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U.S. History 1877-Present 6: War Brewing 49 Views
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Description:
Before WWI, Europe was a wild hodgepodge of alliances that were being formed and broken. It's no wonder war broke out. It's a shame, really, Britain's splendid isolation sounded so...splendid.
Transcript
- 00:03
Time for some early 20th century gossip what were these alliances
- 00:08
that dragged the world into the great war who was dating whom and what were [Girls in bathroom combing hair]
- 00:13
they wearing at the time it actually kind of got started in the 1860s when
- 00:17
Prussian Chancellor Bismarck got busy bringing together a bunch of little
- 00:21
states to form what we now know as Germany as a new kid at school Germany [Boy with Germany flag t-shirt on playground]
Full Transcript
- 00:26
needed to make some friends to avoid total social and political suicide so it
- 00:31
reached out to the austro-hungarian and Russian empires while the three
- 00:35
officially allied in 1873 calling themselves three Emperor's League this
- 00:42
is a pretty impressed name for a clique if they were being honest there we'd be [Girls whispering to each other]
- 00:45
intimidated but then in 1879 Russia went and ditched the other two leaving
- 00:50
Germany and austria-hungary as the dual Alliance and not nearly as intimidating
- 00:55
music never fear Italy joined the party in 1881 and the [Italy joins group of boys]
- 00:59
new alliance was uncreated Lea renamed the Triple Alliance the rules of the
- 01:04
Alliance were simple if any of the three member countries were ever at war with [Green man bashing on mans head]
- 01:08
two or more other countries the rest of the alliance would support them with
- 01:13
like you know armies not fruit basket well the creation of the Triple Alliance
- 01:16
was a little shady on the part of Germany and austria-hungary [Germany and Austria-Hungary peering through blinds]
- 01:21
neither was especially interested in the support of Italy but they did want to
- 01:25
make sure Italy didn't attack them in the future
- 01:28
Germany and austria-hungary were pretty much just using Italy which is why it's
- 01:32
hard to feel bad for them when Italy later decided to switch sides and team
- 01:35
up with Britain and France sorry were getting ahead of ourselves here but this [French man with baguette appears]
- 01:39
is all good gossip right in 1888 Chancellor Bismarck was replaced by
- 01:43
kaiser wilhelm ii as emperor of the german empire well germany's complicated
- 01:49
web of alliances had mostly held because bismarck was good at his job but Kaiser [Girl caught in a web]
- 01:53
was not quite as smooth as the old Emperor in the years leading up to World
- 01:57
War one Germany was seen as increasingly aggressive and militaristic which made [Soldiers running and explosions occur]
- 02:02
it very challenging for it to make any new friends on the playground nobody
- 02:06
really likes a bully you know forced to like that Billy yeah but by
- 02:10
the start of World War one Germany austria-hungary and the Ottoman Empire
- 02:14
were allied as the central powers they were later joined by Bulgaria for the [Bulgarian man appears in a vest]
- 02:20
weightlifting team like we said this whole alliance was a little wonky and
- 02:23
there were plenty of secrets and promises made behind closed doors but
- 02:26
for the most part these guys represented one side of World War one meanwhile [Germany and Austria-Hungary hiding behind a door]
- 02:31
Britain was doing its equivalent of hiding in the bushes its policy was
- 02:34
called splendid isolation nothing like the bridge the name of policy splendid
- 02:39
like the US it was doing its best to avoid all the hubbub this worked for a [Man hiding behind a bush]
- 02:43
little while but by the time Germany was putting together complicated alliances
- 02:47
in Central Europe Britain started to get nervous if Germany decided to attack who
- 02:52
had Britain's back is that not so it's signed an alliance with France called [British man screaming]
- 02:56
the auntaunt cordial Russia also wanted to team up with France and eventually
- 03:02
all three countries ended up forming the triple on Tom this alliance was also a
- 03:06
little loosey-goosey but the main idea was that Russia Britain and France would [Geese appear on a field]
- 03:09
support each other in some way if any of them were attacked within the triple arm
- 03:12
tanto were some tensions over colonies in Africa and India so the relationship [French man and British man appear]
- 03:17
was a little bit rocky again contributing to the complicated and
- 03:20
strained alliances that helped which all these countries into World War one well
- 03:24
as the war gained steam another 100 or so countries piled in including Italy [Italian man appears by Eiffel Tower]
- 03:28
which decided to pull a switcheroo and join team on Tom which the Central
- 03:32
Powers probably said something like well we're not allowed to say what they
- 03:36
probably said on this website so oh well [Germany boy speaking and censored sign appears over mouth]
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