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Entering into World War 1, the British had
the world's dominant navy.
And they used it immediately to their advantage.
You might remember from previous videos
Britain declared war on Germany
because of their invasion into Belgium
in early august of 1914.
And it was in november of 1914
that the British declare
the entire north sea area a war zone.
which essentially is telling any ship:
'come here at your own risk.'
'you might be destroyed.'
And especially 'you are not allowed...'
...'to carry any contraband.'
But they included food as a contraband
So this essentially began the blockade
of Germany and Austria-Hungary.
So this is the blockade
of the Central Powers.
This had major implications for the war.
Continued throughout the entire war,
it essentially caused the Central Powers
but especially the Germans and the Austrians
to have to ration food.
We are talking about 1,000 calories a day;
you can look at the number of calories in your Big Mac
and think about how little food that was.
and there's many estimates of what that caused.
It obviously made it very hard
for the Central Powers to get munitions and things like that
but it also made it very difficult for them to get food.
And there are estimates that this rationing,
this inability to get food,
led to malnutrition, even led to starvation
and there's estimates that this might have led to
in excess of 400,000 civilian deaths
either directly or indirectly
due to malnutrition or starvation
amongst the Central Powers.
So this was a pretty serious tactic
that was undertaken.
Now, the Germans did not have as dominant a navy.
Most of their navy was actually
focussed right off the coast of Germany,
right around there in the North Sea,
but they also wanted to disrupt trade with the British.
They recognized the British Isles were islands,
they're dependent on trade for food and supplies.
So in 1915, in February,
the Germans declared the seas around the British Isles
- this whole area -
a war zone.
So [he reads as he writes]
seas... around..
the British Isles...
similarily they declared that...
a war zone...
as well.
And because their surface fleet
was concentrated right over here,
the way that they would enforce that,
that they would try to keep people
from trading with the British Isles
is through submarine warfare.
And World War 1 is the first time
that submarine warfare becomes a significant factor.
We are talking about very primitive submarines,
vessels that could go under water and
send torpedoes into boats.
Now, thinking about that as a backdrop,
we now forward to May 1915.
In May of 1915,
you have the passenger liner R.M.S. Lusitania.
R.M.S. stands for Royal Mail Ship,
because it carried some mail. It is a big ship.
If you've ever seen the movie 'Titanic',
think of a ship like that.
It was setting sail from New York
to Liverpool in England.
It was apparently a passenger ship
but it was also carrying cargo.
The germans said 'Look, this could be...'
...'fair game for us, especially if it's carrying...'
...'munitions, especially if it's a British ship'.
And in the advertisement that was in New York
for the Lusitania, that was going to leave
on May 1st, 1915,
the German embassy actually placed an advertisement
- and this is worth reading -
they wrote: "NOTICE!"...
"Travelers intending to embark..."
"on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that..."
"a state of war exists between Germany and her allies..."
..."and Great Britain and her allies."...
..."That the zone of war includes the water adjacent to the British Isles..."
..."That in accordance with the formal notice given by the Imperial German government..."
..."vessels flying the flag of Great Britain or any of her allies..."
..."are liable to destruction in those waters...
..."and that travelers sailing in the war zone on ships of Great Britain or her allies..."
..."do so at their own risk." From the Imperial German Embassy.
This is dated April, 1915.
So that's the backdrop.
The Lusitania set sail May 1, 1915.
On May 7, 1915
it's almost reached its destination of Liverpool
- that's Liverpool right over here -
it's around 10 or 15 miles off the coast of Ireland
and right there, it encounters a German U-boat.
This right over here is a German U-boat.
And that German U-boat sends a torpedo into the Lusitania.
The torpedo rams into the ship
and then shortly after the torpedo hits
you have this huge explosion.
And this huge explosion is actually
one of those question marks of history.
Now the ship goes down
taking down with it most of its passengers.
There were 1,959 total passengers and crew
and 1,195 of them actually died.
There are other ships that went down
due to Germen U-boats,
but what was famous about this one
- at least from an American History point of view -
is that there were 128 Americans
who also died on board.
And so you can imagine
this lead to a lot of, er...
A lot of people were concerned
on the American side.
Why did this happen?
These were American civilians
and it essentially led to a a harsh reprimand
from Woodrow Wilson.
Just as a little bit of context:
once war broke out,
- and war had broken out not even a year
before the sinking of the Lusitania -
the American's position was to be neutral.
They did not want to enter into this European conflict.
With that said,
the Americans were disproportionally
trading with the Allies (not the Central Power).
They were providing supplies
and they were providing monetary support,
they were providing loans to the Allies
disproportional to the Central Powers.
So even though there was this
strong... no, formal neutrality
there was a more implicit connection
to the Allies.
So Woodrow Wilson still wants
to keep America out of the war at this point.
We are talking about May 1915.
And so he essentially just sends
a stern warning to the German Empire.
It says: "you must apologize, ..."
..."you must take action to prevent..."
..."this type of thing happening in the future."
And the German Empire actually complies.
On September 9 --
Let me write this on the timeline
So in May, you have 'Lusitania sunk'
[he reads as he writes]
And then in September
the Germans agree
to not attack passenger ships.
And so,
even though the sinking of the Lusitania
especially in American History classes
is often given as a trigger
for America's entrance into war,
America stayed neutral throughout
this entire period.
America wouldn't actually enter the war
until April 1917.
So the Lusitania was just
one of many things that happened
in the years running up to the war.
If we fast-forward a bit:
in the 1916 presidential election
where Wilson won re-election
he ran on a platform of
he kept us out of war.
So the sinking of Lusitania was a significant event.
One could argue because the Germans
did not want the US to enter
on the side of the Allies
it was why the Germans agreed
to loosen up - at least for couple of years -
on their U-boat campaigns.
As we will see, once we get to 1917,
the Germans out of desperation
start to become more aggressive
on their U-boat attacks again,
which -is- one of the catalyst that drive the US
or that the US -claim- drove them
into World War 1.
But with that said,
- just as a bit of context -
oftentimes when we look at back history,
it seems very cut-and-dried,
it seems obvious: "oh yes you know..."
"...we had to go to war" et cetera, et cetera.
I have a few quotes here
from William Jennings Bryan
who was Woodrow Wilson's Secretary of State.
A few of these are pretty telling.
This first one is from September 1914.
This is before any of the stuff happened
with Lusitania, but war had broken out
in Europe and he had this message
that he wrote to Woodrow Wilson
to advocate why
we should stay out of the war
and why there should be some type of mediation
to try to end the war
as opposed to just letting it run its course.
He wrote to Wilson:
"It is not likely that either side will win..."
"...so complete a victory..."
"...as to be able to dictate terms, ..."
"...and if either side does win..."
(and this is strangely foreshadowing)
"...such a victory, it will probably mean..."
"...preparation for another war."...
...'it would seem better to look for ..."
"...a more rational basis for peace."
The other quotes here,
this is kind of that question mark
on that second explosion.
William Jennings Bryan wrote:
"Ships carrying contraband..."
"...should be prohibited from carrying passengers..."
"... it would be like putting women and children..."
"... in front of an army."
This is one of those Big Questions Of History:
it was know that the Lusitania
was carrying light ammunition.
Now the Germans claimed it was actually
carrying heavy munitions. And to some degree
that second explosion tends
to back that up.
There are all sorts of shady things about it.
A lot of the cargo that the Lusitania was carrying
even though they claim it was perishable goods
it was not being stored
in a refrigerated part of the ship.
And so there was reason to believe
that is was actually carrying heavy munitions.
And that second explosion seems to point
in that direction as well.
Even after World War 1 the British navy
actually spent multiple times
trying to destroy the wreck of the Lusitania
some people say
in order to maybe get rid of some evidence
that it was actually carrying far more munitions
and maybe was
from the German's point-of-view
a fairer target than was actually made out.
So regardless, it's a very interesting incident
Not necessarily directly tied to
America's entrance into World War 1,
but it is one of many events
and this whole idea of blockades
and German U-boats against civilians
this was something that was a cause
of repeated concern for the Americans.