World War I: The Seminal Tragedy - The Concert of Europe - Extra History - #1
World War I: The Seminal Tragedy - The Concert of Europe - Extra History - #1
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The Concert of Europe held the continent together for years after the Napoleonic Wars, but as the leadership of great nations weakened over time, the stage was set for a colossal tragedy.
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Content
0 -> ♪ ♪
5.333 ->
6.333 -> [male narrator]
Human history is equal parts
7.833 -> heroism, tragedy,
and misunderstanding.
10.7 -> Very rarely have we displayed
all three to such a degree
13.533 -> as in the
First World War.
15.233 -> This war is called the seminal
catastrophe of the 20th century
18.333 -> because without it, there is
no Stalin and no Hitler;
20.633 -> no fascism
or World War II.
22.533 -> Without it, we don't have a Cold War
that leads us to the very brink of annihilation.
25.933 -> Nor do we see the Middle East carved up
by old men still bitter from four years
29.7 -> of meaningless,
self-inflicted catastrophe.
31.9 -> Without this war,
we probably don't have 9/11
34.1 -> or the turmoil in the
Middle East today.
36.1 -> This war ushered
in the modern age.
38.033 -> Born in a crucible of
gunpowder and toxic smoke
40.633 -> and the blood
of ten million men.
42.3 -> Blood spilled in war from the fields
of France to the waters off America.
45.9 -> From the Russian frontier
to the sands of the Middle East.
48.166 -> From the Chinese mainland
to the deepest parts of the sea.
51.166 -> This war broke empires.
52.9 -> It shattered the past and forced us to give up
our last ties to our medieval understanding.
57.366 -> When the smoke cleared and a stunned
world climbed out of its trenches,
60.8 -> we lived in a new age with new powers,
new ideas, and new terrors.
64.833 -> It is the defining event
of the 20th century.
67.333 -> It is the Great War.
68.866 -> But it's not the war itself that
we’re here to talk about today.
71.433 -> Hopefully, over the course
of this show,
73.033 -> a bit at a time, we’ll slowly,
story by story,
75.8 -> cover the sprawling events
of this turning point in history.
78.3 -> But today?
78.966 -> Today we are focused on
the events that led to this war.
81.8 -> For if the war itself is the seminal
catastrophe of the 20th century,
85.033 -> then the weeks before
the war are its seminal tragedy.
87.766 -> In these next few episodes, we’ll focus on
the very human, very personal stories
91.8 -> that led Europe
to consume itself,
93.733 -> to ignite itself in one suicidal blaze
from which it still hasn't recovered,
97.466 -> because it is a tragedy
of the highest order.
99.8 -> It's like a play,
a Greek epic,
101.833 -> a story so grand we would
think it must be fiction
104.3 -> if the scars of the war couldn’t still
be seen on the fields of France.
107.6 -> It’s Shakespeare
living out before us.
109.7 -> It begins with the death of
a prince and his lady
111.933 -> and ends in mass slaughter the likes
of which the world has never seen.
115.566 -> So let's set the stage.
116.966 -> For a hundred years,
Europe has been at peace.
119.466 -> There have been wars, sure, but they were
minor wars, wars on the periphery,
123.366 -> wars without many of the
Great Powers involved.
125.933 -> Not since Napoleon did the great
states of Europe vie in bloody battle.
129.466 -> For after the ravages
of the Napoleonic Wars,
131.8 -> the statesmen of Europe
had come together
133.366 -> to try to stop such a catastrophe
from ever happening again.
136.3 -> They created a system called
the Concert of Europe
138.266 -> so that whenever war
seemed perilously close,
140.5 -> the nations of Europe would come
together in a congress, a conference,
143.466 -> and instead come to a settlement
that all parties would abide by.
146.766 -> But Europe has changed since those
weary of the Napoleonic conflicts
150.2 -> first came together to
create the Great Concert.
152.466 -> The first and most major change
was the formation of Germany.
155.866 -> At the time our story begins,
157.3 -> it's important to remember Germany
as a nation was only forty years old.
160.266 -> It's a young nation,
a strong one,
161.966 -> a nation looking
to claim its own.
164 -> But to say that Germany was a strong nation
is to undersell the magnitude of its creation.
167.933 -> I mean to say that
the birth of Germany
169.433 -> was something perhaps unique
in the history of the world.
171.766 -> For overnight, with the
signing of a few papers,
174.166 -> the middle of Europe was transformed
from a thousand tiny squabbling states
177.766 -> to the greatest land power
the world had ever known.
180.5 -> In one night, suddenly the most
powerful nations of Europe,
183.433 -> Russia, France,
Austria-Hungary, and England
185.766 -> were not the most powerful nations
in Europe any longer.
188.433 -> Overnight in the very heart of
Europe had been created a nation
191.066 -> with more manpower, natural resources,
and economic strength
194.3 -> than any other nation in the world,
except perhaps for Great Britain.
197.433 -> Moreover, this creation was
cemented in the defeat of France,
200.266 -> which at the time was considered
the strongest land power in Europe,
203.166 -> and at the time of our story, that defeat
and its memory still run deep.
206.933 -> And now look at the world from the perspective
of that powerful new German nation.
211 -> Here they are, arguably the most
powerful country in the world,
214.266 -> and yet they see themselves being denied
all the rights of a great world power.
217.733 -> Britain and France held
territories across the globe.
220.266 -> Even the Netherlands, a nation which
the might of the new Germany
223.266 -> can wipe off the face
of the earth in a week,
224.966 -> had colonies from Asia
all the way to Africa.
227.2 -> But Germany,
for all their strength,
228.933 -> had been denied those possessions
simply because their nation was young.
231.9 -> Imagine what this does
to the balance of power.
234.033 -> Imagine what this does
to the geopolitical scene.
236.3 -> Think what would
happen today if, say,
238.066 -> the entire EU declared
themselves a single nation
240.766 -> with a single economy, a single military,
and a single foreign policy.
244.2 -> Imagine if they said that they want
greater access to Middle Eastern oil.
247.2 -> And Russia and
the United States said,
249.033 -> “No, we were here first.”
250.4 -> Imagine now if representatives from
Russia and the United States smiled
253.666 -> and told this young nation
that they’d be happy
255.433 -> to continue to sell them oil
at an inflated price, though.
258.333 -> This was the position
Germany found itself in.
260.7 -> How was the Concert of Europe,
262.233 -> a system built around a balance
of power and compromise,
265.033 -> to last in these
circumstances?
267.033 -> And yet, for forty years, it did.
268.933 -> And this brings us to the second major
change since the Napoleonic Wars:
272.033 -> The men.
273.066 -> The seventy years after those
wars was a time of giants,
275.766 -> men who towered
over the world stage.
277.866 -> Time and again here, Europe
rolled well on the dice of history
280.966 -> and came up with leaders who were
capable of navigating an increasingly complex
283.966 -> and increasingly modern
geopolitical world.
286.633 -> In the 1800s, Russians saw
men like Alexander II,
289.866 -> who understood that Russia
needed to modernize to survive.
292.8 -> He began dismantling serfdom,
reformed the judicial practices,
296.133 -> encouraged universities
and pursued peace,
298.266 -> understanding that Russia was in no
position to fight the major European powers.
302.2 -> Like all the men here, this guy was
not all chuckles and sunshine.
305.466 -> Alexander II brutally suppressed
revolutionaries and separatists
308.766 -> in the territories
Russia controlled.
310.5 -> Still, he was effective
without question.
312.566 -> By 1900, we have
in Russia Nicholas II,
315.2 -> a deeply reactionary,
deeply conservative man,
317.766 -> who history records
as being of middling intellect
320.066 -> with neither the training
nor the inclination to properly rule.
323.2 -> His reign is a catalog of
embarrassing mismanagement.
326.133 -> This is the man who fell under
the sway of the mystic Rasputin.
329.133 -> This is a man who couldn't
even coordinate his own coronation,
331.833 -> a man who let 1300 people die in a
human stampede on the day he was crowned
335.433 -> because, I kid you not, there was
not enough beer and pretzels.
338.466 -> And this is the man who held
a ball that day anyway because,
341.2 -> hey, while let a few hundred
deaths spoil your day.
343.533 -> And this is the man
who will, in the end,
345.466 -> hold the fate of
the world in his hands.
347.9 -> And by this point in Austria, we have
as emperor an 84-year-old man,
351.7 -> two years away from his death and
battered by the weight of the life he's led.
355.266 -> His foreign minister, Berthold, is neither
a bad man nor a stupid man,
358.966 -> but he is a weak
and vacillating man
360.766 -> at a time when European
politics are all about strength.
363.866 -> And Germany?
364.8 -> Germany during the twenty years
following its creation had unquestionably
367.933 -> one of the greatest diplomats
the world has ever seen:
370.9 -> Otto von Bismarck.
372.433 -> This is a man of great
ability and great appetite;
375 -> a man known to smoke
three cigars at once
377.066 -> and down a bottle of
champagne at breakfast;
379 -> a man who probably deserves
an entire episode just to himself,
381.533 -> but for our purposes, he is the man
who held the Concert of Europe together
385.033 -> under the incredible strain of the
creation of the new German state.
388.433 -> His life's work was to ensure that
France and Russia never allied
392.366 -> so that Germany would
never be surrounded.
394.2 -> This was his nightmare,
his greatest fear,
396.9 -> and in this, like in many things,
he turned out to be right.
399.733 -> He famously said that the great
European conflagration
402.3 -> would come from some
damn fool thing in the Balkans,
404.733 -> and he warned Kaiser Wilhelm II
that within 20 years
407.433 -> his bellicose policies would
destroy the Kaiser Reich,
410.266 -> and he was correct,
almost to the day.
412.666 -> But he was fired
by Kaiser Wilhelm II,
415.166 -> who has too much historical baggage
to get an accurate view of.
418.233 -> Suffice it to say that the Kaiser often ends up
with a reputation for feeling inadequate,
422.566 -> having been born
with a withered arm
424.5 -> and growing up hounded
by his mother,
425.9 -> he came to believe that he had
to prove he was masculine,
428.5 -> and so set out to break
with Bismarck’s policies
430.833 -> and show that
he was his own man
432.333 -> by abandoning the German
alliance with Russia
434.4 -> and moving Germany toward a
much more expansionist stance.
437.4 -> He was known for being brash
and impulsive with little tact,
440.4 -> crumbling the carefully
balanced alliances
442.333 -> that had for so long kept
the Concert of Europe in place.
445.5 -> Now to all this we have to add
one last piece to the stage:
448.566 -> Fear.
449.366 -> The fear of the dying empires;
451.233 -> the fear of those
once great nations
452.966 -> that now so clearly saw the shadow of death
approaching them from behind.
456.533 -> The Ottoman Empire,
the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
459.2 -> and the Russian Empire.
460.933 -> The Ottoman Empire was long known
as the sick man of Europe.
463.933 -> Its decline had been
long and slow
465.966 -> with the surrounding nations taking
bites out of its carcass as it slowly died.
469.566 -> The Austro-Hungarian Empire looked
at the fate of the Ottomans
472.1 -> and saw shadows
of what was to come.
474.066 -> They feared they'd be
like the Ottomans—
475.766 -> dismantled, taken apart piece by piece
until they were too weak to fight back.
479.533 -> They had once been the most
powerful state in Europe,
481.7 -> but they ruled over many
nations and many peoples,
484.166 -> and over the 19th century, those
people had asserted themselves,
486.866 -> crying out for their own nations,
crying out to be free,
489.4 -> to as people decide
their own fate.
491.433 -> And so through
the 19th century,
493.2 -> the Austro-Hungarian Empire
saw its territory chipped away
495.733 -> as the other great nations of the
Concert of Europe ruled in their conferences
499.4 -> that those people
had a right to be free.
501.2 -> And with each loss,
502.266 -> those peoples that the Austro-Hungarian
Empire still maintained control of
505.6 -> agitated for their own freedom
to a greater and greater extent,
508.466 -> causing unrest that rocked
the empire to its very core.
511.666 -> And lastly,
we have the Russians.
513.4 -> The Russian czars ruled
the largest country in the world,
516.2 -> but like the Ottomans, their military,
economy, and infrastructure
519.066 -> were woefully
behind the times.
520.766 -> And in 1905 when the Russians
lost the war with the Japanese--
524.2 -> the first time a European power had lost
a war to an Asian one in modern history--
527.966 -> their weakness became
eminently clear to the world.
530.8 -> This loss caused a revolution
that forced the czar
533.433 -> to accept the parliament
and a constitutional monarchy.
536.133 -> But it wasn't in the nature of
Alexander II to accept the parliament,
539.4 -> and he rebelled against
these constraints,
541.066 -> leaving his country precariously
perched on the verge revolution.
544.6 -> So with a new superpower
in the midst of Europe,
547 -> fear driving crumbling empires
to irrational and desperate decisions,
550.3 -> and a group of leaders simply
not equal to their forebears
553.033 -> at the task of guiding
the ships of state,
554.9 -> the players are all in place.
556.566 -> The stage is set and
the curtain begins to rise
559.1 -> on the war
to end all wars.
561.166 -> Join us next time for
an improbable assassination,
563.466 -> the death of a prince,
564.7 -> and a sandwich which
changed history.
566.7 -> ♪ ♪
568.3 -> Captions Provided by:
569.866 -> The University of Georgia
Disability Resource Center
571.433 -> 114 Clark Howell Hall
Athens, Georgia 30602
573.1 -> 706-542-8719 Voice
706-542-8778 TTY
574.7 ->
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-wSL4WqUws