WW1 - Oversimplified (Part 1)
Aug 9, 2023
WW1 - Oversimplified (Part 1)
PART 2 HERE: • WW1 - Oversimplified (Part 2) https://oversimplified.tv/merch https://www.patreon.com/OverSimple https://goo.gl/zPHcm2 https://www.facebook.com/OverSimplified/ https://twitter.com/over_simplified https://instragram.com/over_simplified https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ …)https://www.flickr.com/photos/ohallma …)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ …)http://audionautix.com/“ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ …)http://incompetech.com/music/royalty- …http://incompetech.com/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ …)http://incompetech.com/music/royalty- …http://incompetech.com/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ …)http://incompetech.com/music/royalty- …http://incompetech.com/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ …)http://incompetech.com/music/royalty- …http://incompetech.com/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ …)http://incompetech.com/music/royalty- …http://incompetech.com/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ …)http://incompetech.com/music/royalty- …http://incompetech.com/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ …)http://incompetech.com/music/royalty- …http://incompetech.com/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b …
Content
2.42 -> The world of 1914. A time of modern technology, culture, and fashion.
7.64 -> Truly the height of civilization.
9.9 -> Let's have a war.
11.48 -> Everyone knew a big war was coming.
13.44 -> France wanted some stuff back that Germany had taken from it,
16.38 -> Germany wanted to take more of EVERYONE'S stuff,
18.6 -> and they're building a big sexy navy that was making the British uncomfortable.
22.48 -> These two empires thought they're really cool.
24.6 -> But lots of different people who live there didn't think it was so cool.
27.6 -> And some of them had even been declaring independence,
29.78 -> with help from Russia.
30.92 -> Everyone was talking about each other behind each other's backs.
33.86 -> Throw in the fact that military
technology had come a long way since the last major war,
38.12 -> and suddenly everyone was pretty eager to beat each other up.
41.32 -> In this area of Austria-Hungary lived some Serbs and Bosnians who hated living in Austria-Hungary.
45.94 -> So the Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand goes there for a nice drive in an open-top car,
50.84 -> with his car's route published in advance.
53.26 -> And that went just about as well as you'd expect.
56.28 -> Some assassins were waiting for him along the way and threw bombs at his car,
59.86 -> but they missed and blew up some officers behind him, instead.
63.04 -> So, the Archduke goes into hiding, leaves Sarajevo and whole war never happens.
67.3 -> Except no. The Archduke doesn't leave,
69.32 -> but instead goes back out in the open top car, to visit the injured officers in hospital.
74.02 -> The driver takes a wrong turn and by sheer coincidence gets stuck besides one of the failed assassins.
79.36 -> Who shoots him.
81.64 -> Austria-Hungary is understandably pissed about all this,
84.44 -> and they think the Serbian government had something to do with it (which they might have).
88.06 -> So they go to their ally Germany and say:
90.32 -> "Hey Germany, we're gonna declare war on Serbia!",
92.6 -> and Germany is all for that.
94.14 -> So Austria-Hungary sends a big list of impossible demands to Serbia
97.8 -> and when Serbia refuses, they declare war.
102.3 -> Austria-Hungary and Germany are friends and Serbia is protected by Russia,
106.14 -> who's friends with France, so they all declare war on each other.
109.18 -> Montenegro joins in, too.
110.96 -> France and Britain also have a kind of alliance.
113.2 -> So, when France says: "Hey, Britain you got my back?", Britain is like:
117.96 -> "Maybe...?",
118.84 -> and then they decide to stay out of it.
120.9 -> Which is great for Germany because Germany has a plan:
123.82 -> They know that Russia is so big and clumsy that it will take them all to get ready for war.
127.86 -> So with this guy in charge Germany will send all its troops into France at Lightning speed while Russia is getting ready.
133.86 -> Defeat France then move all the troops to Russia and defeat Russia. Then we all speak German and eat Pfefferpotthast every day.
139.78 -> Just one problem:
141.38 -> France has loads of forts and defences along its German border.
144.78 -> And Germany can't waste any time fighting them so Germany decides to go around them.
148.94 -> Through Belgium.
153.16 -> Belgium is neutral but Germany wants to march 750 thousand troops through it to get around France's defenses.
159.14 -> They're hoping Belgium will just kind of sit down and shut up.
162.04 -> But they don't. They fight back, and they're pretty good, too, so they slow the Germans down.
166.54 -> What's worse is that Britain shows up. And they're pretty pissed that Germany is invading neutral countries.
171.04 -> So now Britain declares war on Germany.
174.04 -> So Germany push on through Belgium and commit some atrocities along the way. They also wear spikes and sometimes skulls on the uniform.
180.3 -> So, if you're trying to not look like the bad guys:
182.76 -> Good job.
183.94 -> The allies have a propaganda extravaganda and this starts having an influence around the world, notably in America.
189.6 -> The US President Woodrow Wilson sees himself as a bit of a Jesus figure
193.38 -> and spends most of the war trying to get everyone to just hug it out.
196.54 -> But there's also a large population of ethnic Germans living in the United States and when the war first broke out
201.72 -> they were like: "Yay, Germany!!" But now that they are committing atrocities in Belgium
205.3 -> they are less enthusiastic.
206.88 -> Let's play: Spot the French soldier!
210.94 -> Did you see him? Easy right? He's wearing a bright blue uniform with red trousers
215.46 -> and do you know who else spotted him easily, too?
217.74 -> The Germans.
219.06 -> So, when the French were slowly marching in columns to the countryside
222.14 -> the Germans easily tore them to shreds with their giant guns.
225.2 -> All the nations involved in this war went in with an old-school war mentality.
230.58 -> And all of them had to update the uniforms and tactics a lot during the great war.
235.82 -> Because this war was going to be like nothing anyone had ever seen before.
240.58 -> Russia is ready for war and way earlier than expected.
243.58 -> "Hey, Austria-Hungary, can you get on top of that?"
246.54 -> "Oh? Yeah, sure! We've got this."
247.96 -> nope.
248.7 -> So, Germany has to send some troops back to the east to defend against the Russians.
252.38 -> The chief of staff of the Austro-Hungarian army is this guy. And although he is handsome,
256.4 -> He turns out not to be the best military strategist.
259.06 -> Austria-Hungary constantly ignores Germany's advice,
262.28 -> ...and then comes running back to Germany whenever they get in trouble.
265.8 -> Austria-Hungary even gets its ass kicked by tiny Serbia who repels all their invasion attempts at the start of the war.
270.9 -> It's better news for Germany in the North, though, where they almost
273.12 -> completely wipe out the Russians second army.
275.38 -> Back on the western front, the Germans
277.06 -> continue advancing and are in sight of Paris.
279.36 -> At this point anyone would be forgiven for thinking the Germans were going to get that quick victory after all.
284.26 -> But then things start to go wrong. The French commander-in-chief knew something had to be done.
288.22 -> And he ordered his armies to stop retreating.
290.72 -> In the resulting battle, a gap opened up in the German lines.
293.76 -> If a gap opens up, the enemy can use it to flank you from the side and behind.
297.74 -> So the German armies have to retreat.
299.78 -> The Allies launch a counter-attack, so the Germans dig into defensive positions. The Allies do the same.
306.02 -> Then both sides move north trying to outflank each other along the way. When they reach the sea,
310.38 -> They're in a stalemate with trench systems running the whole way from the coast to Switzerland.
314.64 -> The beginning of trench-warfare on the Western front.
317.2 -> Here's, how trench warfare works:
319.34 -> Two opposing lines of trenches with No-man's land in between.
322.66 -> One side would pummel the other with hundreds of thousands of artillery shells, sometimes for days at a time.
328.08 -> This had a huge psychological effect on the soldiers leaving many shell-shocked.
332.12 -> Then, the attacking troops would leave their trenches and rush across no-man's land,
336.24 -> A muddy wet mess of shell craters and barbed wire.
339.58 -> The defending trench would unleash machine-gun fire on the attackers inflicting thousands of casualties.
344.64 -> The attackers would send wave after wave until either they gave up or the opposing trench was finally overrun.
350.34 -> There would be months of fighting and the deaths of thousands in order to gain a few meters or kilometers of land.
355.96 -> Living in the trenches was hard work, too. Corpses, mud that could swallow you whole,
360.22 -> pools of poisonous water, rats,
362.3 -> disease, the smell...
364.06 -> It's insane that millions of soldiers put up with these conditions and commanders ordered them to do so for years.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHSQAEam2yc
