AP Prep Webinar #7: World War I, Tom Richey
0:00 Marine say it with me cruise ship telegram submarine one more time cruise ship telegram submarine now German u-boat so this was a new development that you know around the time of World War one these underwater
0:20 boats that would you know that would basically surface to attack British shipping and the sinking of the Lusitania was a provocation now it didn’t get us involved in the war but there were a lot of Americans after the sinking of the Lusitania who wanted to get involved in the war but this was a British luxury liner uh you know and and
0:41 over a thousand people were dead 128 Americans now why would the Germans fire on an innocent cruise ship the thing is the cruise ship wasn’t a hundred percent innocent the Germans weren’t stupid they knew that there were munitions inside this ship and so as far as that goes you know the Lusitania you know it was it was people wondered for a little bit is
1:04 this going to draw the United States into this conflict okay and so now the thing is one thing we’ve got a note here is that the German Imperial Indus embassy the German Imperial Embassy put out this notice and they said look okay if you are a you know a traveler you’re going on the
1:24 Atlantic let let make sure you’re aware we’re putting a little disclaimer on here you know cuidado all right that you know we were you know watch out because we are in a situation where we’re at war all you know Germany her allies or at war with Britain or allies and you go onto this ship at your own risk and so you know people got on the ship
1:46 anyway and sometimes you know it’s like a one hand you don’t want Americans dying but on the other hand let’s remember you know Darwinism here that you know it’s not like this was done without warning and remembered that the Lusitania was not an American ship it was a ship with Americans on it but it was not an American ship and so
2:07 Woodrow Wilson was the President of the United States at the time and he said you know I came from the Souths and i know what war is for I’ve seen its wreckage and terrible ruin uh you know it’s in some ways you know you figure it’s got to be difficult you know having seen that kind of destruction as a child and so then you know you see
2:29 here Uncle Sam Kicks down the door goes over the Kaiser and just hands him a letter and Woodrow Wilson runs you know in 1916 on the platform he kept us out of war now notice the operative word kept I always say that if you want to know what a president’s foreign policy is gonna be like take the opposite of
2:49 what they say and imagine if that’s true and then proceed accordingly and so here is you know this is a advertisement I’ve mentioned before but this was something for Absolut Vodka and they were like in an absolute world and they show Mexico never having lost its country you know some some Mexicans you know are understandably still a bit bitter about
3:11 that and so here the Germans knew about this and you know you’ve got here the Zimmermann notes so cruise ship telegram submarine so the Zimmermann note was coded but it was also you know it was also intercepted by the British and presented to the Americans now if you’re gonna write something down here write
3:32 down unrestricted submarine warfare okay so unrestricted submarine warfare ladies and gentlemen so again the provocations cruise ship telegram submarine the Lusitania the Zimmermann note an unrestricted submarine warfare and so wilson’s war message okay you’ve
3:55 got a couple sides of this first of all you know you do have a self-interested motive on the part of the United States the direct calls remember often we talk about the direct cause of a war so the direct cause of like southern secession for example was Abraham Lincoln’s election as president at least in the deep south so the direct cause of US
4:15 intervention in World War one here is the German policy of unrestricted submarine warfare now while we’re at it make the world safe for democracy this is part of Woodrow Wilson’s missionary diplomacy now the way I remember this Woodrow Wilson Woodrow Wilson Morrill missionary my students say that I look
4:36 like I’m flashing gang signs or something like that but it helps me remember Woodrow Wilson Morrill missionary wwm em and so let’s use this as an extension of the missionary diplomacy now one thing that we want to note here is that African Americans in World War one many of them served but
4:58 they were restricted to non-combat roles unless they were fighting with the French okay so the you know basically the Harlem Hellfighters the 369th infantry regiment the Harlem Hellfighters here we see they are you know posing with their french military decorations because they were not able to you know they were not able to fight
5:20 on the american line so the French said you know what we’ll let them fight with us you know we’re not we’re not as racist now the Selective Service Act in 1917 now remember that there are only four times that there has been a military draft or conscription in US history and that is during you know these Civil
5:41 War World War One World War Two and Vietnam so the world wars and then one war on either side the Civil War World War One World War two in Vietnam now there was a massive stay hydrated people a massive propaganda campaign and so the
6:03 United States even in two years put out more war propaganda than anyone else now the propaganda campaign had several elements here the first one recruitment recruitment of soldiers sailors and nurses the second being to finance the war the third being to conserve resources and the fourth being to dehumanize the enemy now when you look
6:24 at these propaganda posters remember thinking about point of view context audience and purpose you want to think about when you look it up when you look at a poster you want to think about who is the intended audience of this poster and so in this case when you look at this one here they crucify it is they something they want
6:45 to de hue Minh eyes the enemy okay that the enemy crucifies women kills babies now then you see in lists on which side of the window are you this is obviously you aimed at young men to get them to enlist all right and so then on one hand if you want an easy job here’s a
7:06 wonderful opportunity for you in the Navy here’s this guy shore leave now then if you’re crazy like you know some people are like yeah I want to do something dangerous join the tanks alright you know it’s very dangerous I’m you know you can learn a trade so I you know you learn a trade now also we see here gee I wish I were a man I joined
7:28 the Navy be a man and do it so basically again another thing that like you’re not a man if you don’t join here even a dog enlists why not you alright and so so the thing is now remember that speaking of you know of women now if you are a woman you could become a nurse you could knit socks on so this is a total war
7:51 everybody’s got something to do and remember that the 19th amendment was submitted to the States for ratification in 1919 that’s easy to remember now it was actually ratified in 1920 but Congress submitted it to the states in 1919 that women’s suffrage is you know can be seen as a consequence of World
8:11 War one because this was you know women had been looking for this for a long time alright so as far as that goes uh you know you see again now these are to finance the war okay now you know my daddy bought me a Liberty bond and then I’m doing my job I’m fighting you’re an old man you’ve got money get a Liberty
8:31 bond because his Liberty bond was paid for in full and we see here I’m published through the patriotic cooperation of the New York Herald now again one thing to note here is that when we see things to save food during World War Two there was mandatory rash but during World War one it was
8:52 voluntary but there was a lot of propaganda intended to motivate people to you know to save food and so meat and wheat okay so you need to eat less meat you need to eat less wheat and so you know case you didn’t know cottage cheese all right that’s uh you know that’s got
9:14 more protein and if the meat you’ll need less meat just eat more cottage cheese plant a garden that’s gonna create more food for you know for Americans on the front and then one of my favorites is the Sheep clubs okay that anyone from a small child to President Wilson like you can raise sheep and shear the sheep and
9:36 you’ve got wool for socks and so there’s a little video available of sheep grazing on the White House lawn President Wilson showing his solidarity with the war effort here and so as far as that looks like I need to find that video now then dehumanizing the enemy okay we see that the German is portrayed
9:59 like an animal you know he’s in both cases he’s dark some people have noted that this is playing to American racial fears and racial prejudices but here beat back behind this is one of the most prominent ones now you notice here that he’s got blood on his bayonet blood on his hands and he’s looking across the
10:19 ocean as if he has the intention of if he wins in Europe he’s coming to take over the United States which there’s no rational justification for that but then again propaganda is not rational and so you know again you’ve got to buy Liberty bond one of my favorites here you can send the troops egrets and they’ll send
10:42 you a little note to be thankful on the espionage in Sedition Acts ok the Espionage Sedition Acts outlawed anti-war speech and other activities that undermine the war effort now you couldn’t even display a German flag at this time now Eugene V Debs was a labor leader now yesterday or was a two with
11:03 two days yesterday we were talking about the Gilded Age and Eugene V Debs on one side was a socialist labor leader now Deb’s was leading strikes during World War one and meanwhile Samuel Gompers the bread and butter unionism guy um he got the American Federation of Labor and it’s you know companion unions it’s
11:24 participating unions to put a hold on strikes during the war as a patriotic duty and so as far as that goes Eugene D V devs ran for president from jail in 1920 now why do we call this a hot dog and not a frankfurter this was done during World War one on then the German
11:45 language used to be a very commonly taught language and not anymore uh you know after World War one it becomes an American to speak God to speak German and then as far as that goes the Armistice assigned in Germany surrenders now let’s take a take a quick look here at the Versailles Treaty debate okay so
12:08 what happens here is Woodrow Wilson has his fourteen points okay so his fourteen points are now we’re not gonna go over all fourteen but some of the principles here freedom of the seas reduction of arms open treaty negotiations self-determination of people’s and
12:28 ladies and gentlemen a League of Nations okay make sure we got a League of Nations and what Woodrow Wilson’s trying to do here is to get a peace without victory now what he runs into though is the United States really compared to other on top powers you know only two percent of the military deaths for every
12:50 two Americans that died 12 and a half Frenchmen died eight British soldiers died okay and so as far as that goes it’s important to note here that Wilson’s fourteen points they made it into the treaty but the treaty had a lot of flaws as well now but I want to go for unto the United States Senate
13:12 okay when we think about the United States Senate they’ve got to ratify treaty’s okay the United States Senate needs a two-thirds approval to ratify treaty now the thing is that you know William McKinley after the spanish-american war he sent up you know senators as part of the delegation to
13:32 negotiate the treaty that ended the spanish-american war whereas you know whereas Woodrow Wilson involves 0 senators in this now on top of that Woodrow Wilson came in with a you know he came in with a Democratic Senate now in 1918 the Republicans took over the Senate in 1920 even more of a lead in
13:55 the Senate so the Republicans controlled the Senate there was a proper Republican majority he was a Democrat and so the Republicans who were in charge and even a few of the Democrats you know that some of its partisanship and some of it is you know some disputes over foreign policy but does the League of Nations this international organization that
14:15 Woodrow Wilson a champion does this represent an entangling alliance and so as far as that goes you know article 10 of the league covenant you know said that basically League members are obligated to you know to stop external aggressions now one thing we want to note here we have three views of the
14:37 tree we have internationalist these are Wilson’s people ratify the treaty as is reservationist who want to ratify the treaty with reservations that if we can put some caveats on there then we’re fine with it and then the irreconcilable sue requisite represented probably about a fifth of the Senate only about 19 or 20 of them that said don’t ratify the
14:58 treaty under any circumstances now one thing is if you remember the debate around the ratification of the Constitution you know what you’ve got what you’ve got there with the ratification debate is that the Federalists wanted to ratify the Constitution as it was out of Philadelphia then you had two groups of anti-federalists where one group of
15:19 anti-federalists I you know they said you know we don’t want to ratify the Constitution at all and then another group said you know if there’s a Bill of Rights then you know we’re fine with that but now the cost Dushan was a product of compromise Woodrow Wilson refused to compromise and you know the United States never joined
15:39 the League of Nations now one thing to note here is that you know some of the reservationist a lot of them were members the imperialist wing of the party you know basically believing that the America that America should engage the world in its own terms uh you know in to project American power this is kind of like the Teddy Roosevelt faction
15:59 of the Republican Party and then there were the irreconcilable ‘s this isolationist wing that were you know there was a lot of buyer’s remorse on World War one realizing that you know what if the American intervention really didn’t work a whole lot of good and so Henry Cabot Lodge maybe somebody to remember he was the Senate Majority
16:20 Leader and he had to answer the 14 points you know 14 kind of stipulations reservations here and Woodrow Wilson uh you know when they were asked he compromise or do you not and he didn’t and that’s basically what killed the treaty if he would have compromised Europe was fine with that so remember
16:40 that Woodrow Wilson really in a lot of ways his own worst enemy he thought you know we’re only go you know without the League of Nations this treaty is nothing all right the Rough Riders Teddy Roosevelt’s unit in the spanish-american war let’s see so yeah I wouldn’t get too deep into William Howard Taft’s for you know foreign policy there the
17:02 mexican-american war let’s see so as far as that goes ladies and gentlemen do we have any more questions I wanted to come back here and make sure that we didn’t have any questions now one thing we want to note here okay the United States didn’t join the League of Nations my day was pretty good okay now the irreconcilable okay maybe I hid
17:24 everything okay but the irreconcilable z– they were the folks that didn’t want any kind of ratification of the treaty but remember that Woodrow Wilson it was a refusal to compromise like an henry Clavin president then no no Woodrow Wilson was not against the Treaty of Versailles but Woodrow Olsen said we are either going to ratify
17:46 the treaty as is or we are you know he’s just gonna let it go down with the ship so it’s like you know when James Madison said hey we’ll put a bill of rights in the Constitution Woodrow Wilson said you know what I’ll accept the reservations but what happened was Woodrow Wilson told his people not to support on the ratification of the treaty with the
18:08 reservations that would keep the United States from going to war now ladies and gentlemen at Tom Ridge Annette / apush I just want to bring your attention really quick to something I’m gonna be broadcasting at 8 o’clock this evening this is a premium broadcast just if you’re interested you know if you go to Tom Ritchie dotnet slash a push then you
18:29 can see you can see here you can look at this multiple choice strategy session that I’ve got going on this evening and that is through webinar ninja I’m going to be doing about an hour-long webinar at 8 o’clock p.m. Eastern now that’s a premium product you’re welcome to do that but I’m going to be back the next two days absolutely free at you know for
18:52 with the Bill of Rights Institute so make sure your friends know what we’re doing here and that these are available and yes a good job miss Sanchez we all love miss Sanchez all right now not completely before before we end real quick we’re about to wrap up muckrakers and yellow journalism okay I wouldn’t say completely different because yellow
19:12 journalism sold Rekha sold papers muckraking sold papers muckraking also has like a higher social purpose so it’s almost like we think about like social darwinism versus like the civilizing mission you know they’re both components of imperialism but you know the the
19:34 muckrakers they feel like I’m trying to do good but people really enjoyed these really sensational stories so if you were comparing now remember very few things are completely different so if you were comparing then that’s that okay and it looks like Maddie may have something to show us well no I thought thought us are click something here okay
19:54 but I think we are running out you know running out of time here and let’s see if if Maddie’s got anything to say to us on the way out okay yes y’all got a DAB okay and here is Maddie ladies and gentlemen and remember we’ll be back next week nice
20:17 all right thank you so much time for taking the time to talk with us tonight like I said before all the resources from tonight are going to be on the Bill of Rights Institute ap webinar page you guys can go ahead and access that the link is somewhere in the chat but I can go ahead I’m going to post that right now for you right in the chest you guys
20:39 can go there for the resources and then also the youtube links will be posted on that page as well you can either subscribe to the Bill of Rights Institute YouTube page or you can go ahead and just keep on checking that AP prep webinar page for the resources and for the links to all the recordings all right I will see you guys tomorrow night and thank you for attending