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Can you also do such a video on why the german peace initiative in 1916 failed? The Entente must have known at this point they will lose without getting the US into the war.
*Plus there was an element of racism back then. Albeit as much subconsciously as consciously. That made Britain want white people to be seen as the champions. Britain was already reliant upon Indian soldiers and the Arabs, to be able to defeat Turkey. They didn’t want to be seen reliant upon African soldiers as well, to achieve the overall victory. Americans were seen as our cousins and so our natural (racial) allies.
You guys never really got a chance to dig into this subject a lot back in 2014 besides the prelude to war series so I am glad that you guys are getting a chance to really give it the attention it deserves. Any other 2014/1914 vets out there?
story time: When Toni and me started working on The Great War, we had two weeks to figure out everything. First thing I did was design the map that was then printed out for the set and also used for our very rudimentary animations. Also had to figure out finding the correct footage and learning things like steel helmets not being (re-)invented until 1915/1916. Toni had to film and edit the The Great War in English but also the translated versions in German and Polish (a Turkish channel was scrapped right before release). So yeah, the first video videos came in very, very hot. But in the entire week-by-week run we never missed a singled Thursday upload.
I have to comment on your narration - the perfect speed, cadence, consistency and pronunciation. I hear every word that is being said, with enough time to take it in, and never need to rewind because something has been sped through. This is an amazing skill and I had to comment to commend it! Thank you and the team for another great vid
Thank you sir and the thanks extends to your respectable team for your integrity. Which was felt the most, at least for me, in your videos concerning the mandates of the British and the french in Ottoman Levant and Iraq. May Allah bless you all.
@@kingleech16 World War 2 becomes the boring war when you realize World War 1 never ended and the period of peace in between was a glorified cease fire.
@@queuedjar4578the war certainly ended. One side surrendered unconditionally with insulting terms. World war 2 could have still gone ahead even without these harsh terms just later than it did.
The weirdest part of WW1 is that it was essentially a massive family feud that just happened to engulf the world, since all of the warring nations were cousins of each other and the descendants of British King George II.
The three WWI monarchs of Germany, the UK and Russia were all Vicky's grandchildren. Willie was always the boorish bully of the family, probably to compensate for his withered left arm. He was insanely jealous of his late uncle, King Edward, mostly because of Edward's Navy and his tremendous influence in Europe. His personality came unbridled once he became the emperor of Germany, and he surrounded himself with men who stroked his ego and convinced him he was really not a mediocrity, which of course he was. More than any other monarch, Wilhelm II blundered into WWI. My fathers father, his step father, my mother's father and her step father all fought in France between 1915 and 1918. One in the Canadian Army, and the other three in the AEF.
@@boydgrandy5769 Who told you that nonsense? The monarchs of the countries were trying to prevent and contain the war. Plenty of letters left to prove it. Thing is, none of them were an absolute monarchy, so what the monarch wanted was at most semi-relevant. One example of such at 17:17. Why would he argue the peace can still be maintained, if he wants war huh?
@@nvelsen1975 Nonsense, was it. Perhaps you should look more closely into Nicky the Autocrat, who made the call for mobilization, and maybe a little harder at Willie the Gimp. Willie wrote very friendly letters to Nickie and his Cousin George, while encouraging the Austrians to go to war with Serbia, assuring them that Germany would have their back, and starting his own mobilization to execute the Schlieffen Plan. Unlike the UK, where the monarch's authority was constitutionally limited, Germany, Austria and Russia had emperors who could do things like dissolve their pesky parliamentary bodies. All three did just that when their legislative organizations didn't do what the monarch wanted. Nobody ever said no to Willie. No one. He had command of Germany's armed forces, and only he had the authority to appoint or discharge the government ministers for the major departments. He meddled, he provoked, and he surrounded himself with men who did what he wanted. He wanted a war, like a child playing with toy soldiers, and he got one.
@@nvelsen1975you Re correct. The countries leaders did not want this. The military leadership however believed their troops would win quickly and by late fall the other side would sue for peace. Both sides bet the lives, blood and treasure. In the end it sowed the seeds of 1939 and the rise of the United States. We still suffer from the end of WW1 with all the artifical borders drawn after the war. These boundaries were drawn based on an Anglo view toward territory rather than cultural, ethanic or historic boundaries.
The anecdote of Parisians looting a suspected German shop that ended up being Swiss at 28:10 mark gave me a slight chuck. Man, humans have not changed one bit in the last 110 years ago, have they?
@@larry648it doesn’t it’s a observation on human behavior. We have shiny new technologies and means of super organization rivaling anything else this planet has seen but our soft ware our operating system the human brain is still outdated and operating on what our hunter gatherer ancestors used
Whenever watching someone describe preludes to horrible events like this there’s always a part of me hoping it’ll somehow go differently and be avoided.
Always the most engaging historical content I've come across on TH-cam - the quality of Jesse's writing & narration never fails to sustain a truly exciting, breathless pace over the course of long and exhaustively detailed videos. And as is often mentioned, special Kudos for both the inclusion of intimate accounts of the events and Jesse's outstanding pronunciation of seemingly every known language. Will eagerly devour whatever you fine folks are cooking up!
The Austro-Hungarian ultimatum was presented to me in school as a Draconian, even barbaric lost of demands so unreasonable that they were effectively a declaration of war. Recently, I read the ultimatum myself and I found the demand to be quite mild and reasonable, especially in light of the fact that a Serbian government-sponsored assassin had just murdered the future leader of the Austro-Hungarian state.
Thanks for continually raising the bar on history documentaries. You guys are in a league of your own, and the ONLY history youtube channel not implicated in the Eulenburg Affair.
I really like this format, in terms of graphics, narrative style and primary source quotations. Your series on the Franco-Prussian war remains the Gold Standard for me in terms of online history documentaries, and the only one I have watched multiple times in its entirety, simply because the story-telling, the immersiveness and the way you convey the mood and feel of the time (with stories from non-combatants) gives such a more complete picture. Thank you for all your efforts!
It's curious that the German plan for war was called the Schlieffen plan by historians after the war ended. It wasn't Schlieffen's plan; it was von Moltke (the younger)'s plan since he was chief of the German general staff. From what I've read, when he was chief of the general staff, von Schlieffen considered a massive attack against France, similar to what was actually done, if Germany was only at war with France, and another approach if only at war with Russia. If at war with both countries, von Schlieffen intended a defensive war of attrition which is completely the opposite of what von Moltke (the younger) chose to do.
The von schlieffen plan acounted for an advance trough holland, von moltke ignored this, even though he was warned by von schlieffen that"the man on the extreme end of the right flank should have his right arm touching the sea" von moltke then was made chief of staff and started his own adjustements of the plan,wich was the brainchild of his former boss.
It is worth noting that a substantial amount of the Triple Entente’s July Crisis notes have been destroyed or withheld. a) France apparently destroyed notes of the Poincare-Czar Nicholas meeting (Sleepwalkers page 443) although it was possible to reconstruct most of the discussions. b) Poincare destroyed his notes regarding the French mobilization (Sleepwalkers page 504) and the notes of the Council of Ministers discussion that day are also somehow missing. c) Sir Edmond Grey destroyed his personal notes of the July Crisis (do not have a citation but read that several times). d)There are astonishing gaps in Britain’s Public Record Office List of Cabinet papers for 14 July - 20 August (Hidden History page 352) and a news article several years ago stated that Britain again delayed releasing certain Jully documents (it has been 110 years!). This obviously paints a damning picture of The Triple Entente’s activities during this period. Perhaps I missed it, but did this video mention that Poincare was from the Alsace region that was lost to Germany during the Franco-Prussian war and he wanted that region back? What better way to achieve that than to fight Germany while Germany was also fighting Russia.
Poincaré was not Alsatian but that would have been a moot point anyway : from 1871 the whole nation had been educated looking at a map of France featuring Alsace & Moselle blacked out on the map and labelled "les provinces perdues". Revanchism was on the menu for four entire decades.
@@marcel-ifc17 As you probably know, mobilization was as close to a declaration of war back then as you could have without declaring war, and Germany was the last major power to mobilize. Germany was derelict in giving the Austro-Hungarian empire the infamous “blank check”, but as war loomed it tried to diffuse the crisis. From July 1914 (McMeekin, p. 345) “[in response to Grey’s later rescinded promise of neutrality] Jagow (Germany’s Foreign Minister) promised that ‘from our side the only hostile action against France was in view, aside from mobilization,’ and asked that Schoen give this assurance to Viviani. . .” Also, the Kaiser told King George V on August 1 “if France offers me neutrality which must be guaranteed by the British fleet and army I shall of course refrain from attacking France. . . ” (McMeekin p. 344). These clear statements from the highest levels of the German state show anything other than a desire for war. Poincare’s desire for war preceded the July Crisis and in “Contesting the Origins of the First World War” it was noted in 1912 Poincare informed Savanov “that an event in the Balkans could be considered grounds to invoke the alliance obligations” (p. 122). As for your comment about Germany's actions in 1917 backfiring on it spectacularly . . . . indeed, but I am not sure what agreement could have been reached.
@@robertherm8381 Yeah, if France would be so kind to "only" give up their alliance with Russia so Germany with Austria-Hungary could conquer all of Eastern Europe including large parts of Western Russia, the so honorable and peace-loving German Empire would not start a war of aggression against France. Of course, the Germans would never ever later betray that trust and go after France anyway, am I right? You also just conveniently forget that in the logic of a Great Power conflict, this would be suicidal for France. Your defense of imperialism is disgusting. Yeah, the Russians and French and Brits share some of the blame, they were all empires with too much militarism and too focused on winning out in the competition between the Great Powers, but to excuse the two nations that started this war knowing full well the catastrophe they were risking (as the Kaiser realized), that takes some guts. Britian perhaps could have deterred the Germans. But failure to deter is in no way morally equivalent to starting a war. Invading two neutral, innocent countries is also far worse than defending France from invasion. Again, no one is blameless, but to be an avid apologist for the nations that intentionally started it all, that's simply appalling. Casually mentioning and then ignoring the most critical decision of the crisis that set Europe on the road to war, the carte blanche for Austria-Hungary, is telling. Germany did it because they felt war now would be better than war later. They knew what they were doing. They did it anyway. They have no excuse and neither do you.
@@robertherm8381 Except that this idea that "mobilization was as close to a declaration of war back then as you could have without declaring war" is purely a fictitious construct of dishonest historians trying to make axis look a bit less evil. If you try to find any international treaty or even some local internal laws (which either way don't justify such war crimes as planning/starting a war of aggression) - you will not find it stated anywhere that clearly. It is basically a talking point that can be utilised when advantageous and forgotten when not. Not to mention that there are plenty of historical precedents both before and after WWI where armies were mobilized, moved to the border, stared at each other for a while and then no war happened. But even if that were to be forgotten, the first power to mobilize the troops for a war is still neither UK, France, Russia nor Serbia, but Austria-Hungary. Russian partial mobilization happened after and was a response to the mobilization by its aggressive neighbour Austia-Hungary, so if "mobilization was ... war" then the axis powers already started war pretty much weeks before - in late July. So no matter how you cut the problem it is still almost fully the fault of the central powers.
@@haha-ui3fpExactly - and this idea that Germany was so benevolent that it wouldnt attack France if the British enforced it's neutrality BY ARMS is pretty wild as well
Congratulations on 10 years of fascinating and fantastic history videos! I've been subscribed since the beginning and it has been so cool to see how you've only improved over time.
My great uncle was killed in this war, a kid from a little town in Connecticut. Corporal Damien Williams, 102nd US Infantry, 26th Division, AEF, killed at Seicheprey, France. 4/20/1918. Looked at from the vantage point of 2024 it seems like kind of a waste.
You, sir, are 1 of only 2 historical commentators that I watch regularly as you both explain in detail the events of the Great War (the other is Dan Snow) who, like you, explain things in precise ways that are easy, simple and effortlessly understood without having to rewind and rewatch. Thank you for your enthusiasm to teach and explain the major historical events of this world. Ps Dan Snow is a British historical commentator of all British conflicts/wars going back centuries, and I would recommend watching his videos as if you like people who are as passionate about historical events as this man is you should like Dan Snow. (Sorry, I can't remember this narratives name 😔, but that's me. I remember faces, not names). Again sorry for my ignorance 🤦🤦
This is a really well researched and presented piece in an area done to death. There are so many dimensions in play as the lights began to go out all over Europe. Thank you for the work that went into this.
Kaiser Wilhelm ii was one of the key figures that came up with the “Halt In Belgrade” plan. He, Bethmann, and Britain all supported this as it would be the best decision that would prevent a continental war. Obviously Austria still declined this and like it was mentioned in this video, claimed that it was not in the best interests of Austria to simply occupy Belgrade. Another interesting fact was what happened after Wilhelm ii and Moltke had their shouting match over moving Troops form France to Russia. Wilhelm ii was so distraught about going through with the Schlieffen plan that he was allegedly recorded to have said “you gentlemen, will regret this.”
Austria dont declined the "halt in Belgrade" plan, since it was their plan from the Start, because the Empire Hungarian half vetoed to occupy any more Slavic land, but Belgrade still had a remaining Hungarian minority from the preottoman period.
The current situation between countries is startling similar to what the narrator describes in 1914. In fact everything is repeating itself. All that is needed is a single spark to ignite the next world war.
Shout out to your editor and how they got their historical footage. A lot of this archived footage is new to me, and still ties in with the topics being narrated. Neato Burrito.
It didn’t get reprints since the third edition in the mid 90’s right? There’s an audiobook version of it on Audible for membership holders. The price for the physicals in Japan is quite something. Over ¥20000 yen for the hardcover and less than ¥2000 for the mass market paperback one. A great read and listen.
It is a great read but its scholarship on the causes of the war has been rather superseded by more modern works. In particular it pays almost no attention to the currents relating to the Balkans, the Ottomans and how Russia related to them. Which is ironic given the centrality of the Austro-Serbian background to the whole thing.
"Moscow told Berlin" - Wasn't St. Petersburg Russia's capital back then? 😉 I believe I hear this mistake pretty often here 😊 But overall, I'm a big fan of the channel!
Can’t go without “the way back” from the same author. Someone mentioned “the guns of august” on comments that is also a great read. Really wish that All quiet on the western front and the way back had official audiobooks too, but maybe could find a read on librivox.
@@JustaMuteCat thanks for the recommendation, currently reading EMR Arch of Triumph, it's really excellent, he knows how to keep you turning another page to see how it works out. . Agreed, guns of August was the 1st ww1 book I ever read. Cheers from San Diego 🛹
World War 2 still would have happened regardless. Hitler wasn't the only German upset with how the great war ended, the Japanese were still going to expand because they wanted their turn at being a globalist empire, and Mussolini likely would have still rose to power and Italy would still look to switch sides with someone. Maybe Russia would have even ended up on the Axis powers if Germany succumb fully to more communist forces.
1914 is a very fascinating year of the great war. Unlike the years that came by next. You got weird looking byplanes with pilots throwing knives, broken glass, and shooting revolvers at each other. Mounted cavalrymen armed with pikes and breast plate armours, sword fighting, as well as aircrafts being flown from battle ships by the japanese.
I find the mobile part of the war just insane, like you said mounted cavalry, whole sections of troops mowed down by small arms fire imagine what it would've been like on the frontline seeing what the new tech could do, its baffling to think about.
The very peak of the rifleman. No tanks, no mortars, sub machine guns, light machine gun, almost no grenades and few machine guns. Just men and their high powered, magazine fed smokeless powder rifles blasting at each other
Love the way they always emphasize the human element even as they take apart vast, messy historical conundrums through the nuances to the brass tacks. Always learn something new
At 47:02, there is a great shot of Grand Duke Nickolai and Tsar Nicholas, cousins. The abnomally large man is the Grand Duke, and the little guy is the Tsar. They were cousins. There were some genetics in the Romanov line that produced very large and powerful men, including Tsar Nicholas's father, Alexander II. Unfortunately for himself, Nicholas did not inherit these genes and was average at best in size for the times. This likely affected his personality; in adult life, he increasingly displayed characteristics of an introverted, self-concious man, and this led to his arbitrary command decisions and ultimately domination by his wife in the last 18 months of the monarchy. Maybe a more forceful personality would have had a better outcome. Tsar Nicholas knew that the days of absolute autocracy were coming to an end, but he never had the force of will to do anything about it. Circumstances intervened, and the bloody end of himself, his family, and his line were the ultimate consequences.
He didn't even have the will to send his children out of Russia when he saw the enormous threat that the Bolsheviks were....people blame the English king for the death of the tsar when in reality Nicolas was to blame for everything, including his wife too.
The problem is I think Europe thought it would play out the same way it was for the Franco-Prussian war in 1870, quick and relatively decisive and be over with by Christmas. For some insane reason.
Yes - it's so tragic. They paraded in celebration, before heading off to war, boasting in the Summer of 1914 that they'd be "home by Christmas." Four tragic years, stalemate in miserable trench-warfare, and approximately 10 million dead.... and still it dragged on... But at the beginning, with the Summer 1914 parades, the countries thought this was finally their chance to achieve global glory, to settle old scores, to win back territories (or acquire new ones), and to re-claim national pride. What a terrible, horrible, needless tragedy.
Terrific documentary. From everything I have read, and documentaries I have watched, my view is that Wilhelm wanted war no matter how it happened. He got his wish but not the outcome he hoped for.
Superb .... your work on the Franco-Prussian War etc led me to believe that you are arguably the best in military history -. this has just confirmed your skills😊
these people, the generals, soldiers, head of states, they had no idea what this would turn into, or what it would become. fantastic video! thank you so much for making this.
Some things are never learned. At about 1:00 you discuss how shells were consumed faster than planned, and it was hard for industry to catch-up. The same problem is occurring again today in The Ukraine.
Jessies presentation and mastery of multiple languages along withe detail of the subject matter makes this channel a must. Personally I watch the episodes multiple times as there is so many interesting points to take in and absorb. The team at Great War Chanel are brilliant
Very well done..as always. I think you didn’t fully answer the title’s question about why it failed to end in 2014. Few more reasons: 1 - each power knew it had more resources it could contribute in time, 2) new allies could be gained, 3) money and resources from neutrals could be leveraged, 4) nationalism and pride were still too strong, 5) alliance agreements wouldn’t allow for a separate peace, 6) the sides were pretty even in power and capability, 7)hate and propaganda were too strong, 8) new tactics and technology gave both side hope they could gain an advantage in time.
It's important to not ignore the powder keg and why/how it was there, when examining the spark that finally ignited it all. And to to that, one has to go back, to the Franco-Prussian War, to the Austro-Hungarian/Serbian issues of early 1900s, etc.
@@RD-mi1ep After the Great War wrapped up, he went on to do World War 2 Week by Week. Now that that's coming to an end, he has started The Korean War Week by Week.
I think the events on the eastern front deserve more coverage.. so much happened and there was also unprecedented carnage but somehow the west always takes priority and is always talked about. I love this channel and have been a supporter of it since 2016! But I'd love to see a video on some of the battles of the eastern front (apart from brusilov, which you've already made)
So I'm writing a novella that takes place during the invasion of Belgium, and I have noob questions. 1. What was the state of the Belgian army's headquarters in pre-invasion 1914? Would it have been just a barracks with a few offices given the state of the army at the time? 2. Was it located in Brussels?
I know its just a thumbnail, but I put myself in one of those soldier’s heads on the trenches for the first time , waiting for the enemy assault, and conclude that it must’ve been sickening and traumatic for the individual defender!
I believe that the reasons the war became so long are the demographics, economics and technology of the era. Demographically, the improvements in sanitation while keeping high birth rate caused the population to explode 2.5 times relative to the Napoleonic era. Economics allowed to spare the manpower for the military, have enough production to supply them and better financial tools to finance it without requiring loot. Technology caused the combination of high firepower, efficient logistics and poor mobility. All those factors allowed the formation of front lines and making them stable.
It's such a shame that Germany is always characterized as giving the Blank Check whereas Russia seems to skirt much blame for escalating the war further than a 4th Balkan War as it should have been. It's a "victors write the history books" turned over-popularization of a mischaracterization. I'm with Austria 100%.
@@Crashed131963 Well, I'm ignorant as to on which front and on whose soil the first shots of the war were actually fired, I would imagine it would be on the Astro-Russo front but I could be wrong. Germany wouldn't have had to involve themselves to benefit an ally if Russia hadn't mobilized the reserve army and begun railroad transports to what became the front. It's absolutely a post-Great War narrative created by the victors that Germany was to blame, which we now see both as a falsity and fallacy. I would bet everything I own that if Russia had publicly declared non-intervention in yet a 3rd war in the Balkans in fewer than 20 years that Germany wouldn't have thought twice about military involvement. The war would have been a Serbian - Austrian affair. Now, on this side of things, with how it turned out, yea, we know that Germany; the Kaiser, the Generals, the war industrialists, etc., were looking for an excuse to establish superiority over Europe, even if not necessarily to grow the Empire. Some of Germany's actions in the Juli Krise can really be seen as flat out incompetence instead of war mongering, but that's an arguable point which really depends on how one sees the entire situation as a whole from pre-war to the day it ended.
Austria-Hungary, declares war on Serbia. Germany; backs Austria-Hungary, declares war on France and invades neutral Luxemburg and Belgium. Historians in the 21st century; "Hmmm, i wonder who started the war?"
If it would be so easy, there wouldn´t be entire buildings full of books printed on this topic. The problem is that history and historical arguments get condensed into microformats which don´t let enough room for long arguments. And yes 1 hour would be short even if we "only" discuss the time between the murder of Franz Ferdinand and War declarations. First of all: The assasination of Franz Ferdinand was (probably) staged by the chief of intelligence of Serbia and the answer to the ultimatum of Austria was not as clear-cut as reported on this channel some influencial historias argue that the answer of Serbia gives Austria allmost nothing by pretending to give them allmost everything. Only the interpretation of this little peace of paper can fill books. Than one might add that russia started it´s mobilisation very early and threatened Germany who had the war strategy to deal first with France and than with Russia. To complete their strategy they had to attack first since they didn´t thought they could win against a fully mobilized russian army and the french army. At this point it was very much a prisoners dilemma to all involved countrys. And there is also the fact that France was very well aware of the possibility of the war way ahead. Their military alliance with Russia included the possibility of an reactional war to any catastrophe at the Balkan. And no I´m not arguing here that the Axis had no guilt. I´m arguing that things are complicated, very very complicated and that history has no simple answers. If you get a simple answer from a person about history it´s probably not a informed answer. And I´m a bit sorry about ranting here but I really got triggered.
@@DerMannDerSeineMutterwar First its not the Axis its the Central Powers. And the question is not who had reasons to start a war and what war goals they had, the question is who actually started it. The answer is Austria seconded by Germany. The rest is just historians trying to justify their jobs by second guessing, reinterpreting, deconstructing, blah blah blah. It is as simple as it looks.
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Also Europe should have learned their lesson from both the Napoleonic Wars and the US Civil War.
I very much appreciate the work and effort that goes into the making of these videos. I would be delighted to assist through a subscription to Nebula, however I am not prepared to subscribe to an autorenewal contract under any circumstances. If Nebula offer a yearly subscription model, then I am happy to subscribe, otherwise no.
Can you also do such a video on why the german peace initiative in 1916 failed?
The Entente must have known at this point they will lose without getting the US into the war.
*Plus there was an element of racism back then. Albeit as much subconsciously as consciously. That made Britain want white people to be seen as the champions. Britain was already reliant upon Indian soldiers and the Arabs, to be able to defeat Turkey. They didn’t want to be seen reliant upon African soldiers as well, to achieve the overall victory.
Americans were seen as our cousins and so our natural (racial) allies.
“I heard it was because some bloke named Archie Duke shot an ostrich because he was hungry." - Baldrick
You guys never really got a chance to dig into this subject a lot back in 2014 besides the prelude to war series so I am glad that you guys are getting a chance to really give it the attention it deserves.
Any other 2014/1914 vets out there?
story time: When Toni and me started working on The Great War, we had two weeks to figure out everything. First thing I did was design the map that was then printed out for the set and also used for our very rudimentary animations. Also had to figure out finding the correct footage and learning things like steel helmets not being (re-)invented until 1915/1916. Toni had to film and edit the The Great War in English but also the translated versions in German and Polish (a Turkish channel was scrapped right before release). So yeah, the first video videos came in very, very hot. But in the entire week-by-week run we never missed a singled Thursday upload.
I wasn't there from the very beginning, but from 2015 onwards very much so, so one could say I was from the second batch of conscripts.
Me 2014. When it was 2018 I watched it and posted it on Facebook in afterhand all over again.
Not 1914, sadly I’m a 1916 vet but I’m on my 10th rewatch of the series. Hopefully that makes up for me not being there at the start of the war…
Because I didnt saw it from 2014
I have to comment on your narration - the perfect speed, cadence, consistency and pronunciation. I hear every word that is being said, with enough time to take it in, and never need to rewind because something has been sped through. This is an amazing skill and I had to comment to commend it!
Thank you and the team for another great vid
Yup, very well narrated, the only criticism (not even that, a minor peeve at best) were the long pauses before quotations.
It's great that a real human being, not some computer, is doing the narration.
Thanks!
Thank you sir and the thanks extends to your respectable team for your integrity. Which was felt the most, at least for me, in your videos concerning the mandates of the British and the french in Ottoman Levant and Iraq. May Allah bless you all.
100%...maybe just maybe slow down a tad, but that would make it longer, in any case clarity is excellent
"We are guessing you are a fan of detailed military history documentaries." Yeah hard to deny 1 hour and 10 minutes into this gem!
The great war is the most interesting modern conflict in my mind!
It boggles the mind that so many dismiss it as “dumb” and/or “boring”.
Now depressing, that is a descriptor I can get behind.
Im agree with you
@@kingleech16 World War 2 becomes the boring war when you realize World War 1 never ended and the period of peace in between was a glorified cease fire.
@@queuedjar4578the war certainly ended. One side surrendered unconditionally with insulting terms. World war 2 could have still gone ahead even without these harsh terms just later than it did.
The early episode definitely lack in the visual department, so I'm glad you guys have gone back to 1914 to give them far more visual flare!
A Serb shot an Austrian so an Indian had to fight a Turk in Iraq
And Germans in America were drafted to fight their own kin.
A succinct and sad commentary on the human condition.
And an American had to fight a German in France.
Globalism in action.
@@georgedheeraj And a Japanese had to fight a German in China.
The weirdest part of WW1 is that it was essentially a massive family feud that just happened to engulf the world, since all of the warring nations were cousins of each other and the descendants of British King George II.
The three WWI monarchs of Germany, the UK and Russia were all Vicky's grandchildren.
Willie was always the boorish bully of the family, probably to compensate for his withered left arm. He was insanely jealous of his late uncle, King Edward, mostly because of Edward's Navy and his tremendous influence in Europe. His personality came unbridled once he became the emperor of Germany, and he surrounded himself with men who stroked his ego and convinced him he was really not a mediocrity, which of course he was. More than any other monarch, Wilhelm II blundered into WWI.
My fathers father, his step father, my mother's father and her step father all fought in France between 1915 and 1918. One in the Canadian Army, and the other three in the AEF.
@@boydgrandy5769
Who told you that nonsense?
The monarchs of the countries were trying to prevent and contain the war. Plenty of letters left to prove it. Thing is, none of them were an absolute monarchy, so what the monarch wanted was at most semi-relevant.
One example of such at 17:17. Why would he argue the peace can still be maintained, if he wants war huh?
@@nvelsen1975 Nonsense, was it.
Perhaps you should look more closely into Nicky the Autocrat, who made the call for mobilization, and maybe a little harder at Willie the Gimp. Willie wrote very friendly letters to Nickie and his Cousin George, while encouraging the Austrians to go to war with Serbia, assuring them that Germany would have their back, and starting his own mobilization to execute the Schlieffen Plan. Unlike the UK, where the monarch's authority was constitutionally limited, Germany, Austria and Russia had emperors who could do things like dissolve their pesky parliamentary bodies. All three did just that when their legislative organizations didn't do what the monarch wanted.
Nobody ever said no to Willie. No one. He had command of Germany's armed forces, and only he had the authority to appoint or discharge the government ministers for the major departments. He meddled, he provoked, and he surrounded himself with men who did what he wanted. He wanted a war, like a child playing with toy soldiers, and he got one.
@@boydgrandy5769
So you admit to being a liar, by dodging the question.
Perhaps you should try to be less of a liar, and show more honesty.
@@nvelsen1975you Re correct. The countries leaders did not want this. The military leadership however believed their troops would win quickly and by late fall the other side would sue for peace.
Both sides bet the lives, blood and treasure. In the end it sowed the seeds of 1939 and the rise of the United States. We still suffer from the end of WW1 with all the artifical borders drawn after the war. These boundaries were drawn based on an Anglo view toward territory rather than cultural, ethanic or historic boundaries.
Nothing like a fresh cup of coffee while watching another great documentary from The Great War.
Couldn’t agree more
The anecdote of Parisians looting a suspected German shop that ended up being Swiss at 28:10 mark gave me a slight chuck. Man, humans have not changed one bit in the last 110 years ago, have they?
in the last 100,000 years. sure the technological trappings have changed, but mankind is still mankind.
@@MarioSchlemmer-s5k and how does any of that justify destroying private property?
@@larry648it doesn’t it’s a observation on human behavior. We have shiny new technologies and means of super organization rivaling anything else this planet has seen but our soft ware our operating system the human brain is still outdated and operating on what our hunter gatherer ancestors used
War... War Never Changes.
Whenever watching someone describe preludes to horrible events like this there’s always a part of me hoping it’ll somehow go differently and be avoided.
Yes I know exactly what you mean. If only....
Always the most engaging historical content I've come across on TH-cam - the quality of Jesse's writing & narration never fails to sustain a truly exciting, breathless pace over the course of long and exhaustively detailed videos. And as is often mentioned, special Kudos for both the inclusion of intimate accounts of the events and Jesse's outstanding pronunciation of seemingly every known language. Will eagerly devour whatever you fine folks are cooking up!
The Austro-Hungarian ultimatum was presented to me in school as a Draconian, even barbaric lost of demands so unreasonable that they were effectively a declaration of war. Recently, I read the ultimatum myself and I found the demand to be quite mild and reasonable, especially in light of the fact that a Serbian government-sponsored assassin had just murdered the future leader of the Austro-Hungarian state.
"I heard it was because some bloke named Archie Duke shot an ostrich because he was hungry." - Baldrick
Hilarious
There was a problem with the plan...it was bollocks...
So the poor ostrich died for nothing...
Dead meme
I was here for this comment. Wasn't disappointed
Thanks!
Thanks for continually raising the bar on history documentaries. You guys are in a league of your own, and the ONLY history youtube channel not implicated in the Eulenburg Affair.
What does Eulenberg Affair have to do with youtube?
@@chombus2602 Ssssshhhhh!
Boy, that escalated quickly!
yes, that really escalated quickly!
It really got out of hand.
I really like this format, in terms of graphics, narrative style and primary source quotations. Your series on the Franco-Prussian war remains the Gold Standard for me in terms of online history documentaries, and the only one I have watched multiple times in its entirety, simply because the story-telling, the immersiveness and the way you convey the mood and feel of the time (with stories from non-combatants) gives such a more complete picture. Thank you for all your efforts!
It's curious that the German plan for war was called the Schlieffen plan by historians after the war ended. It wasn't Schlieffen's plan; it was von Moltke (the younger)'s plan since he was chief of the German general staff. From what I've read, when he was chief of the general staff, von Schlieffen considered a massive attack against France, similar to what was actually done, if Germany was only at war with France, and another approach if only at war with Russia. If at war with both countries, von Schlieffen intended a defensive war of attrition which is completely the opposite of what von Moltke (the younger) chose to do.
The von schlieffen plan acounted for an advance trough holland, von moltke ignored this, even though he was warned by von schlieffen that"the man on the extreme end of the right flank should have his right arm touching the sea" von moltke then was made chief of staff and started his own adjustements of the plan,wich was the brainchild of his former boss.
Thank you for a perfectly timed refresher on the July-Crisis 110 years ago.
01:19 gave me goose-bumps ... are we there yet ... again??
It is worth noting that a substantial amount of the Triple Entente’s July Crisis notes have been destroyed or withheld.
a) France apparently destroyed notes of the Poincare-Czar Nicholas meeting (Sleepwalkers page 443) although it was possible to reconstruct most of the discussions.
b) Poincare destroyed his notes regarding the French mobilization (Sleepwalkers page 504) and the notes of the Council of Ministers discussion that day are also somehow missing.
c) Sir Edmond Grey destroyed his personal notes of the July Crisis (do not have a citation but read that several times).
d)There are astonishing gaps in Britain’s Public Record Office List of Cabinet papers for 14 July - 20 August (Hidden History page 352) and a news article several years ago stated that Britain again delayed releasing certain Jully documents (it has been 110 years!).
This obviously paints a damning picture of The Triple Entente’s activities during this period. Perhaps I missed it, but did this video mention that Poincare was from the Alsace region that was lost to Germany during the Franco-Prussian war and he wanted that region back? What better way to achieve that than to fight Germany while Germany was also fighting Russia.
Poincaré was not Alsatian but that would have been a moot point anyway : from 1871 the whole nation had been educated looking at a map of France featuring Alsace & Moselle blacked out on the map and labelled "les provinces perdues". Revanchism was on the menu for four entire decades.
@@marcel-ifc17 As you probably know, mobilization was as close to a declaration of war back then as you could have without declaring war, and Germany was the last major power to mobilize.
Germany was derelict in giving the Austro-Hungarian empire the infamous “blank check”, but as war loomed it tried to diffuse the crisis. From July 1914 (McMeekin, p. 345) “[in response to Grey’s later rescinded promise of neutrality] Jagow (Germany’s Foreign Minister) promised that ‘from our side the only hostile action against France was in view, aside from mobilization,’ and asked that Schoen give this assurance to Viviani. . .” Also, the Kaiser told King George V on August 1 “if France offers me neutrality which must be guaranteed by the British fleet and army I shall of course refrain from attacking France. . . ” (McMeekin p. 344).
These clear statements from the highest levels of the German state show anything other than a desire for war.
Poincare’s desire for war preceded the July Crisis and in “Contesting the Origins of the First World War” it was noted in 1912 Poincare informed Savanov “that an event in the Balkans could be considered grounds to invoke the alliance obligations” (p. 122).
As for your comment about Germany's actions in 1917 backfiring on it spectacularly . . . . indeed, but I am not sure what agreement could have been reached.
@@robertherm8381 Yeah, if France would be so kind to "only" give up their alliance with Russia so Germany with Austria-Hungary could conquer all of Eastern Europe including large parts of Western Russia, the so honorable and peace-loving German Empire would not start a war of aggression against France. Of course, the Germans would never ever later betray that trust and go after France anyway, am I right? You also just conveniently forget that in the logic of a Great Power conflict, this would be suicidal for France.
Your defense of imperialism is disgusting. Yeah, the Russians and French and Brits share some of the blame, they were all empires with too much militarism and too focused on winning out in the competition between the Great Powers, but to excuse the two nations that started this war knowing full well the catastrophe they were risking (as the Kaiser realized), that takes some guts. Britian perhaps could have deterred the Germans. But failure to deter is in no way morally equivalent to starting a war. Invading two neutral, innocent countries is also far worse than defending France from invasion. Again, no one is blameless, but to be an avid apologist for the nations that intentionally started it all, that's simply appalling. Casually mentioning and then ignoring the most critical decision of the crisis that set Europe on the road to war, the carte blanche for Austria-Hungary, is telling. Germany did it because they felt war now would be better than war later. They knew what they were doing. They did it anyway. They have no excuse and neither do you.
@@robertherm8381 Except that this idea that "mobilization was as close to a declaration of war back then as you could have without declaring war" is purely a fictitious construct of dishonest historians trying to make axis look a bit less evil. If you try to find any international treaty or even some local internal laws (which either way don't justify such war crimes as planning/starting a war of aggression) - you will not find it stated anywhere that clearly. It is basically a talking point that can be utilised when advantageous and forgotten when not. Not to mention that there are plenty of historical precedents both before and after WWI where armies were mobilized, moved to the border, stared at each other for a while and then no war happened.
But even if that were to be forgotten, the first power to mobilize the troops for a war is still neither UK, France, Russia nor Serbia, but Austria-Hungary. Russian partial mobilization happened after and was a response to the mobilization by its aggressive neighbour Austia-Hungary, so if "mobilization was ... war" then the axis powers already started war pretty much weeks before - in late July. So no matter how you cut the problem it is still almost fully the fault of the central powers.
@@haha-ui3fpExactly - and this idea that Germany was so benevolent that it wouldnt attack France if the British enforced it's neutrality BY ARMS is pretty wild as well
Congratulations on 10 years of fascinating and fantastic history videos! I've been subscribed since the beginning and it has been so cool to see how you've only improved over time.
My great uncle was killed in this war, a kid from a little town in Connecticut. Corporal Damien Williams, 102nd US Infantry, 26th Division, AEF, killed at Seicheprey, France. 4/20/1918. Looked at from the vantage point of 2024 it seems like kind of a waste.
Rough loss for your family.
Congrats on the 10 years! After this I’m going back to binging the original playlists again. Cheers from Japan!
This new format is EPIC - Thank You, I shall enjoy it to the fullest
last time I was this early, it was 1914
and Italy was still part of the Central Powers
@@TheGreatWarthen was back to being a part of the allies
@@julianowyujie And after that part of ehhh...we dont talk about that...
Maybe learn some new jokes
😅😅😅
Marvelously produced, RTH is still my favorite war-doc series! The unique blend of top-level analysis and accounts from the human-scale are top-notch
You, sir, are 1 of only 2 historical commentators that I watch regularly as you both explain in detail the events of the Great War (the other is Dan Snow) who, like you, explain things in precise ways that are easy, simple and effortlessly understood without having to rewind and rewatch. Thank you for your enthusiasm to teach and explain the major historical events of this world. Ps Dan Snow is a British historical commentator of all British conflicts/wars going back centuries, and I would recommend watching his videos as if you like people who are as passionate about historical events as this man is you should like Dan Snow. (Sorry, I can't remember this narratives name 😔, but that's me. I remember faces, not names). Again sorry for my ignorance 🤦🤦
thanks for keeping the channel alive and for such wonderful videos!
Love the long form videos!
Thanks for making this!
This is a really well researched and presented piece in an area done to death. There are so many dimensions in play as the lights began to go out all over Europe. Thank you for the work that went into this.
Kaiser Wilhelm ii was one of the key figures that came up with the “Halt In Belgrade” plan. He, Bethmann, and Britain all supported this as it would be the best decision that would prevent a continental war.
Obviously Austria still declined this and like it was mentioned in this video, claimed that it was not in the best interests of Austria to simply occupy Belgrade.
Another interesting fact was what happened after Wilhelm ii and Moltke had their shouting match over moving Troops form France to Russia. Wilhelm ii was so distraught about going through with the Schlieffen plan that he was allegedly recorded to have said “you gentlemen, will regret this.”
Austria dont declined the "halt in Belgrade" plan, since it was their plan from the Start, because the Empire Hungarian half vetoed to occupy any more Slavic land, but Belgrade still had a remaining Hungarian minority from the preottoman period.
The current situation between countries is startling similar to what the narrator describes in 1914. In fact everything is repeating itself. All that is needed is a single spark to ignite the next world war.
Thanks! I wish people would watch and learn. Its eerie how there are some similar tensions in Europe.
Shout out to your editor and how they got their historical footage. A lot of this archived footage is new to me, and still ties in with the topics being narrated. Neato Burrito.
how many have read: The Guns of August (B.W. Tuchman)?
tyvm for another upload
🦇🇨🇦😁
It didn’t get reprints since the third edition in the mid 90’s right? There’s an audiobook version of it on Audible for membership holders. The price for the physicals in Japan is quite something. Over ¥20000 yen for the hardcover and less than ¥2000 for the mass market paperback one. A great read and listen.
It is a great read but its scholarship on the causes of the war has been rather superseded by more modern works. In particular it pays almost no attention to the currents relating to the Balkans, the Ottomans and how Russia related to them. Which is ironic given the centrality of the Austro-Serbian background to the whole thing.
@@arkdeniz dont get me started w the balkans 🙃tc
I've Tuchman and A J P Taylor as well as an interesting book called Lawrence in Arabia by Scott Anderson.
I've also read Margaret Macmillan's The War That Ended Peace and Paris 1919 which I highly recommend.
"Moscow told Berlin" - Wasn't St. Petersburg Russia's capital back then? 😉 I believe I hear this mistake pretty often here 😊 But overall, I'm a big fan of the channel!
THis was thorough and fantastic! I am a Nebula subscriber, but still pop on to TH-cam to juice your algorithm!
The early episode definitely lack in the visual department, so I'm glad you guys have gone back to 1914 to give them far more visual flare!
My favorite channel on YT! 💙
All quiet on the western front is truly one of the books i can read over and over again
Can’t go without “the way back” from the same author. Someone mentioned “the guns of august” on comments that is also a great read. Really wish that All quiet on the western front and the way back had official audiobooks too, but maybe could find a read on librivox.
I prefer Storm of Steel.
@@JustaMuteCat thanks for the recommendation, currently reading EMR Arch of Triumph, it's really excellent, he knows how to keep you turning another page to see how it works out. . Agreed, guns of August was the 1st ww1 book I ever read. Cheers from San Diego 🛹
RTH is always introducing incredible, informative historical coverage episodes... like this one 👍🏻👌🙏
Have a great weekend everyone 😊❤
pre trench warfare days are so interesting to me because of how unimaginably deadly they are; but so rarely talked about. great episode.
Just let an art student be accepted in art class in Vienna and you can stop part 2.
Great now we are ini red Alert timeline
World War 2 still would have happened regardless. Hitler wasn't the only German upset with how the great war ended, the Japanese were still going to expand because they wanted their turn at being a globalist empire, and Mussolini likely would have still rose to power and Italy would still look to switch sides with someone. Maybe Russia would have even ended up on the Axis powers if Germany succumb fully to more communist forces.
Hitler was lazy, didn't want steady work as a commercial artist, but had grandiose ideas of his own talents as a painter
Meh. If that specific Austrian painter wasn't the leader of the NSDAP, it would've been someone else like Himmler, Strasser, or Goebbels.
@@patnewbie2177 Some historians suggest part 2 would've been the russians or britain
1914 is a very fascinating year of the great war. Unlike the years that came by next. You got weird looking byplanes with pilots throwing knives, broken glass, and shooting revolvers at each other. Mounted cavalrymen armed with pikes and breast plate armours, sword fighting, as well as aircrafts being flown from battle ships by the japanese.
I find the mobile part of the war just insane, like you said mounted cavalry, whole sections of troops mowed down by small arms fire imagine what it would've been like on the frontline seeing what the new tech could do, its baffling to think about.
The very peak of the rifleman. No tanks, no mortars, sub machine guns, light machine gun, almost no grenades and few machine guns. Just men and their high powered, magazine fed smokeless powder rifles blasting at each other
I love this channel. Thank you, Jesse!
Love the way they always emphasize the human element even as they take apart vast, messy historical conundrums through the nuances to the brass tacks. Always learn something new
"Conrad put it bluntly.... War....War never changes"
You think this channel will publish an episode on the Resource Wars of the 21st century? 😃
At 47:02, there is a great shot of Grand Duke Nickolai and Tsar Nicholas, cousins. The abnomally large man is the Grand Duke, and the little guy is the Tsar. They were cousins. There were some genetics in the Romanov line that produced very large and powerful men, including Tsar Nicholas's father, Alexander II. Unfortunately for himself, Nicholas did not inherit these genes and was average at best in size for the times. This likely affected his personality; in adult life, he increasingly displayed characteristics of an introverted, self-concious man, and this led to his arbitrary command decisions and ultimately domination by his wife in the last 18 months of the monarchy.
Maybe a more forceful personality would have had a better outcome. Tsar Nicholas knew that the days of absolute autocracy were coming to an end, but he never had the force of will to do anything about it. Circumstances intervened, and the bloody end of himself, his family, and his line were the ultimate consequences.
He didn't even have the will to send his children out of Russia when he saw the enormous threat that the Bolsheviks were....people blame the English king for the death of the tsar when in reality Nicolas was to blame for everything, including his wife too.
Tsar nicholas father was Alexander III
@@Arielsfork Yes. Thanks for the correction.
Not sure your theory on their height affecting personality holds any weight. Many tall guys have meek and introverted personalities
The problem is I think Europe thought it would play out the same way it was for the Franco-Prussian war in 1870, quick and relatively decisive and be over with by Christmas. For some insane reason.
It still baffles me today that people back then thought WWI would be a short war.
WW3 might already be 2 years in
Yes - it's so tragic. They paraded in celebration, before heading off to war, boasting in the Summer of 1914 that they'd be "home by Christmas." Four tragic years, stalemate in miserable trench-warfare, and approximately 10 million dead.... and still it dragged on... But at the beginning, with the Summer 1914 parades, the countries thought this was finally their chance to achieve global glory, to settle old scores, to win back territories (or acquire new ones), and to re-claim national pride. What a terrible, horrible, needless tragedy.
Terrific documentary. From everything I have read, and documentaries I have watched, my view is that Wilhelm wanted war no matter how it happened. He got his wish but not the outcome he hoped for.
Love this channel, thanks for keeping it going.
Thanks!
“I heard it was because some bloke named Archie Duke shot an ostrich because he was hungry." - Baldrick
Perfect video. So now we will repeat?
56:40 I love that he keeps waving despite having dropped his hat lol
Superb .... your work on the Franco-Prussian War etc led me to believe that you are arguably the best in military history -. this has just confirmed your skills😊
Thanks!
these people, the generals, soldiers, head of states, they had no idea what this would turn into, or what it would become.
fantastic video! thank you so much for making this.
Many wars are like that, They turn out much larger and worst than people thought .
Very well done.
Both fascinating and intriguing.
great effort thanks
Another epic video, beautifully put together. Thank you!
Thx for the video
Another great video. Well done Jesse…
Some things are never learned. At about 1:00 you discuss how shells were consumed faster than planned, and it was hard for industry to catch-up. The same problem is occurring again today in The Ukraine.
Super excited for this one!
We are so back!
Thank you for your work. Merci pour votre travail. Danke für ihre Arbeit. Спасйбо за вашу работу
You reference Christopher Clark's book The Sleepwalkers. I highly recommend it.
Ultimate video.
The battle of Lodz at 52:30 in November/Dec 1914 was nasty
Jessies presentation and mastery of multiple languages along withe detail of the subject matter makes this channel a must. Personally I watch the episodes multiple times as there is so many interesting points to take in and absorb. The team at Great War Chanel are brilliant
Highest Praise on being a great narrator....Jesse
Excellent doc. High level.
Glad to see you guys again❤
Wow. Just wow. Thank you so much. Love you guys.
Outstanding!
Very well done..as always. I think you didn’t fully answer the title’s question about why it failed to end in 2014. Few more reasons: 1 - each power knew it had more resources it could contribute in time, 2) new allies could be gained, 3) money and resources from neutrals could be leveraged, 4) nationalism and pride were still too strong, 5) alliance agreements wouldn’t allow for a separate peace, 6) the sides were pretty even in power and capability, 7)hate and propaganda were too strong, 8) new tactics and technology gave both side hope they could gain an advantage in time.
It's sad that we still teach that a lone wolf started a world war...
It's important to not ignore the powder keg and why/how it was there, when examining the spark that finally ignited it all. And to to that, one has to go back, to the Franco-Prussian War, to the Austro-Hungarian/Serbian issues of early 1900s, etc.
Where did that Indy Neidell go
He left like 6 years ago to do another project.
Korea.
@@Masada1911 do you know like which channel or something he went to ? I really liked his narration
@@RD-mi1ep real time history
@@RD-mi1ep After the Great War wrapped up, he went on to do World War 2 Week by Week. Now that that's coming to an end, he has started The Korean War Week by Week.
I think the events on the eastern front deserve more coverage.. so much happened and there was also unprecedented carnage but somehow the west always takes priority and is always talked about. I love this channel and have been a supporter of it since 2016! But I'd love to see a video on some of the battles of the eastern front (apart from brusilov, which you've already made)
They also covered the Kerensky Offensive of 1917
There are some really fascinating battles after tannenberg in late 1914 that should be covered more
So I'm writing a novella that takes place during the invasion of Belgium, and I have noob questions. 1. What was the state of the Belgian army's headquarters in pre-invasion 1914? Would it have been just a barracks with a few offices given the state of the army at the time? 2. Was it located in Brussels?
I know a bunch of the army were in the Belgian Congo at the time the war broke out.
Great video, again. Merci beaucoup !
15:41 Is this clip flipped? Why is everyone saluting with the left hand?
7:19 That's about the most blunt way you could have said it indeed XD
I know its just a thumbnail, but I put myself in one of those soldier’s heads on the trenches for the first time , waiting for the enemy assault, and conclude that it must’ve been sickening and traumatic for the individual defender!
I believe that the reasons the war became so long are the demographics, economics and technology of the era.
Demographically, the improvements in sanitation while keeping high birth rate caused the population to explode 2.5 times relative to the Napoleonic era.
Economics allowed to spare the manpower for the military, have enough production to supply them and better financial tools to finance it without requiring loot.
Technology caused the combination of high firepower, efficient logistics and poor mobility.
All those factors allowed the formation of front lines and making them stable.
Very interesting
They had the best whiskers back then. That needs to become a thing again.
Fantastic description of ww1
Kool, this was an unexpected gem.
It's such a shame that Germany is always characterized as giving the Blank Check whereas Russia seems to skirt much blame for escalating the war further than a 4th Balkan War as it should have been.
It's a "victors write the history books" turned over-popularization of a mischaracterization.
I'm with Austria 100%.
Germany did enter into countries first .
@@Crashed131963 Well, I'm ignorant as to on which front and on whose soil the first shots of the war were actually fired, I would imagine it would be on the Astro-Russo front but I could be wrong. Germany wouldn't have had to involve themselves to benefit an ally if Russia hadn't mobilized the reserve army and begun railroad transports to what became the front. It's absolutely a post-Great War narrative created by the victors that Germany was to blame, which we now see both as a falsity and fallacy.
I would bet everything I own that if Russia had publicly declared non-intervention in yet a 3rd war in the Balkans in fewer than 20 years that Germany wouldn't have thought twice about military involvement. The war would have been a Serbian - Austrian affair.
Now, on this side of things, with how it turned out, yea, we know that Germany; the Kaiser, the Generals, the war industrialists, etc., were looking for an excuse to establish superiority over Europe, even if not necessarily to grow the Empire. Some of Germany's actions in the Juli Krise can really be seen as flat out incompetence instead of war mongering, but that's an arguable point which really depends on how one sees the entire situation as a whole from pre-war to the day it ended.
Try 1914 from Lyn McDonald, a great read
Wooow, more than 1h!
what is the background music that starts playing when talking about the refugees? it starts around 33:07
Austria-Hungary, declares war on Serbia.
Germany; backs Austria-Hungary, declares war on France and invades neutral Luxemburg and Belgium.
Historians in the 21st century; "Hmmm, i wonder who started the war?"
Russia
Russia trying to gain power in the Balkans for funding and guaranteeing Serbia who commits assassinations
If it would be so easy, there wouldn´t be entire buildings full of books printed on this topic. The problem is that history and historical arguments get condensed into microformats which don´t let enough room for long arguments. And yes 1 hour would be short even if we "only" discuss the time between the murder of Franz Ferdinand and War declarations.
First of all: The assasination of Franz Ferdinand was (probably) staged by the chief of intelligence of Serbia and the answer to the ultimatum of Austria was not as clear-cut as reported on this channel some influencial historias argue that the answer of Serbia gives Austria allmost nothing by pretending to give them allmost everything. Only the interpretation of this little peace of paper can fill books.
Than one might add that russia started it´s mobilisation very early and threatened Germany who had the war strategy to deal first with France and than with Russia. To complete their strategy they had to attack first since they didn´t thought they could win against a fully mobilized russian army and the french army. At this point it was very much a prisoners dilemma to all involved countrys.
And there is also the fact that France was very well aware of the possibility of the war way ahead. Their military alliance with Russia included the possibility of an reactional war to any catastrophe at the Balkan.
And no I´m not arguing here that the Axis had no guilt. I´m arguing that things are complicated, very very complicated and that history has no simple answers. If you get a simple answer from a person about history it´s probably not a informed answer. And I´m a bit sorry about ranting here but I really got triggered.
what about russia, france, great britian, ottoman empire, japan, italy and their war aims?
@@DerMannDerSeineMutterwar First its not the Axis its the Central Powers. And the question is not who had reasons to start a war and what war goals they had, the question is who actually started it.
The answer is Austria seconded by Germany. The rest is just historians trying to justify their jobs by second guessing, reinterpreting, deconstructing, blah blah blah. It is as simple as it looks.
St. Petersburg, not Moscow, not until Ulyanov took over in 1918.
Still funny that the royalty of each nation were basically all related
You need to be closer to the mic and or you REALLY need something to quiet the room… too much echo