@@night6724 his doctrine was too much of "Germany shall conquer Europe and victoriously dominate the continent," a very unrealistic thing to do without a proper alliance (considering WW1 and WW2 Germany has been memed for not having any good ally). Wilhelm was hot-headed, quick to act without thinking, and just generally didn't have enough security to lead a nation, especially in the early 20th century. Bismarck was still able to predict things like "The Balkans would be the one starting a war" and "The kaiser will lose his power 20 years from my death" even when he was in the old days. Bismarck was a professional diplomat, Wilhelm was not. Twice Germany fought a two front war, and twice they failed. Wilhelm was not an idiot (I was just playing), but he was certainly not the best leader by any means.
@@night6724 also, The Ottomans and Austria-Hungary was also bitter to each other, yet still could be held together by Germany. I think a deeper sanctions on Austria and more compromise with Russia would end up nicely. Or at least could stop Russia from just so blatantly supporting France. Also, Your Majesty, how is it being a Sun King in the afterlife?
@@galatheumbreon6862I think they had the most wars with each other than any other 2 rival states in known history ever since the fall of the Kalmar Union.
That actually explains a lot why Bismarck thought that Europe would be drug into a massive war due to some damn thing in the Balkans, it literally kept wrecking his foreign policy goals
Well if he had stuck with his ally russia and promoted big Bulgaria then nothing would've happened. So it's his fault. That like french and british people wondering why the middle east and Africa are a mess today.
@@fhffvgju6299 however, let's remember that the Greek royal family was a part of the Wittelsbach royal family. Giving away that much Greek land was going to upset the Greek king, which in time would upset the Bavarian king, and all southern Germany for that matter. It was a lose-lose situation. Thank you small Balkan nations, you doomed us all
@@riograndedosulball248 greek lands? Bruh those were Bulgarian lands. A little before 1878 the ottomans allowed bulgarians to have a separate church from the greek one and all those territories voted(yes the voted) to be part of the Bulgarian church. Most greeks at the time were in western anatolia. Learn history before you talk u imperialist dork
The brilliant thing about Bismarck is that when they started winning against Austria he didn't continue and humiliat them he immediately asked for peace after he showed how strong they are so he can ally Germany to Austria in case France or Russia try to declare war on them.
He was afraid France would join the fray against Prussia (which still didn't have all the smaller German states in it's orbit completely) and there was no way Prussia could win a war on two fronts. The longer the war lasted the greater the chance of a 2 front war. So he pulled his punches after some objectives were reached.
@@abhiprakash74999 that's true, but before starting the war he already started negotiations with france about a case of war against Austria and if I'm not mistaken France didn't respond or kinda brushed it off, also Italy joined with Prussia even tho they didn't have that big of an impact.
@@abhiprakash74999 he achieved all his goals and he bought france of beforehand, of course if he would have demanded too much he would upset the balance of power which would have ended in war against the rest of europe but he achieved all his goal so it wasnt"just some objectives"
@@BrandonVout Serbia: hold on one sec while I make a false alliamce with the Croats to suppress Bulgarian nationalism and enforce a pan-Slavic dictate to control anybody among us who doesn't see us as the mater race. Let's support separatism and the creation of a fictional irridentist state so that we might win more territory regardless of rightful claim.
I mean, that's pretty much the story of every nation from the 1700's onward. Change tended to start coming whether you wanted it or not due to changes in technology and society. The old mindsets of the middle ages going back to the classical/roman era were finally coming apart. The pilgrims were the original rebels who were sick of everyone's shit and the slow progress of change in Europe, and were gonna go do their own thing, -with blackjack and hookers-
@@planescaped I mean, you're leaving out the whole "English civil war" and Magna Carta thing if we're talking about rebellion against absolute royal authority. Not the mention the 'Glorious Revolution' of 1688 that ousted James II.
ok so Russia is supporting bulgaria but germany doesnt want a balkan supperpower that is an russian ally and makes everything possible to stop it and it makes the relations of the 3 nations that want to ally bad
Actually it was France because if they didn't do French things like preparing for war they would never push Germany into forming the league of the three emperors and thus it couldn't have failed.
but if you were forced to ally with sweden what would you do then. would you die alone or at least take the swedes as a ally which is a better then nothing approach?
This reminds me of the intro to the Extra History miniseries on Bismarck. The last time Otto speaks to Wilhelm II he tells him the German Empire will collapse within 20 years because of “some damn stupid thing in the balkans.” Now it makes sense why he’d think that so early on.
Germany, Austria and Russia: "we have achieved peace in Europe!" Bulgaria: "Ahem, excume me..." Germany, Austria and Russia: "Oh coitus, we forgot about the Balkans!"
It was austira's fault that aliance failed. Bulgarians have every right to fight for independence, but austrians for some reason think they are entitled to have a sphere of influence over slavic people on the balkans and so they saw expansion of russian influence as a threat.
I paused to read that article at 1:40. From doming French nerds to a vast locust swarm I've never heard about, it's really great stuff - Love the channel!
That’s just great dedication. Writing an entire frontpage only to show it for 0,3 seconds so almost no one will read it but it’s great for the few who do.
I'm surprised Bismark never even considered offering an alliance with Great Britain, since their policy since the 1500 or so had been "France can't have nice things"... One would assume that both powers would actually vibe together, also forcing France to consider a war on two fronts...
there actually were attempts...especially since the royal families were also closely connected...but that was also a problem because the royals didn't like each other also germans efforts to play a role as a colonial power really pissed of the british...especially the part where the germans would need a ships to protect their trade... so there were a lot of things connecting germany and GB but there was also a lot going against that
@@darth0tator Here i thought German Industry would offer the British Empire more opportunity for their Empire especially in ship building industry. If those get in alliance like that wonder how other would feel
Bismarck did everything in his power not to stand in the way of the British interests, but his greatest political project in and of itself had put a nail in this ambition: the unification of Germany. Having Central Europe absolutely trimming with statelets ever at each other's throat was the cornerstone of the beloved British tenet of continental power balance. Getting allies to keep France at bay in those circumstances was cheap and easy. Now, Britain had _two_ powers to worry about just across the sea. It's often forgotten that the precursor to Well's War of the Worlds was the invasion literature, bestselling between 1871 and 1914, which detailed instances of countries being invaded by others. In the case of the UK, the invader was always either France or Germany. And if these two were ever to team up (unlikely because of Alsaice and Lorraine, but still), then the British Empire would quite possibly face utter annihiliation.
It`s kind of the West`s fault for screwing up the borders though. If they had just given us our ancestral lands where our people live we`d all be chill and watch from the sidelines. It`s not like the West is any better. France had a colonial empire the size of a continent and fought in WW1 over two shits of land on the German border that were ethnically German anyway. Germany literally put Hitler into power after getting the treatment Balkan nations have been receiving for centuries. Britain has waged countless wars over literal rocks in the middle of the ocean.
@@therae4988 That`s pretty easy. I`d say basically modern Serbia without Voivodina and a few Bulgarian villages but with some of the lands in Bosnia and Montenegro.
@@cowboybeboop9420 Wow, then if everyone could agree to those borders there woldnt have been any war. How easy problem solved it's just the us and the Eu saying what borders should look like in the balkans.
we have much of the same type of relation with them as the english do with the french, stemming from quite similar reasons aswell, the english with being pissed at france for trying to assert domminance back when the english kings still technically owed fealty to the french and the swedes with them being upset about the danish treatment of swedish nobles
*England: 1000 years of "To Hell with France!"* *Germany:* "To Hell with France! Want to be friends, England??" *England has switched teams to the "To Hell with Germany!" club.*
England switches teams there because Germany (Kaiser Wilhelm) stupidly builds a massive Navy that poses a serious threat to England. In reality, the Kaiser never wanted to be enemies with England but he was an idiot so all the decisions he took backfired on him spectacularly. One of these decisions was to side with the boars against the English in South Africa as the boars were not worth anything in terms of alliance.
@@sabhishek9289 So the seas are English property and no country can develop itself a large Navy beacuse that will upset England? That was the fail of the German emperor?
@@albertwayne2323 Dude, I'm talking about diplomacy from the perspective of Germany here. From the perspective of Germany who wanted to be allies with the UK, the Kaiser deciding to build a powerful Navy that would obviously threaten Britain's sole dominance over the seas was a really dumb idea. Germany should have just respected Britain's dominance over the sea and they genuinely had good options when considering alliance with Britain. And Britain would have been a really good ally for Germany. The British were bitter enemies against France for centuries and the British was also having "The Great Game" which was basically a cold war between Britain and Russia. So Germany's enemies were Britain's enemies. But the Kaiser (being a dumb And idiotic Tsundere) managed to screw up everything by building a massive Navy that threatens Britain's monopoly over the sea and also supporting the Boars against the British which was the last straw that pissed off the British so much that Britain decided to ally with France and Russia against Germany.
@@albertwayne2323 Well from the English perspective? Pretty much yes. That's exactly what they thought. For centuries, England's very survival had depended on dominance of the seas. If the kaiser had been building a navy that was clearly aimed at challenging *France* there would've been no problem. Even in the 1930s, Britain made it clear they were fine with that in the form of the Anglo-German Naval Agreement (basically a cancellation of the Versailles restrictions and letting Germany into the London Naval Treaty system without bothering to ask France's permission). The fact that the Germany Navy was so blatantly aimed at challenging Britain's naval dominance was seen as an existential threat, and Britain would do anything to maintain that dominance. Even create an alliance with their most ancient enemy. This was a colossal blunder on Wilhelm II's part, and all because he was jealous of his cousin's impressive fleet.
1:20 "To help each other suppress revolts". Gee, I wonder why that region where the three empires bordered each other was frequently on fire? It's almost like they partitioned something big that was there for centuries.
Bismark was treated as super insightful for saying the next big war would be over "some damn foolish thing in the Balkans", when in truth that prediction came from personal experience.
Balkan was even then a hotspot, it had so many different ethnicities who wanted their own land and don't get ruled by foreign powers such as Ottoman Empire, Austro-Hungary etc. It was known as Europe's Powder Keg back and even today...
@@YujiroHanmaaaa Not really today, no. Just about the whole region is either firmly inside NATO and/or, in the case of Serbia, despite outwardly cordial relationship with Russia, almost completely reliant on trade with the EU (chiefly Germany). Russia and China in practice have little access there and certainly no way to ship armed forces. No real conflict can erupt there today without full approval of Washington. Today's powder keg for Europe would be Ukraine and for the world, South China Sea.
To an extent, the Polish lands acted as something of a unifying enemy for all three. Had there being ethnically "pure" German, Austrian and Russian lands directly adjacent to one another, we probably wouldn't have waited so long for WWI.
That was hilarious! "To hell with France." "The Swedish anyone who isn't Denmark." "Too busy getting fired." "Germany being to promiscuous" Thank you for putting that image in my head.
From what I heard the main reason as to why the alliance between Russia and Germany broke was that Wilhelm the seacond for some reason refused to renew the alliance when it was reaching it's deadline.
Well, the alliance was always a rocky one. Austria and Russia had a roller coaster relationship dating decades, for example when Austria didn't assist their "official" ally Russia in the Crimean War, The Czar was furious and refused to give support to Franz Joseph in his struggle against France in the War of Italian Unification. This naturally led to mutual anger and also humiliation for the Austrians as Napoleon III and the French bulldozed them in the war. Add in the Balkans conflicting interests of the two powers, and the Russo-Austro-German alliance stood little chance of lasting.
What a coincidence. Bulgaria ruined the League of Three Emperors twice. They also single-handedly ruined my first Ironman HoI IV campaign by declaring war on Greece and by extension the allies despite my fucking expert diplomatic maneuvering which had allowed me to avoid war with the Allies completely and pummel the Soviets. Damn you, Bulgaria!
As a professional Dane, I feel I must remind you that the Norwegians threw you guys out, and then asked *us* to provide a prince for their new royal dynasty. And we also have oil, and you don't 😘 /end of obligatory teasing
I really believe that Bismarck was possibly one of the best diplomats of all time, he always knew the best way to maximise german success not just in the short term but looking many years down the track
I agree, but I think Putin may have surpassed him. Bismarck was playing a much stronger hand than Putin holds, yet Putin has manouevered Russia into a position of strength and influence beyond what should be its capacity. Great men are rarely good men.
I think Putin isnt as good, because he is 1 of a number of factors that have made modern russia's government so corrupt. Also, massive wars dont happen anymore which is why i think Putin has gotten away with so many things
Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire would still collapse. The Russian Empire had an incompetent leader and the people of Austria-Hungary were divided.
@@ls200076 I don't see Russia collapsing without ww1 losses in territory and men. They had a pretty strong grip on the people (atleast before the Russo-Japanese war). Austria on the other hand I mostly agree.
there would have been a need for compromise between austria and russia on the balkans which neither wanted each other in it. russians were for a yugoslav union but if he got his way austria hungary would have started collapsing a whole lot faster not to mention that in it of itself russia would destroy any alliances or pacts that could damage their foothold in the balkans
The Central Powers would have won. There would have been no naval blockade of Germany or Austria-Hungary because Russian ports would have been available for use. All of Germany’s troops would have been in France. Austria-Hungary’s troops also would have all been in France (unless Italy was still against them, then would have committed a lot of troops to the Isonzo Front. Russia would have been much more successful in the field fighting alongside the Germans and Austro-Hungarians. If the Ottomans were also allied with the Central Powers, that would have been even more troops available. If you exclude the Ottomans (say they were neutral) and even if Italy was still on the side of the Allies, I don’t see how the Allies could have beat Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. France and Belgium would have been overran even with British aid. As the Austro-Hungarians and Russians were fighting alongside each other, there would have been a lot fewer desertions and surrenders of Slavic troops in the Austrian army. It would have been seen as a great German-Slavic alliance. German tactics and equipment, Russian numbers, and most Austro-Hungarian troops more willing to fight, the Allies would have had little hope.
3:07 The guy who is wounded is Serbian prince/king Milan, who fell into the big depression after he lost the war, which led to him resigning as a king.
@@belgrademapper635 He may have been afraid that The Bulgarians would claim Serbia too ( or Macedonia as a minimum). The Russians had hoped that their Big Bulgaria would rule The Balkans.
They kind of oversimplified the ending. Czar Alexander III did dissolve the alliance in 1887 because of Austria, (I didn't know until this video it was because Austria was aiding the Serbs against Bulgaria in their war.) Bismarck was able to compromise the secret Reinsurance treaty with Russia, in which Germany would be neutral in any conflict between Russia and Austria. This treaty was due for renewal in 1890, but Kaiser Wilhelm II wanted to rule his own way, and so fired Bismarck. At the time, the Kaiser wanted a firm straightforward alliance with Austria, which is why he didn't renew the treaty and Russia allied with France for protection against the Dual Alliance. The Kaiser would try to seek an alliance with Russia years later, but the Russians had been so economically tied to France, (and kind of distrustful of Germany, still,) that they wouldn't break with the Franco-Russian alliance.
All good but I think the role of Wilhelm II is being understated. Wilhelm, for a good number of reasons, refused to renew the reinsurance treaty with Russia, also firing Bismarck, which prompted Russia to begin talks with France (eventually leading to Entente-Cordiale). To be fair to Wilhelm, one of the major reasons was the growing influence of the SPD in Germany who were pressuring Wilhelm into not renewing the treaty. The SPD did not want an alliance of absolute monarchies. But then there are Wilhelm’s personal failures. Unfortunately, the man was an idiot. He was a poor diplomat, very personally insecure and continually provoked people. He congratulated the Boers over their early success against the British whilst also competing colonially and allowing Germany to compete with the Royal Navy. This ended one of the oldest informal alliances in history. Prussia and Britain had been allies for centuries by this point (given that they were both Protestant nations who grew to become great powers around the same time, upsetting the same old powers in the process - France, Austria and Spain). There is absolutely no way that Britain and Germany should have been on bad terms. In-fact, if you break down the three countries in the triple entente, you realise that none of them should have been allies and Germany (specifically, Wilhelm) must have really messed up to create that scenario. Britain and France had been enemies for centuries. They were natural rivals. Britain and Russia were competing in the great game, with Britain concerned over Russian interests in the Middle-East and Afghanistan - so close to India (and Britain eyeing up Mesopotamian oil). Plus, Britain was on good terms with Japan who had just beaten Russia in a war. Britain themselves had defeated Russia in the Crimea. And France and Russia were complete opposites. France was a modern, industrial, French-liberal republic whilst Russia was an agricultural, pre-industrial absolutist monarchy. They had themselves been in conflict over the Crimea. The fact that these three ended up allies against Germany, when only France had any natural reason to oppose Germany in the first place, is astonishing.
If you look up some commentary from They Shall Not Grow Old, several of the British vets thought that they shouldn’t have fought the Germans, but rather they both fight France….it’s a damn shame really
It's fascinating how this attempts to make alliances led to the so-called "war to end all wars". And actually there was a precursor to this war: the Holy Alliance. Austria and Russia look very familiar; the third member was actually Prussia, and that was about 70 years before Bismarck unified Germany.
An Austria-Russia-Germany alliance against France and whatever quasi-puppet country along with it (coof coof Italy) was their natural path, given how much bad blood the three of them had with France. But, of course, the damned Balkans had always to get in the way
1. Bismarck tried to get around the issue of the Balkans on multiple occasions. He famously said "The Balkans aren't worth the life of a single Pomeranian grenadier." Unfortunately, wars in the Balkans would cost a lot of Pomeranians and other Germans too. 2. Kaiser Wilhelm II and Czar Nicholas II were idiots.
Отличный ролик, дал понять причину развала этого союза, то-есть пересекающиеся интересы России и Австро-Венгрии на Балканах. И в конце концов, пришёл момент когда Германии пришлось выбирать между двумя конкурентами, и выбор пал на Австро-Венгрию. Интересно как бы сложилась история, если страна отдала бы предпочтение России.
To think Bismarck not only was fully aware of the devastation of a two-front/three-front war, but even made successful counters to it... makes you wonder even more what History would have looked like if Wilhelm II wasn't... well, Wilhelm II.
He was quite old and senile by the time willy "fired" him, he wouldn't have changed much, willy just spared him the embarrassment his continued chancellorship would have caused.
@@alexzero3736Yeah. Willy and his couson Nikolai were only people willing to stop The Great War at the beginning. Heck. Souering relation between UK and Germany were fault of Wilhelm's uncle. Which even his mother, Queen Victoria, despised.
First of all, great video as usual, I was actually searching more about this alliance some time ago so it very informing to watch this summary. Secondly, I've seen some people giving suggestions on video ideas, so I think it would be very interesting if you made a video about the time Japan almost adopted Islam as their official religion. I'm not sure if this is true or not, but if it isn't you could debunk it like you did on your Pepsi's Navy video.
Ми то верно :D Ама ся и нещо друго има . Войната срещу сърбия не е спечелена без пуши защото новоосвободена държава няма военна икономика с която да победи сърбите а с ръце не става интересно но факт русия ни е дала 10к кона и 100 к пушки така че армията ни е победила сърбия имено заради руското уръжие
Those three empires are not really of any note. They have very little influence on the world scene. Persian, Greek, Roman, Mongolian, Spanish, and English empires are the real empires in history.
2:06 - Southern Dobruja was part of Principality of Bulgaria after 1878 2:55 - an autonomous province of the Ottoman empire called Eastern Rumelia to be more precise. 3:02 - Bulgaria didn't declare independence until 22 September 1908 Other than that excellent video! :)
@@sktt1488 They are of some interest. When Bulgaria declared its independence its ruler assumed the title not of king but of tzar, implying a highly dangerous claim to Constantinople.
The cool thing about bulgaria is that they were absolutely against the whole "balance of power" stuff and would play actually a very important and underrated role in European affairs. From their liberation they were smacked down by the European powers but still continued to defy the balance of power. They were a main player in the balkan wars and in WW1 despite being so unheard-of. Bulgaria embodied a true powderkeg.
As a Bulgarian I have to say we didn`t care two shits about the balance of power or the bullshit affairs of the great powers. All we wanted was to gain political and religious independence and unite all our historic lands and the lands where ethic Bulgarians were still living in. We almost succeeded too if it wasn`t for the Americans and king Ferdinand.
@@katzereich1467 But the Americans supported Bulgaria at Versailles - Wilson literally opposed Bulgaria being split in 3 parts as punishment, and he is held in very high regard by the Bulgarians because of that, he has a couple of streets named after him and a little statue in Sofia as a sign of gratitude
@@mihailrangelov8343 WW1 was really our last great hurrah. If San Stefano Bulgaria was ever going to happen it had to happen then. At the time there were more volunteers than the Bulgarian government had guns and we won. The Eastern front was fucking won. We had beaten the Russians, the Serbs, the Romanians.....EVERYONE!! All that was left was for the Germans at this point to just mop up a bunch of leftover rag tag armies on the Western front that were ready to surrender. Then the Americans joined out of nowhere and beat the Germans and so we ate shit. Lots of great powers had screwed us before but this was really the final nail on the coffin.
*In 1915* Germany and Austria-Hungary: Hey Italy. Join the war. Italy: Okay. *Joins the war on the side of the Entente* Germany and Austria-Hungary: Dammit Italy!!
@@TheStarcoMarco *in WW2* Germany (which now includes Austria): Ok Italy do you promise you won't change sides this time? Italy: Ye. Germany: Italy what are you doing in Cassibile? Italy: lol
Since it was brought up in the video I’ll asked the question once again: How did the Catholic world react to the French and Ottoman alliance especially the Pope.
Thanks for all the informative videos, this is definitely a very interesting and lost topic. This is the second day of me asking for: " How did the world react to Stalin's death"
"Sweden-Anyone who isn't Denmark alliance" That line made me realize that they actually never fought alongside in any single war. UK-France in WW1 and WW2 Serbia and Bulgaria in first balkan war USA and Mexico in Franco-Mexican war Argentina and Brazil in Paraguayan war Korea and Japan in both Korean and Vietnam War Turkey and Greece in various Balkan, Caucasus and Middle Eastern conflicts Spain and Portugal in Napoleonic wars Arabs and Persians rised up against ottomans several times Kurds, Armenians and Turks have fought against Russia several times. But Denmark and Sweden never fought alongside.
Ye, not even in the Thirty Years' War. In the second phase Denmark led the anti-Habsburg side, but that time Sweden didn't really participate yet, then in the third phase Sweden led the anti-Habsburg side, but by that point Denmark participated on the Habsburg side - and lost again. So even though they were both prominent players on the anti-Habsburg side at various times of the conflict, they've never been allies, even still.
@@ffarkasm It's because of 2 reason. Most of the things I mentioned happened in mid-to-late 19th century, 20th century and even 21st century but Sweden has been neutral since 1815. Second reason is because Sweden and Denmark never had same goals. For example UK and France were intimidated by Germans so they fought alongside. Denmark fought 3 wars with Germany, while Sweden was also intimidated by Germany, unlike UK-France alliance, cannot single handedly defeat Germans. The closest they came to fighting alongside was during Estonian Soviet war in which thousands of Danes and Swedes mercenaries fought alongside.
As a Dane, I'll tip in some thoughts (which are not based on any proper historical analysis, just some speculation). If there is a meme about British/French wars, then *oh boy* is there one about Danish/Swedish wars. We've been at each others throats from the early middle ages (basically ever since there were Danish and Swedish national states) basically until the 20th century and, I believe, hold the record for most wars fought between two countries. For how much bitching our countries have been up to, it's actually remarkable how friendly we've become since then. Sure, we still give each other shit for the fun of it, but I think we've all just come to the realisation that we're much more alike than we've previously cared to admit. The only reason we've not fought alongside each other in the modern period is simply because of Sweden's chosen neutrality in all matters.
A cool topic you should suggest to your patreon supporters is how the “mock battles” of the Spanish American war (or any war, for that matter) actually worked. Did the shell empty fields and fire at coordinated intervals so as to not actually hit each other? Can’t find much about it myself but it’s one of those perfectly obscure topics to which HistoryMatters often brings attention!
For the record: Locusts are grasshoppers, and grasshoppers can be green or brown. They tend to vary in color according to local environmental conditions, grasshoppers in fields tend to be green to blend in with the grass, but grasshoppers in forests tend to be brown to blend in with fallen leaves. Anyway, grasshoppers become locusts when their numbers grow dense enough that they start running into and rubbing up against each other more. This seems to trigger a kind of swarming behavior in the grasshoppers so they start moving in large groups and mass devouring plant life. You don't get locust swarms much these days since pesticides keep their population in check.