Catherine the Great - Succession - Extra History - Part 6 

Brilliant series. Thanks to everyone involved.

Could you please do something about why Poland keeps forgetting how to exist?

1797, just before Napoleon got to show the world how its really done!

Khizer Hassan or just get a bigger rock

Treu

Damn it,I was just gonna say that

People's mental capabilities are getting worse with age it make sense she become a worst empress overtime, kind of sad that she did not learn from her mother's mistake tho

He good one.

wieczny182 Poland is not yet dead. Because when it does, a few centuries later, it will return.

Poland is going to make a huge comeback in the next 100 years and kick Russia's ass. At least, that's what George Friedman thinks.

Legion XIII Back to the Piast.

To be fair, the French did remember about Poland and Napoleon's promise and made sure it was reformed after WW1, aka the next time they beat the Germans after Napoleon. The Poles' trust in Napoleon was well founded. Sure, they had to wait another 100 years, but hey.

Ah... Memes

It's sad but true

@@the8geese534 its a shame I'm polish.

More like... World: Exists Europe: IT'S FREE REAL ESTATE

Long live a free, democratic Poland!

It's the cycle of abuse man. Very difficult if not impossible to escape

She became the person she ran away from.

YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE! YOU WERE SENT TO DESTROY THE SITH, NOT JOIN THEM!

You die as a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain

That's *poetic* .

Luke Watson rip in piss friend

Are you alive?

Nah he ded fam.

Luke Watson Are you really dead?

Feels bad man

I don’t understand? What’s so horrifying about that? I would think dying of a stroke was a pretty decent end back in the day

Because she got the port in blacksea meaning she got water

4 years later and I still don't know what this means

maybe they mean she was panicking and screaming for water?

Haha yes

Nobody is perfect at everything, not even Gregory...

Sad part is that might be thanks to her mother and then throw in everything else and you have grade 10 neglect

Yeah... Sadly...

Hmm I really don't know but to me she was a good ruler but besides that she was terrible at every thing like being a wife and mother and I bet she can't cook lol.

I think it speaks more about the presentation of the education than the information being absorbed.

The Trash Can Miiverse: Sad Santa/Lester It depends on the curriculum. I actually enjoyed my social studies classes in high school, and kindled my love of history.

kimarous Well said.

Extra History focuses on a narrative--a story, not just a firehose of facts.

Hi fellow Miiverser!

It's such a tragedy

well... on the other hand Bismarck wasnt Kaiser but yeah... same destiny... actually... same destiny with every caracter this series choose... same with every great caracter in human history... the history is nearly the same... the great man do great things, but their succesor kind of suck...

@@Mitaka.Kotsuka there are some notable exceptions. The Nerva-Antonine dynasty of the Roman Empire comes to mind. Five (actually six, but let's say 5 and a half) capable rulers one after another. I might also include Anastasius, Justin and Justinian of the Eastern Roman Empire. These are just two, but I am very confident that there are enough examples to say that it's not very rare to have a capable ruler followed by another one. Not very often, either, but still, it does happen once in a while.

@@retired5548 or the Ottomans. 10 great emperors one after another.

Yep. No doubt by rumors, he was the one she named her REAL HEIR.

Wolf6120 I like to think Alexander II also has some claim to that mantle. He also reformed and modernized the Russian state to the best of his ability, and did presided over a period of relative peace in Russia, of course until his untimely assassination in 1881

Also he freed the serfs which is always a good thing in my book. Edit: I am so sorry Alexander II freed the serfs my bad

@@mirofeya No, Catherine wanted Konstantin to be her heir, not Alexander, but Konstantin abdicated in favor of his brother, he was Tsar for less than a month.

I'd argue that Russia did have one more great emperor in Alexander II. Not AS great, perhaps, but still very very prominent and capable. He was able to reaffirm Russia as one of the foremost powers of the world by industrializing and modernizing Russia. He brought Russia into the modern age with his reforms and played a big role in assuring the rise of Russia until World War I.

EricStelzman since 1772

More like since 1655

Add also XI - XII century (for wither fans i'll add that nilfgaard is Holy Roman Empire of German Nation and north - partitioned Poland)

EricStelzman In 18th century - preety much yes. But earlier - hell no!

We went through a lot of challenge and look at us now. We raised our rank form punch bag to a mexico of europe.

Catherine was born on May 2

reincarnation is real??

Katarina Simojlovic i Same here but my name is alexander

please refrain from annexing manhattan. You can do whatever you want with boston.

this would be extremely interesting story if you were born in 1796

Here you go 🇩🇪 🔪 🇵🇱 🇷🇺🥊

​@@hanger3581nerds be like:*errmm accshuley*

​@@hanger3581the so called commonwealth aint a commonwealth as it has been mis-translated from polish to english its actually polish-lithuanian republic. Poland was dominating too.. poland had more manpower and well better economy.

Timothy McLean I don't think that even a Peter or Catherine the Great would have been able to fix Russia's problems in the early 1900s. Im sure that the Tsarist autocracy was ever reforming into a constitutional monarchy

MrAlexkyra I refuse to believe unsubstantiated nevers on principle. But I'm curious to hear why you think that.

Pretty sure Pugechov's rebellion would had changed that if Paul was Tsar not Catherine.

I reasonably skeptical, not only from a lack of truly adept statesmen-monarchs, but also that Russia as a Constitution Monarchy is a rather different paradigm to even Austria or Germany. In most of the extant monarchies of Europe, they rule over essentially a fairly homogeneous Ethno-cultural state (Sweden, The Netherlands, Spain). All Jokes about Spain's separatist movements aside, I think it is important to put the scale to two factors, gap of governed, and gap of territory. In all the previous examples, they are not terrible large nations (or they are not nearly so densely populated for large swaths of them) and they are relatively Kin of subjects. As much as Basques and Catalans may whine about Spaniards, imagine Spain trying to control a significant Moorish minority that survived the Reconquista, as well as stretching to Poland. Russia is an immensely vast country, just geographically, which makes relatively centralized, stable government without autocracy difficult. Beyond that, Russia was then, and now, a nation divided on any number of levels into groups, based on religion, or ethnicity, or economic prosperity. Having the kind figurehead king in a pre-modern Russia would have half the ethnic sectors in revolt in no time. Now if you wanted to say could there have been a monarch who by blood and threat broke up the old institutions and reformed the nation to reflect those division, such as emancipating the Surfs far earlier and forming a universal suffrage for electing leaders both locally and nationally, maybe it could change. But the Most long lived Constitutional Monarchy in Europe was up into the 20th century engaging in essentially slave labor of Irishmen, and to this day has not had a really cohesive cultural melding with the nation they have been legally fused with for 3 centuries

It's basically because Russia's monarchy had always been much more authoritarian and centralized than, say England's. In England the nobles always had some amount of independent power and after the Magna Carter, they had rights and protection from the King. While this only protected a tiny handful of the population, it did place an early limit on the King's power, which allowed Parliament to become a powerful entity independent of the King. All this led England to eventually evolve into a Constitutional Monarchy, with political representation expanding from the tiny aristocracy to landed gentry, to all men to eventually universal suffrage. But in Russia going all the way back to Ivan the Terrible, all power had been invested in the Tsar. The nobles (Boyars) held no hereditary lands, and could be made and unmade on the whim of the Tsar. This didn't mean that the Boyars couldn't oppose the Tsar (i.e. assassinate him), but there always had to be a Tsar, that was the contract that existed. If Peter or Catherine had moved to make Russia a constitutional monarchy (which they never wanted to anyway), it would have undermined the foundations of their rule and left them vulnerable to a coup to put another Tsar in charge. Maybe Alexander II could have done it had he not being assassinated. It's interesting that even today Russia's government still works in similar fashion, with all power invested in a authoritarian ruler supported by a tiny elite, where the elite support the ruler in exchange for wealth and stability.

+Heds123 Sadly that's all she knew when it came to child rearing, which unfortunately she put into practice very well.

Especially when you throw in politics, power and paranoia. Catherine gained the throne by deposing her husband and so would always live in fear of being deposed herself. As they say, "Troubled is the head that wears the crown"

man history is just tragic

Heds123 LMAOOOO

There's also the fact that Catherine never got the chance to bond with him when he was young. Elizabeth snatched him away before Catherine had a moment to recover from the birth and kept him with her as if he was her own baby. Catherine also blamed Elizabeth for his tendency to catch cold because she kept him too warm at all times, wrapped in furs near a blazing fireplace.

Stalin:you should visit the Gullag

@@VergilDarkslayer its over anakin i have the high ground

Pipe Silva you underestimate my power!

@@VergilDarkslayer That is The Soviet Union, not the Russian Empire.

@Lee Ruan ehhh they’re not

Hellenic heir designation for the win. Nothing better than being able to say "this man; that I might not have familiar ties to; but that is really competent & has established himself among the nation; is going to lead you once I die." Naturally; many monarchs didnt ever have the strength to overcome their ego and *not* let their empire be partitioned by ill-bred; spoiled boys.

Same here

Afghanistan: Hold my beer India: Amateurs!

Emperor AlHasan as an Egyptian... Yeah

Well, they did their share of invading as well, invading Czech lands in the living memory twice - in 1938 and 1968. If we disregard the funny incident this may when they invaded by accident.

Vietnam laugh in front of china

How about Israel? They win with one word: crusades.

Awwwwwwwww :3 I never new history could do that

👍

Good for you.

Similar situation to mine. Depression taking a cold hold of me, but this video is making my day better, even if by a tiny bit. I already love history, and when it's a part so interesting of it, presented in such a good way, it's bound to make me eager to keep going. Good luck in the fight against depression, fellow one.

Ey yo!

"Эй ё?"

But.... that IS Santa. :o

Sonja_yu no, Fater Frost was a spirit just like domovoi, leshiy and many others. But now he brings presents for children like Santa (sorry for my grammar mistakes, English isn't my language. Also I am from Russia!)

333 likes My son

Extra Credits your map of Russia doesn't show Saint Petersburg or the Baltics as being part of Russia. those were territories added by Peter the Great

Extra Credits I wish I could help on patreon but can you at least have an option to choose some of the polish history. I watched this video found it really interesting and thought how Poland got to this place and thought this would make a great series with ups for the polish/ Lithuanian empire but especially the downs and how bloody resilient those people are

Extra Credits Kan you please do the legacy of harun al rashi. from Mahmood

I really hope you guys can do one the most famous moment in History. The moment that inspired Game of Thrones. The War of the Roses

Redsand they'll probably mention it in Lies

Well, todays lithuanians have nothing in common with the Lithuania from the Commonwealth.

Well, it's accurate for the Second Partition (as the Constiution of the 3rd of May abolished the Grand Duchy), but otherwise yes, it would be much better to just say "Polis-Lithuanian Commonwealth" once and afterwards just keep saying "Commonwealth".

Fankas2000 Lithu-what? JK, sorry your country was not mentioned here.

It is pretty obvious they record all the episodes upfront and don't make corrections to the later ones even when viewers point out errors in the earlier episodes. Hope this issue will get at least a mention in the "Lies".

Dain II IronfootKing Under The Mountain as a lithuanian i have no idea how to feel

Monokite I vote for Bismarck!

Old Fritz all the way!

aahhhh, someone else who likes playing prussia in europa universalis 4

I would love a series on babarossa. He is the one i playing on Civ 6 now.

President Andrew Jackson would a very interesting one to do, the man definitely has quiet a story to tell.

He also lived almost as long as his son ruled so he was the man behind the man bascially all his rule.

Tokugawa* Sorry I had to.

@@arhambliss8606 so basically he has a stunt double, just in-case someone assassinated his puppet, he is still safe to run.

Tokugawa was supremely smart, he won his position by outsmarting everyone. But compared to Catherine, he had his sons trained, work for him, do things and learn the ropes of government. Then he stepped back and had Hidetada gain practical knowledge, let him wet his beak with power and steer him for 15 years. I admire Tokugawa Ieyasu profoundly !

I mean let's be honest most of "the Greats" in history ushered in a Golden Age of some sorts and basically was succeeded by heirs who couldn't match up to that legacy. You got leaders like Charlamange, Justinian, Koshrau whose legacy's were undone by their heirs. Tokugawa on the other hand was the few exceptions of history seeing as he retired instead of living out his entire life as a Shogun and then dying, passing down his title to an heir but then again if you think about, Tokugawa's legacy was a legacy of stability, isolationism, and stagnation - preserving Japan to a specific time period for a foreseeable future while the rest of the world modernized.

A portion of them is definitely out there. Not difficult to find books by her online, when searching in Russian, obviously.

He is really popular here in Finland and he did achieve things elsewhere. But I think he had his failings and other issues and Russia was seriously behind Europe during his time (it had been a long time but during the period of such European progress it was really noticable).

Suomi mainittu prkl ;DD

Игорь Крылов Yes, Alexander was quite badass, he survived _six_ attempts on his life, in Russia and out of Russia. His liberation of the serfs and the slavs in the Balkans. Also, Emperor Alexander I was also very good, his handling of the Napoleonic Wars and was favoured by Catherine himself.

Thats not true.

Why do you believe Autocracy is better than Democracy? It is a really uncommon opinion so I would like to know your reasoning.

whats lithuania? I only know P O L A N D

@@ExDee419 Lithuania is the reason you know P O L A N D

What are they gonna do, sing me to death?

@@elmascapo6588 its called poland-lithuania for a reson

@@elmascapo6588 that's not true, there lived around 0.8 million Lithuanians at the time there weren't that many Germans living during partitions, unless you are counting in Jews from Germany than maybe roughly the same. but through its history Germans were 2 times smaller in population than Lithuanians

JNSP 5987 in possible

Didn't you see my brief cameo in this?

2:49, right? Of course it was you...

Robert Walpole but do you do anything behind the scenes

I like to keep my time traveling business a secret. ;)

"My King! The Kingdom of Prussia was declared WAR against us. They cite Reduce Border Gore as their casus beli."

The most rational and understandable reason to fight a country. 25% AE, 200% prestige and 25% Dip cost

*Playing as Prussia* 10% Aggressive Expansion, 550% Prestige and 10% Cost for Complete Annexation.

More EU4 oh lord

At least it’s better than Civ VI and HOI4 border gore

Or maybe we are observing human nature here?

Admiral Yi wasn't a king

This is more extra credits (particularly with Sulieman) wanting to create a nice narrative above an accurate portrayal.

He'll steal the spotlight.

Seriously. He was the greatest military leader of his time and can be cosidered as one of the gretest generals in history. It's rare to find one that has never lost a single battle.

Imagine how history would have looked if Suvorov had lived a few more years and would have been in command at Austerlitz. He might have been one of the very few generals capable of defeating Napoleon (since he had already recognised Napoleon's genius while Napoleon was still a relatively obscure general in the french army).

Admiral Ushakov was his naval counterpart. He pioneered many of the tactics later used by Lord Nelson and won most of his battles with the Turks, and that’s considering he was usually outnumbered and outgunned.

your wish has been granted.

And slaughtering millions

@@goyonman9655 this one is a classic!

Bavro nice to see that someone knows what they are talking about but it is still kind of a minor detail but then again it's such a small thing to say polish-Lithuanian commonwealth instead of just Poland so he should have used the real name

It's actually mentioned in the description

Finnish Doge just calling it The Commonwealth would have been enough tbh

Bavro Yeah, that's true

I'm assuming they just call it Poland because not only is it much easier to say, but it's what people know it as nowadays.

Wololo l how about a flute busting Prussian

Oblique battle tactics ain't exactly straight...

Russia's f*cked up and no wonder why...

IVAN THE TERRIBLE HAS JOINED THE CHAT

Thank you so much for your support of the show!

He is a puppet of oligarch interests... but pretty stable one.

... Rah rah Rasputin, lover of the Russian queen... Wait

He’s not an Emperor, he’s a president. But he should be called Putin the Great President!

损毁v拆 twice in a row and the "polonium" reference was never proved. The UK Court decision said that "probably" someone in the Kremlin was involved and that just gives up that the case was politically motivated as the Skripal case of today is as well.

Soba Dragon welCOOOME TO THE JOKE

I think his name was said in previous episodes, hovewer not full one :P

By the way, where should be a stress in his surname? PonIAtowski or PoniatOwski?

VonKrauzer It would be PoniatOwski. Almost all Polish word have stress on the second last syllable. The exeption being words of foreign origin, mainly from Latin.

Zielman For a Polish name, Stanislaw August Poniatowski is easy to pronounce.

"I think his name was said in previous episodes" nope. I just binge watched all episodes, and his name was never mentioned.

Rather investing in Eastern Poland :D

OH fuck off Poland is the last frontier from the dirty Russians today

Elektro/PyrokineticChosenOne In fact it started in 1655 when Brandburg, Sweden, Russia and Transylvania agreed to attack Poland all at once and devide it for themselves. But at that time Poles manage to win through diplomacy and military might, but the country was totally ravaged and ruined aftar that war, known as Second Northern War.

And long bofore that, Poland was going to devide Ruthenia. But Russia won after all, and fucked Poland a lot of times, so everybody remember "oooh, pooor polska", but nobody remember that it began a long time ago, it started "fight" when forces were equal and Russia won. So Poland already have to let it go, theu lost, accept it.

Me too. There's so many posibilities. Personally, I would like to see a piece about Kościuszko. I would probably freak out, if that were ever to happen, though.

Tea Junkie I just want history schools/people don't really talk about

Agreed, but do they talk about Kościuszko in your school or did I misunderstood?

Tea Junkie not really

Dąbrowski would be cool as well.

Dangan Yankee who

@@fairyninja412 ah no one. just some insignificant military leader, who has never lost a battle in his half a century long service and who was behind all of those magical military successes mentioned in the videos as just happening.

@@fairyninja412 There is military honors and operations named after him, he is one of the greatest generals in the history of Russia, and regarded as such by its people and foreign historians.

@@MaziarYousefi And a Battleship too. Do you see torpedo boats?

Pressure them to make a one-off episode about hum

Dragan Markovic That would be great. We hardly ever learn anything about it, except WWI and the fall of Yugoslavia.

Because every time someone talks about it, someone else gets angry. Even saying nationalities of some historical figures might trigger some people. I've seen Macedonians angry because someone called Alexander the Great Greek, Macedonians angry because someone called someone who I don't remember a Bulgarian, Serbs angry because someone called Tesla Croatian, Croats angry because someone said Tesla was Serbian... the list goes on and on.

To sum it up, Romans ruled for among time, then Bulgars and Serbs took it from the Byzantine Empire (Roman Empire), then Basil II took it back, then the Fourth Crusade allowed Slavs to take it again, and eventually, the Ottomans steamrolled through, before finally losing control in 1877-1913.

It would be a big mess, especially in the comments section.

I agree me being Serbian there is some topics (Kosovo) that are very heated.

now we know that they have eatened by russia and austrians... 2 times

herkles1 who’s really gonna call Poland by its full name

*Lets take a look what Polish history book says...*

Poland

@@jhinzhao7984 THEY says "unia Polsko-Litewska" and this guy is right!!!

he just wanted to oversimplify the country

Not a great mother though.

"started basically from nothing" She was a fucking princess. Her entire future wouldn't have been possible weren't for her family connections. Granted, she certainly carried her weight once opportunity came knocking, but being a princess wasn't exactly something to be scoffed at back then.

She was also VERY lucky, like ridiculously lucky in many of her entreprises, especially in exterior politics. Most of the people who somehow got in her way payed greatly for that. No wonder she was so full of herself by the end of her life. She legit thought that Providence was on her side.

Adrian Pura In Polish History Books It’s Called Poland So Hjdnkruhblhjfbrihfhefijiufjrykfj

@@PinkDiamoMSP so it's called RZECZPOSPOLITA POLSKO - LITEWSKA I LITWA NADAJ JEST LITWĄ!!! + Czasami używamy KRÓTSZYCH odpowiedników jak np. Za czasów Napoleona kiedy Polska była oficjalnie Księstwem Warszawskim nadal odnosimy się jako do Polski więc Hdudnejvudkishdnwozhdnajxj

I would like to add that word commonwealth is often misleadingly translated. In polish name of the state trule meant common thing of Polish - Lithuanian that is Rzeczpospolita Polsko - Litewska (that is republic - rzecz pospolita).

The part about Lithuania having more land is not true. A big portion of the lithuanian land was transfered to the polish crown title by the Union of Lublin in 1569

You are right but you don't understand the purpose of this usage. In the context of today it was Polish as Prussia was Prussian. The whole country was Polonized etc. Only Poland is a successor to the Commonwealth.

Kęstas They weren't two completely different countries - they were autonomous parts of one country since 1569 - and in the end of 18th century Commonwealth became an unitary state.

I wanted to add some more staff to conversation. But peoples have covered pretty much everything. well done guys!

it's hard to be a ruler and a good family man at the same time

@@DVXDemetrivs she could’ve at least tried.

@@Avghistorian77 How?

Elso XD

soRRY SHE DID WHAT?

@@lightningdg5562 This story is a piece of the anti-russian propaganda that is still wide-spread in Europe. Either poles or brits spread that, for obvious reasons.

@@lightningdg5562 ikr

MY LITTLE PONY!

Are you talking about me? ;)