Phil and Sam, it should be noted that WWI didn't just come out of the blue because of an assassination. The root "causes" of World War I actually go all the way back 100 years prior to the end of the Napoleanic wars and the forming of the Congress of Vienna which divided Europe up into different states and boundaries that initially established peace but eventually evolved into all sorts of problems with ethnic, political and cultural differences within Europe which just festered until it all came to a head with the assassination of Ferdinand and beginning of World War I.

Bear in mind that casualties are not all deaths and include the wounded.

Both the Hohenzollern family, the Prussian Royal Family (King of Prussia & Kaiser of Germany), and the Romanov family, Russian Royal Family ( Tsar of Russia) were related. The Kaiser and the Tsar were first cousins. Their Grandmother was Queen Victoria of the UK (House of Hanover - a German line, and then as The House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Victoria's Husband, Prince Albert added that house, another German line). And Victoria's son, George V of England, was also a first cousin. Note that when the war broke out, George V changed the House name to Windsor.

I am 77. My grandmother, who lived to be 93, often told stories of their farm in (what is now Poland). Her birth certificate is from...the Austro-Hungarian empire. History is just an extra yesterday.

Living on Europes Battlefield, in Flanders, i am always glad to see people learn about WW1. I am reminded of it every single day riding past the few german and numerous commonwealth graveyards, by reports of the unexploded shells we still find on a daily basis over 100yrs later, and by the daily ceremony at the Menen gate in Ypres where we commemorate the fallen, known and unknown. It is quite a moving thing when the horn sounds "the last post" , it still hits me hard every time i witness it . We've been doing this for over 100yrs, only interrupted by WW2 , but started again the day the city was liberated. We cant blame Germany for this war like we can for the 2nd, all these men were victims of royal idiots. But still , Belgium suffered dearly and the allies liberated us. We shall never forget those who gave us our freedom back, and many of them were Canadian.

It's a shame that the video doesn't tell the back story. The Royals of Germany, Russia and Great Britain were first cousins. There had long been rivalry and wars between France and Germany. There had also been rivalry between Great Britain and Germany since the Industrial Revolution, as Germany overtook Great Britain economically and greatly expanded its navy. Russia wanted to expand its influence in the Balkans. Everyone had their interests. I recommend the book “Sleepwalkers” by Christopher Clarke.

Growing up I had an older father. I didn't know how old until he died. 2 weeks after he died, my mother gave me a photo album, and a manila envelope. She said Dad wanted you to have these. I looked briefly in the album, and then put it all into storage for 30 years. I dug it out in 2011, when I saw the last US WW1 Veteran had died. I dug up the album. turns out my father (born in 1896, I was born in 1957, do the math) was among the first 75,000 AEF troops to go to France in late August of 1917. He would be 21 at the time. His regiment built massive docks and railroad tracks to support the movement of the AEF into the war. The photo album contained 250 photos he took of his entire WW1 experience. I knew NOTHING of this growing up. I spent 5 years researching and writing a book about my fathers WW1 journey. I am almost ready to publish a book of the WW1 photos he took. Thank you for all you do. Peace to you both on your path. (the manila envelope was 50 YEARS of Western Pacific Rail Road history. Another book in the making)

Ships ran on Coal so they needed coaling stations.That's why the small islands in the middle of the oceans were important.

You may have heard the old saying that “The sun never sets on the British Empire”. The British Empire covered so many places on earth that some part of it somewhere was always in sunlight. Germany came late to the Empire building game and was trying to carve out more but had already established itself in many places, hence the many naval bases. An interesting if somewhat irrelevant fact is that the German Kaiser and the King of Britain were first cousins, both being grandsons of Queen Victoria.

Side note: Whitby is where the ship the Demeter landed in England, wrecked & abandoned bearing a coffin in it from Transylvania: it’s the beginning of the English part of the novel, Dracula.

That single assassination has had consequences that affect us to this every day, including the Gaza war happening as we speak.

My Grandfather was a Nebraska farm boy but he enlisted with the Canadians in 1915. He was sent overseas to the Western Front, fought at Ypres, The Somme, Vimy Ridge, Ameins and the Hundred Day Offensive. He was wounded four times but returned home in 1919. He survived the war but was never able to escape it and had nightmares of what had happened to him and his friends on the Western Front until he died in 1981. Lest we forget.

The Germans had what was in effect a colony in Qingdao, or Tsingtao (it's not a coincidence that there is a Chinese beer by the second name). But they weren't the only European power doing this. The British had Hong Kong, the Portuguese had Macao, and there were probably others in China. Japan controlled Korea and France had French Indochina (Southeast Asia).

Great that you guys decided to grab onto epic history! One of the best history tools of youtube..probably number one...professionally done and also very informative! Please do more of them too...

I really appreciate that the two of you cover so many topics. Movies, music, and things like this. It broadens your Channel

It bears mentioning that in 1914 European powers had empires that straddled the world. When Britain declared war on Germany it meant that every place in the British Empire (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, etc.) were immediately at war. Germany had a far less extensive empire but had its tentacles everywhere too. Then there were all the worldwide allegiances countries had developed. With this reality, it's no surprise how quickly this became a global conflict.

8:04 the first recorded British casualty of the war was a 17-year old boy, John Parr. He'd joined up under age in 1912 (when he was still 15) and was a scout - he was riding his scouting bicycle along with another soldier ahead of the advance of his unit when they ran into the German advance units. He sent the other soldier back to warn their unit and stayed to hold off the Germans by himself until he was shot and killed. By sheer coincidence, he is buried facing what is believed to be the last British casualty of WW1, George Edwin Ellison, who was shot by a sniper 90 minutes before the war ended on November 11, 1918. They were killed in roughly the same area so ended up in the same cemetery in France. But it's insane to think that in that 12-14 feet between their headstones lies 15 to 20 million dead, 20 million wounded, 4 years of war, and immense suffering and devastation which continues it's effects until today. All in that short distance...

Please continue, and as a fellow Canadian I suggest you check out Sir General Arthur Currie. He was the bread and butter behind the tactics of what's made the Canadian identity since the taking of Vimy Ridge and all of their success there after.

OK, "little turbo things" was adorable.

I remember my grandfather would talk to me about WW1 I was ten years old when he passed away and remembered his funeral very nice

To the people interested in WWI "The Great War" is a YT channel devoted to it. It goes week by week with sidebars into personalities, weapons etc. The last i saw there are over 700 episodes but they continually add more content.

Always learn new things about history. Thanks 👍

Awesome history lesson, some of it new to me. WW1 was a night mare as you are beginning to see. Good luck with this series, I hope you take on WW2 after you get through this. I wax never into computer or console games but have been in the old school, board, war game hobby for over 50 years, play all kinds of games on many historical subjects, including both World Wars. I have life long friends and many great times playing this stuff and helped make me the history buff I am. Games are awesome and keep my mind going. Game on when you can, it is always fun, no matter when, enjoy! 🎲🎲

yes been waiting for this one ! please continue they also have other great videos on different subjects. Great video God bless

Can’t wait for the whole series! Great reaction ❤

Well done showing this.LEST WE FORGET

Born & raised in Scarborough (ON) ! The wife of the first governor of Upper Canada named it this because the Bluffs reminded her of the ones in the UK. Grew up in the Bluffers Park area and used to climb them as a child (highly illegal now)

i love the epic history series about ww1. Very nice that you are reacting to it!

Love it when you guys do history stuff, not that I don't enjoy the music reactions, but a bit more (short) docs on history and/or historical events and people I would appreciate and encourage. For instance the emotional short docu of the connection between the Dutch and Canadian Veterans of WW2 and Canada in general.

Thanks for bringing this. I never knew of the huge scope. Mind blowing as you said

Two Heroins to look up are Nurse Edith Cavall who helped over 200 pow's to escape & was executed by German firing squad & Flora Sands also a Nurse who became a combatant in Serbia on the Eastern Front untill the arrival of the comunist Russian army when she was sent Home to England (During her service she was promoted to an Officer) after the war she was considered a heroine in Serbia who produced a portage stamp with her photo on!! Both were Truely Remarkable Women!!

You have to remember that not only were the maps different in 1914, the entire mindset of people back then was different than it is today. There hadn't been a major Europe-wide war since the fall of Napoleon in 1815, 99 years before. Most Europeans had grown up with a very romanticized view of war based upon the heroic fictions based upon the Napoleonic examples. Americans had similar unrealistic views of war when the American Civil War started. When war was declared in 1914, it was a matter of public celebrations across Europe. Everyone expected the war would be quickly over by Christmas was the common belief. Contrast this with how the declarations of war for World War II were greeted in 1939 with complete silence by people across Europe. All the public romantic notions of war had been knocked out by the harsh realities of World War I. Germany expected another easy victory over France, just as they had done in 1870, when the German Empire was declared in the captured Palace of Versailles. France felt that they were much better prepared for another war with Germany. Their strike in the south was designed to seize back French territories absorbed into Germany after their defeat in 1870. They hadn't planned for the Germans to strike France in the north through neutral Belgium. As to why so many areas of the world became so quickly involved, most of the world didn't have a choice since they were European colonies at the time. The British Empire alone automatically involved Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand, and much of Africa, just to name some of the biggest contributors of manpower in their war. There was also the issue of self-interest. Japan wanted to expand their empire, but many areas of Asia were already controlled by either the Americans or other European empires. They took the war as an opportunity to seize Germany colonies in China and the Pacific. As an island nation, Japan were allies of the British, who had the strongest navy in the world back then. Such an alliance prevented other European powers from trying to colonize Japan as they built their military industries and their own fleets. Naval bases were established around the world for strategic purposes, to hold key colonial territories. They also served as refueling stations for naval fleets. Coaling stations were a primary reason to hold a lot of naval bases at the time since a lot of coal was required until more efficient oil replaced it.

I really enjoy your reaction to documentaries.

You guys really have to do epic history TV Napoleonic Wars after this. It’s the best one this channel has done.

10:20 WW1 was the first use of submarines in war on a large scale, however the concept had been around for hundreds of years. IIRC Leonardo Da Vinci drew one in one of his war machine sketches (along with an "ornithopter" (I.E. helicopter) design and a "turtle tank" (none of which we believe were ever built or which would have been any use in a battle)) and the first use of a submarine of any sort was in the American Revolution when someone made a wooden ball essentially which they tried to use to drill holes in the sides of British ships in harbour. It was tried again in the American civil war using "spar torpedoes" (essentially explosives on the end of a long stick which you'd ram up against the underside of a ship and then set them off). Submarines didn't meet with much success until the development of electrical technology which allowed them to use stored electricity in batteries to drive an electric motor to propel the submarine, along with diesel engines to recharge the batteries when on the surface. They were developed in the early 1900s as proper weapons of war however WW1 was their first deployment as anything other than coastal defence ships (the original intention was to place them in defensive lines around harbours to stop the enemy attacking you, not for them to go out on their own and attack the enemy).

The thing about WWI is that it was a war that saw the clash of old style warfare mindset, (Revolutionary/ Civil) with modern weapons. Musket, muzzle-loader and bayonets were replaced with machine guns and artillery. Initial uniforms were the colorful, fancy big red feather kind of thing which very quickly changed.

6:53 Belgium as a nation was formed in the 1820s as an outcome of the Napoleonic wars - it was created out of thin air by carving up part of The Netherlands and part of France to make a buffer state between the German States (Germany wasn't a unified country until 1870) and France and to provide another state in Europe to restore "balance" to the balance of power between nations so that war became less likely. This is why over half of Belgium today speaks Flemish (it's a related language to Dutch but was a regional dialect of Flanders when Belgium was created) and the other bit speaks mostly French, with a tiny bit of German.

I like when you two do history clips and like learning and hearing what you guys think. People don’t really talk much about out WW1 and didn’t know much about it.

You should look up the unknown soldier's Tomb Westmimster Abbey !! Also the Toer of London Ceramic Poppies in 2014 for the Centenary easch poppy represents a Brittish & Commonwealth death !!

7:52 at this point at the start of the war the French (along with a lot of the other armies) were practising basically Napoleonic war tactics - their troops lined up in blocks wearing bright red trousers and bright blue coats (the French uniform of the time) and marched in step across the field towards the German defensive positions. This of course led to them being cut down by machine guns before they made it anywhere near the German positions. This kind of "lesson" is what led to the French adopting their "sky blue" uniform of WW1, alongside the German Feldgrau (Field Grey) and the British Khaki (Urdu for "soil-coloured", from the British Indian Army)

4:50 industrialisation at this time had allowed for massive production of basic military equipment (uniforms, rifles, small arms ammunition etc) and this allowed armies essentially for the first time to have mass conscription of their populations for their own defence - to the point where most countries in Europe (the UK did not do this for example) required their young men to serve in the military for a period of 6 months to 2 years (depending on country) to undergo basic training around the age of 18 or so - they'd then be released into the civilian world however they would be required to join the "reserves" where they'd do a few weeks training each year to keep their skills up and if required they could be called up to serve - this system was activated in August 1914, swelling the armies of Belgium, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia etc, from a peacetime size of several tens of thousands of men (possibly up to hundreds of thousands) to millions within a few days as men reported to their local military reserve centres, and were issued uniforms, equipment etc and formed into units and sent to training camps or directly to the front lines.

Some extra context: the weapons were so different then in previous wars that armys didnt had any experience with them at the start of the war. Armys would just charge at the enemy like in old fashion wars, however in this war there were now machine guns and the defenders could just mow down any storming army. Point 2 i wanna make is that the reason for the war expanding outside of europe had to do with the fact that the western front was stuck in a deadlock and so they tried to attack colonies in the hope that the enemy might redirect troops from the western front to the colonies. 3rd point is that as mentioned before in the comment section there was an arms race going on mostly between Britain and Germany, as German Empire was growing fast there was concern in Britain that the Germans could one day overtake Britain in size and power. So besides Germanys violation of Belgiums neutrality, another reason that Britain did eventualy join the war is that they couldnt risk Germany winning the war.

17:45 Phil you are absolutely right - there is an ulterior motive here. Japan wanted territory to get natural resources (ring any bells as to the causes of WW2?) so they entered the war on the British side (specifically under their treaty with Britain I mean) explicitly for the purpose of seizing Germany's far east colonies and possessions. Being in the war also got them a seat on the victorious side at the Versailles conference in 1918 so they could try to negotiate for better conditions/access rights/territories/mandates after the war was over.

It's not just land and cultural influences they're denfending, it's natural resources vital to their militaries and economies. In WWII, chemistry made great advances so that made colonization less important. For example, artificial rubber vs rubber tree plantations.

On the subject of "why so many naval bases"? During the Age of Sail, the imperial powers of the world needed to have bases near to their overseas colonies in order to defend their trade routes and colonies, but also because the endurance of sailing ships back at that time did not allow them to remain at sea for very long. Bases were needed to provide water, repair, food, and so forth to keep the overseas squadrons in action. Later, when steam supplanted sail, those old bases became coaling stations where ships could replenish their supplies of coal, as well. Look up the story of the Russian fleet's experience of having to sail all the way from the Baltic and Black Seas to the Far East to fight the Japanese during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05). It took them nearly a year to get there and one of the biggest issues the Russian fleet encountered was getting enough coal to power their ships -- it all had to be bargained for from hostile countries. The Russians had no bases in Africa and and southern Asia There is also an additional reason why so many bases, and that has to do with strategy. The British, especially, were very good at a strategy of "controlling the chokepoints", that is places where ships cannot avoid sailing to or by. A look at a map will show you how this works -- for example, Gibraltar controls the western entrance to the Mediterranean, Malta controls the central Med, and the British base at Alexandria controls the east. All three bases guarded the Suez Canal (then British), which connected the British Isles with India, the Middle East and China. The same can be said for the Falkland Islands (they guard the entrance/exit to the Straits of Magellan), Hong Kong, Singapore, Aden, Mombassa, Cape Town and many other former "British" bases/colonies; these are strategic bottlenecks or sit astride strategic sea routes.

5:11 the alliance between Russia and France was seen as odd at the time too - France was a republic which had famously had a massive anti-Monarchy revolution, and Russia was an absolutist power ruled by a Tsar/Tzar/Czar/Csar (everyone spells it differently) so the two did not seem like natural allies. However, external factors like containing Germany made strange bedfellows of them.

The torpedo was not unknown to the Royal Navy. In fact the RN had its own small submarine force but it was held in low regard by the RN top brass. That changed pretty quickly when the threat to UK supply sea lanes rapidly became clear.

23:04 to add to what Phil was saying, China is a very odd case at this time - in the 1840s Britain forced "concessions" on China where the UK forced China to buy opium from Britain in exchange for Chinese trade goods and silver etc. Other countries, seeing China as weak, soon got in on this act and by the late 1890s large sections of China were effectively ruled by western powers controlling the Chinese government. These powers included the UK, France, Italy, Belgium, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Germany, Japan, and the USA. Many of these concessions lasted formally until the Communists took over China in 1946/1947, with the last of them going with Hong Kong's new territories in 1997. Therefore, there were German controlled ports in China as part of this concession system during WW1 which were seized by Japan (the other western powers being too busy elsewhere to pay attention and take some for themselves), massively expanding it's territory and leading directly (in the opinion of some) to their actions in the lead up to WW2 as a continuation of these territorial seizures, where they started seizing Chinese territory which wasn't part of the concession system in the 1930s.

21:55 the reason for all of the naval bases around the world is because ships back then ran on coal. Coal is a less dense energy source than modern oil-based fuels and as a result ships couldn't carry as much of it in energy terms as oil, plus they couldn't refill coal at sea as easily as modern navies can refill on oil fuels. Thus the navies of the world needed bases everywhere (or agreements to use other people's bases) so they could regularly put in to refuel and pick up food/supplies/mail for the crews etc. And in order to defend these bases and in some cases get supplies to the bases easily via rail (where that was possible) the countries involved decided to take over sections of land around the bases and put a permanent military presence there to defend the base (since for your navy to be effective in a war you need the base and to keep the base you need to protect it from attack). In some cases these sections of land extended out quite far and meshed with the desire for other colonisation to occur - for example the UK wanted to build a railway vertically "down" Africa from Egypt to South Africa so they could easily move supplies & troops to South Africa to defend British coaling bases and the economic output of South Africa (and to get that economic output back to the UK) so they started colonising the east coast of Africa down the entire length of the continent.

9:33 there's a strong view amongst historians that the blockade of Germany by the Royal Navy is the principal cause of their defeat, since the civilian population was starving and disillusioned by 1918 - the German soldiers weren't having much of a better time of it either, but they were hungry rather than starving.

People are always amazed about how quickly things happened once they decided to mobilize. Communcations by telegraph would flash the news around amost instantly. Within hours orders could be send across an entire continent. Within days troop trains could be rolling to the front on the extensive rail networks. The war was up and rolling before the statesmen and aristocrats could organize their calendars and their wardrobe.

3:27 Serbia didn't reject the ultimatum in full, it agreed to almost all of the conditions, however the ultimatum was designed by Austria-Hungary (A-H) to be rejected. It had terms in it like altering school textbooks to remove passages critical of A-H, and allowing police from A-H to patrol in Serbia with Serbian police to arrest Serbian people who expressed views opposed to A-H, a condition no country can really accept and still retain any standing in the world. In fact, because Serbia accepted all but a couple of the demands of the ultimatum it removed almost all cause for war at the time and politicians across Europe thought the situation would be settled, but A-H, backed by German pressure to "do it now or we'll withdraw support", decided to declare war anyway because not all of the terms of the ultimatum had been accepted, despite this being an obviously war-mongering move which left A-H clearly "in the wrong" in the eyes of many other countries.

3:20 Serbia may well have had a hand in the assassination, but it was one of those things no one can be entirely sure about. The Balkans as an area of the world had been unstable for years before 1914, it had recently rebelled in 1912 and 1913 against the dying Ottoman Empire (the empire had existed for hundreds of years and was by this point weak and decadent), who had previously run Serbia and some other nearby states, and everyone was kind of expecting another conflict to spring up in the area again because new countries recently forged in war often want to try and sort out their differences with their neighbours by force, and Austria-Hungary was a prime target to try and free some (as the Balkan states would have seen it) oppressed brothers living under their yoke.

10:44 true - Britain had the strongest navy from the late 1700s (confirmed by victories in the Napoleonic wars like The Nile, Trafalgar, Cape St Vincent etc) until the 1940s when America took the lead.

Where I live in New York we also have a Scarborough.

@5:30 Just a little trivia tidbit; "Tzar" is an eastern derivative of "Caesar". Also: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_Restoration

It's important to note that word casualty refers to killed, wounded, and missing. My only gripe with this series is that they don't explain that. So every time you see those large casualty figures, while still horrific, the vast majority are wounded not killed.

11:38 under the rules of war and the Geneva Convention ships were required to give warnings to merchant vessels (not warships though) of enemy nations before they sank them, and at the start of the war the Germans actually did this with their submarines. They'd sail up to a merchant vessel, bring their deck gun to bear (deck guns used artillery shells which were much cheaper and more plentiful on submarines than torpedoes were) and would order the ship to stop - they'd then go aboard, seize any code books etc the crew hadn't managed to destroy already (intelligence gathering was very important), and then order the crew of the merchant ship into the lifeboats. Once the crew were safely off the ship they'd sink it, either by gunfire or by opening the scuttling valves. Later on in the war however the British developed what was called the "Q-ship" (or "quiet" ship) which was a merchant ship armed with hidden deck guns of it's own (IIRC this was itself against the rules of war to have hidden guns on a merchant ship). If a submarine approached on the surface to sink the merchant ship they'd let the sub come in close, then reveal the deck guns and open fire on the sub, probably sinking it in the process. As a result, the Germans abandoned the rules and just started sinking merchant ships with torpedoes without letting the crews evacuate first.

The reason the war became so global was because of the reach of the British, German, Austro-Hungarian, French, Russian and Ottoman Empires/ There was even a revolt in South Africa by former Boer War commando generals like De Wet who refused to fight against Germany. They considered the British to be their mortal enemies (the Boer War had only ended 12 years before that) and had to be defeated by their former comrades in arms like Louis Botha and JC Smuts. My grandmother's second husband served with SA forces in East Africa and my great-grandfather on my father's side (Italian) saw service in the war for Italy.

10:52 submarines played less of a role in WW1 than they did in WW2, however they were still one of the biggest threats in the war. Early submarines like these couldn't stay submerged for longer than a day or so before all the air went stale and the batteries went flat, so they only really dove whilst they were attacking. The goal of German U-boats in WW1 was to sink British and allied shipping to prevent war goods getting to Britain, however unlike in WW2 they had no effective way of spotting convoys (lacking air bases on the coast of France or in Italy, or long-range planes which could watch for convoys and report their location to the U-Boats) and once Britain started convoying it's ships they effectively were neutralised - Britain only started doing this towards the end of the war though because they thought it was too much work for too little gain, beneath their status as fighting men to be shepherding convoys about the oceans, and too resource-intensive to also be able to defend against the German high seas fleet.

4:36 I think the Germans were predicting that it would take about 6 weeks for Russia to mobilise it's army in full, however they didn't know that Russia had overhauled the system and it actually took them 10 days. This massively impacted the German plans because they'd designed their entire Schliffen plan around the idea that they could leave minimal garrison troops on their eastern border whilst the majority of their army dealt with the Belgians and French, however because the Russians attacked German troops quicker than expected they had to pull troops off of the plan to hold back the Russians, leaving fewer to invade Belgium and France, which is part of what led to them not being able to take Paris and force a peace deal on France.

1:02 Interesting. I visited your capital, Ottawa, once and the WW1 memorial was very prominent. From what I read WW1 was a much more consequential war for Canada than for the U.S., putting a little more space between Canada and GB after WW1 while maintaining friendly relations between the two. It was a big sacrifice for country of 7 million to make and then on top of all that the simultaneous Spanish Flu Pandemic hit Canada extra hard. Again consequential. Correct me if I'm wrong.

YES WOWOWOWOWOW

3:46 in fact the Tzar orders the Russian army next to the Austro-Hungarian (A-H) border to mobilise, but not next to the German border. Germany however takes the position that because railways (a relatively modern invention in terms of military engagements) can move troops very fast the troops on the A-H border could attack Germany too so they can use it as an excuse to mobilise their own troops in a "defensive move" to prevent the Russians from attacking Germany, even though the Germans likely wanted a "quick, clean war" to show that A-H wasn't a dying empire (which it most definitely was) and that it should be respected.

While the 1st launched torpedo is rightly given to German U boat/ The 1st destroyed by a submarine was done by the CSS Hunley during the United sates Civil war.. The Hunley On 17 February 1864 attacked The Union ship Housatonic sink her with a torpedo that was a pole hooked tot he Hunley and driven into the Housatonic than backed away why the fusing ignited and cause the black powder to explode next to the hull of the Housatonic.

I recommend the movie 1918 which was in theaters about 4 years ago and won many awards. It is masterfully filmed and worth a watch.

"Those little turbo things" 🤣 🤣 🤣 ie TORPEDOES

5:49 but think about how similar it is too - people these days may argue that Putin has effectively made himself a Tsar in all but name (he was recently even called "Your Majesty" by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church for example)

The assassination was simply the match that lit the powder-keg that had been building for decades.

The Europeans seem not to have anticipated what mechanized total war would mean -- for several good reasons: First, there had not been continent-wide wars since the wrap-up of the Napoleonic Wars a hundred years earlier. This was not within living memory of anyone in Europe. The wars that had taken place since then were more limited geographically (Crimea) or they began and ended with rapid campaigns and short conflicts (the Franco-Prussian War). Second, European armies had not fought during the 19th Century with the extensive mechanization and technologies (massive, accurate artillery, railroad links, air power, radio communications) that they rapidly brought to bear in the 1910s. Expectations of a quick war were way out of synch with modern firepower (especially in defensive fortifications and trench systems). Third, the scope of warfare meant that entire economies would have to shift to war mobilization, and civilians would be caught up in the fighting as they never had been (at least since the Thirty Years' War). Had Europeans really known what they were about to go through, they likely would have opposed the war more strongly before it got started.

Half of my father's family emigrated to the U.S. in the 1890's. The other half stayed in Germany. In WW1, there were family members on each side of the war.

They needed bases for Trade and back then all trade was done by ship . Many ships were coal fired so they needed bases to reload coal on ships and fuel on others . They also needed to protect their trade routes .

18:20, about Japan, it viewed itself, and certainly within the Asian sphere, as an equal empire to the Western powers. They had something to do with WW1, they joined the war having an eye on key ports and areas of China (which were completely rebuffed in the post-war settlements). China, since at least the first Opium wars of the 1840's, had been partially colonized by multiple European powers, with even the U.S. having sent troops to China in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion, along with Japan. So since so many European outposts and colonies were all across the globe, such as in China, Japan was obviously interested in participating in this global conflict.

The Geneva convention was created because of Canada's take no prisoners and kill the wounded instead of taking POW's. There's a video called Canadians change when they hear the word war. This was a great video I look forward to seeing the rest with you guy's. Peace out ✌️ ☮️

Traditionally war is started for an opportunity to gain land. The assassination of Ferdinand was the spark or excuse to start the war. The European theatre was motivated by family feuds but mostly Germany wanted to expand. Japan saw an opportunity to enter into colonization. They wanted the German Island colonies. Spoiler they weren’t given them post war. One of the reasons they continued warmongering up until end of WW2.

The reason for Germany and other powers to have bases all over the world was for coaling stations for their ships. If you’re Germany and you’re in the Pacific you want a place where you can stop, take on supplies and fuel. Also every country who wanted to be a player on the world stage needed colonies.

The narrator Charles Alexis Nove is the son of Alexander Nove, FRSE, FBA (born Aleksandr Yakovlevich Novakovsky; Russian: Алекса́ндр Я́ковлевич Новако́вский;[1] also published under Alec Nove; 24 November 1915 - 15 May 1994) he was a Professor of Economics at the University of Glasgow and a noted authority on Russian and Soviet economic history. Alexander Nove was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, the son of Jacob Novakovsky. His father was a Menshevik who emigrated with his family in 1924 to Britain. Charles Nove is the co-owner of an AEC Routemaster bus, an early red London double decker bus with Ken Bruce, Alan Dedicoat, Steve Madden and David Sheppard.[3] On the Wogan show Nove was well known for his impersonation of Cyril "Blakey" Blake, the inspector from the 1970s television sitcom On the Buses. Wikipedia.

All those overseas places had everything to do with Germany and Britain - they were colonies that supplied vital resources to the home countries. Those resources were much needed now to fight the war in Europe. The large fleets of ships were always used to project power in far flung countries that were considered part of the respective Empires.

It seems like the more you look into World War One you learn much of the escalation relates to what happened in the 1800's. So an empire of Britian that created settlements in places like your area of Canada and my area of Australia that were still relatively new nations get brought into a war, that on the surface has nothing to do with our own current regions and 2024 nations. But the people becoming involved in these wars grew up in the 1800's so their thinking about it all is dominated by the cultural ties to whatever empire or royal family those nations are bound to from the 1800's. So 1914 seems closer to those of us alive now because we think it only a couple of generations from us. We are in 2024 but the 1800's thinking is what this war would have been about. So it makes you and I learn why our present nations became involved in such a horrible war. Many nations that exist now were colonial outposts of some empire back then. Whether it be British, French, Ottoman, Dutch, German, Spanish or some other empire that did it by sea all over the world or the Russian Tsar by land. That is what dominated what happened those generations of those times. Most of us live such a different life to people of those times it can be hard to relate to what people thought back the. If we look back in history of why we speak whatever language we speak or why the towns we born in have a name that seems to have towns with same name in Britian or some part of another old Europe nations we learn which empire back then dominated our current region we live in. All these empires would mostly vanish as the 1900's moved on because people of later 1900's were not dominated by the thinking of the 1800's. Seems like only present day Putin lead Russia is stuck in a really old way of thinking about their own present day identity.

Really hope you also check out the incredible napoleon series by epic history !

It's too bad this video series didn't have more of a introductory background to what caused WWI beyond Archduke Ferdinand being assassinated. There obviously was a long buildup of tensions and conflicting interests before 1914. Colonialism by European powers was one of the developments that led to conflict and War. The British and French had wide ranging global interests. Resources and trading meant land and territory grabbing. While coal was still the primary fuel, oil in the Middle East was soon to be highly valued and the British were all over the ME. I would highly recommend the GREATEST WWI FILM, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, which is a true story about the mess of the still backwards archaic "tribes" of Arab peoples, who ended up fighting against the Turkish Ottoman Empire. L of Arabia is one slice of the larger War, but is very instructional because it shows how utterly confused and incompetent the British were about how to govern and manage all these disparate Arab nations in the making. And some things never change. So Germany also was trying to flex their muscles in worldwide Colonialism, so they had interests in Africa and even South America and as the video mentioned their German Empire wanted to build a powerful Navy to challenge British interests. The French and British also had their paws on SE Asia. Britain had India, Australia, Burma, Hong Kong in China, and the French had spheres of influence in SE Asia, Laos/ Vietnam, Thailand etc. All these nations had goods and products that were desired or unavailable in northern Europe. Britain also had their hands in the South African cookie jar (Gold), and in many other strategic African countries. Another great WWI movie, THE AFRICAN QUEEN, is about British settlement of African countries by religious missionaries. Great movie. There was also a long complex history amongst those Balkan countries and Slavic countries in Eastern Europe. Austria-Hungary back then was a powerful combined empire and sided with Germany. That whole Balkan area with Serbs, Slavs, Czechs, Bulgarians etc was always described as a "powderkeg". I still don't quite understand it, but its always been very ethnically provincial and volatile. On top of that, the era of Royal families that ruled these "empires" led to inter-empire Royal alliances and marriages for strategic reasons in the late 1800s. These myriad Royal allegiances contributed to the forming of treaties between nations, ie ALLIANCES. It then becomes a Domino effect due to all these treaties, because one spark fuses the powder keg, and the alliances fall into place and that is why one Royal assassination lit the fuse that quickly got out of hand. That's why the US, who was chugging along fine with the Industrial Revolution, wanted to stay out of this European madness with Royal families, Colonialism and Alliances. Until we had to. I mean, the absurdity that Japan was allied with Britain, France in WW1 and in WW2 was in the Axis with Germany and Italy shows just how crazy this stuff got.

The assassination was a really sad business. Ferdinand seemed like a good person, and when he inherited the throne it's likely would have done many of the things the Serbs wanted. Both he and his wife were shot, and when he realized she had been shot he pleaded with her to not die. They had married for love against the wishes of the Austro Hungarian Emperor, and they were devoted to each other and their children.

i hope you could you react to Hannibal: Romes greatest enemy; second punic war (all parts) by history marche. it was so 👌✨

The period of time between the "First Opium War" and the end of WWII, known in China as the "Century of Humiliation" saw the division of China into spheres of interest by western nations, including Japan.

I come from Austria 🇦🇹

Fun fact: submarines already existed many many years before WW1.

i mean war would have happened anyways even without the assasination.. but its still wild what was set in motion due to one person killing an archduke. ww1 was the reason for ww2 and atleast also the cold war. Best thing is that Otto von Bismarck literally stated years ago that a great war will happen and it will start in the balkans. Funfact for the german stuff in china btw (me being german actually) in ww2 we also trained chinese troops to fight against the japanese military even tho it was our "ally"

Please react to Scott Horton's Enough Already playlist. It's about the US's terrorism wars and how they connect to each other and what really happened. Each video is about 5 minutes so maybe do 2 at a time. You would be the first reaction channel to react to it and you'd probably get a lot of new viewers and subscribers because it will spread around to his people. The book is a must read for everyone.

The six million men figure at the outset of WWI was the total of all combatants. Over the entire war the UK alone had six million men in their armed forces (with over 80% of these being in the army), with a further three million men from the Empire (Commonwealth} --- including 650,000 from Canada and Newfoundland (Newfoundland was not yet a part of Canada). [Being Canadian I have to include a reference to Canada or I'll lose my citizenship.]

2:38 not entirely true - the British had an unofficial alliance with France which basically extended to the point of "If France has a war the British Royal Navy will defend the French north coast so the French can concentrate their forces in the Mediterranean, and vice-versa". The British had no alliance with Russia, nor was one really possible since Britain and Russia were competing in Afghanistan at the time - the British wanted to prevent Russia from encroaching into India so were pushing outwards into what is now the Middle East to have a buffer of "client states" around the edge of India to act as a defensive line, whilst Russia wanted to expand it's empire and get a piece of the states in the Middle East for itself and possibly encroach into India too to pick up some of the trade revenue in the area.

The reason all the many allied countries were there is because they were part of the British realm. All their colonies also declared war as well and fought under the British command. So that took in parts of Africa, Canada,Australia etc. Also look at history of British in China.

21:40 The reason , besides colonization, for there being so many naval bases. The Majority of all warships are coal powered. This need for coaling is largely why the USA had expanded into the Pacific. The British Navy "ruled the waves" not simply by size but by means to move the navy around the globe at will. Some of the merchant ships being sunk in this era are still using Sails..... * The UK is really the first and at this time still transitioning to an Oil based Navy. This started just before the war 1911-1913 in large part because of the Alliance between Sir John Arbuthnot Fisher and the then First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill. They both realized oil meant ships could go farther with less mass but more importantly go faster. Coal was king until really post-war 1920's. eg Von Spee's point of going to the Falklands was to destroy the radio transmitter and take as much coal as he could grab.

6:32 and no offence to the Americans, but in 1914 the Americans declaring neutrality didn't matter one jot. Their army was smaller than that of Serbia (just larger than the army of Montenegro if memory serves) and they were busy dealing with the aftermath of the recent Mexican Revolution and various events going on on the Mexican-American border, so their "help" would have been tiny had they entered the war in 1914. They did have a decent sized (not massive by this point) navy though which would have been handy, and a massive potential (note potential) industrial base for producing war goods, but they weren't ready to produce war goods in any substantial numbers in 1914, and wouldn't really be until 1918 anyway, well after their entry into the war.

The Newfoundland Brigade suffered over 90% casualties at the Somme, at Beaumont Hamel. Most within 10 minutes of fighting. This war was of attrition, and the mission was to kill so many young men that nations wouldnt be able to fight. 1916 was a year of unimaginable death and destruction. The Canadian "birth of a nation" occurred at Vimy Ridge.

Great reaction video! I’d definitely recommend checking a 10 part series called The First World War which has been uploaded to KZfaq (Part 1 found here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/kLNzeK5o1bDaips.htmlsi=SGhGNMubyCgstxq8). It’s a very informative series that goes into more detail especially about what led up to the war starting!

It was in Japan’s interest to honor its commitment because they wanted Britain to honor their commitment to Japan.

Japan gained control of German assets in the pacific and acknowledgement as a power in Asia.

A lot of it had to do with settling old scores and and grabbing new territory to expand their empires .

I believe without the invention of nuclear weapons a conventional war would have engulfed Europe before now ,so M.A.D. has worked so far. That does not mean a nuclear conflict is impossible with the future having bases on the Moon and weapons in space . It is also possible for events today in Ukraine could not witness an error leading to perhaps the use of battlefield nuclear weapons which would have to escalate . One other possibility is that one side develops a system which nullifies most or all of the enemies nuclear missiles when the perhaps temporary advantage is too tempting not to use.

"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes it's laws" - Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild