WW1 - Oversimplified (Part 2)
Aug 9, 2023
WW1 - Oversimplified (Part 2)
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Content
2.4 -> With both sides stuck in a hard stalemate, they knew this war wasn't going to be about taking territory,
6.68 -> but about simply wearing each other down.
9.04 -> The Allies had plenty of men to expend from its overseas dominions.
12.6 -> And the British also started a naval blockade,
14.78 -> so Germany couldn't import stuff, like food.
17.32 -> Neither side really wanted a long grueling war, though.
19.66 -> So, they both thought of ways to break the deadlock on the western front.
22.5 -> Idea number one: New Frontiers.
24.86 -> When the war first broke out Australia was quick to take German New Guinea
28.88 -> The Allies also quickly jumped on Germany's colonies in Africa,
31.64 -> and particularly in German East Africa,
34 -> locals were enlisted as soldiers and carriers by both sides.
37.06 -> Leading to a tragic loss of life for the Native Africans.
39.94 -> Some new combatants entered the war as well.
42.3 -> The Allies newest friends were Italy,
43.78 -> and Japan.
44.98 -> Japan was busy building itself an empire.
47.06 -> So, it was more than happy to take away German Islands and colonies in East Asia
51.06 -> Italy actually had an alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary before the war.
54.36 -> But after some tense relations,
56.32 -> and then the Allies promising to give them some of Austria-Hungary's stuff,
59.82 -> they switched sides.
61.9 -> Italy opened up a front in the mountains here,
64.02 -> but like everyone else,
64.92 -> they were stuck in stalemate for most of the war.
67.72 -> The Central Powers' new friend was a struggling empire in the middle East.
71.5 -> The Ottomans....
72.56 -> (Ottomen?)
73.24 -> The Ottomen where divided on whether to actually join the war or not,
76.26 -> since they had been exhausted by the recent Balkan Wars.
79.08 -> Some of the politicians who did want to join went off on their own and fired some shells at Russia.
83.76 -> And then came back and said,
84.86 -> "Whoops, looks like we're at war now."
86.96 -> The Ottoman entry into the war was of particular concern to the British,
90.189 -> since the middle East was full of oil and Britain wanted all of that oil.
93.909 -> First, the Ottomans tried to attack Russia in the Caucasus Mountains.
97.26 -> But they weren't prepared for the cold and many of them froze to death.
100.5 -> Then they crossed miles of desert to take the Suez Canal from the British.
103.48 -> But that failed, too.
104.8 -> Then the Allies tried to take the Dardanelles at Gallipoli in a long and hard trench warfare campaign....
109.54 -> but that also failed.
110.86 -> The Ottomans blamed their initial losses on the ethnic Armenians living within Ottoman territory.
115.76 -> And the resulting Armenian genocide
117.66 -> led to the deaths of one and a half million people.
120.16 -> Then, the Germans sent spies into Afghanistan
122.44 -> to try to convince the Arab tribes there to rise up in Jihad against the British
126.1 -> and attack India.
127.22 -> But that plan failed. Partly because the spies got bored, brewed their own alcohol, and got drunk....
131.7 -> which is a bad thing to do in Afghanistan.
134.1 -> All these new Frontiers hadn't done much to change the war.
137.42 -> Aware that the Allies had more men and supplies than them,
139.92 -> the Germans knew they had to do something to break the stalemate.
143.36 -> Before the war, there was a big conference that set out the rules of Modern warfare:
147.12 -> No chemical weapons,
148.36 -> no killing civilians.
150.12 -> Basically: Don't be jerks.
151.96 -> The Germans held a meeting, and decided to be jerks.
154.94 -> Zeppelin air raids commenced over British cities,
157.08 -> they also started attacking the ally trenches with chlorine gas,
160.04 -> and they used submarines to sink civilian ships.
163.22 -> One such civilian ship was the Lusitania
165.38 -> which had a hundred and fifty-nine Americans on board when it was sunk.
168.5 -> Further swaying US opinion against the Germans.
171.4 -> Not to be completely unfair to the Germans,
173.46 -> the Allies also engaged in chemical warfare soon after,
176.08 -> and they had been hiding anti-submarine weapons on their civilian ships.
179.8 -> Which led the Germans justify their attacks.
182.88 -> Meanwhile, Austria-Hungary still hadn't dealt with Serbia,
185.58 -> so the central powers enlisted some help.
188.84 -> Bulgaria wished it was bigger and was still bitter about
191.16 -> losing the second Balkan war.
192.62 -> The Central Powers promised to make all of Bulgaria's wildest dreams come true if they helped.
196.54 -> So they signed on and together they knocked out Serbia.
199.4 -> The Serbian troops retreated through Albania
201.52 -> which was neutral but had some ties to Austria-Hungary.
203.92 -> So, Austria-Hungary entered Albania in a 'friendly invasion' to chase down the Serbians
207.9 -> many of whom escaped by sea.
210.32 -> It's 1916 and a lot is happening.
213.12 -> As if they didn't have enough enemies already,
215.3 -> Germany added one more to the list.
217.38 -> Portugal had been getting a bit chummy with the allies behind the scenes ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
220.02 -> and Germany didn't like that one bit.
222.22 -> Around the same time, the only sea battle of the war happened.
224.94 -> Both sides had a new powerful class of battleships called "Dreadnought."
227.92 -> But they were so expensive to build that neither side wanted to risk losing them in a battle.
231.74 -> So they kept them in port. Except for one time when they had a big fight and a bunch of them got damaged.
236.02 -> So they didn't try that again. The UK started conscripting men to the army so they had plenty of reserves.
241.18 -> Which is just as well because the western front was about to get brutal.
244.66 -> The longest and one of the bloodiest battles of the war started
247.28 -> when the Germans launched an attack around the French city of Verdun.
250.1 -> The French defended it desperately,
252.1 -> leading to hundreds of thousands of casualties.
253.84 -> Under pressure, the French called on its allies to do something to draw the Germans' attention away.
257.8 -> So, the British started their own long and brutal fight, the Battle of the Somne,
261.14 -> with 60,000 British casualties on just the first day.
264.6 -> It was also here that the British first used one crazy brand-new piece of Sci-Fi technology.
269.58 -> The Russians had been getting pushed back further and further into their own territory,
273.32 -> but in response to the French call for help,
275.03 -> they began a huge offensive
276.56 -> and did really well until they ran out of supplies and got stuck.
279.74 -> Seeing how well the Russians have been doing
281.6 -> Romania decided now would be a great time to jump in on win the war.
284.78 -> And then they got pounded.
286.74 -> The Greeks were fighting amongst themselves about whether to join the war or not
289.94 -> The king liked the Central powers while the prime minister wanted to join the Allies.
293.86 -> After a brief national Schism during which the country split into two,
297.72 -> the king finally abdicated and the country reunited.
300.9 -> With Allied help they began a new offensive.
304.32 -> In the Middle East, Russia was pushing into Ottoman territory from the North.
308.28 -> The British had also made a landing in Mesopotamia to protect Persia's oil fields.
312.1 -> And they'd also sent a small army up the Tigris river to try to take Baghdad
315.82 -> but the army got sieged in the town of Kut along the way
318.6 -> And eventually surrendered.
320 -> A new offensive was launched from the south with all-out desert warfare.
323.3 -> The offensive was aided by one famous British officer, better known as Lawrence of Arabia,
327.14 -> who helped to lead the Arab tribes in a revolt that wreaked Havoc on the Ottoman supply lines.
330.98 -> By the time 1917 rolled around everyone was exhausted.
334.72 -> There are mutinies in the French army, the German populace was starving,
337.82 -> and the war had drained all of Russia's supplies.
340 -> There is no clear winner, and it was still anyone's war.
342.52 -> The only question now was: Who is going to break first?
346.34 -> And the answer was: Russia.
347.54 -> Tired of not eating and mad that a crazy magic homeless guy was calling some of the shots
351.5 -> there was an uprising in Petrograd complete with riots and strikes.
354.44 -> The riots turned into a full-scale revolution
356.34 -> and a new government overthrew the Tsar.
358.4 -> Then a few months later the Bolsheviks overthrew the new government.
361.48 -> And they pulled Russia out of the war.
363.4 -> This was great news for Germany that now only had to focus on the western front.
367.14 -> But there was still one problem:
368.66 -> The pesky United States of America was looking increasingly like it was going to join the war.
373.72 -> America had been selling supplies to the Allies throughout the war
376.5 -> and was getting super rich off the back of it.
378.44 -> Meaning it was in fantastic shape and was dangerous to the Germans.
381.46 -> So Germany sent a telegram to Mexico saying:
384.02 -> "Wouldn't it be crazy cool if you guys attacked America?"
386.68 -> But the British intercepted the message, showed it to the Americans, and that was the final straw.
391.4 -> American troops began shipping out to Europe.
393.7 -> This was terrible news for Germany.
395.589 -> And they knew their only hope now is to force France and the UK to surrender
399.28 -> before the fresh American troops arrived. It was now or never.
402.52 -> So they started one final attack.
404.44 -> They converged their troops and hit hard at the Somme
406.92 -> and pushed the Allies back.
408.06 -> They hit a second time for the north, then again, and again.
412 -> With each hit the germans were spending more and more resources
415.02 -> while the allies were getting better and better at repelling their attacks.
418.22 -> By the fifth punch, the Allies held the line and even pushed back.
421.7 -> With American troops now arriving in larger numbers
424.06 -> the Allies launched a counter-attack, and that was it.
427.34 -> The central powers were being pushed back on all fronts.
430.42 -> Bulgaria collapsed first, followed by the Ottoman Empire,
432.94 -> then Austria-Hungary and finally on November 11th, 1918 at 11 o'clock, Germany surrendered.
438.46 -> At the peace treaty Germany was forced to
440.06 -> reduce its military, accept war guilt, and pay the bill for the war.
443.6 -> After indescribable suffering and millions dead, the world learned its lesson
447.58 -> and never had such an awful war again.
450.86 -> For about 20 years.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mun1dKkc_As
