Why America Joined the Great War - World War I DOCUMENTARY

Kings and Generals animated historical documentary series on Modern Warfare continues with another video on the Great War, as we try to deduce the reasons why the United States of America joined World War I.

#Documentary #GreatWar #WorldWar

[expandedhistory]

Fun fact about America’s involvement in the Great War:

Although perceived as an upcoming superpower with a relatively large capable standing military, America was very underprepared when entering the war. In fact American troops had to pay the French for tanks and the British for their helmets hence why the Americans wore the “Dough Boy” helmet. It wasn’t until later that America had their logistics and equipment ready.

[samiamrg]

It is often said that there was no winner in WW1, but there actually was one winner: the USA. The rest of the Entente, though victorious, were all indebted, some had fighting on their soil, and all had huge numbers of casualties. The US, though, was the holder of most of that debt and suffered comparitively few casualties in the war. US industry also boomed during and after the war as European industry was recovering from the war.

[lisboah]

"The War would make the world safe for democracy and be a war to end all wars"

Oh the irony.

[theawesomeman]

Question: Why did America join the Allies?
Answer: America needed to ensure that the Allies were able to repay their debts to them.

[napoleonibonaparte]

“Hello, I like money.”
- US on joining the allies

[Zottyo]

Short answer: They sent a shitton of supplies to the entente, and got super surprised when germans attacked their boats.

[cedarwriter]

This is really helpful for me to understand how much more complicated and long-coming the US' involvement with WWI was. It can feel like the US joining the war was almost a knee-jerk reaction or simply something we did because that was what people wanted to do across the globe at that time. It's good to see that these things didn't just happen out of nowhere.

[guilemaigre]

I am belgian, and i have some familly history to share.
I have some great-great grandparents who manage to escape a execution peloton in the sack of Leuven by the German army.
It seemed like all of the german armies were not on the same foot when it came down to executing civilians.
The peloton of soldier who was going to shoot my forebare and their 3 childrens (one of which became my great- grandfather) held their fire because a german cavalry unit was passing by and they would apparently not do that in front them. At that moment, my great-great-grandparents took their children in their arms and ran towards the cavalry, making it impossible to shoot at them, allowing them to escape.
They ended up emigrating to Canada where some of my family still lives to this day.

[yajurka]

Well, they really showed us how to end all wars.

[Patriot]

Imagine being so wealthy, you're giving loans to multiple sovereign nations to fund a total war.

[VersusARCH]

Excellent analysis but misses an elephant in the room:

USA enterd the war because it gave hilarious war loans to the Entente, but when Russia, which was tying down millions of Central Powers' troops, began faltering in early 1917. (February Revolution) US decided to join to make sure the Entente wins so that there are no issues with repayment. Germany got wind of that and desperately started looking for useful allies - like Mexico (which was in a civil war and there were some skirmishes with US as well as US occupation of Veracruz to channel the civil war in the desired direction) and hence the Zimmerman telegram, which, once intercepted and decoded by UK served as a nice propaganda material to USA to make entry into WW1 easier with the US public (which ironically just voted Wilson president on an anti-war platform).

[luislugo]

There was a civil war in México (the mexican revolution), and the attention of the USA was at the south of its frontier. In 1914 and 1917 the USA invaded México, but the revolutionary government came to an agreement with the USA, just in time to the USA intervention in the great war. Germany unsuccsessfully intended to increase the conflict between Mexico and USA with the Zimmerman telegram.

[LetsDeuxIt]

Truly, fast becoming one of my favorite channels. Excellent content.

[bramja]

Amazingly well done video! Once again K&G has raised the bar for the quality standards of historical content on YT etc.

[Numba]

I've heard of the Lusitania and the Zimmerman Telegram, but I apparently could stand to learn more about my country's complicated involvement with WW1 for sure lol. WW1 was complicated in general. Thank you for the informative video guys!
Stay well out there everybody, and God be with you, friends. ✝️ :)

[Onodera]

Wasn't the Lusitania carrying arms?

[LuciusKane]

So, based on the comment section, I think a video covering the development and history of the Geneva Convention would be very informative. Also covering the Hague convention of 1907 to explain why the British were willing to smuggle contraband in the medical ship Lusitania and why the Germans were viewed to be in violation of it by attacking the Lusitania.

Many comments seem to not understand how these conventions helped develop our current views of the conduct of war.

[Secondndplace]

This could not have came sooner! I have an exam on this topic today! Thank you so much for this!

[garydrawsandpaints]

Not off topic but I’ve been watching just about every video and your artwork, graphic storytelling and even your motion graphic are so much better and getting stronger with each video you produce. Especially the faces and portrait “painting”…much more lifelike a not as choppy…there is always that learning curve. If there is one thing, most of the time I’m watch this on my iPad Pro and the inserted graphic boxes are hard to read. EXCELLENT channel. My favorite though. Keep the info coming!

[jamesp]

Don't forget, after the failed Gallipoli campaign, Churchill was sacked and demoted to the admiralty. His first act was to re route American shipping closer to German u boats. The Lusitania was re routed.