WWI from the American Perspective – Historian Reacts



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50 thoughts on “WWI from the American Perspective – Historian Reacts”

  1. 18:45 I always thing that one of the stupid things of USA entering the war was the Zimmerman telegram… at the time Mexico had a wild ride, the Revolution started, then a counter revolution was orchestrated, then another revolution was called to finish the counter revolution of the revolution and then everyone does plans because nobody likes what the revolution has become…

    It's a miracle that Mexico is still a thing even after that period of time 🤣

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  2. During WWII, the Swiss took neutrality to proper extremes. They compelled Hitler to allow Swiss machine parts to travel through his lines to Britain. If he didn't do it, he would never get Swiss parts again. Wilson could easily have done the same, sending food to Germany under threat of embargo for Entente interference, but he didn't.
    It's interesting how the British never let a little thing like neutrality get in the way of winning wars. They interrupt American shipping, Invade Greece and other neutral countries to win. In WWII, they invade Iceland, and are in the process on invading neutral Norway when the Germans beat them to it. They sink erstwhile ally France's navy and invade their territories. It's hard to be neutral around the British empire during wartime.

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  3. woke up early today and it's a great morning. First seeing armchair historian will WW1 video than seeing you did a reaction. watch ACH first and when I some Wilson's pic In the back I knew VTH would day something lol

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  4. Blockade is economic sanctions. Economic sanctions kill civilians. That is war without going to the battlefield. Neutrality and Peace are laughable when you are involved in such activities. What was this war about? Who owns Serbia ( sarcasm)

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  5. Wilson was still wrong in the end to not declare War outright. Congress did the right thing. If only future Congresses would do the right thing and declare war outright. A shame that we follow Wilson's example. Ironically, declaring formal wars would see less war in the world. ( Last part is my belief)

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  6. During the 4 years of the First World War, 75% of the front in the West had been held by the French, who had won the greatest battles of this war, such as the carnage of VERDUN, in 1916. In 10 months, about a million losses on the German and French sides. Most of North American public believes that the US won this war,, when their small participation for barely a year in 1917, while useful, was primarily caused by German torpedoing of US ships in the Atlantic Ocean, and had been almost anecdotal, compared to the gigantic French sacrifice in 4 years,1914/1918. 1.4 million soldiers killed, 4.5 million injured. For a population of 40 million. Entire generations. German population in 1914 and 1940, 70 million, was almost twice the French population. Not to mention the enormous civilian casualties and destructions. While US casualties hadn't even been 120,000, half from disease. Not even 2 months of Verdun losses. And in 1918, all Allied troops, including US, were under French high command.

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  7. Some American army units still have insignia that contain a blue french ww1 helmet to commemorate the time they were folded into french forces.

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  8. 6:53 And also he "earned" the Medal of Honor in a battle in which the US forces didn't precisely distinguish themselves in a good manner, as they suffered thousands of casualties trying to seize a hill that was defended by 120 Spanish soldiers with 4 cannons, only managing to take the ground when the Spanish forces ran out of ammunition. He did fight honorably that day, though honor isn't a match for bolt-action rifles and breech-loading field cannons. The US did win the war, but in land the Spanish forces that were defending Cuba fought very bravely as well, and were both well armed (using the Mauser C93, originally from Germany but produced in Spain under license, it got nicknamed "Spanish Mauser" and saw action until the 1940s) and led by a great general called Valeriano Weyler, whom had a lot of combat experience, and would go on to become the Spanish chief of staff during WW1, during which he was staunchly pro-German (the king had "conflicting loyalties" as his mother was Austrian but his wife was English) and there is a photo of him wearing a German pickelhaube. As a fun sidenote, he was also a military historian (and military theorist) and became a member of the Royal Spanish Academy of History. Though, in a way, Roosevelt was lucky because Weyler got to lead the Spanish forces in Cuba because the even more experienced general Arsenio Martínez Campos had retired in 1896 (and died in 1900). Martínez Campos had fought in the Spanish-Moroccan war of 1860, the Franco-Spanish expedition against Mexico, and is most famous because he gave a coup in 1874 that saw the Borbon dynasty restored to the Spanish throne under king Alphonse XII, after which Martínez Campos became "the sword" of the new monarch, being sent to militarily defeat the carlists (reactionaries supporting a side branch of the Borbons, they waged and lost three wars against the Spanish governments), the regionalists that had declared independence of several Spanish provinces and rebels on Cuba and Philippines. He was also behind the Spanish army reforms in the 1870s and 1880s that modernised the army on both equipment (breech-loading artillery, bolt-action rifles and the like) and doctrine (taking the recent military experiences onto account). Alphonse XII himself had studied on the British Sandhurst Academy and was well-versed on modern military theories, but he was more of a diplomat than a warrior, earning the nickname of "the Peacemaker" (el Pacificador) as what he did was to have Martínez Campos defeat the enemy forces on a key decisive engagement and then inmediately propose a peace deal. He was a good king, probably too nice for his own good, as he died due to illness after having visited a field hospital he had established to deal with an epidemic in Aranjuez (a town near Madrid in which the Spanish kings had their summer residence, he converted that residence onto a field hospital). His son hadn't even been born at the time Alphonse XII died, his wife being pregnant of the posthumous Alphonse XIII, whom was a far worse king (and his mismanagement was in a way one of the causes behind the Spanish civil war, as the population became more polarised). Alphonse XIII did, however, share the diplomatic ideals of his father, and Spain tried to negotiate a peace in 1914 to no avail. They did manage to get systems for transfer of prisioners and helped to expand the Red Cross giving them both resources and diplomatic leverage. At the end, Spain was strictly neutral during WW1 due to having good relations with both sides, though some Spanish merchant ships were sunk by U-Boats (after the war, Germany agreed to give Spain several German ships as "payment" to compensate for the losses, one of them was retrofitted into a light carrier called "Dédalo").

    Greetings from Spain.

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  9. Here is a fun fact acbout W.W. After the WWI, Slovaks were so thankfull to Wilson, that we almost named our capital Wilsonov (current day Bratislava) which means something like Wilson City or City of Wilson. We appreciated that he supported the right for the self-determination of the nations of the former AHE. I understand you do not like him, but in this part of Europe we kinda hold him on a high ground, but most of the people here does not know about his US politics and racism etc.

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  10. I just got done watching the Great War's channel on Why Did the First World War Break Out where they talk about the July crisis posted a few months ago. Would love to see your reaction to that! The channel hasn't been the same without Indy these few years, but still a pretty good video

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  11. i know you get these comments a lot, but thank you for going in depth on topics and adding your knowledge to it! i love learning about american history and you help a ton

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  12. "Retreat Hell we just got here"

    That is the Motto of the 2nd Battalion/5th Marine Regiment of the 1st Marine Division those boys were legendary in WW1 and the Nickname Devil Dog was Deserved nickname for the Marines who fought in WW1 Oorah And Semper Fi for the Marine Corps

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  13. The thing about Washington's statement about staying out of foreign affairs may have worked in the 18th century but it doesn't work so well in the 20th and 21st century when the world is so connected.

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  14. OK, I love your videos and all but you make it sound far simpler than it was when it comes to the, let's call it, partial neutrality. Part of the reason that the US was so willing to "bow" to the British demands was that it was a very, very lucrative deal that the US had. They were not losing money, they were making loads and loads of money. You probably know it already, but anyone can check the amount of exports and money made from sales to Europe or the UK in particular before and during the war. I don't blame the USA for acting in its best interests. It's just a bit more complicated than you and the armchair historian make it sound like.

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  15. Love how in the USA, whoever we’re in war with some country, if there are some immigrants from that country, cue discrimination, hate crime, violence, etc.

    Oh and /sarcasm off

    It is gonna SUCK when China and the US go into war

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