Bitcoin: Overview

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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Voiceover: Bitcoin is a
new virtual currency system

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that's been gathering a
lot of attention recently,

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and I thought I would
do a series of videos

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where I really dive into
the innards of bitcoin

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and explain how it works in detail,

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and my plan for this
first video in this series

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is to describe some of those mechanics

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at a high level.

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And then what I'll do in subsequent videos

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is dive a bit deeper into
all of the underlying aspects

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that I have touched upon
within this first video.

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And my hope is that by the
end of this video series,

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you'll know not only what a bitcoin is,

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but you'll also understand the mechanics

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of how transactions are initiated.

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You'll see how verification occurs

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for those transactions,

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and you'll also learn
what it means for someone

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to really engage in a process

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known as "bitcoin mining",

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and that may be a term that you've heard

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if you've had any interest
in bitcoin recently.

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I do want to point out, also,

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that the bitcoin scheme
is fairly involved.

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It requires some time to really cover

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all of the relevant details,

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and to me the best way
to really wrap your head

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around a scheme like bitcoin

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is to really suspend belief for a bit

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and get exposed to all of
these relevant details.

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Now, undoubtedly, you'll
have a lot of questions

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along the way,

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but my hope is that by the
end of this video series,

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all of the relevant stones
will have been overturned

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and your questions will have been

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appropriately answered,

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but it might take some time to get there,

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and in part, that's because
I'll try to describe things

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in a way that's sensible

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and that might involve
leaving some details out

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until I can explain enough
pieces of the scheme

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and then add in those
details in as I go along

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so that you're not inundated

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with too many minor points and nuances

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along the way,

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but you get a feel for the overall system

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as I go through things.

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With that, let me go ahead
and just dive right in.

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First of all, I do want to point out

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that bitcoin has been described, really,

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as a decentralized currency

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because there's no real
central bank or entity

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that's involved in generating
or transacting bitcoins,

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and, in fact, what happens
in the content of a bitcoin

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is all the transactions really require

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what's known as a peer-to-peer network,

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a network of just individual
hosts that essentially

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collectively agree on different aspects

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of how the protocol is
implemented and used.

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Bitcoin itself is also
referred to sometimes

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as a cryptocurrency,

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and by a cryptocurrency,

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I mean that we use a lot
of cryptographic techniques

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in order to facilitate or to really enable

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bitcoin transactions to take place,

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and I'll do separate videos

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on some of these techniques,

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but just take it at face value right now,

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that it's decentralized

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and is a type of cryptocurrency.

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I also want to point out that
the term "bitcoin" itself

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can in fact be a bit confusing,

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and in many ways, bitcoin transactions

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don't really resemble
traditional coin transactions

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so much as they represent really entries

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in some type of a global ledger,

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and by that, I mean let's say you have

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a transaction taking place,

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and let's say the
transaction is taking place

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within, or among two parties,

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and we'll call them Alice and Bob,

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which are traditional names that are used

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in many cryptographic protocols

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to describe the parties involved,

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and imagine that Alice wants to transfer,

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or really wants to assign,

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a certain number of
bitcoins that she possesses

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over to Bob,

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and you can think of
this transaction, really,

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as an entry in a ledger of some sort,

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and I also want to point
out before proceeding

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that even though I've used terms

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like Alice and Bob,

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what I really mean in
the context of bitcoin

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is not the actual identities
in the physical sense,

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but really that Alice
and Bob are identities

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in the bitcoin system,

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and these identities are just,

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in actual implementation,

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are just collections of numbers

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that do not have to be tied

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with Alice and Bob's
real-world identities.

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In that capacity, you can
think of bitcoin at any,

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it really is effectively being,

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of being pseudonyms,

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rather than real names,

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and the idea is that
bitcoin really becomes more

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of a pseudonymous protocol,

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where people are addressed
by their pseudonyms,

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and that provides some level of privacy

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to users that want to transact

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using the bitcoin system.

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Now, in a transaction
between Alice and Bob,

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what Alice will basically do

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is specify a few different numbers.

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She has to specify how many bitcoins

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she wants to allocate to Bob.

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Let's say Alice started off
with 50 bitcoins of her own.

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She might decide that she wants to give,

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let's say, 30 of these
bitcoins over to Bob,

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and let's say she wants to have

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some number of bitcoins
returned back to her,

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so you have to specify,

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or Alice has to specify, rather,

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how much change she's going to get,

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so in this case, let's say
her change is going to be

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18 bitcoins for herself,

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and then the remaining 2
bitcoins are going to be

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a transaction fee,

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and we'll talk about what
a transaction fee means

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a little later,

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and I think I'll also dive
into it in future videos,

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but it's basically an
incentive for other nodes

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in the bitcoin network to help Alice

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in essentially validating
some of the details

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of this transaction for Bob.

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Now, Alice will take
these transaction details

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and apply what's known
as a digital signature

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to these transaction details,

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and a digital signature is basically

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the mathematical analog of
a traditional signature.

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It really binds Alice's
identity to the details

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of this transaction.

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And by Alice's identity, again,

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I mean her identity
within the bitcoin system,

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and this binding is really done

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in a cryptographically strong way.

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Now, the details of this transaction

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once it takes place,

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are going to be broadcast out,

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so Alice is going to take
these transaction details

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and effectively just broadcast them out

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to all the nodes in the
peer-to-peer network

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that represent bitcoin nodes.

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Now, Bob, when he receives information

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about this transaction,

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he receives it over the
peer-to-peer network.

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He'll probably sandy check

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some part of the transaction.

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For example, he might
check that the numbers

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work out correctly,

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that Alice, let's say,
started off with 50 bitcoins

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and is not trying to transfer

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more than 50 bitcoins to
him, and so on and so forth.

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He's going to have some
mathematical assurance

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because of some of the
cryptography involved

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that some of these claims are accurate,

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that Alice, let's say, has the bitcoins

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that she's claimed to possess,

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and that she's expressed an interest

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to assign those bitcoins to him,

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but what he won't know yet is whether

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Alice has really tried to
transfer those same bitcoins

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to anyone else over the course of time

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or maybe just prior to that point.

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the way that we handle that situation,

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and by the way, I should point out

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that this concept of Alice
trying to, let's say,

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spend coins twice,

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in the context of digital cash

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and electronic currency systems,

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this concept is known as double spending,

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and it's something you have to worry about

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when you have virtual currencies

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because it's very easy
for someone to just copy

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the numbers that
represent this transaction

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and try to use them elsewhere.

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The way we basically handle

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and reduce the risk of double spending

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is through a specific set of nodes

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in this peer-to-peer network

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who are known as bitcoin miners.

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You might have heard
this term bitcoin miners,

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and the bitcoin miners are basically

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specific individuals,

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specific nodes within
this peer-to-peer network,

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and what they basically do is they take

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all of the transactions that they see,

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and remember,

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they're listening to all
of these transactions,

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and not just Alice and Bob's,

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but other transactions
that are taking place,

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and they'll take those transactions,

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and ultimately, they will
take those transactions

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and will compile them

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into what's known as a transaction block.

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So it's basically a recording

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of all the previously
unrecorded transactions.

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If you think of a single transaction

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let's say, as a ledger item,

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you could think of a transaction block

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as representing, let's say, an entire page

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in a ledger book.

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These bitcoin miners will
also include in this block,

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in addition to all these
unrecorded transactions,

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they will also include in this block

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a special transaction that's
meant just for themselves

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to basically reward
themselves for the effort

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of doing this mining.

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Now, a transaction block will also contain

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an encoding of the
previous transaction block,

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so there's going to be
some level of continuity,

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and then bitcoin miners will also include

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a specially-crafted sequence of numbers

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associated with these transactions,

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and this sequence of numbers is known

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as a proof of work,

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and it's called a proof of work

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because it's sometihng that's
really hard to generate,

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something that requires
a lot of effort to do,

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and that kind of makes
it hard for just anybody

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to get involved with
bitcoin mining willy-nilly,

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but it requires that they
really exhibit or exert

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some computational effort,

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basically in exchange for
getting this extra reward

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of a payment,

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and also in exchange for getting

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this transaction fee that
they're going to be promised

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by Alice to engage in this sort of work.

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I'll talk about what
proof-of-work protocols are

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in a separate video in more detail.

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Now, because each transaction block

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contains information about
previous transactions,

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really what you end up having

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is not just a single block.

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You ultimately have what
you can think of as a chain

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of transactions,

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and you can call this a
transaction block chain.

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The idea is as soon as a bitcoin miner

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is able to construct a
transaction block chain

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containing all these
unrecorded transactions,

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and this proof of work,

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it'll broadcast the
details of that chain out

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to all of the nodes, all of the peers

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on that peer-to-peer network for bitcoin.

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And then once the newly-broadcast chain

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gets kind of verified and
meets the right properties,

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the nodes on the network

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are just going to go
ahead and start using it,

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and they're going to start appending

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new transaction blocks to that chain.

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They're going to take anything

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that hasn't yet been processed

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and start incorporating it
into the transaction chain

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that was broadcast out by the node

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who came up with the
proof of work correctly.

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Now, this transaction block chain,

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really what we're going to be doing

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in the context of bitcoin

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is the nodes are only going to consider

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the transaction block chain that reflects

00:10:08.024 --> 00:10:10.881
the greatest amount of work
to generate its contents,

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and again, there's this proof
of work that I mentioned

00:10:12.769 --> 00:10:14.928
that is used to kind of determine

00:10:14.928 --> 00:10:17.713
or identify what the,
what work was involved

00:10:17.713 --> 00:10:20.831
in coming up with the
transaction block chain.

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The one that's the longest
is going to be considered

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sacrosanct within the bitcoin system.

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Future miners are supposed to only work

00:10:26.970 --> 00:10:30.904
off the chain that has
the most work put into it.

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Now, what's remarkable here

00:10:32.331 --> 00:10:34.876
is that the whole
process is decentralized.

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There is no bank or no
centrally-trusted entity

00:10:38.190 --> 00:10:40.851
that was actually involved
in the transaction.

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Hopefully this first video gave you

00:10:42.809 --> 00:10:44.772
a bit of description,
a flavor, if you will,

00:10:44.772 --> 00:10:47.746
for the high-level mechanics
of the bitcoin system.

00:10:47.746 --> 00:10:50.450
There are a lot of stones
I have left unturned,

00:10:50.450 --> 00:10:52.184
and what I'll do in subsequent videos

00:10:52.184 --> 00:10:54.138
is start covering those details,

00:10:54.138 --> 00:10:55.628
and I'm sure you have a lot of questions,

00:10:55.628 --> 00:10:57.416
and hopefully the future videos

00:10:57.416 --> 00:11:00.113
will help answer some of
those questions for you.


Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.733 --> 00:00:03.472
Narrator: By the end of
1923, Hitler sees it as

00:00:03.472 --> 00:00:06.693
his chance to seize power in Germany.

00:00:06.693 --> 00:00:10.212
He's getting this popularity,
the Nazis are getting

00:00:10.212 --> 00:00:12.404
this follower-ship because
the Weimar Republic

00:00:12.404 --> 00:00:13.450
is falling apart.

00:00:13.450 --> 00:00:15.950
You have the hyperinflation,
the German people feel

00:00:15.950 --> 00:00:18.954
insulted by this French
occupation of the Ruhr region.

00:00:18.954 --> 00:00:21.803
It isn't just regular people
who are starting to support

00:00:21.803 --> 00:00:24.876
the Nazis, it's very
notable people as well.

00:00:24.876 --> 00:00:26.776
This right over here
is General Ludendorff,

00:00:26.776 --> 00:00:28.414
we've already talked
about him, he's one of the

00:00:28.414 --> 00:00:30.139
believers in the 'stab-in-the-back' theory

00:00:30.139 --> 00:00:31.870
that Germany would have won World War I

00:00:31.870 --> 00:00:33.409
if it wasn't stabbed in the back by

00:00:33.409 --> 00:00:35.469
the November Criminals
who had taken control

00:00:35.469 --> 00:00:38.543
of the government during
the revolution in October

00:00:38.543 --> 00:00:40.482
and November.

00:00:40.482 --> 00:00:43.207
He becomes a supporter of Hitler as well.

00:00:43.207 --> 00:00:45.468
In 1922 you have Mussolini come to power,

00:00:45.468 --> 00:00:46.821
this inspires Hitler.

00:00:46.821 --> 00:00:48.957
So, as we get in to
November, Hitler sees this as

00:00:48.957 --> 00:00:51.618
his chance and the way that
he wants to take control,

00:00:51.618 --> 00:00:55.672
is he wants to abduct
or kidnap the leaders

00:00:55.672 --> 00:00:57.943
of the Bavarian region,
and there's three of them,

00:00:57.943 --> 00:00:59.336
in particular at this time.

00:00:59.336 --> 00:01:02.007
Then from there, try to
take control of the nation

00:01:02.007 --> 00:01:03.483
as a whole.

00:01:03.483 --> 00:01:07.147
So, in November of 1923
you have a gathering

00:01:07.147 --> 00:01:11.119
of the three gentlemen who are essentially

00:01:11.119 --> 00:01:14.024
in charge of Bavaria, a gathering of them

00:01:14.024 --> 00:01:16.290
and several thousand officials in Bavaria

00:01:16.290 --> 00:01:19.468
at a local beer hall in Munich.

00:01:19.469 --> 00:01:22.169
(writing) at a beer hall.

00:01:22.169 --> 00:01:26.604
Hitler sees this as the
opportunity to take control.

00:01:26.604 --> 00:01:31.526
This is where he launches
his Beer Hall Putsch,

00:01:31.526 --> 00:01:32.889
and I know I'm mispronouncing it,

00:01:32.889 --> 00:01:35.858
but Putsch literally means coup d'état,

00:01:35.858 --> 00:01:37.799
to try to overthrow the government.

00:01:37.799 --> 00:01:40.861
So, Hitler and his Nazi's
the go to that Beer Hall

00:01:40.861 --> 00:01:43.177
meeting of the government officials,

00:01:43.177 --> 00:01:46.670
they surround it with
their paramilitary group,

00:01:46.670 --> 00:01:49.839
their storm troopers,
Hitler enters into the hall,

00:01:49.839 --> 00:01:51.931
gets on stage, shoots into the air twice

00:01:51.931 --> 00:01:53.806
and says, look this is the revolution,

00:01:53.806 --> 00:01:55.193
it is beginning.

00:01:55.193 --> 00:01:58.741
He forces the three leaders
of Bavaria at gunpoint

00:01:58.741 --> 00:02:01.761
to pledge allegiance to the Nazi party

00:02:01.761 --> 00:02:04.720
and to this Putsch and
to Hitler, in particular.

00:02:04.720 --> 00:02:07.283
Then things start to go a little bit ...

00:02:07.283 --> 00:02:10.803
get a little bit ... start to dissolve.

00:02:10.803 --> 00:02:13.457
As Hitler tries to address
some issues that are

00:02:13.457 --> 00:02:17.993
going on outside, the
members who they were going

00:02:17.993 --> 00:02:20.525
to kidnap are allowed
to leave, you have chaos

00:02:20.525 --> 00:02:23.282
in the area amongst the Nazi's

00:02:23.282 --> 00:02:24.822
and, frankly, amongst the government

00:02:24.822 --> 00:02:26.865
throughout that evening,
into that morning,

00:02:26.865 --> 00:02:28.960
at which point Hitler and his followers,

00:02:28.960 --> 00:02:31.723
and Ludendorff is one
of them, decide to march

00:02:31.746 --> 00:02:34.306
(writing) decide to march

00:02:34.306 --> 00:02:36.763
into central Munich.

00:02:36.763 --> 00:02:39.456
All of this is happening
... all of this is happening

00:02:39.456 --> 00:02:41.392
in Munich, which is in Bavaria.

00:02:41.392 --> 00:02:44.397
They decide to march, and
it's during that march

00:02:44.397 --> 00:02:47.532
that they have a confrontation
with the official

00:02:47.532 --> 00:02:48.795
government troops.

00:02:48.795 --> 00:02:50.465
It's unclear who fired the first shot,

00:02:50.465 --> 00:02:52.359
but you do have an exchange of fire

00:02:52.359 --> 00:02:53.942
and during that exchange of fire,

00:02:53.942 --> 00:02:58.796
I've seen estimates of
about 14-16 Nazi's are shot.

00:02:58.796 --> 00:03:01.397
A few days later ... and a few policemen,

00:03:01.397 --> 00:03:04.128
or a few soldiers are shot as well,

00:03:04.128 --> 00:03:07.859
and then a few days
later Hitler is arrested.

00:03:07.859 --> 00:03:13.034
(writing) Hitler, Hitler is arrested.

00:03:13.034 --> 00:03:17.252
He's tried in early 1924
and then he is sentenced

00:03:17.252 --> 00:03:24.052
to jail, so all of his
ambitions were lead to nothing.

00:03:24.052 --> 00:03:29.211
In jail, he still continued
to develop his philosophy.

00:03:29.211 --> 00:03:32.628
He actually continued to
develop his following.

00:03:32.628 --> 00:03:36.456
He spent roughly the
second two-thirds of 1924,

00:03:36.456 --> 00:03:39.801
in 1924, he spent it in jail.

00:03:39.801 --> 00:03:43.992
(writing) 1924 was
spent primarily in jail,

00:03:43.992 --> 00:03:46.989
but while he was in jail he had dictated

00:03:46.989 --> 00:03:49.212
his autobiography and his, frankly,

00:03:49.212 --> 00:03:52.671
his belief system in Mein
Kampf, which literally means

00:03:52.671 --> 00:03:54.444
'My struggle.'

00:03:54.444 --> 00:03:56.928
It's actually banned in many countries,

00:03:56.928 --> 00:03:59.831
it's not banned in the U.S.

00:03:59.831 --> 00:04:02.404
It does make for interesting
reading because you get

00:04:02.404 --> 00:04:05.864
a sense for, on one level,
how bizarre Hitler's brain

00:04:05.864 --> 00:04:08.530
was and how disturbed Hitler's brain was,

00:04:08.530 --> 00:04:11.344
but on the other side, you
can appreciate that he was

00:04:11.344 --> 00:04:15.110
a very, he was a strong communicator.

00:04:15.110 --> 00:04:18.110
Even before any of this
people would talk about

00:04:18.110 --> 00:04:20.400
how transfixing his eyes
were, how much attention

00:04:20.400 --> 00:04:23.042
people paid to him when
he would give a speech.

00:04:23.042 --> 00:04:24.732
You can even see this in his writing,

00:04:24.732 --> 00:04:26.528
and you can do a web search on it

00:04:26.528 --> 00:04:28.600
and you can get the
entire text of Mein Kampf.

00:04:28.600 --> 00:04:32.691
It's disturbing and
fascinating at the same time,

00:04:32.691 --> 00:04:34.121
but this is a little passage.

00:04:34.121 --> 00:04:37.941
In this passage, it gives
you an idea of Hitler's

00:04:37.941 --> 00:04:40.526
view of why Germany was
having these failures

00:04:40.526 --> 00:04:44.118
and what he, in his
bizarrely disturbed mind,

00:04:44.118 --> 00:04:46.788
thought what the solution was.

00:04:46.788 --> 00:04:49.395
"If we pass all the causes
of the German collapse

00:04:49.395 --> 00:04:53.126
"in review, the ultimate and most decisive

00:04:53.126 --> 00:04:57.190
"remains the failure to
recognize the racial problem,

00:04:57.190 --> 00:04:59.807
"and especially the Jewish menace."

00:04:59.807 --> 00:05:02.688
He's blaming all of
Hitler's difficulty on a

00:05:02.688 --> 00:05:07.435
racial problem and in particular on Jews.

00:05:07.435 --> 00:05:10.779
"The defeats on the
battlefield in August 1918

00:05:10.779 --> 00:05:14.018
"would have been child's play to bear.

00:05:14.018 --> 00:05:16.065
"They stood in no
proportion to the victories

00:05:16.065 --> 00:05:17.448
"of our people.

00:05:17.448 --> 00:05:20.391
"It was not they that cause our downfall,

00:05:20.391 --> 00:05:23.688
"no, it was brought
about by that power which

00:05:23.688 --> 00:05:25.600
"prepared these defeats by systematically,

00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:28.520
"over many decades, robbing our people of

00:05:28.520 --> 00:05:30.934
"the political and moral
instincts and forces

00:05:30.934 --> 00:05:33.312
"which alone make nations capable,

00:05:33.312 --> 00:05:34.716
"and hence worthy of existence."

00:05:34.716 --> 00:05:36.267
If you read a lot of the other text,

00:05:36.267 --> 00:05:38.614
what he's talking about
is this decades of,

00:05:38.614 --> 00:05:40.998
essentially, watering down their society,

00:05:40.998 --> 00:05:43.696
watering down their
society with other people.

00:05:43.696 --> 00:05:46.799
If they didn't water it
down, they say the defeats

00:05:46.799 --> 00:05:49.860
in the battlefield would've
been child's play to bear.

00:05:49.860 --> 00:05:52.037
"In heedlessly ignoring the question

00:05:52.037 --> 00:05:55.832
"of the preservation of the
racial foundations of our

00:05:55.832 --> 00:05:59.088
"nation, the old Reich
disregarded the sole right

00:05:59.088 --> 00:06:01.799
"which gives life in this world."

00:06:01.799 --> 00:06:05.600
He views this racial, in
his mind, racial impurity

00:06:05.600 --> 00:06:10.748
as the reason why Germany was facing

00:06:10.748 --> 00:06:12.509
all of this difficulty.

00:06:12.509 --> 00:06:14.263
As we'll see over the next few videos,

00:06:14.263 --> 00:06:20.412
this leads to one of the
ugliest and bloodiest periods

00:06:20.412 --> 00:06:23.420
of human history.


Initial rise of Hitler and the Nazis

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.720 --> 00:00:03.130
Adolf Hitler got his
start in the military

00:00:03.130 --> 00:00:05.850
during World War I. He
was a dispatch runner

00:00:05.850 --> 00:00:07.070
on the Western Front.

00:00:07.070 --> 00:00:09.500
He actually gets
fairly decorated.

00:00:09.500 --> 00:00:12.120
And by most accounts, this
is where he finds meaning.

00:00:12.120 --> 00:00:14.550
He finds meaning in being
part of the military.

00:00:14.550 --> 00:00:18.040
He finds meaning in
frankly, the war itself.

00:00:18.040 --> 00:00:21.210
But then in 1918, we, of
course, have the end of the war.

00:00:21.210 --> 00:00:25.910
Well, first you have the
abdication of the Kaiser.

00:00:25.910 --> 00:00:28.470
You have the
Republican government,

00:00:28.470 --> 00:00:31.100
people who want to form
a republic, take control.

00:00:31.100 --> 00:00:35.250
And then they sign an armistice
with the Allies in November.

00:00:35.250 --> 00:00:37.022
And this is not well
received by Hitler.

00:00:37.022 --> 00:00:38.480
And frankly, it's
not well received

00:00:38.480 --> 00:00:40.466
by many in the military.

00:00:40.466 --> 00:00:42.090
From their point of
view, they somewhat

00:00:42.090 --> 00:00:44.890
delusionally
believed that Germany

00:00:44.890 --> 00:00:47.000
would have won World War
I if they weren't stabbed

00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:48.920
in the back by these
November Criminals,

00:00:48.920 --> 00:00:52.860
by the folks who had taken
over after the Kaiser.

00:00:52.860 --> 00:00:57.640
So you have this whole
stab in the back theory

00:00:57.640 --> 00:01:00.250
by those who had taken over
and signed the armistice.

00:01:00.250 --> 00:01:02.800
And this wasn't just believed
by folks like Hitler.

00:01:02.800 --> 00:01:05.382
This was believed even by very
senior people in the military.

00:01:05.382 --> 00:01:07.340
This right over here is
General Ludendorff, one

00:01:07.340 --> 00:01:09.550
of two people-- the
other gentleman,

00:01:09.550 --> 00:01:13.770
Hindenburg-- who were in charge
of the entire German military.

00:01:13.770 --> 00:01:15.610
He believed in the stab
in the back theory.

00:01:15.610 --> 00:01:17.310
He thought that
they would have won

00:01:17.310 --> 00:01:19.210
if they didn't
sign the armistice,

00:01:19.210 --> 00:01:21.085
if these November
Criminals, these people who

00:01:21.085 --> 00:01:22.585
had taken control
of the government,

00:01:22.585 --> 00:01:25.640
did not sign this
with the Allies.

00:01:25.640 --> 00:01:27.130
And then you go to 1919.

00:01:27.130 --> 00:01:29.130
From the point of view
of people of like Hitler,

00:01:29.130 --> 00:01:30.430
things only got worse.

00:01:30.430 --> 00:01:31.950
You have the Treaty
of Versailles

00:01:31.950 --> 00:01:34.590
that applied all the war
guilt to the Germans.

00:01:34.590 --> 00:01:36.370
You have these huge
reparations that

00:01:36.370 --> 00:01:38.040
would even be paid in resources.

00:01:38.040 --> 00:01:39.925
You have the former
German Empire,

00:01:39.925 --> 00:01:41.890
a significant amount
of its territory

00:01:41.890 --> 00:01:46.870
is given over to the Allies,
or to form new states.

00:01:46.870 --> 00:01:52.060
Then, you also have the
formal establishment

00:01:52.060 --> 00:01:53.610
of the Weimar Republic.

00:01:53.610 --> 00:01:56.010
It's called the Weimar
Republic because

00:01:56.010 --> 00:02:02.810
the new German constitution is
drafted in the town of Weimar.

00:02:02.810 --> 00:02:07.150
And it sets it up as a
parliamentary democracy.

00:02:07.150 --> 00:02:08.771
That's why it's
called a republic.

00:02:08.771 --> 00:02:10.770
But it's a little bit of
a bizarre parliamentary

00:02:10.770 --> 00:02:11.050
democracy.

00:02:11.050 --> 00:02:12.591
It actually gave a
good bit of power,

00:02:12.591 --> 00:02:14.120
a directly elected
president that

00:02:14.120 --> 00:02:15.800
had a reasonable
amount of power,

00:02:15.800 --> 00:02:17.050
especially in emergencies.

00:02:17.050 --> 00:02:18.980
And that would
become relevant later

00:02:18.980 --> 00:02:24.110
on when Hitler actually comes
to power over a decade later.

00:02:24.110 --> 00:02:27.370
But then in 1919,
Hitler was still

00:02:27.370 --> 00:02:30.330
looking-- he was very
upset about the war ending.

00:02:30.330 --> 00:02:31.880
He stays part of the military.

00:02:31.880 --> 00:02:33.570
And part of the
military he's assigned

00:02:33.570 --> 00:02:37.190
to start infiltrating or spying
on the German Workers' Party.

00:02:40.550 --> 00:02:43.895
And the acronym in
German is the DAP.

00:02:43.895 --> 00:02:45.270
But the English
translation would

00:02:45.270 --> 00:02:47.100
be the German Workers' Party.

00:02:47.100 --> 00:02:51.480
But he actually gets quite
impressed by the German

00:02:51.480 --> 00:02:54.810
Workers' Party, which is
really ultra-nationalist.

00:02:54.810 --> 00:02:56.710
And when we talk about
ultra-nationalist

00:02:56.710 --> 00:03:01.380
it's all about German
race superiority.

00:03:01.380 --> 00:03:03.800
It's in line with
this whole idea

00:03:03.800 --> 00:03:05.770
that they would have
won the war if they

00:03:05.770 --> 00:03:08.330
weren't stabbed in the back.

00:03:08.330 --> 00:03:09.842
And it's also anti-communist.

00:03:13.940 --> 00:03:16.620
It's anti-capitalist.

00:03:16.620 --> 00:03:21.890
And it's anti ethnic minorities,
in particular anti-Jewish.

00:03:21.890 --> 00:03:25.410
And all of these ideas
Hitler found very impressive.

00:03:25.410 --> 00:03:27.900
And just to be clear, a lot
of times when people talk

00:03:27.900 --> 00:03:30.340
about ultra-nationalist
groups they often

00:03:30.340 --> 00:03:32.930
will call them as
ultra-right wing.

00:03:35.620 --> 00:03:37.730
And this bears
some clarification

00:03:37.730 --> 00:03:41.290
because the right wing
is also often viewed

00:03:41.290 --> 00:03:43.210
as very capitalist.

00:03:43.210 --> 00:03:48.280
But ultra-nationalists really
put the nation, and the race

00:03:48.280 --> 00:03:50.290
that they view as
indicative of the nation,

00:03:50.290 --> 00:03:52.760
above all other concerns.

00:03:52.760 --> 00:03:54.410
So yes, they were
anti-communist.

00:03:54.410 --> 00:03:57.480
They were anti-distribution
of wealth.

00:03:57.480 --> 00:03:59.610
Communists believe
in no classes,

00:03:59.610 --> 00:04:01.900
as little private
property as possible.

00:04:01.900 --> 00:04:05.340
The German Workers' party
didn't believe in that.

00:04:05.340 --> 00:04:06.260
They were anti that.

00:04:06.260 --> 00:04:08.850
But they were also anti
unfettered capitalism,

00:04:08.850 --> 00:04:10.500
especially capitalism
that might get

00:04:10.500 --> 00:04:14.150
in the way of the
nation's interests.

00:04:14.150 --> 00:04:16.339
But he becomes very
impressed with them.

00:04:16.339 --> 00:04:20.760
And he actually joins
as the 55th member.

00:04:20.760 --> 00:04:24.040
So you can imagine,
this, at this point,

00:04:24.040 --> 00:04:27.060
is a very, very small party.

00:04:27.060 --> 00:04:30.000
But then we fast
forward to 1920.

00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:35.430
By 1920, the party leadership
has taken note of Hitler.

00:04:35.430 --> 00:04:37.790
They actually notice him
when he's arguing with people

00:04:37.790 --> 00:04:39.290
and that other
people are listening.

00:04:39.290 --> 00:04:40.887
He's actually a
really great orator.

00:04:40.887 --> 00:04:42.970
And so they allow him to
give more and more talks.

00:04:42.970 --> 00:04:44.600
He has more and more authority.

00:04:44.600 --> 00:04:46.870
And in order for the party
to have more of an appeal,

00:04:46.870 --> 00:04:48.740
especially to
nationalists in general,

00:04:48.740 --> 00:04:50.580
they change their name.

00:04:50.580 --> 00:04:58.390
To German Workers' Party they
add the Nationalist Socialist

00:04:58.390 --> 00:05:02.360
German Workers' Party,
DAP, German Workers' Party,

00:05:02.360 --> 00:05:03.057
or the NSDAP.

00:05:06.120 --> 00:05:07.980
And if you pronounce
nationalist in German,

00:05:07.980 --> 00:05:09.396
it sounds something
like-- and I'm

00:05:09.396 --> 00:05:12.770
going to butcher it
right now-- Nazionalist.

00:05:12.770 --> 00:05:14.220
And so, if you
were to shorten it,

00:05:14.220 --> 00:05:15.760
they called
themselves the Nazis.

00:05:18.990 --> 00:05:20.710
And Hitler actually
designed the logo

00:05:20.710 --> 00:05:23.800
for the Nazis, which
included this symbol

00:05:23.800 --> 00:05:26.230
right over here, the swastika.

00:05:26.230 --> 00:05:28.410
And the swastika is
worth talking about

00:05:28.410 --> 00:05:30.990
because it was really this
bizarre corruption of a very

00:05:30.990 --> 00:05:33.710
ancient symbol.

00:05:33.710 --> 00:05:36.580
Hitler and the Nazis created
this entire mythology

00:05:36.580 --> 00:05:40.240
around the Germans being the
descendants of the Aryans,

00:05:40.240 --> 00:05:42.300
or being the purest
example of the Aryans.

00:05:42.300 --> 00:05:45.080
And the Aryans are
the superior race

00:05:45.080 --> 00:05:48.560
that's responsible for all of
civilization's advancement.

00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:50.370
It was a delusion
because frankly, there

00:05:50.370 --> 00:05:52.350
was an ancient Aryan race.

00:05:52.350 --> 00:05:56.550
But the most indicative
descendants of them

00:05:56.550 --> 00:05:59.516
are frankly, the
Persians or the Indians.

00:05:59.516 --> 00:06:01.140
And actually, the
swastika symbol here,

00:06:01.140 --> 00:06:03.181
you might actually even
see it at a Hindu temple.

00:06:03.181 --> 00:06:07.000
It does not mean all of what
we associate with Nazism now.

00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:09.810
It actually is an ancient
Hindu symbol of auspiciousness,

00:06:09.810 --> 00:06:11.450
of good luck.

00:06:11.450 --> 00:06:13.480
But the Nazis usurped it.

00:06:13.480 --> 00:06:15.940
But for them, this was
a very important idea

00:06:15.940 --> 00:06:20.052
to create this mythology
around race superiority

00:06:20.052 --> 00:06:22.260
and to even have a symbol
like this as opposed to say

00:06:22.260 --> 00:06:24.301
something like a cross
that's a religious symbol.

00:06:24.301 --> 00:06:28.764
Anyone could believe in
Christianity and say, hey,

00:06:28.764 --> 00:06:29.430
I'm a Christian.

00:06:29.430 --> 00:06:32.060
But the swastika, at least in
Hitler's mind and the Nazi's

00:06:32.060 --> 00:06:34.370
mind, was a racial symbol.

00:06:34.370 --> 00:06:39.270
So it represented
their superior race.

00:06:39.270 --> 00:06:41.175
And obviously, if their
race was superior,

00:06:41.175 --> 00:06:45.450
a lot of what they consider
the ills of Germany

00:06:45.450 --> 00:06:50.380
were caused by being infiltrated
with what they considered less

00:06:50.380 --> 00:06:53.150
pure races, like Jews,
and also infiltrated

00:06:53.150 --> 00:06:57.760
with less pure ideas, like
the ideas of communism.

00:06:57.760 --> 00:07:00.560
But Hitler gets more and more
recognition with the party.

00:07:00.560 --> 00:07:03.220
The party membership
continues to grow.

00:07:03.220 --> 00:07:08.350
And by 1921, you have some
disagreements in the party.

00:07:08.350 --> 00:07:10.620
Some people threatened
to splinter off.

00:07:10.620 --> 00:07:13.794
And when Hitler says, hey look,
if this is going to happen,

00:07:13.794 --> 00:07:15.210
I'm going to leave
the party, they

00:07:15.210 --> 00:07:17.230
realize that he has so
much value to the party

00:07:17.230 --> 00:07:19.550
that the party would just
dissolve if Hitler leaves.

00:07:19.550 --> 00:07:22.170
And so they make
him the chairman.

00:07:22.170 --> 00:07:23.880
Hitler takes control.

00:07:23.880 --> 00:07:27.590
Hitler is the chairman
of the Nazi party.

00:07:30.410 --> 00:07:35.100
And by this point, he's
becoming more and more well

00:07:35.100 --> 00:07:37.420
known on the speaking circuit.

00:07:37.420 --> 00:07:41.330
And we now have several thousand
members of the Nazi party.

00:07:41.330 --> 00:07:44.340
Although, it's still
a fairly small group.

00:07:44.340 --> 00:07:48.183
But then, things start to get
a lot worse in Weimar, Germany.

00:07:48.183 --> 00:07:49.516
You start having hyperinflation.

00:07:52.690 --> 00:07:58.280
The government keeps printing
more and more currency.

00:07:58.280 --> 00:07:59.300
The economy is weak.

00:07:59.300 --> 00:08:01.070
It's trying to pay reparations.

00:08:01.070 --> 00:08:02.300
And so what you have
here-- and this is actually

00:08:02.300 --> 00:08:04.740
one of the most famous cases
of hyperinflation in world

00:08:04.740 --> 00:08:07.390
history-- you see the
value of their currency,

00:08:07.390 --> 00:08:13.030
it devalues from 1919 to
1923 not by a factor of 1,000

00:08:13.030 --> 00:08:15.710
or a million or a billion,
but nearly a trillion.

00:08:15.710 --> 00:08:19.655
So the currency becomes,
frankly, worthless.

00:08:23.009 --> 00:08:25.050
The hyperinflation is
happening this entire time.

00:08:25.050 --> 00:08:28.700
And you see, it accelerates
through 1922 and then 1923.

00:08:28.700 --> 00:08:30.890
But then in 1922,
you have Mussolini

00:08:30.890 --> 00:08:32.539
comes to power in Italy.

00:08:32.539 --> 00:08:36.909
And he comes to power
through his March on Rome.

00:08:36.909 --> 00:08:39.325
And Mussolini is a fascist.

00:08:39.325 --> 00:08:40.700
That's where the
word comes from.

00:08:40.700 --> 00:08:42.630
He's a member of
the Fascist Party.

00:08:42.630 --> 00:08:45.940
And the Fascists' ideas were
very similar to the Nazis.

00:08:45.940 --> 00:08:48.850
It was all about extreme
nationalism, all about

00:08:48.850 --> 00:08:52.040
racial superiority, a
very strong government.

00:08:52.040 --> 00:08:54.720
And this Hitler finds
quite inspiring.

00:08:54.720 --> 00:08:58.832
The Weimar Republic is
having economic difficulty.

00:08:58.832 --> 00:09:01.040
You have many other groups,
including the communists,

00:09:01.040 --> 00:09:03.170
attempt their own coup d'etats.

00:09:03.170 --> 00:09:04.100
They fail.

00:09:04.100 --> 00:09:07.070
But things are getting
less and less stable.

00:09:07.070 --> 00:09:10.220
And then you fast
forward to 1923.

00:09:10.220 --> 00:09:13.020
The inflation is getting
super bad, about as bad

00:09:13.020 --> 00:09:14.000
as inflation can get.

00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:15.640
The currency is worthless.

00:09:15.640 --> 00:09:19.772
The economy is going
into a tailspin.

00:09:19.772 --> 00:09:21.230
And on top of that,
because Germany

00:09:21.230 --> 00:09:23.730
can't pay the reparations
to France anymore,

00:09:23.730 --> 00:09:26.050
France occupies the Ruhr.

00:09:26.050 --> 00:09:30.280
So the Ruhr region is
occupied by France.

00:09:30.280 --> 00:09:31.920
And you might remember
from the terms

00:09:31.920 --> 00:09:34.320
of the Treaty of
Versailles, the Saar region

00:09:34.320 --> 00:09:35.480
was already being occupied.

00:09:35.480 --> 00:09:38.200
And all that coal was being
shipped out to France.

00:09:38.200 --> 00:09:40.530
The Ruhr region was
another significant region

00:09:40.530 --> 00:09:42.490
of coal and steel production.

00:09:42.490 --> 00:09:44.350
And now the French are
fully occupying this.

00:09:44.350 --> 00:09:46.870
They're forcing a lot of the
civilians out of the region.

00:09:46.870 --> 00:09:48.370
They're forcing a
lot of the workers

00:09:48.370 --> 00:09:52.480
to work in the mines
and the factories.

00:09:52.480 --> 00:09:55.940
And then they're shipping all
of that supply out to France.

00:09:55.940 --> 00:09:59.200
So this further
debilitates the economy,

00:09:59.200 --> 00:10:00.510
but it's a huge humiliation.

00:10:00.510 --> 00:10:02.780
The Treaty of Versailles,
in the minds of Germans,

00:10:02.780 --> 00:10:06.520
especially in the minds of
nationalists, was bad enough.

00:10:06.520 --> 00:10:10.435
But now you have this huge
humiliation by the French.

00:10:10.435 --> 00:10:12.310
And this isn't just
amongst the nationalists.

00:10:12.310 --> 00:10:16.530
The general German population is
getting very, very, very, very

00:10:16.530 --> 00:10:18.030
upset about this.

00:10:18.030 --> 00:10:21.840
And so this gives a lot of fuel
to extreme nationalist groups,

00:10:21.840 --> 00:10:23.410
like the Nazis.

00:10:23.410 --> 00:10:25.250
So this fuels the Nazis.

00:10:25.250 --> 00:10:26.850
And based on the
estimates I've seen,

00:10:26.850 --> 00:10:28.475
entering into the
year they're starting

00:10:28.475 --> 00:10:30.642
to have in excess
of 10,000 members,

00:10:30.642 --> 00:10:32.350
starting to be several
tens of thousands.

00:10:32.350 --> 00:10:35.020
And as we get into the
later part of the year,

00:10:35.020 --> 00:10:36.610
we're approaching,
I've seen estimates

00:10:36.610 --> 00:10:42.250
of 40,000 to 55,000
members of the Nazi party.

00:10:42.250 --> 00:10:43.594
And that's just formal members.

00:10:43.594 --> 00:10:45.010
And then on top
of that, you might

00:10:45.010 --> 00:10:48.610
have non-members who are growing
increasingly sympathetic.

00:10:48.610 --> 00:10:52.360
And so what we'll see in the
next video, at the end of 1923,

00:10:52.360 --> 00:10:53.870
Hitler sees this as his chance.

00:10:53.870 --> 00:10:57.730
He's inspired by Mussolini,
the economy is in a tailspin,

00:10:57.730 --> 00:11:00.830
the Germans have been further
humiliated by the French,

00:11:00.830 --> 00:11:03.830
and the Nazis, in
particular, are

00:11:03.830 --> 00:11:06.550
starting to get quite popular.


More detail on the Treaty of Versailles and Germany

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.738 --> 00:00:02.339
Let's go into a little more detail on

00:00:02.339 --> 00:00:04.111
the Treaty of Versailles.

00:00:04.111 --> 00:00:05.400
We've already talked about it helping

00:00:05.400 --> 00:00:06.888
to establish the League of Nations,

00:00:06.888 --> 00:00:10.666
but particularly with regards to Germany,

00:00:10.666 --> 00:00:12.689
the biggest aspect of it was

00:00:12.689 --> 00:00:14.356
its application of war guilt,

00:00:14.356 --> 00:00:15.418
essentially putting the full blame

00:00:15.418 --> 00:00:17.081
of the war on Germany.

00:00:17.081 --> 00:00:18.906
Maybe you could justify it by saying

00:00:18.906 --> 00:00:21.000
Germany was the most aggressive actor

00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:22.316
at the beginning of the war

00:00:22.316 --> 00:00:23.979
declaring war on Russia and France

00:00:23.979 --> 00:00:26.645
without much provocation, but then

00:00:26.645 --> 00:00:27.751
the counter-argument would be

00:00:27.751 --> 00:00:30.213
Austria-Hungary had already
declared war on Serbia.

00:00:30.213 --> 00:00:31.407
Russia had already mobilized,

00:00:31.407 --> 00:00:33.272
but then the counter-counter-argument,

00:00:33.272 --> 00:00:35.142
well Germany gave a
blank check to Austria,

00:00:35.142 --> 00:00:36.558
said it would back up Austria

00:00:36.558 --> 00:00:38.608
no matter what Austria had done.

00:00:38.608 --> 00:00:40.337
Needless to say, this applied a lot of,

00:00:40.337 --> 00:00:42.151
the Germans were not happy about

00:00:42.151 --> 00:00:45.144
being assigned the full
blame of war guilt.

00:00:45.144 --> 00:00:47.676
On top of that, we've already talked about

00:00:47.676 --> 00:00:50.544
the notion that it really diminished

00:00:50.544 --> 00:00:51.558
the Treaty of Versailles,

00:00:51.558 --> 00:00:53.395
really forced the German military

00:00:53.395 --> 00:00:56.069
to be diminished dramatically down to

00:00:56.069 --> 00:00:58.494
100,000 troops, which is really now

00:00:58.494 --> 00:01:01.071
more of a glorified police force.

00:01:01.071 --> 00:01:03.672
It was also forbidden from forming

00:01:03.672 --> 00:01:06.402
a union with Austria.

00:01:06.402 --> 00:01:08.157
You might say why Austria in particular?

00:01:08.157 --> 00:01:11.410
Well, Austria is a German-speaking state.

00:01:11.410 --> 00:01:13.811
You could imagine there's a lot of

00:01:13.811 --> 00:01:15.607
ethnic affinity or linguistic affinity

00:01:15.607 --> 00:01:17.261
between Germany and Austria,

00:01:17.261 --> 00:01:18.979
so this is not allowed according to

00:01:18.979 --> 00:01:20.904
the Treaty of Versailles.

00:01:20.904 --> 00:01:24.603
On top of that, Germany
loses its colonies.

00:01:24.603 --> 00:01:27.256
These colonies we've already talked about.

00:01:27.256 --> 00:01:28.239
These are colonies in Africa,

00:01:28.239 --> 00:01:32.337
colonies in Asia and
colonies in the Pacific.

00:01:32.337 --> 00:01:34.587
On top of that, we have the reparations.

00:01:34.587 --> 00:01:38.400
We have the reparations estimated at

00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:41.158
the equivalent in 2013 terms of about

00:01:41.158 --> 00:01:44.006
$450 billion US dollars.

00:01:44.006 --> 00:01:46.977
That doesn't get fully paid, but it still

00:01:46.977 --> 00:01:50.209
has a huge toll on the German economy,

00:01:50.209 --> 00:01:51.144
especially because the reparations

00:01:51.144 --> 00:01:52.742
were not just paid in currency,

00:01:52.742 --> 00:01:54.407
they were paid in resources.

00:01:54.407 --> 00:01:55.804
To make sure that they were paid in

00:01:55.804 --> 00:01:58.681
resources, the allies actually occupied

00:01:58.681 --> 00:02:01.725
the Saar region, the Saar
region right over here

00:02:01.725 --> 00:02:03.540
which was coal rich, and for the next

00:02:03.540 --> 00:02:08.503
15 years, it would ship coal to France.

00:02:08.503 --> 00:02:10.906
The allies weren't just getting paid in

00:02:10.906 --> 00:02:13.612
currency, they were
getting paid in dollars.

00:02:13.612 --> 00:02:15.153
This would also have the effect as

00:02:15.153 --> 00:02:18.319
Weimar Germany, the Weimar Republic,

00:02:18.319 --> 00:02:20.611
this is the government of Germany after

00:02:20.611 --> 00:02:23.674
World War I, called the
Weimar Republic because

00:02:23.674 --> 00:02:27.403
its constitution was drafted
in the city of Weimar.

00:02:27.403 --> 00:02:29.201
In order to try to pay
the currency portions

00:02:29.201 --> 00:02:31.698
of the reparations, left
the printing presses

00:02:31.698 --> 00:02:33.874
go free, tries to convert
into other currencies,

00:02:33.874 --> 00:02:36.079
and then you essentially
have hyperinflation

00:02:36.079 --> 00:02:38.000
in Germany through the early '20s,

00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:39.538
through 1923.

00:02:39.538 --> 00:02:41.668
On top of that, once this hyperinflation

00:02:41.668 --> 00:02:43.670
happened and they no longer can pay

00:02:43.670 --> 00:02:46.343
the reparations, then in order to continue

00:02:46.343 --> 00:02:50.404
to extract resources from Weimar Germany,

00:02:50.404 --> 00:02:52.501
France goes ahead and occupies

00:02:52.501 --> 00:02:55.326
the Ruhr region, which
is right about here.

00:02:55.326 --> 00:02:58.006
It's also very rich in steel and coal,

00:02:58.006 --> 00:03:02.433
and they began shipping the resources out

00:03:02.433 --> 00:03:04.668
which was another huge humiliation for

00:03:04.668 --> 00:03:06.492
the Germans and on top of that,

00:03:06.492 --> 00:03:07.674
it's crippling the German economy.

00:03:07.674 --> 00:03:09.166
They're taking all of the main resources

00:03:09.166 --> 00:03:10.533
out of the German economy.

00:03:10.533 --> 00:03:12.666
This happened in 1923 as well.

00:03:12.666 --> 00:03:16.074
The combined effect of
one, just the humiliation

00:03:16.074 --> 00:03:19.339
of World War I, the
shipping away of resources,

00:03:19.339 --> 00:03:21.741
now this occupation of the Ruhr region

00:03:21.741 --> 00:03:24.070
which was never even
part of the already bad

00:03:24.070 --> 00:03:25.670
Treaty of Versailles, from
the German's point of view,

00:03:25.670 --> 00:03:29.013
this helped bring support for fairly

00:03:29.013 --> 00:03:31.933
more and more extreme parties in Germany.

00:03:31.933 --> 00:03:34.340
As you go into the end of 1923,

00:03:34.340 --> 00:03:36.267
it gave some energy for
Hitler's, at the time

00:03:36.267 --> 00:03:39.649
fairly small national
socialist or their Nazis,

00:03:39.649 --> 00:03:42.006
to attempt a coup d'etat
of the government,

00:03:42.006 --> 00:03:43.827
attempt their Beer Hall Putsch.

00:03:43.827 --> 00:03:46.017
It ends up failing, but does give a lot of

00:03:46.017 --> 00:03:48.202
energy to what was before a very

00:03:48.202 --> 00:03:51.073
marginalized, or very small party,

00:03:51.073 --> 00:03:53.342
because of this occupation, it allows that

00:03:53.342 --> 00:03:56.275
party to grow by a significant amount.

00:03:56.275 --> 00:03:57.825
On top of that, let's talk about the

00:03:57.825 --> 00:04:01.735
actual territorial losses,
all of the territorial losses.

00:04:01.735 --> 00:04:04.829
You have this little region up here,

00:04:04.829 --> 00:04:07.087
the north part of east Prussia,

00:04:07.087 --> 00:04:08.656
at first becomes a French protector

00:04:08.656 --> 00:04:09.951
according to the Treaty of Versailles,

00:04:09.951 --> 00:04:12.323
but it's later taken over by Lithuania.

00:04:12.323 --> 00:04:14.857
We've already talked
about this whole region

00:04:14.857 --> 00:04:18.507
of Germany, of the former German empire

00:04:18.507 --> 00:04:20.911
that's carved away in order to give it

00:04:20.911 --> 00:04:22.160
to the new state of Poland.

00:04:22.160 --> 00:04:24.133
Most of Poland is carved out of the former

00:04:24.133 --> 00:04:26.871
Russian empire, part is carved out of the

00:04:26.871 --> 00:04:29.252
former German empire
and also part is carved

00:04:29.252 --> 00:04:33.008
out of the former Austro-Hungarian empire.

00:04:33.008 --> 00:04:34.824
Then you have this
region right here inside

00:04:34.824 --> 00:04:36.569
[Lejon], part of it goes to Poland,

00:04:36.569 --> 00:04:39.842
part of it goes to Czechoslovakia.

00:04:39.842 --> 00:04:43.162
You have the famous Alsace Lorraine region

00:04:43.162 --> 00:04:45.339
right over here, had been a cause of

00:04:45.339 --> 00:04:47.599
contention between Germany and France

00:04:47.599 --> 00:04:49.410
for many, many, many years.

00:04:49.410 --> 00:04:51.684
Now this goes back to France.

00:04:51.684 --> 00:04:52.936
You have a little piece right over here

00:04:52.936 --> 00:04:54.824
that goes to Belgium,

00:04:54.824 --> 00:04:57.584
and then you have the north [slushig]

00:04:57.584 --> 00:04:59.816
region, goes to Denmark.

00:04:59.816 --> 00:05:01.940
On top of that, as you can imagine,

00:05:01.940 --> 00:05:03.765
the diminished troops,

00:05:03.765 --> 00:05:05.597
the taking resources away,

00:05:05.597 --> 00:05:07.927
France really wanted to cripple Germany's

00:05:07.927 --> 00:05:09.811
ability to be able to invade

00:05:09.811 --> 00:05:11.685
at any future point in time,

00:05:11.685 --> 00:05:13.464
but on top of that, they also set up

00:05:13.464 --> 00:05:16.678
a demilitarized zone in the Rhineland.

00:05:16.678 --> 00:05:19.008
The Rhineland is included both ...

00:05:19.008 --> 00:05:23.798
The demilitarized zone included the

00:05:23.798 --> 00:05:26.133
west bank of the Rhine River,

00:05:26.133 --> 00:05:27.174
all of Germany that was west

00:05:27.174 --> 00:05:29.171
of the Rhine River, so this entire region

00:05:29.171 --> 00:05:31.331
right over here, and
then it was also occupied

00:05:31.331 --> 00:05:32.330
by the allies.

00:05:32.330 --> 00:05:34.140
Germany was also forbidden from

00:05:34.140 --> 00:05:36.902
militarizing or mobilizing troops

00:05:36.902 --> 00:05:42.148
anywhere 50 km east of the Rhine River.

00:05:42.148 --> 00:05:45.403
East of the Rhine River as well.

00:05:45.403 --> 00:05:46.465
So, you see going out of

00:05:46.465 --> 00:05:48.202
Treaty of Versailles, every attempt

00:05:48.202 --> 00:05:52.707
was made to attempt to cripple

00:05:52.707 --> 00:05:54.955
Germany's war-making abilities.

00:05:54.955 --> 00:05:57.049
They were forbidden from trading in arms

00:05:57.049 --> 00:05:59.523
and they couldn't have a lot of

00:05:59.523 --> 00:06:00.989
many types of offensive weapons.

00:06:00.989 --> 00:06:03.780
It really was to try to prevent Germany

00:06:03.780 --> 00:06:05.119
from being able to do what they did

00:06:05.119 --> 00:06:05.987
in World War I.

00:06:05.987 --> 00:06:07.460
As we see, in a large degree,

00:06:07.460 --> 00:06:08.726
it really was maybe a catalyst

00:06:08.726 --> 00:06:11.462
for giving energy to more extreme

00:06:11.462 --> 00:06:13.251
elements in Germany and would be one

00:06:13.251 --> 00:06:17.105
of the things pointing to for Germany's

00:06:17.105 --> 00:06:19.033
involvement in World War II.


Hitler and the Nazis come to power

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.492 --> 00:00:02.235
Narrator: Where we left
off in the last video,

00:00:02.235 --> 00:00:05.077
in 1924, Hitler was in jail,

00:00:05.077 --> 00:00:07.535
his famous coup d'état in 1923,

00:00:07.535 --> 00:00:10.070
his famous Beer Hall Putsched
in Munich had failed.

00:00:10.070 --> 00:00:12.740
He's now in jail, he's writing Mein Kampf.

00:00:12.740 --> 00:00:15.404
When he gets out of jail, so
this is when he's in jail,

00:00:15.404 --> 00:00:18.891
the Nazi party is banned
and a lot of the economic

00:00:18.891 --> 00:00:21.898
turmoil that made the
possibility of overthrowing

00:00:21.898 --> 00:00:24.515
the government more
likely, that we saw in the

00:00:24.515 --> 00:00:27.251
early 20's, that hyperinflation
in Weimar Germany,

00:00:27.251 --> 00:00:29.533
this was now under
control by the time Hitler

00:00:29.533 --> 00:00:30.412
comes out of jail.

00:00:30.412 --> 00:00:33.200
They had issued new currency,
it was far more stable.

00:00:33.200 --> 00:00:36.412
To a certain degree the
Nazi's and Hitler were

00:00:36.412 --> 00:00:39.747
starting from scratch,
although even at this point

00:00:39.747 --> 00:00:43.497
Hitler continues to be an
ever growing influence.

00:00:43.497 --> 00:00:45.934
He's a famous speaker,
there are more and more

00:00:45.934 --> 00:00:47.748
people who are knowing about him

00:00:47.748 --> 00:00:48.908
and who are following him.

00:00:48.908 --> 00:00:51.202
Over the next few years
his book does get published

00:00:51.202 --> 00:00:54.204
and it sells, actually,
tens of thousands of copies

00:00:54.204 --> 00:00:56.996
over the next several
years, but for the most part

00:00:56.996 --> 00:01:00.474
he's still a relatively small
actor in German politics.

00:01:00.474 --> 00:01:03.829
But then we fast forward
as we get to the late 20s,

00:01:03.829 --> 00:01:05.931
the Nazi's are gaining some influence,

00:01:05.931 --> 00:01:08.353
but then in 1929,

00:01:08.353 --> 00:01:09.911
(writing) in 1929,

00:01:09.911 --> 00:01:13.684
you have a global change for the economy

00:01:13.684 --> 00:01:16.531
of the world and that's the beginning of

00:01:16.531 --> 00:01:17.766
The Great Depression.

00:01:17.766 --> 00:01:20.665
In particular, what's often the first sign

00:01:20.665 --> 00:01:22.744
that The Great Depression
was at hand is you have

00:01:22.744 --> 00:01:26.989
the U.S. stock market
crashes in October of 1929,

00:01:26.989 --> 00:01:28.550
famous Black Tuesday.

00:01:28.550 --> 00:01:30.509
That was the mark of the beginning of a,

00:01:30.509 --> 00:01:31.925
not just American Depression,

00:01:31.925 --> 00:01:33.727
but a global depression.

00:01:33.727 --> 00:01:39.992
So you have the whole world
going into a depression.

00:01:39.992 --> 00:01:42.658
Anytime you have economic
turmoil it tends give more

00:01:42.658 --> 00:01:44.854
energy to the more extreme parties,

00:01:44.854 --> 00:01:46.851
whether it is the parties like the Nazi's,

00:01:46.851 --> 00:01:49.929
who one could consider maybe to be on the

00:01:49.929 --> 00:01:51.145
extreme right, or often considered to be

00:01:51.145 --> 00:01:53.337
on the extreme right,
or maybe you could say

00:01:53.337 --> 00:01:55.268
very nationalistic, or even the extreme

00:01:55.268 --> 00:01:57.932
left parties who are obviously against

00:01:57.932 --> 00:02:01.428
capitalist systems and whatever else.

00:02:01.428 --> 00:02:04.220
So, by the election of 1930,
now we're talking about

00:02:04.220 --> 00:02:06.267
Parliamentary elections and the Parliament

00:02:06.267 --> 00:02:09.471
in Germany is the Reichstag.

00:02:09.471 --> 00:02:12.204
(writing) The Reichstag, and I know

00:02:12.204 --> 00:02:13.338
I'm mispronouncing it.

00:02:13.338 --> 00:02:16.535
In the Reichstag
elections, the Nazi party,

00:02:16.535 --> 00:02:19.021
for the first time is able to
have a significant showing.

00:02:19.021 --> 00:02:23.616
It gets 18, it gets
roughly 18% of the vote

00:02:23.616 --> 00:02:27.464
and a proportional
representation in the Parliament.

00:02:27.464 --> 00:02:29.598
Now all of a sudden, this
kind of marks the beginning

00:02:29.598 --> 00:02:32.761
of the Nazi's being significant,

00:02:32.761 --> 00:02:36.430
significant players in German politics.

00:02:36.430 --> 00:02:38.803
Then we get to 1932 and the economy is not

00:02:38.803 --> 00:02:40.534
improving, it is only getting worse.

00:02:40.534 --> 00:02:42.337
(writing) 1932.

00:02:42.337 --> 00:02:45.873
Adolf Hitler actually
makes a run for President.

00:02:45.873 --> 00:02:47.460
The current President at that point

00:02:47.460 --> 00:02:50.144
is Paul von Hindenburg,
famous for the Hindenburg

00:02:50.144 --> 00:02:52.562
line, later for the Hindenburg,

00:02:52.562 --> 00:02:55.678
the Zeppelin, the famous
exploding Zeppelin disaster.

00:02:55.678 --> 00:02:58.536
He was, with Ludendorff,
one of the two leaders

00:02:58.536 --> 00:03:01.666
of the German military
effort during World War I.

00:03:01.666 --> 00:03:05.681
He's President of the
Weimar Republic since 1925

00:03:05.681 --> 00:03:09.078
and in 1932 he is able to get re-election,

00:03:09.078 --> 00:03:13.070
but Hitler has a fairly good showing.

00:03:13.070 --> 00:03:15.664
Hitler is able to get 35% of the vote.

00:03:15.664 --> 00:03:20.587
(writing) Hitler gets
35% of the presidential

00:03:20.587 --> 00:03:23.366
election votes, (writing) of the vote.

00:03:23.366 --> 00:03:25.904
The Weimar Republic had
this strange system.

00:03:25.904 --> 00:03:28.535
It wasn't quite a Presidential
system like the U.S.

00:03:28.535 --> 00:03:30.671
and it wasn't quite a
pure Parliamentary system

00:03:30.671 --> 00:03:32.747
like the current-day Germany.

00:03:32.747 --> 00:03:34.940
The President was independently elected

00:03:34.940 --> 00:03:36.724
and had some powers,
and then the Parliament

00:03:36.724 --> 00:03:38.203
was also independently elected

00:03:38.203 --> 00:03:40.193
and then they would
try to build coalitions

00:03:40.193 --> 00:03:42.116
to have a ruling government.

00:03:42.116 --> 00:03:45.866
Needless to say, 1932
Hitler is now a major actor,

00:03:45.866 --> 00:03:49.056
the Nazi's also have a many, many, many

00:03:49.056 --> 00:03:50.669
seats in Parliament.

00:03:50.669 --> 00:03:53.329
Now, you have several
Parliamentary elections

00:03:53.329 --> 00:03:56.924
as well in 1932 and as
we just talked about

00:03:56.924 --> 00:03:58.129
two in particular.

00:03:58.129 --> 00:04:00.945
In order for a government
to form in Parliament,

00:04:00.945 --> 00:04:03.192
in order to find the
Cabinet and the Chancellor,

00:04:03.192 --> 00:04:04.791
who essentially is the Prime Minister,

00:04:04.791 --> 00:04:07.193
you have an election and
the different parties

00:04:07.193 --> 00:04:09.589
get different amounts of votes.

00:04:09.589 --> 00:04:13.169
If no party has a majority,
the parties have to form

00:04:13.169 --> 00:04:15.562
a coalition that can make a majority.

00:04:15.562 --> 00:04:17.270
There's a lot of horsetrading going on

00:04:17.270 --> 00:04:19.617
with parties negotiating,
hey why don't we form

00:04:19.617 --> 00:04:21.361
a coalition with each other, if we do that

00:04:21.361 --> 00:04:23.205
maybe someone from my party can be

00:04:23.205 --> 00:04:26.022
Minister of the Interior,
someone of your party

00:04:26.022 --> 00:04:28.586
could be the Chancellor
and maybe we can get

00:04:28.586 --> 00:04:32.520
a coalition together to
rule over the government.

00:04:32.520 --> 00:04:34.452
But you have two Parliamentary elections

00:04:34.452 --> 00:04:37.340
and no majority coalition forms.

00:04:37.340 --> 00:04:40.075
(writing) So, two, two elections.

00:04:40.075 --> 00:04:41.683
So this is Parliamentary.

00:04:41.683 --> 00:04:43.253
So this is in the Presidential election,

00:04:43.253 --> 00:04:44.916
Hindenburg is still President,

00:04:44.916 --> 00:04:48.134
but Hitler has a good
showing and then you have two

00:04:48.134 --> 00:04:49.852
Parliamentary elections.

00:04:49.852 --> 00:04:51.163
(writing) Parliament elections,

00:04:51.163 --> 00:04:54.554
or Reichstag elections
where you have no majority,

00:04:54.554 --> 00:04:55.454
no coalition.

00:04:55.454 --> 00:05:00.249
(writing) no majority, majority coalition.

00:05:00.249 --> 00:05:02.648
The Nazi's continue to
be a major actor here,

00:05:02.648 --> 00:05:06.513
they continue to have
more and more of a showing

00:05:06.513 --> 00:05:08.917
inside the Reichstag.

00:05:08.917 --> 00:05:12.225
Then by 1933 it's a bit of crisis.

00:05:12.225 --> 00:05:15.022
So as we get in to early
1933 we have a little

00:05:15.022 --> 00:05:16.241
bit of a crisis.

00:05:16.241 --> 00:05:19.323
We have no government,
we have no Chancellor,

00:05:19.323 --> 00:05:23.156
we have no Cabinet to
essentially be the executive,

00:05:23.156 --> 00:05:26.297
the government of the
country because there's been

00:05:26.297 --> 00:05:27.762
no major coalitions.

00:05:27.762 --> 00:05:30.859
The Weimar Constitution
allowed a strange thing,

00:05:30.859 --> 00:05:35.395
it allowed the President
to appoint a government,

00:05:35.395 --> 00:05:38.930
appoint a Cabinet, a
Chancellor that might not

00:05:38.930 --> 00:05:40.605
even be representative of what's

00:05:40.605 --> 00:05:42.284
going on in Parliament.

00:05:42.284 --> 00:05:45.648
So, Paul von Hindenburg
is convinced that ...

00:05:45.648 --> 00:05:50.746
hey look, he was no fan, he
was no fan of Adolf Hitler

00:05:50.746 --> 00:05:52.654
but he's convinced that look,

00:05:52.654 --> 00:05:55.412
Adolf Hitler was your opponent if you make

00:05:55.412 --> 00:05:58.631
Adolf Hitler the head of
an interim Government,

00:05:58.631 --> 00:06:01.428
the head of an interim
Cabinet then that might

00:06:01.428 --> 00:06:03.630
be a way to create some national unity

00:06:03.630 --> 00:06:05.869
and then maybe we could
have some Parliamentary

00:06:05.869 --> 00:06:08.910
elections that there can
be a majority coalition

00:06:08.910 --> 00:06:10.441
and you could have, I guess you could say,

00:06:10.441 --> 00:06:13.404
a more legitimate government take hold.

00:06:13.404 --> 00:06:15.866
So, Paul von Hindenburg is convinced

00:06:15.866 --> 00:06:19.741
and so he does, even
though the Nazi's are still

00:06:19.741 --> 00:06:22.488
a minority party, even
though they weren't part of

00:06:22.488 --> 00:06:24.010
any type of a majority coalition,

00:06:24.010 --> 00:06:27.122
Paul von Hindenburg who is
not a fan of Adolf Hitler

00:06:27.122 --> 00:06:29.133
appoints him as Chancellor.

00:06:29.133 --> 00:06:30.943
This is in January.

00:06:30.943 --> 00:06:33.693
So in January, Hitler,

00:06:33.693 --> 00:06:37.377
(writing) Hitler is appointed Chancellor,

00:06:37.377 --> 00:06:39.749
Chancellor, which is
essentially the Prime Minister

00:06:39.749 --> 00:06:44.873
of the Reichstag of Germany.

00:06:44.873 --> 00:06:47.465
Then we get to February
and events get really,

00:06:47.465 --> 00:06:49.586
really, really interesting.

00:06:49.586 --> 00:06:55.178
In February of 1933 you have a fire in the

00:06:55.178 --> 00:06:56.941
Reichstag building in Berlin.

00:06:56.941 --> 00:06:59.028
This is the Reichstag
building right over here

00:06:59.028 --> 00:07:01.853
and it is on fire.

00:07:01.853 --> 00:07:03.587
They find this gentleman
here on the scene,

00:07:03.587 --> 00:07:07.551
Marinus van der Lubbe,
he is a Dutch communist.

00:07:07.551 --> 00:07:09.385
It is essentially the blame is placed

00:07:09.385 --> 00:07:11.614
as this was some type
of a, the beginning of

00:07:11.614 --> 00:07:13.972
some type of a communist revolution.

00:07:13.972 --> 00:07:16.333
This is used as a pretext.

00:07:16.333 --> 00:07:19.027
Hitler then advises Paul von Hindenburg

00:07:19.027 --> 00:07:21.532
to essentially use some
of his emergency powers

00:07:21.532 --> 00:07:24.194
as President, which is
another strange thing

00:07:24.194 --> 00:07:25.890
that the Weimar Constitution allowed for,

00:07:25.890 --> 00:07:28.275
it allowed the President
under emergency conditions

00:07:28.275 --> 00:07:30.600
to start to suspend civil rights.

00:07:30.600 --> 00:07:32.443
This was an emergency situation

00:07:32.443 --> 00:07:35.623
and so Paul von Hindenburg does that.

00:07:35.623 --> 00:07:38.797
He essentially issues ...
once you have the Reichstag

00:07:38.797 --> 00:07:42.698
fire (writing) Reichstag fire,

00:07:42.698 --> 00:07:45.840
and then Hindenburg is
convinced by the Nazi's

00:07:45.840 --> 00:07:50.496
to pass the Reichstag Fire Decree.

00:07:50.496 --> 00:07:54.916
(writing) Fire decree,
which essentially suspends,

00:07:54.916 --> 00:07:56.951
it gives the government emergency powers

00:07:56.951 --> 00:08:00.535
and it suspends civil liberties,
which everything up to

00:08:00.535 --> 00:08:02.280
this point now is actually legal,

00:08:02.280 --> 00:08:04.040
this was actually allowed for in the

00:08:04.040 --> 00:08:05.303
Weimar Constitution.

00:08:05.303 --> 00:08:10.596
(writing) Suspends, suspends
civil, civil liberties.

00:08:10.596 --> 00:08:13.145
And since there's no
coalition, the whole point that

00:08:13.145 --> 00:08:15.572
Hitler's Cabinet was going
to be an interim one,

00:08:15.572 --> 00:08:18.272
you have another Parliamentary election

00:08:18.272 --> 00:08:21.722
coming in March with the hope of maybe

00:08:21.722 --> 00:08:24.722
a majority coalition forms, but that March

00:08:24.722 --> 00:08:27.252
election, especially with
civil liberties suspended

00:08:27.252 --> 00:08:29.329
you could imagine that the Nazi's ...

00:08:29.329 --> 00:08:33.071
and they have their paramilitary troopers

00:08:33.071 --> 00:08:35.249
started intimidating other parties,

00:08:35.249 --> 00:08:37.795
making sure that they had a better showing

00:08:37.795 --> 00:08:39.666
at the polls, they started intimidating

00:08:39.666 --> 00:08:40.935
other candidates.

00:08:40.935 --> 00:08:43.662
The March election start to swing hugely

00:08:43.662 --> 00:08:46.323
in the Nazi's favor, so
in the March election

00:08:46.323 --> 00:08:50.744
they're able to get 44% of the vote,

00:08:50.744 --> 00:08:53.221
which is still not enough, by themselves,

00:08:53.221 --> 00:08:54.464
to form a government.

00:08:54.464 --> 00:08:56.099
It's still not a majority,
but they're able now ...

00:08:56.099 --> 00:08:59.244
they're now the largest
part in the Reichstag,

00:08:59.244 --> 00:09:00.288
in the Parliament.

00:09:00.288 --> 00:09:02.328
They're able to now form
a majority coalition,

00:09:02.328 --> 00:09:04.408
and I guess you could
say more legitimately ...

00:09:04.408 --> 00:09:08.325
although this was a
election of intimidation,

00:09:08.325 --> 00:09:12.074
they were able to now form a government,

00:09:12.074 --> 00:09:13.466
they're able to now form a government

00:09:13.466 --> 00:09:15.553
based on a majority coalition

00:09:15.553 --> 00:09:18.267
and Hitler remains Chancellor.

00:09:18.267 --> 00:09:21.804
But then, this new Parliament passes the

00:09:21.804 --> 00:09:23.971
Enabling Act in March.

00:09:23.971 --> 00:09:27.883
(writing) Enabling Act, Enabling Act,

00:09:27.883 --> 00:09:29.497
which is essentially an amendment

00:09:29.497 --> 00:09:34.977
to the Weimar Constitution
which gives the Cabinet,

00:09:34.977 --> 00:09:37.151
especially the Chancellor,
effectively the Chancellor

00:09:37.151 --> 00:09:38.523
who's the head of the Cabinet,

00:09:38.523 --> 00:09:41.805
legislative powers,
unlimited legislative powers

00:09:41.805 --> 00:09:43.553
for the next four years.

00:09:43.553 --> 00:09:46.480
So, it gives legislative powers

00:09:46.480 --> 00:09:47.964
and remember we already have suspended

00:09:47.964 --> 00:09:48.672
civil rights.

00:09:48.672 --> 00:09:50.926
So, the Reichstag is
essentially giving over the

00:09:50.926 --> 00:09:52.515
legislative powers,

00:09:52.515 --> 00:09:57.995
(writing) legislative
powers, to the Chancellor

00:09:57.995 --> 00:10:01.566
who happens to be, who
happens to be Hitler.

00:10:01.566 --> 00:10:03.888
There was some check on
this by the President,

00:10:03.888 --> 00:10:06.615
but then we have Hindenburg
dying the next year.

00:10:06.615 --> 00:10:10.538
After this, after the
suspension of civil rights

00:10:10.538 --> 00:10:12.971
and then the Enabling
Act shortly afterwards,

00:10:12.971 --> 00:10:14.935
Hitler is essentially in full control,

00:10:14.935 --> 00:10:17.781
Hitler and the Nazi's are
essentially in full control

00:10:17.781 --> 00:10:19.381
of the German government.

00:10:19.381 --> 00:10:22.275
At this point, Hitler is the dictator,

00:10:22.275 --> 00:10:26.391
(writing) the dictator of, he
is the dictator of Germany.

00:10:26.391 --> 00:10:28.756
They start to act fast,
they start to intimidate

00:10:28.756 --> 00:10:30.792
other parties, they use violence,

00:10:30.792 --> 00:10:36.044
they start to imprison
people and by July of 1933

00:10:36.044 --> 00:10:40.417
... so they're acting very,
very fast, by July of 1933

00:10:40.417 --> 00:10:43.317
Nazi's are the only legal party.

00:10:43.317 --> 00:10:47.004
(writing) only legal Pot party

00:10:47.004 --> 00:10:49.378
and they essentially have full control.

00:10:49.378 --> 00:10:51.274
Now, this is how Hitler came to power

00:10:51.274 --> 00:10:53.053
and the question that's probably circling

00:10:53.053 --> 00:10:55.414
in your mind is, "Who did this fire?"

00:10:55.414 --> 00:10:57.200
This fire was the catalyst,
although Hitler was

00:10:57.200 --> 00:10:59.161
already Chancellor and
maybe he would have found

00:10:59.161 --> 00:11:00.871
some way to get to power regardless,

00:11:00.871 --> 00:11:03.750
but this fire, even
though there was evidence

00:11:03.750 --> 00:11:05.703
that it looked like maybe
Marinus van der Lubbe

00:11:05.703 --> 00:11:08.091
did it, it was blamed on the communist,

00:11:08.091 --> 00:11:09.967
it was the pretext that was used to give

00:11:09.967 --> 00:11:12.348
the government even more power,

00:11:12.348 --> 00:11:14.722
especially the Nazi's even more power.

00:11:14.722 --> 00:11:16.476
This is an open question,
one of those great

00:11:16.476 --> 00:11:19.278
open questions, one of
those great open questions

00:11:19.278 --> 00:11:20.301
of history.

00:11:20.301 --> 00:11:22.414
Some people feel that maybe it was just a

00:11:22.414 --> 00:11:26.476
communist plot, maybe it
was Marinus van der Lubbe

00:11:26.476 --> 00:11:29.145
acting on his own and maybe
it just happened to fall

00:11:29.145 --> 00:11:32.439
into the hands of Hitler and
they were able to use it,

00:11:32.439 --> 00:11:34.934
while other historians
think that this was actually

00:11:34.934 --> 00:11:38.200
a plot by the Nazi's to
create this emergency state

00:11:38.200 --> 00:11:41.155
and Marinus van der Lubbe
was kind of a puppet

00:11:41.155 --> 00:11:42.480
in this whole plot.

00:11:42.480 --> 00:11:45.897
So, open question of
history, but needless to say

00:11:45.897 --> 00:11:50.226
as we go from 1919 to
1933, Hitler goes from

00:11:50.226 --> 00:11:55.574
a fairly unknown individual
to full dictator of Germany.