I honestly don't think a French German alliance ever goes away at this point. Not only do the 2 countries need eachother to be relevant but they invested way to much money and time in making this alliance work. Even if the euro falls, there are still tonnes of political structures tying the 2 nations together
And very probably a "New Euro" of the core countries. FR, NE, DE, BE wouldn't let it go, just considering how France wanted Germany to leave the Mark behind as a payment for the reunification. The Low Countries just love their trade.
@@suspecm6316 Thing is, he got the most important interests of Germany and France wrong. Most important interest: keeping the other one at bay and vice versa. Considering the EU prohibited war between them effectively they would found their own New/Core EU instead of falling back into pre WW2 patterns. It's not like nobody has learned anything in the last 70 years. Imposing the trajectory of a ever-growing EU with candidate countries and the like would be scrapped though.
I don't think the "German-French friendship" is necessarily only a facade. France largely looks southward towards the Mediterranean and former French-Africa as their desired sphere of influence, while Germany's strategic goals lie eastward. Having a dependable ally securing their flanks or helping to mediate the impact of crises could become of major importance in the future.
As french, most french people don't want to be stuck with Germany, but the elites have always ignored the will of the people. In 2005 there was a referendum in France and 55% of our people said NO to European integration, but the leaders signed the Lisbon Treaty anyway. It's changing, there are elections in 3 months and many candidates from right to left suggest leaving Germany. If a German reads this, please we don't want to fight but that doesn't mean having an alliance! We don't want you, you are from another culture, language and history that is not Latin and Roman.
@@leloupdesparte7642 loll you do realize the French are originally German right ? Je suis français. On était les “Franks” avant devenir les français d’aujourd’hui. We are basically Germanics who have been Latinized. Pourquoi tu pense la langue allemande à quelque mots français comme par example : violette, rosé, catastrophes etc
@@TH-camrAnalyst123 I'd say you're more like Celts who mixed with Latins then were conquered by some Germanic invaders who then adopted the Roman culture anyway.
I would be interested to see a video specifically on countries with massive aging populations like Japan, Germany, Italy etc.. You always mention this factor but the actual long term consequences of rapidly aging populations are still just speculation since something like this has never occured before. I would asume that over a decade long process these countries fall more and more into geopolitical obscurity.
could be on the other hand they could for a while alivate the problem with Immigration Germany is country with the second highest number of immigrants per year after the USA and of course it could be poorer and less warlike more careful so to so to speak but also has a chance to become more stable.
@@ThiagoPagogna No they'll be lucky to survive not being destroyed by China The demographics things is something some of us are beginning to realize why. It's not merely our economics or feminism. It's the whole ideology of classic liberalism and all of the various ideas that spin off from that be it capitalism, socialism, communism, social justice, etc.
In a few decades, climate change will present us with entirely new challenges. Then it will not matter whether a population ages or not. Tens of millions of people will be on the run and cause chaos. It will be a migration of biblical proportions.
You definitely don't give Europe enough credit. I'm and Australian Electrical Engineer and all the good industrial equipment is European. You go Chinese if you want something cheaper and American if you want something that looks good on paper but everyone else involved in the project will hate you because the equipment is designed to stupid standards and measurements. You buy Australian if it's something cheap and heavy like bricks that isn't worth the shipping cost, or something that's a one off custom build specific to that job.
He is from the U.S. What did you expect? He has a VERY biased way of looking at Europe. I am not saying that U.S. has not helped Europe, but some of his claims about Europe are just flat out ignorant.
@takyu It's ironic that you say this looking at your comment. You're telling someone to get out because he has a different opinion and yet you say he's the one coming from a group where everyone share the same beliefs.
I really enjoy your Videos. But you honestly underestimate the strong bond between members of the EU. Todays Germans, French, Polish etc. grew up in a world where you learned to love and accept the other as a brother and with the strong believe that turning against each other again would mean mutual destruction. And like Brothers Europeans might not always agree on everything and our leaders might not always work together perfectly but the people of the continent feel more connected than ever before. Greetings from Austria to you and to all my European brothers in this comment section.
I think Europe's youth is way stronger and more unified these days, because of the internet. I am a German American who has friends who are French/German, Norwegian/German, British/German. The cultural mixture of people in the last years has become so common in Europe that no one considers each other a possible enemy. The new generations will be the peacekeepers of the world!
Today's young Western Europeans have never dealt with deprivation or hardship before. Everyone are friends when things are going well. But here is a question I am interested in hearing an honest answer for: Would you as an Austrian be willing to go to war and risk your life in order to protect Germany or France or Poland? Or how about a more distant southern European country such as Greece or Italy? Another question: if there is a deep economic depression would you as an Austrian be willing to send money out of Austria in order to prop up Spain, for example? How much money would you be willing to spend? It would seem to me that the answer to those questions would determine the long term viability of the European Union.
@@Letsplay222 yes, yes, yes, i don't cling to money and especially dont need more than others. I further fully support the idea of the eu fusing together. But thats probably not a thing for everyone sadly.
@@Letsplay222 Under young europeans? Definetly. I also would not think that it could come to a war, without at least consulting. Economically sure. Greece as an example. There were good intentions behind it, buty lobbying and old economics made it into a bad thing. Best would have been juts to print money, like in covid, but everyone is scared of inflation. The alternative being austerity. It was just economic misguidance. BUT in principle, yes we wanted to help. Even though it sure made things partially better and worse
I think George Friedman take best describes the EU It is a proto state and u can't ignore the European identity. But this identity is still in shape and in flux The thing I found about the EU as someone looking across from the UK is that the EU talks this up as if it's as strong as an identity like being an American and then run into disappointment because it overstated Just be pragmatic about where we are now
If you have more than superficial knowledge in a subject, then you realise that incredible nonsense is often said on this channel. The creator of this video obviously has no idea about the political culture and the mentality of the Federal Republic of Germany. My God, we are no longer in 1918 and you cannot simply transfer the geopolitics of that time to today... This starts with the fact that the Federal Republic is described as a state oriented towards the East. That is simply wrong! With its defeat in the Second World War, Germany lost the eastern parts of Prussia to Poland... This meant a westward shift of the political centre of Germany. It is no wonder that the German constitution was written in a West Rhineland town and that the first Chancellor was a Rhinelander. This has not changed with reunification. North Rhine-Westphalia alone has more inhabitants than the entire former GDR. And also the metropolitan areas located away from the Rhine (with the exception of Berlin), such as Hamburg and Munich, are also oriented towards the West. Today's Germany is a country deeply oriented towards the West and German politics would prefer not to deal with Eastern Europe at all (as can be seen, for example, in the Ukraine crisis). So where does this nonsense about cultural differences with France come from? Almost half of the German population lives near the French border and Germans and French, despite some differences, know exactly what they appreciate in each other and their partnership... I could go on like this, since there was a lot of other nonsense spread around here, but in the end the video seems to be about simply creating a dystopian picture of the future without even understanding the current situation... Edit: In fact, I know many of the ideas presented in this video from American authors, on which large parts of this video seem to be based. The big mistake these authors make is that they want to transfer the geopolitics of the First and Second World Wars to today. Especially in the case of Germany, this is complete nonsense.... Today's Germany is not really comparable to the German Empire of 1914. Both culturally and economically. In fact, the Germans would prefer not to have to pursue a foreign policy outside the EU at all and simply expand their economy. So Germany's future as a potential great power lies in its economy. Moreover, Germany will strive to uphold the Western values of democracy (without having the ambition to defend these ideas outside the EU).
The fact remains that Germany under the federal Republic is a weak state that has gone from being harmless to actively seeking to bring about racial, economic and demographic ruin to the rest of Europe. You mentioned the political culture and the mentality of the Federal Republic of Germany. That is the exact problem. The Federal Republic is a state specifically designed to keep Germany from ever becoming or even wanting to become a superpower ever again. Unless Germany goes through a second Zero Hour I can't see them becoming a superpower or any kind of great power or even a country worth admiring. Frankly Germany has a much more heightened version of problems that are affecting all of Europe from racial demographics, age demographics, lack of pride/patriotism, self loathing, etc. All of Europe suffers from some of these issues. But Germany has all of these deficiencies built into it by design by a constitution written by victorious military occupation forces. Nothing short of a total national revolution will open the path for Germany to become a super power or simply a nation worth admiring. There seam to be forces within the military and police willing to do this but I don't know if enough are ready. Things can escalate very fast however as the Second Spanish Republic demonstrates. Also, speaking as a Frenchman, the French and Germans have very different mentalities about the world and this is getting even more pronounced as time goes on. France sees it's racial and cultural problems and is looking to the Nationalist right to correct the mistakes of both our political class and Germany's mistakes in '15. France is waking up from it's leftist induced coma we have been in since the 1970s. Is Germany? I certainly hope so. But I have to say, I would love to see Zemmour meeting with ACAB.
It seems that the creator of the video has indeed a bad understanding of european politics, culture and mentality. Now hes probably a north american and looks onto european matters with his north american bias, but still, that doesnt prevent him from making some pretty preposterous claims.
@@insomnius3447 He has a very poor understanding of Europe but still we have to agree that most of modern Europe is utterly pathetic. This leftist mentality that we have been stuck with since the 1970s has turned us into a joke. I don't think the way to solve this is with American style degeneracy and capitalism but European Nationalism. The Europeans of the early 20th century would not have hesitated to kill every last rat that flooded this continent in 2015 or are currently trying to do so in the Mediterranean with guns and gas. We don't need to Americanize ourselves to be great, we just need to re-europeanize ourselves and get a new and better political and military class.
@@declanfeeney7004 You realize that your position is not at all a majority position anywhere in at lest western europe, right? If you want to kill immigrants with guns and gas than no one will take that serious. Even in right wing groups you would probably be a minority. So europe will arguably ever turn into what you want it to be. I also dont see how french and germans are so diffrent tbh. All (western) europeans have a lot of cultural similarities. This continent is interconnected for over 2000 years. So whatever diffrences there are are really negligible in comparison to other parts of the world.
“Not a single great inventor, philosopher, artist out of Europe in the last 80 years” I believe you don’t include the UK in Europe culturally, which is fair, but will still mention Richard Dyson, Tim-Berners-Lee, The Beatles, Queen, Adele, Ian Flemming, JK Rowling, Top Gear, The Great British Baking Show, Derry Girls, Tom Hiddleston, Chadwick Boseman, Henry Cavill, Daniel Craig, etc.. Even if you only look at Europe proper, you still have ABBA, Sartre, Camus, Heidegger and the entire field of existentialism, philosopher Michael Foucault, singers Edith Piaf, Francoise Hardy, and Andrea Bocelli, IKEA. You might have a better argument if you limited yourself to the last 20 years but even then you have David Guetta, Martin Garrix, and Max Martin of Sweden who is responsible for most of the most popular pop songs of the 21st century. Not to mention the German company BioNTech which already had mRNA vaccine technology ready to go after years of development, a technology that in addition to CoViD is being used to develop vaccines for all kinds of diseases like HIV. The 17th most valuable company in the world, (although somewhat supports your point on Europe being stagnant and cashing in on the past) is Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy whose CEO is the 6th richest person in the world, which shows that consumers/investors still value European “design” and “artistry”. Not to mention European dominance of the fine goods space (realizing that they could not compete on quantity/cost like China or innovation like America they were forced to find a niche in quality/luxury), Swatch group, Rolex/Omega/AP/Patek, BMW/Mercedes/Ferrari/Lamborghini/Maserati, Chanel/Gucci/Balenciaga/Ferragamo Ultimately I understand your sentiment and even agree with it, but that statement is verifiably false and hyperbolic, which hurts the credibility of your argument.
That's a good counterpoint, I'd say for much of history Europe has been at the forefront of innovation, science and culture. Simply look at the militaristic advances from the medieval Era through the Rennesance and Enlightenment eras as direct evidence. Though Europe still produces great minds, companies, innovations and cultural contributions they are not as pronounced currently as they had been throughout history. The torchbearer at the moment is the United States, which trailblazes in many industries and areas of culture, millitary science.... Which powers truly threaten the US grip on power, China comes the closest at the moment, however their internal issues will likely rip them apart, similar to the US. Russia is failing economically, and generally a shadow of its former self... I don't see them gaining more power as time goes on with their current oligarchy and contrary stance to European countries. Furthermore, population decline is doing a lot of damage, there isn't new blood doing much innovation because many Russians move away from Russia for other countries. As time progresses, the spotlight has definitely shifted from Europe to other nations. Nobody knows how long it'll last or if the spotlight will return. My theory is that the world is slowly going to burn out because there are no new lands for developed countries to conquer and profit from. We have tamed most wilderness and culled predators, the fire will burn dimmer within each civilization as time goes on... Thus, the chess board is set and the game continues...
I feel bringing up musical influence was probably one of the worst ones you could've tried to bring up for Europe in the past 80 years. American produced albums flood the top echelon of sales charts globally in the 21st century. Not to mention that almost all subgenres of music popular in Europe right now are grandfathered by almost exclusively American popularized genres.
Don't get so worked up,Rich. You are gonna have to excuse the author,he is ignorant. My country,Bulgaria,contributed plenty of great inventors,scientists,authors and what not since 1940 and that's just one country. The whatif makes such s tupid statements only to stir up drama in the comments.
Honestly, this video is a good example for all the content that you put out. On the one hand you do have an analytical mind and think outside the box. On the outer hand there is a lot of bias and generalitation. Watching your content is an odd experiance, but mostly an interesting one. With more time to mature, you probably will become very sharp witted an clear sighted person. So stay true to your course, but accept (constructive) critisism.
Agreed. These videos were quite enjoyable when he was stringing together ideas from a variety of intriguing books (and providing references). "Where I take my reading list and spit it back at you." Such enthusiasm was infectious. That said, I hope he completes his B.A., hopefully grad school as well, developing a more nuanced understanding of Europe in particular. Reading the major European newspapers daily, or better yet, living in Europe for an extended period, would greatly improve these presentations.
@@toddbilleci8563 I agree that he's too hard on Europe, but I think he's largely talking in terms of a century down the line whenever he makes grand sweeping claims of how Europe will fade into obscurity and whatnot. He could really phrase it better; I mean, there's no way Europe will ever fade into obscurity, but the days when Europe could steer the course of the world are gone and are never coming back. If you can see past Whatifalthist's raging anti-Europe boner you can see he's making some good points.
@@lucasharvey8990 I agree with you, Lucas, that there are many valuable and intriguing points throughout all of these videos, or I wouldn't watch the channel. I hope my remark was constructive. I suggest further study from the perspective of an American-EU dual citizen who did graduate work both in US and EU, and retired abroad (Ireland).
God, I honestly couldn't keep on watching after hearing him simplify such a complex issue as just "greeks being irresponsible mediterraneans" and then reproducing that dumb recurrent romanticized view that America has many times single-handedly saved Europe from itself and its crises... for a second I thought he was joking
As an European I have to say that this analysis is 90% wrong. There seems to be a lot of american bias and over dramatisation. The EU was never near a collaps during the economic crysis. Italy is the eith largest economy of the world ans surely not 3 weeks from financial collaps. The relations between France and Germany are described as if they where 1914 but that is 100 years ago. Germany and France are indeed culurally very simmilar and share a lot of common interests.
This. The analysis seems to be overly dramatised. I wouldn’t be surprised if the EU actually gets in a better position in the coming decades due to a lot of people in the western nations voting for very pro EU parties.
As a french person, i can say without a single doubt in my mind that France and Germany are completely different and opposite interest and the all « amitié franco-allemande » thing dosen't even make the slight a bit of sense anymore. Also France and Germany have been oppose on almost every aspect of the policy in the EU since Sarkozy and Merkel took power. The last example of that is the EU - Brazil free trade agreement which Germany was largely in favor of and France was totally against. And they are many of other examples like that.
@@nono114499 to be friends means not you have always the same meaning or interest. The Germans do trust in France. Where the new times will go ... nobody knows. But we are friends. This is deep in the German mind today. Same Britain. They are out of EU. Ok. We are still brothers. Together we are strong.
They cant split regardless of Policy. The Germans rely on Imports they have too and since Germany really has no Influence in world affairs like France They need France as their middle men. Their economy's are the same and have melded together a split and the 2 countries would be poor. Neither country could stand on its own . And Neither country could stand with out the USAs Military. Germany the Size of Montana and France the Size of Texas . Even though Montana is a little bigger and has far more Natural Resources. I see see them as States not separate Nations.
@@prinzeugenius7907 Which is great . Germany needs a unifying and motivating ideology , and Islam is a very powerful one . Also no one will dare invade Germany in the future , because they know they're gonna get Jihaded out of existence
@@muatheluafi6816 it'll be a civil conflict first as people here 'ate this foreign arabic cult frankly. There is nothing German about Islam and historically it has always been our enemy. We massacr'd the Ottomans twice at Vienna and saved our people from islamic enslavement for a reason. Read up my name. Also the Islamic world couldn't even deal with Israel up to today, such a winner ideology.
I feel that he doesn't really like or understand Europe. He's a bit confused on some points. And totally off on others. I think Europe still has tremendous potential. Potential they may never use but potential nonetheless.
@@prinzeugenius7907 Demograpic collapse is not a matter of who but a matter on when. Birth rates have been steadily decreasing in almost every country in the world. Japan, South Korea and Europe have the lead, but if the trend continuous (and there is no indication it's going to stop) everybody will arrive there (US or China are only a couple of decades behind those). What would happen next is yet to be seen.
@@alejandrobraganza8728 the US is just as bad the thing is there’s basically an open border in the south with millions of people pouring in all the time that’s going to lead to problems
No dude, France and Germany will not be breaking up any time soon. They're not "pretending" to like each other thanks to the horrors of the World Wars, both have realized they have far more to gain economically, militarily and diplomatically by working with one another than being opposed. They may have very different cultures but that doesn't really matter as both of them respect each other's cultures at this point. If somehow the European Union breaks, which no lol it won't as the Union is the way Germany and France exert their diplomatic influence over the rest of the European continent and so they would prefer to break up themselves before they'd let the Union dissolve completely, you'd likely see at least a reformation of the heartland of the EU as a political block just with the other members sloughed off. You also forget to remember that Crisis have a tendency to cause unification and centralization effect towards their end, so whether or not the EU stays about the same or ends up sloughing off just to the EU heartland, you'll likely see a confederation of the states appear that will seek to incorporate all of Europe once the crisis is over. Whether they will be able to or not depend on what happens with Russia and the US mainly. Maybe in 500 years when another crisis comes around again the French and Germans might break up, but as of right now that alliance is the most rock solid of any alliance in the world.
They will when France goes all in on the hard right. France and Germany have very different political cultures and soon enough this will bleed out into the open. Just the other day the leader of the German Green Party spoke out in favor of sharia. What happens when these rats come close to power in Germany? You think France is gonna tolerate that?
@@declanfeeney7004 The French far right will never come to power. They've been trying to for a 100 years and failed every time. It's a powerful voting block on its own but 80% of the country is completely arrayed against them and will never vote for them. Just look at what happened with the 2017 election - literally nobody went for Le Pen in the second round. This isn't even a case of Weimar Germany either, French democracy doesn't have any way for it to fall to an undemocratic coup like in Weimar. If anything Germany would probably just end up intervening on the side those who will oppose the Far Right anyways, as there's no way they'd just let France goose step into tyranny considering what happened when they did.
@@TheRedKing247 Le Pen won more than 1/3rd of the vote in 2017 and is projected to win at least 45% this year should she make it to round two. She made 37% even after her disastrous debate performance. Imagine what a decent speaker could have gotten. But don’t worry about marine Le pen, she might not be able to enter the second round because of her rival. A man even more far right than her. Both of these candidates score at least 40% in round two and 35% in the first round should they unite. Things have changed and the mood is getting better. Certainly more than 20%. This isn’t 2002 anymore, try actually informing yourself on contemporary French politics. Also I don’t know what country you are form but you are clearly neither French nor German. Because you have no understanding of contemporary France if you think that people will do the stupid “republican dam” for the fifth time in the current climate. And if you think the federal republic of Germany would ever under circumstances send troops into France, you are delusional. We are already living under tyranny. The tyranny of leftists and minorities empowered by justice. Deny it all you want, it really doesn’t matter but the next French Revolution is coming. And it will be a national revolution :)
@@declanfeeney7004 Keep deluding yourself my man. Just don't be surprised when your countrymen aren't putting up with your fascist bullshit and want nothing to do with you. I have more than enough faith in the French people to prevent your rise to power, knowing it'd be the end of French democracy in doing so. Liberté, égalité, fraternité.
Yeah and I can't wrap my head around how he thinks different interests in spreading influence is bad on such large countries. We won't but heads like China and Russia do over Central-Asia if we focus on the east and the French on the south, it's actually perfect (and as long as we and the Benelux stay this strongly together we can also ignore the problems we used to have over the rhine-region)
And also the idea of splitting up because of culture differences. German countries Bavaria and Mecklenbourg-Vorpommern are cultural more apart, then Southwest Germany and Eastern France. Cultural differences are keeping europe in the flow.
I agree on cultural differences. Cultural differences might make things messy and complicated at times, but that's often actually a good thing, and essential too. It means you get a greater variety of ideas and possibilities. The cultural diversity and variety of interests of the EU is presented as a weakness, but actually in a way that is also a great strength. I believe as our countries become more interconnected, then I'm not just a British citizen, but I am connected to many other countries that have influenced my life and culture.
It feels weird watching this as a German. I also don't think Germany would play much of a role militarily. Our military is pretty crappy. Also most people don't want war and like you said there aren't that much people that would fight. I think mostly economically it could take over (like you said it has been expanding that way for some time). But it's still pretty impressive what can be achieved here with enough pressure or money (or both). So who knows. But idk If I would like Germany to be a great power.
Germany will never be a superpower itself, but considering how unbreakable of an alliance they have with France it's very possible the two of them combined could become a superpower in their own right along with whatever other European nations that follow them.
The fighting thing is wrong imo, that is mostly, because people see no reason to fight. We all live very comfortable lifes today. It has always been true, that, the more you are removed from the horrors of life, the less desensetized you are. Imo, Germany could be great again AFTER a major conflict, so maybe after a Sinoamerican war.
The Europeans in the comments moaning about how the video doesn't understand the European worldview are the same Europeans who think Brexit was all about economics or nostalgia for empire. It's the pot calling the kettle.
9:40 German culture does not necessarily mean these people will bend to the German state. Most of the US high command as well as a good part of the population had German ancestry and yet they had no problems declaring war, the same going for the German populations in Latin America, Australia, and European colonies.
The German-American population actually did have a problem with going to war with Germany and it's part of why the US stayed neutral for so long and was even slightly more inclined to join the Central Powers over the Triple Entente before the sinking of the Lusitania and the Zimmermann telegram
Arikian I was referring more to WW2 instead of the first, since WWI was even at the time seen as pointless and people would not want to fight their kin over nothing. In WW2 however most German population around the world did not oppose their current country intervening against Germany (and in some cases became the most prominent proponents of war against them) because Germany was clearly the aggressor.
@@wanderingthewastes6159 Even WWII most Americans didn't want to enter the war. Took a surprise direct attack from Japan to do it and even then despite what Hollywood will tell you or show you most Americans were getting tired of the war and wanted to end it one way or the other even if that means pulling out which would count as a lost like Vietnam War or Afghanistan for example. This is why the atomic bomb was dropped in Japan because the American people didn't want any more fighting and this settlement was already starting to brew up a few years before the A bomb was dropped.
Nonsense, Eisenhower was an exception... the vast bulk of the US high command in both world wars was British/Irish i.e. British isles: Marshall, Macarthur, Patton, Bradley, Clark...and that's just the US army in WW2
@@wanderingthewastes6159 True, even though, like Skate Trooper said, the US still wanted to stay neutral initially because of the US's general policy of neutrality, but with that said, though, there were still people like the Volksdeutsche, but the main reason they were so upset to want to follow the Nazis, was likely because of how shit they were treated during WWI in America with lynch mobs and internment camps for German-Americans, and the German language and culture was banned, both by law and society. That's how the US went from a quarter of the population speaking German natively, going to school in German, going to church in German, to becoming nothing but a faded memory of a time bygone, with most Americans not even knowing how strong the German roots were in America before WWI and WWII, and with it never being taught in schools, nor the atrocities of the US government. I know that that's when my family stopped speaking German and it honestly pisses me off a lot now that I have to learn German, instead of being able to speak it natively, and with a lot of my family's culture being erased. I feel like I have to reclaim what the US stole from me and my family.
I've always found it interesting that Germany desired to be the biggest power of Europe since 1900. They attempted to achieve this with the Monarchist Mitteleuropa and the National Socialist Lebensraum, yet the most success that Germany found in becoming the hegemon of Europe has been through democracy.
Economic domination. What Britain and France feared before WW1 and the what they feared before WW2. WW1 and 2 were not fought to defend Belgium or Poland. They were Thucydides' traps.
That’s a fair point, but do you believe that Germany would have found the same level of economic success through other political systems? I’m not so sure. In my opinion, either monarchism, national socialism or communism wouldn’t have been able to achieve it as these systems don’t allow for the economic innovativeness of many democratic countries. What do you all think?
The Franco-German friendship is not a facade. There is an extreme amount of cultural exchange, both at schools, universities, but also at city, state and national level. Even before the world war, there was a great fascination with France, especially in Prussia. That is why the German language is still full of French loan words today. Germany and France are much closer, both politically and on a personal level, than Germany and Eastern European countries like Poland.
@@BasementEngineer Because never has hate for Germany and the EU been so high in France. If you look at electoral results and studies, not nonsensical anecdotal evidence.
"Europe has become weaker since the 2008 financial crash." I don't know about that. The EU is still very dysfunctional in many ways, but compared to 2008-2010 I think it is more resilient today, not the other way around. Even if not by a lot. Also, should the EU fall apart, Central-Eastern Europe would either be vying for US influence, or at the very least British+French influence if the US is too busy with its internal problems. No way will Russia-weary Easterners trust Germany to lead them.
Absolutely. In fact, with every crisis the EU grows stronger. Like a body building up resistance against a virus... if it doesn't kill you it only makes you more resilient. The EU has made some great progress internally, like setting up a geopolitical commission looking at the long term, but we don't see that because only the bad news about the EU is mentioned in the news, making it look way worse than it is. But this just goes to show that this althist guy has a massive anti-Europe boner and really is a novice in regards to Europe. Take everything he says about Europe in any of his videos with a truckload of salt.
@@Natogoon strong ? On paper maybe but he is right the 2008 crash came close to splitting the EU. And without the USA providing the military backing the EU doesn't last long.
@@Natogoon As a German-Italian I must say I can't really see where you're coming from. All the things he has said about Europe as a whole have been factually correct so far. The EU thing is another question, but in pure continental terms he's right. Europe is on the decline and big time, much like Japan but not quite as bad. About the EU I can say one thing: It's biggest problems are 1. That it is not only an economic union but also a political one, but a political one without real democracy. There is no loyalty for the EU and in essence those who profit the most are big European multinationals anyway. 2. The EU has no financial direction. A majority of the Union has centralized its monetary policy under the ECB while keeping the fiscal policy decentralized which in essence gives every country the worst of both worlds since they're inflexibly tied to a currency and interest rates that can never reflect the real current situation on the ground. Another point is that the whole free trade thing is a big myth, because that one is only ever 100% beneficial between equals, in any other situation countries lose national industry to ever enlarging conglomerates that just move where it is cheapest (which comes back to the decentralized fiscal policy thing, since corporate tax in Ireland is so low that it has essentially become the EUs tax haven). The result of course being that a ton of people lose their jobs for the sake of efficiency and also real wages stagnate or depress since everything becomes cheaper and so they're paid less in relative terms. But then again there are still markets that just keep becoming more expensive so in the long run the bottom 50% lose out. Since the full implementation of the EU system the income gap between rich and poor has widened dramatically, there 100% is more to it than just that, but the mismanaged state of the EU is certainly a part of it.
The EU is weaker mate. Check out any big country weather it`s Britain, France, Germany, etc and you`ll see that their GDP is lower or basically the same as it was in 2008. This is in absolute numbers though. Add to that a rate of inflation of ~4% a year and you`d see that the EU has gotten poorer. EU countries debt is also out of control and when the next crisis comes I`m not sure how we`d recover. My country is in the EU for the money and the moment it runs out we`re out. We don`t particularly like the EU but we stay in it because its less worse than the Russians and Turks FOR NOW. I can`t say I`d particularly sad if it collapsed though.
14:06 "80% of Europeans billionaires inherited their wealth?" I see... I guess 50% +44% +31% +21% +18% +14% +13% +1% = 80% or something It's actually 27% on average, excluding Russia. Twice as much as the USA, but there is no gas and not much oil in the UE, except in the UK which have a similar rate of "inheritance" as the USA, and Norway where it is not privately exploited. Also, you forgot the "primarily" in the title of the graph. But that is not important comparatively to the previous statement.
@@awddsa2923 Well the graph he provided is pretty self-explanatory, I'm willing to assume it's accurate. I guess he just didn't understand it, or misread it or something. Hopefully it wasn't malicious, I don't see a worthwhile reason it could be. For anyone wondering: I got 27% by adding the 7 fractions from the 7 Europeans countries in the graph (including the UK, but excluding Russia), and dividing the result by 7 (aka: an average). Also, Sweden doesn't have oil, unlike Norway, and I mistakenly wrote the graph showed Norway instead of Sweden. It doesn't affect the calculation though, only some of its interpretation.
@AG TaNGrA he makes so many outlandish statements about America being some sort of modern British Empire or something along those lines tbh the US is encouraging Canada Australia and New Zealand and Britain into a union/federation type thing as another counterweight to China which it would inevitably become
As a German, I find this video half-compelling, half-puzzling. As you say, Germany's military is weak, and the administrations of the past decades with their overseas military operations have only proven its unpreparedness to act as a military power. They find scarce popular support, and because of our past, politicians are very reluctant to push for aggressive behavior similar to France or the UK. We have no interest in militarist expansion. Also, saying that Europe relies on the U.S. to bail them out militarily is only one side of the coin since the U.S. profits from using the European subcontinent as its hedge against Russia, so please... America isn't exactly altruistic here. When it comes to economic hegemony, Germany does and could execute imperial power over other European nations and beyond. That you bring up Eastern Europe as its future is interesting, since culturally and ideologically, countries like Poland or Hungary have, in recent years, taken a negative stance toward Germany, moving towards conservatism while liberal-minded Germany is closer to France, the BeNeLux, and Scandinavia. If culture matters indeed, a breakup of the EU would happen more along those lines and Germany would be very hard-pressed to find good friends in the East. Germany would rather close the borders to the poorer East and have its career-minded citizens look to move to other affluent countries in the West. One last thing: "A single great invention, philosopher, artist to come from Europe over the last eighty years." Excuse me? Ever heard of The Beatles? Karajan? Foucault? Habermas? Abramović? The CERN particle collider? Mp3? And who developed the first mRNA Covid-19 vaccine?-BioNTech, a German company headed by Turkish migrants. Either you were joking or pandering to an American audience totally ignorant about European affairs..., or?
I think you are over analyzing the statements of a channel that is called ‘whatifalthist’ I believe the hyperbolic statement was made to sell the video for views. Or what you said but yeah when looking at alternative history or predictive history you really can’t take it that seriously.
You're right there. Whatifalhist does seem to make a lot of uninformed statements about other countries which could seem like they're true to someone who knows nothing about said countries
I think you skip some factors when talking about why Germany is so strong now: infrastructure. Germany STILL benefits from projects that were started way back in the Prussian Kingdom. The railoads that were built then, the canals that were dug - all those have paid themselves many times over. Compared to some countries who fell behind (like Eastern Europe) now even if they tried their best to catch up, they have a ton of environmental regulation, roadblocks, red tape etc. And I would say that I kinda like the "Biased American Understanding of EU Politics" map. It seems to nail the main points in the limited amounts of words available. PS. Its funny how "Bloodlands" largely correspond to the territory of old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, back when IT was the most powerful player in the region. I guess its time to take a hint from history, Europe
Yup. And many companies were also started in that time, or maybe the Empire or Weimar. There is no German google or facebook nowadays, we live of the acomplishments of our ancestors. And seeing how bad we are at taking care of infrastructure (Deutsche Bahn) or creating new ones (Berlin Airport etc) I don't think our future is that rosy
"Bloodlands" is simply a title of a book describing the crimes commited by Hitler and Stalin in the XX century. As for the reason why the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth fell behind, it's because at some point a certain fracture appeared, and two equally powerful neighbours (Sweden and Russia) quickly invaded. Basically a huge paramilitary society of the Cossacks had developed itself in Ukraine, and they made the rebellion against the Commonwealth. Sweden and Russia, until then unable to penetrate into the Commonwealth, made a joint invasion and completely ravaged the Commonwealth during the so called Deluge. It is estimated that the Deluge damaged Poland more than ww2, because that's just how much the country got plundered and burnt to the ground. The Commonwealth just never recovered from that. A curiosity might be the fact that this is the conflict the Duchy of Prussia used to break away from the polish control into union with Brandenburg.
The EU actually helps quite a bit by taking half the cost for many infrastructure projects that help inter connectivity over the EU. For example in the Baltics this has led to them being able to build a high speed line south to Warsaw. As well as being able to build a gas port to import gas from overseas. Though there are many many more such projects across Europe similarly supported. So the EU has been very helpful for members who have started off with less infrastructure in catching up a bit.
“Not a single great inventor, philosopher, artist out of Europe in the last 80 years” Terry Pratchet, Arthur C.Clarke, The Beatles, The Sex Pistols, Queen, Rammstien, Bluetooth, The Large Hadron Collider, MP3 and the first entirely synthetic organism. I know we aren't exactly hitting it out of the park like we used to but we're far from irrelevant.
@@declanfeeney7004 Sorry, it's otherwise - what you know as "American music" is originally european. Early American musicans just know three or four chords, in the same time, europeans had writtten eternal music for orchestras. Even the famous "Imperial-March"-Theme is just a cheap copy of the mussic from a british composer with German ancestry. And european musicians, like Rolling Stones, Beatles and Sex Pistols made a real genre out of it. without them - Rock and Popmusic would today just be regional folklore in the Memphis area.
The last time I checked, Steven Hawking was a British man, what about those German-American Jewish nuclear scientists, and are we forgetting about the USSR’s space program. This point is so stupid.
14:03 On a famous invention or discovery, isn't CERN a big one? Discovering the Higgs Boson is pretty massive, as well as helping set up the modern internet.
@@Tanu.90 i think he was being sarcastic as he was explaining a typical american view of stuff - useless unless it either blows something up or can produce and maximize profit (of something)
I am semi serious. Ofcourse discovering the Higgs Boson is cool and stuff. Helping with internet stuff is also cool. But in the end that stuff doesn't make money and it doesn't kill. This means it doesn't make you powerful and it doesn't effect most people.
Well not many really groundbreaking inventions were from 2000-2020. In the whole world I dont see nowadays inventors, scientists, artists who really are innovating society and not repeating what was already invented. Its amazing how our lives were suddenly changed in 1990s with mobiles and world wide web, and now after twenty years we have only better looking phones, computers. Whats happening? Did it suddenly stop? Where are all inventions? This is just
8:46 "... They want to put up a facade of being friends..." I honestly think that he is completely wrong here. It is not just a facade, Germany and France have been partners now for a long time. Maybe friendship is not the right word. More like siblings, we dont always see eye to eye and sometimes we make fun of each other. But we stick together and would help each other out no matter what.
You sound me when I try to say than Romania and Bulgaria are brothers. if push comes to shove the partnership will collapse no matter what and he explained that really well.
@@karumanusman9027 yea as a Frenchman I found much of this video spot on, including the whole bit about the collapse of the Franco German alliance. The only thing I outright disagree with in this video is the idea that Europe hasn’t produced anything good since the world wars.
It's funny how one can be willing to go along with Whatifalthist's rhetoric, theorising and pronouncements until he gets to somewhere or something you personally know about. Then you realise he really has no idea what he's talking about and that calls into question everything you've heard him say to date. He's getting breathing his own CO2 too much and slowly losing his mind, the acceptance of snake oil salesmen as a sponsor should tell you that but this retelling of Europe's post war history to fit his own anti-Europe, anti-European federalism narrative has tipped this channel well into the realm of fiction. Europe is like pizza, even when it's bad it's still pretty good. We'll be fine 👍
Whatif mixes some good historical points with Victoria 2 fanfics and strange liberal hegelism from XIX, thats why his mistakes are not noticiable for average fans. Watch his historical videos or more like anglo saxons are superior in everything the video.
@Jotaro97 Oh sorry you're right, ok Germany is not a cultural influence on countries to its east in the 21st century and the idea it would have any sway in Poland or Hungary is laughable. The European Union is strong because it's subtle, something Americans find hard to comprehend. We don't wave flags in this part of the world and yet no flag has become more pervasive in my lifetime than the European flag. The EU's demise has been predicted for many decades now but each crisis makes it stronger, not weaker. And its lack of military power is a positive thing for the vast majority of its citizens. Again, a concept Americans, particularly on the right, find incomprehensible.
German/Nazi POWs befuddled the Soviets. Despite their circumstances, they had to keep themselves busy. The Soviets found them industrious even in as POWs.
Should do a little updated video on this considering Germany gave its military about 101 billion to spend and every year 2% of its annual gdp with a gdp of about 3.76 trillion or something like 70 billion increase every year ( I think) not only that single action flexes how much money and how wealthy Germany is as a country and powerhouse becoming the 3rd largest military spender in defense over night and with its annual increase easily surpassing China to 2nd.
bro putin just destroyed swedish neutrality (sweden is longer neutral than switzerland) and german pacifism in a single Day. Actually, the germans are now pro-Weapons delivery (sorry for my english) to ukraine. I have never seen my people supporting arms supply to a foreign nation that isn't a closer ally.
Well, here are my thoughts: 1. Germany only did this because America gave them permission. We don't know how Germany acts in a system where the Americans go home. 2. This whole crisis was caused by Russia's last gasp as a world power. The real long-term question is what does Europe look like where Russia is no longer a serious threat? In general, I am skeptical that the Ukraine War will fundamentally change Germany's arc as a declining European hegemon. The real change will be the collapse of Russia as the Eastern European hegemon, and Poland's struggle with Ukraine to fill the power vacuum. The central questions are: 1. Will Germany fall into the orbit of the Western European sphere (France) or the Eastern European sphere (TBD)? 2. Will Germany maintain national unity, or will the alienation of the East lead to a German breakup? I do think that with German nationalism being practically verboten, Germany has no chance of being a major European power. The best case scenario for Germany is that it becomes either France, Poland or Ukraine's financial backer. Basically, Germany would become a major financial backer and supporter.
@@derlasercrafterwally4342 As he said in the video, Germany has a weak military arm, but it can grow strong if they so wish. After all it wouldn't be the first time they did it
@@JonatasAdoM I think this is a point many people are forgetting. Germany has a very strange history of raising incredibly competent armies on relatively short spans of time. The people's of modern day Germany were often given command roles all the way back to the Roman empire, even though the Romans still treated them pretty badly despite this. Germany has an insane amount of money to throw around, they can more than likely build a strong military faster than almost any other country in the world.
Well that was a remarkably... american perspective. I'll just collect disconnected thoughts here to adress some of the things that bothered me: - Germany won't expand eastwards to form an empire anytime soon. Not necessarily because it couldn't, but because barely anyone here has the desire to do so. It's much easier to just maintain the status quo, which already gives Germany economic leverage in europe without having to use military. -You quite understate the connection of Germany to France while quite overstating it's connection to eastern europe. The bigger part of Germany has been seperated from eastern europe for half a century which has obviously had an impact on their relationship. Most Germans would say the exact opposite - feeling closer to the French and British than to their eastern neighbors. English, French and Spanish are commonly taught in school; Polish, Czech and Hungarian are not (even in east germany the only "eastern european" option is Russian). - Name one big invention that came out of Germany in the last 80 years? Idk, maybe the Pfizer vaccine that most of the western world uses which was developed by Biontech, a german company? The .mp3 file format which was developed by Fraunhofer? The Ziegler-Natta catalyst that is used to make plastics like polyethylene and polypropylene (The entire field of polymer chemistry came out of germany)? SEM-, STM-, AFM- and STED-microscopy? The computer (81 years but close enough)? The scanner? Innovation in Germany hasn't slowed down, but the rest of the world has caught up so german inventions are no longer in the majority - of course more innovation would come out of America or China because those countries combined have more than 20 times our population. I think we're doing well for our size, and you'd be surprised how many high-tech systems and products have parts that were developed in Germany, even if they aren't manufactured and sold by German companies. -American billionaires are selfmade while german billionaires inherit? Taxes and regulations in germany make it much harder to become one - so most of the ones left have inherited their wealth. You shouldn't forget that by american standards Germany has a socialist government and we have strong laws to prevent labor exploitation. You would consider that a bad thing, but I disagree. A lot of the new age billionaires also made their fortune in digital technologies, which admittedly is something Germany sucks at because German tech infrastructure and legislation is a solid decade behind the times.
If you tried to give every high school student in the world a beefed up PISA test, I suspect >75% of the top 20,000 test results would be from students in mainland China. But China doesn't really have many experts making cutting edge developments in STEM fields - YET. Things could be quite different in 15 years, but for now they're mostly working on catch-up. Germany, France and the UK probably produce approximately as many top STEM experts as the U.S., _per capita._ There'd be a big dropoff when you got to European countries like Italy or Spain, however.
@@captain-chairAustralia is called a rich development country for a reason and he mainly writes about our digital infrastructure what is rubbish, because Kanzler Kohl destroyed Kanzler Schmidts plan to give us the best FIberinternet in the World...
@@anonymousturtle8562 Not really Germany and France are the countrys with the highest production of engineers and other STEM-Experts and you forget that many american STEM-Scientists are from europe and other foreign regions.
One thing I think you missed is how much the german economy relies on its industrial capacity and infrastructure. I live near Cologne in the center of the Rheinland industrial zone. I don't really notice it in everyday live because I grew up here. But everytime I visit France I notice how many gigantic factories and chemical plants there are. It's is also pretty amazing in the context of modern globalization that so many small to medium size businesses in germany are world leaders in there specialized market. For example there are thousands of 50-100 employee companies that engineer and manufacture specialized machines that are exported globally. Even Chinese Megacompanies with practically limitless finances and hundrets of thousands of workers still can't compete with the technology or quality of these machines. However, one has to admit that demographics will most certainly lead to economic disaster in germany. The minority of highly educated workers and businesses would have to create absurd amounts of wealth to sustain the aging majorities retirement.
All true, however, Japan is an "old" society rn and they still do pretty well comparatively despite that. Also, this is happening absolutely everywhere globally (with the only exception being Africa), and the US is trailing only about 20, 25 years behind Europe, so it'll hit them too. What are they gonna do? That's right. Nothing.
@@mysterioanonymous3206 Well, in the US's case, I suspect it's not _that_ far behind, since mass immigration masks a situation more similar to Europe's than not.
@@boobah5643 true actually, it's 1.7 births per woman (France 1.87, Germany 1.54 Sweden 1.9). But their population is somewhat younger, I think they have about 5 to 8 years on Europe, on average, so that'll delay the effects somewhat.
@@lavish_1717 Thanks to advances in medicine which have reduced some of the mortality. Cultural tradition to found a family in Africa is something important.
Germany and France ARE friends. There might once have been large differences, but those have been mediated significantly by three quarter centuries of close cooperation
Reatching this 6 Weeks later. And its almost Surreal how Wrong your Predictions were xD Germany went Rock Hard and not only completely Threw over the Pacifism Policies. Announcing that in Future Years its Military Budget will be almost Twice what it was before. Which gives Germany the 3. Largest Military Budget in the World. With only the USA and China having a Bigger Budget for their Militaries. It also Cemented it with a Power Demonstration few Countries would be Capable of making. Slapping 100 Billion Euros onto the Table to Beef up its Military Quickly. The European Union did not Split up at all. Instead becoming Stronger than ever before and Standing United to the Point of entirely Ignoring other Differences. Germany and France as well being Closer to Each other than ever Before and now Pushing for a European Military.
Yep and the US wants to build way more military bases all over Europe because of the Ukraine war. But he's like "lol america will turn its priorities inwards because of instabilities"
@@ADreamingTraveler He's talking more so about the American people's total reluctance to get involved in more foreign wars for probably at least a generation, than he is about what American politicians say publicly.
@@KaiserLandsknecht Doesnt really matter. He did not predict an Accurate Timeframe. He predicted a Chain of Events. Now. His Prediction on such a Chain of Events happening became true. So till that part he had the Right Judgement. Just the Reaction and Consequences of it played out completely differently.
Germany: Third times a charm! Also when you stated how inflexible German foreign policy is I cannot help but think back to Otto Von Bismarck which was the complete opposite of Inflexible. If Otto Von Bismarck was still around during the time of WW1 or a person with the same policies as him, it is my humble opinion that Germany may be a superpower today
I don’t think superpower is the right word because Europe is a small place. I would say a very dominant regional influence. Like, think China in Asia in the Middle ages but a lot smaller but still very involved. Like, the best example is probably the literal Habsburg realm.
That's the problem though, Bismarck was the exception that proves the rule, Germany would have needed a series of leaders like him to achieve full hegemon status.
Is there a reason why Germany has always been so powerful? Even back in the days of the roman republic/empire Germany was a force to be reckoned with. Strong warrior tradition? Is there something with their geography?
@@user-jh9nx6tl1n Their geography is terrible. Surrounded by powerful nations on all sides and their access to the open oceans are completely reliant on foreign relations.
@@user-jh9nx6tl1n no its culture, german industry is far superior from the rest of the world, along with a rock named japan. A germany together with russian resources is probably the only empire the US should fear. this is why only the US is making a big deal over russian reaching out west, nobody in europe aside from UK cares what russia does to ukraine but the US fears russia and germany together
The reasons for back in the Roman times only partly translate to the economic reasons. The Germans were very tribe/clan oriented and had a high reproduction rate while being technological semi underdeveloped. They were mainly peasants who were living in forests. Over 80% of Germany was forest more or less. This tribe structures later translated to a lot of little semi independent feudal states, what led to a federalistic social organization on a larger scale. Federalistic systems tend to be pretty potent. When the economic value of an organized industry based on resources was introduced to the German states as an idea the real boom began. In west germany is the Rhein-Area, a area full of coal and Metalls combined with one of the biggest rivers in Europe for transport purposes. In general Germany has had a lot of luck with resources and rivers. The next part is the religion and general culture. The Germans were very practical virtue orientated. Being conscious and reliable, the way to heaven is through Labour and stuff like that. Serious, but life-oriented people. And always in war. Always struggling. Truth is, we would consider it as a shithole most of the time compared to modern standards.
my favorite newspaper headline of the last time: "Germany is arming itself again, and europe is relieved" what else can you say to that as a german? xD
Thinking about Germany as a superpower makes me think of a Norm Macdonald joke.. "The only country that worries me is the the country of Germany ... Germany decided to go to war, and which country did they decide --- the WORLD.. You figure it would take 5 secs for the world to win, but it was actually close... 30 yrs later it goes to war again and chooses ---the world, again. You'd think at that point the world would go, listen Germany you can't be a country anymore.. I mean you keep picking on the WORLD who do you think you are, Mars or something"
Some of the major issues with this video: European countries having fought in the past doesn’t mean they will fight again. Speaking as a European, I’d say the vast majority of countries in the EU are very friendly toward each other. This extends to the people too not just institutions. Especially neighbouring countries tend to be very positive toward each other. France and Germany aren’t “eternal enemies” anymore after all, and the EU has shown that trade and cooperation are much better than war. You’d have a very hard time making any major player in Europe go to war against their neighbours, no matter what happens. Assuming some systematic collapse will happen because supposedly one happens every 250 years is absurd. There aren’t patterns like that in history, and just because you can point to some catastrophic event happening somewhere on earth every 250 years doesn’t mean it’s a global thing, and it doesn’t mean they only happen every 250 years. For instance China had the great famine, the world wars happened, Krakatoa exploded etc and all of that happened much closer to each other than 250 years apart. There are also already plenty of catastrophic events happening, like the Middle East collapsing. America genuinely isn’t as divided as it seems, especially considering foreign policy. It’s important for both republicans and democrats to be allied to Europe and keep access to foreign markets. Trump was somewhat an exception to this, and this is because the man really doesn’t understand how the world works, but the GOP at large understands Europe is important to American interests. The population projection for Europe is if immigration stays the same. I can almost guarantee it won’t. Here in Sweden all of the major parties are at least somewhat anti immigration (including the SocDems) so Europe’s population will likely be lower than projected. It’s also possible that as the population declines, stuff like housing becomes more affordable and that would lead to people being able to have more kids without having to stress about finding a house and the like. That’s just some speculation I don’t know what will happen and I won’t pretend to, but what I do know is that the projection is probably incorrect since Europe is becoming less keen on immigration, and will become less and less keen on it the smaller the native population becomes in comparison to immigrant populations, especially if they keep not assimilating into mainstream society. As for the “good times create soft men” meme at the end, that’s just not historically accurate. America was probably the country in WW2 with the best on average living standards in the war, and they kicked ass. China was definitely in what one would call a “hard time” during ww2 but that just made them weak enough for japan to be able to invade. The whole “good times create soft men” meme sounds accurate until you look into it. In reality what you see is the Roman Empire which declined, as all empires do, but that’s after they had spent almost a thousand years subjugating “harder” people with ease like the Helvetians and Belgae, and also the Byzantine empire survived for another thousand years. China was conquered by the Mongols, but China was already divided after years of strife, and mongol rule lasted for only about 80 years. The mongols didn’t conquer ONE state when they conquered China, they conquered multiple states. They couldn’t have taken out a united China. One could have been born before mongol rule and died after it had ended.
>stuff like housing becomes more affordable Oh it will... in the middle of nowhere. Kid wants a prospect in life? Welcome to a bigger city/metropolitan area. Population there will continue to grow. (source, population developments in Eastern Europe, where population falls for last 30 years yet housing in major cities even more unaffordable, compared to average salaries then in Western Europe) Maybe as remote work becomes more ubiquitous, people will move back to smaller towns, but big cities still provide a ton of more specialized value (like different interest clubs) that can be pretty hard to find in smaller communities.
@@Poctyk I made it quite clear I don’t know what would happen. It was one idea for what *could* happen. But yeah what you’re saying could happen too. As I said I don’t actually know what would happen. It was just an idea as for what *could* happen. It’s also not true that urban areas will always keep growing to be fair. It’s true in many cases, but not all, and that could stop being the case as working remotely becomes a possibility.
@@maxmusterman9262 Heya glad to answer that! Generally we view Germany very positively, we see Germany as a country which has their shit together, make good products, good beer, stuff like that. We also have some stereotypes that germans are a bit stiff and pervy too. I may have a slightly more positive view of Germany than most Swedes because I did live in Germany for a bit, but generally we like Germany.
@@FilAnd01 Another question from a german, would be great if you could answer. How big are swedens problems with immigration ('no-go areas' and rapes etc.)? Is it really such a huge unsolvable problem as some nationalists in the us like to claim or is it mostly overblown regional problems?
Good video, but I think you fundamentally misunderstand the EU, the 2008 financial crash did not weaken the EU, it strengthened it. It is recognised by every EU country that leaving or a collapse of the Union would be disastrous and no political party with any reasonable share of power supports leaving the EU. Every collapse in Europe recently has strengthened faith in the EU as people realise our national governments are often corrupt and narrow minded. A collapse now would only strengthen the EU further as the idea of leaving the EU during a collapse is unthinkable to anyone. The British leaving the EU has made them the laughing stock of Europe even to people who are anti-EU. The EU is here to stay, the only question is in what form.
If there is to be a European Union, than it should be a Union of European nations and peoples. In other words, it must be a union of Blood, Culture and Nations. Not a union of bureaucracy and human rights delusions
@@declanfeeney7004 but a Union of Europe isn’t possible without bureaucracy. An efficient and powerful European state with separation of powers and transparency is what we need. The European Union promotes our common values and our different cultures. Alsatian culture was nearly extinct but the EU has helped bring it back. The same is occurring all across Europe.
This video got old really fast - through no fault of its own. Russia's invasion of Ukraine changed everything. Germany immediately gave €100 billion to the military and committed to a steady 1/4 increase in defense spending from 1.5% to 2% of GDP. As Germany is one of the largest economies in the world, this means an increase of EUR 19.23 billion per year, approximately an increase in the budget to EUR 76.92 billion. For comparison - Russia spends 55.26 billion euros on its military (2019 budget - probably more now). Of course, compared to the US it's still small - the German one after the increase is about 14.6% of the US budget. Still, it's a dramatic change. But an even more dramatic change has taken place in the thinking of the whole of Europe. I'm from central (maybe more like eastern) Europe - the Czech Republic, so it may not be universal to all countries. However, Russia's invasion has significantly militarized thinking. There is a huge sense of frustration here that we are not going to war. There are many requests for our soldiers to be released to go fight on their own. Even the general population has gone from 'let's negotiate' to 'I want to kill Russian swine'. The question of collective guilt has been resolved very quickly here and, given our tendency to apply morality to everything, with the surprising result that every Russian is responsible. Until you get rid of your leadership, we don't give a shit. So within a week there are serious debates about expropriation of property, Russian students are having their visas cancelled and being sent home. It's mind-boggling. And, of course, all countries are increasing their military spending, not just Germany. Yesterday I read an interview with a 4th year college student who was told she could not continue. The Czech branch of Sberbank went bankrupt within 3 days. Everyone there started cancelling accounts en masse. What 9/11 was to the US, the attack on Ukraine is to Europe. How this will play out, I dare not guess. And I was looking forward to a "return to normalcy". Instead I read articles by economists that our economy must go into "war mode". Well, at least we're not bored here.
The irony is how the German politicians really just pretend to help Ukraine. The German population wants to stop Russia. But the politician are personally extremely closely tied to Russia. Russia owns them. They are traitors. Not even sending what they promised. Its a big show for the public as always. Just like corona aid was a big show, lots of promises but in the end nobody really saw a cent from the government. Similarly they promise Ukraine a ton. But deliver near none. In fact less than tiny Denmark.
The Russian invasion means countries are militarising through necessity. It's necessity that sparks countries and peoples into action. If the US yields less influence in European politics, Europe will have to adapt through necessity, and probably become stronger for it in some aspects.
It's going to take them at least three generations to even begin to recover from their demographic and cultural damage. Odds are we won't see a resurgent German empire until the 22nd century.
@@theodoremccarthy4438 how? Demographic problems are seen in pretty much all wealthy countries rn, so the odds of us changing that course are quite slim. Cultural damage? We never really had a unified culture to damage, Prussian culture wanted to take over but now we see it as evil blaming it for both world wars due to it's link with militarism (basically the same way the confederate flag is seen, some few who actually use it as southern heritage, some racists that use it but it won't become standard anytime soon) bavarian culture miraculously survived against Prussian rule but that's tearing the country apart (Bavaria has the only independence movement that actually has any weight) and with the rhine building a rhinish culture again instead of pushing for a unified German culture i can only predict us ending like Yugoslavia if our cultures get stronger. If they don't get stronger we can't assimilate migrants so that option would likely lead to the complete destruction of German culture by that of the arabs we let in
@@theultimatefreak666 That's why I said it would take at least three generations, though admittedly that's about the demographics. The cultural regeneration will start sooner due to a reaction against the recent migrants. One of the effects of exposure to foreign cultures is a heightened awareness of your own cultural values and norms. They become more obvious and important in contrast. This will include those values and norms which Germany's regional cultures share but which are lacking in recent migrant communities. "White" emerged as a shared cultural identifier in America due a similar contrast between Europeans and non-Europeans. I also expect Germany to be influenced by the pro-natal Christian Nationalism which is taking hold in Poland and Hungary. This will help with both the demographic issues and the cultural identity issues.
@@maxmusterman9262 I'm hoping you're not confusing Prussia (Königreich Preußen) with the concept of something being Prussian (Preußentum) The first is still remembered somewhat fondly by normal people. The second is still remembered fondly openly by the NPD and less openly by the AFD
Demographics is what makes history. When Germany rose to power in the 19th and first half of the20th century, it had an incredible population growth and demographic expansion, especially compared to France and Poland. This is why France lost its title of first power in Europe. Now Germany has one the lowest birthrate in the world and will suffer from an elder and elder population. Plus, it is reliant on Russia for gas and energy and Germany dosent have the nuclear weapon unlike France, Russia or the UK.
@@FreeSpeechAbsolutist1776 yup if you have stable birth rate your people can grow and expand doesn't matter how many people you import native population should still be growing
27th of february 2022, germany just announced its allocating 100 billion to modernize its military and wants to meet the 2% of gdp is militiry funding by 2024. sooooooo nice vid
Careful now, _when_ is it a lot more habitable? By doing this just in general, you've changed aboriginal culture an entirely new outlook on existence, one not determined by scarcity and balance, one that's innovative technologically without suffering the consequences of such innovations (such as overhunting). You've effectively just given 40,000 years of time to a single continent, as Australia didn't change much as a result of the Ice Age due to being in the southern hemisphere where the differences in seasons are minimal.
It once was. When Australia's first people first arrived (around 60,000 years ago) the continent was much greener and supported a much bigger population. As the climate shifted the continent slowly dried out, the big animals became extinct and the native population slowly decreased and their lifestyle and culture changed with the land. Europeans arriving to that Australia would be an interesting topic to explore.
Three videos in 36 hours, wow. I'm not complaining, just wondering if you found a lost hard drive, or had sponsorships that required videos by certain dates.
"Name an invention or major philosopher that's come out of Europe in 80 years" Uh, the mobile phone? The Higgs boson? John Maynard-Keynes? Of course, if your definition of a great philosopher is a libertarian, you aren't going to find any in postwar Europe.
6:15 to 6:20 is why I think immigration won't be a solution for the european union in the future. Just look at north africa and how its population is aging at a somewhat similar rate to europe. I'm north african myself and I think the estimates made by the UN, despite being close to reality, are not quite accurate. People are having fewer and fewer children at an alarming rate (boomers having 5 children or more was considered normal, gen x average at around 2 to 3, millennials are pushing it even further with only havin 1 to 2 and to put the icing on the cake some zoomers are refusing to have children altogether while others believe 1 is enough). I hate when I see geopolitical analysits assume that the south easter half of the Mediterranean is immune to issues plaging the north western one because of Islam. Islam doesn't say anything about family planning and doesn't force people to have more children. I'm not hating on child free people nor am I advocating for any pronatalist propaganda. I just wanted to clarify a common misconception that I heard Whatifalthist say multiple times (that Islamic nations have stable demographics. We don't). I think eventually the developing nations will start to encourage policies to hold on to their working age population while europe will drift away from immigration policies because of the bad taste left in their mouths from the refugee crisis of 2015.
On your point, I used to think presence of religion was the deciding factor in birth rates, but France, Iceland, New Zealand, Czech Republic, USA, & Uruguay (all 1st world secular Christian countries with increasingly irreligious populations) have similar if not higher birth rates than most Persian Gulf countries. Birth rate is very complicated and it’s not as simple as “more religion = more children”, but there IS a connecting tissue.
I think he is underestimating the energy and thought that went into the european integration project and the french/german partnership especially. There is little opposition to the thought that france and germany needs to work closely together within the two countries. Many decades have been spent on cementing that attitude through various means after WWII. If anything, I see a heartland europe as the seed of a new great power, but that remains to be seen. Several generations of have now spent their lifes in a united europe, the regional historic distrust is being eroded away by freedom of movement and other liberties. The eastern european nations are just 2 generations behind this process, their ruling elites still being influenced by the soviet era. If the EU hangs in there for another generation, we will see much more integration of those regions as well. Not that there aren’t many challenges on the way, but who doesn’t have „challenges“ in the coming decades to face.
Germany has favoured an EU leadership which will integrate Poland in this partnership. Sadly the currently ruling government in Poland is only looking inwards and not into possibilities.
@@ParameterGrenze This government isn't Poland. It's true that many Poles are rather conservative, but you just have to look at Ireland how fast this can change, if wealth is involved.
@@declanfeeney7004 Sure. Nothing wrong with that. But it's not necessary/possible to appoint judges because of their political worldview or punish people for taking a legal service in another country for that. That's against the rules signed in the EU treaties.
Your ideas don't make alot of sense. I think you are basing history too much when talking about geopolitics. Yes, Germany is a powerful country but the maps you show (besides being porn for wehraboos) makes zero sense in the context of today. I think your biggest flaw is looking at history and essentially old things while basing it on modern geopolitics. You are always talking about empires new and old while forgetting the fact that empire's don't exist anymore. welp we still have some modern empires like china and Russia but you act like these empires can reclaim and take lands. But its very hard nowadays. Look at how much stuff Russia has to go through for just a peninsula. You simply can't really take land anymore without getting into very hot water. So your concept of expansionism in the modern world is far fetched at best. Basically "hey look at this empire from the 19th century. One day it's gonna be back" it's exactly like those people who think Ethiopia will become a great power because it was never colonized. Despite the fact it has barely any relevance to today. Stick with the times. Just my criticism
While I agree with your post, literally the only reason that is the case is because the US is the world police, so if something were to happen to the US we would literally go back to the age of landgrabs almost immediately.
Him, saying that Europe couldn't exist without the US "supervising" because Europeans would not trust each other, is really pissing me off (as a European). This is so totally not true. The European Union as a trading system would still work fine without the US's help (nowadays) and from my perception European partners trust each other just fine. PS: As a German, I can also say that Germany is not a great example of military expenses. Germany is widely criticized for its poor military management.
Your constitution was written and imposed by Anglo American military occupation forces. The federal republic of Germany and the EU as a whole are American puppets in their purest form. Unless the Germans get rid of this puppet government, they will be American subjects. Instead of getting Angry at this guy for saying the truth, why don’t you do something about your ongoing occupation?
@@declanfeeney7004 I have never heard such misinformation before. Indeed the German government puts up with a lot from the US (Snowden is the best example of this). But the European constitution was NOT written by American military forces, neither is the German one. The German one however had to be approved (after being written) by the western Allies (France, UK, US...). It was however not written by them. But even if it was, what effect would that have nowadays on the economy and politics in the European Union? This is just patriotic rambling coming from someone believing the US actually had a good political system.
@@declanfeeney7004 considering you are from Germany as well you probably believe Germany is a GmbH and think migrating to a nordic Country would be a solution to your problems.
Im a german and i think the most likely ideology germany would shift to in a crisis is libertarian capitalism, losing more and more of its social systems with the breakdown of its pension system aswell as privatising its commodities like railroad, internet and energy sector more and more. You can already see this trend right now. Also it seems that the more leftist parties are shifting towards being more economically capitalist, while staying socially progressive. Furthermore i have to say that the german government right now becomes more and more ineffective, spending billions on big goals but hardly achieving them, probably leading to following administrations trying to be less economically interventionist, which in turn would add to this trend. Thank you for the video, it offered some nice perspectives, however i think that it is not true that the friendship of france and germany is only a facade, yes they used to torment each other repeatedly in history, but I think this further leads to them not wanting to fight eachother anymore. Especially world war 1 was very traumatic for both. The cold war also brought them together a lot more. If had to pick a European country (except russia) Germany would get a more negative relationship with, this would probably be the uk, which is in a quite desperate position right now, which is further established by the german economy overgrowing the british one, it also has the collective memory of winning against the germans in both world wars without as much devastation for their country as most of continental europe.
A note about europa's and USA billionaire percentage: tons 'soon to be succesfull 'Europeans move to the USA because startups get a greater investment there. So while the statistic stands, I think its better to nuance it and say that Europa's educational institutions on the highest level still work fine. Its just that across the ocean they get more chances then here to become rich off it
@@shorewall I didnt said its a good development (for Europa). Just a piece of extra information to give some context. A person could interpet the video as Europeans getting dumber. Not that that was implied in the video, but still, I wanted to provide some context.
@@shorewall I mean they relocate usually just because getting financing is much easier in NY than in Warsaw. It doesn’t mean that the money doesn’t come back. The opposite case might be Ireland where big tech are situated. Yes it pumps up Irelands GDP, but a lot of that money goes back. I don’t think Europe’s institutions are broken, the standard and quality of life is still highest on earth.
Germany in my opinion is like an abused animal. It's still this huge powerful beast but it's been hit so many times it refuses to fight back anymore. Frankly as much as a strong Germany would be a benefit, it's just not possible anymore. BUT TURKEY ON THE OTHER HAND...
While Turkey has great demographics and a strong military and economy, it's turn towards political Islam will prevent it from integrating with Europe and likely push it into socio-political stagnation.
As a German, I‘ m fascinated how many fellow Germans think the Friendship between Germany and France will last. First of all their are no real friendships between nations. Their are shared interests and a shared culture. Well: I don‘ t think that a France under LePen will be mich appealing to Germany. And we didn‘ t react to any suggesten of Marron, because we don‘ t like his ideas for the future of Europe. I think we talk so much about the friendship, because we don‘ t want to be adversaries. And we aren‘ t. But neutral doesn‘ t feel good enough after two World Wars.
I don't think any German wants Germany to become an empire. The last point is very true and a bit sad imo. As a German I cannot think of a country that is less patriotic than us. A lot of Germans don't like Germany (myself included). Personally I think that this is because after WW2 our culture/pop-culture has seemed to degrade, losing more and more of its identity. At the same time, it is seen as negative to be patriotic. If you have a German flag in your garden some people think you're a Nazi.
This guy lives in his own reality lmao. This reality is called American in a jar. In his case: Gay American with stiff lover jaw in a jar. It even rhymes, ha :D
FYI, I'm living in Prague, Czech republic and I have some friends working in Germany and I visited that place more times. What you are totally omitting are internal demographical and so religious changes within Germany, and whole Western Europe. In other words, there is huge influx of migrants from non-European countries, most importantly Islamic world and Africa. And although it is not often spoken, there is significant haltered, fear and distrust amongst immigrants and natives. And immigrants have bigger number of kids. This means that in future, there will be significantly more islam and non-european looking people in Europe. This will lead to huge internal strain on society, and European societies will change. I don't know how. But I can imagine islamic uprisings, islamic states in Europe, we already have islamic terrorism, genocides of non-native people and so on. German author Thillo Sarrazin writes about this. Or famous French author Michel Houellebecq described this nicely in his book Submission.
This is so dumb, you cannot even begin to address it. Most of these immigrants make up barely 8% of the populations in these countries. All the economic, military & political positions are held by white Europeans and yet you think ENTIRE states will be formed in Europe by people who number in the hundreds of thousands. Your foolishness is dumbfounding.
@@osmanbey8796 although i would agree that most important positions are held by germans and will also be in the future, there are 21 Million people with migration background in Germany, and of course the number is fast growing while germans are shrinking.
@@osmanbey8796 Agreed. On top of that a lot of those arguments are often made on the basis that these "muslim" immigrants are a homogenous mass, which is of course not true. If you put an Afghan, a Turkish, a Syrian and a Ghanaian immigrant into a room together they won't even be able to understand each other. I know becausey job involves situations like this. In Germany. What I am trying to say is that their future common ground will be the languages, values and laws they have learnt here. No one said integration was easy. But over here we give it a lot of thought and generally it works! The immigration waves from the 60s and 70s are a proof of that.
@@TJansonable I am a non White person. Immigration will not work. Do not be stupid. Europeans are naive and childish. Germany will not be Germany without Germans, Britain would not be Britain without the British.
@@mudra5114 What do you want to tell me? That non Whites can be racist too? :D A German of turkish descent just invented a vacc for a global pandemic and is at the forefront of killing cancer. If that wasn't worth it....
American: *gives an extremely plausible and heavily detailed analysis on what Germany could look like in the future with tons of sources cited and as many agreeable bases as possible covered and all of the universal common sense on European politics applied* most open minded German response: "you are wrong about every single thing you said, ignorant arrogant American. Germany is overwhelmingly the greatest country ever in the world. We will never do the Holocaust again."
Europe was barely populated during the middle ages, especially after the black death hit Europe, a pandemic from China. Ironic, isn't it? A few decades later Europe colonized North America, dominanted South America and Africa and humiliated China. Don't write Europe off, especially with a external threat present.
@@amadiohastruck4331 retardation in the US is so common. Why do you think you bail us out, set up us against each other? It's because the USA's greatest fear is the European uni faction with Russia and coming tan empire again like Alexandre the great spreading to Asia and the Middle East. We don't disagree much with them, you (the USA) just kept the facade up. We didn't kill people across the world's latest age, We buy cheap Russian oil, have a great tech and massive force from Eastern Europe. The retardation and this key fact why you keep rescuing as the USA or feel to sabotage every economic project should give you some insight.
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The Romans weren't conquered by barbarians. The 'barbarians' who were most successful in taking bites out of Rome where those who managed to adapt to Roman ideas and styles the best.
5:40 As someone who knows quite a lot about history I gotta say I hate stuff like that. The history of humankind isn't just simple arithmetic. You can't just put a sequence over it to predict the future (or at least you gotta be so generalising that you leave a whole lot of important stuff out). For example you wrote"50 BC Collapse of Rome.." and I guess you mean to Roman civil war which was a very difficult time of uncertainty and political unrest for sure, but Cesar had just conquered Gaul which made Rome much larger and stronger and with handsight it was just the transition from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire. Therefore to call it a "Roman collapse" is out of the question. Also the term "world crisis" is a bit weird because it's of course much more likely to happen nowadays because the world wasn't so globalized before (so the term "civilization crisis" would be more accurate I think). It's also quite a European/American centred view because a lot of people for other parts of the world would add colonialism to the list (roughly 1600 - 1900) which turns the whole concept upside down. And at last I think the biggest hindrance of Germany becoming a super-power are the Germans themselves, they don't want to be an Empire anymore and I don't see that changing in the next decades (which is probably good for all of us :)) Other than that I appreciated your video 👍
Whatifalthist really didn‘t get it here. As an Austrian I can say that the EU is still very much intact and our people are still highly educated, very capable and way more healthy than eg. the US. As for the American Empire it is also still holding a large influence on european culture especially in relevant places like the Internet platforms (Eg. TH-cam, Instagram, etc. - american companies). Economically germany will lose some of its share in the automobile industry because of the rise of electric cars.(Geo-)Politically speaking, germany either turns to natonalism which seems very unlikely (history - people still have the transgenerational war guilt) or it largely stays under american influence because china is to foreign and russia is too weak. In the energy sector WiaH is correct in saying that it depends on Russia but the problems could get way worse because germany has closed all nuclear power plants, which will pose a large problem. As for investments germans won‘t pump so much money into their companies because their investment culture is very weak and most people cling to saving money instead. There are many other ways WiaH is wrong in this video, but the most ridiculous is his geopolitical speculation regarding eastern europe and the non-existant tensions between germany and france.
AFD is very pro-Russian so if we (the people) turn nationalist you can count us in the Russian sphere, absolute nationalism is less likely than China taking over IMO
Addition: die Linke is also very pro-Russian, SPD has always been pretty pro-Russian, FDP never had a clear cultural path planned... CDU/CSU and Greens are likely the most pro-American parties we have and CDU/CSU looks to slowly be falling apart, so if the Greens don't take their place becoming deeply tied to Russia in the next few decades (when all the people that voted CDU thanks to the red scare and now don't want to change it die out) doesn't seem unlikely to me. ... Wir sind halt "Russland-Versteher"
this “war guilt” still depends on leadership, when will they let go of it? as long as they exist? till people realize the absurdity of this generational self-hating/shaming they wont go anywhere with trying to have security because maybe they think their demise is “deserved”, they dare feel that with children in their homes, it’s not even only about a uniting principle but simply the need to have a fighting force to for economic interests(+power projection) or general safety against possible threats like Russia/China people can be proud of their country and its current state and still despise the actions of their ancestors
@@f.b.lagent1113 don't quite a few Americans still feel guilt over slavery? Ww2 is much more recent than the US Civil War and with the huge amounts of American influence (largely due to media) you can expect us to be at least that bad in holding onto it if not worse because it was the north Americans that stopped slavery but it wasn't a part of Germany that stopped the holocaust
For me, I feel like Germany while being economically powerful, is actually extremely reliant on Russia specifically for natural gas. The political effects of that are already obvious, blocking arms transfers to the Ukraine from several more eastern states and I think this will be a major source of friction between it and the Eastern European states have a lot more to worry about from Russia and Belarus in the near future. Latvia, Poland and Lithuania are much more interested in NATO and the EU as collective defense against Russia than as an economic partnership. While Russia certainly isn’t and ascendant power, they will continue to be a problem for the next 20 years.
If Germany and Russia can work out a compromise in their geopolitical influence (i.e. who will have what spheres of influence where) I feel like Germany and Russia can have a long and beneficial partnership
The blocking arms thing has more to do with the peace movment of the 80s, then the russian relations in the SPD, the Grüne and the left in the SPD dont whant to give offensive weapons( which are all weapons able to kill, so all weapons great logic insert facepalm), plus the german guilt cripples our active role in politics even Merkel was just defensive even in Europe, not whanting closer cooperation and just waiting. Germans are thinking small most of them do, there are few who have a vision an in these days our politicians dont have a vision or integrityy, there are even people whanting to ban Bismarck for uniting the germans through war, I dont see us dominating anything our economic power is through export we have few natural resources and the European Union is more fragile than ever with the French election and the Italians. Scholz seems to be a weak canclor (a man with no charisma), and the green parties obession with winning climate change alone, without seeing the bigger picture, of overpopulation in africa and asia, plus our decreasing demographics, because people are selfish and children are work (we would need tax insentives and more day care for more children of academics). Well I think if we dont reform our millitary capacities the german projection through soft power has reached its limit so we are stuck.
@@vin55100 So but here is the thing; you basically just outlined parts of rough strategy paper, right? If Germany wants to dominate more of Europe, here is how to do it, so to speak. I do not think that domination is a worthwhile goal, I much prefer wealth, democratic freedoms and and stability and independence over actual global power but in terms of the EU, Germany and France & their allies in the EU are already the dominant European influence. Like, what does Russia have? 2km2 in Ukraine? Parts of Moldova? Or the UK? Nada. Not even a competition. The EU dominates the continent like nothing since Napoleon. And even he had less actual power. Ancient Rome is actually a fair comparison at this point in time, although late stage Rome and not peak Rome. If the EU gets to a point of being effective and influential, it will be a superpower. Not THE superpower but A superpower. And Germany will only a large role in shaping this superpower. That much is almost certain.
If such a merge was to happen now, Germany would essentially once again reveal itself to be the push-over of Europe. As utopian as the EU sounds in theory.. only the Benelux, France and maybe Austria would like it. They would effectively alienate the rest of europe from themselves
@@BREZHNIK "only the Benelux, France and maybe Austria would like it." Then the plan would be to push for that merger, leaving the rest EU as an open market hanger on. Plans for that scenario have been pushed for since the 90s under the names "Kerneuropa" "Europe of two speeds"(early 00s) and "multi-integrated Europe"(around brexit). The pushback against that concept usually came from a more idealistic ideological position (that it would be unfair and paint the secondary sphere as "lesser" members).
USA still has a hold on Germany. for germany to become a serious power (or even super power), they'll have to break off influence from america. i don't see that happening, as the government and their citizens are content with the relationship with the united states. plus, the federal government of germany is nervous to take power because they don't want others to perceive it as another powerful germany that fueled world war. france more likely to take power
Yeahhhhhh idk I'm a bit ify on this one. I agree that there's a global crisis coming and reshifting to a multi-polar world order however I don't see real powers going at one another in the Western world I think Pan Western unity will probably be preserved in strengthened not the other way around that's just my opinion I mean pan western identity is a pretty big deal
Some feedback: Maybe you can source your claims on screen? It would be helpful to see what you based your toughts on, while you are speaking about it. Great video as always!
@@designerfuzzi DE then Eng Ich entschuldige mich, mit Google Übersetzer. Ja, eine einmalige Aufladung von 100 Milliarden. Dies wurde in der englischsprachigen Presse zunächst nicht korrekt berichtet, sondern als Aufstockung des Jahresbudgets von 100 Milliarden pro Jahr. Ich glaube, dass dies für Deutschland erschwinglich wäre und dass 100 wenn überhaupt nicht ausreichen, um die Bundeswehr auf das zu bringen, was europäische Militärkollegen in Großbritannien und Frankreich erwarten würden. Ich hoffe, dass dieser Fonds deutlich erhöht wird, da 100 einfach nicht ausreichen, um Deutschland auf eine Stufe mit Frankreich und Großbritannien zu bringen. Eng Yes, a 100 billion one off top up. This was not initially correctly reported in the English speaking press, but as an increase to the annual budget of 100 billion a year. I do believe that this would be affordable for Germany and that if anything that 100 is not enough to bring the Bundeswehr up to what European military peers in the UK and France would expect. I hope that this fund is increased significantly as 100 as a one off is simply not enough to get Germany to being on par with France and the UK.
Based???? Germany literally destroyed Europe. It was the Wilhelm II who gave up on the Russo-German alliance and made Europe go to World War 1. Europe was never the same after World War 1 but it still had hope before the Nazis came and decided that most Europeans east of Germany are subhuman and the Europeans south and west if Germany are inferior as well. Then Germany launched WW2 and destroyed Europe even more. Germany is the reason Europe got overtaken by American culture.
@@Diabolo0011 the population is going down faster than the imigrants come it anyways .... germany core lands can only sustain 70m ppl at best .... thats why the population in oficial stats is going to be 72m for germany even with high levels of imigration
@@nicolaeadrian7882 nah bs. Germany has enough space for 150m people but with efficient land management and smarter build cities and infrastructure. with 150m people, the population density of Germany would still be slightly less than that of england. but 100m people is even now sustainable with the way Germany is currently run and without needing big improvements in the areas i mentioned.
@@LegendNinja41 in not talking about space ... all the population of the earth can leave in texas ffs ... the natural resources germany dont own even for the curent population .... germany only has coal and thats it .... everything else is imported and the country is hightly dependent from outside sellers... the idiots also closed the nuclear plants so they become actually puppets of russia... 150 in germany will never happen ... the country witch is that small and have close to that is japan ...
@@nicolaeadrian7882 i never said Germany will have 150m people, i said it could manage such a population. Yes obviously everyone can live in Texas, i'm not talking about cramming everyone into Germany either. you might want to look into German Agriculture if you think Germany only has Coal (what a weird statement btw). here a copy for you: In 2018, Germany produced 26.1 million tons of sugar beet (4th largest producer in the world), which serves to produce sugar and ethanol; 20.2 million tons of wheat (10th largest producer in the world); 9.5 million tons of barley (3rd largest producer in the world, only behind Russia and France), 8.9 million tons of potato (7th largest producer in the world); 3.6 million tons of rapeseed (6th largest producer in the world); 2.2 million tons of rye (largest producer in the world); 1.9 million tons of triticale (2nd largest producer in the world); 1.4 million tons of grape (16th largest producer in the world); 1.2 million tons of apple (12th largest producer in the world). In addition, this year, the country also produced 3.3 million tons of maize and smaller yields of other agricultural products, such as cabbage (604 thousand tons), carrot (625 thousand tons), oats (577 thousand tons), onion (409 thousand tons), etc. (Source: FAO Stat) and that's only the Agricultural sector, there's also huge potential for wind energy that is already getting used more and more and some areas are good for solar energy.
I don't think Germany will be capable of becoming a superpower in the future. While its economy is the strongest in the EU, it has many potential issues most of which were addressed in the video. Declining population, hardly any pride in their nation, and increasing competition from industrializing powers in Eastern Europe and Asia. When Germany is unified in purpose and ideals, it is exceptionally powerful. WW1 Germany was one of the strongest powers in the world, and Nazi Germany had the strongest military in the world up until Barbarossa. When the Allies defeated Nazi Germany, the nation was basically subjugated. This is very much understandable, as the nation had been hijacked by one of the most evil regimes of all time, but all the same. It was destroyed and then recreated into the hard working yet pacifist nation it is now. Poland on the other hand is my personal pick to be a great power in the future. Poland has a strong national identity, strong sense of purpose, a rapidly increasing economy, and has developed very close ties with most of the surrounding countries. I can definitely see it taking a leadership role in Eastern Europe against Russia.
Poland is too small how can Poland become a super power with an small aging population. China and Indian both have over a billion people. The USA has 300 million people
But population is still increasing and climate crisis will cause more refugee waves in the future. Pride in the nation? It definitly exists. It is just not shown that openly due to historic burden by waving flags, but that might be even helpful for a country which changes so rapidly. The biggest issue is education which is slightly declining. For prosperity inventions and creativity matter and they depend on a good education.
The surrounding countries of Poland have trauma from history of Polonisation and colonisation from Poland. Look no further than Lithuania and the Ruthenian states.
Some of these reek a little of "American who sees Europe with America-tinted glasses, even if he puts great effort in trying not to do so". Still a little too "black and white". There is much more nuissance to it than this.
You mention the EU military defense budget a lot in your videos. From the EU perspective: Why would we pay for something we don't need? We aren't interested in offensive wars. The only real threat is Russia so we just need to make sure the total EU army is equal to or larger than Russia's. Everything more than that is a waste of money. What you see as a sign of weakness, we see as a really good deal.
You’re views on assimilation are incorrect, these ‘marginal’ European ethnicities have endured through centuries of targeted genocides/systematic assimilation and technological development. I’d argue that modern technology has even strengthened their cultural presence and outreach to the diaspora, consolidated a sense of belonging. A rather xenophobic interpretation on your part.
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It's amazing that it could rise,fall,rise,fall and rise again and still have one of largest economies in the world.
all thanks to the power of the protestant work ethic
@@grzegorzbrzeczyszykiewic3338 if you ignore the fact that Germany is half Catholic
@@grzegorzbrzeczyszykiewic3338 Eastern part of Germany is basically Atheist
The Rhineland must be seized
The secret is the German people, simply the Germans have the character and culture that leads them to success
@@alonsodelvillar4569 I honestly love the German history, and it’s shocking to see how efficient they are
I honestly don't think a French German alliance ever goes away at this point. Not only do the 2 countries need eachother to be relevant but they invested way to much money and time in making this alliance work. Even if the euro falls, there are still tonnes of political structures tying the 2 nations together
Even he said in the video that the two nations have wildly different ares of interest and then put that up as the reason they won't stay allies...?
And very probably a "New Euro" of the core countries. FR, NE, DE, BE wouldn't let it go, just considering how France wanted Germany to leave the Mark behind as a payment for the reunification.
The Low Countries just love their trade.
@@suspecm6316 Thing is, he got the most important interests of Germany and France wrong. Most important interest: keeping the other one at bay and vice versa. Considering the EU prohibited war between them effectively they would found their own New/Core EU instead of falling back into pre WW2 patterns. It's not like nobody has learned anything in the last 70 years.
Imposing the trajectory of a ever-growing EU with candidate countries and the like would be scrapped though.
I don't know how germans feel about this, but to us french, it's hard to even imagine a future where France and germany are not friends.
@@popkhorne5372 Im German and in defiently know that france and Germany are gonna stay togheter
I don't think the "German-French friendship" is necessarily only a facade. France largely looks southward towards the Mediterranean and former French-Africa as their desired sphere of influence, while Germany's strategic goals lie eastward. Having a dependable ally securing their flanks or helping to mediate the impact of crises could become of major importance in the future.
As french, most french people don't want to be stuck with Germany, but the elites have always ignored the will of the people. In 2005 there was a referendum in France and 55% of our people said NO to European integration, but the leaders signed the Lisbon Treaty anyway. It's changing, there are elections in 3 months and many candidates from right to left suggest leaving Germany. If a German reads this, please we don't want to fight but that doesn't mean having an alliance! We don't want you, you are from another culture, language and history that is not Latin and Roman.
No Latins and Rome needed, bring back the Gaul's!
@@leloupdesparte7642 loll you do realize the French are originally German right ? Je suis français. On était les “Franks” avant devenir les français d’aujourd’hui. We are basically Germanics who have been Latinized. Pourquoi tu pense la langue allemande à quelque mots français comme par example : violette, rosé, catastrophes etc
@@TH-camrAnalyst123 I'd say you're more like Celts who mixed with Latins then were conquered by some Germanic invaders who then adopted the Roman culture anyway.
@@leloupdesparte7642 based, we don't want Frafrica either. Also give us back Lorraine
Less than 20 days after this video Germany started building a large army.
I would be interested to see a video specifically on countries with massive aging populations like Japan, Germany, Italy etc.. You always mention this factor but the actual long term consequences of rapidly aging populations are still just speculation since something like this has never occured before. I would asume that over a decade long process these countries fall more and more into geopolitical obscurity.
could be on the other hand they could for a while alivate the problem with Immigration Germany is country with the second highest number of immigrants per year after the USA and of course it could be poorer and less warlike more careful so to so to speak but also has a chance to become more stable.
@@ThiagoPagogna But that's only if they can fix their demographic issues as well
@@ThiagoPagogna No they'll be lucky to survive not being destroyed by China
The demographics things is something some of us are beginning to realize why. It's not merely our economics or feminism. It's the whole ideology of classic liberalism and all of the various ideas that spin off from that be it capitalism, socialism, communism, social justice, etc.
Germany and Italy still have growing populations thanks to immigration so they will be fine. Japan is fucked though
In a few decades, climate change will present us with entirely new challenges. Then it will not matter whether a population ages or not. Tens of millions of people will be on the run and cause chaos. It will be a migration of biblical proportions.
You definitely don't give Europe enough credit. I'm and Australian Electrical Engineer and all the good industrial equipment is European. You go Chinese if you want something cheaper and American if you want something that looks good on paper but everyone else involved in the project will hate you because the equipment is designed to stupid standards and measurements. You buy Australian if it's something cheap and heavy like bricks that isn't worth the shipping cost, or something that's a one off custom build specific to that job.
He is from the U.S. What did you expect? He has a VERY biased way of looking at Europe. I am not saying that U.S. has not helped Europe, but some of his claims about Europe are just flat out ignorant.
@@Tatuzka yeah, it's a recurring theme throughout his videos
@@Tatuzka It's also fair to say that he knows it and always says that it might be biased. We don't know the truth, we can only guess.
Agree, there's a heavy US-bias in the videos and I dislike how political this channel has become this past year.
@takyu It's ironic that you say this looking at your comment. You're telling someone to get out because he has a different opinion and yet you say he's the one coming from a group where everyone share the same beliefs.
I really enjoy your Videos. But you honestly underestimate the strong bond between members of the EU. Todays Germans, French, Polish etc. grew up in a world where you learned to love and accept the other as a brother and with the strong believe that turning against each other again would mean mutual destruction. And like Brothers Europeans might not always agree on everything and our leaders might not always work together perfectly but the people of the continent feel more connected than ever before.
Greetings from Austria to you and to all my European brothers in this comment section.
I think Europe's youth is way stronger and more unified these days, because of the internet. I am a German American who has friends who are French/German, Norwegian/German, British/German. The cultural mixture of people in the last years has become so common in Europe that no one considers each other a possible enemy.
The new generations will be the peacekeepers of the world!
Today's young Western Europeans have never dealt with deprivation or hardship before. Everyone are friends when things are going well. But here is a question I am interested in hearing an honest answer for: Would you as an Austrian be willing to go to war and risk your life in order to protect Germany or France or Poland? Or how about a more distant southern European country such as Greece or Italy? Another question: if there is a deep economic depression would you as an Austrian be willing to send money out of Austria in order to prop up Spain, for example? How much money would you be willing to spend? It would seem to me that the answer to those questions would determine the long term viability of the European Union.
@@Letsplay222 yes, yes, yes, i don't cling to money and especially dont need more than others.
I further fully support the idea of the eu fusing together.
But thats probably not a thing for everyone sadly.
@@Letsplay222 Under young europeans? Definetly.
I also would not think that it could come to a war, without at least consulting.
Economically sure. Greece as an example. There were good intentions behind it, buty lobbying and old economics made it into a bad thing. Best would have been juts to print money, like in covid, but everyone is scared of inflation. The alternative being austerity. It was just economic misguidance. BUT in principle, yes we wanted to help. Even though it sure made things partially better and worse
I think George Friedman take best describes the EU
It is a proto state and u can't ignore the European identity. But this identity is still in shape and in flux
The thing I found about the EU as someone looking across from the UK is that the EU talks this up as if it's as strong as an identity like being an American and then run into disappointment because it overstated
Just be pragmatic about where we are now
If you have more than superficial knowledge in a subject, then you realise that incredible nonsense is often said on this channel.
The creator of this video obviously has no idea about the political culture and the mentality of the Federal Republic of Germany. My God, we are no longer in 1918 and you cannot simply transfer the geopolitics of that time to today...
This starts with the fact that the Federal Republic is described as a state oriented towards the East. That is simply wrong! With its defeat in the Second World War, Germany lost the eastern parts of Prussia to Poland... This meant a westward shift of the political centre of Germany. It is no wonder that the German constitution was written in a West Rhineland town and that the first Chancellor was a Rhinelander. This has not changed with reunification. North Rhine-Westphalia alone has more inhabitants than the entire former GDR. And also the metropolitan areas located away from the Rhine (with the exception of Berlin), such as Hamburg and Munich, are also oriented towards the West. Today's Germany is a country deeply oriented towards the West and German politics would prefer not to deal with Eastern Europe at all (as can be seen, for example, in the Ukraine crisis).
So where does this nonsense about cultural differences with France come from? Almost half of the German population lives near the French border and Germans and French, despite some differences, know exactly what they appreciate in each other and their partnership...
I could go on like this, since there was a lot of other nonsense spread around here, but in the end the video seems to be about simply creating a dystopian picture of the future without even understanding the current situation...
Edit: In fact, I know many of the ideas presented in this video from American authors, on which large parts of this video seem to be based. The big mistake these authors make is that they want to transfer the geopolitics of the First and Second World Wars to today. Especially in the case of Germany, this is complete nonsense.... Today's Germany is not really comparable to the German Empire of 1914. Both culturally and economically. In fact, the Germans would prefer not to have to pursue a foreign policy outside the EU at all and simply expand their economy. So Germany's future as a potential great power lies in its economy. Moreover, Germany will strive to uphold the Western values of democracy (without having the ambition to defend these ideas outside the EU).
The fact remains that Germany under the federal Republic is a weak state that has gone from being harmless to actively seeking to bring about racial, economic and demographic ruin to the rest of Europe. You mentioned the political culture and the mentality of the Federal Republic of Germany. That is the exact problem.
The Federal Republic is a state specifically designed to keep Germany from ever becoming or even wanting to become a superpower ever again. Unless Germany goes through a second Zero Hour I can't see them becoming a superpower or any kind of great power or even a country worth admiring. Frankly Germany has a much more heightened version of problems that are affecting all of Europe from racial demographics, age demographics, lack of pride/patriotism, self loathing, etc. All of Europe suffers from some of these issues. But Germany has all of these deficiencies built into it by design by a constitution written by victorious military occupation forces. Nothing short of a total national revolution will open the path for Germany to become a super power or simply a nation worth admiring. There seam to be forces within the military and police willing to do this but I don't know if enough are ready. Things can escalate very fast however as the Second Spanish Republic demonstrates.
Also, speaking as a Frenchman, the French and Germans have very different mentalities about the world and this is getting even more pronounced as time goes on. France sees it's racial and cultural problems and is looking to the Nationalist right to correct the mistakes of both our political class and Germany's mistakes in '15. France is waking up from it's leftist induced coma we have been in since the 1970s. Is Germany? I certainly hope so.
But I have to say, I would love to see Zemmour meeting with ACAB.
It seems that the creator of the video has indeed a bad understanding of european politics, culture and mentality. Now hes probably a north american and looks onto european matters with his north american bias, but still, that doesnt prevent him from making some pretty preposterous claims.
@@insomnius3447 He has a very poor understanding of Europe but still we have to agree that most of modern Europe is utterly pathetic. This leftist mentality that we have been stuck with since the 1970s has turned us into a joke. I don't think the way to solve this is with American style degeneracy and capitalism but European Nationalism. The Europeans of the early 20th century would not have hesitated to kill every last rat that flooded this continent in 2015 or are currently trying to do so in the Mediterranean with guns and gas. We don't need to Americanize ourselves to be great, we just need to re-europeanize ourselves and get a new and better political and military class.
@@insomnius3447 He is American, he stated in one of his other videos.
@@declanfeeney7004 You realize that your position is not at all a majority position anywhere in at lest western europe, right? If you want to kill immigrants with guns and gas than no one will take that serious. Even in right wing groups you would probably be a minority. So europe will arguably ever turn into what you want it to be.
I also dont see how french and germans are so diffrent tbh. All (western) europeans have a lot of cultural similarities. This continent is interconnected for over 2000 years. So whatever diffrences there are are really negligible in comparison to other parts of the world.
“Not a single great inventor, philosopher, artist out of Europe in the last 80 years”
I believe you don’t include the UK in Europe culturally, which is fair, but will still mention Richard Dyson, Tim-Berners-Lee, The Beatles, Queen, Adele, Ian Flemming, JK Rowling, Top Gear, The Great British Baking Show, Derry Girls, Tom Hiddleston, Chadwick Boseman, Henry Cavill, Daniel Craig, etc..
Even if you only look at Europe proper, you still have ABBA, Sartre, Camus, Heidegger and the entire field of existentialism, philosopher Michael Foucault, singers Edith Piaf, Francoise Hardy, and Andrea Bocelli, IKEA. You might have a better argument if you limited yourself to the last 20 years but even then you have David Guetta, Martin Garrix, and Max Martin of Sweden who is responsible for most of the most popular pop songs of the 21st century. Not to mention the German company BioNTech which already had mRNA vaccine technology ready to go after years of development, a technology that in addition to CoViD is being used to develop vaccines for all kinds of diseases like HIV. The 17th most valuable company in the world, (although somewhat supports your point on Europe being stagnant and cashing in on the past) is Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy whose CEO is the 6th richest person in the world, which shows that consumers/investors still value European “design” and “artistry”. Not to mention European dominance of the fine goods space (realizing that they could not compete on quantity/cost like China or innovation like America they were forced to find a niche in quality/luxury), Swatch group, Rolex/Omega/AP/Patek, BMW/Mercedes/Ferrari/Lamborghini/Maserati, Chanel/Gucci/Balenciaga/Ferragamo
Ultimately I understand your sentiment and even agree with it, but that statement is verifiably false and hyperbolic, which hurts the credibility of your argument.
That's a good counterpoint, I'd say for much of history Europe has been at the forefront of innovation, science and culture.
Simply look at the militaristic advances from the medieval Era through the Rennesance and Enlightenment eras as direct evidence. Though Europe still produces great minds, companies, innovations and cultural contributions they are not as pronounced currently as they had been throughout history.
The torchbearer at the moment is the United States, which trailblazes in many industries and areas of culture, millitary science....
Which powers truly threaten the US grip on power, China comes the closest at the moment, however their internal issues will likely rip them apart, similar to the US.
Russia is failing economically, and generally a shadow of its former self... I don't see them gaining more power as time goes on with their current oligarchy and contrary stance to European countries. Furthermore, population decline is doing a lot of damage, there isn't new blood doing much innovation because many Russians move away from Russia for other countries.
As time progresses, the spotlight has definitely shifted from Europe to other nations. Nobody knows how long it'll last or if the spotlight will return.
My theory is that the world is slowly going to burn out because there are no new lands for developed countries to conquer and profit from.
We have tamed most wilderness and culled predators, the fire will burn dimmer within each civilization as time goes on...
Thus, the chess board is set and the game continues...
@@gym7144 That's why space exploration is important, if we just stay on our rock we will stagnate.
@@Perrirodan1 agree. Speace explpration is the new frontier. But for that first we need consensus on the ground.
I feel bringing up musical influence was probably one of the worst ones you could've tried to bring up for Europe in the past 80 years.
American produced albums flood the top echelon of sales charts globally in the 21st century. Not to mention that almost all subgenres of music popular in Europe right now are grandfathered by almost exclusively American popularized genres.
Don't get so worked up,Rich. You are gonna have to excuse the author,he is ignorant. My country,Bulgaria,contributed plenty of great inventors,scientists,authors and what not since 1940 and that's just one country. The whatif makes such s tupid statements only to stir up drama in the comments.
Honestly, this video is a good example for all the content that you put out. On the one hand you do have an analytical mind and think outside the box. On the outer hand there is a lot of bias and generalitation.
Watching your content is an odd experiance, but mostly an interesting one. With more time to mature, you probably will become very sharp witted an clear sighted person. So stay true to your course, but accept (constructive) critisism.
Agreed. These videos were quite enjoyable when he was stringing together ideas from a variety of intriguing books (and providing references). "Where I take my reading list and spit it back at you." Such enthusiasm was infectious. That said, I hope he completes his B.A., hopefully grad school as well, developing a more nuanced understanding of Europe in particular. Reading the major European newspapers daily, or better yet, living in Europe for an extended period, would greatly improve these presentations.
@@toddbilleci8563 I agree that he's too hard on Europe, but I think he's largely talking in terms of a century down the line whenever he makes grand sweeping claims of how Europe will fade into obscurity and whatnot. He could really phrase it better; I mean, there's no way Europe will ever fade into obscurity, but the days when Europe could steer the course of the world are gone and are never coming back. If you can see past Whatifalthist's raging anti-Europe boner you can see he's making some good points.
@@lucasharvey8990 I agree with you, Lucas, that there are many valuable and intriguing points throughout all of these videos, or I wouldn't watch the channel. I hope my remark was constructive. I suggest further study from the perspective of an American-EU dual citizen who did graduate work both in US and EU, and retired abroad (Ireland).
Yea he should also consider American influence on Germany after ww2 and the propaganda
God, I honestly couldn't keep on watching after hearing him simplify such a complex issue as just "greeks being irresponsible mediterraneans" and then reproducing that dumb recurrent romanticized view that America has many times single-handedly saved Europe from itself and its crises... for a second I thought he was joking
The Kaiser will take Germany to it's former glory ❤
As an European I have to say that this analysis is 90% wrong. There seems to be a lot of american bias and over dramatisation. The EU was never near a collaps during the economic crysis. Italy is the eith largest economy of the world ans surely not 3 weeks from financial collaps. The relations between France and Germany are described as if they where 1914 but that is 100 years ago. Germany and France are indeed culurally very simmilar and share a lot of common interests.
This. The analysis seems to be overly dramatised. I wouldn’t be surprised if the EU actually gets in a better position in the coming decades due to a lot of people in the western nations voting for very pro EU parties.
@Vercingtorix7 Exactly, it sounds a bit like he ignores everything that happend past 1945
Actually it sound a lot as if we where in the year 1920 and he says something like imagine Germany would become an empire again...
Italy can't form a government that lasts more than the expiration date of milk, so there goes the economic stability.
This guy is straight up just americocentrist bias disguising as a person
This is written by an American for sure, saying that France and Germany have completely different interests and will split apart soon is just a joke
@FemonicRBLX sure buddy
As a french person, i can say without a single doubt in my mind that France and Germany are completely different and opposite interest and the all « amitié franco-allemande » thing dosen't even make the slight a bit of sense anymore.
Also France and Germany have been oppose on almost every aspect of the policy in the EU since Sarkozy and Merkel took power.
The last example of that is the EU - Brazil free trade agreement which Germany was largely in favor of and France was totally against.
And they are many of other examples like that.
@@nono114499 to be friends means not you have always the same meaning or interest. The Germans do trust in France. Where the new times will go ... nobody knows. But we are friends. This is deep in the German mind today. Same Britain. They are out of EU. Ok. We are still brothers. Together we are strong.
We objectively do, and only Germans can't see the inevitable split (in France, it's obvious to us)
They cant split regardless of Policy. The Germans rely on Imports they have too and since Germany really has no Influence in world affairs like France They need France as their middle men. Their economy's are the same and have melded together a split and the 2 countries would be poor. Neither country could stand on its own . And Neither country could stand with out the USAs Military. Germany the Size of Montana and France the Size of Texas . Even though Montana is a little bigger and has far more Natural Resources. I see see them as States not separate Nations.
It's funny that Germany managed to hit all the political extremes within half a century
Soon we'll have Jihadist Germany , the show isn't over yet .
we'll try out Islamic Caliphate next as it seems
@@prinzeugenius7907 As a turk, I recommend it highly
@@prinzeugenius7907 Which is great . Germany needs a unifying and motivating ideology , and Islam is a very powerful one . Also no one will dare invade Germany in the future , because they know they're gonna get Jihaded out of existence
@@muatheluafi6816 it'll be a civil conflict first as people here 'ate this foreign arabic cult frankly. There is nothing German about Islam and historically it has always been our enemy. We massacr'd the Ottomans twice at Vienna and saved our people from islamic enslavement for a reason. Read up my name.
Also the Islamic world couldn't even deal with Israel up to today, such a winner ideology.
Germany is laying low and saving it's money.
When the time is right Germany will rise again 👊🏻
I feel that he doesn't really like or understand Europe. He's a bit confused on some points. And totally off on others.
I think Europe still has tremendous potential. Potential they may never use but potential nonetheless.
whats potential that will never be used worth anyway. He correctly pointed out the demographic and cultural catastrophe for Germany though
@@prinzeugenius7907 Demograpic collapse is not a matter of who but a matter on when. Birth rates have been steadily decreasing in almost every country in the world. Japan, South Korea and Europe have the lead, but if the trend continuous (and there is no indication it's going to stop) everybody will arrive there (US or China are only a couple of decades behind those). What would happen next is yet to be seen.
Potential or not, i do agree, he doesn't really u derstand Europe that well. And especially so Germany
@@alejandrobraganza8728
China is even closer. They fucked themselves with their one child policy.
@@alejandrobraganza8728 the US is just as bad the thing is there’s basically an open border in the south with millions of people pouring in all the time that’s going to lead to problems
No dude, France and Germany will not be breaking up any time soon. They're not "pretending" to like each other thanks to the horrors of the World Wars, both have realized they have far more to gain economically, militarily and diplomatically by working with one another than being opposed. They may have very different cultures but that doesn't really matter as both of them respect each other's cultures at this point. If somehow the European Union breaks, which no lol it won't as the Union is the way Germany and France exert their diplomatic influence over the rest of the European continent and so they would prefer to break up themselves before they'd let the Union dissolve completely, you'd likely see at least a reformation of the heartland of the EU as a political block just with the other members sloughed off. You also forget to remember that Crisis have a tendency to cause unification and centralization effect towards their end, so whether or not the EU stays about the same or ends up sloughing off just to the EU heartland, you'll likely see a confederation of the states appear that will seek to incorporate all of Europe once the crisis is over. Whether they will be able to or not depend on what happens with Russia and the US mainly. Maybe in 500 years when another crisis comes around again the French and Germans might break up, but as of right now that alliance is the most rock solid of any alliance in the world.
They will when France goes all in on the hard right. France and Germany have very different political cultures and soon enough this will bleed out into the open. Just the other day the leader of the German Green Party spoke out in favor of sharia. What happens when these rats come close to power in Germany? You think France is gonna tolerate that?
@@declanfeeney7004 The French far right will never come to power. They've been trying to for a 100 years and failed every time. It's a powerful voting block on its own but 80% of the country is completely arrayed against them and will never vote for them. Just look at what happened with the 2017 election - literally nobody went for Le Pen in the second round. This isn't even a case of Weimar Germany either, French democracy doesn't have any way for it to fall to an undemocratic coup like in Weimar. If anything Germany would probably just end up intervening on the side those who will oppose the Far Right anyways, as there's no way they'd just let France goose step into tyranny considering what happened when they did.
@@TheRedKing247 Le Pen won more than 1/3rd of the vote in 2017 and is projected to win at least 45% this year should she make it to round two. She made 37% even after her disastrous debate performance. Imagine what a decent speaker could have gotten. But don’t worry about marine Le pen, she might not be able to enter the second round because of her rival. A man even more far right than her. Both of these candidates score at least 40% in round two and 35% in the first round should they unite. Things have changed and the mood is getting better. Certainly more than 20%. This isn’t 2002 anymore, try actually informing yourself on contemporary French politics.
Also I don’t know what country you are form but you are clearly neither French nor German. Because you have no understanding of contemporary France if you think that people will do the stupid “republican dam” for the fifth time in the current climate. And if you think the federal republic of Germany would ever under circumstances send troops into France, you are delusional.
We are already living under tyranny. The tyranny of leftists and minorities empowered by justice. Deny it all you want, it really doesn’t matter but the next French Revolution is coming. And it will be a national revolution :)
Pretty much all of Western Europe realized that after ww2
@@declanfeeney7004 Keep deluding yourself my man. Just don't be surprised when your countrymen aren't putting up with your fascist bullshit and want nothing to do with you. I have more than enough faith in the French people to prevent your rise to power, knowing it'd be the end of French democracy in doing so. Liberté, égalité, fraternité.
i dont really think the friendship between germany and france is farce - there are a lot of exchanges etc. that bind us together
Yeah and I can't wrap my head around how he thinks different interests in spreading influence is bad on such large countries. We won't but heads like China and Russia do over Central-Asia if we focus on the east and the French on the south, it's actually perfect (and as long as we and the Benelux stay this strongly together we can also ignore the problems we used to have over the rhine-region)
And also the idea of splitting up because of culture differences. German countries Bavaria and Mecklenbourg-Vorpommern are cultural more apart, then Southwest Germany and Eastern France. Cultural differences are keeping europe in the flow.
I think the same. If the EU fail and collapse, Germany and France (and at least the Benelux countries) would build a new EU of some sort.
I agree on cultural differences. Cultural differences might make things messy and complicated at times, but that's often actually a good thing, and essential too. It means you get a greater variety of ideas and possibilities. The cultural diversity and variety of interests of the EU is presented as a weakness, but actually in a way that is also a great strength. I believe as our countries become more interconnected, then I'm not just a British citizen, but I am connected to many other countries that have influenced my life and culture.
It feels weird watching this as a German. I also don't think Germany would play much of a role militarily. Our military is pretty crappy. Also most people don't want war and like you said there aren't that much people that would fight. I think mostly economically it could take over (like you said it has been expanding that way for some time). But it's still pretty impressive what can be achieved here with enough pressure or money (or both). So who knows. But idk If I would like Germany to be a great power.
Nah population too small
I admire the potential your nation had at one point 🤝
Germany will never be a superpower itself, but considering how unbreakable of an alliance they have with France it's very possible the two of them combined could become a superpower in their own right along with whatever other European nations that follow them.
The fighting thing is wrong imo, that is mostly, because people see no reason to fight. We all live very comfortable lifes today. It has always been true, that, the more you are removed from the horrors of life, the less desensetized you are.
Imo, Germany could be great again AFTER a major conflict, so maybe after a Sinoamerican war.
Most people don't "want war" but how close must the Russians get to Berlin before the German people accept it as necessary?
The Europeans in the comments moaning about how the video doesn't understand the European worldview are the same Europeans who think Brexit was all about economics or nostalgia for empire. It's the pot calling the kettle.
9:40 German culture does not necessarily mean these people will bend to the German state. Most of the US high command as well as a good part of the population had German ancestry and yet they had no problems declaring war, the same going for the German populations in Latin America, Australia, and European colonies.
The German-American population actually did have a problem with going to war with Germany and it's part of why the US stayed neutral for so long and was even slightly more inclined to join the Central Powers over the Triple Entente before the sinking of the Lusitania and the Zimmermann telegram
Arikian I was referring more to WW2 instead of the first, since WWI was even at the time seen as pointless and people would not want to fight their kin over nothing. In WW2 however most German population around the world did not oppose their current country intervening against Germany (and in some cases became the most prominent proponents of war against them) because Germany was clearly the aggressor.
@@wanderingthewastes6159 Even WWII most Americans didn't want to enter the war. Took a surprise direct attack from Japan to do it and even then despite what Hollywood will tell you or show you most Americans were getting tired of the war and wanted to end it one way or the other even if that means pulling out which would count as a lost like Vietnam War or Afghanistan for example.
This is why the atomic bomb was dropped in Japan because the American people didn't want any more fighting and this settlement was already starting to brew up a few years before the A bomb was dropped.
Nonsense, Eisenhower was an exception... the vast bulk of the US high command in both world wars was British/Irish i.e. British isles: Marshall, Macarthur, Patton, Bradley, Clark...and that's just the US army in WW2
@@wanderingthewastes6159 True, even though, like Skate Trooper said, the US still wanted to stay neutral initially because of the US's general policy of neutrality, but with that said, though, there were still people like the Volksdeutsche, but the main reason they were so upset to want to follow the Nazis, was likely because of how shit they were treated during WWI in America with lynch mobs and internment camps for German-Americans, and the German language and culture was banned, both by law and society. That's how the US went from a quarter of the population speaking German natively, going to school in German, going to church in German, to becoming nothing but a faded memory of a time bygone, with most Americans not even knowing how strong the German roots were in America before WWI and WWII, and with it never being taught in schools, nor the atrocities of the US government. I know that that's when my family stopped speaking German and it honestly pisses me off a lot now that I have to learn German, instead of being able to speak it natively, and with a lot of my family's culture being erased. I feel like I have to reclaim what the US stole from me and my family.
I've always found it interesting that Germany desired to be the biggest power of Europe since 1900. They attempted to achieve this with the Monarchist Mitteleuropa and the National Socialist Lebensraum, yet the most success that Germany found in becoming the hegemon of Europe has been through democracy.
Would say economic union rather than democracy.
Economic domination. What Britain and France feared before WW1 and the what they feared before WW2.
WW1 and 2 were not fought to defend Belgium or Poland. They were Thucydides' traps.
@@J4R0D yeah, the same can be said to more recent wars for economic domination of the US
That’s a fair point, but do you believe that Germany would have found the same level of economic success through other political systems? I’m not so sure. In my opinion, either monarchism, national socialism or communism wouldn’t have been able to achieve it as these systems don’t allow for the economic innovativeness of many democratic countries. What do you all think?
Democracy? I wouldn’t call it that
No because of demographics
@@jasonjason6525 yep. New Morocco. North African nations are not known for been smart..
@@jasonjason6525 …That’s still good demographics regardless of ethnicity.
@@alsyrriad no.
@@jasonjason6525 exactly
The Franco-German friendship is not a facade. There is an extreme amount of cultural exchange, both at schools, universities, but also at city, state and national level. Even before the world war, there was a great fascination with France, especially in Prussia. That is why the German language is still full of French loan words today. Germany and France are much closer, both politically and on a personal level, than Germany and Eastern European countries like Poland.
That conclusion is nonsense
@@flyingpharoah4867 Why do you think so? Do you have any evidence to support your opinion? Thank you.
@@BasementEngineer Because never has hate for Germany and the EU been so high in France. If you look at electoral results and studies, not nonsensical anecdotal evidence.
What I find hilarious is that only people I've seen actually believing in the Franco-German friendship are either Germans or pro EU bourgeois
@@flyingpharoah4867false
"Europe has become weaker since the 2008 financial crash." I don't know about that. The EU is still very dysfunctional in many ways, but compared to 2008-2010 I think it is more resilient today, not the other way around. Even if not by a lot. Also, should the EU fall apart, Central-Eastern Europe would either be vying for US influence, or at the very least British+French influence if the US is too busy with its internal problems. No way will Russia-weary Easterners trust Germany to lead them.
Agreed that today EU is more resilient.
Absolutely. In fact, with every crisis the EU grows stronger. Like a body building up resistance against a virus... if it doesn't kill you it only makes you more resilient. The EU has made some great progress internally, like setting up a geopolitical commission looking at the long term, but we don't see that because only the bad news about the EU is mentioned in the news, making it look way worse than it is.
But this just goes to show that this althist guy has a massive anti-Europe boner and really is a novice in regards to Europe. Take everything he says about Europe in any of his videos with a truckload of salt.
@@Natogoon strong ? On paper maybe but he is right the 2008 crash came close to splitting the EU. And without the USA providing the military backing the EU doesn't last long.
@@Natogoon As a German-Italian I must say I can't really see where you're coming from. All the things he has said about Europe as a whole have been factually correct so far.
The EU thing is another question, but in pure continental terms he's right. Europe is on the decline and big time, much like Japan but not quite as bad.
About the EU I can say one thing: It's biggest problems are
1. That it is not only an economic union but also a political one, but a political one without real democracy. There is no loyalty for the EU and in essence those who profit the most are big European multinationals anyway.
2. The EU has no financial direction. A majority of the Union has centralized its monetary policy under the ECB while keeping the fiscal policy decentralized which in essence gives every country the worst of both worlds since they're inflexibly tied to a currency and interest rates that can never reflect the real current situation on the ground.
Another point is that the whole free trade thing is a big myth, because that one is only ever 100% beneficial between equals, in any other situation countries lose national industry to ever enlarging conglomerates that just move where it is cheapest (which comes back to the decentralized fiscal policy thing, since corporate tax in Ireland is so low that it has essentially become the EUs tax haven).
The result of course being that a ton of people lose their jobs for the sake of efficiency and also real wages stagnate or depress since everything becomes cheaper and so they're paid less in relative terms.
But then again there are still markets that just keep becoming more expensive so in the long run the bottom 50% lose out.
Since the full implementation of the EU system the income gap between rich and poor has widened dramatically, there 100% is more to it than just that, but the mismanaged state of the EU is certainly a part of it.
The EU is weaker mate. Check out any big country weather it`s Britain, France, Germany, etc and you`ll see that their GDP is lower or basically the same as it was in 2008. This is in absolute numbers though. Add to that a rate of inflation of ~4% a year and you`d see that the EU has gotten poorer. EU countries debt is also out of control and when the next crisis comes I`m not sure how we`d recover.
My country is in the EU for the money and the moment it runs out we`re out. We don`t particularly like the EU but we stay in it because its less worse than the Russians and Turks FOR NOW. I can`t say I`d particularly sad if it collapsed though.
14:06 "80% of Europeans billionaires inherited their wealth?"
I see...
I guess 50% +44% +31% +21% +18% +14% +13% +1% = 80% or something
It's actually 27% on average, excluding Russia.
Twice as much as the USA, but there is no gas and not much oil in the UE, except in the UK which have a similar rate of "inheritance" as the USA, and Norway where it is not privately exploited.
Also, you forgot the "primarily" in the title of the graph. But that is not important comparatively to the previous statement.
Pinging this so he sees it and answers.
@@awddsa2923 Well the graph he provided is pretty self-explanatory, I'm willing to assume it's accurate.
I guess he just didn't understand it, or misread it or something.
Hopefully it wasn't malicious, I don't see a worthwhile reason it could be.
For anyone wondering:
I got 27% by adding the 7 fractions from the 7 Europeans countries in the graph (including the UK, but excluding Russia), and dividing the result by 7 (aka: an average).
Also, Sweden doesn't have oil, unlike Norway, and I mistakenly wrote the graph showed Norway instead of Sweden. It doesn't affect the calculation though, only some of its interpretation.
@AG TaNGrA he makes so many outlandish statements about America being some sort of modern British Empire or something along those lines tbh the US is encouraging Canada Australia and New Zealand and Britain into a union/federation type thing as another counterweight to China which it would inevitably become
As a German, I find this video half-compelling, half-puzzling.
As you say, Germany's military is weak, and the administrations of the past decades with their overseas military operations have only proven its unpreparedness to act as a military power. They find scarce popular support, and because of our past, politicians are very reluctant to push for aggressive behavior similar to France or the UK. We have no interest in militarist expansion. Also, saying that Europe relies on the U.S. to bail them out militarily is only one side of the coin since the U.S. profits from using the European subcontinent as its hedge against Russia, so please... America isn't exactly altruistic here.
When it comes to economic hegemony, Germany does and could execute imperial power over other European nations and beyond. That you bring up Eastern Europe as its future is interesting, since culturally and ideologically, countries like Poland or Hungary have, in recent years, taken a negative stance toward Germany, moving towards conservatism while liberal-minded Germany is closer to France, the BeNeLux, and Scandinavia. If culture matters indeed, a breakup of the EU would happen more along those lines and Germany would be very hard-pressed to find good friends in the East. Germany would rather close the borders to the poorer East and have its career-minded citizens look to move to other affluent countries in the West.
One last thing: "A single great invention, philosopher, artist to come from Europe over the last eighty years." Excuse me? Ever heard of The Beatles? Karajan? Foucault? Habermas? Abramović? The CERN particle collider? Mp3? And who developed the first mRNA Covid-19 vaccine?-BioNTech, a German company headed by Turkish migrants. Either you were joking or pandering to an American audience totally ignorant about European affairs..., or?
Whatif likes to talk out of his ass sometimes that’s for sure
I think you are over analyzing the statements of a channel that is called ‘whatifalthist’ I believe the hyperbolic statement was made to sell the video for views.
Or what you said but yeah when looking at alternative history or predictive history you really can’t take it that seriously.
You're right there. Whatifalhist does seem to make a lot of uninformed statements about other countries which could seem like they're true to someone who knows nothing about said countries
its funny Euros got offended by his innovation remarks lol Foucault, the Beatles and mp3 lol
He also seems to not understand the EU at all and how people in Europe think.
Being real man. Your all over the places with a lot of this stuff. Some points have merit but are kinda overblown or just memes.
I think you skip some factors when talking about why Germany is so strong now: infrastructure. Germany STILL benefits from projects that were started way back in the Prussian Kingdom. The railoads that were built then, the canals that were dug - all those have paid themselves many times over. Compared to some countries who fell behind (like Eastern Europe) now even if they tried their best to catch up, they have a ton of environmental regulation, roadblocks, red tape etc.
And I would say that I kinda like the "Biased American Understanding of EU Politics" map. It seems to nail the main points in the limited amounts of words available.
PS. Its funny how "Bloodlands" largely correspond to the territory of old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, back when IT was the most powerful player in the region. I guess its time to take a hint from history, Europe
Yup. And many companies were also started in that time, or maybe the Empire or Weimar. There is no German google or facebook nowadays, we live of the acomplishments of our ancestors.
And seeing how bad we are at taking care of infrastructure (Deutsche Bahn) or creating new ones (Berlin Airport etc) I don't think our future is that rosy
And the US Interstate Highway System was based off the German Autobahn (Ike saw it, loved the idea, and imported it to Murica)! 🤣
@@aldoushuxley5953 Ah, Brandenburg Airport - long Deutschland's punchline for tardiness and delays! 🤣
"Bloodlands" is simply a title of a book describing the crimes commited by Hitler and Stalin in the XX century. As for the reason why the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth fell behind, it's because at some point a certain fracture appeared, and two equally powerful neighbours (Sweden and Russia) quickly invaded. Basically a huge paramilitary society of the Cossacks had developed itself in Ukraine, and they made the rebellion against the Commonwealth. Sweden and Russia, until then unable to penetrate into the Commonwealth, made a joint invasion and completely ravaged the Commonwealth during the so called Deluge. It is estimated that the Deluge damaged Poland more than ww2, because that's just how much the country got plundered and burnt to the ground. The Commonwealth just never recovered from that. A curiosity might be the fact that this is the conflict the Duchy of Prussia used to break away from the polish control into union with Brandenburg.
The EU actually helps quite a bit by taking half the cost for many infrastructure projects that help inter connectivity over the EU. For example in the Baltics this has led to them being able to build a high speed line south to Warsaw. As well as being able to build a gas port to import gas from overseas. Though there are many many more such projects across Europe similarly supported.
So the EU has been very helpful for members who have started off with less infrastructure in catching up a bit.
“Not a single great inventor, philosopher, artist out of Europe in the last 80 years”
Terry Pratchet, Arthur C.Clarke, The Beatles, The Sex Pistols, Queen, Rammstien, Bluetooth, The Large Hadron Collider, MP3 and the first entirely synthetic organism.
I know we aren't exactly hitting it out of the park like we used to but we're far from irrelevant.
The fact that you think some European versions of American music is “great art” really just proves his point
@@declanfeeney7004 Sorry, it's otherwise - what you know as "American music" is originally european. Early American musicans just know three or four chords, in the same time, europeans had writtten eternal music for orchestras. Even the famous "Imperial-March"-Theme is just a cheap copy of the mussic from a british composer with German ancestry. And european musicians, like Rolling Stones, Beatles and Sex Pistols made a real genre out of it. without them - Rock and Popmusic would today just be regional folklore in the Memphis area.
The most popular videogame of all time came out of Europe: *Minecraft*
The last time I checked, Steven Hawking was a British man, what about those German-American Jewish nuclear scientists, and are we forgetting about the USSR’s space program.
This point is so stupid.
@@captain-chair I don't mean to detract from your argument, but most people consider USSR/Russia to be separate from Europe
14:03 On a famous invention or discovery, isn't CERN a big one? Discovering the Higgs Boson is pretty massive, as well as helping set up the modern internet.
Thats basically useless if it can't produce products or blow something up.
@@Nein14 😂 your name explains your attitude
@@Tanu.90 i think he was being sarcastic as he was explaining a typical american view of stuff - useless unless it either blows something up or can produce and maximize profit (of something)
I am semi serious. Ofcourse discovering the Higgs Boson is cool and stuff. Helping with internet stuff is also cool. But in the end that stuff doesn't make money and it doesn't kill. This means it doesn't make you powerful and it doesn't effect most people.
Well not many really groundbreaking inventions were from 2000-2020. In the whole world I dont see nowadays inventors, scientists, artists who really are innovating society and not repeating what was already invented. Its amazing how our lives were suddenly changed in 1990s with mobiles and world wide web, and now after twenty years we have only better looking phones, computers. Whats happening? Did it suddenly stop? Where are all inventions?
This is just
answer no. Germany is only 3/4ths German and soon to be half German. Multi culturalism doesn't work. Didn't need to watch the video. Answer - no.
Take the white pill
8:46 "... They want to put up a facade of being friends..." I honestly think that he is completely wrong here. It is not just a facade, Germany and France have been partners now for a long time. Maybe friendship is not the right word. More like siblings, we dont always see eye to eye and sometimes we make fun of each other. But we stick together and would help each other out no matter what.
Bound by fate. France and Germany know very well that they have to stick together if they dont want become meaningless.
You sound me when I try to say than Romania and Bulgaria are brothers. if push comes to shove the partnership will collapse no matter what and he explained that really well.
@@karumanusman9027 yea as a Frenchman I found much of this video spot on, including the whole bit about the collapse of the Franco German alliance. The only thing I outright disagree with in this video is the idea that Europe hasn’t produced anything good since the world wars.
It's funny how one can be willing to go along with Whatifalthist's rhetoric, theorising and pronouncements until he gets to somewhere or something you personally know about. Then you realise he really has no idea what he's talking about and that calls into question everything you've heard him say to date.
He's getting breathing his own CO2 too much and slowly losing his mind, the acceptance of snake oil salesmen as a sponsor should tell you that but this retelling of Europe's post war history to fit his own anti-Europe, anti-European federalism narrative has tipped this channel well into the realm of fiction.
Europe is like pizza, even when it's bad it's still pretty good. We'll be fine 👍
Whatif mixes some good historical points with Victoria 2 fanfics and strange liberal hegelism from XIX, thats why his mistakes are not noticiable for average fans.
Watch his historical videos or more like anglo saxons are superior in everything the video.
@Jotaro97 Oh sorry you're right, ok Germany is not a cultural influence on countries to its east in the 21st century and the idea it would have any sway in Poland or Hungary is laughable.
The European Union is strong because it's subtle, something Americans find hard to comprehend. We don't wave flags in this part of the world and yet no flag has become more pervasive in my lifetime than the European flag.
The EU's demise has been predicted for many decades now but each crisis makes it stronger, not weaker. And its lack of military power is a positive thing for the vast majority of its citizens. Again, a concept Americans, particularly on the right, find incomprehensible.
German/Nazi POWs befuddled the Soviets. Despite their circumstances, they had to keep themselves busy. The Soviets found them industrious even in as POWs.
In the US, many German POWs in the middle of the country were leased out to help farmers. They helped with record yields.
I have German ancestors and I always have that gotta stay busy feeling our history definitely leads to the person we are now
Well when they aren’t doing anything they seem to go mad.
"Grandma, why did you put granddad's ashes in the hourglass?" "We're Saxons, and any Saxon, alive or not, has a duty to work".
I honestly think the US is a superpower because of the boatload of German immigrants that came over here
Should do a little updated video on this considering Germany gave its military about 101 billion to spend and every year 2% of its annual gdp with a gdp of about 3.76 trillion or something like 70 billion increase every year ( I think) not only that single action flexes how much money and how wealthy Germany is as a country and powerhouse becoming the 3rd largest military spender in defense over night and with its annual increase easily surpassing China to 2nd.
bro putin just destroyed swedish neutrality (sweden is longer neutral than switzerland) and german pacifism in a single Day. Actually, the germans are now pro-Weapons delivery (sorry for my english) to ukraine. I have never seen my people supporting arms supply to a foreign nation that isn't a closer ally.
Well, here are my thoughts:
1. Germany only did this because America gave them permission. We don't know how Germany acts in a system where the Americans go home.
2. This whole crisis was caused by Russia's last gasp as a world power. The real long-term question is what does Europe look like where Russia is no longer a serious threat?
In general, I am skeptical that the Ukraine War will fundamentally change Germany's arc as a declining European hegemon. The real change will be the collapse of Russia as the Eastern European hegemon, and Poland's struggle with Ukraine to fill the power vacuum. The central questions are:
1. Will Germany fall into the orbit of the Western European sphere (France) or the Eastern European sphere (TBD)?
2. Will Germany maintain national unity, or will the alienation of the East lead to a German breakup?
I do think that with German nationalism being practically verboten, Germany has no chance of being a major European power. The best case scenario for Germany is that it becomes either France, Poland or Ukraine's financial backer. Basically, Germany would become a major financial backer and supporter.
@@derlasercrafterwally4342 As he said in the video, Germany has a weak military arm, but it can grow strong if they so wish.
After all it wouldn't be the first time they did it
@@JonatasAdoM I think this is a point many people are forgetting. Germany has a very strange history of raising incredibly competent armies on relatively short spans of time. The people's of modern day Germany were often given command roles all the way back to the Roman empire, even though the Romans still treated them pretty badly despite this. Germany has an insane amount of money to throw around, they can more than likely build a strong military faster than almost any other country in the world.
@@peterhanes7333 need to wash my eyes after reading so much bs
Well that was a remarkably... american perspective.
I'll just collect disconnected thoughts here to adress some of the things that bothered me:
- Germany won't expand eastwards to form an empire anytime soon. Not necessarily because it couldn't, but because barely anyone here has the desire to do so. It's much easier to just maintain the status quo, which already gives Germany economic leverage in europe without having to use military.
-You quite understate the connection of Germany to France while quite overstating it's connection to eastern europe. The bigger part of Germany has been seperated from eastern europe for half a century which has obviously had an impact on their relationship. Most Germans would say the exact opposite - feeling closer to the French and British than to their eastern neighbors. English, French and Spanish are commonly taught in school; Polish, Czech and Hungarian are not (even in east germany the only "eastern european" option is Russian).
- Name one big invention that came out of Germany in the last 80 years? Idk, maybe the Pfizer vaccine that most of the western world uses which was developed by Biontech, a german company? The .mp3 file format which was developed by Fraunhofer? The Ziegler-Natta catalyst that is used to make plastics like polyethylene and polypropylene (The entire field of polymer chemistry came out of germany)? SEM-, STM-, AFM- and STED-microscopy? The computer (81 years but close enough)? The scanner? Innovation in Germany hasn't slowed down, but the rest of the world has caught up so german inventions are no longer in the majority - of course more innovation would come out of America or China because those countries combined have more than 20 times our population. I think we're doing well for our size, and you'd be surprised how many high-tech systems and products have parts that were developed in Germany, even if they aren't manufactured and sold by German companies.
-American billionaires are selfmade while german billionaires inherit? Taxes and regulations in germany make it much harder to become one - so most of the ones left have inherited their wealth. You shouldn't forget that by american standards Germany has a socialist government and we have strong laws to prevent labor exploitation. You would consider that a bad thing, but I disagree.
A lot of the new age billionaires also made their fortune in digital technologies, which admittedly is something Germany sucks at because German tech infrastructure and legislation is a solid decade behind the times.
If you tried to give every high school student in the world a beefed up PISA test, I suspect >75% of the top 20,000 test results would be from students in mainland China. But China doesn't really have many experts making cutting edge developments in STEM fields - YET. Things could be quite different in 15 years, but for now they're mostly working on catch-up.
Germany, France and the UK probably produce approximately as many top STEM experts as the U.S., _per capita._ There'd be a big dropoff when you got to European countries like Italy or Spain, however.
Wait Germany is a decade behind tech wise?
Then how many decades is Australia behind, you don’t need to embarrass us this much!
@@captain-chairAustralia is called a rich development country for a reason and he mainly writes about our digital infrastructure what is rubbish, because Kanzler Kohl destroyed Kanzler Schmidts plan to give us the best FIberinternet in the World...
In tearms of eastern europe he is right, but I agree what the whole Francepart is rubbish.
@@anonymousturtle8562 Not really Germany and France are the countrys with the highest production of engineers and other STEM-Experts and you forget that many american STEM-Scientists are from europe and other foreign regions.
One thing I think you missed is how much the german economy relies on its industrial capacity and infrastructure. I live near Cologne in the center of the Rheinland industrial zone. I don't really notice it in everyday live because I grew up here. But everytime I visit France I notice how many gigantic factories and chemical plants there are. It's is also pretty amazing in the context of modern globalization that so many small to medium size businesses in germany are world leaders in there specialized market. For example there are thousands of 50-100 employee companies that engineer and manufacture specialized machines that are exported globally. Even Chinese Megacompanies with practically limitless finances and hundrets of thousands of workers still can't compete with the technology or quality of these machines.
However, one has to admit that demographics will most certainly lead to economic disaster in germany. The minority of highly educated workers and businesses would have to create absurd amounts of wealth to sustain the aging majorities retirement.
All true, however, Japan is an "old" society rn and they still do pretty well comparatively despite that. Also, this is happening absolutely everywhere globally (with the only exception being Africa), and the US is trailing only about 20, 25 years behind Europe, so it'll hit them too. What are they gonna do? That's right. Nothing.
@@mysterioanonymous3206 Well, in the US's case, I suspect it's not _that_ far behind, since mass immigration masks a situation more similar to Europe's than not.
@@boobah5643 true actually, it's 1.7 births per woman (France 1.87, Germany 1.54 Sweden 1.9). But their population is somewhat younger, I think they have about 5 to 8 years on Europe, on average, so that'll delay the effects somewhat.
@@mysterioanonymous3206
Why is Africa growing in population ?
@@lavish_1717
Thanks to advances in medicine which have reduced some of the mortality. Cultural tradition to found a family in Africa is something important.
Germany and France ARE friends. There might once have been large differences, but those have been mediated significantly by three quarter centuries of close cooperation
na the Frenchies hate us actually, look at their election campaigns at the moment.
@@prinzeugenius7907 Macron is way ahead in polls, on a very pro-european and thus pro german-french-friendship agenda
@@letoatreides5165 let's see. You gotta add all the righ winger percentages
@@prinzeugenius7907 just France? No lots of countries actually hate you. And no one trusts you.
@@user-wm2tw so emotional...You can speak for "lots of countries" but methinks your small hat is showing
Reatching this 6 Weeks later.
And its almost Surreal how Wrong your Predictions were xD
Germany went Rock Hard and not only completely Threw over the Pacifism Policies. Announcing that in Future Years its Military Budget will be almost Twice what it was before. Which gives Germany the 3. Largest Military Budget in the World. With only the USA and China having a Bigger Budget for their Militaries.
It also Cemented it with a Power Demonstration few Countries would be Capable of making. Slapping 100 Billion Euros onto the Table to Beef up its Military Quickly.
The European Union did not Split up at all. Instead becoming Stronger than ever before and Standing United to the Point of entirely Ignoring other Differences.
Germany and France as well being Closer to Each other than ever Before and now Pushing for a European Military.
Yep and the US wants to build way more military bases all over Europe because of the Ukraine war. But he's like "lol america will turn its priorities inwards because of instabilities"
@@ADreamingTraveler He's talking more so about the American people's total reluctance to get involved in more foreign wars for probably at least a generation, than he is about what American politicians say publicly.
@@ADreamingTraveler Is just 2022, calm down
Just wait. This guys is looking at the big picture. There’s a good chance he’s wrong of course, but just wait.
@@KaiserLandsknecht
Doesnt really matter. He did not predict an Accurate Timeframe. He predicted a Chain of Events.
Now. His Prediction on such a Chain of Events happening became true.
So till that part he had the Right Judgement.
Just the Reaction and Consequences of it played out completely differently.
Germany: Third times a charm!
Also when you stated how inflexible German foreign policy is I cannot help but think back to Otto Von Bismarck which was the complete opposite of Inflexible. If Otto Von Bismarck was still around during the time of WW1 or a person with the same policies as him, it is my humble opinion that Germany may be a superpower today
I don’t think superpower is the right word because Europe is a small place.
I would say a very dominant regional influence. Like, think China in Asia in the Middle ages but a lot smaller but still very involved. Like, the best example is probably the literal Habsburg realm.
@@Arcaryon Well yeah regional power but a super regional power
Like Controlling all of East Europe
That's the problem though, Bismarck was the exception that proves the rule, Germany would have needed a series of leaders like him to achieve full hegemon status.
His ruthless pragmatism eventually doomed the country
@@fluent4530 a super power everywhere y’all on crack
What if mithridates’ empire survived?
What if Japan conquered Korea in the 16th century?
E
What if England stayed Catholic?
@@ivangrozny496 better days
I wonder if China just conquers Korea and make it a vassal once again.
@@jazielcruz3669 Don't burn my social credit :v
Is there a reason why Germany has always been so powerful? Even back in the days of the roman republic/empire Germany was a force to be reckoned with. Strong warrior tradition? Is there something with their geography?
@@israel.s.garcia that true
@@israel.s.garcia umm no actually it is geography mostly.
@@user-jh9nx6tl1n Their geography is terrible. Surrounded by powerful nations on all sides and their access to the open oceans are completely reliant on foreign relations.
@@user-jh9nx6tl1n no its culture, german industry is far superior from the rest of the world, along with a rock named japan. A germany together with russian resources is probably the only empire the US should fear. this is why only the US is making a big deal over russian reaching out west, nobody in europe aside from UK cares what russia does to ukraine but the US fears russia and germany together
The reasons for back in the Roman times only partly translate to the economic reasons. The Germans were very tribe/clan oriented and had a high reproduction rate while being technological semi underdeveloped. They were mainly peasants who were living in forests. Over 80% of Germany was forest more or less. This tribe structures later translated to a lot of little semi independent feudal states, what led to a federalistic social organization on a larger scale. Federalistic systems tend to be pretty potent. When the economic value of an organized industry based on resources was introduced to the German states as an idea the real boom began. In west germany is the Rhein-Area, a area full of coal and Metalls combined with one of the biggest rivers in Europe for transport purposes. In general Germany has had a lot of luck with resources and rivers. The next part is the religion and general culture. The Germans were very practical virtue orientated. Being conscious and reliable, the way to heaven is through Labour and stuff like that. Serious, but life-oriented people. And always in war. Always struggling. Truth is, we would consider it as a shithole most of the time compared to modern standards.
my favorite newspaper headline of the last time: "Germany is arming itself again, and europe is relieved" what else can you say to that as a german? xD
Thinking about Germany as a superpower makes me think of a Norm Macdonald joke..
"The only country that worries me is the the country of Germany ... Germany decided to go to war, and which country did they decide --- the WORLD.. You figure it would take 5 secs for the world to win, but it was actually close... 30 yrs later it goes to war again and chooses ---the world, again. You'd think at that point the world would go, listen Germany you can't be a country anymore.. I mean you keep picking on the WORLD who do you think you are, Mars or something"
MARS AETERNUM!!!
Satan
Even the 2nd time they nearly won.
Germany is its own world as could be seen in the medieval age.
MCR for life
Some of the major issues with this video:
European countries having fought in the past doesn’t mean they will fight again. Speaking as a European, I’d say the vast majority of countries in the EU are very friendly toward each other. This extends to the people too not just institutions. Especially neighbouring countries tend to be very positive toward each other. France and Germany aren’t “eternal enemies” anymore after all, and the EU has shown that trade and cooperation are much better than war. You’d have a very hard time making any major player in Europe go to war against their neighbours, no matter what happens.
Assuming some systematic collapse will happen because supposedly one happens every 250 years is absurd. There aren’t patterns like that in history, and just because you can point to some catastrophic event happening somewhere on earth every 250 years doesn’t mean it’s a global thing, and it doesn’t mean they only happen every 250 years. For instance China had the great famine, the world wars happened, Krakatoa exploded etc and all of that happened much closer to each other than 250 years apart. There are also already plenty of catastrophic events happening, like the Middle East collapsing.
America genuinely isn’t as divided as it seems, especially considering foreign policy. It’s important for both republicans and democrats to be allied to Europe and keep access to foreign markets. Trump was somewhat an exception to this, and this is because the man really doesn’t understand how the world works, but the GOP at large understands Europe is important to American interests.
The population projection for Europe is if immigration stays the same. I can almost guarantee it won’t. Here in Sweden all of the major parties are at least somewhat anti immigration (including the SocDems) so Europe’s population will likely be lower than projected. It’s also possible that as the population declines, stuff like housing becomes more affordable and that would lead to people being able to have more kids without having to stress about finding a house and the like. That’s just some speculation I don’t know what will happen and I won’t pretend to, but what I do know is that the projection is probably incorrect since Europe is becoming less keen on immigration, and will become less and less keen on it the smaller the native population becomes in comparison to immigrant populations, especially if they keep not assimilating into mainstream society.
As for the “good times create soft men” meme at the end, that’s just not historically accurate. America was probably the country in WW2 with the best on average living standards in the war, and they kicked ass. China was definitely in what one would call a “hard time” during ww2 but that just made them weak enough for japan to be able to invade. The whole “good times create soft men” meme sounds accurate until you look into it. In reality what you see is the Roman Empire which declined, as all empires do, but that’s after they had spent almost a thousand years subjugating “harder” people with ease like the Helvetians and Belgae, and also the Byzantine empire survived for another thousand years. China was conquered by the Mongols, but China was already divided after years of strife, and mongol rule lasted for only about 80 years. The mongols didn’t conquer ONE state when they conquered China, they conquered multiple states. They couldn’t have taken out a united China. One could have been born before mongol rule and died after it had ended.
>stuff like housing becomes more affordable
Oh it will... in the middle of nowhere. Kid wants a prospect in life? Welcome to a bigger city/metropolitan area. Population there will continue to grow. (source, population developments in Eastern Europe, where population falls for last 30 years yet housing in major cities even more unaffordable, compared to average salaries then in Western Europe)
Maybe as remote work becomes more ubiquitous, people will move back to smaller towns, but big cities still provide a ton of more specialized value (like different interest clubs) that can be pretty hard to find in smaller communities.
@@Poctyk I made it quite clear I don’t know what would happen. It was one idea for what *could* happen. But yeah what you’re saying could happen too. As I said I don’t actually know what would happen. It was just an idea as for what *could* happen. It’s also not true that urban areas will always keep growing to be fair. It’s true in many cases, but not all, and that could stop being the case as working remotely becomes a possibility.
@@FilAnd01 As a german what do swedes think of my country?
@@maxmusterman9262 Heya glad to answer that! Generally we view Germany very positively, we see Germany as a country which has their shit together, make good products, good beer, stuff like that. We also have some stereotypes that germans are a bit stiff and pervy too. I may have a slightly more positive view of Germany than most Swedes because I did live in Germany for a bit, but generally we like Germany.
@@FilAnd01 Another question from a german, would be great if you could answer. How big are swedens problems with immigration ('no-go areas' and rapes etc.)? Is it really such a huge unsolvable problem as some nationalists in the us like to claim or is it mostly overblown regional problems?
Good video, but I think you fundamentally misunderstand the EU, the 2008 financial crash did not weaken the EU, it strengthened it. It is recognised by every EU country that leaving or a collapse of the Union would be disastrous and no political party with any reasonable share of power supports leaving the EU. Every collapse in Europe recently has strengthened faith in the EU as people realise our national governments are often corrupt and narrow minded. A collapse now would only strengthen the EU further as the idea of leaving the EU during a collapse is unthinkable to anyone. The British leaving the EU has made them the laughing stock of Europe even to people who are anti-EU. The EU is here to stay, the only question is in what form.
If there is to be a European Union, than it should be a Union of European nations and peoples. In other words, it must be a union of Blood, Culture and Nations. Not a union of bureaucracy and human rights delusions
@@declanfeeney7004 but a Union of Europe isn’t possible without bureaucracy. An efficient and powerful European state with separation of powers and transparency is what we need. The European Union promotes our common values and our different cultures. Alsatian culture was nearly extinct but the EU has helped bring it back. The same is occurring all across Europe.
This video got old really fast - through no fault of its own. Russia's invasion of Ukraine changed everything. Germany immediately gave €100 billion to the military and committed to a steady 1/4 increase in defense spending from 1.5% to 2% of GDP.
As Germany is one of the largest economies in the world, this means an increase of EUR 19.23 billion per year, approximately an increase in the budget to EUR 76.92 billion.
For comparison - Russia spends 55.26 billion euros on its military (2019 budget - probably more now).
Of course, compared to the US it's still small - the German one after the increase is about 14.6% of the US budget.
Still, it's a dramatic change. But an even more dramatic change has taken place in the thinking of the whole of Europe. I'm from central (maybe more like eastern) Europe - the Czech Republic, so it may not be universal to all countries. However, Russia's invasion has significantly militarized thinking.
There is a huge sense of frustration here that we are not going to war. There are many requests for our soldiers to be released to go fight on their own. Even the general population has gone from 'let's negotiate' to 'I want to kill Russian swine'.
The question of collective guilt has been resolved very quickly here and, given our tendency to apply morality to everything, with the surprising result that every Russian is responsible. Until you get rid of your leadership, we don't give a shit.
So within a week there are serious debates about expropriation of property, Russian students are having their visas cancelled and being sent home. It's mind-boggling. And, of course, all countries are increasing their military spending, not just Germany.
Yesterday I read an interview with a 4th year college student who was told she could not continue. The Czech branch of Sberbank went bankrupt within 3 days. Everyone there started cancelling accounts en masse.
What 9/11 was to the US, the attack on Ukraine is to Europe. How this will play out, I dare not guess.
And I was looking forward to a "return to normalcy". Instead I read articles by economists that our economy must go into "war mode".
Well, at least we're not bored here.
The irony is how the German politicians really just pretend to help Ukraine. The German population wants to stop Russia. But the politician are personally extremely closely tied to Russia. Russia owns them. They are traitors. Not even sending what they promised. Its a big show for the public as always. Just like corona aid was a big show, lots of promises but in the end nobody really saw a cent from the government. Similarly they promise Ukraine a ton. But deliver near none. In fact less than tiny Denmark.
The Russian invasion means countries are militarising through necessity. It's necessity that sparks countries and peoples into action. If the US yields less influence in European politics, Europe will have to adapt through necessity, and probably become stronger for it in some aspects.
Lol this dumbass comment aged poorly
No. They'll be influential, but their demographics are awful and their mindset is too guilt ridden and naïve.
It's going to take them at least three generations to even begin to recover from their demographic and cultural damage. Odds are we won't see a resurgent German empire until the 22nd century.
@@theodoremccarthy4438 how? Demographic problems are seen in pretty much all wealthy countries rn, so the odds of us changing that course are quite slim.
Cultural damage? We never really had a unified culture to damage, Prussian culture wanted to take over but now we see it as evil blaming it for both world wars due to it's link with militarism (basically the same way the confederate flag is seen, some few who actually use it as southern heritage, some racists that use it but it won't become standard anytime soon) bavarian culture miraculously survived against Prussian rule but that's tearing the country apart (Bavaria has the only independence movement that actually has any weight) and with the rhine building a rhinish culture again instead of pushing for a unified German culture i can only predict us ending like Yugoslavia if our cultures get stronger. If they don't get stronger we can't assimilate migrants so that option would likely lead to the complete destruction of German culture by that of the arabs we let in
@@theultimatefreak666 That's why I said it would take at least three generations, though admittedly that's about the demographics. The cultural regeneration will start sooner due to a reaction against the recent migrants. One of the effects of exposure to foreign cultures is a heightened awareness of your own cultural values and norms. They become more obvious and important in contrast. This will include those values and norms which Germany's regional cultures share but which are lacking in recent migrant communities. "White" emerged as a shared cultural identifier in America due a similar contrast between Europeans and non-Europeans.
I also expect Germany to be influenced by the pro-natal Christian Nationalism which is taking hold in Poland and Hungary. This will help with both the demographic issues and the cultural identity issues.
@@theultimatefreak666 I as a zoomer have never heard of prussia being blamed for anything, tbh most have a fond memory of it
@@maxmusterman9262 I'm hoping you're not confusing Prussia (Königreich Preußen) with the concept of something being Prussian (Preußentum)
The first is still remembered somewhat fondly by normal people. The second is still remembered fondly openly by the NPD and less openly by the AFD
Demographics is what makes history. When Germany rose to power in the 19th and first half of the20th century, it had an incredible population growth and demographic expansion, especially compared to France and Poland. This is why France lost its title of first power in Europe. Now Germany has one the lowest birthrate in the world and will suffer from an elder and elder population. Plus, it is reliant on Russia for gas and energy and Germany dosent have the nuclear weapon unlike France, Russia or the UK.
Demographics is destiny.
@@FreeSpeechAbsolutist1776 yup if you have stable birth rate your people can grow and expand doesn't matter how many people you import native population should still be growing
@@pankajtyagi9911 in fact if your native population declines while you import foreigners, that is the death of your civilization.
@@FreeSpeechAbsolutist1776 agreed.
@@FreeSpeechAbsolutist1776 You "import" goods, not human beings. Get off here.
NEVER underestimate Germany and the Germans
27th of february 2022, germany just announced its allocating 100 billion to modernize its military and wants to meet the 2% of gdp is militiry funding by 2024. sooooooo nice vid
What if Australia was a lot more habitable and managed to have it's own relatively developed societies when the Europeans arrive?
It would probably be more like the native Americans.
Careful now, _when_ is it a lot more habitable?
By doing this just in general, you've changed aboriginal culture an entirely new outlook on existence, one not determined by scarcity and balance, one that's innovative technologically without suffering the consequences of such innovations (such as overhunting).
You've effectively just given 40,000 years of time to a single continent, as Australia didn't change much as a result of the Ice Age due to being in the southern hemisphere where the differences in seasons are minimal.
It might have ended up like Mexico is today
It once was. When Australia's first people first arrived (around 60,000 years ago) the continent was much greener and supported a much bigger population. As the climate shifted the continent slowly dried out, the big animals became extinct and the native population slowly decreased and their lifestyle and culture changed with the land. Europeans arriving to that Australia would be an interesting topic to explore.
what, you wanted a giant lake in the middle of australia?
Three videos in 36 hours, wow.
I'm not complaining, just wondering if you found a lost hard drive, or had sponsorships that required videos by certain dates.
Kinda wondering the same thing as well.
"Name an invention or major philosopher that's come out of Europe in 80 years"
Uh, the mobile phone? The Higgs boson? John Maynard-Keynes? Of course, if your definition of a great philosopher is a libertarian, you aren't going to find any in postwar Europe.
your opinion of europe is very american
6:15 to 6:20 is why I think immigration won't be a solution for the european union in the future. Just look at north africa and how its population is aging at a somewhat similar rate to europe. I'm north african myself and I think the estimates made by the UN, despite being close to reality, are not quite accurate. People are having fewer and fewer children at an alarming rate (boomers having 5 children or more was considered normal, gen x average at around 2 to 3, millennials are pushing it even further with only havin 1 to 2 and to put the icing on the cake some zoomers are refusing to have children altogether while others believe 1 is enough). I hate when I see geopolitical analysits assume that the south easter half of the Mediterranean is immune to issues plaging the north western one because of Islam. Islam doesn't say anything about family planning and doesn't force people to have more children.
I'm not hating on child free people nor am I advocating for any pronatalist propaganda. I just wanted to clarify a common misconception that I heard Whatifalthist say multiple times (that Islamic nations have stable demographics. We don't).
I think eventually the developing nations will start to encourage policies to hold on to their working age population while europe will drift away from immigration policies because of the bad taste left in their mouths from the refugee crisis of 2015.
On your point, I used to think presence of religion was the deciding factor in birth rates, but France, Iceland, New Zealand, Czech Republic, USA, & Uruguay (all 1st world secular Christian countries with increasingly irreligious populations) have similar if not higher birth rates than most Persian Gulf countries. Birth rate is very complicated and it’s not as simple as “more religion = more children”, but there IS a connecting tissue.
I think he is underestimating the energy and thought that went into the european integration project and the french/german partnership especially. There is little opposition to the thought that france and germany needs to work closely together within the two countries. Many decades have been spent on cementing that attitude through various means after WWII. If anything, I see a heartland europe as the seed of a new great power, but that remains to be seen.
Several generations of have now spent their lifes in a united europe, the regional historic distrust is being eroded away by freedom of movement and other liberties. The eastern european nations are just 2 generations behind this process, their ruling elites still being influenced by the soviet era. If the EU hangs in there for another generation, we will see much more integration of those regions as well. Not that there aren’t many challenges on the way, but who doesn’t have „challenges“ in the coming decades to face.
Germany has favoured an EU leadership which will integrate Poland in this partnership. Sadly the currently ruling government in Poland is only looking inwards and not into possibilities.
@@frankthetank5708 Polands way of barking up to Russia as well as Germany invokes memories of what might happen to it historically.
@@ParameterGrenze
This government isn't Poland.
It's true that many Poles are rather conservative, but you just have to look at Ireland how fast this can change, if wealth is involved.
The current polish government simply wants to ensure their racial and cultural integrity. Nothing wrong with that
@@declanfeeney7004
Sure.
Nothing wrong with that.
But it's not necessary/possible to appoint judges because of their political worldview or punish people for taking a legal service in another country for that.
That's against the rules signed in the EU treaties.
Poland: (Chuckles) I’m in danger.
Poland: Kurwa
Hey, did you hear the german military reforms?
Your ideas don't make alot of sense. I think you are basing history too much when talking about geopolitics. Yes, Germany is a powerful country but the maps you show (besides being porn for wehraboos) makes zero sense in the context of today. I think your biggest flaw is looking at history and essentially old things while basing it on modern geopolitics. You are always talking about empires new and old while forgetting the fact that empire's don't exist anymore. welp we still have some modern empires like china and Russia but you act like these empires can reclaim and take lands. But its very hard nowadays. Look at how much stuff Russia has to go through for just a peninsula. You simply can't really take land anymore without getting into very hot water. So your concept of expansionism in the modern world is far fetched at best. Basically "hey look at this empire from the 19th century. One day it's gonna be back" it's exactly like those people who think Ethiopia will become a great power because it was never colonized. Despite the fact it has barely any relevance to today. Stick with the times. Just my criticism
While I agree with your post, literally the only reason that is the case is because the US is the world police, so if something were to happen to the US we would literally go back to the age of landgrabs almost immediately.
Germanistan
Islamic Empire of Germanistan
It will be in a continuous dark age for eternity.
Him, saying that Europe couldn't exist without the US "supervising" because Europeans would not trust each other, is really pissing me off (as a European).
This is so totally not true. The European Union as a trading system would still work fine without the US's help (nowadays) and from my perception European partners trust each other just fine.
PS: As a German, I can also say that Germany is not a great example of military expenses. Germany is widely criticized for its poor military management.
As a german I agree with all of it you just said.
As a french I agree with everything u just said
Your constitution was written and imposed by Anglo American military occupation forces. The federal republic of Germany and the EU as a whole are American puppets in their purest form. Unless the Germans get rid of this puppet government, they will be American subjects. Instead of getting Angry at this guy for saying the truth, why don’t you do something about your ongoing occupation?
@@declanfeeney7004 I have never heard such misinformation before. Indeed the German government puts up with a lot from the US (Snowden is the best example of this). But the European constitution was NOT written by American military forces, neither is the German one. The German one however had to be approved (after being written) by the western Allies (France, UK, US...). It was however not written by them.
But even if it was, what effect would that have nowadays on the economy and politics in the European Union?
This is just patriotic rambling coming from someone believing the US actually had a good political system.
@@declanfeeney7004 considering you are from Germany as well you probably believe Germany is a GmbH and think migrating to a nordic Country would be a solution to your problems.
Im a german and i think the most likely ideology germany would shift to in a crisis is libertarian capitalism, losing more and more of its social systems with the breakdown of its pension system aswell as privatising its commodities like railroad, internet and energy sector more and more. You can already see this trend right now. Also it seems that the more leftist parties are shifting towards being more economically capitalist, while staying socially progressive.
Furthermore i have to say that the german government right now becomes more and more ineffective, spending billions on big goals but hardly achieving them, probably leading to following administrations trying to be less economically interventionist, which in turn would add to this trend.
Thank you for the video, it offered some nice perspectives, however i think that it is not true that the friendship of france and germany is only a facade, yes they used to torment each other repeatedly in history, but I think this further leads to them not wanting to fight eachother anymore. Especially world war 1 was very traumatic for both. The cold war also brought them together a lot more. If had to pick a European country (except russia) Germany would get a more negative relationship with, this would probably be the uk, which is in a quite desperate position right now, which is further established by the german economy overgrowing the british one, it also has the collective memory of winning against the germans in both world wars without as much devastation for their country as most of continental europe.
A note about europa's and USA billionaire percentage: tons 'soon to be succesfull 'Europeans move to the USA because startups get a greater investment there.
So while the statistic stands, I think its better to nuance it and say that Europa's educational institutions on the highest level still work fine. Its just that across the ocean they get more chances then here to become rich off it
I think that says a lot. Immigration is a big part. If successful people are leaving your country, your country is doing something wrong.
@@shorewall I didnt said its a good development (for Europa). Just a piece of extra information to give some context. A person could interpet the video as Europeans getting dumber. Not that that was implied in the video, but still, I wanted to provide some context.
@@shorewall I mean they relocate usually just because getting financing is much easier in NY than in Warsaw. It doesn’t mean that the money doesn’t come back. The opposite case might be Ireland where big tech are situated. Yes it pumps up Irelands GDP, but a lot of that money goes back. I don’t think Europe’s institutions are broken, the standard and quality of life is still highest on earth.
@@Emperor_Atlantis dont see what Jupiter's 4th massive moon has anything to do with this?
@@hakenbacker wut?
Germany in my opinion is like an abused animal. It's still this huge powerful beast but it's been hit so many times it refuses to fight back anymore. Frankly as much as a strong Germany would be a benefit, it's just not possible anymore. BUT TURKEY ON THE OTHER HAND...
Ottoman empire 2.0 redux. Bad day to be armenian.
While Turkey has great demographics and a strong military and economy, it's turn towards political Islam will prevent it from integrating with Europe and likely push it into socio-political stagnation.
@DeVito ... this hurtfully hit a nerve. Maybe its true. 2 WW , 40 years of Separation (BRD -DDR) in the Cold War still left Deep Scars. :-/
Lol what if hyperinflation in Turkey is a repeat of Germany in the 1920s...you know what happened next
@@scholaroftheworldalternatehist its time for LEBENSRAUM
As a German, I‘ m fascinated how many fellow Germans think the Friendship between Germany and France will last. First of all their are no real friendships between nations. Their are shared interests and a shared culture. Well: I don‘ t think that a France under LePen will be mich appealing to Germany. And we didn‘ t react to any suggesten of Marron, because we don‘ t like his ideas for the future of Europe.
I think we talk so much about the friendship, because we don‘ t want to be adversaries. And we aren‘ t. But neutral doesn‘ t feel good enough after two World Wars.
I don't think any German wants Germany to become an empire.
The last point is very true and a bit sad imo. As a German I cannot think of a country that is less patriotic than us. A lot of Germans don't like Germany (myself included). Personally I think that this is because after WW2 our culture/pop-culture has seemed to degrade, losing more and more of its identity. At the same time, it is seen as negative to be patriotic. If you have a German flag in your garden some people think you're a Nazi.
This guy lives in his own reality lmao. This reality is called American in a jar. In his case: Gay American with stiff lover jaw in a jar. It even rhymes, ha :D
Germany tried to take over the world twice and failed.
But as the old saying goes: Third time's the charm
FYI, I'm living in Prague, Czech republic and I have some friends working in Germany and I visited that place more times.
What you are totally omitting are internal demographical and so religious changes within Germany, and whole Western Europe. In other words, there is huge influx of migrants from non-European countries, most importantly Islamic world and Africa. And although it is not often spoken, there is significant haltered, fear and distrust amongst immigrants and natives. And immigrants have bigger number of kids. This means that in future, there will be significantly more islam and non-european looking people in Europe. This will lead to huge internal strain on society, and European societies will change. I don't know how. But I can imagine islamic uprisings, islamic states in Europe, we already have islamic terrorism, genocides of non-native people and so on. German author Thillo Sarrazin writes about this. Or famous French author Michel Houellebecq described this nicely in his book Submission.
This is so dumb, you cannot even begin to address it. Most of these immigrants make up barely 8% of the populations in these countries. All the economic, military & political positions are held by white Europeans and yet you think ENTIRE states will be formed in Europe by people who number in the hundreds of thousands. Your foolishness is dumbfounding.
@@osmanbey8796 although i would agree that most important positions are held by germans and will also be in the future, there are 21 Million people with migration background in Germany, and of course the number is fast growing while germans are shrinking.
@@osmanbey8796 Agreed. On top of that a lot of those arguments are often made on the basis that these "muslim" immigrants are a homogenous mass, which is of course not true.
If you put an Afghan, a Turkish, a Syrian and a Ghanaian immigrant into a room together they won't even be able to understand each other. I know becausey job involves situations like this. In Germany.
What I am trying to say is that their future common ground will be the languages, values and laws they have learnt here. No one said integration was easy. But over here we give it a lot of thought and generally it works! The immigration waves from the 60s and 70s are a proof of that.
@@TJansonable I am a non White person. Immigration will not work. Do not be stupid. Europeans are naive and childish. Germany will not be Germany without Germans, Britain would not be Britain without the British.
@@mudra5114 What do you want to tell me? That non Whites can be racist too? :D
A German of turkish descent just invented a vacc for a global pandemic and is at the forefront of killing cancer. If that wasn't worth it....
American: *gives an extremely plausible and heavily detailed analysis on what Germany could look like in the future with tons of sources cited and as many agreeable bases as possible covered and all of the universal common sense on European politics applied*
most open minded German response: "you are wrong about every single thing you said, ignorant arrogant American. Germany is overwhelmingly the greatest country ever in the world. We will never do the Holocaust again."
Europeans hate this video but demographics alone means that Europe's glory days are well in the past
Europe was barely populated during the middle ages, especially after the black death hit Europe, a pandemic from China. Ironic, isn't it? A few decades later Europe colonized North America, dominanted South America and Africa and humiliated China. Don't write Europe off, especially with a external threat present.
As a european i’d say that the USA is more prone to social collapse than europe
A clueless European. It's both
@@amadiohastruck4331 retardation in the US is so common. Why do you think you bail us out, set up us against each other? It's because the USA's greatest fear is the European uni faction with Russia and coming tan empire again like Alexandre the great spreading to Asia and the Middle East. We don't disagree much with them, you (the USA) just kept the facade up. We didn't kill people across the world's latest age, We buy cheap Russian oil, have a great tech and massive force from Eastern Europe. The retardation and this key fact why you keep rescuing as the USA or feel to sabotage every economic project should give you some insight.
The Romans weren't conquered by barbarians. The 'barbarians' who were most successful in taking bites out of Rome where those who managed to adapt to Roman ideas and styles the best.
Guys don't be offended in the end this is an american describing europe
Yeah this video didn't aged well.
5:40 As someone who knows quite a lot about history I gotta say I hate stuff like that. The history of humankind isn't just simple arithmetic. You can't just put a sequence over it to predict the future (or at least you gotta be so generalising that you leave a whole lot of important stuff out). For example you wrote"50 BC Collapse of Rome.." and I guess you mean to Roman civil war which was a very difficult time of uncertainty and political unrest for sure, but Cesar had just conquered Gaul which made Rome much larger and stronger and with handsight it was just the transition from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire. Therefore to call it a "Roman collapse" is out of the question.
Also the term "world crisis" is a bit weird because it's of course much more likely to happen nowadays because the world wasn't so globalized before (so the term "civilization crisis" would be more accurate I think). It's also quite a European/American centred view because a lot of people for other parts of the world would add colonialism to the list (roughly 1600 - 1900) which turns the whole concept upside down.
And at last I think the biggest hindrance of Germany becoming a super-power are the Germans themselves, they don't want to be an Empire anymore and I don't see that changing in the next decades (which is probably good for all of us :))
Other than that I appreciated your video 👍
Whatifalthist really didn‘t get it here. As an Austrian I can say that the EU is still very much intact and our people are still highly educated, very capable and way more healthy than eg. the US. As for the American Empire it is also still holding a large influence on european culture especially in relevant places like the Internet platforms (Eg. TH-cam, Instagram, etc. - american companies). Economically germany will lose some of its share in the automobile industry because of the rise of electric cars.(Geo-)Politically speaking, germany either turns to natonalism which seems very unlikely (history - people still have the transgenerational war guilt) or it largely stays under american influence because china is to foreign and russia is too weak. In the energy sector WiaH is correct in saying that it depends on Russia but the problems could get way worse because germany has closed all nuclear power plants, which will pose a large problem. As for investments germans won‘t pump so much money into their companies because their investment culture is very weak and most people cling to saving money instead. There are many other ways WiaH is wrong in this video, but the most ridiculous is his geopolitical speculation regarding eastern europe and the non-existant tensions between germany and france.
AFD is very pro-Russian so if we (the people) turn nationalist you can count us in the Russian sphere, absolute nationalism is less likely than China taking over IMO
Addition: die Linke is also very pro-Russian, SPD has always been pretty pro-Russian, FDP never had a clear cultural path planned... CDU/CSU and Greens are likely the most pro-American parties we have and CDU/CSU looks to slowly be falling apart, so if the Greens don't take their place becoming deeply tied to Russia in the next few decades (when all the people that voted CDU thanks to the red scare and now don't want to change it die out) doesn't seem unlikely to me.
... Wir sind halt "Russland-Versteher"
@takyu ???
this “war guilt” still depends on leadership, when will they let go of it? as long as they exist? till people realize the absurdity of this generational self-hating/shaming they wont go anywhere with trying to have security because maybe they think their demise is “deserved”, they dare feel that with children in their homes, it’s not even only about a uniting principle but simply the need to have a fighting force to for economic interests(+power projection) or general safety against possible threats like Russia/China
people can be proud of their country and its current state and still despise the actions of their ancestors
@@f.b.lagent1113 don't quite a few Americans still feel guilt over slavery? Ww2 is much more recent than the US Civil War and with the huge amounts of American influence (largely due to media) you can expect us to be at least that bad in holding onto it if not worse because it was the north Americans that stopped slavery but it wasn't a part of Germany that stopped the holocaust
It is quite obvious that you are not from Europe.
You got the basics right, but holy cow you lack the detailed knowledge to make this video.
For me, I feel like Germany while being economically powerful, is actually extremely reliant on Russia specifically for natural gas. The political effects of that are already obvious, blocking arms transfers to the Ukraine from several more eastern states and I think this will be a major source of friction between it and the Eastern European states have a lot more to worry about from Russia and Belarus in the near future. Latvia, Poland and Lithuania are much more interested in NATO and the EU as collective defense against Russia than as an economic partnership. While Russia certainly isn’t and ascendant power, they will continue to be a problem for the next 20 years.
If Germany and Russia can work out a compromise in their geopolitical influence (i.e. who will have what spheres of influence where) I feel like Germany and Russia can have a long and beneficial partnership
The blocking arms thing has more to do with the peace movment of the 80s, then the russian relations in the SPD, the Grüne and the left in the SPD dont whant to give offensive weapons( which are all weapons able to kill, so all weapons great logic insert facepalm), plus the german guilt cripples our active role in politics even Merkel was just defensive even in Europe, not whanting closer cooperation and just waiting. Germans are thinking small most of them do, there are few who have a vision an in these days our politicians dont have a vision or integrityy, there are even people whanting to ban Bismarck for uniting the germans through war, I dont see us dominating anything our economic power is through export we have few natural resources and the European Union is more fragile than ever with the French election and the Italians. Scholz seems to be a weak canclor (a man with no charisma), and the green parties obession with winning climate change alone, without seeing the bigger picture, of overpopulation in africa and asia, plus our decreasing demographics, because people are selfish and children are work (we would need tax insentives and more day care for more children of academics). Well I think if we dont reform our millitary capacities the german projection through soft power has reached its limit so we are stuck.
@@emilv.3693 the last time that happened, it didn't end well.
With global warming Russia will only get stronger in terms of resources if they play their cards right they could climb back to a world superpower.
@@vin55100 So but here is the thing; you basically just outlined parts of rough strategy paper, right? If Germany wants to dominate more of Europe, here is how to do it, so to speak.
I do not think that domination is a worthwhile goal, I much prefer wealth, democratic freedoms and and stability and independence over actual global power but in terms of the EU, Germany and France & their allies in the EU are already the dominant European influence. Like, what does Russia have? 2km2 in Ukraine? Parts of Moldova?
Or the UK? Nada. Not even a competition.
The EU dominates the continent like nothing since Napoleon. And even he had less actual power. Ancient Rome is actually a fair comparison at this point in time, although late stage Rome and not peak Rome.
If the EU gets to a point of being effective and influential, it will be a superpower.
Not THE superpower but A superpower. And Germany will only a large role in shaping this superpower. That much is almost certain.
Before I start watching, my intial thought is no. Germany is already at the peak of their power, and can get stronger only be merging into the EU.
If such a merge was to happen now, Germany would essentially once again reveal itself to be the push-over of Europe. As utopian as the EU sounds in theory.. only the Benelux, France and maybe Austria would like it. They would effectively alienate the rest of europe from themselves
Germany already has effective control of the EU.
@@BREZHNIK "only the Benelux, France and maybe Austria would like it."
Then the plan would be to push for that merger, leaving the rest EU as an open market hanger on.
Plans for that scenario have been pushed for since the 90s under the names "Kerneuropa" "Europe of two speeds"(early 00s) and "multi-integrated Europe"(around brexit). The pushback against that concept usually came from a more idealistic ideological position (that it would be unfair and paint the secondary sphere as "lesser" members).
USA still has a hold on Germany. for germany to become a serious power (or even super power), they'll have to break off influence from america. i don't see that happening, as the government and their citizens are content with the relationship with the united states. plus, the federal government of germany is nervous to take power because they don't want others to perceive it as another powerful germany that fueled world war. france more likely to take power
Yeahhhhhh idk I'm a bit ify on this one. I agree that there's a global crisis coming and reshifting to a multi-polar world order however I don't see real powers going at one another in the Western world I think Pan Western unity will probably be preserved in strengthened not the other way around that's just my opinion I mean pan western identity is a pretty big deal
Some feedback: Maybe you can source your claims on screen? It would be helpful to see what you based your toughts on, while you are speaking about it.
Great video as always!
Germany to now increase the budget of the Bundeswehr by an additional 100 billion euros a year. Suddenly this hits different.
Sudetenland here we come...
@@AndenPMS Germany will never again have those territories.
@@tupacshakur4evar943 Chill 😄 Im 99% sure that was a joke
@@EinFelsbrocken I'm chill. Just stating a fact.
@@designerfuzzi
DE then Eng
Ich entschuldige mich, mit Google Übersetzer.
Ja, eine einmalige Aufladung von 100 Milliarden. Dies wurde in der englischsprachigen Presse zunächst nicht korrekt berichtet, sondern als Aufstockung des Jahresbudgets von 100 Milliarden pro Jahr. Ich glaube, dass dies für Deutschland erschwinglich wäre und dass 100 wenn überhaupt nicht ausreichen, um die Bundeswehr auf das zu bringen, was europäische Militärkollegen in Großbritannien und Frankreich erwarten würden. Ich hoffe, dass dieser Fonds deutlich erhöht wird, da 100 einfach nicht ausreichen, um Deutschland auf eine Stufe mit Frankreich und Großbritannien zu bringen.
Eng
Yes, a 100 billion one off top up. This was not initially correctly reported in the English speaking press, but as an increase to the annual budget of 100 billion a year. I do believe that this would be affordable for Germany and that if anything that 100 is not enough to bring the Bundeswehr up to what European military peers in the UK and France would expect. I hope that this fund is increased significantly as 100 as a one off is simply not enough to get Germany to being on par with France and the UK.
I’ve been thinking of this video all day. Lol.
Will Germany be Based again?
It’s hard to say but history can be surprising
Based???? Germany literally destroyed Europe. It was the Wilhelm II who gave up on the Russo-German alliance and made Europe go to World War 1. Europe was never the same after World War 1 but it still had hope before the Nazis came and decided that most Europeans east of Germany are subhuman and the Europeans south and west if Germany are inferior as well. Then Germany launched WW2 and destroyed Europe even more. Germany is the reason Europe got overtaken by American culture.
the elite of germany - the Trojan horse in europe
Was. Didn't end up well.
This did not age well.
Their demographics are terrible even by European standards, so this is an easy no.
Biggest immigration destination in europe.
@@Diabolo0011 the population is going down faster than the imigrants come it anyways .... germany core lands can only sustain 70m ppl at best .... thats why the population in oficial stats is going to be 72m for germany even with high levels of imigration
@@nicolaeadrian7882 nah bs. Germany has enough space for 150m people but with efficient land management and smarter build cities and infrastructure. with 150m people, the population density of Germany would still be slightly less than that of england.
but 100m people is even now sustainable with the way Germany is currently run and without needing big improvements in the areas i mentioned.
@@LegendNinja41 in not talking about space ... all the population of the earth can leave in texas ffs ... the natural resources germany dont own even for the curent population .... germany only has coal and thats it .... everything else is imported and the country is hightly dependent from outside sellers... the idiots also closed the nuclear plants so they become actually puppets of russia... 150 in germany will never happen ... the country witch is that small and have close to that is japan ...
@@nicolaeadrian7882 i never said Germany will have 150m people, i said it could manage such a population.
Yes obviously everyone can live in Texas, i'm not talking about cramming everyone into Germany either.
you might want to look into German Agriculture if you think Germany only has Coal (what a weird statement btw).
here a copy for you:
In 2018, Germany produced 26.1 million tons of sugar beet (4th largest producer in the world), which serves to produce sugar and ethanol; 20.2 million tons of wheat (10th largest producer in the world); 9.5 million tons of barley (3rd largest producer in the world, only behind Russia and France), 8.9 million tons of potato (7th largest producer in the world); 3.6 million tons of rapeseed (6th largest producer in the world); 2.2 million tons of rye (largest producer in the world); 1.9 million tons of triticale (2nd largest producer in the world); 1.4 million tons of grape (16th largest producer in the world); 1.2 million tons of apple (12th largest producer in the world). In addition, this year, the country also produced 3.3 million tons of maize and smaller yields of other agricultural products, such as cabbage (604 thousand tons), carrot (625 thousand tons), oats (577 thousand tons), onion (409 thousand tons), etc. (Source: FAO Stat)
and that's only the Agricultural sector, there's also huge potential for wind energy that is already getting used more and more and some areas are good for solar energy.
I don't think Germany will be capable of becoming a superpower in the future. While its economy is the strongest in the EU, it has many potential issues most of which were addressed in the video. Declining population, hardly any pride in their nation, and increasing competition from industrializing powers in Eastern Europe and Asia.
When Germany is unified in purpose and ideals, it is exceptionally powerful. WW1 Germany was one of the strongest powers in the world, and Nazi Germany had the strongest military in the world up until Barbarossa. When the Allies defeated Nazi Germany, the nation was basically subjugated. This is very much understandable, as the nation had been hijacked by one of the most evil regimes of all time, but all the same. It was destroyed and then recreated into the hard working yet pacifist nation it is now.
Poland on the other hand is my personal pick to be a great power in the future. Poland has a strong national identity, strong sense of purpose, a rapidly increasing economy, and has developed very close ties with most of the surrounding countries. I can definitely see it taking a leadership role in Eastern Europe against Russia.
Poland is too small how can Poland become a super power with an small aging population. China and Indian both have over a billion people. The USA has 300 million people
But population is still increasing and climate crisis will cause more refugee waves in the future. Pride in the nation? It definitly exists. It is just not shown that openly due to historic burden by waving flags, but that might be even helpful for a country which changes so rapidly. The biggest issue is education which is slightly declining. For prosperity inventions and creativity matter and they depend on a good education.
The surrounding countries of Poland have trauma from history of Polonisation and colonisation from Poland. Look no further than Lithuania and the Ruthenian states.
Established Titles is a scam. Not sure why you're accepting to advertise them without doing any due diligence. Weak.
Germany in constant stagnation
Some of these reek a little of "American who sees Europe with America-tinted glasses, even if he puts great effort in trying not to do so".
Still a little too "black and white". There is much more nuissance to it than this.
You mention the EU military defense budget a lot in your videos. From the EU perspective: Why would we pay for something we don't need? We aren't interested in offensive wars. The only real threat is Russia so we just need to make sure the total EU army is equal to or larger than Russia's. Everything more than that is a waste of money.
What you see as a sign of weakness, we see as a really good deal.
If EU had been more realistic-after Crimea-that might have held the Russians in check this past few months.
For an invention from euroe in the last 80 years try the Internet
Please Germany don’t listen to those politicians that want to use your work ethic .
Haha classic yank talking bollocks
Hollymolly this must be the famous American “History Channel” education...
You’re views on assimilation are incorrect, these ‘marginal’ European ethnicities have endured through centuries of targeted genocides/systematic assimilation and technological development. I’d argue that modern technology has even strengthened their cultural presence and outreach to the diaspora, consolidated a sense of belonging.
A rather xenophobic interpretation on your part.
What are you talking about
Europeans used to have demographic growth, now they are in sharp decline and being replaced by Arabs and Africans.
@@prinzeugenius7907 F me, look its a great replacement believer, go back to 8Chan to your pedophile buddies.