World War One 100th Anniversary - Encore

ms bonnie raitt veterans day ethiopia's than a commemoration world war one i'm j mcintyre veterans day november eleventh originally began as armistice day the day marking the end of world war one thousand seventeen is the one hundred anniversary of america's entry into the grid war on today's program we'll look back at the national centennial commemoration at the world war one museum and memorial in kansas city held in april two thousand and seventeen but first a quick overview of some veterans day activities indicate your listening area the city of lawrence is hosting its first veterans day parade in almost fifty years veterans and their families are invited to walk the parade route or ride on a float beginning at one o'clock this saturday november eleventh to peak is hosting us so when our heroes festival downtown all day on november eleventh and then nassau world war

one museum in kansas city have our full slate of activities planned this week the public is invited to their veteran's day ceremony the unveiling of the new limestone entrance to the museum and memorial and a new exhibit images of the great war america crosses the atlantic features images painted and sketched by artist american british french and german some soldiers some professional artists in addition a special exhibit will be on display this weekend hope twenty too dark to light is a photography exhibit to raise awareness of the nation's suicide epidemic among veterans you can find out more at their website the world war dot org two thousand seventeen marks the one hundred year since the united states entered world war wind in april kansas city hosted then national commemoration of the war thousands of visitors

gathered at the national world war one museum and memorial to mark the occasion which featured music canon fire dignitaries from around the world and a dramatic narration of the events leading up to america's declaration of war on today's k pr present we've got highlights from that ceremony plus an interview with military historian and university of kansas history professor jennifer weber well all such were some world where one sites right here on a k u campus today's programme was originally broadcast on april nine two thousand seventy day started with a fly over from the hhs in a french care for especially mainstream stuff red white ninety six years ago the allied commanders from the nation's of

france italy belgium and the united kingdom and the united states to work together with the crowd that filled the park they train to dedicate this land as a place of remembrance also a memory dr matthew naylor is the president and ceo of the national world war one museum and memorial i did so at the invitation of the people of kansas city who just two years before responded to the wars and by committing themselves to build a memorial to honor the lord did and as a tribute for peace in just ten days in early nineteen nineteen eighty three thousand people in this community raised two and a half million dollars almost forty million dollars in today's terms on these grounds in nineteen twenty six stood president calvin coolidge to dedicate the memorial with crowds filling this small he spoke of the memorials purpose

as having been built in memory of those who defended their homes and their freedoms as not having been raised to commemorate war and victory but rather the results of warren victory which are embodied in peace and liberty and so it is fitting that on behalf of the board of our staff and volunteers and the donors who support this world class museum and memorial i will continue to the place where for the past ninety one he is people from across the globe have come to learn and remember sixty five million people served in the war each year more than five hundred thousand people remember than here above the great freeze of the northside of the memorial account by a veteran of world war one these words in stunned that express well beginnings of awful beers who dreamed of this place and who had

stuart at it through the years they may echoed truths to us today these have gay bit torches of sacrifice and service they bodies return to dust but they work live or for evermore let us strive on to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace amongst ourselves and we've all nations ladies and gentlemen we are glad to welcome you here today to one of the world's great museums and memorials actor matthew naylor is the president and ceo of the national world war one museum and memorial commissioner colonel robert alessandro is the chair of the us world where one centennial the united states entered the war on april six nineteen seventy the decision was not an easy one and as you'll see in this ceremony

america and to bring liberty democracy and peace to the world after almost three years of unprecedented partially of strife and horror during the war ii americas saw dramatic changes in technology in medicine in civil rights and women's suffrage our soldiers begin the war on horseback and their preference employment armored vehicles and airplanes the brave men and women who served in world war one would be come the parents of the greatest generation that would lead the world to liberty and peas for over thirty years and later would lead to years or more apiece world war one market true beginning of the american century today on april six twenty seventeen one hundred years

hence we assemble in the shadow of this great memorial to hear the voices and relive the human experience but more than any other in modern history fundamentally changed our nation helped define our national culture and establish the world that we live in today we still live in the long shadow of world war one in every aspect of our lives are on humans here today is a cross section of america it includes serving military members and veterans of the military service members of organizations and military units that can trace their origins back to world war one veterans service organizations such as the veterans of foreign wars american legion the military order of the world wars and thousands of our nation's citizens who have come to pay honor to their fellow citizens one hundred years ago

i thank each of you for being here today i also welcome and want to thank the international dignitaries are some thirty nations to join us here to our audience gathered here today and to all those watching us from afar we thank you for taking this time to learn about and reflect on the history of war won and the united states' involvement in that war and to honor the sacrifice and service of those americans who served thank you god bless the united states as an entire day on tv are present we mark the one hundred anniversary of america's entry into world war one a national centennial commemoration at the world war one museum and memorial told

the story of the events leading up to april sixth nineteen seventeen a story that begins with the outbreak of war in europe in nineteen fourteen and is at the heart of the nineteen sixteen american presidential election wilson running for a second term built his candidacy around the idea that america ought to prepare for the possibility of war yet his campaign slogans he kept us out of war and america first persuaded the american public that a vote for the republican candidate charles evans hughes would be a vote for war while many embrace the slogans others criticize them teddy roosevelt they got that on a walk and actually out of a law has been reading mira and we face it without cars a plan that was our preparation in september nineteen sixteen wilson accepted the democratic

nomination for president we had been neutral not only because it was that the extension to small policy of the united states to stand a loaf from the politics of europe but also because it was manifestly our duty to prevent the indefinite extension of the fires of hate and desolation candle by that terrible conflict and jessica served mankind by reasserting our strength and our resources or the difficult days of restoration and healing when peaceful have to build a house and you the debate reach every corner of american society american author bullard who had lived in wartime france and england wrote in early nineteen seventeen whatever the diplomats may like to call it this is war we do not know how to fight we have no american general whoever commanded an army corps not one of our naval officers ever fought against the dreadnought none of artillery man never fired a real shot an enemy

aircraft we must learn or is upon us and we must decide what we're going to do about it we love peace up to keep out a war as long as possible and when we are forced to go and going argh the outcome of the nineteen sixteen election reflected divisions in the country winning by a slim electoral college margin wilson second term would soon face a series of crises that would determine the fate of its neutral position in the war while debate raged in america continued in europe rapid advances in the technology of weapons of war led to vast devastation for the first time in history the battlefield saw the use of tanks chemical weapons machine guns long range artillery and aircraft sixty five million men fought in the war from forty countries twenty one million were wounded eight million died

roughly three thousand every day six and a half million civilians were killed including two million and russia alone one hundred and ten thousand tons of poison gas was used killing of nearly half a million men in europe alone approximately ten million people were displaced by the war including one point a armenians forcibly deported to the syrian desert one point five million belgians were refugees from the germans and the battle of song far between july and november of nineteen sixty one point two million men perished for a meager allied gain of seven point eight miles of territory not long after the election of nineteen sixteen events what unfolded a rapid pace and to the united states reached a tipping point or isolationism could no longer be an option january nineteen nineteen seventeen arthur zimmerman foreign secretary of the german empire sent a telegram to the german ambassador to mexico proposing an alliance between germany and mexico in the event of us entry into

the war we intend to begin on the first of february unrestricted submarine warfare we shall endeavor inspires of this to keep the united states of america neutral in the event of this not succeeding we make mexico a proposal of alliance make war together they could piece together and an understanding that mexico is to re conquer the lost territory in texas new mexico and arizona you will inform the president of the above as soon as the outbreak of war with the united states of america is certain the british admiralty which had cracked the german diplomatic cipher system cindy coated the message within hours seeking to influence the american government the british provided the americans a copy of the telegram on the twenty eight of february president will soon release a

telegram to the press the appearance of the news nationwide on march first galvanized american support for entry into the war january thirty first nineteen seventeen robert lansing secretary of state received a note from the german ambassador to the united states a new situation has been created which forces germany to new decisions england is using one ever bought four criminal attempt to force germany into submission by starvation from february first nineteen seventeen see traffic would be stopped with every available weapon and without further notice this message from the german ambassador directly contravene the german guarantee to wilson that ended unrestricted submarine warfare following the sinking of the lusitania and nineteen fifteen coupled with the zimmerman telegram germany's renewed aggression decisively changed americans' attitudes

about the war on february third nineteen seventeen the united states formally end the diplomatic relations with imperial germany on february twenty fifth nineteen seventeen a canard line ship laconia was struck by german tippy toes floyd givens an american correspondent for the chicago tribune was on board and live to describe the scene at ten thirty pm there was a muffled noise five sharp last a signal to abandon we look down the slanting side of the ship and noticed her water line was a number of feet above the waves the lifeboats rested against the side of the ship i could see they were going to have difficulty in the dissent to the water or away someone gave the order and we started down toward the seemingly hungry swells the stern of the boat was down the bow up leaving us at an angle of about forty five degrees that years of lights dimmed to slowly from white to yellow

then to read and nothing was left but the murky morning of the night the ship sank rapidly at the stern until at last it snows stood straight in the air and it slid silently down and outside march twenty wilson confers with his cabinet they unanimously vote for war on the evening of april the second nineteen seventeen president willson addresses a joint session of congress asking for a declaration of war while we do these momentous things let us make clear to all the world what our motives are object now as then is to vindicate the principles of peace and justice as again selfish and offered credit hour neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable or the peace of the world is involved in the freedom of its principles and the menace to that peace and freedom lies in the existence of

autocratic governments we have seen the last of neutrality we're at the beginning of an age in which it will be insisted that the same standards of conduct at a responsibility for wrong don selby observed among nations and their government's letter observed among the individual citizens of symbolize state so congress rose to its feet and applauded enthusiastically cheering crowds lined the streets as wilson departed from the capital does offer byron farwell wrote it was the greatest speech of wilson's life at about ten o'clock and the president have returned to the white house he and his wife had dinner with friends after which wilson wandered into the empty cabinet room his secretary joseph tumulty phantom there think what they were applauding the sector tumulty my message today was a message of death for young men the stranger seems to applaud that it led his head down on the table in the cabinet room and

sobbed still in the face of aggression there were voices of opposition arkansas senator george norris glittering see would benefit only the class of people who will be made prosperous should we become entangled in this present war who have already made millions and who will make hundreds of millions more and we get into the war joe who does the war bring prosperity not to the soldier not to the broken hearted widow not to the mother who weeps at the death of her brave boy i feel that we are about to put a dollar sign on the american flag the senate passed the war resolution with only three republicans and three democrats opposed the house voted three hundred and seventy three for with fifty opposed the improved declaration of war was sent to president wilson on april six nineteen seventeen at one pm that day he signed approved six april

nineteen seventeen woodrow shed shed chuang chuang shashank shang shed i have a rendezvous with death of some disputed barricade when spring comes back with wrestling shade and apple blossom so the air i have a rendezvous with death when spring brings back blue days and fair it may be a he shall take my

hand and lead me into his darker land and close my eyes and quench my breath it may be i shall pass and still i have a rendezvous with death from some scarred slope a battered hill when spring comes around again this year and the first metal flowers appear god knows for better to be deep pillowed in silk and sent it down where love throbs out in blissful sleep polls night to polls and brass to brass were hushed awakenings our dear a rendezvous with death at midnight in some flaming town when spring trips north again this year and i to my pledge to work and true i shall not

fail that in ai he's been

on this is by roosevelt play by sergeant joyce kilmer in a word they called the ruse broke hey there is a new made grave today built by never a state nor peck yet covered with earth ten meters thick air by many fighting man dead in their youthful prime never to laugh because love again tastes the summertime for death came flying through the air and start his flight at the dugout stare and touched his prey and left them there clay to clay he hid their bodies stealthily in the soil of the land they fought to free and fled away now over the grave abrupt and clear three volleys

of rain and perhaps they're brave young spirits here that bugle saying go to sleep go to sleep use movie news mm leave you're listening to k pr presents on kansas public radio i'm j mcintyre today on k pierre presents we're marking the one hundred anniversary of america's entry into world war one with highlights from the national centennial commemoration at the world war one museum and memorial in kansas city and

now voices from abroad ambassadors from australia austria belgium france and england react to america's declaration of war on april six nineteen seventeen americans travelling all over the wall we are to die so far from having won a y at the mouth or into the qom smooth the waters a place in the very vortex of his awful fury the sydney morning herald reported six the vital nineteen seventy there is nothing in the history of wall of more remarkable and the enthusiasm with which the american people have received the president's advice to declare themselves at war with germany and astronomer at the frontline private james joyce's macon right to his mother and father i suppose you're following all the latest operations with much interest and who should be exceptionally

glad america does come in a blast from a diplomatic message sent by comparable kutcher named foreign minister of the austro hungarian empire in your reaction to the us declaration of what to germany since the united states of america has declared that the state of war exists between its anti hero the german government austria hungary as an ally off the german empire has decided to break off diplomatic relations with the united states anti imperial and royal embassy of washington has been instructed to inform the department of state without effect on december seven nineteen seventeen the us declared war on austria hungary and although there have hardly been any actual hostilities between the two countries america's entry into the war and it's such a current diplomacy contributed greatly to austria hungary steve nice belgian prime minister and minister of war

shattered the probe they send the following message by cables to president wilson the belgian government decided you know there's ninety four team to make them on president or that vacation to your nixon and see our people small in number but strong in indomitable purpose had foreseen but in the american people and he knew it would find support for its owner and an outstanding are void says mark the belgian government somewhat sweet joy emotion a respectful a mission besides if i that's so the intermediary of your excellency on the us the man the nation and you might prime minister david lloyd george the american kid all six of april nineteen seventeen america has at one bound become a world

power in a sense she never was before she waited until she found it causes worthy of our traditions the american people held back until they were fully convinced that the fight was not a sort of scrimmage for power and possessions but an unselfish struggle to overthrow a sinister conspiracy against him and liberty and human rights once that conviction was reached the great republican of the west has leaked into the arena as she stands knew side by side with the european democracy is too bruised and bleeding after three years of grim conflict are still fighting the most savage vote that have a menace the freedom of the world the apparel war cabinet representative of all the peoples of the british empire which may on their behalf to recognize the chivalry and courage was called

people of the united states to dedicate the whole road there is all says to the greatest goals that every day's human endeavor on a grilled fifth nineteen seventeen the french president of the council of ministers and addressing the french senate what particularly touches us is that the us has always kept alive that friendship towards the us which was sealed with our bird wilco the nightly joy that the us like it's going to float beside hours our head straw joy and our hearts shore beach in unison the powerful indecisive assistance we should us brings us we'd be not to not get your maiden org beach would be more capable of all the vatican or conservation as we see the conscience of the old world still in my to protest against the

atrocities of which we are victims we feel that we are fighting not only an old for ourselves and our allies but for something immortal that west fighting to establish big new order and so i was sacrifices but not being insane the red bullets allen so generously by the songs of friends i've been shed in order to spread the deftly injustice which are necessary for the establishment of concord a moment nations in the name of france in the name of the government of the french republic we address to the government and the people that the united states an expression of firework executes and i were most ardent critics thank

you cannon fire from the national world war one centennial held april six two thousand seventeen at the national world war one museum and memorial in kansas city and j mcintyre you're listening to kbr presents on kansas public radio the united states entered the war on april six nineteen seventeen and its effects would be felt in almost every american institution including the university of kansas mike reed is the former director of public affairs at k u verse announcement about when they were born into is dr fitz simon to is the first casualty of the war from the united states music a grad to kumin goes degree in that stretch him was kind of sad and he actually did not have a shift that night and he was killed he traded with somebody else

and so he was working on the other one was having fun that night and so to get a trade with you even which are some guilt about of leaders from i read them but it was just happenstance that he had to be in the wrong place he was at a medical facility and it was bombed mr dey what are some of the other cave connections actually has a lot of connections and more than i ever knew before a stern look into more of course i work here at they go to you know more unions and we are a memorial to all assumed someone had died during the war that have thirty people that didn't die from team and not only that is a union memorial with a moral stadium is a memorial tells soldiers died during world war ii and there was a big million dollar driving called back in nineteen ninety as word began to build three different morals on campus to tour one another to the first denied

launching a grain that's the statue at my live in kabul anyway given his work or two memorial and the stadium and then the universe you learn from the stadium in the union that maybe buildings are the best way to have a memorial because people don't remember that's what they are and we still have it in a main city more union and we still call them or stay in that people forget what it really is more to sow the campaign he was the first one that was built only to be a moron not have any building purpose or any other purpose on campus but more i looked into it there's a lot more sites and so many sites that we could make people walk over these various every day and don't realize all the other things that went on them including strong hall frank strong who's a chance for a time he was a pacifist and really did not won a game into the war and he thought that a chorus that europe was undergoing are finding that he was he spoke

out against the us entering the war but the day that we declared war on he turned one ad and through the whole resources of campus into the war effort one to be fair a lot of americans didn't want to get involved in world war one pastor and he wasn't yelling and he worked but he was really vocal about it or talk to people in washington you know talked against a warrant and would write other things were speaking and akins entering the war but to spread it we begin a volunteer really got behind it and i really was to the detriment to the university to do so but they sacrificed her just like all other people do them because of the work for kids can take a look at some of the spots on campus up for the king's issuing an object of art and this is right adjacent to our times derek are we triple the tradition star and right now so we

have two different history and described to use participation in both world war one and we're going to answer like different ways of people to participate there to students would do drills on their own merit and under the guise of factly they're required to do so both calisthenics and then send the firearms training although it was a guns and then we also know that a military man and then they start having classes just for them and largely took or the campus really been down in the tower itself and we have some all pictures of all the casualties from k you were in world war one there's a hundred twenty nine on the sport i believe i think nelly thirty and still find one more picture so what can you tell me about that drive to raise money for these two facilities well there was a

big and everybody got pollsters that this that unfortunately most of the race the first few weeks of the drive and they didn't get all those pledges which figures probably not the perils of thunder and six and eighty four thousand and the bad part about it from the union's point of view audience when the community members of our community they build a stadium first family didn't have enough money to building some analytics years and so they start construction unions were plainly a cornerstone twenties nineteen twenty five with the building wasn't complete until nineteen thirty eight so like many times in universities history if you could make the argument that athletics maybe take precedence earlier you said that it's an especially to know about memorial stadium

that's the space to use a new stadium and you see right now most that whole space and space on the practice field is that there were all taken up during the war we're a barracks for soldiers and forty years to arming the upcoming student training corps and this whole space almost that there must have been ten different barracks billowing down to eleventh street this way it's most people don't realize that certain other person even a moral staying during world war two and then we ran out of passing as leaders it's a place to live it has to be used the apartments are going into the basement charts restrooms everything was in there and another bookstore here used to use those for stores for these campers the area they use that

this was taken up with barrett says now the practice field lead the east side the brightest you in the parking lot into the street at the time moore of state of course wasn't there but could feel is what they call the air even in the football field ran the opposite direction than sanders says war is over within months they had a model the center of it and so what a fitting tribute that memorial stadium should stand up or down on the fourth floor main lobby there's a plaque here could you read for me like an anti mr agassi says kansas more union doing like the memory of the one hundred and twenty nine students alumni the universe the kansas gave their lives in service in the world war and it was presented by the classic nineteen twenty four so it's a large bronze

probably weighs about fifty pounds or so and it's right to stick dr barry that's right at the top of the staircase we've called and traditions where we go there's a story behind the spike that it recently them plaque was only here outside of the union at the main entrance and then we did a renovation back in the early nineties so the building and so we have to take the act than simply to build a column baker later that down and then they built a column in there and everybody forgot that they had taken that plaque and nobody realized that was missing but it did get stolen from the site and about four years ago i received a phone call from somebody and illinois discover this plaque in a fraternity house at the university of illinois and wondered if i wanted the black and we were all kind of surprise cause in a way never be a fight at all it really went to jail for eurostar looking through pictures i did find a plaque on the from the building luckily the woman offered her and her brother brenda platt back home to carry you and their power even

indoors where we can see it all the time i know it still carries the frat boys did you ever hear the story who exactly to get and how it ended up on a wire winner i looked at football schedules try to see the world that we play at university of illinois during that timeframe in some of those guys are here or if i can find any connections university illinois here's why it happened how i got out there there must be a great story that you're probably in the industry for the current system where the venture outside walking towards persons in congo passes with a couple that little bottles with these big arena law school and that's where they had the sign of the enrollment for the army service to drink or when they had that ancestor and more in the line formed or a cough and eight the

line went away with a couple down here to the thirteenth street area that some races are innocent and sign people waiting to left yes it's part of the way that they were that here but this is when the war they are not the nsa this area here it's a place where we're walking i did a lot of their drills march up and down this area there were invented a call right now and they would do their acts can never things looked a lot different than those days and i don't think we had any paved roads through here there's a lot more grass in this area so this is where we get a lot of the girls barbara laker use the hills on that in the drills and around the lake had all these courses i added to cain's just for military training what riggs building telephony lot of engineering

courses that we're going to work for her as we succeed at first year just for that purpose or had at least forty five documents left the campus to join the war for different parts of my favorite james naismith years when he went to serve in france there were five hundred and some students the first semester left here before me is in april they declared war and before commencement five and order left either to join up or go back home working full so right away we were just mean what's any old green hall now think how tall how did that figure into this is one of the main places a use for that court that almost every building had some military headquarters within a dimension of knowing anything statutes right here that weren't so when a world war one are moral number likely will do you say

east boston in that statute the chester french who did sitting like a preventive service with that and where my son is nineteen oh five when he was discovered here in this building and natural gas katie in an arbiter of tuna scientists have discovered he now that audience is in this building for many years low to anne cady do some work more work on more worrying than the government and they hire katie to do more testing with him because i knew that it could be something which was to fire for using her poems and the germans

are really using a lot of iranians for spying and checking out the oceans things like that so they were china has and i think maybe is to believe that they were working on their here because the germans to get the idea that extract but it really is starting to process and that the gamut really concerned you don't want to or to the visitor's room whistles into space their barracks built there too and not only did the army corps people live in these barracks and across the street were astronomers are as well the national league is a

national park all right stay on campus in that area so there are a lot of forces there just may actually for their train to making they just got out of nowhere they were all down mexican border fighting champion so it really ended long cotton service in the back of the four straight games so we're going to get the university in terms of i mean students were here i'm interested during drills in six male female vocal there are some we got to get out of some of those rules but the neighbor is played

by making their wages and things like that over and over triple the rent under the red cross is making ventures someone living things like socks and things like that to go overseas and so there's always something so you were just you were flapping down and schools years that's closed at the time people the scene like they quit caring about their normal activities and that a lot of activists by our neighbors were dances like they used to we canceled says joe was also canada's hundred because they had to put his family's worker and could not keep a part time jobs as a green canister that kind of horse an intruder drills so the student's really got mortgages after the first year that

it was not the campus like that we normally think of mike reed is the former director of public affairs for kaye used memorial union you can find out more about hey you and world war one at daddy daddy daddy you that hey you history dot com or on facebook under k u history i'm j mcintyre you're listening to kbr presents on kansas public radio kbr come from the free state brewery offering call ahead seating and large group reservations at seventy five eight four three forty five fifty five located six thirty six massachusetts and lawrence are on the web and free state brewing dot com for the rest of this hour a conversation with dr jennifer weber sees a military historian and professor of history at yale i stop by her office earlier this week to talk about the events leading up to america's decision to join in world war one one hundred years ago the year before in march of nineteen sixteen the united states had

come to an agreement with the germans that germans would not torpedo shipping that belonged to neutral countries so in this case specifically the united states and if they were going to sink a ship they had to determine whether there were weapons on board before hand and they had to give the people onboard time to get off the ship then they could sink the ship this held for eleven months and in february nineteen seventeen the germans just decided that they could not continue to ignore neutral shipping and then started torpedoing neutral ships once again that merchant ships and that led to a lot of deaths of people who were not active participants in the war they were civilians that was one problem the bigger

problem though was something called the zimmerman telegram this it was something that the british had intercepted and decoded in january of nineteen seventeen but did not give to the americans until the end of february and what it was was a telegram going from the germans to the mexicans suggesting that they join forces that mexicans joined forces with the germans and promising that if slash when germany won the war as a reward to its mexican allies it would give them the states of texas new mexico and arizona and together om that compost about half the amount of land that the united states had one for mexico in the mexican war in the eighteen

forty is that the united states considered an act of war and died drew is what drove congress to meet in april of nineteen seventeen and to declare war on the germans professor weber i've heard you say bad world war one was really a pivotal point in terms of modern history explain that to me it is difficult to imagine what the twentieth century would have looked like without world war one because without world war one you don't get world war two without world war one you don't have the collapse of every empire south of the baltic and east of the rind armed those all go away think about the consequences for the united states if there had been no soviet union no soviet union no cold war would that have looked like

i don't know but it is so it's huge and so important it sets off the independence movements ian so many colonies of france and england and the dutch it's i i believe it isn't the winch ten event of the twentieth century and i think it may be one of the most important events in human has rhee you touched on something to spare that this really meant that end of imperial europe that we went into world war one way of the british monarchy which still exists of course the russian monarchy the austro hungarian monarchy and all of those would essentially collapsed with the exception of great britain owners would collapse by the end of world war one i didn't see that coming

know in utica germans all the german monarchy also collapsed know nobody saw that coming and this is the thing about war generally we're sorry easy to get into and very very hard to get out of and they always have unintended consequences no sane person would go into a war like world war one expecting to lose and expecting a loss to be so profound that their entire system of government that they have had for in some cases hundreds of years word just and just collapse under its own weight nobody expected that at the outset people thought this was going to be a shore war home by christmas yet and that wars were rarely

turned out that way one of the unintended consequences of world war one had to do not at all with the war but with the spread of disease talk to me about their influenza epidemic of nineteen seventeen well this actually begins as far as we can tell at fort riley for riley hearing kansas absolutely somebody brings it in probably sperm some farm it makes its way around fort riley in fort riley was one of the main training grounds for the american army sue you get these dope boys coming down with the flu and they're shipped out anyway and they take the germs with them they're shipped out sick they're shipped out sick and they take their terms with them now they get to europe they're in contact with civilians they're in contact with these armies a hamlet think about this that by the time the

americans have arrived the europeans have been you know throwing everything they have at each other for three years you have a very vulnerable population and here comes a very virulent disease and this becomes a global epidemic that lasts well into nineteen nineteen in actually comes back to the united states be at the returning soldiers armed service alters carry it twice over but it is a horrible disease and at least as many people die of spanish influence others died in the war that or what are your co teach a class on world war one here at the university of kansas what you hope that students learn from that class but the main thing i

want them to take away our the idea is that war is easy to get into and very hard to get out of that and that war has an anticipated consequences i think course some of the students they may go on to become politicians and office holders and they may one day be presented with having to make decisions of that kind and i really want them to think hard really hard about whether this is a war worth fighting and whether they are open to the unanticipated consequences i think some wars are worth fighting i think a lot of wars are not entered the top of that list of wars that were not worth fighting is world war one it began over the assassination of not major figure shall we say

in europe and because of the treaty system that the european powers had erected in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries just brought them all into something that turned out to be horribly violent horribly costly in terms of both the financial aspect and in human blood that should never have happened world war wind is an absolute tragedy it is a tragedy and i would hope that are thinking about the events of world war one would make as a little wiser and compel us to pause a bit before we decide to go into war dr jennifer weber is a military historian and professor at the university of kansas i'm j

mcintyre kbr present is a production of kansas public radio and from all of us like a pr happy veterans day