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What If the US Navy Went to War with Britain in WW1?

Pivot Point History

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When the US Navy turned its cannons against the British Royal Navy in World War 1, the destiny of the modern world shattered in an instant. In this gripping alternate history, a deadly 1916 blockade incident pushes President Woodrow Wilson over the edge, turning former allies into mortal enemies.

Pivot Point History | Educational Disclaimer:
This film is a historical documentary intended for educational and analytical purposes. It explores speculative "what-if" scenarios based on academic research into early 20th-century geopolitics, logistics, and military strategy. This channel remains strictly neutral and does not endorse, support, or glorify any historical empires, regimes, political ideologies, or sensitive events depicted. Our goal is to understand the fragility of the past through rigorous historical inquiry.

Instead of marching on the Western Front, the United States triggers an invasion of Canada, faces an imperial assault from Japan in the Pacific, and bleeds in a British-funded proxy war along the Mexican border. Cut off from American money and supplies, France falls, leaving the German Empire to claim total victory across Europe.

#wwi #alternatehistory #militaryhistory #usnavy #royalnavy

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Note: All Illustrative visuals and voice-overs for this channel are created using AI tech. However, every script is the product of 100% original human research, writing, and historical analysis.

20 Comments

@mmabri 1 day ago

This one deserves a part 2. I can't see the US abandoning the Pacific to the Japanese

@KennethStrothers 15 hours ago

My Grandfather chased Pancho Villa around the Mexican border and then was there in the Philippines 🇵🇭 for the M1911 .45 caliber pistol tests…. Now it would be called war crimes but then he was a Lieutenant following his Generals orders and later became a battalion commander in WWI and lived until he died of a stroke in his seventies ❤❤😢

@jamesminica9690 15 hours ago

A german win in WW1 would probably mean No Hitler and No Stalin and is huge. Millions saved.

@BruceHaugh 15 hours ago

The US Navy did NOT need to get into a shooting war with the Brits in 1916. Nor did the US need to invade Canada. As you note, the US Army was poorly prepared at that time, the British were preoccupied with the Germans in France. The US could simply have blockaded Canada, suspended economic aid to Britain, & cut off all trade with the British Commonwealth. I think it more likely the Japanese would've confined their operations to seizing German holdings in the Pacific & China. The US could've focused its energy on securing our southern border while blockading any British territory near the US. British intelligence could certainly have stirred the pot in the US but would've focused on Imperial Germany. US would have worked hard to eliminate any British intelligence networks within the US. I do agree that both Germany & Japan would benefit even under my scenario. I agree that the US would've began to rearm although I disagree with your prediction of immediate economic disaster for the US. We simply did not need to engage in a shooting war with GB to prevail. Keep in mind, there were already rumblings of discontent within the Empire. For example, the Boer War would still have been very much on the minds of the Afrikaners in South Africa. India had been troubled for decades. Assuming the Bolsheviks had taken power in Russia, the Japanese would have had another potential enemy at her doorstep. Keep in mind that Japan like Great Britain was an island nation & NEEDED TO IMPORT a variety of goods to sustain their nations. Given GBs failure, both Canada & Australia would've developed closer ties with the US.

@anthonykoller4459 22 hours ago

This almost happened, during the 1920s the American Government was working on War Plan Red where the American Army invades Canada to cut off all ties with the British Empire and to send the American Navy into the Atlantic Ocean against the Royal Navy, luckily this never happened but in a different timeline it might of happened.

@brianschmidt704 18 hours ago

Most people don't realize how many times we have almost gone to war in canada. Most of these end up with the united states becoming some kind of a military dictatorship because of the strength of the british empire and the japanese empire. It is a good thing for us that we avoided these.

@donthegrizzlyman1986 23 hours ago (edited)

In an alternate timeline where the world is plunged into a tripolar Cold War because the United States declared war against Great Britain, the conditions that birthed the rise of fascism in our timeline would never have happened.

@bennyfloyd2375 1 day ago

I wonder what the opinion of the US would be regarding Mexico after this? They didn't declare war, they acted like the ground bound equivalents of pirates. I could see the US, under this situation, deciding they were tired of raids across the border, and "doing something" about it.

@ashwinrebbapragada7626 1 day ago

Beautiful visuals. Perhaps this scenario could have happened in the real world. The United States could have fought Britain in World War 1. Relations weren't perfect between both nations. It would have been difficult to fight Britain because of their strong navy. Thank you for making this video. Interesting perspective. A very different situation from the real World War 1 history.

@fatdogtavern 17 hours ago (edited)

This wouldn't be Arnold's march on Quebec or the War of 1812, Canada would fall in a month. As for the Japanese, just in our timeline, they may have made conquests initially in the Pacific, but those would be short lived. Within a couple of years, America would have taken back all that she had lost and be at Tokyo harbor to receive another surrender. The American military industrialization that we saw in the 1940's would have just kicked in 20 years earlier.

@edl617 19 hours ago (edited)

By the middle of 1916 the US Navy had Four new Oil powered Battleships and over 30 oil powered cruisers and destroyers. On the AI forgot the wide open border from Montana and to Wisconsin. Yeah the eastern American army would have any military reasonable thinking to use the eastern army as an anvil. The asiatic fleet had 4 battleship, 4 cruisers, almost 30 destroyers and 8 submarines The Philippines had tens of thousands of season troops Guam had over a dozen 7 inch naval cannons.p and a small but experienced garrison.

@NathanGibson-lx5yi 16 hours ago

One curios thing I noticed! Despite the fact that he was on sea. Despite the fact that has in a very pivotal situation. And no doubt cold, scared and Hungary, the British captain wore a tie! Nice to keep up standards!

@NicholasKeene 17 hours ago

11:00 A century of peace, in 1912? Did you forget about that little thing called the American Civil War?

@atharvakadam35 21 hours ago

Please make video what if hitler invading british india with Subhash Chandra Bose

@frankgesuele6298 1 day ago (edited)

What if Lee had accepted command of Union forces offered by Lincoln?
What if Wilhelm II dies less then a year on the throne leaving Bismarck in command?
What if Hitler had poured resources into the Kriegmarine U-Boat fleet to have 100s 1939 & put a ring of steel around Britain?
What if the Allies never got hold of an Enigma machine & never crack the code?
What if Hitler were not anti-Semitic when he took over the NSDAP?
What if Napoleon uses his Grande Armee to consulate rule over Europe & forge an alliance with Russia to challenge Britain?
What if Taft steps aside to let Teddy Roosevelt run & defeat Wilson thus being POTUS in 1914?

@ConradAinger 14 hours ago

As a What If? scenario, this is far better than most. In its own terms it makes sense, and is credible.
With the British and Japanese navies against those of America and Germany, there would have been some really interesting naval battles.
In overall geopolitical terms, Britain fought the wrong enemy- twice!

@Rooikunbo 1 day ago (edited)

What might have happened if the Soviet Union had discovered the true purpose of the Glomar Explorer, a sea-mining ship, in the middle of Operation Azorian and confronted it while it was raising the sunken K-129 submarine?