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U.S. History 1877-Present Videos 173 videos

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U.S. History 1877-Present 6: The End of Isolationism 6628 Views


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Description:

Shoot our friends, fine...but try to get Mexico to fight us? Ohoho. No way, my good sir. It's war time. And you are not gonna like it one bit. Isolationism is so  last term anyway.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:00

Thank you We sneak in Most people know that american

00:05

isolationism didn't last while if they uh know what the

00:09

word isolation isn't means Anyway just so we're clear Isolationism

00:14

is a policy in which countries don't get involved in

00:16

other countries Politics basically it's the idea that life is

00:20

best when playing alone in one's room Well the u

00:23

s had rolled like that for a while During the

00:25

first years of world war i we held out for

00:27

three years while the old world ripped itself apart But

00:31

our isolation is and just wasn't gonna last When somebody

00:34

makes a mess that big everybody gets splattered Well funnily

00:38

enough president woodrow wilson actually took america the war only

00:41

months after winning an election on the slogan he kept

00:44

us out of war Can we say false advertising there

00:48

Maybe Well technically the slogan wasn't He will continue to

00:52

keep us out of the war You got to read

00:54

the fine print people What changed woody's Mind in the

00:57

minds of most americans Well the first factor was the

00:59

german attack on a british ocean liner The lusitania Now

01:03

that sounds weird because ships were being sunk and shots

01:06

Fired all over the world at this point But the

01:08

lusitania had rial live bona fide americans on board and

01:13

you know how presidents get when their own people are

01:15

killed Ornery that's How the second factor was a sneaky

01:18

little affair in the form of an encoded telegram german

01:22

sent a secret note called the zimmerman telegram to mexico

01:26

and the germans were looking for a little more than

01:28

the world's best taco recipe although that would have been

01:30

a good idea We love because well you know german

01:34

tacos or the pits In the telegram the germans offered

01:37

an alliance against the u s if america got involved

01:40

in the war Well to sweeten the deal germany also

01:42

offered to help mexico reclaim all the territory lost in

01:45

the mexican american war Unfortunately for the germans at least

01:49

the secret note was intercepted And you know how american

01:52

presidents get when european powers try to intervene in the

01:55

americas Ornery that's How at this point germany had done

01:58

just about all the things that are guaranteed to incite

02:00

the ire of america Us claims that american intervention was

02:04

needed to make the world safe for democracy and with

02:07

that wilson sent two million americans to europe over one

02:11

hundred thousand would never return And not because it was 00:02:14.43 --> [endTime] the best euro trip ever get out

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