Italy backs out of Triple Alliance

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.785 --> 00:00:03.577
Italy was an interesting
actor in World War I

00:00:03.577 --> 00:00:05.495
because it was one of the original members

00:00:05.495 --> 00:00:07.802
of the Triple Alliance. In 1882,

00:00:07.802 --> 00:00:11.875
Italy becomes a member
of the Triple Alliance.

00:00:11.875 --> 00:00:13.406
The whole reason why it was called a

00:00:13.406 --> 00:00:14.803
Triple Alliance is because it was between

00:00:14.803 --> 00:00:18.489
Italy, Austria-Hungary and Germany.

00:00:18.489 --> 00:00:21.572
Despite being part of that defensive pact,

00:00:21.572 --> 00:00:23.737
that they would defend
each other if any of

00:00:23.737 --> 00:00:26.491
these other parties like
Russia were to attack them,

00:00:26.491 --> 00:00:27.566
or France were to attack them,

00:00:27.566 --> 00:00:29.575
it was an awkward alliance because Italy

00:00:29.575 --> 00:00:32.267
was a historical enemy of Austria-Hungary.

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Austria-Hungary had some
territory, especially

00:00:34.535 --> 00:00:36.904
some territory where some
Italian speakers were.

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Some Italian nationalists
were interested in recapturing

00:00:40.003 --> 00:00:42.671
or having claims on
some of that territory.

00:00:42.671 --> 00:00:44.485
I've circled some of that right over here.

00:00:44.485 --> 00:00:47.981
Right from the get-go it
was an awkward alliance.

00:00:47.981 --> 00:00:50.111
Even in that first Triple
Alliance, Italy got

00:00:50.111 --> 00:00:52.037
an exception for this defensive alliance.

00:00:52.037 --> 00:00:54.675
It says we don't want to be
at war with Great Britain.

00:00:54.675 --> 00:00:59.403
Then in 1902, Italy gets
into another secret ...

00:00:59.403 --> 00:01:01.817
or I guess this is the first
of many secret deals ...

00:01:01.817 --> 00:01:04.209
with France. If you've
ever played Diplomacy,

00:01:04.209 --> 00:01:05.670
this is what Diplomacy's all about.

00:01:05.670 --> 00:01:07.667
You make a deal with one
person, but maybe in secret

00:01:07.667 --> 00:01:09.271
you're making exceptions
with other people.

00:01:09.271 --> 00:01:14.075
They get into a secret pact with France

00:01:14.075 --> 00:01:16.199
where Italy's essentially
saying, "Look, you know,

00:01:16.199 --> 00:01:17.741
even though we're a member
of this Triple Alliance

00:01:17.741 --> 00:01:20.336
and we've already said
we're not going to be at war

00:01:20.336 --> 00:01:21.571
with Great Britain, we're also going to

00:01:21.571 --> 00:01:23.841
say that for France as
well. We're really not

00:01:23.841 --> 00:01:26.498
in a mood to be at war with you."

00:01:26.498 --> 00:01:29.833
Then when you fast forward to 1914,

00:01:29.833 --> 00:01:32.804
and we're now at the
beginning of World War I,

00:01:32.804 --> 00:01:34.206
August, Germany declares,

00:01:34.206 --> 00:01:37.066
July, Austria-Hungary
declares war on Serbia,

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Russia begins to mobilize,

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Germany declares war on
Russia and on France,

00:01:42.706 --> 00:01:45.372
Italy, because of this kind of awkwardness

00:01:45.372 --> 00:01:46.878
in this Triple Alliance, actually decides

00:01:46.878 --> 00:01:51.801
to stay neutral. Italy stays neutral.

00:01:51.801 --> 00:01:53.801
Their justification for staying neutral

00:01:53.801 --> 00:01:56.408
is that the Triple Alliance
is a defensive pact.

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It says, "Hey, we're
going to defend each other

00:01:57.932 --> 00:01:59.867
if anyone attacks us," but they're saying

00:01:59.867 --> 00:02:02.616
that in 1914 at the
beginning of World War I

00:02:02.616 --> 00:02:05.801
it was Austria-Hungary that
decided to take the offensive.

00:02:05.801 --> 00:02:07.637
It was Germany that took
the offensive, just based

00:02:07.637 --> 00:02:09.803
on mobilization in Russia, that took the

00:02:09.803 --> 00:02:13.293
offensive against France and in terms of

00:02:13.293 --> 00:02:15.122
declaring war on Russia. So Italy says,

00:02:15.122 --> 00:02:17.872
"Hey, look, this is a
defensive pact. The other

00:02:17.872 --> 00:02:22.139
two members of the Triple
Alliance, they're being offensive.

00:02:22.139 --> 00:02:23.875
We don't want ... That
means that we aren't

00:02:23.875 --> 00:02:25.069
bound to it. We're only bound

00:02:25.069 --> 00:02:27.936
to it in the event of defense.

00:02:27.936 --> 00:02:29.870
As you can imagine, a lot of it was them

00:02:29.870 --> 00:02:31.619
just trying to figure out
who's likely to win this,

00:02:31.619 --> 00:02:35.391
in which scenario are they
likely to gain the most.

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So you fast forward to 1915,
in particular April 26.

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The Italians are
negotiating with the allies

00:02:45.286 --> 00:02:47.543
thinking about what type of
territory they could capture

00:02:47.543 --> 00:02:49.071
especially from Austria-Hungary.

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On April 26 they sign
the Treaty of London,

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which at this point is a secret.

00:02:54.168 --> 00:02:57.468
Treaty of London. It's
not broadcast to the other

00:02:57.468 --> 00:02:59.440
members of the Triple
Alliance, but it's an

00:02:59.440 --> 00:03:01.399
agreement with the triple
entente that hey, look,

00:03:01.399 --> 00:03:04.092
we are on your side.
We are going to declare

00:03:04.092 --> 00:03:07.332
war on the central powers imminently.

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They do so in May 1915, on May 3.

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They back out of the Triple Alliance ...

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out of Triple Alliance ...
out of Triple Alliance.

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Then on May 23 they declare war

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on their historical enemy, but one of the

00:03:28.370 --> 00:03:31.335
co-signers of the Triple
Alliance declare war

00:03:31.335 --> 00:03:34.285
on the Austro-Hungarian empire.

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On the Austro-Hungarian empire.

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As we'll see, this was actually, Italy's

00:03:42.871 --> 00:03:45.624
entering into the war on
the side of the allies

00:03:45.624 --> 00:03:47.790
against Austria-Hungary, actually played

00:03:47.790 --> 00:03:50.111
a major role in the eventual downfall of

00:03:50.111 --> 00:03:53.536
the Austro-Hungarians
and I'll go into that

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into more detail in the next video.


Closing stages of World War I

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.598 --> 00:00:04.622
- [Voiceover] As we exit
1917 and enter into 1918,

00:00:04.622 --> 00:00:08.848
we're getting into the
final stages of World War I.

00:00:08.848 --> 00:00:10.859
And let's just give ourselves
a little bit of review,

00:00:10.859 --> 00:00:12.809
a little bit of background,
a little bit of context.

00:00:12.809 --> 00:00:14.123
The war started off as

00:00:14.123 --> 00:00:15.967
a two-front war for the Central Powers.

00:00:15.967 --> 00:00:17.811
You have the Western Front,

00:00:17.811 --> 00:00:20.739
you have the Western
Front right over here,

00:00:20.739 --> 00:00:22.283
and you had the huge,

00:00:22.283 --> 00:00:26.254
you had the huge Eastern
Front right over here.

00:00:26.254 --> 00:00:29.991
By 1917, the major conflict
on the Eastern Front,

00:00:29.991 --> 00:00:33.159
especially with Russia, which
was the major power there,

00:00:33.159 --> 00:00:34.637
had come to an end.

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You had a February Revolution in Russia.

00:00:36.910 --> 00:00:39.383
The czar had to abdicate the throne.

00:00:39.383 --> 00:00:41.453
You had a provisional government.

00:00:41.453 --> 00:00:43.889
Then in November of 1917,

00:00:43.889 --> 00:00:46.689
the Bolsheviks have a
coup, they take over.

00:00:46.689 --> 00:00:48.958
They have no interest in
prosecuting World War I,

00:00:48.958 --> 00:00:51.480
because they have their own
civil war to worry about,

00:00:51.480 --> 00:00:55.726
so they sign an armistice
with the Central Powers,

00:00:55.726 --> 00:00:57.309
by the end of 1917.

00:00:58.476 --> 00:01:00.863
And then we get into 1918,

00:01:00.863 --> 00:01:02.289
just let me write all this down,

00:01:02.289 --> 00:01:05.530
so by the time we get into 1918,

00:01:05.530 --> 00:01:08.542
they're ready to sign a treaty in March,

00:01:08.542 --> 00:01:11.046
in March, the Russians sign

00:01:11.046 --> 00:01:13.931
the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk,

00:01:13.931 --> 00:01:14.764
Litovsk,

00:01:15.681 --> 00:01:18.728
which cedes over all of this
territory to the Germans

00:01:18.728 --> 00:01:21.615
and takes the Russians out of World War I.

00:01:21.615 --> 00:01:23.650
So I'm not gonna, I've gone
into detail in other videos,

00:01:23.650 --> 00:01:25.235
but a huge amount of territory,

00:01:25.235 --> 00:01:27.549
and I'm gonna do it very
informally right over here.

00:01:27.549 --> 00:01:31.869
I'll give a rough sense of
where that territory was.

00:01:31.869 --> 00:01:33.691
And the treaty itself,
its main significance,

00:01:33.691 --> 00:01:35.323
'cause the treaty didn't last,

00:01:35.323 --> 00:01:36.867
as you might already know,

00:01:36.867 --> 00:01:38.940
the Central Powers lost World War I,

00:01:38.940 --> 00:01:41.054
so that treaty was later nullified.

00:01:41.054 --> 00:01:43.904
But the key importance of that treaty,

00:01:43.904 --> 00:01:45.926
is one, it took Russia out of the war,

00:01:45.926 --> 00:01:48.069
it allowed the Central
Powers, especially Germany,

00:01:48.069 --> 00:01:49.897
to focus on the Western Front.

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But the other element of it is,

00:01:51.052 --> 00:01:53.694
by giving so much
territory to the Germans,

00:01:53.694 --> 00:01:56.982
the Germans couldn't just
leave that territory as is.

00:01:56.982 --> 00:01:58.494
If they wanted any claims to it,

00:01:58.494 --> 00:02:01.206
they had to devote some
of their troops to occupy,

00:02:01.206 --> 00:02:04.087
or at least attempt to occupy some of it.

00:02:04.087 --> 00:02:05.958
So even though it was a huge opportunity,

00:02:05.958 --> 00:02:08.235
and the Germans were able
to, after the treaty,

00:02:08.235 --> 00:02:10.963
or even before the treaty,
after the armistice,

00:02:10.963 --> 00:02:13.891
they were able to start bringing many more

00:02:13.891 --> 00:02:17.178
of the Eastern-Front troops
over to the Western Front.

00:02:17.178 --> 00:02:19.246
They didn't bring over as
many as they could have,

00:02:19.246 --> 00:02:22.130
because they left some
to attempt to occupy

00:02:22.130 --> 00:02:24.933
some of the territory that had been gained

00:02:24.933 --> 00:02:26.920
on the Eastern Front.

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But if you view things
from a German perspective,

00:02:29.150 --> 00:02:31.305
at this point, March 1918,

00:02:31.305 --> 00:02:33.256
you're gonna be feeling pretty good.

00:02:33.256 --> 00:02:36.546
You are holding your own
in a two-front war now,

00:02:36.546 --> 00:02:39.004
and at one point you thought Russia

00:02:39.004 --> 00:02:40.889
was the major threat there.

00:02:40.889 --> 00:02:43.554
That threat is gone, you can
now focus on a one-front war,

00:02:43.554 --> 00:02:45.980
maybe you should be able to kind of

00:02:45.980 --> 00:02:48.968
put the decisive blow
against the allies now.

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And that is how the Germans felt.

00:02:51.004 --> 00:02:53.558
But they were worried
about a couple of things.

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They were worried about the
British industrial capacity,

00:02:57.091 --> 00:02:58.884
and the Allied industrial capacity,

00:02:58.884 --> 00:03:02.670
that was stronger than the Central Powers,

00:03:02.670 --> 00:03:05.358
and so the British
could produce more tanks

00:03:05.358 --> 00:03:06.906
and more guns and more weapons,

00:03:06.906 --> 00:03:08.367
so it was a race against that,

00:03:08.367 --> 00:03:09.749
and there was also a race against

00:03:09.749 --> 00:03:11.412
significant American entry.

00:03:11.412 --> 00:03:13.486
Remember, April 1917,

00:03:13.486 --> 00:03:16.125
Woodrow Wilson gives a speech to Congress,

00:03:16.125 --> 00:03:19.423
they declare war on the Central Powers,

00:03:19.423 --> 00:03:22.761
and so the Germans wanna
get this thing over with

00:03:22.761 --> 00:03:24.630
before the Americans have a chance

00:03:24.630 --> 00:03:27.762
to send in significant
number of fresh troops.

00:03:27.762 --> 00:03:30.441
So in March 1918, not only do you have

00:03:30.441 --> 00:03:32.026
the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk,

00:03:32.026 --> 00:03:35.309
you also have the beginning
of Germany's attempt

00:03:35.309 --> 00:03:38.765
to deal that decisive blow to the Allies,

00:03:38.765 --> 00:03:41.405
and it's known as the Spring Offensive.

00:03:41.405 --> 00:03:45.155
So you have the Spring,
the Spring Offensive.

00:03:46.848 --> 00:03:49.572
And the goal of the Spring Offensive

00:03:49.572 --> 00:03:53.312
was to essentially try to
end the war for the Germans.

00:03:53.312 --> 00:03:55.741
And the goal was to separate

00:03:55.741 --> 00:03:57.943
the British from the French forces.

00:03:57.943 --> 00:03:59.854
The British, for the most
part, were in control

00:03:59.854 --> 00:04:02.822
of the line right over here,
north of the Salm River,

00:04:02.822 --> 00:04:05.182
while the French were
in control south of it.

00:04:05.182 --> 00:04:07.253
So the Spring Offensive,
especially the first phases

00:04:07.253 --> 00:04:09.613
of the Spring Offensive, in March 1918,

00:04:09.613 --> 00:04:13.272
focused on this area, right over here.

00:04:13.272 --> 00:04:14.979
And at first it was
actually very successful.

00:04:14.979 --> 00:04:17.781
They were able to make
huge territorial gains,

00:04:17.781 --> 00:04:19.406
drive through the lines,

00:04:19.406 --> 00:04:21.969
drive the Allied Powers back.

00:04:21.969 --> 00:04:23.922
Now, the problem was is that it wasn't

00:04:23.922 --> 00:04:25.588
a real big strategic gain.

00:04:25.588 --> 00:04:28.353
The Germans were just hoping
it would be such a demoralizer,

00:04:28.353 --> 00:04:29.667
that it would throw at least,

00:04:29.667 --> 00:04:31.317
maybe the French out of the war,

00:04:31.317 --> 00:04:32.840
and then maybe they could
take care of the British

00:04:32.840 --> 00:04:35.361
or whatever else, but that didn't happen,

00:04:35.361 --> 00:04:36.905
and all of a sudden they found themselves

00:04:36.905 --> 00:04:38.897
with these huge territorial gains,

00:04:38.897 --> 00:04:40.649
in very short amount of time,

00:04:40.649 --> 00:04:42.316
they had to supply themselves,

00:04:42.316 --> 00:04:44.183
and they didn't really quite,

00:04:44.183 --> 00:04:46.294
and they had spread their troops thin,

00:04:46.294 --> 00:04:49.668
and so it frankly just
let the opportunity arise

00:04:49.668 --> 00:04:51.990
for the Allies, in August,

00:04:51.990 --> 00:04:53.984
to lead a counteroffensive.

00:04:53.984 --> 00:04:56.873
And this counteroffensive by the Allies,

00:04:56.873 --> 00:04:58.825
is referred to as the 100 Days Offensive.

00:04:58.825 --> 00:05:01.149
It began in August, went
roughly into November,

00:05:01.149 --> 00:05:03.816
so 100 Days, 100 Days Offensive,

00:05:06.438 --> 00:05:09.203
during which the Allies,
between August and November,

00:05:09.203 --> 00:05:11.687
were able to push the
Germans, not only back

00:05:11.687 --> 00:05:14.167
beyond what they had captured
during the Spring Offensive,

00:05:14.167 --> 00:05:17.826
but all the way well back of the front

00:05:17.826 --> 00:05:19.979
that was kind of the stalemate line

00:05:19.979 --> 00:05:21.720
for most of World War I.

00:05:21.720 --> 00:05:23.751
And it was during this 100 Days Offensive,

00:05:23.751 --> 00:05:25.336
that to most objective observers,

00:05:25.336 --> 00:05:29.002
it was clear that the
Allies would win this war.

00:05:29.002 --> 00:05:31.520
And it was clear to several
of the Central Powers,

00:05:31.520 --> 00:05:33.881
or those Allied with the Central Powers.

00:05:33.881 --> 00:05:36.606
As we go into September,

00:05:36.606 --> 00:05:40.071
as we go into September of 1918,

00:05:40.071 --> 00:05:43.158
Bulgaria drops itself out of the war,

00:05:43.158 --> 00:05:46.127
just to remind ourselves where,
what we're talking about.

00:05:46.127 --> 00:05:49.537
So you have Bulgaria right over here.

00:05:49.537 --> 00:05:51.859
It, Bulgaria, right over here.

00:05:51.859 --> 00:05:54.826
It signs an armistice with the Allies,

00:05:54.826 --> 00:05:58.158
so, let me just, you have armistice,

00:05:58.158 --> 00:06:00.353
I'll use a little peace
symbol for armistice,

00:06:00.353 --> 00:06:02.716
that's a, armistice is just
the fighting has stopped,

00:06:02.716 --> 00:06:05.312
you still, in theory,
could be at a state of war,

00:06:05.312 --> 00:06:07.472
so maybe I shouldn't do the peace symbol,

00:06:07.472 --> 00:06:09.623
I'll just write armistice.

00:06:09.623 --> 00:06:12.623
Armistice, Armistice, with Bulgaria.

00:06:15.275 --> 00:06:17.431
And this is really starting
to tighten the noose

00:06:17.431 --> 00:06:19.702
around the remaining Central Powers,

00:06:19.702 --> 00:06:23.681
because this allowed the
Allies to gain control

00:06:23.681 --> 00:06:26.491
of Serbia and of Greece,

00:06:26.491 --> 00:06:30.559
which essentially tied,
removed the last source of food

00:06:30.559 --> 00:06:33.366
for Austria, Hungary
and the German Empire.

00:06:33.366 --> 00:06:35.239
There was already a blockade,

00:06:35.239 --> 00:06:37.069
the kind of the harsh, British blockade

00:06:37.069 --> 00:06:39.388
that we've already talked
about, up in the North Sea,

00:06:39.388 --> 00:06:41.374
and so their last source
of food was from the south,

00:06:41.374 --> 00:06:44.262
but now with Bulgaria
signing an armistice,

00:06:44.262 --> 00:06:46.253
and ceding over territory,

00:06:46.253 --> 00:06:49.137
now the strangle hold was really,

00:06:49.137 --> 00:06:52.014
was really, really coming into effect.

00:06:52.014 --> 00:06:53.926
Now, by October, and remember,

00:06:53.926 --> 00:06:56.366
at this point it was reasonably clear,

00:06:56.366 --> 00:06:59.373
and even by this point, even
clear to the German people

00:06:59.373 --> 00:07:01.241
that the war is pretty much done for,

00:07:01.241 --> 00:07:03.242
and they're just waiting for their leaders

00:07:03.242 --> 00:07:04.909
to make it official.

00:07:06.333 --> 00:07:09.496
So several of the leaders
of the German Navy

00:07:09.496 --> 00:07:11.362
wanted to do this last-ditch,

00:07:11.362 --> 00:07:13.474
what could easily be considered suicidal,

00:07:13.474 --> 00:07:16.107
offensive against the British Navy,

00:07:16.107 --> 00:07:19.165
and as they're planning it and
the sailors catch wind of it,

00:07:19.165 --> 00:07:20.791
they mutiny, they revolt.

00:07:20.791 --> 00:07:22.175
They say hey, look, the war is over.

00:07:22.175 --> 00:07:25.660
We're not gonna die in a futile attempt

00:07:25.660 --> 00:07:28.522
to just kind of, for
pride or whatever else,

00:07:28.522 --> 00:07:31.114
and so you have a naval mutiny begins.

00:07:31.114 --> 00:07:35.423
Naval mutiny, and eventually
this spreads to the mainland

00:07:35.423 --> 00:07:38.067
and leads to revolts and revolutions,

00:07:38.067 --> 00:07:41.150
so revolution in Germany, in Germany.

00:07:43.390 --> 00:07:47.254
And this culminates in
November, in November,

00:07:47.254 --> 00:07:49.247
November 9th, famous date in history,

00:07:49.247 --> 00:07:50.830
November 9th, 1918.

00:07:51.689 --> 00:07:55.310
You essentially, Kaiser Wilhelm II,

00:07:55.310 --> 00:07:58.197
right over here, let me make
sure you see his picture,

00:07:58.197 --> 00:08:02.342
this is him right over
here, Kaiser Wilhelm II,

00:08:02.342 --> 00:08:04.947
is forced to abdicate, give up his throne.

00:08:04.947 --> 00:08:07.103
He flees to the Netherlands,

00:08:07.103 --> 00:08:09.555
and on November 9th, 1918,

00:08:09.555 --> 00:08:11.587
Germany is declared a republic.

00:08:11.587 --> 00:08:15.754
So Germany no longer has a
king or emperor in charge.

00:08:18.298 --> 00:08:20.548
Germany becomes a republic.

00:08:22.157 --> 00:08:24.434
And a little bit before
this, November 3rd,

00:08:24.434 --> 00:08:27.766
the writing was already
clear to the Austrians,

00:08:27.766 --> 00:08:29.754
in fact, they even, in 1917,

00:08:29.754 --> 00:08:31.911
attempted to make some peace overtures,

00:08:31.911 --> 00:08:33.982
thinking that they were
pretty much done for,

00:08:33.982 --> 00:08:36.748
but by November 3rd, 1918,

00:08:36.748 --> 00:08:39.634
the Austrians also signed an armistice,

00:08:39.634 --> 00:08:41.384
armistice, armistice,

00:08:43.245 --> 00:08:46.495
with the Austrians, with the Austrians,

00:08:47.836 --> 00:08:52.631
and with the Kaiser Wilhelm
II fleeing to the Netherlands,

00:08:52.631 --> 00:08:54.540
Germany becoming a republic,

00:08:54.540 --> 00:08:58.159
this sets up the armistice,
finally, with Germany

00:08:58.159 --> 00:08:59.576
on November 11th,

00:09:00.831 --> 00:09:03.804
and this is one of the most
famous dates in history,

00:09:03.804 --> 00:09:06.799
known for a long time in
the US as Armistice Day,

00:09:06.799 --> 00:09:10.378
and so it was November 11th, 1918,

00:09:10.378 --> 00:09:13.103
and it was actually 11am, 11am,

00:09:13.103 --> 00:09:14.687
so you might remember the famous,

00:09:14.687 --> 00:09:18.432
the 11th hour of the 11th
day of the 11th month,

00:09:18.432 --> 00:09:22.863
war, or World War I, or the
fighting in World War I,

00:09:22.863 --> 00:09:25.593
was over with the Allies victorious,

00:09:25.593 --> 00:09:27.423
and the Central Powers losing it,

00:09:27.423 --> 00:09:30.630
and the terms of what would
happen for those that lost

00:09:30.630 --> 00:09:33.071
and those that won would be dictated

00:09:33.071 --> 00:09:34.941
by the Treaty of Versailles.

00:09:34.941 --> 00:09:37.748
The Treaty of Versailles in 1919.

00:09:37.748 --> 00:09:39.654
The terms of which were finally finalized

00:09:39.654 --> 00:09:41.603
about six months later.

00:09:41.603 --> 00:09:44.813
So this is June, you have the treaty,

00:09:44.813 --> 00:09:48.396
Treaty of, Treaty of,
Treaty of Versailles.

00:09:50.100 --> 00:09:51.927
Which, incidentally,
this is like one of those

00:09:51.927 --> 00:09:53.148
little footnotes in history,

00:09:53.148 --> 00:09:55.338
the Americans did not actually ratify it,

00:09:55.338 --> 00:09:57.736
mainly because it had the
League of Nations in it,

00:09:57.736 --> 00:10:00.787
which was this project of Woodrow Wilson,

00:10:00.787 --> 00:10:03.150
but the American people
and the American Congress

00:10:03.150 --> 00:10:06.276
was not a fan of this whole
trans-national government,

00:10:06.276 --> 00:10:07.742
League of Nations thing,

00:10:07.742 --> 00:10:10.952
so the United States did not
ratify the Treaty of Versailles

00:10:10.952 --> 00:10:14.766
but in effect, on Armistice
Day, November 11th, 11am,

00:10:14.766 --> 00:10:17.817
the war was over, Treaty of
Versailles dictated the terms,

00:10:17.817 --> 00:10:20.948
many would argue, overly-harsh terms,

00:10:20.948 --> 00:10:22.530
of the Treaty of Versailles,

00:10:22.530 --> 00:10:24.728
and we're done with World War I.


Battles of Verdun, Somme and the Hindenburg Line

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.500 --> 00:00:05.310
At a very high level, the
period between 1915 and 1918

00:00:05.310 --> 00:00:08.682
on the Western Front is usually
considered to be a stalemate.

00:00:08.682 --> 00:00:10.890
It's considered to be a
stalemate because you did not

00:00:10.890 --> 00:00:13.450
have a major movement
on the front.

00:00:13.450 --> 00:00:16.329
There were some movement, but
the front pretty much looked

00:00:16.329 --> 00:00:19.680
the way that it looks in
this diagram right over here.

00:00:19.680 --> 00:00:22.162
That's not to say that it
was not incredibly bloody.

00:00:22.162 --> 00:00:23.620
In fact, it was so
bloody that some

00:00:23.620 --> 00:00:27.360
of the most famous battles, not
just in World War I history,

00:00:27.360 --> 00:00:30.150
but in world history,
occurred during this period.

00:00:30.150 --> 00:00:34.350
And in particular,
they occurred in 1916.

00:00:34.350 --> 00:00:38.340
In 1916, the first of
these happened in February,

00:00:38.340 --> 00:00:41.960
where you have the Battle
of Verdun, or "Ver-done".

00:00:41.960 --> 00:00:47.480
Battle of Verdun, where
you have the Germans, who

00:00:47.480 --> 00:00:49.600
want to do an
offensive on the French

00:00:49.600 --> 00:00:53.860
that most historians believe
was intended not to necessarily

00:00:53.860 --> 00:00:57.350
gain this territory, but to
try to make the French put so

00:00:57.350 --> 00:01:01.470
many troops here and inflict so
many casualties on the French

00:01:01.470 --> 00:01:03.619
that they might not be
able to overcome that.

00:01:03.619 --> 00:01:05.910
And they might have to throw
the French out of the war.

00:01:05.910 --> 00:01:08.000
And they especially thought
this part of the front

00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:10.370
was vulnerable because the
French could be attacked

00:01:10.370 --> 00:01:13.690
from multiple sides, this
little bulge right over here.

00:01:13.690 --> 00:01:18.040
And so in February of
1916, they attack primarily

00:01:18.040 --> 00:01:18.710
with artillery.

00:01:18.710 --> 00:01:21.620
So they're shelling
the French right

00:01:21.620 --> 00:01:23.120
over here, this whole area.

00:01:23.120 --> 00:01:26.330
The French keep bringing
troops into the mix.

00:01:26.330 --> 00:01:29.660
And to get a sense of how ugly
and how scary this whole scene

00:01:29.660 --> 00:01:32.930
was, this is a quote from the
journal of a French soldier who

00:01:32.930 --> 00:01:35.850
was serving in Verdun
during the Battle of Verdun,

00:01:35.850 --> 00:01:37.605
or serving in the
Battle of Verdun.

00:01:37.605 --> 00:01:39.480
And he wrote-- and he
was unfortunately later

00:01:39.480 --> 00:01:43.570
killed due to artillery
fire-- "Humanity is mad.

00:01:43.570 --> 00:01:46.240
It must be mad to
do what it is doing.

00:01:46.240 --> 00:01:47.510
What a massacre.

00:01:47.510 --> 00:01:50.080
What scenes of
horror and carnage.

00:01:50.080 --> 00:01:53.510
I cannot find words to
translate my impressions.

00:01:53.510 --> 00:01:56.710
Hell cannot be so terrible.

00:01:56.710 --> 00:01:59.300
Men are mad."

00:01:59.300 --> 00:02:02.170
And this battle would continue
through most of the year.

00:02:02.170 --> 00:02:04.340
As you go into
the summer, that's

00:02:04.340 --> 00:02:06.310
the maximum of the
German offensive.

00:02:06.310 --> 00:02:10.139
This is some of the territory
that they are able to capture.

00:02:10.139 --> 00:02:14.440
But as you get into the late
summer, in July of 1916,

00:02:14.440 --> 00:02:15.950
the British and
the French decide

00:02:15.950 --> 00:02:18.340
to do an offensive on another
part of the front, right

00:02:18.340 --> 00:02:20.500
over here near the Somme River.

00:02:20.500 --> 00:02:27.060
So this right over here
is the Somme River.

00:02:27.060 --> 00:02:29.060
So this right over here
is the German offensive.

00:02:32.300 --> 00:02:36.004
In July, you have the
Battle of the Somme,

00:02:36.004 --> 00:02:37.420
sometimes referred
to as the Somme

00:02:37.420 --> 00:02:42.630
Offensive, named
after the Somme River.

00:02:42.630 --> 00:02:44.180
It occurred where
the Somme River

00:02:44.180 --> 00:02:46.670
intersected with the front.

00:02:46.670 --> 00:02:52.720
And this was an Anglo, British
and French, Anglo French

00:02:52.720 --> 00:02:53.670
offensive.

00:02:53.670 --> 00:02:56.230
And it's also famous-- both of
these were incredibly bloody.

00:02:56.230 --> 00:02:58.050
That's what really
made them noteworthy.

00:02:58.050 --> 00:03:00.610
But this was also famous for
the first use of the tanks.

00:03:00.610 --> 00:03:03.970
This was a picture of a
British tank at the time.

00:03:03.970 --> 00:03:05.910
But both of these were
incredibly bloody.

00:03:05.910 --> 00:03:10.262
It was lucky for
the French at Verdun

00:03:10.262 --> 00:03:13.090
that the offensive
at the Somme happened

00:03:13.090 --> 00:03:16.560
because this forced the Germans
to go off of the offensive

00:03:16.560 --> 00:03:18.950
as we get into the
late summer of 1916.

00:03:18.950 --> 00:03:25.002
They had to bring troops back
over here to help support it.

00:03:25.002 --> 00:03:26.460
But the end result
of both of these

00:03:26.460 --> 00:03:29.270
is you do not have a major
movement of the front.

00:03:29.270 --> 00:03:31.990
In fact, by the end of
1916, because the Germans

00:03:31.990 --> 00:03:34.390
had to go fight at the
Battle of the Somme,

00:03:34.390 --> 00:03:35.890
the French were
able to recapture

00:03:35.890 --> 00:03:37.370
much of this territory.

00:03:37.370 --> 00:03:40.051
So the real end result of
both of these offensives,

00:03:40.051 --> 00:03:42.050
one on the German side,
one on the British side,

00:03:42.050 --> 00:03:46.750
was just a massive, massive,
massive loss of human life.

00:03:46.750 --> 00:03:48.440
Each of them, it's
estimated, had

00:03:48.440 --> 00:03:50.860
on the order of a million
casualties, roughly half

00:03:50.860 --> 00:03:51.727
on each side.

00:03:51.727 --> 00:03:53.810
At Verdun, it was slightly
more on the French side

00:03:53.810 --> 00:03:54.476
than the German.

00:03:54.476 --> 00:03:57.350
But it was roughly 55, 45%.

00:03:57.350 --> 00:03:59.140
So a million
casualties in Verdun.

00:03:59.140 --> 00:04:02.290
A million casualties on
both sides at the Somme.

00:04:02.290 --> 00:04:04.030
I've seen estimates
on the death toll

00:04:04.030 --> 00:04:06.490
being a third of a
million to half a million

00:04:06.490 --> 00:04:08.240
for each of these battles.

00:04:08.240 --> 00:04:10.490
So both of these were
incredibly, incredibly ugly

00:04:10.490 --> 00:04:12.959
battles for both sides.

00:04:12.959 --> 00:04:14.500
The end result for
the Germans though

00:04:14.500 --> 00:04:16.365
was even more
interesting because you

00:04:16.365 --> 00:04:18.740
have to remember what was
happening at the Eastern Front.

00:04:18.740 --> 00:04:21.380
On the Eastern Front,
1916 was the year

00:04:21.380 --> 00:04:24.760
that the Russians finally were
building up their war machine.

00:04:24.760 --> 00:04:27.500
They were finally able to
equip the munitions necessary.

00:04:27.500 --> 00:04:29.570
It was also the year
that the Romanians

00:04:29.570 --> 00:04:32.680
joined on side of the Entente
along with the Russians

00:04:32.680 --> 00:04:33.720
on the Eastern Front.

00:04:33.720 --> 00:04:37.350
The Austro-Hungarians were
suffering huge losses.

00:04:37.350 --> 00:04:40.610
So in 1916 the Germans were
in a very tough situation.

00:04:40.610 --> 00:04:43.390
Huge losses at
Verdun, huge losses

00:04:43.390 --> 00:04:45.487
at the Battle of the
Somme, the Russians

00:04:45.487 --> 00:04:47.570
are starting to get more
aggressive on the Eastern

00:04:47.570 --> 00:04:50.520
Front, the Austro-Hungarians
are starting to have trouble.

00:04:50.520 --> 00:04:53.460
So they decide to
essentially re-trench.

00:04:53.460 --> 00:04:56.410
So they're going to start
bringing more troops back

00:04:56.410 --> 00:04:57.830
to the Eastern Front.

00:04:57.830 --> 00:05:01.970
But in order not to
lose too much ground

00:05:01.970 --> 00:05:03.560
on the Western Front,
they essentially

00:05:03.560 --> 00:05:06.050
try to hold a smaller front.

00:05:06.050 --> 00:05:07.510
So they back up to this line.

00:05:10.500 --> 00:05:14.840
This is the line at the end
of the Battle of the Somme.

00:05:14.840 --> 00:05:16.450
The Germans recognize
that they can't

00:05:16.450 --> 00:05:18.300
protect this entire front.

00:05:18.300 --> 00:05:20.960
They want to protect
a shorter front.

00:05:20.960 --> 00:05:25.927
So they begin preparing to
move back right over here.

00:05:25.927 --> 00:05:27.510
And this line right
over here is named

00:05:27.510 --> 00:05:30.990
after the field marshal
of the German army.

00:05:30.990 --> 00:05:32.550
It's called the Hindenburg line.

00:05:37.540 --> 00:05:38.520
It's no coincidence.

00:05:38.520 --> 00:05:39.980
It's the same name
of the zeppelin

00:05:39.980 --> 00:05:42.850
that blew up in the late '30s.

00:05:42.850 --> 00:05:46.120
It was actually named after
Field Marshal Hindenburg

00:05:46.120 --> 00:05:48.380
for whom this line is named.

00:05:48.380 --> 00:05:50.120
But the Germans do
this in order so

00:05:50.120 --> 00:05:53.220
that they can take more
troops to the Eastern Front

00:05:53.220 --> 00:05:55.000
and hold a shorter line.

00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:57.870
So by the end of 1916, they
start making the preparations

00:05:57.870 --> 00:05:59.510
for the Hindenburg line.

00:05:59.510 --> 00:06:02.320
And in February of
1917, they actually

00:06:02.320 --> 00:06:05.300
move back to the
Hindenburg line.

00:06:05.300 --> 00:06:14.080
So this is 1917 February
you have the Germans

00:06:14.080 --> 00:06:15.715
move to the Hindenburg line.

00:06:21.530 --> 00:06:25.640
So 1916, incredibly,
incredibly ugly year.

00:06:25.640 --> 00:06:28.900
Two million casualties,
not a lot of movement

00:06:28.900 --> 00:06:31.080
of the actual front.


World War I Eastern front

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.580 --> 00:00:04.800
In early August 1914, we
know that Germany declares

00:00:04.800 --> 00:00:08.150
war on Russia, just as
Russia's mobilizing troops

00:00:08.150 --> 00:00:11.754
to get into a war with the
Austro-Hungarian Empire.

00:00:11.754 --> 00:00:14.170
Because the Austro-Hungarians
have declared war on Serbia.

00:00:14.170 --> 00:00:16.340
And the Russians
apparently, or ostensibly,

00:00:16.340 --> 00:00:20.260
or used protection of
Serbia as a pretext

00:00:20.260 --> 00:00:22.570
for getting into war
with the Austrians.

00:00:22.570 --> 00:00:24.570
The Germans have an
alliance with the Austrians.

00:00:24.570 --> 00:00:26.962
So they feel the need
to fight the Russians.

00:00:26.962 --> 00:00:28.920
And then, because the
Russians have an alliance

00:00:28.920 --> 00:00:31.730
with the French, to
fight the French as well.

00:00:31.730 --> 00:00:34.820
The first actual combat
on the Eastern Front

00:00:34.820 --> 00:00:37.580
actually happens with
Russia on the offensive.

00:00:37.580 --> 00:00:39.570
And you actually have
two Russian armies.

00:00:39.570 --> 00:00:42.880
The Russian First Army and
the Russian Second Army

00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:46.280
attacking the Germans up
here in Eastern Prussia.

00:00:46.280 --> 00:00:50.220
And they were going against one
German army, the German Eighth

00:00:50.220 --> 00:00:50.940
Army.

00:00:50.940 --> 00:00:52.420
And in theory, it
should have been

00:00:52.420 --> 00:00:53.950
a route of the
German Eighth Army.

00:00:53.950 --> 00:00:55.033
They had them outnumbered.

00:00:55.033 --> 00:00:56.960
You had two Russian
armies coming

00:00:56.960 --> 00:00:58.380
from different directions.

00:00:58.380 --> 00:01:00.540
But because of really
bad coordination and, one

00:01:00.540 --> 00:01:04.260
could even argue, bad leadership
and other tactical problems,

00:01:04.260 --> 00:01:06.440
it was actually a
route the other way.

00:01:06.440 --> 00:01:08.990
So the war, World War
I, on the Eastern Front,

00:01:08.990 --> 00:01:11.480
starts very badly
for the Russians.

00:01:11.480 --> 00:01:13.424
You actually have a
huge route of them

00:01:13.424 --> 00:01:14.590
at the Battle of Tannenberg.

00:01:17.510 --> 00:01:19.510
And Tannenberg's interesting
because it actually

00:01:19.510 --> 00:01:21.060
did not even happen
in Tannenberg.

00:01:21.060 --> 00:01:22.940
Tannenberg is right around here.

00:01:22.940 --> 00:01:25.210
It wasn't far from the
point of the battle.

00:01:25.210 --> 00:01:27.570
But there was other cities
that would have been more,

00:01:27.570 --> 00:01:29.600
the battle could
have been named for.

00:01:29.600 --> 00:01:31.200
But since the Germans
won the battle,

00:01:31.200 --> 00:01:33.120
they named it
Tannenberg because there

00:01:33.120 --> 00:01:36.640
was an ancient battle in
medieval times in the 1400s

00:01:36.640 --> 00:01:39.140
where the Slavic,
some Slavic peoples

00:01:39.140 --> 00:01:41.460
were able to route
German Teutonic knights.

00:01:41.460 --> 00:01:43.760
We're talking about medieval
battles with knights.

00:01:43.760 --> 00:01:47.920
And in order to redeem that,
they labeled this other war

00:01:47.920 --> 00:01:51.120
where it was Germans
against Slavic people.

00:01:51.120 --> 00:01:53.900
They said, oh, this is our
second battle for Tannenberg.

00:01:53.900 --> 00:01:58.120
So it helped bring out
more German patriotism.

00:01:58.120 --> 00:02:01.700
But this was a major, major,
major route for the Russians.

00:02:01.700 --> 00:02:05.320
The Second Army, in particular,
got completely decimated.

00:02:05.320 --> 00:02:07.560
The Second Army, the
Russian Second Army

00:02:07.560 --> 00:02:11.270
went into the battle-- I've
seen estimates of 150,000

00:02:11.270 --> 00:02:13.720
to 180,000 troops.

00:02:13.720 --> 00:02:15.030
Roughly half were killed.

00:02:17.820 --> 00:02:21.970
And only about 10,000 escaped
the Battle of Tannenberg.

00:02:21.970 --> 00:02:25.800
And it was such a humiliating
defeat for the Russian Second

00:02:25.800 --> 00:02:26.300
Army.

00:02:26.300 --> 00:02:30.960
But that the general of the
Russian Second Army, General

00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:33.420
Samsonov-- and I'm
sure once again,

00:02:33.420 --> 00:02:36.410
I'm mispronouncing everything--
General Samsonov actually

00:02:36.410 --> 00:02:37.206
shot himself.

00:02:37.206 --> 00:02:38.080
He committed suicide.

00:02:38.080 --> 00:02:41.950
He was so humiliated and so
embarrassed by that defeat.

00:02:41.950 --> 00:02:45.660
So the war did not begin
well for the Russians.

00:02:45.660 --> 00:02:48.240
But by the end of
1914, they were

00:02:48.240 --> 00:02:52.110
able to get back into gear.

00:02:52.110 --> 00:02:53.970
And they stayed
on the offensive.

00:02:53.970 --> 00:02:56.310
And they did have
some victories up here

00:02:56.310 --> 00:02:58.020
in Galicia which,
at the time, was

00:02:58.020 --> 00:03:00.100
part of northeastern Hungary.

00:03:00.100 --> 00:03:02.160
And so they were
actually able to capture

00:03:02.160 --> 00:03:05.610
a good bit of territory
right over here.

00:03:05.610 --> 00:03:07.880
Now, as we enter into
1915, and we've already

00:03:07.880 --> 00:03:10.490
covered this on the videos
on the Western Front.

00:03:10.490 --> 00:03:13.850
We know that the Western Front
was entering into a stalemate.

00:03:13.850 --> 00:03:17.050
The Schlieffen Plan did not
happen as quickly as possible.

00:03:17.050 --> 00:03:19.230
But the defenders
had a huge advantage.

00:03:19.230 --> 00:03:21.140
So that gave the
Germans an opportunity

00:03:21.140 --> 00:03:24.800
to bring some troops back
to the Eastern Front,

00:03:24.800 --> 00:03:27.500
to bring troops back
to the Eastern Front.

00:03:27.500 --> 00:03:29.320
They also got better
at coordinating

00:03:29.320 --> 00:03:31.040
with the Austro-Hungarians.

00:03:31.040 --> 00:03:33.644
And so you have 1915, you
have the Central Powers

00:03:33.644 --> 00:03:34.685
go back on the offensive.

00:03:43.490 --> 00:03:45.750
And they're essentially
able to drive

00:03:45.750 --> 00:03:52.750
the Russians out
of Russian Poland

00:03:52.750 --> 00:03:56.090
roughly to this border that
I have drawn right over here,

00:03:56.090 --> 00:04:00.020
roughly to this border, give
or take, right over here.

00:04:00.020 --> 00:04:02.610
When we talk about Russian
Poland, the modern state

00:04:02.610 --> 00:04:05.390
of Poland, I'm making
this video now in 2013.

00:04:05.390 --> 00:04:07.140
The modern state of
Poland was essentially

00:04:07.140 --> 00:04:09.350
split between what
you see on this map

00:04:09.350 --> 00:04:11.970
between the Russian Empire
and the German Empire.

00:04:11.970 --> 00:04:18.019
The modern state of Poland
is roughly this region right

00:04:18.019 --> 00:04:18.570
over here.

00:04:18.570 --> 00:04:20.153
And so you see, it's
almost completely

00:04:20.153 --> 00:04:25.580
split, almost like a yin and
yang symbol between these two

00:04:25.580 --> 00:04:26.560
empires.

00:04:26.560 --> 00:04:29.750
But by, but through
1915, the Russians

00:04:29.750 --> 00:04:33.750
were pushed out of Russian
Poland roughly to this border.

00:04:33.750 --> 00:04:37.180
And essentially, to a large
degree, it was because Russia,

00:04:37.180 --> 00:04:40.850
even though they had this
huge army, this huge manpower,

00:04:40.850 --> 00:04:42.784
they had bad
communication lines.

00:04:42.784 --> 00:04:44.450
And actually had bad
technical supplies.

00:04:44.450 --> 00:04:46.990
Russian industry
wasn't able to keep up

00:04:46.990 --> 00:04:48.980
with the demand of
the war and wasn't

00:04:48.980 --> 00:04:52.130
able to supply the munitions
in proper quantities

00:04:52.130 --> 00:04:55.080
and the arms in proper
quantities to their troops.

00:04:55.080 --> 00:04:57.951
As you enter into 1916,
the Russians, once again,

00:04:57.951 --> 00:04:59.450
were able to get
their footing back.

00:04:59.450 --> 00:05:01.240
As you can see, it's starting
to become a little bit of a back

00:05:01.240 --> 00:05:01.790
and forth.

00:05:01.790 --> 00:05:08.770
So Russian industry,
I guess you could say,

00:05:08.770 --> 00:05:11.830
picks back up in 1916.

00:05:11.830 --> 00:05:14.560
And it essentially puts the
Russians more on the offensive.

00:05:14.560 --> 00:05:16.630
They were driven out
of Russian Poland.

00:05:16.630 --> 00:05:19.090
But now by 1916, they're able
to keep the Central Powers

00:05:19.090 --> 00:05:20.790
a little bit more
on the defensive.

00:05:20.790 --> 00:05:23.510
But the boundaries
of the front roughly

00:05:23.510 --> 00:05:29.270
stay in line with this
line right over here.

00:05:29.270 --> 00:05:31.020
And by the end of
1916, you actually

00:05:31.020 --> 00:05:34.010
have the Romanians joining on
the side of the Triple Entente,

00:05:34.010 --> 00:05:35.900
on the sides of the
Russians, in order

00:05:35.900 --> 00:05:42.000
to fight the Central
Powers as well.

00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:43.750
Now, this might look
like it's starting

00:05:43.750 --> 00:05:45.160
to look better for the Russians.

00:05:45.160 --> 00:05:47.630
The Russians, their industry
is finally picking up.

00:05:47.630 --> 00:05:50.340
They're starting to put the
Central Powers a little bit

00:05:50.340 --> 00:05:51.667
more on the defensive.

00:05:51.667 --> 00:05:53.250
But the entire time
that we're talking

00:05:53.250 --> 00:05:57.560
about this battle, the economic
situation in the Russian Empire

00:05:57.560 --> 00:05:59.900
is deteriorating dramatically.

00:05:59.900 --> 00:06:07.970
By the time you get into
1917, the Russian economy

00:06:07.970 --> 00:06:10.470
is really falling apart.

00:06:10.470 --> 00:06:12.070
You have food shortages.

00:06:12.070 --> 00:06:13.520
You have riots.

00:06:13.520 --> 00:06:14.790
Food shortages.

00:06:14.790 --> 00:06:16.770
You have riots.

00:06:16.770 --> 00:06:20.560
And in February of 1917, you
have the February Revolution.

00:06:20.560 --> 00:06:25.400
You essentially, the overthrow
of the Romanov Dynasty.

00:06:25.400 --> 00:06:27.340
It's been in power
for 300 years.

00:06:27.340 --> 00:06:29.340
But you have Tsar Nicholas II.

00:06:29.340 --> 00:06:31.070
So this is in February.

00:06:31.070 --> 00:06:39.420
And then in early March,
you have Tsar Nicholas II

00:06:39.420 --> 00:06:41.230
abdicates the throne.

00:06:41.230 --> 00:06:42.970
And this is the
gentleman right here.

00:06:42.970 --> 00:06:44.700
And we'll do more
detailed videos

00:06:44.700 --> 00:06:46.360
about the entire
Russian Revolution

00:06:46.360 --> 00:06:49.420
and what happens to his
family and all of the rest.

00:06:49.420 --> 00:06:52.272
And you have an interim
government that takes place.

00:06:52.272 --> 00:06:53.730
And this is actually
a little, this

00:06:53.730 --> 00:06:56.240
is an interesting
fact of history.

00:06:56.240 --> 00:06:59.160
This interim government all of
a sudden becomes a democracy.

00:06:59.160 --> 00:07:00.840
This is February 1917.

00:07:00.840 --> 00:07:02.570
Remember, the United
States has not

00:07:02.570 --> 00:07:04.140
entered the war at this point.

00:07:04.140 --> 00:07:06.970
But you might also remember
that in April, the United States

00:07:06.970 --> 00:07:09.790
uses the idea of fighting
on the side of democracy

00:07:09.790 --> 00:07:12.080
as a justification
for entering the war.

00:07:12.080 --> 00:07:14.140
Which is very nice,
because by April,

00:07:14.140 --> 00:07:16.200
all of the major powers
on the side of the,

00:07:16.200 --> 00:07:17.950
I guess you would say,
the Triple Entente,

00:07:17.950 --> 00:07:19.260
they were all democracies.

00:07:19.260 --> 00:07:21.590
You're talking about, now,
the interim government

00:07:21.590 --> 00:07:22.370
for the Russians.

00:07:22.370 --> 00:07:23.440
You have the French.

00:07:23.440 --> 00:07:26.500
And you have the British Empire.

00:07:26.500 --> 00:07:29.420
Obviously, it's a democracy
only for those who are voting.

00:07:29.420 --> 00:07:34.040
And actually the United
States was the first country

00:07:34.040 --> 00:07:36.440
to recognize the
interim government

00:07:36.440 --> 00:07:41.540
after the overthrow
of Tsar Nicholas II.

00:07:41.540 --> 00:07:44.030
But we're not just
done with 1917.

00:07:44.030 --> 00:07:47.210
1917 is one of those huge years
in the history of the world

00:07:47.210 --> 00:07:49.790
and especially in the
history of Russia.

00:07:49.790 --> 00:07:52.930
The situation continues
to deteriorate.

00:07:52.930 --> 00:07:55.960
And it starts to deteriorate,
as well, for the army.

00:07:55.960 --> 00:07:58.470
The morale and the
troops breakdown.

00:07:58.470 --> 00:08:03.930
You start having, the Bolsheviks
start to create unrest.

00:08:03.930 --> 00:08:08.500
By the end of 1917, now we're
talking about September 1917.

00:08:08.500 --> 00:08:10.330
So that's maybe
right around here.

00:08:10.330 --> 00:08:12.440
You have the Central Powers.

00:08:12.440 --> 00:08:17.330
Germany's able to capture
Riga, which is a major city

00:08:17.330 --> 00:08:20.220
right over here on the Baltic.

00:08:20.220 --> 00:08:25.420
Which brings the Central
Powers very, very

00:08:25.420 --> 00:08:27.620
close to the Russian capital.

00:08:27.620 --> 00:08:31.670
It contributes to the ongoing
unrest that's going on.

00:08:31.670 --> 00:08:38.159
And so in November 7,
you have coup d'etat

00:08:38.159 --> 00:08:41.640
of that ostensibly democratic
interim government,

00:08:41.640 --> 00:08:42.799
provisional government.

00:08:42.799 --> 00:08:44.480
And you have the
communists take power.

00:08:44.480 --> 00:08:46.420
You have the
Bolsheviks take power

00:08:46.420 --> 00:08:49.880
under the leadership of
Vladimir Lenin right over here.

00:08:49.880 --> 00:08:54.020
So November 7, 1917, very
famous date in history.

00:08:54.020 --> 00:08:55.070
You have the Bolsheviks.

00:08:55.070 --> 00:08:58.702
So this is Lenin leading
the Bolsheviks into power.

00:08:58.702 --> 00:09:00.410
Now, they were in no
interest to continue

00:09:00.410 --> 00:09:02.080
fighting this
battle with Germany.

00:09:02.080 --> 00:09:04.390
They had their own civil
war to worry about.

00:09:04.390 --> 00:09:07.700
They were trying to
consolidate power in Russia.

00:09:07.700 --> 00:09:10.260
So in December, they
essentially get into,

00:09:10.260 --> 00:09:13.740
start to negotiate an armistice
with the Central Powers.

00:09:13.740 --> 00:09:17.186
And they did not have a lot of
leverage in this negotiation

00:09:17.186 --> 00:09:18.560
because they
weren't, they really

00:09:18.560 --> 00:09:21.080
did not want to be in this war.

00:09:21.080 --> 00:09:26.400
And so by March
of 1918, you have

00:09:26.400 --> 00:09:29.360
the treaty-- this between
Russia and the Central Powers--

00:09:29.360 --> 00:09:32.050
the Treaty of Brest--
and I'm sure I'm

00:09:32.050 --> 00:09:34.010
mispronouncing
everything-- Brest-Litovsk.

00:09:37.680 --> 00:09:41.214
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk,
in which the Russians,

00:09:41.214 --> 00:09:43.130
because they were so
desperate, the Bolsheviks

00:09:43.130 --> 00:09:44.770
were so desperate
in order to get,

00:09:44.770 --> 00:09:47.260
to focus on the
internal civil war that

00:09:47.260 --> 00:09:49.870
had emerged in Russia, in
order to consolidate power,

00:09:49.870 --> 00:09:52.680
they gave over a huge
amount of territory

00:09:52.680 --> 00:09:53.910
to the Central Powers.

00:09:53.910 --> 00:09:58.310
And essentially a large
part of European Russia

00:09:58.310 --> 00:10:04.950
that is not predominantly--
of Russian ethnicity

00:10:04.950 --> 00:10:07.070
went over to the Central Powers.

00:10:07.070 --> 00:10:10.340
Now this treaty is important
because it essentially

00:10:10.340 --> 00:10:12.630
was the end of World
War I for the Russians.

00:10:12.630 --> 00:10:15.550
It essentially was the
end of the Eastern Front.

00:10:15.550 --> 00:10:18.250
And it allowed the
Germans to then refocus

00:10:18.250 --> 00:10:20.760
on the Western Front, which
allowed the Germans to start

00:10:20.760 --> 00:10:23.770
bringing troops back over
to the Western Front.

00:10:23.770 --> 00:10:26.580
And they were actually able to
do quite an aggressive Spring

00:10:26.580 --> 00:10:29.180
Offensive on the Western Front.

00:10:29.180 --> 00:10:31.406
And if it wasn't for
the US at the time,

00:10:31.406 --> 00:10:33.780
now being able to reinforce
the Western Front-- remember,

00:10:33.780 --> 00:10:37.750
they declared war in
mid-1917-- it's not clear

00:10:37.750 --> 00:10:41.080
that the German offensive
might not have been successful

00:10:41.080 --> 00:10:43.420
in the spring of 1918.

00:10:43.420 --> 00:10:45.290
So the importance
of Brest-Litovsk

00:10:45.290 --> 00:10:48.480
is it was the end of
the Eastern Front.

00:10:48.480 --> 00:10:52.180
It allowed the Germans to do an
offensive on the Western Front.

00:10:52.180 --> 00:10:54.750
And it was a very
strong offensive.

00:10:54.750 --> 00:10:56.810
But with the help
of the Americans,

00:10:56.810 --> 00:10:58.870
it was not a successful one.

00:10:58.870 --> 00:11:01.500
But the actual territorial
gains for the Central Power

00:11:01.500 --> 00:11:05.030
of Brest-Litovsk-- I'm sure
I'm mispronouncing it--

00:11:05.030 --> 00:11:06.630
were not that significant.

00:11:06.630 --> 00:11:09.600
Because in November
1918-- and here

00:11:09.600 --> 00:11:11.990
I'm probably falling off
my timeline a little bit.

00:11:11.990 --> 00:11:14.570
But right over here
in November 1918,

00:11:14.570 --> 00:11:19.720
this is maybe 19-- this
is 1919 right over here.

00:11:19.720 --> 00:11:23.020
You have the Central
Powers essentially saying,

00:11:23.020 --> 00:11:26.070
oh my God, we're not going
to be able to win this war.

00:11:26.070 --> 00:11:28.220
And you have the,
essentially, what

00:11:28.220 --> 00:11:30.230
was for a long time
known as Armistice Day.

00:11:30.230 --> 00:11:32.100
The 11th the day
of the 11th month--

00:11:32.100 --> 00:11:34.390
or the 11th hour
of the 11th month--

00:11:34.390 --> 00:11:36.770
or the 11th hour of the
11th day of the 11th month,

00:11:36.770 --> 00:11:37.950
you have an armistice.

00:11:37.950 --> 00:11:41.210
And you have the end of World
War I with the Allies winning.

00:11:41.210 --> 00:11:42.830
And so the Allies
got to say what

00:11:42.830 --> 00:11:46.140
happened to this
territory right over here.


Comparing the Eastern and Western fronts in WWI

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.450 --> 00:00:02.450
The Eastern and Western
fronts, even though they

00:00:02.450 --> 00:00:04.539
were fronts of the same
war, were very different

00:00:04.539 --> 00:00:05.080
in character.

00:00:05.080 --> 00:00:07.538
And a lot of it came out of
the fact of who was fighting it

00:00:07.538 --> 00:00:10.500
and especially how big
the actual fronts were.

00:00:10.500 --> 00:00:13.010
So the Western Front,
which was generally

00:00:13.010 --> 00:00:16.750
this region right over here,
was a much smaller front

00:00:16.750 --> 00:00:17.860
than the Eastern Front.

00:00:17.860 --> 00:00:19.330
The Eastern Front
was essentially

00:00:19.330 --> 00:00:25.500
this entire region
right over there.

00:00:25.500 --> 00:00:27.270
And because of
that, trench warfare

00:00:27.270 --> 00:00:30.090
did not become as major of a
factor on the Eastern Front.

00:00:30.090 --> 00:00:32.479
In fact, was fairly useless
on the Eastern Front.

00:00:32.479 --> 00:00:34.982
If you imagine trying to
dig a bunch of trenches.

00:00:34.982 --> 00:00:36.940
So if you're trying to
dig a bunch of trenches,

00:00:36.940 --> 00:00:39.650
trenches are huge advantage
for the defending army

00:00:39.650 --> 00:00:43.812
as long as you can block off
the entire region with trenches.

00:00:43.812 --> 00:00:45.770
So over here, you can't
go around the trenches,

00:00:45.770 --> 00:00:47.811
you essentially, if you
want to make some ground,

00:00:47.811 --> 00:00:50.310
an attacking army has
to cross the trenches.

00:00:50.310 --> 00:00:52.550
And because you have
now machine guns

00:00:52.550 --> 00:00:55.250
and the defending
soldiers could essentially

00:00:55.250 --> 00:00:57.330
sit behind the trenches,
they could essentially

00:00:57.330 --> 00:01:02.220
mow down the attacking
army very easily.

00:01:02.220 --> 00:01:05.075
And that's what caused the
Western Front, especially

00:01:05.075 --> 00:01:06.450
after the Schlieffen
Plan was not

00:01:06.450 --> 00:01:09.640
able to be executed on
as quickly as possible,

00:01:09.640 --> 00:01:11.590
it turned into just a stalemate.

00:01:11.590 --> 00:01:15.430
So you just had a stalemate,
a hugely defensive stalemate.

00:01:15.430 --> 00:01:18.430
Because both parties had
their trenches, it was very,

00:01:18.430 --> 00:01:21.710
it was hugely advantageous
for the defending side.

00:01:21.710 --> 00:01:24.410
On the Eastern Front,
you had this huge front.

00:01:24.410 --> 00:01:25.740
It was very hard.

00:01:25.740 --> 00:01:26.490
You couldn't have.

00:01:26.490 --> 00:01:28.890
They didn't have enough
people to dig trenches

00:01:28.890 --> 00:01:30.670
across this entire front.

00:01:30.670 --> 00:01:34.680
And so you could imagine if
you tried to dig a trench,

00:01:34.680 --> 00:01:36.864
but you weren't able to
cover the entire front,

00:01:36.864 --> 00:01:39.280
then the attacking army doesn't
have to storm your trench.

00:01:39.280 --> 00:01:40.738
They don't have to
do that anymore.

00:01:40.738 --> 00:01:43.520
They could just go
around your trench.

00:01:43.520 --> 00:01:45.825
And because trench warfare
was not as significant

00:01:45.825 --> 00:01:49.880
of a factor on the, or wasn't
as anywhere near as much

00:01:49.880 --> 00:01:52.450
of a factor on
the Eastern Front,

00:01:52.450 --> 00:01:54.390
it was a much more fluid front.

00:01:54.390 --> 00:01:56.990
You had offensives
and counter-offensives

00:01:56.990 --> 00:02:00.850
between the Germans,
Austrians on one side

00:02:00.850 --> 00:02:02.900
and the Russians on the other.

00:02:02.900 --> 00:02:05.940
Now the other factor-- and
this was mainly with Russia

00:02:05.940 --> 00:02:08.479
as a variable-- the
other factor was just

00:02:08.479 --> 00:02:10.490
what was going on in Russia.

00:02:10.490 --> 00:02:12.920
So Russia had several
things going for it.

00:02:12.920 --> 00:02:15.040
The main thing is,
it had a huge army.

00:02:15.040 --> 00:02:18.190
It had a huge standing
army, even before the war.

00:02:18.190 --> 00:02:20.170
And it was able to
amass even more.

00:02:20.170 --> 00:02:23.230
So it had a huge army.

00:02:23.230 --> 00:02:25.420
But what was going
against it-- and this

00:02:25.420 --> 00:02:28.980
is why it eventually had to get
into a very unfavorable treaty

00:02:28.980 --> 00:02:31.190
with the Central Powers
near the end of the war--

00:02:31.190 --> 00:02:35.187
is it had huge
internal problems.

00:02:35.187 --> 00:02:37.020
And I'm not just talking
about the military.

00:02:37.020 --> 00:02:39.920
I was talking about, I'm
talking about the entire empire.

00:02:39.920 --> 00:02:43.830
And it arguably was due to
the war, due to the economic

00:02:43.830 --> 00:02:46.060
and the human cost of the war.

00:02:46.060 --> 00:02:49.670
But as we enter
into 1917, you first

00:02:49.670 --> 00:02:51.800
have the February Revolution.

00:02:51.800 --> 00:02:56.480
Tsar Nicholas II has to
abdicate the throne because

00:02:56.480 --> 00:02:58.670
of the riots that
are going on, because

00:02:58.670 --> 00:03:02.960
of the unhappiness,
the unease with people

00:03:02.960 --> 00:03:04.050
literally going hungry.

00:03:04.050 --> 00:03:07.734
People, obviously, the morale
of the troops going down.

00:03:07.734 --> 00:03:09.650
And then on top of that,
the Russian military,

00:03:09.650 --> 00:03:12.240
even though it had a huge army
in the beginning of the war,

00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:15.370
the Russian industry wasn't
ready to fully supply

00:03:15.370 --> 00:03:19.030
that army in as good of a way
as, say, the German army was.

00:03:19.030 --> 00:03:21.590
And on top of that, it had
communication problems.

00:03:21.590 --> 00:03:24.910
And even in the beginning
phases of the Eastern Front,

00:03:24.910 --> 00:03:28.047
it even had issues in terms of
coordinating its actual armies.

00:03:28.047 --> 00:03:29.630
And so what we'll
see, and we'll cover

00:03:29.630 --> 00:03:32.310
this in much more depth
in a future video,

00:03:32.310 --> 00:03:34.470
but what we'll see
is, Western Front.

00:03:34.470 --> 00:03:37.260
Schlieffen Plan not executed
as fast as possible.

00:03:37.260 --> 00:03:38.360
Ends up in a stalemate.

00:03:38.360 --> 00:03:40.760
This did allow the Germans
to bring some of their troops

00:03:40.760 --> 00:03:43.910
back to the Eastern Front
to fight the Russians.

00:03:43.910 --> 00:03:46.110
This goes back and
forth as we'll see.

00:03:46.110 --> 00:03:48.490
But once you enter
into 1917, you

00:03:48.490 --> 00:03:51.194
have a revolution in Russia.

00:03:51.194 --> 00:03:52.860
First, you have the
February Revolution.

00:03:52.860 --> 00:03:54.990
Tsar Nicholas II
has to abdicate.

00:03:54.990 --> 00:03:58.130
And then later that year,
you have the Bolsheviks

00:03:58.130 --> 00:04:00.110
overthrow the
interim government.

00:04:00.110 --> 00:04:02.080
And you now have
Communist Russia.

00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:04.340
The Bolsheviks were
in no mood to continue

00:04:04.340 --> 00:04:05.900
to fight the Germans.

00:04:05.900 --> 00:04:07.580
The military was in
no mood to continue

00:04:07.580 --> 00:04:11.380
to fight the Germans and
the and Austria-Hungary.

00:04:11.380 --> 00:04:13.750
And so they, essentially,
get into a treaty with them

00:04:13.750 --> 00:04:17.821
and kind of take
themselves out of the war.

00:04:17.821 --> 00:04:19.779
So we'll cover that in
a little bit more detail

00:04:19.779 --> 00:04:21.710
in a future video.