A Historian Reacts - World War 1 by GeoHistory

welcome back everybody to another reaction video i just got back from a whirlwind 36-hour trip to connecticut where i did get to shoot a couple of videos for the channel you'll see those down the road once we finish up with the vicksburg series but for now i wanted to get back into some reaction content and today we are going back to a channel i discovered a while back called geo history where they used maps to talk about historic events and since i'm really into the history of the first world war or the great war as it was then known i thought it'd be fun to dive into their uh video on world war one i haven't seen this video yet so i'm just kind of offering some commentary fill in some of the gaps as we go along and as always make sure you check out the original content creator please give them a like and subscribe if you would let's go ahead and dive in begin in the middle of the 19th century in europe the rise of nationalism undermines the dominant powers the kingdom of sardinia ally to france defeats the austrian empire and obtains italian unification prussia which eyes the german confederation also defeats the austrians to create the north german confederation five years later it allies with the southern german states defeats france and obtains the creation of the german empire which is proclaimed in versailles so i love that he's starting this way because you hear me say this all the time we have to view these historic events as connected because without the preceding events the next event doesn't happen and we could say the thing after world war one as well without so you know without the napoleonic wars for example we don't get uh these revolutions of 1848 we don't get the german unification we don't get the franco-prussian war we don't get world war one uh without world war one we don't get world war ii which means we don't get the cold war and we don't get everything that comes after it's all connected so i you could always you know there's no end to where you could go back to but i think 1848 is probably a really good starting point the new country takes over alsace loren to discourage french revenge attacks germany moves diplomatically closer to austria-hungary and russia and it rapidly develops its industry and army in the southeast of the continent insurgencies threaten the ottoman empire russia its historical enemy takes advantage of the situation and after a war sparks the independence of balkan states and caesar's territories so there's a reason this area is called the powder keg of europe and otto von bismarck who uh is essential to the unification of the german states during all this time basically predicted that there would be a major war in europe and that it would start there in the balkans however russia's rising status is frowned upon by western powers who meet in berlin to review the treaty this worsens russian public opinion about germany the latter then signs a defensive military alliance with austria-hungary italy joins the alliance after france seizes tunisia which it long covets the three parties formed the triples or the triple alliance germany now a major power embarks upon a colonial policy the country brings together european powers in berlin to establish rules around colonization then caesar's territories in africa and asia so let's create some rules around colonization proceeds to gobble up a bunch of colonies this causes friction with the british and french colonial empires faced with growing german power france and russia sign a secret military alliance france then obtains from italy a secret treaty of neutrality so going all the way back to the napoleonic wars in the aftermath of all of that everything's motivated by balance of power and everyone sees that pound for pound on its own germany is the most powerful country in europe for a long period of history it's been france france has been the largest most powerful country in europe that has now changed now it's germany now that all these german states have formed together out of the ashes of the holy roman empire they are the most powerful and you add to them austria-hungary and italy and france suddenly sees themselves in desperate need of an ally and that becomes russia and this has all now set the stage for the great war which would avoid it having to manage a second front in the event of war the united kingdom also feels threatened by germany's rise especially by its military fleet which can compete with its own royal navy and so much like in the uh 20th century with the arms the nuclear arms race between the east and the west between the united states and the soviet union you very much have a naval arms race between germany and the uk now the uk is always going to be able to be ahead of that because they are primarily a naval power being an island nation but germany does a pretty good job for a while of keeping up with them moreover germany moves diplomatically closer to the ottoman empire notably by building a railway line to link berlin to baghdad and facilitating access to mesopotamian oil the problem for at this point with the ottomans is the ottomans are a great empire that has existed for over 600 years that is rapidly on the decline they end up losing some wars in the balkans and uh by the time world war one comes along really the ottomans are probably on their last legs anyway coveted by the british empire france the united kingdom and russia then sign a military alliance and create the triple anton yeah so go back a minute he called uh the central powers a triple on taunt but then he refers to these guys as a triple anton i'll have to look that up but um i don't remember ever seeing uh italy austria-hungary and germany referred to as an ontante theontant has always referred to the allies during world war one [Music] the alliances risk dragging the entire continent triple alliance is what they should meet your powers embark upon an arms race and prepare military plans in the southeast of the continent the ottoman empire is weakened by a revolution austria-hungary takes advantage and annexes bosnia and herzegovina this move is opposed by russia and especially serbia which dreams of uniting the slavic peoples of the south then and that's a country that will eventually become yugoslavia which is the south slavs the two balkan wars pushed the ottoman empire to the borders of the continent on june 28 1914 in sarajevo the heir to the austrian throne francois ferdinand and his wife are assassinated by a bosnian serb nationalist so this guy must be french he calls him francois ferdinand that's kind of cool i like that franz ferdinand is usually how he's referred for his his german language name his wife sophie was beneath him in terms of status and because of that they were not viewed as equals in the austro-hungarian empire and their children could not inherit the throne uh franz ferdinand is the nephew of franz joseph who is the long time emperor of austria now austria-hungary in fact his reign in austria-hungary goes way back into the 19th century like a significant time i believe he was the emperor during the american civil war that's how long he's been on the throne but his neph his his son and heir had taken his own life uh years before this and so now his nephew is the heir but his nephew's children cannot inherit so when they go to sarajevo because they're outside of austria proper uh she can be his equal she can sit side by side with him she can attend official functions uh things that she can't do back in austria so this is actually a trip they were really looking forward to and it was really unfortunate that it ended up going the way that it did and uh franz ferdinand's first concern was for his wife when they were both shot uh and he you know he pleads with her not to die for the sake of their children but they both die pretty quickly and i believe that gabriella princip who shot them expressed regret at having shot her saying he hadn't intended to hurt her austria-hungary accuses serbia of having organized the attack russia defends serbia while germany now the world's leading military power supports its austro-hungarian ally on july 28th austria-hungary declares war on serbia so there's a lot of background to this and i'll put a link in the description below to the series that i did from extra history that details all of the stuff that goes on between the assassination and the declaration of war that kicks off world war one because it's really quite dramatic and it's really very sad because there's so many times that war could have been avoided and there were so many times they were right on the cusp of avoiding this turning into a devastating war which is what everybody knew it would be if it came to that but unfortunately it didn't happen so i won't detail all of that now you can watch that series to check that out russia reacts by decreeing a general mobilization of its troops triggering germany to launch its military plan to avoid having to fight simultaneously on two fronts germany plans to quickly defeat france by bypassing its armies by launching a surprise attack from the north it would then focus on russia whose troops would take more time to mobilize germany declares war on russia invades luxembourg and issues an ultimatum to belgium demanding right of passage for its troops belgium refuses insisting upon its neutrality so this is one of the key moments and at some point i may do a whole video on this because to me this is one of the most fascinating moments of world war one when i think things turned on a dime and could have gone very differently belgium was an important part of this because the only way that the uk comes into the war is because of belgium's neutrality being violated if it had just stayed a war between germany austria-hungary and uh france russia and serbia there's a chance the uk doesn't get involved at least not at first not in time maybe to save the french so that's a big key because belgium then becoming a belligerent in this triggers the uk into the war but it does a second thing it slows the germans down the germans have a much more difficult time getting through belgium than they expected to and it delays them long enough for british and french troops to mass on the border to form a solid defense and even with all of that the germans get really really close to defeating the french in the fall they get really close to paris and it actually ends up being a combination of things it's really complicated but had belgium just gotten out of the way uh and listened to the german ultimatum and said okay we're not going to interfere you can pass through things could have gone very differently because number one the german troops wouldn't have been slowed down number two the uk doesn't enter at least not right away and number three you don't have all these atrocities that get committed by the germans uh the germans get angry because the belgians belgians slow them down and because the belgians fought in the first place and so they start taking it out on them and there's all these rumors of um belgian civilians doing these guerrilla attacks and um subversive things in the background and so they they're these reprisals against belgian civilians and that turns a lot of the world's public opinion against the germans so all of that could have been avoided if belgium steps aside i think personally and that's why i want to do a video on this i think if belgium stays out germany wins the war because what ends up happening then is they get slowed down they think that the french are on their last legs when they finally do get into paris and so they ship a couple of core over to deal with russia who's mobilizing much faster than they expected the schlieffen plan was all all about taking out paris taking the french out of the war and then shipping all your troops over to deal with russia well russia gets ready much faster than they expected so they've got to send help over there before they finish off the french but the french aren't as finished as they thought and they hold and once those two core are shipped over to the east the tide starts to settle on the western front and that's when they start to settle into siege warfare the following day germany declares war on france and launches the offensive the united kingdom which guarantees belgian neutrality in turn declares war on germany and sends its troops to france in a few days all european powers as well as montenegro go to war only italy remains neutral at the stage for now [Music] in asia japan which is allied with the united kingdom declares war on germany and prepares for an invasion of its colonies in china and the north pacific ocean on the eastern front russia launches its offensive earlier than germany expects but fails to gain ground in east crusher while further south austria-hungary retreats in the west the allied armies cannot hold back the german advance the franco-british armies retreat to martin where they reorganize while the french government flees the capital to take refuge in both but the first german army holding the flank pivots away from paris to join with a second army and continue surrounding allied forces so this is a big controversy here because mulkey uh screws up he's in command of the german forces and yeah it looks like they're about to take paris and all of a sudden they shift uh and part of the problem that's happening here is the further the germans go into france the less command and control the germans have over the entire front much more becomes about the individual armies and their commanders rather than an overall strategy and so it's much much harder for them to kind of maneuver everybody in unison the way that they want to and just as it seems that they're on the verge of taking paris this pivot takes place and honestly this is when things kind of start to turn south and mulkey gets replaced the parisian reserve army attacks further north stopping in its tracks the german advance with this breach in the ranks ally forces rush in and force a german retreat this is a failure of the schlieffen plan when the front stabilizes the two camps attempt to outflank each other and embark upon a race to the sea for germany it is also a question of isolating belgium and seizing ports where british reinforcements and supplies land yeah a port like antwerp becomes key and that's even true in world war two antwerp's one of those deep water ports where you can drop in supplies and so it's key to both sides to make sure that they hold that the belgian army barely succeeds in joining the deadlocked war front networks of trenches are dug on both sides for about 700 kilometers between the north sea and the swiss border [Music] now that the western front is frozen both sides use full force to attack the enemy the war becomes total the mighty royal navy imposes a naval blockade on germany and honestly that's one of the things that'll end up deciding the war because by the time you get to 1918 the german home front is just devastated by this blockade and without that blockade i think it's still possible germany wins the war and because it also leads to unrestricted submarine warfare which brings the united states into the war the german submarines are sent to british waters to sink all ships and vessels aviation which is still a recent invention is used first for observations planes would then gradually be used for bombing and air combat the germans used zeppelin airships to bomb paris twice and england around 50 times both sides use lethal gases to attack the enemy in the trenches now the first major gas attack i believe um the first major one i mean i think it had been tested a few times but the first major one comes at eep which is up here in belgium and uh yeah people don't talk a lot about you know we think about the london blitz in world war ii but people don't talk about the uh the zeppelins bombing london during world war one that was something that happened behind the front lines entire populations participate in the war effort including women who are involved in arms factories around the world european colonies and british dominions are engaged in war they seize german colonies and supply large reinforcements of soldiers to the front lines [Music] on the eastern front russia by the way it's interesting unless he's going to talk about it here um yeah let me go he's in trouble with austral german troops the ottoman empire seizes the opportunity to go to war so i guess he doesn't talk um about one of the most interesting battles uh on the eastern front uh so let's take a moment and talk about that so very early in the war like i said the uh the russians mobilized much faster than expected and so they're able to push and you can see they get as far as um on the other side of warsaw and they're pushing quite far um into especially austria-hungary but also a little bit into prussia but that all gets stopped at the end of august at a place called tannenberg and i'm really surprised that he didn't talk about that at all tannenberg you have two of the most prominent german generals that will be a part of the rest of the war and that's eric ludendorff and paul von hindenburg who will both play a role in politics afterwards as well hindenburg is the president of germany when adolf hitler is made chancellor and of course eric ludendorff had actually been a part of hitler's early movements in power before he was in power things like the beer hall push but it was a devastating loss for the russians and uh really kind of sets the standard for how russia will struggle uh against the germans uh so i would encourage you to read up on the battle of tandenberg it's august 26th to 30th of 1914. alongside the central powers a new front opens in the caucasus as britain lands an indian army in mesopotamia with the goal to take control of oil resources in reaction central powers launch an offensive towards the suez canal to cut supply lines from india but are stopped in their advance in the caucasus after the failure of the ottoman offensive the government accuses the armenian people of having supported russia in retaliation more than half of the armenian population would be massacred in what is today recognized as genocide by 32 countries but not by turkey to support geographic and to this day i will get almost to a person anyone in turkey who comments on my videos will argue that there was no genocide the isolated russia allies want to open a sea supply route via the dardanelle strait franco-british ships enter the strait to bomb ottoman forts but find the waters full of sea mines forcing a retreat a month later on april 25 allies organize a military landing and this is one of the um the most memorable parts of the war for the anzacs which would be the australian and new zealand troops which you can see represented here is gallipoli it was a disaster but ottoman defenses hold steady creating another deadlocked warfront during its submarine war germany sinks the british ship lucitania causing 1 200 civilian victims including 128 u.s citizens and it was definitely carrying munitions and armaments things like that they were definitely carrying war supplies in addition to passengers the united states officially neutral until that point registers protest to prevent the u.s from going to war germany slows its submarine warfare now italy after negotiating with a triple on thund to annex new territories declares war on austria-hungary and launches an offensive around the izonzo river on the eastern front russia completes its retreat and stabilizes the battlefront now it was quite possible remember italy was part of an alliance with these two but because they austria-hungary wasn't willing to seed certain territories that italy coveted uh they joined the other side if austria-hungary had been willing to do that maybe you get italy joining on the central power side now you open up another front against the french bulgaria which wishes to recover balkan territories joins the central powers together with austral german forces they invade serbia in reaction the allies violate the neutrality of greece by using salonika to land reinforcements coming from france such as the dardanelle where ottoman victory is complete but it is too late for the overwhelmed serbian army that flees via albania troops are landed on the island of corfu from where they will be gradually brought back to the macedonian front on the western front germany launches a massive offensive in drafting the german artillery pounds french trenches so verdun is fascinating and this is one of the places i'm planning to go to when i get to western europe sometime hopefully in the next six months i'm not sure when that will happen it's going to depend in part on when i can get my passport but it's coming for sure i definitely want to visit verdun for dulmont all those places verdun there's a lot of controversy over exactly what the mindset was of the german high command in attacking verdun the official stance was that they viewed verdun as one of those places that the french would symbolically hold on to at all costs because it was a it was a symbolically important uh outpost for the french well militarily not that important and so uh the view by the germans at least the stated public view today is that they viewed verdun as a place where they didn't really need it but they knew that the french would hold it at all cost and so they would use it as a meat grinder to bleed france dry and once france had just poured man after man after man into verdun to hold on desperately to that uh to that site uh then they would be so weakened everywhere that the germans would be able to just push through and so you have like a million artillery shells fired i don't remember the exact numbers i've heard some absolutely ridiculous numbers like that every square yard of the verdun battlefield was hit by six artillery shells something like that i mean it's it's crazy which resists as best they can in the south of the continent portugal allied with the united kingdom confiscates german ships in its ports in response germany declares war on portugal who then sends troops to france and to its colonies in africa where only german east africa still resists the allied offenses in mesopotamia the united kingdom after losing its besieged army in kurt seeks support in the region it secretly negotiates with france the partition of ottoman territories at the end of the war the two powers then support an arab nationalist revolt which starts in mecca by promising them independence in the north sea german and british fleets face off in one of the largest naval battles in history among other people who were at the battle of jutland was the future king george vi who was a naval officer at that battle it becomes really the one major i don't want to say the only battle but it's the one major battle between fleets during the first world war and after this the germans are so afraid to lose their fleet that they never really send them out again despite heavy losses on the british side the germans small in number during the night take refuge in the airport while the battle of verdan is still ongoing and italy is under pressure from austria-hungary russia attempts to relieve its allies by launching a massive offensive that succeeds in piercing through opposition defenses in the west another great offensive is launched along the summer with britain spearheading the attack they would use tanks for the first time but to no avail tanks for the first time but also mines which were a common tactic in siege warfare anyway there are these massive craters you can see today that were exploded uh during the battle for the psalms you have the psalm and verdun going on at the same time two of the bloodiest battles in all of human history i mean we just you really just can't even begin to absorb the numbers of men who are killed in these battles uh and i should mention too about verdun that france ends up having this slogan illness passarant pa which means they shall not pass which loosely then inspires a young soldier who's fighting over at the psalm by the name of j.r.r tolkien to famously write a line for gandalf later which i believe in the movie he says you shall not pass but i think in the book it's actually you cannot pass while romania joins the anthony the brussel of offensive in the east and the battles of the somme and vardhan all end having caused tremendous casualties on both sides troops are exhausted and demoralized in germany the war effort and the allied trade embargo prevent the country from getting enough food causing widespread famine he talks about um morale imagine i mean just try to put yourself in the in the shoes of a soldier in trench warfare on these battlefronts it's muddy it smells awful you don't have enough food or supplies you're not warm enough you're not you're never dry uh you're you're living in trenches there is constant artillery fire i mean just all day long boom boom boom i mean that is your life your buddies who have been killed in no man's land are left out there and so then when you have to attack over that ground men who were killed months earlier whose bodies have decayed are laying everywhere it's just some of the worst conditions a human can possibly experience and then they're expected to fight in the middle of all that i don't know how any of those men came out sane from all of that western powers on the other hand can count on a supply of resources via the atlantic mainly from the united states towards whom they are now in debt much like germany relaunches unrestricted submarine warfare with the objectives of sinking all commercial and military ships in addition it's easy to paint germany as the villain for this kind of stuff but what choice did they have they couldn't break the naval blockade by the british they're being destroyed in terms of supply because they can't get supplies for their home front or for their military and they're being blockaded and the allies are getting supplies from the united states what else are you supposed to do you've got this incredible weapon in the u-boats you've got to use it i would have done the same thing germany sends a telegram to mexico offering an alliance against the united states the message is intercepted by britain and transmitted to the united states which then prepares to go to war [Music] in russia the war effort exhausts the population who revolt and cause zazar to abdicate a provisional government is put into place which chooses to continue the war the united states in turn declares war on germany but it would take several months for the first troops to join the front lines so one of the ironies of the war is that just as things get desperately bad on the eastern front for the allies and eventually while the russians fight for a while longer they do end up collapsing in the war and dropping out just as they are exiting the war is when the united states is coming into the war if for some reason germany could have kept the us from entering the war they probably could still have won because once that eastern front collapses and they can send everybody to the west they probably could have overwhelmed the western front greece which is under pressure from the allies joined the anton in both camps exhausted soldiers begin mutinies on the azonzo front 11 similar italian offensives yield little result at the cost of many lives further affecting troop morale austro-german troops counter-attack and push back the front line at the gates of gaza after a victory british armies prepare to enter palestine to gain the support of the jewish community british prime minister arthur balfour publishes a statement addressing lord rothschild a leader of the british zionist federation promising a state for the jewish people in palestine in russia the bolsheviks organize a second revolution and seize power they sign an armistice with germany but after the breakdown of negotiations war resumes austro-german forces put the russian army out of action forcing the country to accept a peace treaty and recognize the independence of new states so this is interesting because had they been able to get that negotiation earlier russia could have held on to a lot more territory of course they end up getting it all back anyway russia then sees the start of a civil war with russia out of the game germany concentrates on the western front to win before u.s troops grow in strength a large-scale offensive is launched lasting four months and german troops push their way to marn again but a powerful allied counter-offensive forces german troops to retreat in parallel the allies launch an offensive on the macedonian front which quickly forces bulgaria to sign an armistice the ottoman empire finds itself isolated while arab british forces reached damascus as the french land in beirut austria-hungary retreats to the balkans and to italy the empire is also weakened by minority separatists who proclaim their independence the ottoman empire followed by austria-hungary signed an armistice with the anton in germany sailors refused to fight the royal navy and start a mutiny which turns into a popular revolt the kaiser is forced to abdicate and germany's new government requests an armistice which is signed on november 11 1918. and of course all of this then becomes these become the seeds for world war ii but that's a discussion for another time over a period of six months victors of the war meet in paris to draw up peace treaties without inviting bolshevik russia who signed a separate peace treaty with germany the united states proposes a peace plan which includes the creation of the league of nations which ironically the only the united states owned senate will not ratify which means that even though woodrow wilson is kind of the primary uh motivator behind this league of nations as part of his 14 points um wilson always had kind of this messiah complex he saw himself as like the savior of the world of the bringer of peace to the world and all the stuff and then he couldn't even get his own senate behind it and so the u.s doesn't even join the league of nations the united kingdom and especially france whose northern territory is devastated want to weaken germany and make it pay heavy reparations june 28 1919 proves to be a symbolic date because five years after the assassinations at sarajevo a peace treaty is signed between germany and the allies at versailles in the same room where the german empire had been proclaimed in 1871. the and the the armistice which had been signed for november 11th of 1918 was signed in a rail car that adolf hitler will then use very symbolically to have the french sign their surrender in world war ii before before they blow it up measures imposed on germany are severe the country loses 20 percent of its territory and 10 percent of its population mainly to the benefit of poland which is recreated and which obtains access to the sea germany is cut in two while the tsar region rich in coal is brought under international control for 15 years german colonies are carved up among the victors the country's army is severely dismantled finally germany and its allies are considered solely responsible for war damages and must pay all reparations the treaty is considered a humiliation by the german people [Music] austria-hungary is completely dismantled czechoslovakia and the kingdom of serbs croats and slovens are created italy feels aggrieved as it does not obtain all the territories it was promised austria which is entirely german speaking is denied the right to be attached to germany the ottoman empire is also dismembered during the treaty of sev the uk struggles to keep its word having promised land to the french the zionist jews and independence to the arabs so they made all these promises and now oh man we've got to actually keep the promises we made the turks refuse a treaty and take up arms again they gain some territories then sign in lausanne a treaty fixing the new borders of turkey the first world war or the so-called great war was then the deadliest ever with just under 18 million dead including 8 million civilians the weakened population was then hit hard by the deadly spanish flu pandemic which probably had the reach in the in the outbreak that it did because of the war because it breaks out among these troops that are all concentrated in large numbers economically european powers find themselves heavily indebted to the benefit of neutral countries and the united states which strengthens its status as a leading economic power russia becomes the ussr a country exhausted by war and frustrated by the loss of many european territories in palestine tensions mount between arabs and the zionist jews who migrate there the new european borders disgruntled many the fact that some german populations are now living in poland and czechoslovakia would contribute to the outbreak of the second world war [Music] so i want to say one thing he says that world war one was the deadliest war in history to that point that got me thinking as i was sitting there listening to the rest that i wasn't entirely sure that was true and i did a real quick look up and uh obviously all of these numbers are going to be debated by historians because nobody really knows for sure accurate numbers from these things but the estimates of course are that world war ii is the deadliest war in history but that hadn't happened yet the manchu invasion of china in 1618 is supposed to have taken as many as 25 million lives and then the taiping rebellion in 1850 beginning in 1850 is supposed to have taken 20 million lives and so those would both be more devastating than world war one and again like i said it depends on what numbers you believe but the point is that there have been some really disastrous wars in history at a time when there were far fewer people in those places where they happened so um let me know your thoughts about all of that that was really just meant to be a big overview but i like uh this site i like the way that they go about doing things uh their unique look by using a map to tell a story so it's cool let me know if you have other ones of theirs that you'd like me to take a look at and we'll do that sometime thanks for watching

Channel: Vlogging Through History

Views: 102,131

Keywords: geo history, great britain, first world war, schlieffen plan, great war, world war 1, geo history world war 1, geo history reaction, world war 1 explained

Id: urpCPWQhGhc

Length: 38min 44sec (2324 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 08 2021