So the Germans, having started the year in relatively strong shape, have
now weakened themselves militarily and also
psychologically by a series of ruinous offensives.
And for the first time in the summer of
1918, the Americans are moving into significant combat action.
Some Americans pulled into the line here to help blunt the German offensives.
And then launching limited offensives
of their own in this sector right here, building towards a much larger offensive
in an area called the Meuse-Argonne. So as we step back and ask
ourselves: Why did the war turn the way it did in 1918?
First big answer is: The Germans, from a tactically advantageous position,
made some military choices that didn't turn out the way they hoped.
But there are two other huge factors that are
also coming into play in 1918 on the Allied side.
The Allies are able to leverage the entire world to their help.
Think back to earlier maps we've looked at
where you saw those trading routes, access to raw
materials, and ask yourselves: What are the basic
sources of support for the Germans and their allies?
They do have this enormous area
in Central and Eastern Europe and part of Southwest Asia that's under their rule.
But the British, the French, and now the United States of America, are able
to call upon a much larger access to the world's raw materials and people.
The Allies basically control the seas. The German submarine offensives
of 1917 and again in 1918 fail, partly because the Allies simply
develop a convoy system, in which the government tells all those cargo ships:
No you won't be able to just go wherever you'd like, whenever you'd like;
you're going to have to bunch together under our protection, so it'll be harder
for those small submarines to find you in the middle of the ocean.
And if they do find you they'll find that
you have some military protection along with you, called convoys.
Bottom line is the submarine offensives
don't succeed.
The British and their American allies controlled
the seas and the trade routes with them.
The British, and also the French, also have access
to all sorts of help from their imperial partners.
They draw on a great many soldiers from the White Dominions, like Canada,
Australia, New Zealand, fighting in the
hundreds of thousands alongside British soldiers in
France, in Turkey, in Palestine.
But also they're calling on the Indian army,
that incredible source of imperial military manpower.
Here's a picture of just a few soldiers from
one unit of Indian cavalry serving on the British side.
And in addition, the British and French are able
to reach out to their colonies as sources of labor.
In fact, tens of thousands
of Chinese and Indochinese laborers find themselves living and
working in France, providing support for the Allied armies.