The Election That Ruined Everything (And If It Never Happened)

[Music] [Music] woodrow wilson changed everything no wait don't click off he really did we seem to have this idea that the more famous presidents are only so famous because they were the most influential for good or bad but there have been a few cases simply due to the span of time some presidential legacies sort of just get swept under the rug forgotten by the public with most never knowing the good or as we'll eventually get into the really really bad james k polk as an example is one of the least thought of presidents alongside good old john tyler or martin van buren but polk was actually incredibly influential being the main politician behind annexing texas going to war with mexico and taking half of its land under manifest destiny but it was the 1840s so who cares now woodrow wilson got the same treatment too to the common public he's really just remembered for world war one and those 14 points you had to study in high school but then nothing more in reality woodrow wilson was not just one of the most influential presidents in us history his policies and strange philosophies defined the 20th century and the international problems we face today more defining than fdr kennedy or reagan wilson the soft-spoken princeton university president who won the election on a fluke ended up causing every single event after world war one i think cipher the cynical historian puts it the best there is a new party which is difficult to carry her eyes son and hopefully by the end of our time together you dear viewer have had that same reaction too i want to imagine an alternate timeline a thought experiment if you will one where woodrow wilson never became president of the united states never sat in office and one of the most important crossroads in american history i don't want to talk about literally every single thing wilson has done right now but before we learn about his policies well let's learn about the man [Music] i think this guy is the worst president in u.s history seriously he left the country far worse than he found it and his pernicious positions and policies perpetually pollute our politics to the present see what i did there oh boy now we've got him started oh i could go on and on but to cut it short woodrow wilson instilled a new form of imperialism called wilsonian interventionism that the us continues he segregated the federal government helped foster the second kkk through his historian credentials expanded the executive branch's powers to tyrannical proportions and soured relations with several emerging nations all in all someone the world was probably better off without that's a good way of putting that woodrow wilson was defined by his childhood his father was a presbyterian minister who moved to the south in the years leading up to the civil war when the war eventually came young wilson saw the destruction of the war saw the south destroyed by its own rebellion but also the north invading and crushing all resistance so growing up in the reconstructed south wilson had a chip on his shoulder he wasn't pro-confederate secession more like sympathetic to the southern cause young wilson despised how the reconstruction was in his mind forced upon a war-ravaged south how black senators were now in office because of northern policies oh no this shaped him into his eventual career as a historian which if you want to know more about in detail cypher has his writings and papers covered in these videos the main thing that wilson subscribed to when looking back on the civil war was that good old-fashioned lost cause mentality the idea that secession wasn't over simply slavery but also over taxes and states rights it wasn't just an opinion that the general public had it was an actual movement that was influenced by historians with you know sympathies wilson wasn't just influenced by lost cause revisionism he was one of the main forces behind it but even with his experience with the war and reconstruction he understood why the south lost and how secession was the wrong choice as he matured his philosophy on the united states began to change he embraced the idea that the us was the true shining city on a hill god ordained nation with the truest civilized creation democracy wilson was a very religious man this influenced his very philosophy on the world and america's place in it he had a very my way or highway approach if you disagreed with his opinions even if it was hey i'm chinese i think i know a bit more about what my people want than you he just think you were wrong and shut down the conversation the american ideal was ordained by god and anyone else was just wrong it didn't help that wilson really didn't have that good of a grasp on how the world actually worked which didn't make him the most influential or popular when trying to tell his ideas to a europe which went through four years of war finally now that we got all of that out of the way let's theorize that possibility what if woodrow wilson is not elected first how does this happen very easily wilson only won the presidency because the election was split three ways taft for the republicans on one side wilson with the democrats on another and teddy roosevelt running for the party he created the progressive or bull moose party roosevelt actually was almost nominated as a republican candidate almost dethroning an incumbent president and if he had stuck the course he might have actually won the republican nomination roosevelt and taft fought one another and split the republican vote and as history has shown time and time again splitting the vote just leads to well the other guy getting it wilson got the majority and became president if teft simply didn't run for office again or if roosevelt and his coalition overthrew him in the 1912 republican national convention roosevelt would run as the republican against wilson and in a race between teddy and wilson well we all know who would win wilson only got 42 percent of the popular vote [Music] alternate 1913 the world is on the cusp of war and theodore roosevelt begins his third term as president and this would be the term that he knew would define him as a global leader you see the election of 1912 was probably the most important election in american history wilson and roosevelt had staunchly opposite opinions on where the u.s should stand once the great war began wilson wanted absolutely nothing to do with the war which seems reasonable it was an opinion shared by most americans why get involved into the most deadly conflict in human history that seemed to be fought between bickering neighbors but wilson had his own while wilson reasons for doing so as well remember that shining beacon ideal he had that america was the start of a new age of civilization he saw war as the antithesis to this great democracy against european countries that was wilson was actually pretty lacks when it came to the u.s intervening in latin america or nations in his mind not developed enough for democracy when this war was to be over he dreamed america would be the mediator between the two sides and create a middle ground as the moral leader for the west picking aside would only ruin such a dream in fact even when it came to the final moment in 1917 germany started back up their unrestricted submarine warfare sinking neutral ships and offering to mexico to invade the united states wilson still was uneasy but the tides had changed too far and he realized america had to get involved but this time with a twist on his original idea america still would retain its moral character while going to war but only because it wasn't fighting for petty reasons like britain france or russia but to make the world safe for democracy sound familiar by the time that 1917 rolled around roosevelt had practically ripped out his mustache while demanding for the u.s to go to war after the lusitania was sunk roosevelt knew that war was inevitable and wrote furiously that wilson was a coward for being so indecisive you see roosevelt was a polar opposite opinion he wanted the us to get into the war to show that it was a real global power he saw the great war as an opportunity to finally flex some american muscle and change the globe through force now i know that sounds bad for the u.s to get itself involved purely to show off but if roosevelt was actually president and really did get america into the war by 1915 ironically most of the pains and sufferings of the 20th century as we know them might not have happened i know it's weird but here's the thing about idealism it's idyllic wilson wanted a world without war where america was this bastion of morality but people don't work like that and his idealism turned into something far worse than just colonial squabbles the lusitania sinks in this alternate 1915 i have no doubt that if teddy was president the united states would have mobilized for war within a few months now i say mobilized this was 1915 even after declaring war it still took months for troops to be ready supplies to be organized and men shipped over the atlantic in our timeline even though the us entered the war by 1917 they really didn't flood in until 1918 by the time the war was ending so the next few months for roosevelt would be the hardest of his political career not only would he need to convince congress to declare war but also the american public who even then were still not interested in sending men to die in a european war could he have done this and that's the problem with hypotheticals it's very plausible he could have but also there isn't a true way to know wilson was actively putting out any fires for war when in office and it cost him politically so perhaps the opposite happens with teddy who tries to stoke what little flames in america there was for war and revenge i think he could make a convincing argument for why the u.s should get involved teddy always boasted about america's hard-working nature when faced against an adversary because of that sinking the us began contributing aid to the allies so it might not have taken so much to simply go that extra mile just as one would wish to secure their ships from the pesky crowds so should one secure themselves while traversing the internet what are the internet i don't know but i do know that this video was sponsored by nordvpn.com altist a vpn is a virtual private network basically what nordvpn does is it secures your information through it whenever you go online by accessing a private network with military-grade encryption you can protect yourself they have thousands of servers from 60 countries that you can access and with a simple interface it's easy to set up say i want to have a new address from britain well i can do that india too so many options and it works on any ios or android phones and windows or mac for computer for a limited time get 75 percent off a three-year plan at nordvpn.com altist this special offer makes your subscription just 2.99 per month so you can browse securely on all your devices and for a short time use code altist to get an extra month of nord for free now back to our scheduled talking picture [Music] by 1916 in our timeline both sides had stalemated germany was running out of options as a british blockade slowly strangled its economy and resources however france britain and russia weren't faring too well either both sides expected the war to be won by now but the meadow of the time was really imbalanced favoring defense instead of offense railroads and machine guns allow for trenches to be well defended and impossible to retake since both sides were practically even on the western front all that really needed to happen was one other nation to get itself in and push the scale in the allies favor britain france and russia knew that which is why wilson's constant am above this approach really rubbed them the wrong way especially when it continued as the us was in the war but we'll get to that later the americans didn't fight as much in world war one in reality but they were a welcome sign to breathe new life into the allied effort just enough to push the germans who already won in the east into mutiny rebellion and finally armistice imagine how bad of a sign this would be for the central powers who by 1916 are already fighting a two-front war and then the americans show up in our timeline the germans were able to support their own western front by the time the americans showed up because russia was already out of the war by 1918 500 000 troops to hold back the allies in france they don't have this option in an alternate 1916 they simply don't have enough men to hold back both sides if germany tried to hold back a break in their western front by sending troops from the east to reinforce this could be the relief that the russians needed in 1916 to buy themselves some time or even make gains in the war speaking of which the russians were woefully under-equipped and technologically backwards compared to europe so there is no steamroll with mechanized tanks like in world war ii any gains would be slow but they would be gains germany would fall back mostly because of the pressure from the west victories any at all i don't think would be enough to help the czar keep his position even with the us involved i could see the war going into 1917 a 1917 which created food shortages and a harsh winter for the russian populace something like a february revolution still might have happened however the biggest change since this is an alternate 1917 is the war ends far sooner the provisional government that replaces the czar oversees not a war of failure but thanks to its allies a war of victory i think you can see where i'm going with this the bolsheviks only gained legitimacy because of the failure of the provisional government a horrible summer offensive in 1917 only left the government appearing weak and unable to rule the army had no supplies they were rebelling and refusing to fight this fanned the flames for another revolution and wouldn't you know it lenin comes back into russia and the bolsheviks at the time only extreme part of the petrograd soviet take over if germany's war effort weakened by 1916 as the americans came in then such offenses by 1917 might not have been failures but victories or even the war might be over before any such offensive could take place with the war ending under provisional government rule this boosts their popularity and secures their position as leaders of a czarless russia there is no breslavas treaty which loses russia its land and so when that inevitable meeting of the victors occurs well russia being a part of the victors doesn't allow any of its land like poland ukraine or the baltic states to be lost russia survives the war without a communist revolution which is why when i said roosevelt wanting to get into the fight sooner in hindsight actually would have been the better timeline and with that the war probably ends around 1917. the central powers simply don't have the manpower or economic might of the allies with britain and the us backing it that's two years of fighting that never happened sure millions by now have already died for a pointless war between 1914 to 1916 or 17. however the war wouldn't be seen in the general mindset as such a tragedy just an awfully brutal one a taste of why modern wars shouldn't be fought in europe speaking of legacy of this war if germany was defeated easily militarily and they didn't have to face revolutions or the lack of supplies there still isn't a way to predict how they would end up the fate of their future is entirely in the treaty and how they would lose the war which i can't predict for certain but there are a few possibilities for how it turns out so we'll just rush through this germany is defeated so badly they end up losing land and become far smaller than even their post-war borders the kaiser resigns and germany becomes a democratic nation germany is defeated just as badly as the first option but the kaiser remains in power with his influence greatly diminished becoming something of a parliamentary monarchy like britain germany loses the borders than it did in our timeline however the treaty is not as severe [Music] or the most extreme option germany is completely militarily defeated the allies push in and occupy the country just like in world war ii basically germany as a nation doesn't exist for at least a few decades or until they decide it can be on its own again this would lead to a lot of colorful debate on which power controls blood really there are so many options i could go on this is what i could predict though and it all centers around wilson and russia roosevelt was against wilson going to the treaty conference in paris because he believed that britain who fought more should have had more of a say that opinion easily could have changed if the u.s fought only one year less than britain so perhaps he still goes or at least as a diplomat with his ideals in place the main thing that changes in this timeline isn't the inclusion of roosevelt but the absence of wilson wilson pretty much used the treaty conference as a way to promote his own world view the most infamous of which was well the league of nations austria-hungary still would collapse and new nation-states take its place just like in our timeline but for the victors they would not lose their territory russia going forward still remains relatively backwards compared to the west but it would never see the mass collectivization and famine like under lenin and stalin oh which brings me to the collapse of the czar and the failure of the war was the perfect storm to allow such an extremist and violent section of marxism to take over the bolsheviks were the farthest of extremists they didn't just go after the former autocrats of russia but the mensheviks less extreme communists and socialists as well that iconoclastic autocratic and brutal zeal that became the defining mark of communism was birthed from lenin and his war against anyone he perceived as an enemy of the revolution without lenin the entire fate of socialism in the west entirely changes along with the enemy that basically fueled wolstonianism into the modern day without the bolsheviks there is no great enemy the rise of communism was such a series of specific steps i doubt it would be replicated into the 20th century without russia it really was only because of the desperately poor environment in that country that led it to be that brand of communism simply doesn't arise left to the history books like anarchism so both sides capitalistic and socialist are less extreme in this alternate 20th century there is no great war between ideologies which is what lenin and wilson ended up perpetuating in their states which is where things actually start getting weird because a lot of policies were shot down in the west once communism rose because people rightfully feared it'd lead to a lenin rising in their country which is where i'm going to take a detour [Music] as with anything hypothetical predictions aren't 100 percent just possibilities and an alternate path and in politics just because a party or politician wishes to do something doesn't mean they could always do it opposition always exists and those outcomes can't simply be predicted however if teddy stayed in office to see the us win the war this would have been a massive win for the republican they'd have political clout and potentially could have enacted some new legislation teddy in his first two terms had busted monopolies and created national parks but he wasn't just satisfied with that and in the 1912 election he laid out his goals a complete overhaul of lobbying in washington a registration for lobbyists and limits on campaign contributions social insurance for the elderly a nationalized health service federal income tax and an eight hour workday the most interesting idea for me is recall elections for those in office and judicial say the court makes a decision that the citizens disagree with it can be overridden by popular vote if tenny was in office it's likely the war would have taken up a majority of his third term but considering how hands-offish he wanted to be in the peace conference unlike wilson i think he or at least some in congress could have gotten a few of these concepts into legislation a hundred years ago in the words of emperor tiger star he did it with sanitation he can do it again so since we got that out of the way i decided this last part will be the fate of germany in a quicker war is entirely up in the air however i think there's one pretty simple answer hitler doesn't rise now why do i say that hitler's rise to power was not simply him walking into a defeated germany and saying he is fewer now it was just like world war 1 or wilson's election only the result of a string of unique and bad occurrences the fear of the bolsheviks was a very real reality for post-war germany in the 20s and 30s the soviets were neighbors to europe there had been brief yet failed communist revolutions in 1919 in berlin and munich and just like during the cold war and fear of the reds destroying everything was something in the public conscience maybe because that's what the soviets kept saying they were going to do while hitler yes wrote in on the public sphere of the jews this also was hand in hand with the fear of the bolsheviks but if the war ended in a crushing german defeat and before the bolsheviks ever could take control of russia those steps that allowed the nazis to come in power in 1933 become an impossible uphill slope there simply is no great enemy to fear and i doubt such a thing as the reichstag fire would ever have occurred i really doubt world war ii at least the european war we all know would have ever occurred many wars probably still might happen italy the balkans are still a thing but i doubt the nazis ever rise to power uh what else that wasn't germany oh yeah the federal government would have remained desegregated wilson did that in fact the history of civil rights in america might have also went down a different path wilson is a complex figure in history he was a man of startling contradictions wilson envisioned liberty as only spreading from a strong central government or at least a strong central leader himself only him an intellect and orator could champion democracy through u.s foreign policy but in reality it was just advancing u.s interests under another name wilson either purposely or unintentionally misunderstood the world he wanted to change and create a mindset which didn't reflect that world or at worst didn't care to even outside europe wilson used his ideology to send the us into latin america to protect their interests and it was really because of this that set a precedent in an age where such practices were becoming less acceptable to an isolationist public the wilsonian ideal is the one that still dominates the united states fighting for democracy in actual true circumstances is a noble one but ever since its inception we have to understand it's also been a double-edged sword one that can be corrupted into serving ulterior motives under the costume of liberty it's a reason u.s foreign policy post world war ii has seemed so contradictory it ended up overthrowing governments in latin america and the middle east teddy's old speak softly and carry a big stick style of imperialism was unique it wasn't colonialism the us was sick of that after the philippines it was more of get in get out wilstonianism was about transforming the country that the us invaded wilsonianism did replace this old imperialism but also modified it enough for imperialism to evolve and survive in the next stage of global empire the battle over ideologies the cold war or now the battle between west and east you know how they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions well our road to hell was paved by mixed intentions wilson transformed foreign policy into a holier-than-thou protector of civilization approach even when nah it wasn't but guess which one stuck around the longest now you may say goatee this was a hundred years ago surely you can't put the blame on the rise of communism nazism foreign endless wars and the cold war all in one man's presidency can you yes [Music] hey [Music] hey [Music] hmm [Music] forever he did it with sanitation he can do it again

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Keywords: Woodrow Wilson, Woodrow Wilson cynicalhistorian, cynical historian, alternatehistoryhub, woodrow wilson alternate history, world war 1, WWI, great war, great war alternate history, world war 1 alternate history, american interventionism, wilsonianism, the election that ruined everything, election alternate history, teddy roosevelt history, woodrow wilson history, wilson president, world war 1 history, american intervention, rise of communism wwi, russian revolution wwi

Id: hLiI6kXZkZI

Length: 30min 19sec (1819 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 10 2019

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[u/Fenixius]

This isn't about the 2016 election! I promise, this video doesn't even have the T-word.