WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.459 Welcome in, everyone. It is really great to have 00:00:02.459 --> 00:00:04.240 you with us today. Absolutely. Thrilled to be 00:00:04.240 --> 00:00:07.240 here. Whether you are prepping for a strategic 00:00:07.240 --> 00:00:09.939 meeting, maybe catching up on some military history, 00:00:09.939 --> 00:00:12.119 or you just want to understand the underlying 00:00:12.119 --> 00:00:14.320 mechanics of how the modern world was shaped, 00:00:14.679 --> 00:00:17.100 you are in the exact right place. That's right. 00:00:17.820 --> 00:00:20.379 Today, we're pulling from a really comprehensive 00:00:20.379 --> 00:00:23.620 Wikipedia article. It covers the history, the 00:00:23.620 --> 00:00:26.359 governing rules, and the major global instances 00:00:26.359 --> 00:00:29.640 of unrestricted submarine warfare. A heavy topic. 00:00:29.789 --> 00:00:32.409 But a vital one. Very. And our mission for this 00:00:32.409 --> 00:00:35.509 deep dive is to understand how a single naval 00:00:35.509 --> 00:00:39.469 tactic did far more than just change the way 00:00:39.469 --> 00:00:41.890 ships engaged at sea. Yeah, it went way beyond 00:00:41.890 --> 00:00:45.189 that. Exactly. It literally rewrote global alliances. 00:00:45.469 --> 00:00:48.590 It factored international law and it pulled entirely 00:00:48.590 --> 00:00:51.869 new superpower nations into world wars. We are 00:00:51.869 --> 00:00:55.329 looking at a profound historical example of technology 00:00:55.329 --> 00:00:57.829 moving much, much faster than the law could keep 00:00:57.829 --> 00:01:00.310 up. That is the crucial lens to view this through. 00:01:00.570 --> 00:01:02.729 I mean, this isn't merely a chronicle of maritime 00:01:02.729 --> 00:01:05.209 history or, you know, ships sinking in the dark. 00:01:05.709 --> 00:01:08.689 It is a story about the fundamental tension between 00:01:08.689 --> 00:01:12.430 emerging disruptive technology and the outdated 00:01:12.430 --> 00:01:15.829 legacy rules of war. The old paradigm. Exactly. 00:01:16.189 --> 00:01:18.650 When a new weapon arrives that completely shatters 00:01:18.650 --> 00:01:21.370 that old paradigm, we usually see a period of 00:01:21.370 --> 00:01:24.540 intense diplomatic denial. And that is inevitably 00:01:24.540 --> 00:01:27.239 followed by catastrophic global consequences. 00:01:27.620 --> 00:01:29.900 Okay, let's unpack this by looking at the baseline. 00:01:30.550 --> 00:01:33.170 Before submarines completely altered the naval 00:01:33.170 --> 00:01:36.370 landscape, maritime warfare operated under a 00:01:36.370 --> 00:01:39.150 very specific set of customary laws. The old 00:01:39.150 --> 00:01:42.569 rules of the sea. Right. The 1899 Hague Convention 00:01:42.569 --> 00:01:44.810 formally codified a lot of these limitations, 00:01:44.909 --> 00:01:46.930 but the framework itself had actually existed 00:01:46.930 --> 00:01:49.950 for centuries. It was a system built around cruiser 00:01:49.950 --> 00:01:52.230 rules, or as they were often called in legal 00:01:52.230 --> 00:01:54.629 frameworks, prize rules. Right. The core concept 00:01:54.629 --> 00:01:56.909 was actually pretty straightforward. Enemy warships, 00:01:57.150 --> 00:02:00.060 always fair game, but civilian and neutral merchant 00:02:00.060 --> 00:02:02.859 ships were protected by these incredibly strict 00:02:02.859 --> 00:02:05.459 protocols. Yeah, under those traditional customary 00:02:05.459 --> 00:02:08.120 laws, a warship commander couldn't simply just 00:02:08.120 --> 00:02:10.120 open fire on a merchant vessel. That was a huge 00:02:10.120 --> 00:02:11.939 violation. So what did they have to do? They 00:02:11.939 --> 00:02:14.460 were legally obligated to execute what are known 00:02:14.460 --> 00:02:17.800 as visit and search protocols. It is essentially 00:02:17.800 --> 00:02:21.060 a maritime traffic stop. Exactly like a traffic 00:02:21.060 --> 00:02:24.650 stop. but carrying massive legal weight. If a 00:02:24.650 --> 00:02:27.930 cruiser intercepted a civilian or a neutral ship, 00:02:28.310 --> 00:02:30.370 they could only interfere with its voyage if 00:02:30.370 --> 00:02:32.849 it was carrying contraband. And that required 00:02:32.849 --> 00:02:35.490 actually distinguishing between types of cargo. 00:02:35.770 --> 00:02:39.389 Right. You had absolute contraband like munitions, 00:02:39.629 --> 00:02:42.110 weapons, that sort of thing. And then conditional 00:02:42.110 --> 00:02:45.090 contraband like food or fuel. But even if they 00:02:45.090 --> 00:02:47.289 found something, even if the boarding party found 00:02:47.289 --> 00:02:49.949 prohibited cargo from a publicly announced list, 00:02:50.330 --> 00:02:52.169 they still couldn't just sink the ship with the 00:02:52.169 --> 00:02:54.990 crew aboard. Customary maritime law dictated 00:02:54.990 --> 00:02:57.129 that the attacking ship had to ensure the safe 00:02:57.129 --> 00:02:59.490 evacuation of the merchant crew before destroying 00:02:59.490 --> 00:03:02.129 the vessel, which makes sense on paper. But reading 00:03:02.129 --> 00:03:04.610 through the sources, this entire legal framework 00:03:04.610 --> 00:03:07.669 relied on a very specific power dynamic. Totally. 00:03:07.710 --> 00:03:10.169 It was designed entirely for surface ships. Right. 00:03:10.509 --> 00:03:13.500 A large, heavily armed cruiser. could effortlessly 00:03:13.500 --> 00:03:16.259 pull alongside a completely defenseless merchant 00:03:16.259 --> 00:03:19.699 ship, fire a warning shot across the bow, and 00:03:19.699 --> 00:03:22.639 basically dictate terms. The overwhelming asymmetry 00:03:22.639 --> 00:03:25.580 in firepower made that whole visit and search 00:03:25.580 --> 00:03:28.419 protocol possible. But the arrival of the submarine... 00:03:28.520 --> 00:03:31.439 completely inverted that tactical dynamic. Completely 00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:33.659 inverted it. And the irony here is that early 00:03:33.659 --> 00:03:36.020 submarines were actually incredibly fragile machines. 00:03:36.479 --> 00:03:39.479 I think we often picture modern, you know, nuclear 00:03:39.479 --> 00:03:41.719 powered Leviathans operating deep underwater 00:03:41.719 --> 00:03:44.020 for months. Oh, yeah, not even close. Right. 00:03:44.460 --> 00:03:46.759 The early 20th century submarine was essentially 00:03:46.759 --> 00:03:50.280 a highly vulnerable torpedo boat that possessed 00:03:50.280 --> 00:03:53.560 a temporary ability to submerge. Their battery 00:03:53.560 --> 00:03:55.520 life was incredibly limited. Their underwater 00:03:55.520 --> 00:03:58.280 speed was painfully slow and critically their 00:03:58.280 --> 00:04:00.659 hulls were completely unarmored. So they were 00:04:00.659 --> 00:04:03.520 sitting ducks on the surface. Exactly. If an 00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:05.580 early submarine surfaced to conduct a visit and 00:04:05.580 --> 00:04:08.460 search protocol, a single well -placed shot from 00:04:08.460 --> 00:04:11.520 a deck gun, even a small one, even a small caliber 00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:14.360 weapon mounted on a merchant ship could easily 00:04:14.360 --> 00:04:16.759 pierce the pressure hull and send that submarine 00:04:16.759 --> 00:04:19.750 straight to the bottom. So how did those severe 00:04:19.750 --> 00:04:23.990 physical limitations force naval commanders to 00:04:23.990 --> 00:04:27.149 reconsider these polite rules of engagement? 00:04:27.550 --> 00:04:29.490 Well, it basically made the traditional rules 00:04:29.490 --> 00:04:32.670 a death sentence for the submarine crew. For 00:04:32.670 --> 00:04:35.209 a submarine, its only true tactical advantage 00:04:35.209 --> 00:04:38.509 is stealth. Launching a torpedo while submerged 00:04:38.509 --> 00:04:41.509 without offering any prior warning was infinitely 00:04:41.509 --> 00:04:44.589 safer. But doing so meant completely discarding 00:04:44.589 --> 00:04:46.889 the cruiser rules. Right, because a sudden submerged 00:04:46.889 --> 00:04:49.670 strike completely removes any opportunity for 00:04:49.670 --> 00:04:52.310 the target to be searched, to surrender, or for 00:04:52.310 --> 00:04:55.209 that civilian crew to safely evacuate. That tactical 00:04:55.209 --> 00:04:57.949 reality brings us directly to the Imperial German 00:04:57.949 --> 00:05:00.689 Navy at the outbreak of World War I. Yes, a very 00:05:00.689 --> 00:05:02.829 tense situation. They possess this new technology, 00:05:02.829 --> 00:05:05.589 but they face intense internal pressure. The 00:05:05.589 --> 00:05:08.410 German army is bogged down in this massive continental 00:05:08.410 --> 00:05:10.910 struggle and high level officials in the Navy 00:05:10.910 --> 00:05:13.389 are facing severe public and political criticism 00:05:13.389 --> 00:05:15.750 for just sitting there. For their relative inactivity, 00:05:15.990 --> 00:05:18.069 yeah. They desperately needed to demonstrate 00:05:18.069 --> 00:05:20.910 their strategic value. And that institutional 00:05:20.910 --> 00:05:23.930 desperation is the absolute perfect catalyst 00:05:23.930 --> 00:05:27.050 for radical military solutions. Which explains 00:05:27.050 --> 00:05:30.310 the entrance of two key figures, Admiral Tirpitz 00:05:30.310 --> 00:05:33.329 and Admiral von Pol. Right. Buoyed by a handful 00:05:33.329 --> 00:05:36.529 of early tactical successes, they approached 00:05:36.529 --> 00:05:39.149 the German high command with a pretty radical 00:05:39.149 --> 00:05:42.129 proposal. They advocated for giving U -boats 00:05:42.129 --> 00:05:45.189 a totally free hand to attack shipping without 00:05:45.189 --> 00:05:48.759 restricting A massive escalation. And they boldly 00:05:48.759 --> 00:05:51.120 promised that this unrestricted tactic would 00:05:51.120 --> 00:05:54.060 create a shock effect so profound that it could 00:05:54.060 --> 00:05:57.180 force Britain into a conciliatory mood in as 00:05:57.180 --> 00:06:00.000 few as six weeks. Which was an astonishingly 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:02.019 audacious claim. Especially when you look at 00:06:02.019 --> 00:06:04.439 the numbers. Exactly, particularly when analyzing 00:06:04.439 --> 00:06:06.800 the actual naval order of battle at the time. 00:06:07.160 --> 00:06:09.180 Admiral Tirpitz was aggressively pitching these 00:06:09.180 --> 00:06:12.699 submarines as miracle weapons, to both the military 00:06:12.699 --> 00:06:14.579 leadership and the public in press interviews. 00:06:14.660 --> 00:06:17.639 But in reality? In reality, the Imperial German 00:06:17.639 --> 00:06:19.879 Navy had an extremely limited number of U -boats 00:06:19.879 --> 00:06:21.920 actually available for operational deployment. 00:06:22.139 --> 00:06:25.000 It was a massive strategic bluff. They were banking 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:27.399 entirely on the psychological terror of the weapon. 00:06:27.759 --> 00:06:30.480 They theorized that the sheer unpredictability 00:06:30.480 --> 00:06:32.879 of ships being destroyed without any warning 00:06:32.879 --> 00:06:36.100 would paralyze maritime trade. Merchant captains 00:06:36.100 --> 00:06:39.259 would just refuse to sail out of pure fear. Right. 00:06:39.500 --> 00:06:41.959 And as for the diplomatic fallout with neutral 00:06:41.959 --> 00:06:44.959 countries, which is a huge risk, the German Naval 00:06:44.959 --> 00:06:47.180 Command calculated that neutral nations would 00:06:47.180 --> 00:06:50.319 ultimately accept the submarine campaign as a 00:06:50.319 --> 00:06:52.759 proportional and reasonable reprisal for the 00:06:52.759 --> 00:06:54.839 devastating naval blockade that the British had 00:06:54.839 --> 00:06:57.259 already imposed on Germany. This is a very calculated 00:06:57.259 --> 00:07:00.019 rationalization. And it worked internally. Convinced 00:07:00.019 --> 00:07:03.100 by this logic, Chancellor Befman Hallweg formally 00:07:03.100 --> 00:07:06.920 approved the strategy on February 1st, 1915. 00:07:07.160 --> 00:07:10.069 And the execution of that 19... campaign serves 00:07:10.069 --> 00:07:13.009 as a fascinating case study in how the fog of 00:07:13.009 --> 00:07:15.810 war intentionally blurs the lines of international 00:07:15.810 --> 00:07:18.189 law. Because the sources reveal that this initial 00:07:18.189 --> 00:07:20.569 campaign wasn't technically fully unrestricted, 00:07:20.610 --> 00:07:23.170 was it? Not on paper, no. The official diplomatic 00:07:23.170 --> 00:07:25.290 stance communicated to the world was that neutral 00:07:25.290 --> 00:07:27.649 shipping was not to be targeted. Officially, 00:07:27.970 --> 00:07:31.129 the crosshairs were only on Allied vessels. Furthermore, 00:07:31.649 --> 00:07:33.910 a lot of the veteran German submarine commanders, 00:07:33.990 --> 00:07:37.180 these were career naval officers, deeply steeped 00:07:37.180 --> 00:07:39.199 in the maritime traditions of the cruiser rules. 00:07:39.959 --> 00:07:42.240 They voluntarily chose to continue operating 00:07:42.240 --> 00:07:44.800 under the old protocols. Really? Yeah, they took 00:07:44.800 --> 00:07:47.899 on those massive tactical risks surfacing their 00:07:47.899 --> 00:07:50.519 vulnerable boats just to give warnings and allow 00:07:50.519 --> 00:07:52.980 crews to evacuate. But the internal directives 00:07:52.980 --> 00:07:55.399 from the German Admiralty told a completely different 00:07:55.399 --> 00:07:58.319 story. Oh, absolutely. Secretly, the Admiralty 00:07:58.319 --> 00:08:00.959 was heavily encouraging its U -boat commanders 00:08:00.959 --> 00:08:04.500 to attack while submerged and to actively minimize 00:08:04.500 --> 00:08:06.980 their efforts at target identification. And the 00:08:06.980 --> 00:08:09.579 underlying logic there was brutal. They figured 00:08:09.579 --> 00:08:11.740 that the accidental sinking of neutral ships 00:08:11.740 --> 00:08:14.040 would serve as a highly effective psychological 00:08:14.040 --> 00:08:16.600 deterrent. Essentially frightening neutral fleets 00:08:16.600 --> 00:08:19.079 away from European waters entirely. It was a 00:08:19.079 --> 00:08:22.019 deeply cynical operational strategy, basically 00:08:22.019 --> 00:08:25.100 leveraging civilian collateral damage as a primary 00:08:25.100 --> 00:08:27.870 weapon of war. And while the campaign fundamentally 00:08:27.870 --> 00:08:30.490 failed to disrupt Britain's maritime logistics 00:08:30.490 --> 00:08:32.909 network to the degree Admiral Tirpitz had promised, 00:08:33.549 --> 00:08:36.490 the human cost was just severe. Devastating. 00:08:36.830 --> 00:08:39.809 That human cost reached a massive global flashpoint 00:08:39.809 --> 00:08:44.269 on May 7, 1915. A German U -boat, the U -20, 00:08:44.730 --> 00:08:47.269 deliberately fired a torpedo into the British 00:08:47.269 --> 00:08:50.820 canard luxury liner, the RMS Lusitania. A horrific 00:08:50.820 --> 00:08:53.620 event. It sank in a matter of minutes, resulting 00:08:53.620 --> 00:08:56.320 in the deaths of nearly 1 ,200 people, including 00:08:56.320 --> 00:08:58.960 over 100 American passengers. What's fascinating 00:08:58.960 --> 00:09:02.340 here is the sheer velocity of the geopolitical 00:09:02.340 --> 00:09:04.820 backlash. It was instant. The German high command 00:09:04.820 --> 00:09:08.139 fundamentally miscalculated how an emerging neutral 00:09:08.139 --> 00:09:11.100 superpower would react to the sudden violent 00:09:11.100 --> 00:09:13.399 deaths of its citizens on the open ocean. Right. 00:09:13.549 --> 00:09:16.110 The diplomatic outrage radiating from the United 00:09:16.110 --> 00:09:19.110 States was immediate and explosive. The pressure 00:09:19.110 --> 00:09:21.809 forced German Chancellor Bethmann Hallweg to 00:09:21.809 --> 00:09:24.210 directly intervene, actually going against the 00:09:24.210 --> 00:09:26.250 wishes of his own naval commanders? He had to 00:09:26.250 --> 00:09:28.309 do something to stop the bleeding, diplomatically 00:09:28.309 --> 00:09:31.659 speaking. Exactly. He secured a secret directive 00:09:31.659 --> 00:09:34.639 that explicitly prohibited U -boats from targeting 00:09:34.639 --> 00:09:37.980 passenger vessels and then following another 00:09:37.980 --> 00:09:40.740 severe diplomatic crisis sparked by the sinking 00:09:40.740 --> 00:09:45.039 of the British liner Arabic in August 1915. Germany 00:09:45.039 --> 00:09:47.940 was forced to formally and publicly suspend the 00:09:47.940 --> 00:09:50.519 unrestricted submarine campaign entirely. Right. 00:09:50.679 --> 00:09:53.740 By 1916, the U -boat fleet was officially ordered 00:09:53.740 --> 00:09:56.039 to operate strictly under the traditional prize 00:09:56.039 --> 00:09:58.200 rules again. And a look at the operational data 00:09:58.200 --> 00:10:00.840 from the time shows that the vast majority of 00:10:00.840 --> 00:10:03.899 submarine attacks in 1916 were indeed conducted 00:10:03.899 --> 00:10:06.220 on the surface. So the diplomatic guardrails 00:10:06.220 --> 00:10:09.019 seem to have held. For a moment, yes. However, 00:10:09.059 --> 00:10:11.320 the sheer lethality and tactical advantage of 00:10:11.320 --> 00:10:13.740 the submerged attack remain this overwhelming 00:10:13.740 --> 00:10:15.919 temptation. Especially as the war of attrition 00:10:15.919 --> 00:10:17.860 on the Western Front just continued to grind 00:10:17.860 --> 00:10:19.960 down the German state. Exactly. Here's where 00:10:19.960 --> 00:10:23.659 it gets really interesting. In early 1917, Admiral 00:10:23.659 --> 00:10:26.240 Henning von Holtzendorf, the chief of the Imperial 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:28.940 Admiralty staff, presented a new memorandum to 00:10:28.940 --> 00:10:30.779 the German High Command. And this was a game 00:10:30.779 --> 00:10:33.580 changer. He argued aggressively for the reinstatement 00:10:33.580 --> 00:10:37.340 of unrestricted submarine warfare, but on a dramatically 00:10:37.340 --> 00:10:41.399 larger scale than that 1915 campaign. He presented 00:10:41.399 --> 00:10:44.080 this as the singular definitive method to inflict 00:10:44.080 --> 00:10:46.620 tonnage starvation on the British Empire and 00:10:46.620 --> 00:10:49.549 force a surrender. We are looking at one of the 00:10:49.549 --> 00:10:52.289 most consequential, heavily calculated risks 00:10:52.289 --> 00:10:55.049 in the entire history of military strategy. No 00:10:55.049 --> 00:10:57.330 exaggeration. The German High Command understood 00:10:57.330 --> 00:10:59.870 clearly that authorizing this campaign meant 00:10:59.870 --> 00:11:03.070 crossing a definitive red line. They knew with 00:11:03.070 --> 00:11:05.850 near absolute certainty that resuming unrestricted 00:11:05.850 --> 00:11:08.090 attacks would trigger a declaration of war from 00:11:08.090 --> 00:11:10.909 the United States. So knowing the massive industrial 00:11:10.909 --> 00:11:13.610 capacity of the U .S., how did the German Admiralty 00:11:13.610 --> 00:11:16.250 possibly justify taking that mathematical gamble? 00:11:16.480 --> 00:11:19.259 They relied on a very strict logistical timeline. 00:11:19.980 --> 00:11:21.960 Holtendorf's memorandum argued that a massive 00:11:21.960 --> 00:11:24.539 unrestricted U -boat offensive would sink enough 00:11:24.539 --> 00:11:26.620 British shipping tonnage to force a complete 00:11:26.620 --> 00:11:29.080 collapse of the UK economy within five to six 00:11:29.080 --> 00:11:32.179 months. Very tight window. Very tight. They calculated 00:11:32.179 --> 00:11:34.460 that the United States military mobilization, 00:11:34.700 --> 00:11:36.860 training, and transatlantic deployment would 00:11:36.860 --> 00:11:39.779 simply be too slow. So it was a race. Exactly. 00:11:40.200 --> 00:11:43.059 The gamble was that Germany could strangle Britain 00:11:43.059 --> 00:11:46.080 and secure victory on the continent before American 00:11:46.080 --> 00:11:48.360 expeditionary forces could arrive in sufficient 00:11:48.360 --> 00:11:50.940 numbers to actually alter the balance of power. 00:11:51.179 --> 00:11:54.039 The decision was made. Germany unleashed the 00:11:54.039 --> 00:11:56.960 U -boats. And just as they predicted, it served 00:11:56.960 --> 00:11:59.460 as a massive trigger mechanism. It absolutely 00:11:59.460 --> 00:12:02.120 did. When combined with the public exposure of 00:12:02.120 --> 00:12:04.639 the Zimmerman Telegram, where Germany actively 00:12:04.639 --> 00:12:07.320 proposed a military alliance with Mexico against 00:12:07.320 --> 00:12:10.399 the U .S., the resumption of unrestricted submarine 00:12:10.399 --> 00:12:13.340 warfare officially ended American neutrality. 00:12:13.899 --> 00:12:16.960 The United States entered World War One. I want 00:12:16.960 --> 00:12:18.980 you to consider the immense historical weight 00:12:18.980 --> 00:12:22.139 of this strategic gamble, a singular tactical 00:12:22.139 --> 00:12:24.179 decision regarding the deployment parameters 00:12:24.179 --> 00:12:27.080 of a specific maritime vessel made by naval planners 00:12:27.080 --> 00:12:29.580 in a war room. effectively sealed the trajectory 00:12:29.580 --> 00:12:31.960 of the entire global conflict. Incredible. It 00:12:31.960 --> 00:12:34.679 pulled a rising industrial superpower right into 00:12:34.679 --> 00:12:37.299 the European theater and permanently altered 00:12:37.299 --> 00:12:39.539 the geopolitical landscape of the 20th century. 00:12:39.740 --> 00:12:41.659 And the bitter irony for the German Admiralty 00:12:41.659 --> 00:12:44.340 was that their timeline completely failed. Right. 00:12:44.799 --> 00:12:47.179 The Yubo campaign caused immense destruction, 00:12:47.340 --> 00:12:50.059 no doubt about it, but it did not break the British 00:12:50.059 --> 00:12:52.600 logistics network in time. And the American forces 00:12:52.600 --> 00:12:55.399 did arrive. They certainly did. So World War 00:12:55.399 --> 00:12:58.659 I eventually concludes, leaving behind unprecedented 00:12:58.659 --> 00:13:01.899 devastation. And in the aftermath, the international 00:13:01.899 --> 00:13:05.059 community was deeply, deeply traumatized by the 00:13:05.059 --> 00:13:08.519 memory of the Lusitania and just the sheer ruthlessness 00:13:08.519 --> 00:13:11.580 of the U -boat campaigns. The psychological scar 00:13:11.580 --> 00:13:14.320 was massive. Right. There was a massive diplomatic 00:13:14.320 --> 00:13:17.059 push to ensure submarines could never again be 00:13:17.059 --> 00:13:19.399 used as weapons of commerce reading. And this 00:13:19.399 --> 00:13:22.100 led directly to the 1922 Washington Treaty on 00:13:22.100 --> 00:13:24.500 poison gas and submarines. And the objective 00:13:24.500 --> 00:13:27.580 of that treaty was crystal clear to impose such 00:13:27.580 --> 00:13:30.080 severe operational restrictions on submarines 00:13:30.080 --> 00:13:32.120 that they would be rendered strategically useless 00:13:32.120 --> 00:13:34.299 against merchant shipping. It was signed by major 00:13:34.299 --> 00:13:36.840 naval powers, including the United States, the 00:13:36.840 --> 00:13:39.679 United Kingdom, Japan, France and Italy. But 00:13:39.679 --> 00:13:42.000 the fatal flaw of the Washington Treaty was a 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:44.799 procedural one? Yes, it required unanimous ratification 00:13:44.799 --> 00:13:47.250 to enter into international law. And France, 00:13:47.330 --> 00:13:49.730 looking at its own maritime defense strategy, 00:13:50.269 --> 00:13:52.289 viewed the submarine as the ultimate asymmetric 00:13:52.289 --> 00:13:55.809 weapon. A poor man's navy. Exactly. A way to 00:13:55.809 --> 00:13:58.029 defend its coastlines against the much larger 00:13:58.029 --> 00:14:01.389 surface flutes of its rivals. So France refused 00:14:01.389 --> 00:14:03.789 to ratify the treaty, rendering the sweeping 00:14:03.789 --> 00:14:07.230 prohibitions entirely dead on arrival. The international 00:14:07.230 --> 00:14:09.830 community attempted to close the gap again later 00:14:09.830 --> 00:14:14.029 with the 1936 London Protocol on submarine warfare. 00:14:14.230 --> 00:14:16.779 Right. Trying again. This agreement was much 00:14:16.779 --> 00:14:20.039 more specific. It mandated that submarines strictly 00:14:20.039 --> 00:14:23.200 adhere to the traditional prize rules. If a submarine 00:14:23.200 --> 00:14:26.019 intended to sink a merchant vessel, it was legally 00:14:26.019 --> 00:14:28.519 required to surface, conduct a visit and search, 00:14:28.879 --> 00:14:31.080 and critically, place the civilian crew in a 00:14:31.080 --> 00:14:33.559 place of safety before destroying the ship. But 00:14:33.559 --> 00:14:35.820 the sources highlight just how quickly that legal 00:14:35.820 --> 00:14:38.000 framework began to crumble when confronted with 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:40.379 the actual realities of naval technology. If 00:14:40.379 --> 00:14:42.320 we connect this to the bigger picture of international 00:14:42.320 --> 00:14:45.379 law, we see a persistent vulnerability, and that 00:14:45.379 --> 00:14:48.980 is ambiguity. Ambiguity in the text. Right. Legal 00:14:48.980 --> 00:14:51.899 scholars frequently note that nations will intentionally 00:14:51.899 --> 00:14:54.919 engineer loopholes or tolerate vague language 00:14:54.919 --> 00:14:57.539 and treaties to protect their own future's strategic 00:14:57.539 --> 00:15:00.700 flexibility. Especially concerning dual use technology. 00:15:01.159 --> 00:15:03.419 Exactly. And that ambiguity became glaringly 00:15:03.419 --> 00:15:06.779 obvious when trying to define what actually constituted 00:15:06.779 --> 00:15:10.419 a merchant ship. Yes. Because remembering the 00:15:10.419 --> 00:15:13.860 devastating impact of the U -boats in WWI, Britain 00:15:13.860 --> 00:15:17.080 adopted a policy of heavily arming its civilian 00:15:17.080 --> 00:15:19.779 merchant vessels with defensive deck guns. Which 00:15:19.779 --> 00:15:22.240 creates an immediate paradox in the laws of war. 00:15:22.419 --> 00:15:25.110 Yeah. the line between a protected non -combatant 00:15:25.110 --> 00:15:27.750 and an active combatant completely blurs. Right. 00:15:27.889 --> 00:15:30.250 If a submarine commander surfaces to legally 00:15:30.250 --> 00:15:32.909 execute a visit and search protocol, and the 00:15:32.909 --> 00:15:35.509 supposedly protected merchant vessel immediately 00:15:35.509 --> 00:15:37.750 opens fire with a naval gun, which they did, 00:15:37.830 --> 00:15:40.029 the legal protections become a fatal liability 00:15:40.029 --> 00:15:42.350 for the submarine. The complexities compound 00:15:42.350 --> 00:15:44.649 even more when we look at that place of safety 00:15:44.649 --> 00:15:46.669 requirement. Let's just pause and consider the 00:15:46.669 --> 00:15:49.110 practical, physical reality of that rule. It's 00:15:49.110 --> 00:15:52.789 almost absurd. A standard World War II era submarine 00:15:52.789 --> 00:15:55.570 barely had enough internal volume for its own 00:15:55.570 --> 00:15:59.289 crew, its torpedoes, and its provisions. Taking 00:15:59.289 --> 00:16:02.190 on dozens of captured civilian sailors from a 00:16:02.190 --> 00:16:05.090 sunken freighter was physically impossible. Because 00:16:05.090 --> 00:16:07.470 taking prisoners aboard was impossible, the legal 00:16:07.470 --> 00:16:09.809 alternative was to force the merchant crews into 00:16:09.809 --> 00:16:12.450 their own emergency lifeboats before sinking 00:16:12.450 --> 00:16:15.210 the ship. But think about what that means. We 00:16:15.210 --> 00:16:17.370 really must reflect on the grim reality of this 00:16:17.370 --> 00:16:20.429 legal fiction. forcing a civilian crew into wooden 00:16:20.429 --> 00:16:22.370 rowboats in the middle of the North Atlantic 00:16:22.370 --> 00:16:25.230 in January, hundreds of miles from the nearest 00:16:25.230 --> 00:16:27.769 coastline. That is not providing a place of safety. 00:16:28.110 --> 00:16:30.429 No, it is a delayed death sentence disguised 00:16:30.429 --> 00:16:33.450 as legal compliance. The entire framework was 00:16:33.450 --> 00:16:35.769 an illusion. An illusion that shattered entirely 00:16:35.769 --> 00:16:38.240 with the outbreak of World War II. Prior to the 00:16:38.240 --> 00:16:40.779 conflict, an incredible 48 states had signed 00:16:40.779 --> 00:16:43.299 on to the prohibitions against unrestricted submarine 00:16:43.299 --> 00:16:46.120 warfare, including all the major global powers. 00:16:46.440 --> 00:16:49.019 Yet the very moment national survival was truly 00:16:49.019 --> 00:16:51.860 on the line, those treaty obligations were rapidly 00:16:51.860 --> 00:16:54.100 and systematically abandoned by every single 00:16:54.100 --> 00:16:56.600 belligerent nation. The source outlines four 00:16:56.600 --> 00:16:59.240 major historical campaigns of unrestricted submarine 00:16:59.240 --> 00:17:02.620 warfare. The first was the WWI campaign we just 00:17:02.620 --> 00:17:05.619 discussed. The second was the Battle of the Atlantic, 00:17:05.880 --> 00:17:09.480 stretching from 1939 to 1945. Germany discarded 00:17:09.480 --> 00:17:11.759 the international rules immediately upon the 00:17:11.759 --> 00:17:14.039 outbreak of war, officially issuing War Order 00:17:14.039 --> 00:17:18.099 No. 154, which explicitly authorized unrestricted 00:17:18.099 --> 00:17:20.380 attacks. And the tactical evolution in the Atlantic 00:17:20.380 --> 00:17:23.859 was profound, with submarines operating in coordinated 00:17:23.859 --> 00:17:26.460 groups to hunt down maritime logistics networks. 00:17:26.559 --> 00:17:29.069 The wolf packs. Exactly. Then the third major 00:17:29.069 --> 00:17:31.329 campaign occurred in the Baltic Sea, primarily 00:17:31.329 --> 00:17:34.670 from 1942 onwards. This was waged between Nazi 00:17:34.670 --> 00:17:37.269 Germany and the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front, 00:17:37.690 --> 00:17:39.849 utilizing the exact same unrestricted doctrines. 00:17:40.170 --> 00:17:42.349 And the fourth campaign took place in the Pacific 00:17:42.349 --> 00:17:45.009 Theater, waged primarily by the United States 00:17:45.009 --> 00:17:47.710 Navy against the Japanese Empire. Yes. And it 00:17:47.710 --> 00:17:49.730 is crucial to highlight the historical irony 00:17:49.730 --> 00:17:52.190 here. The United States, the nation that had 00:17:52.190 --> 00:17:54.670 entered World War One largely out of moral and 00:17:54.670 --> 00:17:56.450 political outrage over unrestricted submarine 00:17:56.450 --> 00:17:58.630 warfare, abandoned the restrictions from the 00:17:58.630 --> 00:18:01.089 very first hours of the Pacific War. It was an 00:18:01.089 --> 00:18:03.289 immediate shift. Following the attack on Pearl 00:18:03.289 --> 00:18:05.650 Harbor, the order for unrestricted submarine 00:18:05.650 --> 00:18:08.349 warfare against Japan was issued without hesitation. 00:18:08.599 --> 00:18:11.039 Both the British Empire in the Atlantic and the 00:18:11.039 --> 00:18:14.000 Japanese Empire in the Pacific relied heavily 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:18.099 on extended, incredibly fragile maritime logistics 00:18:18.099 --> 00:18:21.579 networks to transport raw materials and sustain 00:18:21.579 --> 00:18:24.000 their war machines. Right. They were island nations. 00:18:24.180 --> 00:18:26.720 Which made them uniquely vulnerable to the strategy 00:18:26.720 --> 00:18:29.720 of tonnage starvation. And the data reveals a 00:18:29.720 --> 00:18:32.829 truly staggering conclusion. Despite the historical 00:18:32.829 --> 00:18:35.410 focus on German U -boats and the Battle of the 00:18:35.410 --> 00:18:38.769 Atlantic, the most devastatingly successful campaign 00:18:38.769 --> 00:18:41.089 of unrestricted submarine warfare in history 00:18:41.089 --> 00:18:47.380 was executed by the United States. just lethal 00:18:47.380 --> 00:18:50.240 efficiency. Targeting vital shipments of oil, 00:18:50.480 --> 00:18:52.160 bauxite, and raw materials before they could 00:18:52.160 --> 00:18:54.779 even reach Japanese factories and working in 00:18:54.779 --> 00:18:57.579 tandem with extensive naval minefields, American 00:18:57.579 --> 00:18:59.940 submarines methodically choked off the Japanese 00:18:59.940 --> 00:19:02.200 home islands. The numbers are wild. By the end 00:19:02.200 --> 00:19:04.339 of the war, they had reduced the Japanese merchant 00:19:04.339 --> 00:19:06.759 fleet to less than a quarter of its initial tonnage. 00:19:06.960 --> 00:19:10.000 It was a master class in asymmetric naval warfare, 00:19:10.640 --> 00:19:13.460 utilizing the exact doctrine the nation had once 00:19:13.460 --> 00:19:16.190 condemned. as a violation of international law. 00:19:16.529 --> 00:19:19.589 So what does this all mean? When we trace the 00:19:19.589 --> 00:19:22.589 arc of this history, we see a naval tactic born 00:19:22.589 --> 00:19:25.609 out of sheer institutional desperation in WWI. 00:19:25.609 --> 00:19:28.309 Right. It was a technological leap that broke 00:19:28.309 --> 00:19:31.369 customary maritime law, sparked enough outrage 00:19:31.369 --> 00:19:33.930 to pull the United States into a global conflict, 00:19:34.329 --> 00:19:37.029 and survived decades of intense diplomatic efforts 00:19:37.029 --> 00:19:39.799 to ban it. It survived all of it. Yet, when the 00:19:39.799 --> 00:19:42.839 ultimate test of World War II arrived, unrestricted 00:19:42.839 --> 00:19:45.140 submarine warfare became the standard operating 00:19:45.140 --> 00:19:48.259 procedure for all major powers, ultimately being 00:19:48.259 --> 00:19:50.380 perfected by the very nation that first went 00:19:50.380 --> 00:19:52.700 to war to starve it. It is a sobering testament 00:19:52.700 --> 00:19:56.059 to the brutal pragmatism of total war. But this 00:19:56.059 --> 00:19:57.920 raises an important question for you to consider 00:19:57.920 --> 00:20:00.180 long after this deep dive ends. What's that? 00:20:00.380 --> 00:20:02.980 The cruiser rules we examined failed so spectacularly 00:20:02.980 --> 00:20:05.000 because they were written for an era of surface 00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:07.490 ships. They completely failed to account for 00:20:07.490 --> 00:20:09.890 the stealth capabilities of early submarines. 00:20:10.009 --> 00:20:12.549 The technology just outpaced the law. Exactly. 00:20:12.809 --> 00:20:15.630 So today, as modern militaries rapidly develop 00:20:15.630 --> 00:20:18.690 fully autonomous drones, AI -driven targeting 00:20:18.690 --> 00:20:21.009 systems, and next generation stealth weapons, 00:20:21.670 --> 00:20:24.910 we have to ask ourselves, are our current international 00:20:24.910 --> 00:20:27.869 laws of war about to become just as obsolete 00:20:27.869 --> 00:20:30.369 and just as heavily tested as the rules of the 00:20:30.369 --> 00:20:33.619 sea were in 1915? That is a fascinating, incredibly 00:20:33.619 --> 00:20:35.799 complex thought to leave off on. We want to thank 00:20:35.799 --> 00:20:37.680 you for joining us today as we navigated this 00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:39.859 impactful history. It is deep dives like this 00:20:39.859 --> 00:20:42.019 that really remind us why analyzing the past 00:20:42.019 --> 00:20:44.759 is the most effective way to understand the architecture 00:20:44.759 --> 00:20:46.779 of our future. Thank you for listening and we 00:20:46.779 --> 00:20:48.140 will catch you on the next deep dive.