hi i'm indy neidell and this is out of
the trenches where I sit here in the
chair of wisdom and answer all your
questions about the First World War
[Music]
Simon Sandstrom or Simone sundström if
he's actually Swedish Road
what role did Cyprus and Crete have
during the war since Cyprus was
controlled by the British couldn't the
Allies use the island to attack Anatolia
and the eastern coast of the
Mediterranean and wasn't it an objective
for the Ottomans as far as I know
British High Command never really
considered anything of the sort
one possible reason might be that they
were discouraged from large-scale
landing operations after their defeat at
Gallipoli the British did try to use
Cyprus as a bargaining chip specifically
they offered the island to Greece for
attacking Bulgaria which the Greeks
refused the Ottomans on the other hand
were they were hard-pressed pretty much
on every front and probably did not
consider Cyprus an important objective
but anyone who knows more about this
please let me know in the comments Luke
Francois van Reid Van Horne okay
cool name though must have been heck
when you were like five or six years old
but while I've heard quite a bit about
soldiers from the French North African
colonies I barely hear about French
Indochina role in the war did France
recruit indo-chinese soldiers and send
them to the front did the war bring
about any civil unrest in French
Indochina
did the French keep a significant
garrison in the Far East just just so
you have something to keep in the back
of your head for the future we will have
an entire special about French Indochina
but around 43,000 soldiers and 49,000
workers from French Indochina served in
the French army during the First World
War
theoretically they were volunteers and
they got payment as well as guaranteed
passage home for their services but
recruitment could be somewhat dubious at
times for example some local authorities
took the opportunity to get rid of I
guess what you'd call unwanted elements
in their villages by forcing them to
volunteer sure some of these people were
criminals but others were simply
landless or homeless peasants there were
several uprisings against
French colonial rule during the war
though they were not directed
exclusively against the war right in
1916 around 300 activists tried to
capture the Central Prison in Saigon
during the cochin-china uprising but
they dispersed when the police opened
fire on them a year later of Vietnamese
prison guards political prisoners and
common criminals banded together in a
mutiny at another penitentiary
now they managed to hold the prison and
some of the town's administrative
buildings for six days after which they
were driven out by colonial troops
however it would take the French several
months to completely pacify the region
together with the disaffected soldiers
and workers who returned from the war
these rebellions would give a major
impetus towards independence in later
years oh and a side note here flow
recently read that Ho Chi Minh was
present at Versailles and he was really
upset that his ideas about the
independence in the future of Indochina
were not listened to and respected there
you have it
Frank R Smith says my question is what
exactly did puerto ricans do in the war
what was their contribution in the world
oddly enough it was in fact a Puerto
Rican who gave the orders for the first
shots fired by a regular American troops
during World War one before America
joined the war lieutenant teófilo a mark
couch was the officer of the day at Fort
Brooke on March 21st 1915 when the
German supply ship old involved tried to
force its way through San Juan Bay Marsh
couch ordered warning shots fired from a
machine gun and a cannon shot - now this
forced the old involved to return to
port where it was confiscated along with
he wears it was carrying aside from this
there were about 18,000 Puerto Ricans
who served in the American forces after
the American declaration of war most of
them were drafted under the Selective
Service Act once Puerto Ricans got you a
citizenship which happened March 2nd
1917 a month before that declaration
they were organized into the two 95th to
96th 370 3rd 7th
fourth and 75th regiments of Puerto Rico
the last of which was an all-black unit
now one of these regiments was sent to
guard the Panama Canal in May the others
remained in Puerto Rico to guard the
island some of these were supposed to be
deployed in Europe but the war ended
before their training was finished
nevertheless there were numerous
Americans of Puerto Rican descent who
fought with the United States mainland
forces like the 369th infantry regiment
which would come to be known as the
Harlem Hellfighters it is very tricky
though to determine the exact numbers of
these men or the casualties they
suffered since the u.s. War Department
did not keep statistics detailing how
many of the men had originally come from
Puerto Rico if you'd like to learn about
the first american shots fired after the
american declaration of war you can
click right here and I'm not kidding for
our special episode about Guam do not
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next time