Britain and 1914 - Professor Vernon Bogdanor 

He does give a bloody good lecture.

fascinating. Wish we'd had a history teacher like Mr Bogdanor at my 'orrible secondary school. I Might have actually listened....

The Serbs lost the battle of Kosovo, they didn't win it... it's celebrated more as a kind of glorious last stand.

THE LONG ROAD TO WAR (2018) is, by far, the best documentary on this subject!

I've read several of Max hasting's works and, I must say, I quite agree with professor Bogdanor's assessment of his conclusions. Max is a popularist, making vast and sweeping assumptions, not backed up by any factual data.

An outstanding exposition of the tragically unique concatenation of circumstances that caused a World War, and more. Please carry on removing the brainwashed scales from our eyes because: "There's none so blind that cannot see.' Thank you.

Good lecture, learned a lot..

whats all this about revolvers, it was a 1910 FN .380 automatic pistol that did the deed

The Battle of the Boyne was 1690, not 1689.

I wonder, was there a lecture on the Second World War? I've found lecture on events leading up to the war and Post-War Settlement, but no lecture on the Second World War. How come?

Yes the unionists do celebrate the battle of the Boyne, with gusto, its known as the glorious 12th, its a great day out, the kiddies eat ice cream, the adults drink beer, and they all sing songs, some of them quite unpleasant, and march all over the place banging oversized drums and blowing whistles and making sure the Catholics never forget. Northern Ireland is a strange place.

Thank you sir I learned a bit

53:20 "...Asquith again writing to his girlfriend (A wonderful historical source; I think more Prime Ministers should have girlfriends)..." LOL!!

The battle of the Boyne was of course, the 12th July 1690 not 1689.

How was Germany going to defeat France without going through Belgium and the agreements going back to 1830 meant war for England and England knew it.

Very interesting perspectives.

dear vernon, at 0:2:30 you make the claim that the goverment of serbia is not involved in the assasination of franz ferdinand, that statement seems like you did not bother to check the facts or study the assasination... how can you make such a claim when the Chief of Serbian Military Intelligence was the man behind the assasins? i would very much like to hear your response on this and your sources.

"The French civilian government said: We can't break an international law even if it would benefit France to do so. That's the difference in my view between a parliamentarian country and a totalitarian country." Does this mean in your view, the UK has become a totalitarian country now?

Interesting lecture I am not in full agreement but would be interested if anyone could shed some light on the events of August 1 and the misunderstanding Sir William Tyrrell, Grey's private secretary, brought a message to the German embassy. After subsequently receiv￾ing a personal call from Grey, Lichnowsky, at 11:14 a.m., sent a wire to Berlin in which he indicated Grey had proposed that, if Germany "were not to attack France, England would remain neutral and would guarantee France's passivity."2 Three hours later, after another mes￾sage from Grey via Tyrrell, Lichnowsky again telegraphed Berlin. He reported that now Grey wished to make proposals "for England's neu￾trality, even in the event of our being at war with both France and Russia."3 England was apparently retreating into isolation, leaving Germany with a free hand to establish its hegemony over Europe. Kaiser Wilhelm II understandably ordered champagne when word of the second exchange reached him in Berlin.4 But such elation was short-lived. King George responded to the Kaiser's acceptance of Grey's first proposal by telegraphing that "there must be some misun￾derstanding

Serbia LOST the battle at Kosovo !

Perhaps the Russian Spring would have occurred anyway. There had been several abortive attempts already, including both ineffectual and effectual assassination attempts against the Tsars. It was a bloodbath waiting to happen. The hardships of the war simply exacerbated the effects of many chronic existential crises faced by the Empire.

A very interesting lecture, which taught me a lot about how the British government approached the run-up to the Great War and explains their actions. Of course, the British government acting in good faith doesn't mean that they were right about intervening against Germany. Things like the German ambassador guaranteeing the integrity of Belgium and the territory of France does show a German willingness to limit their ambitions. That said, if we sympathize as I do with German fears of Russian industrialization and French revanchism, being paranoid regardless of what Britain could do in international conferences to assure them, we must equally extend such understanding to British fears of a German-dominated continent, regardless of what assurances Germany was willing to offer. Ironically, it occurs to me that aside from our history, the best way for Britain to soothe her fears of an all-powerful Germany that would get its way on everything it wanted would be to join the war on their side, and respond to Germany taking its "place under the sun" by expanding its own. (Though even neutral-Britain might have been able to curtail Germany if it was victorious but exhausted, but of course people didn't think that the war would last that long.)

"the germans where compensated for not getting morrocco by getting a bit of africa" ehh wtf, i am sorry but no where did the germans state or desire to get morrocco but wanted to keep the open door policy from the treaty of madrid 1880... i am getting very much the sense that vernon here is talking out his backside, so please find some very good and detailed sources to back up your gibberish vernon

Wonderful irony, the English who had subjugated, occupied and exploited half the planet using 'defense of small nations' as an excuse for war.

Albania 58% Muslim/Islam Bosnia and Herzegovina 51% Muslim/Islam Kosovo 95% Muslim/Islam Turkey 99% Muslim/Islam Croatia 86% Catholic Serbia 84% Orthodox Christian Slovenia 57% Catholic Montenegro 72% Orthodox Christian North Macedonia 64% Orthodox Christian Romania 81% Orthodox Christian Bulgaria 94% Orthodox Christian Greece 98% Orthodox Christian

"...were the government of the moderate left. A bit like the Labour Party today." I would disagree. The Labour Party is hard/radicalfar left today. No questions about it. Just look at Jeremy Corbyn. He makes Mao look tame.