 00:09:39.413
all part of the British
mandate. They carved

00:09:39.413 --> 00:09:42.380
it up and a lot of their
decisions have led to

00:09:42.380 --> 00:09:44.933
a lot of what we now see
as the modern Middle East,

00:09:44.933 --> 00:09:47.069
and the French essentially
were in control up

00:09:47.069 --> 00:09:51.463
here in Lebanon and Syria as
part of the French mandate.


Italian front in World War I

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.760 --> 00:00:03.770
In the last video, we saw that
despite the fact that Italy

00:00:03.770 --> 00:00:05.770
was an original member
of the Triple Alliance,

00:00:05.770 --> 00:00:07.740
it was a very
awkward relationship.

00:00:07.740 --> 00:00:11.040
You fast forward to the
beginning of World War I, Italy

00:00:11.040 --> 00:00:13.750
tried to stay neutral arguing
that the Triple Alliance was

00:00:13.750 --> 00:00:17.170
being on the offense as
opposed to the defense.

00:00:17.170 --> 00:00:21.030
And then, as we mentioned,
in the spring of 1915,

00:00:21.030 --> 00:00:23.780
it signs the secret Treaty
of London with the Allies.

00:00:23.780 --> 00:00:25.750
Then in May, it
actually declares

00:00:25.750 --> 00:00:27.360
war on Austria-Hungary.

00:00:27.360 --> 00:00:29.990
It actually wouldn't formally
declare war on Germany

00:00:29.990 --> 00:00:32.280
until 1916.

00:00:32.280 --> 00:00:35.260
And so that lays the setting
for the actual combat

00:00:35.260 --> 00:00:38.550
along the Italian
Austro-Hungarian border

00:00:38.550 --> 00:00:40.510
that they share right over here.

00:00:40.510 --> 00:00:42.890
And so this next map I'm going
to show you is essentially

00:00:42.890 --> 00:00:47.010
a zoom in of this
part of this map.

00:00:47.010 --> 00:00:50.780
So that's this map
right over here.

00:00:50.780 --> 00:00:53.700
So we can start in 1915.

00:00:53.700 --> 00:00:56.910
So we're going to start
right over here in 1915.

00:00:56.910 --> 00:01:02.332
We already saw that in May
Italy declares war on Austria.

00:01:02.332 --> 00:01:04.290
They didn't war on Germany
until the next year.

00:01:09.190 --> 00:01:15.430
The first combat happens in
June with the first Battle

00:01:15.430 --> 00:01:17.789
on the Isanzo River.

00:01:17.789 --> 00:01:19.080
I'm sure I'm mispronouncing it.

00:01:19.080 --> 00:01:23.350
The Isanzo River
contours the then border

00:01:23.350 --> 00:01:26.250
between Italy and the
Austro-Hungarian empire.

00:01:26.250 --> 00:01:30.030
So it goes right along
this area right over here.

00:01:30.030 --> 00:01:32.730
It's actually a very
mountainous region.

00:01:32.730 --> 00:01:35.410
And as we'll see,
the Italian front

00:01:35.410 --> 00:01:38.520
involved many, many battles
along the Isanzo River,

00:01:38.520 --> 00:01:40.430
in fact, 12 battles in all.

00:01:40.430 --> 00:01:42.960
June 1915, it was
the first battle.

00:01:48.920 --> 00:01:53.550
And these continue into 1916.

00:01:53.550 --> 00:01:55.690
We get all the way
until the Fifth Battle

00:01:55.690 --> 00:01:57.117
of the Isanzo River.

00:01:57.117 --> 00:01:59.450
So actually, let me draw that
arrow a little bit longer.

00:01:59.450 --> 00:02:02.950
These continue all
the way into 1916.

00:02:02.950 --> 00:02:05.050
And these essentially
end up in a stalemate.

00:02:05.050 --> 00:02:07.330
A lot of people die
in these battles.

00:02:07.330 --> 00:02:09.580
It's incredibly
difficult terrain.

00:02:09.580 --> 00:02:11.970
It favors the defending forces.

00:02:11.970 --> 00:02:15.480
And so, nothing really
happens to the border here.

00:02:15.480 --> 00:02:19.050
So far, all the offenses
that the Italians had taken,

00:02:19.050 --> 00:02:20.740
nothing really happened.

00:02:20.740 --> 00:02:26.840
Then, as we get
into May of 1916,

00:02:26.840 --> 00:02:30.260
the Austro-Hungarians decide
to go on the offensive.

00:02:30.260 --> 00:02:32.060
And they go on the
offensive in this part

00:02:32.060 --> 00:02:33.920
of the border right over here.

00:02:33.920 --> 00:02:35.820
And their offensive
is called the Battle

00:02:35.820 --> 00:02:37.610
of Asiago, which
is right over here.

00:02:37.610 --> 00:02:39.670
They are able to get
as far as Asiago.

00:02:47.044 --> 00:02:49.710
But once again, even though they
were able to claim some ground,

00:02:49.710 --> 00:02:51.797
they weren't able
to keep the ground.

00:02:51.797 --> 00:02:53.380
There were spreading
their troops out.

00:02:53.380 --> 00:02:55.130
They weren't able to
maintain their supply

00:02:55.130 --> 00:02:56.490
chain, their supply lines.

00:02:56.490 --> 00:02:58.240
So by the end of that
battle, the Italians

00:02:58.240 --> 00:02:59.950
had reclaimed that territory.

00:02:59.950 --> 00:03:03.780
And the actual front had
not moved dramatically.

00:03:03.780 --> 00:03:06.079
So really the first two
years of the conflict

00:03:06.079 --> 00:03:07.370
ended up in a bit of stalemate.

00:03:07.370 --> 00:03:08.730
In fact, it continues.

00:03:08.730 --> 00:03:12.470
We then to pick up in 1916
the Sixth Battle on the Isanzo

00:03:12.470 --> 00:03:13.100
River.

00:03:13.100 --> 00:03:15.010
And then these battles
on the Isanzo River

00:03:15.010 --> 00:03:16.749
continue into 1917.

00:03:16.749 --> 00:03:17.540
So let me show you.

00:03:17.540 --> 00:03:19.880
These are the battles
on the Isanzo River.

00:03:19.880 --> 00:03:24.870
These continue all
the way into 1917.

00:03:24.870 --> 00:03:27.510
Now, as we enter into 1917,
several interesting things

00:03:27.510 --> 00:03:28.550
are happening.

00:03:28.550 --> 00:03:31.744
One, as you might remember,
on the Eastern Front in 1917,

00:03:31.744 --> 00:03:33.410
the Russians are
starting to fall apart.

00:03:33.410 --> 00:03:36.150
They are starting to
have revolutions at home.

00:03:36.150 --> 00:03:39.110
They're losing on Eastern Front.

00:03:39.110 --> 00:03:42.250
This allows the Germans
to redeploy some troops.

00:03:42.250 --> 00:03:44.720
Also, at this point,
Italy is formally

00:03:44.720 --> 00:03:46.180
at war with the Germans.

00:03:46.180 --> 00:03:51.890
So as we get to October of
1917, the Austro-Hungarians

00:03:51.890 --> 00:03:54.190
are able to get
reinforced by the Germans.

00:03:54.190 --> 00:03:55.300
And it was just in time.

00:03:55.300 --> 00:03:57.290
Because frankly,
by the 11th Battle

00:03:57.290 --> 00:04:06.710
of the Isanzo
River in late 1917,

00:04:06.710 --> 00:04:08.900
the Austro-Hungarians
aren't quite sure

00:04:08.900 --> 00:04:11.730
whether they can handle a 12th
Battle on the Isanzo River.

00:04:11.730 --> 00:04:14.480
So the Germans essentially
show up just in time.

00:04:14.480 --> 00:04:20.120
In October of 1917, along
with the Austro-Hungarians,

00:04:20.120 --> 00:04:22.300
the Germans then launch
their own offensive

00:04:22.300 --> 00:04:23.420
on the Isanzo River.

00:04:23.420 --> 00:04:25.960
And this one is actually
the first dramatic movement

00:04:25.960 --> 00:04:28.950
that we see along
the Italian front.

00:04:28.950 --> 00:04:30.850
And this is often
called the Battle

00:04:30.850 --> 00:04:36.521
of Caporetto, which
is right over here.

00:04:36.521 --> 00:04:38.270
But as you could
imagine, it's right along

00:04:38.270 --> 00:04:42.300
the border between
these two states

00:04:42.300 --> 00:04:45.020
and it's along the Isanzo
River, so this is also

00:04:45.020 --> 00:04:47.480
referred to as the 12th
Battle of the Isanzo River.

00:04:55.790 --> 00:04:58.780
And this one is a very
successful offensive.

00:04:58.780 --> 00:05:00.640
They focused their
troops near Caporetto

00:05:00.640 --> 00:05:02.240
at this point of the front.

00:05:02.240 --> 00:05:04.130
They're able to break
the Italian front.

00:05:04.130 --> 00:05:06.900
And then push deep
into Italian territory.

00:05:06.900 --> 00:05:09.010
So through October
and early November,

00:05:09.010 --> 00:05:11.000
they're able to, over
the next several weeks--

00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:13.660
this is in October,
November 1917-- they're

00:05:13.660 --> 00:05:19.820
able to push the Italians
all the way back to behind

00:05:19.820 --> 00:05:21.667
it the Piave River, so
this right over here.

00:05:21.667 --> 00:05:23.250
You may or may not
be able to read it.

00:05:23.250 --> 00:05:24.640
That says the Piave River.

00:05:24.640 --> 00:05:27.490
So they're able to push
the Italians roughly back

00:05:27.490 --> 00:05:30.930
to this boundary
right over here.

00:05:30.930 --> 00:05:37.000
And so this takes us into 1918.

00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:40.660
Now at this point, the Germans
are planning their last ditch

00:05:40.660 --> 00:05:42.130
spring offensive.

00:05:42.130 --> 00:05:43.960
They say, hey, look
Austro-Hungarians,

00:05:43.960 --> 00:05:45.900
it looks like this war is taken.

00:05:45.900 --> 00:05:48.050
We're going to leave
this front to you guys.

00:05:48.050 --> 00:05:50.460
You guys should be able
to do the knock out blow

00:05:50.460 --> 00:05:51.800
on the Italians right now.

00:05:51.800 --> 00:05:55.020
We're going to go return
to the Western Front,

00:05:55.020 --> 00:05:56.740
so that we can take
care of the Allies,

00:05:56.740 --> 00:06:01.102
especially because if we
don't do it sooner than later

00:06:01.102 --> 00:06:03.060
the Americans are going
to be able to reinforce

00:06:03.060 --> 00:06:04.080
the Western Front.

00:06:04.080 --> 00:06:08.410
So the Germans redeploy
to Western Front,

00:06:08.410 --> 00:06:11.240
away from this front.

00:06:11.240 --> 00:06:14.190
And essentially leave
the Austro-Hungarians

00:06:14.190 --> 00:06:17.650
to try to essentially
take out the Italians.

00:06:17.650 --> 00:06:23.040
And so in June 1918,
the Austro-Hungarians

00:06:23.040 --> 00:06:25.360
attempt their final--
what they hope

00:06:25.360 --> 00:06:27.010
is their final-- offensive.

00:06:27.010 --> 00:06:30.630
And its along this boundary
right here on the Piave River.

00:06:30.630 --> 00:06:32.680
Unfortunately for the
Austro-Hungarians,

00:06:32.680 --> 00:06:34.560
and fortunately
for the Italians,

00:06:34.560 --> 00:06:37.160
the Austro-Hungarians did
not plan that assault well.

00:06:37.160 --> 00:06:38.860
Instead of doing
a point offensive

00:06:38.860 --> 00:06:41.280
like they did with the Germans
in the Battle of Caporetto,

00:06:41.280 --> 00:06:44.670
where they were able to break
the trenches, break the lines,

00:06:44.670 --> 00:06:47.010
here it was less planned,
less coordinated.

00:06:47.010 --> 00:06:50.140
It was more spread out
along the entire line.

00:06:50.140 --> 00:06:52.010
On top of everything,
the Italians

00:06:52.010 --> 00:06:54.312
got word of the
exact time and date

00:06:54.312 --> 00:06:55.770
that the battle
was going to start.

00:06:55.770 --> 00:06:59.070
It was literally going to
start 3:00 AM on June 15.

00:06:59.070 --> 00:07:01.140
The Italians decide,
well, it the battle's

00:07:01.140 --> 00:07:03.141
going to start at 3:00
AM on June 15, that

00:07:03.141 --> 00:07:04.890
means that all of their
soldiers are going

00:07:04.890 --> 00:07:10.260
to be in the trenches ready to
attack at 3:00 AM on June 15.

00:07:10.260 --> 00:07:12.410
So they started
lobbing artillery

00:07:12.410 --> 00:07:14.782
into these densely
packed trenches knowing

00:07:14.782 --> 00:07:16.490
that it was likely to
hit a lot of people

00:07:16.490 --> 00:07:17.770
because there were a lot
of people who were waiting

00:07:17.770 --> 00:07:19.200
in the trenches
for an offensive.

00:07:19.200 --> 00:07:20.770
And so even before
the battle began,

00:07:20.770 --> 00:07:23.310
they were able to
inflict a lot of carnage

00:07:23.310 --> 00:07:27.270
on the soon to be invading
Austro-Hungarians.

00:07:27.270 --> 00:07:29.790
The invasion itself
was a bit of a debacle.

00:07:29.790 --> 00:07:32.280
When they were able to get
on top of the Piave River,

00:07:32.280 --> 00:07:33.560
it isolated their troops.

00:07:33.560 --> 00:07:35.800
The Italians were able to
take advantage of that.

00:07:35.800 --> 00:07:37.420
And those troops
that were isolated

00:07:37.420 --> 00:07:39.290
the south bank of
the Piave River,

00:07:39.290 --> 00:07:40.790
they were able to
take care of them.

00:07:40.790 --> 00:07:43.680
And they were able to push
the Austro-Hungarians back.

00:07:43.680 --> 00:07:45.790
And they secured huge losses.

00:07:45.790 --> 00:07:48.530
The Austro-Hungarian army
was incredibly weakened.

00:07:48.530 --> 00:07:50.366
And some people believe
that the Italians

00:07:50.366 --> 00:07:52.490
could have just done an
immediate counter offensive

00:07:52.490 --> 00:07:54.329
and taken the
Austro-Hungarians out.

00:07:54.329 --> 00:07:55.870
The Italians, on
the other hand, they

00:07:55.870 --> 00:07:59.400
were still licking their wounds
from the Battle of Caporetto

00:07:59.400 --> 00:08:03.720
and they decided to wait their
chance and regroup a bit.

00:08:03.720 --> 00:08:08.890
And so they wait
until October of 1918.

00:08:08.890 --> 00:08:12.330
You have a very weakened
Austro-Hungarian army.

00:08:12.330 --> 00:08:17.070
And this is when the Italians
do their decisive offensive

00:08:17.070 --> 00:08:21.400
of the Italian front, the
Battle of the Vittorio Venito.

00:08:21.400 --> 00:08:23.160
Vittorio Venito is
right over here.

00:08:29.180 --> 00:08:31.440
And once again, I apologize
to all of the Italians

00:08:31.440 --> 00:08:34.240
out there for my
mispronunciations.

00:08:34.240 --> 00:08:35.760
But this is what's
essentially able

00:08:35.760 --> 00:08:37.799
to break the back
of the Austrians.

00:08:37.799 --> 00:08:40.480
The Italians are
able to pour through.

00:08:40.480 --> 00:08:44.210
They're able to, essentially,
take out the Austrians.

00:08:44.210 --> 00:08:47.210
The Austrians were
already weakened.

00:08:47.210 --> 00:08:49.070
They're starting to
have internal strife.

00:08:49.070 --> 00:08:51.430
The empire is starting
to fall apart.

00:08:51.430 --> 00:08:55.950
And so by November, the
Austro-Hungarian empire

00:08:55.950 --> 00:08:57.690
essentially surrenders.

00:08:57.690 --> 00:08:59.730
And not just with the
Italians, but surrenders

00:08:59.730 --> 00:09:02.720
relative to the Allies,
which is essentially

00:09:02.720 --> 00:09:07.675
the end of the Italian
front of World War I.