How Europe Went to War in 1914 - Christopher Clark 

I've been scouring the net for lectures about how the war started, having absorbed a workable knowledge base on the events of the war. Cheers to the few who are likewise interested in these matters.

Christopher Clark is one of my favorite historians!!! Excellent mind concerning the issues pertaining to the Great War!!! Thanks for posting this!!!

both highly informative and humorous at the same time - always the best way to learn and retain information. most excellent :)

Simply, THE man! Wonderful lecture.

Read Clark's Sleepwalkers and even took notes. Couldn't put it down. This is my go-to reference while reading other books on WW1. I can remember as a youngster in the 1960s one older man whose eyes kept twitching. Someone told me that he had been gassed in WW1. I suspect that was true. My grandfather was a 15 year old teen in a village a bit south and east of Warsaw. He once told me the Russian army marched into his village on their way toward Galicia in August 1914 and impressed all the young males to forceable manual labor. They were not permitted to carry weapons to defend themselves and I remember my grandfather telling me he saw one of his friends being killed by a falling tree. I wasn't sure if his story was true until I found a book the West Point Military Academy published in the 1950s detailing which Russian army and its general had marched through his village.

Thanks for posting this. Quite informative lecture.Interesting.Christopher Clark is one of my favorite historians ....from Fresno, CA.

Quite informative..

Christopher Clark is a great historian and speaker. Non-American historians Of WW1 seem to have a broader and more nuanced understanding of the war.

good work

The huge book Folly and Malice by John Zametica uses genuine archived Serbo-Croat and German language documents to explain the build up to WW1. His conclusion is it was kick-started by an ailing Austria-Hungary which believed that waging a successful war was the only way it could remain a Great Power. This empire, with many squabbling nations, and with statesmen unwilling to contemplate any meaningful internal reform, was the real powder keg of Europe not squabbling groups in the Balkans. Franz Ferdinand was seeking to destroy the Dualist political compromise between Austria and Hungary and replace it with his own centralist autocracy so tension between Vienna and Budapest was huge. Meanwhile Gavrilo Princip was driven by his South Slav ( Yugoslav ) ideology rather than a Serbian one and even some of his co conspirators were from ethnic Croat and Muslim background . The assassination plot was conceived and propagated by Yugoslav ideologues in 'occupied' Habsburg Croatia and Bosnia. Meanwhile the Black Hand officers organisation in Serbia was more focused on overthrowing civilian rule in Serbia itself and replacing that with a military dictatorship .After two Balkan wars the last thing Serbia needed or wanted was a war with Austro Hungary and the Serbian warning to Vienna intended to prevent Franz Ferdinand's assassination and was the work of Apis the leader of the Black Hand. In July 1914, Vienna and Berlin wanted a war against Serbia to secure complete regional hegemony by removing any Russian influence in the area and thus paving the way to Turkey and the middle east . Because they thought Russia would stay out and Serbia would collapse in a matter of days or weeks ,the risk of a wider conflagration was so small it was worth taking.

Definitely 👍🏾 worth listening to

Clark's subtle reference to Paul Keating's "its the economy stupid" (1.00:13), brilliant but lost on the audience.

Mr Clark has an outstanding ability to conceptualize.

Talk starts at 6:42

Interesting

There was a lecture he did to a bunch of students where they asked him questions afterwards pertaining to the Ukrainian crisis that has been removed within the last month, does anyone know where that lecture was held and if there are any other copies of it up?

9:17 - King Zog! What a dude. A very odd man.

21:15

21:17 ♫ I died ♫.....♫ I DIED♫...laughing.

Western historical writing begins with Herodotus of Halicarnasus, his Histories relates the Greco-Persian war, and so much more. Thucydides of Athens comes next, and relates the Pelopponesian war. Mr. Clark probably neglects Herodotus because of Thucydides more analytic approach. In defence of Herodotus, he had no precedent to fall back on besides chronicles, now lost; and he made a point to record all evidence, leaving the conclusion to his hearer/reader. This is one of my peculiar pet peeves. EDIT: Mr. Clark's talk is fantastic!

After many hours of watching why WW1 happened I know less than I did before 😅.

26:09, the historical picture of the arrest of one of the conspirators, not Gavilo Princip.

I am interested in the Great War.

The Darkest Days by Douglas Newton is an interesting read A good argument for Britain staying out of a Russian German War centred in the Balkans. The war for civilisation, I didn’t believe in it then and I believe in it less so now JRR Tolkien

This book won t be the last on this sujet.

Assessment of the facts and truth of who caused WWI, subsequently leading to WWII Gavrilo Princip, who btw was the worst shot of all the Serb National Black Hand members, by a turn of fate, misfortune or fortune depending on who's side you ask, as Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand's driver went down the wrong road, having to back out, ran smack into Gavrilo Princip who was walking home after previously failed in his assassinate attempt of the Arch Duke, was suddenly presented with his assassins gift, the direct assassination target of both Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sofie, being so close just 6-7 feet away, he couldn't miss.. who btw was no sweet innocent young boy, that's absurd. Gavriolo Princip may have been the spark catalyst that led to a Major European Conflagration that turned into a world war, but it was not Gavrilo Princip who actually started WW1, it was the German Kaiser Wilhelm II. In 1914 it was Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II decision to give the Austria-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph a blank-check assurance of support in their war against Serbia in response to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sofie, which led to the triggering of the alliance of Russia and France to declare war on Germany and their mobilization of troops, whereupon Germany's invasion of Belgium following the Schlieffen Plan led Britain to declare war on Germany to protect Belgium's neutrality, WW1 would never have occurred, and maybe the Russian Revolution by Leninist Bolsheviks would never have happened that gave rise to Communism and Joseph Stalin and the USSR.. whereupon after the defeat of Germany on the battlefield in 1918 by the Allies, the Treaty of Versailles punishing Germany for WW1 would not have occurred, thus Hitler's rise to power would never have taken place thus WW2 would never have occurred, thus the world would never experienced the mass murder genocide of tens of millions of innocent people, Soldiers and civilians - let alone 6 Million Jews systematically exterminated, liquidated aka The Holocaust, with Europe literally set on fire. Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm could have just said no to Austria-Hungary's Emperor Franz Joseph in his request for unconditional, unlimited support against Russia and France, a 2 front war against 2 major powers, Austria-Hungary most assuredly would not have gone to all out war with Serbia, and WW1 would never have occurred, thus WWII would never have occurred. It was Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II who was responsible for WWI, not Gavrilo Princip.

WWI started out pure ego and WWII started out pure evil.

Оно када за малоумни рат почне због атентата на Видовдан 1914. Ова прича се продаје на Западу. А, прећуткују своје мегаломаније и колоније и остале интересе.

6:43, this couple has a very bad day.

well, yeah, but for the rest of us it's a stupid war......

Historian: France had to fight on their own soil because they were invaded... Me: Plan VXII... Historians: Shhhhhhh... France had to fight on their own soil because they were invaded...

A lot of blah blah blah before reaching a self-evident conclusion in the two last sentences ...