World War II: Part 1 – WWI

0:09All right. So, what I'm starting, and

0:11it'll take a long time to complete, so

0:14uh

0:15I have no expectation that will complete

0:17come close to even completing what I'm

0:19starting tonight, is a multi-part series

0:22on World War II.

0:24And uh

0:25let me start by explaining why I'm doing

0:27World War II as a topic. First of all,

0:29I'm obsessed. I mean, like that just

0:32just to be clear, um

0:35I probably have a mental illness around

0:38World War II, and I'm not entirely sure

0:40why I'm so obsessed. If I believed in

0:43reincarnation,

0:44I would assume that I had fought in

0:46World War II, because that would kind of

0:49explain it, but I don't, so I'm stuck

0:51with I'm just mentally ill. Fortunately,

0:54I'm lucky enough that I have a group of

0:56friends who have the same mental

0:59illness, and we get together every

1:01Saturday morning to do uh

1:05World War II reliving events. So, just

1:08just to start with with my own problem,

1:13um also, I'm from five different

1:15ethnicities. In World War II, one was

1:18neutral,

1:19three were Axis,

1:22and the fifth one declared war on

1:25Germany like I want to say it was maybe

1:283 months before the war ended.

1:30So,

1:31uh I'm mostly on the wrong side. Just

1:34just to be clear, to get my my own

1:36personal bias on the table, I am

1:39extremely anti-Nazi. Uh I hope that if I

1:43lived during that time period, I would

1:45have joined the German resistance and

1:47been killed. Um just just so that I

1:50could have the, you know, the the

1:51closure of not having to survive the the

1:55horrors of what Germany did. Um I am

1:57part German, right? And that is part of

1:59my identity and I speak German and I

2:02have lived in Germany. So, like I I am

2:04really part German. I am not eligible to

2:07be a German citizen. I checked.

2:09And I was told I was actually called cuz

2:11I sent out an email. And

2:14I think he was the Consul General for

2:16Houston. He called me on the phone.

2:19And I thought to myself, "Well, that's a

2:21good sign. Maybe I am eligible." And he

2:24basically interviewed me. And he was

2:26like, "You're a really interesting

2:27person." And I was like flattered. Thank

2:29you. And then at the end he goes,

2:31"There's no way we can give you German

2:32citizenship." And I go, "Wait, what?"

2:34And he goes, "Yeah, yeah. The instrument

2:36of surrender that we signed when we

2:38surrendered at the end of World War

2:40basically made it so we can't offer

2:42German citizenship to people who fit in

2:44your category."

2:46And I was like, "Wow, that's so obscure.

2:48Was I specifically targeted?

2:51How did they know I was going to be born

2:53and exist?"

2:55Anyway, so that's my own personal piece.

2:57Another reason why I'm doing this

2:59lecture series on World War is

3:02um

3:04I've been asked to do it on multiple

3:06occasions. So,

3:08I just felt like, "Okay, I've heard

3:09enough I've had enough requests to do

3:11this." I wrote the University of

3:13Maryland University College's course

3:16module for World War when I was teaching

3:18in their history department. So, I I

3:20guess I have the chops to do the do

3:23this. It's it's a daunting thing so I've

3:25kind of resisted doing it in part

3:27because there are just so many moving

3:31parts and they're intertwined. So, from

3:33a storytelling perspective it's not like

3:37a linear story where you start with an

3:39individual and then you just sort of

3:40follow the individual as things happen

3:42in their life. It's more like you've got

3:44a hundred individuals and you're trying

3:46to pin down what each of the hundred

3:48individuals is doing and they're inter-

3:50interacting with each other and going in

3:52different directions. So,

3:54that's one of the reasons why I think

3:55this is going to take a quite a few

3:57episodes is just because I'm going to

4:00have to keep pulling things back and

4:02bringing them back and it'll be a mess.

4:05But, that's the cool thing about World

4:07War II was this epic scale nightmare

4:10from hell that really was a mess with

4:13all these interlocking parts.

4:16Another reason I'm doing this is because

4:19my Oh my god, it's the 1930s again.

4:22Alarm bells are going off and I'm

4:24freaking out and I and I kind of feel

4:27like it might be good to remind people

4:29of what ended 78 years ago because 78

4:33years is too long for us to really

4:35remember. And so, maybe maybe if we

4:38start a conversation about how bad

4:41things could become in the future, that

4:43would be useful. For the record, I don't

4:45think World War III will be like World

4:47War II.

4:48Uh, first of all, I think it'll be a lot

4:49shorter. Uh, World War II

4:53went 8 years. I hesitated because I know

4:56when I say this, somebody's going to

4:57write in the comment, "It went six." Um,

5:00but I'll explain why it went eight,

5:02hopefully. Maybe not this

5:04one, but the next one.

5:06Um,

5:07I don't think World War III will go

5:08eight. I'd be shocked if it went three.

5:11And the reason is I think the global

5:13economy will collapse really fast and

5:14people will begin to starve to death on

5:16a grand scale. I don't really think we

5:17should do World War III. I don't think

5:19it'll be the kind of amazing epic saga

5:23that World War II was. I think it'll

5:24just be really brutal and short. And I

5:27don't think you'll get a lot of good

5:28movies out of it. It'll be more like

5:29World War I,

5:31right? Well, World War I was trench

5:33warfare. I don't think it'll be like

5:34that, but what I mean is

5:36we don't get a lot of good movies out of

5:37World War I. It's just too brutal. It'll

5:40be like It'll be like that. Like,

5:42uh,

5:43All Quiet on the Western Front, the

5:45that's on Netflix. I will not watch

5:48that. I am too I have too much trauma

5:52that I'm already carrying around with

5:53me. I am good. We don't There are some

5:57things you should just know your limit

5:59on and that's one for me. Um

6:02So, having said all that,

6:05the other thing I want to do is I want

6:06to set World War II up. I don't want to

6:08just dive into it. And

6:11the reason is is because first of all, I

6:14think it oversimplifies what happened.

6:16And then second of all, I think it's

6:18really important to understand why it

6:20happened.

6:22So, right? Because really that's my

6:24ultimate goal in doing this at some

6:25level is let's avoid another

6:28big event on this scale. And so, I think

6:32it's worth going into why it happened to

6:34begin with.

6:36One of the crazy things to think about

6:38is World War ended 78 years ago.

6:43Another way to frame where it is

6:44historically

6:46is it was a it started 150 years after

6:51the United States' Constitutional

6:53Convention.

6:55So, in other words, we're just barely

6:58over halfway to it

7:01from where it was

7:03to the Constitutional Convention.

7:06And then all of a sudden you realize,

7:09right? Like the United States was just

7:10150 years old

7:13in a way when it happened. What's even

7:16stranger though is Germany

7:19didn't even become a state

7:21until 1871.

7:24Germany is 95 years younger than us.

7:28In other words, for Germany it was an

7:29even stranger event because it's World

7:33War starts for Germany in '39,

7:36but at that point Germany was

7:40Uh, 29 + 39 is 68 years old.

7:44Like it it was a brand new baby on the

7:46scene.

7:48And here it is

7:49playing this star role as the evil

7:52bastard that

7:53basically declares war on planet Earth.

7:56So, one of the things I think that we

7:58kind of lose track of is its position in

8:01this larger story.

8:04Um,

8:05this larger story that I'm actually

8:07going to start in the 18th century

8:09because of what I first want to do is I

8:11want to I want to set Great Britain up.

8:13Because even though in World War II,

8:15it's it's really the United States,

8:16Germany, and the Soviet Union.

8:19The British obviously play a critical

8:20role. I'm not trying to diminish their

8:22role, but when you think about it from

8:24like the grand scale, the the economic

8:26scale, it's really a a slugfest between

8:30Japan, Germany on one side and the

8:32United States and the Soviet Union on

8:33the other side with Great Britain

8:34playing a major role.

8:36Um, but

8:37the thing that leads to World War I

8:41is entirely the British Empire. And the

8:43thing that causes World War II is the

8:46outcome of World War I.

8:48So, in other words, in other in order to

8:50understand World War II, you have to

8:51understand the British story in addition

8:55to the German story. So,

8:57um,

9:00the way place I want to start is the end

9:02of the Seven Years War, which lasted 9

9:04years.

9:05The British win it. And at that moment,

9:09that was critical for the British

9:11Empire. The British had this dream of

9:13empire. They already had established it

9:15because they had the 13 colonies.

9:18At at the time there were 17 colonies.

9:21And what they wanted to do was keep

9:24expanding and eventually make a larger,

9:27more global empire than that.

9:30If they had lost the Seven Years War,

9:33that was probably it for them. They

9:35would have probably never been

9:37anything more than a second rate empire.

9:40By contrast, the French could afford to

9:42lose the Seven Years War and they'd be

9:44more or less okay. They could still

9:47build an empire. They might be number

9:48two, right? Great Britain would be

9:50number one, but they were still in the

9:52game.

9:54To get to the point though where we got

9:56to the Seven Years War, something really

9:58strange had to happen a few centuries

10:00earlier. And it was this.

10:03If you look at the history of England

10:06and France from 1066, when William the

10:08Conqueror conquers England, he's the

10:11Norman Duke of the French Duchy of

10:14Normandy.

10:16Uh the Normans were French-speaking

10:18Vikings. When he conquers England, it's

10:21kind of like France conquering England.

10:24Right? Because the Duke of Normandy is

10:26effectively like the governor would be

10:28to the president. He's a subordinate to

10:31the King of France.

10:33At least on paper. In reality, it wasn't

10:35quite that clear.

10:38When when that happens, from that point

10:40on for the next five centuries

10:42basically, France and England fight each

10:46other all the time.

10:47And England is regularly trying to

10:49conquer whole swaths of France, and

10:52eventually it actually does. In the

10:54aftermath of the Battle of Agincourt in

10:561415,

10:58basically Henry the Fifth does take over

11:00France briefly. But even before that, uh

11:03under the reign of Henry the Second,

11:04whole swaths of France had been absorbed

11:07by the English.

11:09So in other words, England's mind was

11:12always towards conquering France.

11:15But because the French had done it first

11:18with William the Conqueror,

11:20the official language of England was

11:22French until Henry the Seventh at the

11:26end of the 15th century flips it. So in

11:29other words, this story is just a bunch

11:30of Henrys.

11:32Um, and a William.

11:33In the end,

11:35some reason the English go, "You know

11:38what?

11:39We're done with France." Well, they'll

11:41still keep fighting France, but not in

11:44France.

11:45The The scale of England's thinking

11:47shifts, and instead of it being this

11:50knock-down, drag-out fight in Europe

11:53between the English and the French, the

11:54English basically surrender their their

11:56claims to France. Not a They don't do it

11:58officially until Queen Mary Victoria,

12:00but they they do it in practical combat

12:04purposes well before her, and they turn

12:07their eye to the rest of the world,

12:09which is what gets them into the

12:10colonies.

12:12So, when they beat the French in 1763 by

12:16the skin of their teeth, they almost

12:18lost. What By beating the French, what

12:21the English did was they set themselves

12:23up to become the world's dominant

12:25empire.

12:27But, it's actually really strange. My My

12:30son asked me this question the other

12:32day. He went, "I don't get it. How did

12:34little itty-bitty

12:36off-the-beaten-path England somehow

12:40become a global empire?"

12:43And, of course, part of the solution is

12:45that they they became the world's first

12:47drug dealer empire. Their first drug was

12:49tobacco. They later later on upgrade to

12:51opium.

12:53But, that's going to generate huge

12:54amounts of money. But, the real trick

12:56that the English did with the they they

12:59figured out, first of all, how to assess

13:02victory and defeat in such a way that

13:05they could they learned how to

13:06manipulate defeats into little

13:08victories.

13:09And, also in the process, they realized

13:13something critical.

13:15They could conquer a country

13:18and then transfer its wealth to England.

13:22And so, 20 years after winning the Seven

13:25Years' War, which lasted years,

13:28they will fight a six-year-long battle

13:30against us, a six-year-long war against

13:32us called the Revolutionary War, which

13:34was really a civil war.

13:37And they quit the war

13:40even though militarily

13:42they're winning.

13:45And the reason they quit the war is

13:47because they discovered something really

13:48interesting.

13:50They had the Royal Proclamation of 1763

13:52with the Native Americans. It gave the

13:54Native Americans everything from

13:56Appalachian Mountains to the

13:57Mississippi,

13:58which meant that they couldn't exploit

14:01that land. But in the meantime, the

14:03agriculture practices that they were

14:05using in Virginia and North Carolina had

14:08wrecked the soil. Maryland had wrecked

14:10the soil. So, the the Southern colonies,

14:14which were the big cash crop colonies,

14:16were no longer productive. Virginia The

14:19Virginian soil was so ruined, in fact,

14:23that Virginia had to import tobacco by

14:25the time of the Revolution. Actually, by

14:271754, Virginia was already importing

14:29tobacco. So, the English were no longer

14:32making money off the Southern colonies,

14:35not in the way they wanted to.

14:37What they realized in

14:391781 was if they surrendered to us,

14:42effectively the British Empire cut

14:44itself in half by land, not population,

14:47right? But in terms of square

14:50kilometers, they basically chopped the

14:53British Empire in half.

14:55It'll It freed the British Empire to

14:59become the good guy in people's minds.

15:01They would do things like pursue the

15:03abolition of slavery. But in the

15:05meantime, it would allow us to keep

15:07slavery,

15:08terminate the relationship with the

15:10Native Americans, genocide them, steal

15:12their land, bring slavery there, and

15:14then grow tobacco and cotton on that

15:16soil.

15:17The surrender treaty that the British

15:19signed with us, the Treaty of Paris,

15:211783,

15:23specifically allowed the British

15:26to to stay economically in the United

15:29States.

15:30So, for all intents and purposes, the

15:32United States remained part of the

15:34British Empire economically.

15:37The reason that mattered was because it

15:39meant

15:40it was for economic purposes, it was as

15:42if we had never gotten independence,

15:45which meant they could still make money

15:47off of us.

15:49So, some researcher, I should have

15:50looked it up before I came, but I forgot

15:52to do it. Some researcher had done this

15:54really amazing research project where

15:56they looked at the amount of money that

15:57the British made off of us for the 75

15:59years from 1783 when they signed the

16:02surrender treaty until they finished the

16:05conquest of India in 15, sorry, in 1858.

16:09And the researcher discovered that the

16:11amount of money they made out of the

16:13United States was equal to the amount of

16:16money they spent conquering India. In

16:18other words, what the British had

16:19successfully done was figured out how to

16:21have their cake and eat it, too. By

16:23splitting the empire in half, it allowed

16:25them to go grab India.

16:28India

16:30was brilliant.

16:32When the British began conquering India

16:34in the 17th century, little piece, they

16:38captured basically two itty-bitty little

16:40pieces on the on the west coast, and the

16:43next thing you know, they're just

16:44gobbling up whole chunks of India.

16:47When they start, India was 23%

16:51of the world's GDP.

16:53Basically, one out of every $4 being

16:56made on the planet was being made in

16:58India. India was industrialized.

17:01So, you all were taught, cuz I was

17:03taught the same thing, that the

17:04Industrial Revolution started in the

17:0518th century, it basically in England.

17:08That's not true. The Industrial

17:11Revolution started somewhere between 750

17:14and 800 in the Arab world.

17:17What happened in the 18th century is the

17:21English began using steam power

17:24for transportation purposes. They began

17:26applying steam power to boats.

17:29And then they eventually realized, oh

17:31wow, we can put it on

17:34on a vehicle on a track and they began

17:36doing railroads, too. And then they

17:38realized, well, we can put steam power

17:40in factories

17:42and we can automate factories. So, when

17:45we talk about the Industrial Revolution,

17:47what we really mean is the steam-powered

17:49phase of the Industrial Revolution that

17:53the English did innovate. That really is

17:56their thing. But but by that point, we'd

17:58already had nine centuries of slow

18:00industrialization rolling across the

18:02planet starting in the Middle East and

18:04expanding out.

18:07So, that's also one of the causes of

18:09World War II, right? Is the

18:10industrialization of of the planet.

18:13Another one is capitalism. Another one

18:15is nationalism. Another factor is

18:17imperialism. So, this story has all

18:19those pieces.

18:21And what the British managed to do with

18:24India

18:25was transfer its GDP to England.

18:30When

18:31England let India go, let is a strong

18:35word. When India got its independence

18:38post-World War II, when the British

18:39realized they couldn't hold on to it any

18:41longer,

18:42India was 4%

18:45of the world's GDP.

18:48The English had so successfully

18:50plundered India

18:52that they had effectively transferred

18:54those 19 percentage points to England.

18:58That's the genius of what the English

19:00had pulled off. They had literally

19:02de-industrialized India

19:05and then industrialized England instead.

19:08So, for example, India was one of the

19:11world's largest cotton producers. The

19:12big cotton producers were the were the

19:14United States, right? The the US South,

19:17Egypt, India. That was where most of the

19:20world's cotton was being generated.

19:23So, the British end up conquering India.

19:26They've got access to that cotton even

19:28after they'd lost us.

19:30But, they could still buy our cotton.

19:32It's not like we're not going to sell it

19:33to them. So, they didn't really lose us.

19:36And they're still making money off of us

19:37because for all intents and purposes,

19:40we're still hooked into their economy.

19:43Indians made their own clothing

19:46out of that cotton.

19:48So, the English banned India from making

19:50its own clothing.

19:52And then they make factories in England

19:54that make that cotton clothing, and then

19:56they sell traditional Indian clothing to

19:59India. They were making traditional

20:01Indian clothing in England.

20:04And then selling it to the Indians after

20:06banning the Indians from producing their

20:07own clothing.

20:09So, this is what the the imperialist

20:12genius event that the English pull off

20:14that makes them the the greatest empire

20:18the world had seen until us, right?

20:19We're the greatest empire.

20:21I know you think, "No, no, we didn't go

20:23conquer and annex everything." That's

20:24true. So, the English owned 40% of the

20:27world. We we don't, obviously. But, but

20:31our military's in 75% of the world's

20:33countries.

20:35So, I I think 75%

20:38means we uh we punked that. So, we're

20:42now the greatest empire. In any case,

20:45um

20:46the British will just

20:48wi- get win after win after win. They'll

20:51grab Egypt. They grab Southern Africa,

20:53right? And they put together this really

20:55crazy empire that stretches into Asia.

20:57They have Malaysia and Singapore. They

20:59have Hong Kong. And then, of course,

21:01they still have Canada. They make a

21:03foray into South America. They're are

21:05but they they grab a piece of Central

21:07America, Belize. And so, this empire

21:10sprawls across the planet.

21:15They run into a problem.

21:18And the problem is

21:20that

21:21they realize something amazing is

21:24coming. There's a new resource on the on

21:27the table.

21:28And that new resource

21:30is discovered it's sort of rediscovered

21:33in 1861 in Oil Creek, Pennsylvania.

21:37So,

21:38uh

21:40a

21:41there was a group of investors who came

21:44up with this crazy idea. Oil Creek was

21:47named Oil Creek because there was oil

21:49floating on the surface of the creek.

21:51So, in other words,

21:53they didn't discover oil cuz they

21:55already knew there was oil there, hence

21:57the name of the creek.

21:59Oil floats to the surface, so that's why

22:01it's on the top of the creek.

22:03They came up with this crazy idea, "What

22:05if we dug a well next to the creek?

22:07Could we hit the original oil source

22:11that the creek is clearly flowing

22:12through and then dragging the oil out?"

22:15And he got a group of investors

22:16together, and they dug the well, and in

22:191861, they hit oil in Oil Creek,

22:22Pennsylvania. And the they realized you

22:26could sell it for people and they could

22:27light their their houses up using oil

22:31lamps from oil dug from the ground

22:33instead of using sperm whales for that

22:37purpose or using kerosene. The way we

22:39were making kerosene is we would bake

22:41trees, and as you bake them, we would

22:44basically have containers underneath the

22:46tree, and it would catch the kerosene.

22:49And so, you're you're basically

22:51murdering whole forests, turning them

22:53into kerosene and coal in the process,

22:56and then slaughtering whales, turning

22:58them into whale oil for your home, or

23:02you can just dig a well in the ground

23:04and use that. And that And so all of a

23:06sudden oil becomes a thing that we're

23:09using. You can also use it for heating

23:11purposes. And then it occurs to somebody

23:14you can use it as a fuel source to

23:16replace steam and a guy named Daimler

23:19invents the internal combustion engine.

23:21He puts it on a motorcycle first. He

23:24puts it on a car next and the English go

23:26into panic mode shortly afterwards. And

23:29here's why the English go into panic

23:31mode. They realize

23:33that oil is going to replace coal and

23:36they don't have an oil company. They did

23:38have an oil company. It was called

23:40Shell.

23:41The Dutch purchase it so it becomes

23:44Royal Dutch Shell. The English own 49%

23:48but the Dutch have the controlling 51%.

23:51The English and the Dutch have a great

23:52relationship.

23:54And then the other oil company on the

23:55planet was Standard Oil.

23:58And that was John D. Rockefeller's

24:00company. And it's also a huge company

24:03because the original Saudi Arabia for

24:04planet Earth was Ohio, Indiana, and

24:07Pennsylvania.

24:09That's where Standard Oil had made its

24:11home and it was making crazy money.

24:14And And the British had a great

24:16relationship with us.

24:17The problem is the British didn't build

24:19an empire by having great relationships

24:21with people with resources. The British

24:23built an empire by going and getting the

24:25resources directly and base basically

24:27plundering other countries for those

24:29resources.

24:31So, they decide they have to find oil.

24:33The way you found oil so that they have

24:35their own oil company. The way you found

24:37oil at time is as you were walking you

24:39looked at the ground. If you got super

24:41lucky you'd step right in it. There was

24:43enough oil on the planet that there was

24:45actually places where it had seeped to

24:46the surface.

24:48But if you didn't get that lucky you

24:50could step on black shale or

24:53black sandstone. Shale and sandstone are

24:56really porous.

24:57Limestone for that matter will do the

24:59same thing. And if they're if it's

25:01sitting on top of an oil field, it'll

25:03suck the oil into it and it'll turn

25:05black indicating you just got to get

25:08through that and you can get to the oil.

25:11The planet's too big to have a bunch of

25:13people walking around looking at their

25:15feet all day. So the English decided to

25:17take a different approach. They decided

25:19to read history books to see who used to

25:22have oil in the past because odds are

25:26wherever it was in the past, it's still

25:28there.

25:29And here's what they found. They found

25:32that sometime between 750 and 800 AD,

25:35the same time that the Arabs are

25:37inventing industry. By the way, same

25:39time that the Arabs were also inventing

25:40modern agriculture. They began lighting

25:43their streets up at night using oil that

25:47they piped through their cities into

25:50lamps.

25:51And so the English go, "Oh my god, if

25:53they were doing that then, they must

25:55have oil there still." So they began

25:57looking in the Middle East.

25:59They carved Kuwait out of the Ottoman

26:01Empire with the hope that they'll find

26:04oil in the area. They find it across the

26:06Persian Gulf, also known as the Arabian

26:08Gulf, because a body of water can have

26:10two names. It's going to be okay. Just

26:14for example, the English Channel. The

26:16French don't call it the English

26:17Channel. Why would they call it the

26:18English Channel? They would call it the

26:20French Channel if they were going to

26:21call it something. They don't. They call

26:23it La Manche, which means the sleeve.

26:25They have a right to not call it the

26:27English Channel, just like the English

26:28have a right to call it the English

26:29Channel. It's going to The reason I'm

26:31doing this is somebody's going to freak

26:33out on YouTube and say, "Oh my god, it's

26:36not the Persian Gulf, it's the Arabian

26:37Gulf." And then they go, "Oh my god, no,

26:39it's not the Arabian Gulf, it's the

26:40Persian Gulf." And I just triggered a

26:42war.

26:43Um

26:43it's it's going to be okay. It really

26:45is, I promise.

26:48You know what? We could compromise and

26:49just call it something random, like that

26:52the salt body of water or something and

26:54just be done with it.

26:56Um so,

26:58uh

26:59I Anyway, I I I recently had an event

27:02where I I said to a person, "It can have

27:05two names." And they got really upset.

27:08And they go, "No, it can't."

27:13The English find oil in Khuzestan, which

27:18is the southwest corner of Iran. They

27:21strike an amazing deal with the rulers

27:24of Iran, where they'll get 84%

27:27concession. Normally,

27:29if you're a foreign business extracting

27:32a resource from a country, it's a 50/50

27:35split.

27:37Because, right, it's the country's

27:38resource, but you did the work. So, you

27:41get 50%, they get 50%. The British got

27:44an 84%

27:46concession. And they were giving the

27:48Persians just 16% for their oil. And

27:52that company was called the

27:55Anglo-Persian Oil Company. It got

27:57renamed, became the Anglo-Iranian Oil

27:59Company. And then it got nationalized.

28:02And the Iranians called the new company

28:04the National Iranian Oil Company. It

28:06still exists. The British then took the

28:09remainder of the company, which wasn't

28:11entirely in Iran. And they called that

28:13piece British Petroleum. That's the

28:17birth of BP. It turned out there was oil

28:19off the coast of Scotland. So, BP could

28:22just exploit Scottish oil. And that And

28:25that that became the way the British got

28:27their oil supply.

28:30So, the British Empire then is the

28:34world's dominant superpower. It's found

28:36oil in Iran. It's calmed itself down.

28:39But it's run into another problem.

28:42And the other problem is Germany.

28:46So, Germany was a dream.

28:49It was a dream because it didn't exist.

28:52And it had been a dream for a long time.

28:54There were a lot of Germans who thought

28:56it would be nice to have a Germany.

28:58What existed instead was a bunch of

29:00little itty-bitty states. Some of them

29:03were so small they were they were

29:04literally just city-states. Like most of

29:07the Hanseatic League was just a group of

29:10city-states.

29:11Um but but there were also some some

29:13larger states like Bavaria, for example,

29:15which wasn't a city-state. It was much

29:17bigger than that, but it was still a

29:18relatively small state. So, Germany was

29:21chopped up into these different pieces.

29:23One piece of Germany started to advance

29:28itself militarily faster than the rest

29:30faster than the rest of Germany, and

29:32that was Prussia.

29:34But Prussia was a really strange

29:36phenomenon.

29:38What happened was centuries ago, Polish

29:42lords

29:43found that they could not they couldn't

29:45effectively rule Poland. So, they

29:48actually asked the Prussians to come to

29:51Poland

29:52to manage it. What eventually happened

29:55was those Prussians

29:57just took over. And they carved a chunk

30:00of Poland out of Poland, and they began

30:03running it as a German state because

30:06those Prussians were Germans.

30:08So, the joke had been for the longest

30:10time, Prussia is an army without a

30:12country.

30:14And that army without a country

30:17eventually ends up being unified with

30:20Brandenburg. Brandenburg was a state

30:23that was somewhat sizeable. It was it

30:26occupied a lot of what uh ended up

30:28becoming East Germany after uh the

30:31partition of Germany. And and And then

30:33what it ended up doing is unifying with

30:35Prussia. So, it ended up owning a bunch

30:37of what is today Poland.

30:39In 1700,

30:42Brandenburg, the kingdom of Brandenburg,

30:44changed itself and and turned itself

30:47into the kingdom of Prussia.

30:50And here's why it did this.

30:52There was an entity called the Holy

30:54Roman Empire. It was neither holy,

30:56Roman, nor an empire.

30:59Just to be clear.

31:01The Holy Roman Empire was created by

31:03Charlemagne, the French king. He was

31:06ethnically German.

31:08So, he was the German king who ruled

31:11Gaul

31:12because he was the guy in charge of the

31:14Franks, and the Franks are the guys who

31:18ended up calling Gaul after themselves,

31:22and that's why it's called France.

31:24France is named after a Germanic tribe.

31:27And the original kings of France were

31:30were Germans. And they conquered what is

31:32today Germany. Charlemagne did. He

31:34conquered what is today Germany and

31:35Austria, and he put it together into

31:37France. He owned a piece of northern

31:39Italy.

31:40Um

31:41and he made this little empire.

31:43Well, the Pope

31:46had a problem, the Pope in Rome.

31:49So, there were there were originally

31:50five patriarchs. I don't want to get

31:51into all of it, but the Pope in Rome was

31:53one of the five Christian patriarchs.

31:55His problem was

31:57that the Roman Empire had lost its

32:01western territory, but not all of it.

32:05It still had pieces. So, for example,

32:08uh it still had what will eventually

32:10become the Most Serene Republic of

32:12Venice. It had southern Italy. It had

32:14Sicily. It had a little pieces of

32:16southern Italy. It had Naples.

32:18Um and it had the city of Rome.

32:21The Pope in Rome didn't like this

32:23arrangement because not only were there

32:26four other patriarchs in the in the

32:29Christian church, but one of those

32:31patriarchs was the patriarch of

32:32Constantinople

32:34where the whole where the Roman emperor

32:36was. So, the Patriarch of Constantinople

32:39had more influence over the Roman

32:41Emperor just because he was right there.

32:44Cuz the emperor's in Constantinople,

32:46he's in Constantinople. He can talk to

32:47the emperor by just walking across the

32:50street and saying, "Hey, how's it

32:51going?" Whereas the Pope in Rome, he's

32:54got this long sea voyage to get to

32:57Constantinople. His influence is

32:59diminished.

33:00So, the Pope decides he doesn't like

33:03this arrangement. He goes to Charlemagne

33:05and he says, "Look, I will make a deal

33:08with you. You help me get Rome out of

33:12the Roman Empire."

33:14Isn't that crazy?

33:15A Roman Empire without the city of Rome

33:17in it. You help me do that and you make

33:20me the Duke of Rome. So, I'm not just a

33:23holy leader, I will also have a military

33:26force, a tax base, and I will actually

33:28have the title Duke of Rome. And Rome

33:30will be a Duchy.

33:32And I will give you whatever you want.

33:35And what Charlemagne wanted was he

33:37wanted to have the brand of Roman

33:40Empire.

33:42The problem is there is a Roman Empire.

33:44So, what the Pope and Charlemagne agreed

33:47to was they would pretend that the

33:50empire he had created that was France

33:52and Austria and Germany and northern

33:53Italy, that that was the real Roman

33:56Empire. But because it was going to be

34:00blessed by the Pope in Rome as opposed

34:02to the actual empire which was in

34:04Constantinople, they would call it the

34:06Holy Roman Empire and the Pope crowns

34:09Emperor Charlemagne

34:11on December 25th in the year 800,

34:16creating the Holy Roman Empire.

34:19Long story short, France leaves the Holy

34:22Roman Empire. So, all that's left is

34:24northern Italy

34:25and Germany and Austria.

34:28The Holy Roman Empire had an emperor

34:30that was elected by the electors. Some

34:34of the states inside the Holy Roman

34:36Empire had the authority to elect. So,

34:39the electors would elect the the

34:41emperor. But, it So, in a way it was

34:43kind of like a confederacy. It was

34:44almost like a precursor to the EU.

34:48There are all these fully sovereign

34:49states in the empire.

34:51So, there's the electorate of Saxony,

34:54the kingdom of Brandenburg, um the Duchy

34:58of Milan. Like, there's all these states

35:00within this Holy Roman Empire entity.

35:03They're They're They're sovereign, but

35:05they're sort of bound together by the

35:06rules of the empire, the the Holy Roman

35:09Empire, which was not our empire at all.

35:10It was a confederacy. And it wasn't

35:12Roman, it was German uh with a little

35:14with a few Italians in for good measure.

35:17And uh

35:18you know, it wasn't holy, obviously. And

35:21so,

35:22the problem that the kingdom of

35:23Brandenburg had was its capital was

35:26Berlin. Well, Berlin was inside the Holy

35:29Roman Empire. But, the capital of

35:32Prussia was Königsberg. Königsberg was

35:34outside of the Holy Roman Empire.

35:37So, if Brandenburg stopped being

35:39Brandenburg and became and became

35:42Prussia, it would put the capital of

35:45Prussia outside of the empire and it

35:47would no longer be bound by its rules.

35:51And so, that's why they do this.

35:54In 1700,

35:56the Prussians decide they have an

35:58amazing military, right? They've just

36:01Brandenburg has just rebranded itself.

36:04It's now Prussia.

36:05They want to take that military up a

36:07notch.

36:08So, they send their officers to

36:10Constantinople, which is no longer

36:13called Constantinople by its owners.

36:15It's now Istanbul because it's the

36:17capital of the Ottoman Empire because

36:20the Turks had the best soldiers

36:21man-for-man on the planet at the time,

36:23the Janissaries.

36:25And they want to train Prussian officers

36:28with this Janissary training hoping that

36:31they'll learn a little bit more and

36:33they'll develop a new style of combat

36:35that will give their small army an

36:38advantage. The Prussians had a small

36:41army, so their thinking was if their

36:43army fought better, it could compensate

36:46for its lack of numbers.

36:48And so that's what they did.

36:51Between the already existing German

36:53style of fighting that the Prussians had

36:55combined now with this Ottoman style,

36:57they created what we think of as the

36:59quintessential German style of fighting

37:01and it was an extremely effective combat

37:04system. They what they would do is

37:06called Bewegungskrieg.

37:09If you're a smaller force, you attack

37:11your enemy not with the goal you attack.

37:14You don't wait for them to attack you,

37:15which is always crazy when the smaller

37:17guy attacks. You attack not with the

37:19goal of defeating the larger force, it's

37:21going to be almost impossible to do.

37:23Your goal is to knock them off balance.

37:26And then while they're trying to get

37:27back into position, get back into

37:29balance, you attack them again

37:31to keep them off balance. And then you

37:33attack them again, you attack them

37:34again, you attack them again. The goal

37:36is just to wear them out, to keep them

37:38off balance so they can never get you.

37:41And in the Seven Years War, Prussia was

37:42on Britain's side and that's what they

37:43did. They fought the the Austrian, the

37:46the Russian and the French armies. The

37:48whole goal that they had was just to

37:50keep those armies off balance long

37:52enough that they wouldn't have a chance

37:54to conquer Prussia. And they pulled it

37:55off.

37:58They start to think in the aftermath of

38:00the Seven Years War cuz somehow they're

38:03on the winning side,

38:05what what is the future going to be

38:07like?

38:09And little by little by little, the

38:12Prussians start building themselves

38:15towards creating the German state.

38:19And when I say say by little by little,

38:21I mean it takes them 100 years.

38:24They don't get into position to actually

38:26create the German state

38:28really until the 1860s.

38:31They They have to They have to fight

38:33three powers in the region and put them

38:35down first. The first is Denmark.

38:38Actually, Denmark attacked them in a

38:40moment of just madness.

38:43Uh and the Prussians were like, "All

38:45right, thanks." And they put Denmark

38:46down. 1864 is the year in my head. Uh

38:51and then shortly afterwards, the Germ-

38:53the Prussians attack Austria.

38:57When they did this,

39:00Bismarck, the guy who is going the

39:02Prussian who is going to make Germany,

39:04Bismarck has to ask himself a question.

39:07So, Austria, the Austrian Empire,

39:11Austria is German.

39:14He's German. The Prussians are German.

39:16The Germany they're trying to create is

39:18going to be made of Germans.

39:21But Austria owns what is today Czechia,

39:24Slovakia, Slovenia.

39:27Uh

39:28It got Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1878.

39:34So, that doesn't have Bosnia yet. That's

39:36in the future. Um it has Hungary. It has

39:40what Ruthenia, it's now part of Ukraine.

39:43It had Galicia, which was which is today

39:46part of Poland and Ukraine. It had

39:49Transylvania, which is today part of

39:51Romania. It was this big Central

39:55European empire

39:57made up of a bunch of non-Germans

40:00because there are Czechs and Slovaks and

40:02Slovenes and Croats and Hungarians and

40:06uh Ruthenians and Romanians.

40:10And so, Bismarck has a problem as he's

40:12defeating the Austrians. He has to

40:13defeat the Austrians because they have a

40:16big swath of southern Germany. If he's

40:18going to put Germany together, he has to

40:20knock them out of the picture.

40:22Does he annex Austria with all its

40:26non-Germans?

40:29Or does he annex Austria but leave the

40:32rest of the empire?

40:34And so there'll be a Hungarian empire

40:36instead of an Austro-Hungarian empire?

40:39Or does he just beat Austria, take

40:41southern Germany, and leave Austria

40:43alone so that this there'll be a

40:46German-run multi-ethnic empire?

40:50And that's the choice he makes. He

40:52chooses option C, which is to leave the

40:54Austro-Hungarian empire intact. He just

40:58takes away their authority in southern

40:59Germany. And then that way there'll be

41:02two German empires, a German empire cuz

41:05that's what they're going to call

41:06Germany when they make it. It's going to

41:07be the German empire. A German empire

41:10that will be ethnically mostly German.

41:15There are non-Germans there. Like for

41:17example, there's Lusatians. There are

41:19still Lusatians in Germany today.

41:20They're a Slavic people.

41:23Uh but there were there were also there

41:25was also a huge population of Poles. 6

41:28million Poles to be to be exact. So

41:31there's there is a huge non-German

41:33population in this. Um

41:36D-

41:37But but essentially it's going to be a

41:38Germany for Germans. And then there'll

41:40be a second Germany called Austria, the

41:43Austro-Hungarian empire. And that'll be

41:45a German-Hungarian co-ruled empire with

41:49a bunch of non-Germans.

41:52And Bismarck's thinking is he's kind of

41:54had his cake and eaten it, too. Germans

41:56can rule those non-Germans and exploit

41:59them or

42:00colonize some of that land maybe and

42:02Germanize it over time. But at the same

42:05time, it they won't culturally mingle in

42:09Germany contaminating German culture and

42:12German national identity.

42:16Because that's a piece on the table.

42:19Because something has happened in

42:20Europe. That thing that's happened is

42:22nationalism.

42:24So, think about what nationalism is.

42:28People didn't used to believe in

42:29nationalism. Nationalism is a a new

42:31phenomenon. It's It's

42:33230

42:35years old.

42:37So, before 230 years ago, there were no

42:40nationalists on the planet.

42:42The guy who pioneers nationalism, I

42:44don't know if you can say he invented

42:46it, but certainly he's the guy who used

42:47it at its

42:49in a in a way that transformed it and

42:52made it something that other people

42:54thought was Napoleon Bonaparte.

42:58So, Napoleon Bonaparte was made the

43:00dictator of the Republic of France for

43:02the sole purpose of ending the French

43:04Revolution. Because the French

43:06Revolution was this magic event that

43:08they couldn't turn off.

43:10So, even after they won, they'd killed

43:13all the royalty, they'd killed all the

43:15nobility, even after they had uh changed

43:18their art, changed the dates of the the

43:21names of the months, changed over to

43:23metric, changed their religion cuz they

43:26had banned the Catholic Church, even

43:28after they had done all of this,

43:30they couldn't turn the revolution off.

43:32And the And the French revolutionary

43:33leaders kept walking out into the public

43:35squares in Paris and going, "Look,

43:38you've won. We've done it. The

43:40revolution's over. Go back into the

43:42factories, go back into the farms, and

43:45start making shoes and growing food so

43:47that our economy doesn't collapse." And

43:49the French people go, "Revolution!" And

43:51they go charging around and they

43:53guillotine somebody and set something on

43:55fire. And the the French revolutionary

43:57leaders are like, "No, no, no, no, it's

43:58over. We won. You don't have to do that

44:00anymore." And the French people are

44:01like, "Revolution!" They grab that guy,

44:03guillotine him, and set something on

44:05fire. And they're And they're tearing

44:06their hair out.

44:08Finally, the French came up with a

44:09genius idea.

44:11Beautiful.

44:13The French The French have their

44:15moments. You know what I mean? Like

44:16there are these moments.

44:18What if we guillotined the guy in charge

44:21of the guillotine?

44:22Robespierre.

44:25Like I swear I really just wish they had

44:29cell phones back there so that we could

44:31have recorded the look on Robespierre's

44:33face as they're loading him into the

44:35guillotine.

44:37Because I want to know what that emotion

44:39you're feel Dude, I'm the guy who

44:41guillotines. Why am I getting

44:43guillotined? How is this okay? And

44:45they're loading him in, and then he can

44:48hear the blade coming down, right? It

44:50just takes a split second, but still he

44:51can hear it. And the next thing you

44:53know, his head's in a basket.

44:57And then the the French revolutionary

44:58leadership goes, "See? The revolution's

45:00over. We just guillotined Robespierre.

45:02It's done. We're good."

45:04And the French are like, "More

45:05revolution!" And they go guillotine

45:06somebody else and set something else on

45:08fire.

45:10So Napoleon is elected dictator,

45:13temporarily suspending the republic.

45:16He'll rule like a king for 1 year. His

45:19goal is to end the revolution. He fails.

45:22He comes back to the revolutionary

45:24leadership and he goes, "I need a second

45:25year. I figured out how to do it."

45:29They're like,

45:30"Okay, sure." So they give him a second

45:32year. By the way, that's a big mistake

45:34that they would do that. If you're ever

45:35in a situation where a dictator is

45:37asking for a second 1-year term,

45:40say no. Be polite about it. Guillotine

45:42him. Whatever it takes. Don't let him do

45:44it. Anyway, they let him do it. Here's

45:47what Napoleon does. He gets up in front

45:49of French people,

45:50and I'm I'm oversimplifying and I'm

45:52summarizing, but right?

45:54This is essentially what he does. He

45:56says, "Do you know why we just had the

45:58most amazing revolution in human

45:59history?" And it was an amazing

46:02revolution. There's no two ways about

46:03it. They they changed the way they did

46:06art.

46:07They switched to metric.

46:09First country on earth to do it.

46:13He says that revolution was possible

46:17because you are French.

46:20Because you are French,

46:22you are of superior human stock than

46:25anybody else on the planet.

46:29In other words,

46:31that revolution was only possible for

46:33the French.

46:36Which is really sad if you're Polish

46:39or German or Spanish or Egyptian or

46:42Turkish or English cuz you'll never be

46:44able to have a revolution like this.

46:47So it's our duty

46:50as superior French people

46:53to export our revolution.

46:56All of a sudden, all that revolutionary

46:59fervor that they couldn't stamp out

47:02forms into armies and the next thing you

47:04they know they're invading Italy,

47:06they're invading Germany, they're

47:08attacking Austria, they're attacking

47:10Prussia, they're invading and conquering

47:13Spain, they're invading Egypt. They go

47:16on a 17-year-long

47:19rampage.

47:21And at one point, Napoleon, 1812, owned

47:25everything from Madrid to Moscow

47:28including Madrid and

47:30Moscow.

47:33How? The power of nationalism, the power

47:36of telling somebody they were superior

47:38to everybody else.

47:40He had awakened this monster

47:45that was there all along cuz nations had

47:47existed for thousands of years. It

47:49wasn't like he invented nations. He just

47:52framed it in such a way that all of a

47:54sudden he filled his soldiers with this

47:56fanatical desire to slaughter. Up until

47:59then, people just wanted to kill because

48:00you you worship the the the wrong

48:03imaginary friend.

48:05Right? Now, all of a sudden, they want

48:08to kill you because, well, you're not

48:09French.

48:12That army, that French army, went

48:15through Germany back and forth and back

48:19and forth. And I it sometimes it was

48:22retreating,

48:24sometimes it was coming back with a

48:26glorious victory, but those Germans felt

48:30like they were trampled.

48:33They felt like they were just run over

48:35by the French army over and over and

48:38over again.

48:40And it planted the seed of nationalism.

48:44The Germans began to think in the same

48:47way that the French were thinking, which

48:49was, "I am superior to everybody else

48:52because I am German." That's the

48:54toxicness of nationalism. If you believe

48:58you're superior, that means then,

49:01literally, everybody else is inferior.

49:05There is no form of nationalism that

49:08doesn't dehumanize

49:10the other.

49:12It doesn't exist. Like you're like, "No,

49:14no, I'm a nationalist and I don't do

49:15that." That's BS. If you're a

49:17nationalist, you think everybody else on

49:20the planet is subhuman. And only group

49:23that you think is fully human is your

49:25group. It's different from patriotism.

49:28If I say I'm a patriot, it means I love

49:29my country. I can love my country and

49:31not hate your country. I can love my

49:33country and enjoy its culture and its

49:34traditions and its blue bonnets or

49:36whatever national flower it is, right?

49:39And not want to go to your country and

49:40murder all of you. But if you're a

49:42nationalist, you should go to that

49:44country and murder them. They're

49:45subhuman. You're making the human

49:48species better by killing them.

49:52See?

49:55And like how you're going to let your

49:56daughter or your son mate with those

49:58subhuman creatures? And what if that

50:00happens? Ah,

50:02how will you ever overcome that having

50:05these little half-breed freaks running

50:07around?

50:08That's the problem with nationalism.

50:11But it's the seed Napoleon planted.

50:15I have a love-hate relationship with

50:16Napoleon. At some level, I really think

50:19he's amazing. And at another level, I'm

50:20like, "Ah, I hate you so much."

50:24Also,

50:26he was ethnically Italian. And so, it

50:28tugs at my nationalism.

50:32My Italian nationalism.

50:34Cuz I'm like,

50:35"Ah, look, the best French leader ever

50:37was actually an Italian."

50:40Anyway, so, although was Charlemagne

50:43better? How do you compare? I don't know

50:45how to compare. So, we're going to move

50:46on.

50:47Uh Charlemagne didn't own Moscow. Uh uh

50:53All right.

50:55So, in other words, by the time Bismarck

50:57is looking at

50:59Romanians and Slovakians and Czechs and

51:02Poles that are in the Austrian Empire,

51:06he's thinking in nationalistic terms.

51:09And he's already decided they are

51:11inferior to Germans. And so, that's why

51:14he makes the decision to leave it so

51:16that there are two Germanys.

51:18At that point, his next problem

51:21is in fact France.

51:24It turns out

51:26there's another state that's dreaming of

51:28becoming a another country that's

51:30dreaming of having a single state rule

51:32it.

51:33And that other country is none other

51:35than Italy.

51:37But Italy had a head start on Germany.

51:39Italy actually came into being in 1860.

51:43So, it's 11 years older than Germany.

51:46The problem was the Pope. The Pope had

51:48Rome. The Pope was the Duke of Rome.

51:52The Italians, by the way,

51:54just out of twist,

51:57the Italian nationalists who created

51:59Italy,

52:00um were the Sardinians.

52:03So, Sardinia, you know, the little

52:05island,

52:06that randomly is the thing that made

52:09Italy. Basically, the Sardinian army

52:11went on a rampage. It started in

52:13northern Italy, even though Sardinia is

52:16closer to Sicily than it is to northern

52:18Italy, and it just conquered its way

52:20down, and the last thing it conquered

52:21was Sicily.

52:23It couldn't conquer Rome because France

52:26had been protecting Rome since the since

52:28the 700s, and France wasn't going to

52:31stop that from hap- wasn't going to stop

52:34Rome from existing as an its own

52:36independent duchy with the Pope in

52:37charge. In other words,

52:40for Italy to get Rome, it would have to

52:42take out France. That wasn't on the

52:44table. Italy wasn't strong enough to do

52:46that.

52:47So, Italy had to accept that Florence

52:49was its capital, and it had to accept

52:51that it didn't own Italy uh it didn't

52:53own Rome. How weird would that be if

52:56that had continued?

52:58Bismarck

53:00is going to attack France in 1871

53:04because that's the third piece he needs

53:06to knock out.

53:08He attacks France. He goes all the way

53:11to the outskirts of Paris. The French

53:13go, "We're done. We surrender."

53:16He carves off Alsace-Lorraine from from

53:19the from the from the French, adds it to

53:21Germany, and makes Germany the German

53:24Empire is born. But, because the French

53:26are reeling from this war with the

53:28Prussians,

53:29the Italians realize this is their

53:31chance, and they invade and conquer

53:32Rome. So, in 1871,

53:35Italy annexes Rome, makes it its

53:37capital. Uh the Pope is furious. The

53:39Pope will drive the Italians absolutely

53:42nuts for the next 51 years. I'm trying

53:45to remember when the Vatican City was

53:47created. In 50 something years,

53:49what happens is finally Benito

53:51Mussolini, sick of hearing the Pope

53:53insist that he get a state

53:56carved the Vatican City out and went,

53:59"Here, it's yours. We're keeping the

54:01rest of Rome. Please be quiet now." And

54:03so that's how the the Pope got his own

54:06little state back.

54:07For the record, if you've ever asked the

54:09question, "How is it that Italy didn't

54:11end up with San Marino?" Right? It's

54:13that little

54:14piece that little independent state, the

54:16Italian nationalist armies, whenever

54:18they got in trouble, or Italian

54:20individual nationalist, whenever they

54:22got in trouble, would escape to San

54:23Marino, and San Marino gave them refuge.

54:28So when Italy formed, Italy

54:32said, "Since you were so good to us, we

54:35won't invade you and conquer you and

54:37annex you

54:38as

54:39com- compensation for having helped us

54:42create Italy." So San Marino went, "Oh,

54:44thank you."

54:48I'm so I'm so confused by this. Wait, so

54:51you wanted the Italians to form Italy,

54:54but you didn't want to be a part of it?

54:55Why did you help them?

54:58Did you know they weren't going to

54:59backstab you? How did you know? And

55:01besides, you're ethnically Italian. Like

55:02you speak Italian, you're Italians. I

55:04don't understand. But anyway, that's

55:06what happened. So that's why San Marino

55:08is independent. It was a

55:10It was just to say thank you. Um

55:15there's another thing that we need to

55:16put on the table here.

55:18That thing was the revolution

55:21that took place actually before there

55:23was an Italy and a Germany, the

55:25revolution of 1848.

55:28So the revolution 1848

55:31took place in every country on the

55:33planet. I'm sorry, every country that's

55:36Delete that completely. Took place in

55:38every country in Europe. That was my

55:40Eurocentrism coming through probably.

55:42Um it took place in every country in

55:44Europe except the British Empire, the

55:48Russian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire.

55:51It's easier to just do the exceptions

55:53cuz it's literally everything else.

55:55And Brazil

55:58and Sri Lanka.

56:01If it feels weird,

56:03it is. Like I

56:04At one point Sri Lanka was a Portuguese

56:07colony, but then it ended up a Dutch

56:09colony, and then the British took it

56:10from the Dutch. So, it's a Dutch It's a

56:12British colony at that moment. Nowhere

56:14else in the British Empire is the 1848

56:16revolution taking place except Sri

56:18Lanka, but then there's Brazil.

56:21Well, I don't understand. Anyway, that's

56:22what happened.

56:24The 1848 pan-global revolution that took

56:27place in South America, Asia, and

56:28Europe.

56:30Only barely Asia,

56:32but still it did take place in Asia.

56:36had two different

56:39forces pushing it.

56:41One was a nationalist force.

56:43And one of the goals of that nationalist

56:45force was to create Germany and to

56:47create Italy. And they failed. And then

56:50a few years later, Italy does succeed,

56:53and then a few years after that Germany

56:54does succeed, but not in 1848.

56:57Another force though

57:00that was driving the 1848 revolutions

57:04across Europe was a force was the

57:07working class. It was a socialist

57:09movement.

57:11And the socialists would go into the

57:13cities, they'd capture the factories,

57:16they'd barricade them, and they'd try to

57:18hold on to them in an effort to force

57:21some of the states that they were

57:22fighting in to go socialist.

57:25In every single case, nationalist and

57:29socialist. By the way, it's the year

57:31Karl Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto

57:33because he thought that was the

57:35direction the winds were blowing and so

57:37he drew he he drafted the Communist

57:39Manifesto to inspire the socialist parts

57:41of this revolution.

57:43Everywhere

57:45everybody lost except Sweden. Well, the

57:48kingdom of Norway king the kingdom of

57:50Sweden Norway because there was it was

57:53it was unified at the time.

57:55In Sweden Norway, the king went to the

57:58working class and said you're my people,

58:01I serve you.

58:04You're clearly mad. You captured this

58:05factory. What's the compromise? The

58:09compromise they came up with was to

58:11create to was to hand Parliament

58:14basically over to the people through a

58:16democratic election process and to pull

58:19the rug out from the rich so that the

58:21rich didn't have too much power with the

58:23goal that Sweden and the also Norway

58:26because they'll break away but they were

58:28part of the original deal and they kept

58:30the they've kept doing it anyway.

58:32That Sweden would slowly evolve

58:36through the electoral process into a

58:39socialist state and by slowly like it's

58:42a 300-year long project that they're 175

58:46years into.

58:48In other words, they're thinking

58:50in a large scale.

58:53And then you ask yourself, well, let's

58:55see. Sweden's a tiny country of 11

58:58million people but it has one of the

58:59largest economies on the planet. It was

59:02the first industrialized state to get

59:04out of the

59:05the depression that we triggered in

59:072008.

59:08It has some of the highest happiness

59:10levels of any country on the planet.

59:16And they've been slowly working on a

59:19socialist project.

59:21Could Bernie be right? And then and then

59:25And no, no, of course not. And then you

59:26move on.

59:28The reason that mattered,

59:30well, since we're in Texas, the 1848

59:33Revolution, a bunch of Germans moved

59:35here in the aftermath. Because they were

59:38after being defeated, they decided, "I'm

59:41going to Texas."

59:43of all places. And so Central Texas

59:45ended up with this huge German settle

59:47population. By the way, a bunch of

59:48Czechs also came. So Central Texas ended

59:50up with this large Czech population as

59:52well. Most of those Germans and Czechs,

59:55they some of them had started to think

59:57in nationalist lines, but most of them

59:59were socialists.

1:00:01Ironically enough,

1:00:03since a lot of Texans today are

1:00:05actually, you know, at least partly

1:00:07related to those Germans, I want you to

1:00:10know that those Germans who were

1:00:11socialists would hate your guts today. I

1:00:13just Your ancestors who moved here in

1:00:17the middle of the 19th century would not

1:00:19like the Texas they see today, just to

1:00:21be clear. Because Texas has gone far

1:00:25right, and they were far left.

1:00:29Just to be clear.

1:00:31So in other words, the 1848 Revolution

1:00:34is telegraphing these two forces

1:00:39that are starting to actually shape

1:00:41Europe in a way that is pushing us in

1:00:45the direction of a World War I.

1:00:48There are these nationalist forces,

1:00:50socialist forces, capitalism is in play,

1:00:53industrialization is in play. Like

1:00:54there's all these pieces moving

1:00:56together.

1:00:58In 1871,

1:01:00when the German Empire is created,

1:01:04it's already a super industrialized,

1:01:06very well-developed power.

1:01:09Bismarck takes the money that the German

1:01:11state has and then pumps it into the

1:01:14economy and starts developing Germany

1:01:17even more.

1:01:18So that Germany is born as a superpower.

1:01:23Which when you think about it is

1:01:25probably really jarring because normally

1:01:28a state has to work its way into

1:01:30superpower status. But the Germans don't

1:01:33have to do that because they were

1:01:34already on this path of super

1:01:36industrialization.

1:01:39So, by the time we get into the 1880s,

1:01:43Germany's

1:01:44decade old.

1:01:46It's already starting to look

1:01:49towards playing a role in global

1:01:51colonization.

1:01:53By 1880,

1:01:55France and Britain had carved up most of

1:01:58Africa and Asia.

1:02:01Their empires were so successful

1:02:04that the French were trying to get from

1:02:06West Africa to East Africa and have a

1:02:08connected thing. And the British were

1:02:10trying to get from North Africa to South

1:02:12Africa and have a connected thing. Like

1:02:13they they were competing with your each

1:02:15other to see which guy would cross

1:02:16Africa first.

1:02:18And the French had conquered most of

1:02:20West Africa. The British had Southern

1:02:22Africa and then in 1882 they grabbed

1:02:24Egypt. And when they grabbed Egypt,

1:02:26Egypt had colonized the Sudan. So, they

1:02:30they they ended up with the Sudan also

1:02:32in the process.

1:02:34And so,

1:02:36um the Germans in 1882, the same year,

1:02:40are like, "Hey, what about us? We're

1:02:42late to the show. We want a piece.

1:02:46We'd like a piece of the pie."

1:02:48Queen Victoria, being the person that

1:02:50she was, was really eager to not just

1:02:55keep the British Empire in place, but to

1:02:58always play a role, an influential role.

1:03:01Her her thinking was through familial

1:03:04ties, through diplomatic connections,

1:03:07she could make Germany into an ally.

1:03:10When the Germans defeated the French in

1:03:121871,

1:03:14they isolated France from the rest of

1:03:16the world. They turned France into kind

1:03:19of like a pariah state.

1:03:20And in that moment, the British saw

1:03:23France as their ancient bitter rival

1:03:26that they hated so much. So, they saw

1:03:29the new Germany as a potential ally.

1:03:32To give you an idea how successful

1:03:34Victoria was, when World War I does

1:03:36happen, the king of England, the German

1:03:39Kaiser, and the Tsar in Russia, all

1:03:42three were her grandsons.

1:03:45She had successfully married into the

1:03:48royal families of these European states.

1:03:50She herself was 100% German. The The

1:03:53Romanovs were Germans with a little bit

1:03:55of Swedish mixed in them.

1:03:57Uh so, it wasn't weird, right, that they

1:03:59were they were marrying into the like

1:04:02the Kaiser's family. But,

1:04:04that was what her idea was. So, she made

1:04:08deals with the Germans to gift them

1:04:10territory in Africa that the English had

1:04:12been working on. So, Germany got

1:04:15Tanganyika.

1:04:16The British got Zanzibar and Kenya.

1:04:19And then the Germans got Togoland. They

1:04:21got Southwest Südwestafrika, Southwest

1:04:24Africa. It's today Namibia.

1:04:26And then the Germans got uh so, they

1:04:29split the island of New Guinea

1:04:32three ways. Uh the British got the

1:04:34southern

1:04:36uh

1:04:36eastern

1:04:38quarter, and they added it to Australia.

1:04:41The Germans got the northeastern quarter

1:04:44that became part of and they also got

1:04:46the Solomon Archipelago. They put that

1:04:49together, the Bismarck Archipelago,

1:04:51Solomon Islands.

1:04:53Um and then the the other half of New

1:04:56Guinea went to the Dutch. So, they were

1:04:58doing things like that where they were

1:04:59putting Germany into the system.

1:05:02Uh the Germans also got a group of

1:05:04islands in the Pacific, including uh

1:05:06Samoa. And then, uh we got American

1:05:09Samoa. So, we split Samoa with Germany.

1:05:14By the 1890s,

1:05:16the German Empire

1:05:19was no longer this potential ally as

1:05:22much as the English had hoped. The

1:05:24English is starting to get nervous.

1:05:26Germany's growing too quickly. Its

1:05:28economy is too big and it's starting to

1:05:30build a navy. The British are nervous

1:05:33about Germany having a navy because the

1:05:35Germans could then rival the British

1:05:38navy.

1:05:39So they're they're starting to get

1:05:41really worried because there's a group

1:05:44of islands in the dead center of the

1:05:46Pacific that the British had been

1:05:48working on taking over.

1:05:50Hawaii.

1:05:53The British had been working on taking

1:05:54it over. The Japanese

1:05:57had been working on getting it, too.

1:05:59And the Germans now have their eyes on

1:06:02it.

1:06:03The Japanese

1:06:05are also a new player in this story.

1:06:08So they have the Meiji Restoration in

1:06:101867.

1:06:12Prior to that, it was the Tokugawa

1:06:15Shogunate that ruled Japan. So if you

1:06:18roll the clock back to uh before 1500,

1:06:22so let's make it

1:06:24uh 600 years ago. We'll make it 1423.

1:06:27There was no Japanese state. There were

1:06:30all these tiny little daimyo, these

1:06:32these warlords who owned random chunks

1:06:36of Japan. There was an official emperor.

1:06:39He was in Kyoto.

1:06:41And these warlords, these daimyo would

1:06:43go to war with each other periodically

1:06:45to try to create Japan and then they

1:06:48would be defeated. They it wouldn't

1:06:49work.

1:06:51Finally, in the 1500s,

1:06:53there's this crazy daimyo. I won't go

1:06:56into the all the details, but it's an

1:06:59amazing epic story. He's this just

1:07:01bloodthirsty bastard. He starts

1:07:03conquering Japan. He gets assassinated.

1:07:07The guy who assassinates him takes over

1:07:09Japan briefly, but then in an act of

1:07:12vengeance, the number two for the crazy

1:07:13daimyo kills him. He takes over Japan

1:07:17and

1:07:18big chunk of Japan, not the whole thing,

1:07:20but they've almost completely finished

1:07:22conquering. His number two is a Tokugawa

1:07:25Ieyasu. Tokugawa Ieyasu then takes over

1:07:28with the death of this guy and he

1:07:31completes the conquest of Japan and

1:07:35unifies it. His capital was Edo.

1:07:39They rename Edo after Tokugawa Ieyasu

1:07:44and it becomes Tokyo.

1:07:48So, in a way, he creates the modern

1:07:51state of Japan.

1:07:52Having said that though, the shogun is

1:07:55the military dictator of Japan. He's not

1:07:58the emperor. There's still an emperor.

1:08:02And so, in other words, the samurai

1:08:04ruled Japan, the samurai being the

1:08:06warrior class. So, it wasn't ruled by a

1:08:09political class.

1:08:11And that will continue to be the case

1:08:13all the way until 350 years later with

1:08:18the Meiji rest- less than 350 years

1:08:20later with the Meiji restoration.

1:08:23When that happens, the emperor takes

1:08:26Japan over and the

1:08:29Tokugawa shogunate is terminated. It's

1:08:31stopped.

1:08:33At that point then, Japan decides to

1:08:35modernize. So, remember the Commodore

1:08:38Perry story where Commodore Perry pulls

1:08:40up and he says, "You have two options.

1:08:42You can trade with us or see these guns

1:08:44on this ship."

1:08:46The Japanese

1:08:48are traumatized by that moment. What

1:08:51they've

1:08:52What they've realized is that their

1:08:53their two and a half centuries, not

1:08:55three and a half centuries, two and a

1:08:56half centuries of isolation have messed

1:08:59them up. The reason they did the two and

1:09:02a half centuries of isolation is first

1:09:05the Portuguese arrived.

1:09:07And when the Portuguese arrived, they

1:09:09they went to uh Hiroshima. There's an

1:09:12island off the coast of Hiroshima and

1:09:13they set up a base

1:09:15in Japan.

1:09:17Yeah, we nuked it. In case you were

1:09:19like, "Wait, Hiroshima? That sounds very

1:09:20familiar." That's we nuked it.

1:09:24The Dutch end up taking over the base.

1:09:27Well, the thing that the Dutch and the

1:09:28Portuguese liked to trade to the

1:09:30Japanese more than anything else,

1:09:32firearms. So, the Japanese end up going

1:09:35from killing each other with with swords

1:09:38and those those really cool glaves. I

1:09:40don't know what they're called. They're

1:09:41they're a pole arm with a

1:09:43like a sword on the end. I love that. I

1:09:45just want to like you just stab somebody

1:09:47long distance. It's just Anyway, very

1:09:50exciting.

1:09:51Um and then right, the katana. And

1:09:53they're they're butchering each other in

1:09:55a very intimate kind of face-to-face

1:09:57way. Well, not the archery. That's

1:09:59obviously not so intimate. But anyway,

1:10:02all of a sudden they're using firearms

1:10:03and they're massacring each other. They

1:10:05freak out about this. And they decide

1:10:09two things. One, Christianity is evil.

1:10:12So, they murder all the Japanese

1:10:13converts to Christianity. They just

1:10:15massacre them. They throw the Dutch and

1:10:17the Portuguese out completely. And then

1:10:20the other thing they decide is they

1:10:21don't want to modernize because

1:10:22modernization clearly means

1:10:25shooting each other and they don't want

1:10:26to do that.

1:10:27So, they go into this period of

1:10:29isolation. Commodore Perry shows up.

1:10:32The US Navy shows up, points its guns at

1:10:35Japan and says, "No. No more isolation."

1:10:38The Japanese decide never again will

1:10:40they allow somebody to bully them like

1:10:42that.

1:10:43And so, they they go into

1:10:45hyper-industrialization

1:10:46mode. Their goal is to industrialize as

1:10:49fast as they can so that they can become

1:10:52a global superpower to compete with the

1:10:54European powers, to compete with the

1:10:56United States.

1:10:58They're thinking

1:11:01they can they can colonize locally. One

1:11:03of the dreams that they had was to take

1:11:06Korea. In fact, before Tokugawa Ieyasu

1:11:09took over, the previous shogun had

1:11:12actually invaded Korea with the

1:11:14intention of conquering it and was

1:11:16defeated. It was a disaster.

1:11:18So, the Japanese invade Korea and they

1:11:20conquer.

1:11:21They invade Taiwan and they conquer

1:11:23that, too. They're now in the process of

1:11:25building themselves a little bit of an

1:11:26empire in East Asia. If they can get

1:11:30Hawaii, it'll be a huge victory for

1:11:33them.

1:11:34The British are allied with them. So,

1:11:36the British aren't completely against

1:11:38the idea of the Japanese grabbing

1:11:39Hawaii.

1:11:41But,

1:11:42they're really worried about the Germans

1:11:44getting it. They're happy

1:11:47to let anybody have it but the Germans.

1:11:50Because by the point by that point, by

1:11:511895, when it looks like Germany is

1:11:54going to make a play for Hawaii, the

1:11:56British are nervous.

1:11:58In the end, we make the play.

1:12:01Um there's a guy, Samuel B. Dole.

1:12:04Dole as in Dole pineapple. That's not a

1:12:07coincidence. That's his company. He

1:12:09really is that guy. That's that's that

1:12:12guy.

1:12:13He He's in California. He hires a group

1:12:16of mercenaries. They're Marines. He

1:12:18hires a group of Marines to be

1:12:20mercenaries for them. He loads them up

1:12:22up on a ship. He goes to Hawaii. He

1:12:24overthrows the queen. He takes over the

1:12:26islands. The next year, the United

1:12:28States annexes it because the British

1:12:30are basically like, "Yeah, go for it. At

1:12:32least the Germans aren't getting it." If

1:12:34you've ever looked at Hawaii's flag,

1:12:37it's red, white, and blue stripes, which

1:12:39I've always thought were weird. And in

1:12:41the left-hand corner is the Union Jack,

1:12:45the British flag.

1:12:47It's because the British almost got it.

1:12:51Like, it was that close.

1:12:53So, now we have

1:12:58So,

1:13:00the British now find themselves in this

1:13:02really strange situation because they're

1:13:04now in an increasingly multipolar

1:13:07world. Up until the the rise of the

1:13:11Japanese economy, up until the explosion

1:13:14of the US economy, up until German

1:13:16unification, it was a bipolar polar

1:13:19world. It was the British Empire and the

1:13:22French Empire. I mean, there was the

1:13:24Russian Empire and it played a really

1:13:26important role in the Napoleonic Wars,

1:13:30but it was so isolated and so

1:13:33economically backwards nobody took it

1:13:34very seriously.

1:13:36So, it really just had sort of been the

1:13:39British and the French carving up the

1:13:40world cuz the Spanish had already fallen

1:13:42apart, the Portuguese were a British

1:13:44ally. They were for all intents and

1:13:46purposes a British vassal state actually

1:13:48at this point. So, for for the British

1:13:52mind, they didn't have a lot of powers

1:13:55to to look to. The Prussians put the

1:13:57French down in 1871, the British like,

1:14:00you did our work for us, thanks.

1:14:03And now all of a sudden they realize

1:14:05it's a multipolar world.

1:14:07There's a Japanese Empire, United States

1:14:09Empire, a German Empire. There's this

1:14:11new Kingdom of Italy on the scene. It's

1:14:14not especially powerful, but it's it's

1:14:16it's start starting to look towards

1:14:18doing something.

1:14:20For example, it invades Ethiopia in the

1:14:2418, sorry, 1980, sorry, it is the 1880s.

1:14:27The 1880s,

1:14:29it's a disaster. The Italians are

1:14:31humiliated and defeated, but

1:14:33the Italians will grab a piece of

1:14:35Somalia and they do grab Eritrea.

1:14:38And then they'll invade Ethiopia again

1:14:40later. And they'll defeat Ethiopia the

1:14:42second time, but the first time it's

1:14:44this humiliating route.

1:14:46And in the process now, the British are

1:14:49trying to figure out how to navigate

1:14:52because they're not used to this

1:14:55like we are now because now it is a

1:15:00multipolar world.

1:15:02Right? The Russians aren't the big

1:15:04player they used to be, but now the

1:15:06Chinese are the big player. And then the

1:15:08Indians have become a big player.

1:15:10Brazil's an important player even if

1:15:12it's not a big player. It's now become

1:15:14the strange multipolar world. Germany is

1:15:16remilitarizing. Japan is remilitarizing.

1:15:20So, officially Japan is not

1:15:22remilitarizing. They had a

1:15:24constitutional amendment they voted on a

1:15:26few years ago uh 4 years ago

1:15:29uh to allow them to officially

1:15:31remilitarize. Japan has never

1:15:35amended its constitution.

1:15:37That that amendment failed. It went

1:15:39down.

1:15:40And uh so officially they haven't

1:15:43remilitarized. But they built a

1:15:46destroyer.

1:15:48The destroyer has a flat surface on it.

1:15:51Planes can land on that flat surface.

1:15:54And they named it after a World War II

1:15:56aircraft carrier.

1:15:59If I call an aircraft carrier a

1:16:01destroyer, does it make it not an

1:16:04aircraft carrier?

1:16:07I don't I don't know. Seems fuzzy to me.

1:16:10In other words, the Japanese

1:16:12are ignoring their constitution now and

1:16:14building offensive weapons like aircraft

1:16:16carriers. Like just think about it. An

1:16:17aircraft carrier is totally offensive

1:16:18weapon. I want to be able to use my

1:16:21airplanes near you. How do I get them to

1:16:24you? I'm going to have a mobile airport

1:16:27on the sea.

1:16:29There's no reason to do that if you're

1:16:30defensive. Japan is already an aircraft

1:16:33carrier.

1:16:35So, if they were just defending

1:16:36themselves, they don't need to build

1:16:37aircraft carriers. I think they have two

1:16:39now. Izumo was the first one. I don't I

1:16:42could be wrong about the second one.

1:16:44Germany of course is remilitarized

1:16:47mostly after Russia invaded Ukraine.

1:16:50They decided okay.

1:16:51But it wasn't just that. It was also

1:16:53President Trump. Germany decided the

1:16:55United States is an unreliable ally.

1:16:58And then Germany decided Russia's too

1:17:00dangerous not to remilitarize. Somebody

1:17:02has to protect Europe. It's not clear

1:17:04the United States will be that guy. So

1:17:06it has to be Germany. So that So we're

1:17:08back into the small bipolar world, which

1:17:11is sort of where my alarm bells are

1:17:13starting to go off. Cuz multipolar

1:17:15worlds then it means one big actor makes

1:17:18a mistake and the next thing you know,

1:17:20we're we're in a pan-global

1:17:23conflagration.

1:17:25So

1:17:27by the time we cross the threshold into

1:17:29the into the 20th century, by the time

1:17:32it's the 1900s,

1:17:35Britain is no longer seeing Germany as

1:17:37this benign thing.

1:17:40And they get into an arms race against

1:17:42each other.

1:17:43Germany will build a dreadnought.

1:17:46Basically the battleship of the time.

1:17:49When they build it, Britain will build

1:17:51two.

1:17:52Well, that panics the Germans because

1:17:54now they've

1:17:56they're behind. So they immediately

1:17:58respond by building another one. And

1:18:00when they build another one, the British

1:18:01build two. So the Germans go, "Oh crap."

1:18:04And they build another one. And then the

1:18:06British build two.

1:18:07The reason the British are building two

1:18:09is they want to first make sure they can

1:18:11maintain superiority. So they want the

1:18:13numerical superiority, but also they're

1:18:16nervous about quality.

1:18:18They're just assuming that the Germans

1:18:20are going to have better quality

1:18:21equipment. So they have they feel like

1:18:23they have to have

1:18:25superiority to defeat the Germans.

1:18:27And they as they're doing this, both

1:18:30economies are starting to get harmed.

1:18:33You can't keep spending money like that

1:18:37and expect your economy not to get start

1:18:39to get damaged. And it and it starts to

1:18:41hurt both Germany and Britain.

1:18:43So, the British are starting to wonder

1:18:45how this arms race ends.

1:18:48It's starting to get too complicated.

1:18:50On top of that,

1:18:53there's this weird alliance system that

1:18:55goes into place.

1:18:57So, Italy signs

1:18:59a treaty with Germany, Austria-Hungary,

1:19:03and the Ottoman Empire.

1:19:05And then, Italy turns around and signs a

1:19:07treaty with France, Russia, and Great

1:19:10Britain. So, Italy's in both alliances.

1:19:14Which Which is right.

1:19:17And the reason why this matters is it

1:19:19didn't start that way. Initially, the

1:19:22French were isolated. They couldn't get

1:19:23into any alliance block. The reason why

1:19:26they get into an alliance block is the

1:19:28British go, "Okay, Germany's the real

1:19:29threat, not France. Okay, let's make an

1:19:32alliance block with the French." The

1:19:34French were really insistent that the

1:19:36Russians be part of it. So, before you

1:19:37know it, that's that alliance block.

1:19:40That becomes extremely dangerous because

1:19:43the individual states also have

1:19:46alliances with other states. For

1:19:49example, Russia has an alliance with

1:19:51Serbia.

1:19:52And then, Germany has an alliance with

1:19:54Bulgaria. And Britain has an alliance

1:19:57with Japan and the United States and and

1:19:58the Netherlands for that matter. In

1:20:00other words, it's not just that there's

1:20:02this alliance block with these powers,

1:20:05it's an alliance block with all these

1:20:06little pieces on it. So, if one thing

1:20:10goes wrong anywhere,

1:20:13it could trigger the big stuff to go

1:20:16wrong as well.

1:20:19To make things more complicated, the

1:20:20Ottoman Empire is coming apart.

1:20:23So, the Ottoman Empire um had been a

1:20:27global superpower to the point where it

1:20:29had the best military on the planet, man

1:20:31for man.

1:20:32Um it it had a huge military. It I owned

1:20:36a huge chunk of Europe. It owned all of

1:20:38North Africa. It vassal state Morocco

1:20:41was a vassal state. It didn't annex

1:20:43Morocco. But it But still, it was a

1:20:45vassal state. So, it it took all of

1:20:47North Africa. It had the the Middle East

1:20:49minus Iran.

1:20:51Um and this superpower was crumbling. It

1:20:54was coming apart piece by piece, piece

1:20:56by piece. And it it got into real

1:20:58trouble after Napoleon had invaded

1:21:01Egypt. Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798.

1:21:05In the aftermath of that, an Albanian

1:21:07general named Muhammad Ali, Mehmet Ali,

1:21:10uh took an Ottoman army. He invaded

1:21:13Crete.

1:21:14Crete was part of the Ottoman Empire. He

1:21:16captured it for himself to rule it as

1:21:18his own. He's a general in the Ottoman

1:21:20army.

1:21:22And he has an Ottoman unit.

1:21:25And he captures Crete.

1:21:28It would be like if the governor of

1:21:29Arkansas

1:21:30invaded Rhode Island and took it. You're

1:21:33like, wait, what? You can't do that.

1:21:35Uh and then he decides I can do better.

1:21:38He invades and captures Egypt.

1:21:41And he's ruling Egypt. And the Ottoman

1:21:43Empire is like, "What are you doing?"

1:21:45And then next thing He didn't speak any

1:21:47Arabic, right? And his troops are all

1:21:48Albanians, so they don't They they

1:21:51barely know Turkish. And they're trying

1:21:52to rule Egypt. And then he's like, "You

1:21:54know what? I'm going to keep going." He

1:21:55invades Palestine. He goes into Syria.

1:21:58He goes into Anatolia, what is today

1:22:00Turkey. And he's conquering his way

1:22:02towards towards Constantinople, towards

1:22:04Istanbul. And the Turks go, "Wait,

1:22:06stop." And they make a deal. And they

1:22:08allow him basically to own most of what

1:22:11he conquered. And then they they they

1:22:15settle out after that. But now it means

1:22:17that effectively Egypt is a

1:22:18semi-independent state within the

1:22:21Ottoman Empire. Eventually, it decides

1:22:24to create its own empire. It attacks and

1:22:26conquers Sudan. It actually sent an army

1:22:28into Uganda. They They withdraw. They

1:22:31send an army to Somalia, they're

1:22:33defeated. But like there's like an

1:22:35empire with an empire within an empire

1:22:37trying to create itself while the bigger

1:22:40empire is starting to crumble and come

1:22:42apart at the seams.

1:22:44Uh the French capture Algeria in 1830.

1:22:47And And so the the empire is just

1:22:49disintegrating. Greece gets its

1:22:51independence in the 1850s.

1:22:54And as pieces are coming off, one of the

1:22:56pieces in the middle of all of this was

1:22:58a chunk of Muslim Europe, Bosnia and

1:23:01Herzegovina.

1:23:04The There's a war

1:23:06between a group of Balkan states and

1:23:10European states in the Ottoman Empire.

1:23:12In the aftermath of this in 1878,

1:23:17Austria-Hungary

1:23:18will will take control of Bosnia and

1:23:22Herzegovina. It's

1:23:24It's officially still part of the

1:23:26Ottoman Empire. So on paper it says

1:23:28Ottoman Empire, but in reality now it

1:23:31belongs to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

1:23:34They will rule

1:23:36uh

1:23:37Bosnia and Herzegovina until they annex

1:23:39it 30 years later.

1:23:41When they annex it, it pisses everybody

1:23:44off because the the idea was that it

1:23:47would be a protectorate that they ruled,

1:23:49but they didn't own it. It still

1:23:51belonged to the Ottoman Empire. And they

1:23:52annexed it unilaterally. They didn't

1:23:54negotiate with other powers to see if it

1:23:56was okay.

1:23:58And the reason why this matters, of

1:23:59course, is because in the meantime

1:24:01there's Serbia.

1:24:03So Serbia is independent. It breaks away

1:24:05from the Ottoman Empire. Serbia is

1:24:07mostly Serbian Orthodox.

1:24:10Bosnia is mostly Muslim, although it had

1:24:12a huge Catholic and a huge Serbian

1:24:15Orthodox population. And then Croatia,

1:24:17which the Ottoman with the

1:24:18Austro-Hungarian Empire had already

1:24:21annexed, was Catholic.

1:24:24The reason I'm spelling it out like this

1:24:26is because the Bosnians, the Croats, and

1:24:29the Serbs are exactly identically the

1:24:31same people.

1:24:33They speak the exact same language.

1:24:36There are some regional dialectical

1:24:37differences, but it is the exact same

1:24:39language.

1:24:42Uh

1:24:43German has more variation than those

1:24:45three languages have from each other.

1:24:47They They look the same. They're

1:24:49genetically the same. You can't tell

1:24:50them apart. 23andMe can't differentiate

1:24:53them. Um they're culturally the same.

1:24:56They lived even though Bosnia had more

1:24:58Muslims, there were Muslims living in

1:25:00Serbia, and there were Serbians living

1:25:01in Bosnia. They were intermingled.

1:25:04They They were literally neighbors. It

1:25:06wasn't that there was a you know, there

1:25:07was a Serbian neighborhood and a Bosnian

1:25:09neighborhood. They were just completely

1:25:11intermingled. Their kids went to school

1:25:13together. They They They shopped at the

1:25:15same stores together.

1:25:17The only difference was their religion.

1:25:21And in a way, this sort of

1:25:24foretells the split in Europe because

1:25:27the Serbs

1:25:29the Serbian Orthodox were Orthodox

1:25:31Christians. The Croatians as Roman

1:25:34Catholics were

1:25:35had Roman Catholic names. Serbs had

1:25:38Slavic names. The Serbs saw themselves

1:25:42as an extension of a pan-Slavic state.

1:25:45They They thought of Russia as their

1:25:48friend. Russia is the big brother.

1:25:51Whereas the Croatians, because they were

1:25:53Catholic, were looking more towards

1:25:54Germany or Austria or Hungary, which was

1:25:58also Catholic, or Italy. Their Their

1:26:00influence was a little bit different.

1:26:01And then, of course, the Bosnians were

1:26:03looking towards Turkey because they were

1:26:05Muslim.

1:26:07So, when Austria annexes Bosnia, it

1:26:10takes that conversation to a different

1:26:13level because another thing that the

1:26:14Serbians are thinking is Serbian

1:26:17nationalism.

1:26:19They don't want Austria to own Croatia

1:26:23and Bosnia-Herzegovina

1:26:24because in the Serbian mind, even though

1:26:26they're different religion, they're

1:26:27still the same people. They want to see

1:26:29there be a pan-Serbian

1:26:32state that includes Croatians and

1:26:34Bosnians.

1:26:35And so for them, this is the ultimate

1:26:38violation. For Russia, it is, too,

1:26:40because Russia is thinking, "What if we

1:26:42could get Poland?" Cuz part of Poland is

1:26:44in in Germany and part of Poland is in

1:26:47Austria. What if we could get all of

1:26:49Poland? They're Slavs, we're Slavs. We

1:26:51have And then what if we could get

1:26:53Serbia and Croatia and Bosnia and

1:26:55Slovenia and Macedonia and Bulgaria and

1:26:57create and and Czechia and Slovakia and

1:27:01create a mega Slavic superstate?

1:27:05And so,

1:27:08long story short,

1:27:11the Archduke Franz Ferdinand goes to

1:27:14Sarajevo

1:27:15in 1914

1:27:18and he's shot.

1:27:20And then, of course, that the the person

1:27:23who shoots him

1:27:24is a Serbian assassin. So,

1:27:26Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.

1:27:30Serbia had that alliance with Russia, so

1:27:33Russia immediately declares war on

1:27:35Austria-Hungary. Germany had that

1:27:37alliance with Austria-Hungary, so

1:27:39Germany declares war on Russia. France

1:27:42and Britain had an alliance with Russia,

1:27:44France and Britain declare war on

1:27:45Germany. We just triggered World War I

1:27:50for the assassination of a a guy and his

1:27:52wife in a car in Sarajevo in

1:27:57Bosnia-Herzegovina.

1:27:59The city that the average person in the

1:28:00United States has never heard of.

1:28:03By the way, I just was there.

1:28:05I'm madly in love with Sarajevo. You

1:28:07should totally go. It's it's it's It's

1:28:10There's lots of cultural stuff. I I wish

1:28:13I had another like 3 weeks to explore.

1:28:16Um

1:28:17And by the way, it's still multi-ethnic.

1:28:19For those of you know this, there was a

1:28:21nasty civil war from '92 to '96 where

1:28:24Bosnian Serbs and Croats murdered each

1:28:26other wholesale.

1:28:27Um

1:28:28but it they didn't successfully

1:28:30completely ethnically cleanse. So, that

1:28:33was one of the things that I really

1:28:34liked about the city. Like we went to a

1:28:37synagogue, we went to a mosque, we went

1:28:39to a Catholic church, we went to an

1:28:41Orthodox church cuz it's all right

1:28:42there. And it One of the nicknames

1:28:45Sarajevo has is it's the Jerusalem of

1:28:47Europe because it's got all these

1:28:49religions mingled together in the same

1:28:51place.

1:28:52Um

1:28:54So,

1:28:55here's the thing.

1:28:58There's no doubt that the assassination

1:29:00of Franz Fer- Franz

1:29:02Ferdinand caused

1:29:05the World War I because it's the trigger

1:29:08that

1:29:09causes the cascade of the alliances.

1:29:12But, it's not the real cause.

1:29:16You know what I'm saying?

1:29:17Like it doesn't make sense. People are

1:29:19assassinated all the time. It doesn't

1:29:22trigger world wars.

1:29:24This is going to be a global

1:29:25conflagration. This is going to be an

1:29:28epic war on a grand scale, an industrial

1:29:30super scale.

1:29:32There must have been something else

1:29:34driving it. And the something else was

1:29:37this.

1:29:38The British realized

1:29:40they couldn't keep doing

1:29:43the arms race with the Germans.

1:29:45Something had to give.

1:29:47Germany had made a calculation. They

1:29:49thought they were strong enough they

1:29:51might be able to take the British and

1:29:52the French and the Russians.

1:29:54But, right as the whole thing is

1:29:57starting to break apart, the German

1:29:59Kaiser goes, "I think we just made a

1:30:01mistake." He starts putting feelers out

1:30:04to see if he can get the British and the

1:30:05French to back down.

1:30:07and the British go, "No. No, we're doing

1:30:10this." And the reason is cuz the British

1:30:12need to sink the German navy.

1:30:14They've got to get it off the table

1:30:16because having to supersize their navy

1:30:19is wrecking their economy.

1:30:21They know that they can't sustain this.

1:30:24So, they need to do World War I to get

1:30:26that navy out of out of there. In other

1:30:28words,

1:30:30yeah, it was kind of a random event that

1:30:32triggered it, but the reality was that

1:30:35the British were gunning for this war.

1:30:37They wanted this war. They were happy

1:30:39that it happened finally because now

1:30:41they had the opportunity to put down the

1:30:43German navy.

1:30:44For Germany,

1:30:46their thinking was if they could defeat

1:30:48the British Empire or the French Empire

1:30:50or the Russian Empire or all three which

1:30:53would be better, they could become the

1:30:55global superpower to replace the British

1:30:57Empire.

1:30:58And then instead of it being the British

1:30:59exploiting Egypt and India and Canada,

1:31:02it might be the Germans doing it. So, in

1:31:04other words, what's at stake is there's

1:31:08the evil British Empire and the evil

1:31:10French Empire and the evil Russian

1:31:12Empire and the evil Austro-Hungarian

1:31:13Empire and then the upstart wannabe evil

1:31:17German Empire

1:31:18cuz they have evil goals, too.

1:31:21In other words, everybody's the bad guy

1:31:23in World War I. That's the fun thing

1:31:25about World War I. There's really no

1:31:27villain. There's just villains.

1:31:29There's There's just no good guy.

1:31:31Whereas World War II, right, it gets

1:31:35I mean, don't get me wrong. The Allies

1:31:36were also evil. It's just the Germans

1:31:38are so much more evil. The Japanese are

1:31:40so much more evil that it becomes like,

1:31:42"Wow, you actually almost look like good

1:31:44guys now." It's weird. It's weird. How

1:31:46could there have been somebody nastier

1:31:48than you?

1:31:50Anyway, so,

1:31:53the Germans don't convince the British

1:31:56to back down and the French to back

1:31:58down, so they're going to do this. And

1:32:00the Russians had actually invaded

1:32:01Prussia.

1:32:02So the Russians are the first of the

1:32:04superpowers to invade another

1:32:06superpower. They invaded Prussia.

1:32:08The They got a little ways in, the

1:32:10Germans swatted them out of the way. And

1:32:13the next thing you know, the Germans are

1:32:14pushing into the Russian Empire.

1:32:17The

1:32:18On the other side, the Germans invade

1:32:20Belgium and they swing through Belgium

1:32:22and their goal is to grab Paris right

1:32:25off the bat. And as they're heading to

1:32:27Paris, it looks like they're going to do

1:32:29it. It looks like they're going to pull

1:32:30this thing off. The the the British are

1:32:33sending soldiers as fast as they can to

1:32:35try to help the British hold on to

1:32:36Paris. The French are running out of

1:32:38soldiers so fast that the French

1:32:41actually ask every taxi cab driver in

1:32:45the country to pick up as many male

1:32:47passengers as they can and rush them to

1:32:51Paris so that they can put them in

1:32:53uniforms and stick a rifle in their hand

1:32:55and send them to the front line. So

1:32:57there's just taxi cab drivers driving

1:32:59from all parts of France trying to get

1:33:02soldiers to the front line in this

1:33:04desperate bid. Finally,

1:33:07as winter is starting to kick in, as

1:33:09fall is winding down, the German army

1:33:11has to stop.

1:33:13And the reason the German army had to

1:33:15stop wasn't just because the French and

1:33:17the British had finally reinforced. It

1:33:18was partly because of that. It was also

1:33:20because the German army had gotten so

1:33:23far in front of its supply lines. It had

1:33:26moved so quickly that it was literally

1:33:28running out of food and ammunition. They

1:33:30just simply couldn't push further. They

1:33:33had to wait for the supply trains to

1:33:35catch up with them.

1:33:36Once that happened, it was a disaster

1:33:41because at that point, the war stopped

1:33:43being a fluid moving war. Because while

1:33:46the Germans were waiting for supplies to

1:33:48show up, they start digging trenches to

1:33:50hold their position. Well, now that

1:33:52they've stopped advancing, the British

1:33:54and the French start digging trenches to

1:33:56protect their position and that becomes

1:33:59the way the war is going to be fought.

1:34:01It's going to become trench warfare.

1:34:04Up until the spring offensive of 1918.

1:34:07So, this is you know, the war starts in

1:34:09August, by by November they're building

1:34:11the trenches.

1:34:13Um so, you know, we're talking about 3

1:34:15and 1/2 years of trench warfare, brutal

1:34:17trench warfare.

1:34:21The The thing that's crazy about World

1:34:23War I

1:34:24is it's

1:34:27these old imperialist European

1:34:30superpowers

1:34:32mixed with it hyper industry.

1:34:35We had sort of glimpses of that in the

1:34:37American Civil War, but just faint

1:34:40glimpses. We didn't get the full

1:34:42picture.

1:34:43Once the two armies have dug these

1:34:45trenches, what both sides do is they

1:34:48bring up artillery pieces and begin to

1:34:50shell the fixed positions. Because think

1:34:54about it, once you're in a trench, if

1:34:55you dig a 10-ft deep trench,

1:34:58there's no way that I can shoot you.

1:35:01Right? If I come up to the If I put a

1:35:03ladder on the trench and I come up to

1:35:05the top and I aim and you're in the

1:35:07trench and you're on the other side, I

1:35:09can't get a bullet into that trench.

1:35:10There's just no way it's going to go in.

1:35:13The only way I could shoot you is if you

1:35:14popped your head up. Why would you pop

1:35:15your head up? You just stay in the

1:35:16trench.

1:35:18And so, at that point then, the only way

1:35:19to dig the guys out of the trench is to

1:35:22bring in artillery. So, they bring in

1:35:24these giant artillery pieces. Their

1:35:27Their artillery pieces are miles away.

1:35:29They take a shot, see where the thing

1:35:31lands. There's a guy in a forward

1:35:33position with a radio. He calls back to

1:35:35the artillery piece and adjusts the

1:35:38range and then they take another shot

1:35:40and they adjust the range until they got

1:35:42the trench and then they just They can

1:35:44do a bombardment. I I sent them a radio.

1:35:48So, Guglielmo Marconi invented the

1:35:51antenna.

1:35:53So, Nikola Tesla invented the radio.

1:35:57Guglielmo Marconi, the Italian inventor,

1:35:59invented the antenna in like 1920.

1:36:03Well, World War I is 1914 to 1918.

1:36:06When Nikola Tesla invented the radio, it

1:36:09was each radio was connected by a wire.

1:36:13There's no antennas putting this

1:36:15together. When I was a kid, I was taught

1:36:17that Guglielmo Marconi invented the

1:36:19radio.

1:36:21And then later on as an adult, I

1:36:22realized, "No, no, no, Tesla invented

1:36:24the radio. Marconi invented the

1:36:26antenna."

1:36:27Was that on purpose? Pretty sure I was

1:36:30intentionally mis-taught.

1:36:32Our our need to delete Nikola Tesla from

1:36:36history is really really kind of

1:36:38astounds me. Uh for the record, he was a

1:36:41Serb born in Croatia who traveled

1:36:45through Bosnia to go to Serbia.

1:36:50And then ended up moving to the United

1:36:51States and spent the majority of his

1:36:52life in the United States inventing

1:36:54stuff.

1:36:55Um and he was definitely a much more

1:36:57brilliant inventor than Thomas Edison

1:36:59ever was, but Edison won the business

1:37:02war. And at the end of the day, in

1:37:05capitalism, the guy who wins the

1:37:07business war is the winner.

1:37:09Regardless of who had the truth, who

1:37:11regardless who had the better

1:37:12inventions.

1:37:14Uh in other words, capitalism screws

1:37:16everything up.

1:37:17So.

1:37:21There's a wired radio call helping call

1:37:24in the artillery.

1:37:26And this is the situation it creates.

1:37:29So, let's say I'm in the trench. So, I'm

1:37:32in the the trench isn't very wide. Maybe

1:37:35it's, you know,

1:37:362 m wide, 3 m deep.

1:37:39So, it's very hard for artillery piece

1:37:42to hit that. It's too narrow of a

1:37:44target.

1:37:46So, what I'm doing with my artillery is

1:37:48I want to get in proximity and then

1:37:50create a bomb that when it explodes,

1:37:53it'll get you some other way. So, the

1:37:56obvious thing is shrapnel. When I

1:37:57detonate my bomb, pieces of metal go

1:38:00flying in every direction.

1:38:02And the metal, of course, is twisted.

1:38:04So, don't It's not like bullets where

1:38:05it's going to be clean. It's like

1:38:06twisted. So, it's

1:38:08flying through the air and the the hope

1:38:11is that some of it will catch you and

1:38:13and incapacitate you, if not, all right,

1:38:16kill you.

1:38:18The problem is in that trench,

1:38:20especially if I put a wiggle in the

1:38:21trench, so that it's not a straight

1:38:23line, even if I got the shell to hit

1:38:26directly,

1:38:27odds of the shrapnel catching you are

1:38:30still minimal.

1:38:32So, what ended up happening was the

1:38:33Germans invented concussion bombs. The

1:38:36idea behind it was the artillery piece

1:38:38would hit and it would create a

1:38:40catastrophic

1:38:41vacuum in the immediate area and that

1:38:44would cause air to violently rush back

1:38:48in and then that would be what would

1:38:50kill you. At that point, then I just

1:38:52need to get the shell to land near you.

1:38:54I don't even need to have the shrapnel

1:38:56hit you. I just got to get it in the

1:38:58proximity. So, then the way to solve

1:39:00that was to dig deeper trenches with

1:39:03tunnels underneath.

1:39:07I'm a soldier. I'm in the trench.

1:39:09I can't shoot back.

1:39:12Because as long as the other guys aren't

1:39:14crossing through no man's land and

1:39:16trying to get to me through no man's

1:39:18land, there's nothing to shoot at cuz

1:39:20they're in a trench.

1:39:22So, my goal as a soldier in the trench,

1:39:25since I can't fight, is to just not die.

1:39:29And then what the enemy is going to do

1:39:30is they're going to hit our trench with

1:39:33artillery not for a few minutes, not

1:39:36even for a few hours. Sometimes it'll go

1:39:37on for days, maybe two, three days. Just

1:39:42The human nervous system isn't designed

1:39:44for this. The human nervous system is

1:39:46designed for a quick problem, right? So,

1:39:49we're all Australopithecus.

1:39:51You know, we're like

1:39:53a uh a

1:39:54a scrawny 4-ft 6 creature on the veld in

1:39:58Africa somewhere, completely covered in

1:40:00hair, upright walking, possibly using

1:40:03tools.

1:40:05But, we're not apex predators. We're

1:40:08pretty well down on the pecking order.

1:40:11In other words, a lot of

1:40:13Australopithecus skeletons have been

1:40:15found inside caves that cougars were

1:40:18using to eat us when they would catch

1:40:20us.

1:40:21So, I'm

1:40:23I'm Australopithecus.

1:40:27My problem is that that leopard, that

1:40:31cat, when it sees me,

1:40:34I've I don't

1:40:36I don't have a lot of time to solve this

1:40:37problem.

1:40:39It's way faster than I am cuz I'm a

1:40:40biped, which sucks. If I had four legs,

1:40:44I could be a lot faster. Why am I a

1:40:46biped? So, I can carry stuff in my

1:40:48hands. So, I've got a stupid tool, but

1:40:51this thing has teeth and claws, and it's

1:40:54giant set of lungs, and it's coming at

1:40:57me.

1:40:58No matter what happens,

1:41:00this is probably going to get resolved

1:41:02within like a minute,

1:41:04one way or the other. I'm being dragged

1:41:05into the cave to be eaten, and maybe fed

1:41:09to some kittens.

1:41:10Or, I like climb the tree, and and as

1:41:14the the cat's climbing the tree to get

1:41:16to me, I'm using my club to smack at it,

1:41:18and I hurt it enough times that it

1:41:20finally goes, "Ah, fine. I'll go find

1:41:23something else to eat." and it leaves me

1:41:24alone. But, regardless,

1:41:27maybe the whole trauma is 5 minutes

1:41:30long.

1:41:32That's what our nervous system is

1:41:33designed to handle.

1:41:35Something that's a relatively quick

1:41:37event.

1:41:38So, when the shells start to fall,

1:41:42you're in the trench. You might even be

1:41:43in the bunker underneath. The ground is

1:41:45shaking. Boom

1:41:46boom right there IS THESE BOOM

1:41:48THESE explosions going off. And they're

1:41:50And the closer they are to you, the

1:41:52louder they are. And you can feel

1:41:55the thunder force. You know if there's a

1:41:58direct hit, you're dead. Even if you're

1:42:00in the bunker, you're dead. So, you What

1:42:02you're doing in the beginning is you're

1:42:04trying to figure out how you can

1:42:05negotiate with the universe to not have

1:42:08a direct hit.

1:42:09So, the saying is there are no atheists

1:42:12in trenches.

1:42:14And that's the situation where that's

1:42:16the case, right? Because

1:42:18as the shells are going off and you're

1:42:20trying to negotiate, you'll start to

1:42:22pray. You could have been an atheist 10

1:42:24seconds earlier, but right now you're in

1:42:27full-fledged panic mode. And our

1:42:29response in panic is fight or flight.

1:42:33Fear makes us either want to attack or

1:42:36run away.

1:42:37Those are our two options. I don't have

1:42:40either one on the table. There's nobody

1:42:42to attack, and there's no place to run

1:42:44to.

1:42:45If I decide to run, I'm coming out of

1:42:48the trench in a artillery barrage, I'm

1:42:50dead.

1:42:51That's not an option.

1:42:53If I'm running down the trench, it's

1:42:55entirely probable I'm going to get hit

1:42:57by something like a piece of shrapnel.

1:42:59I'm probably finished.

1:43:01By the way,

1:43:02just to add a little detail, those

1:43:05pieces of shrapnel that are flying