Who was Truly to Blame for World War One?? (NOT THE GERMANS!!)

Hi everyone, I have just started a Patreon. Any support would be greatly appreciated! :)

[HenryStewart]

CORRECTION: I said that the gun used in the assassination was made in Serbia. It was actually made in Belgium. Apologies

I have started a Patreon. Any support would be greatly appreciated! :)

[ahseaton]

King George, Kaiser Wilhelm and Tsar Nicholas were all first cousins and grandsons of Queen Victoria. The Kaiser, who was Queen Victoria's oldest grandchild, said about the war “If our grandmother [Queen Victoria] were alive, she never would have allowed it.”

[johnhenderson]

People can take the piss out of what happened then but it comes down to the fact that a generation perished in this conflict. Not just thousands but millions.

[Daniel-deMerrivale]

My (maternal and paternal) family lost 8 boys to battle (average age around 20). One Grandad was shell shocked and the other used to show me shrapnel that went into his back in 1916 coming out of his wrist of all places in 1970. It was blue in colour. He was also burnt on the legs with mustard gas. Then of course more of my lot were lost in the second war, including lost legs. We never found them either. All I know is, my family didn’t start it but we did pay the price. I have always thought that we ordinary souls always pay the butchers bill for the mistakes and arrogance of all the leaders of this world. I’m sure there are many of you also with similar family histories. Sadly, Nothing changes.

[aaronsherman]

World War 1 broke the West fundamentally. And those responsible for destroying two generations never faced trial for their crimes. We are still grappling with the aftershocks of this tragedy.

[stephengraham]

The outbreak of WW1 is even crazier when you consider that the leaders of Germany, Russia and Great Britain were related. Kaiser Wilhelm was the grandson of Queen Victoria. Tsar Nicholas II was distantly related to Queen Victoria and he also married Alexandra, Queen Victoria's granddaughter. Ferdinand I of Romania married Queen Victoria's granddaughter Marie. So when the Kaiser went to war he was fighting his cousin George V and his cousins-in-law in Russia and Romania. If that wasn't crazy enough, the Kaiser was also an honorary admiral in both the British and Russian navies.

[mielipuolisiili]

I heard it started when a bloke called Archie Duke shot an ostrich because he was hungry

[JoshMaxPower]

Also, Europe from 1814-1914 produced music so powerful and beautiful that it's still being performed today all over the world. Whistle a couple of lines and everyone recognizes it from hearing it in movies, mostly.

[tqrules]

WW1 is literally family feud but with countries.

[tomm]

WW I was THE most catastrophic event of the 20th century. It upended a century of relative stability and prosperity in Europe. It was a major contributor to European chaos of the 20s and 30s and of the rise of fascism and WW II and all of the misery, death and destruction that that war brought to Europe. Great video, thanks!

[kaltaron]

Blackadder goes forth put it very well:
Edmund: You see, Baldrick, in order to prevent war in Europe, two superblocs developed: us, the French and the Russians on one side, and the Germans and Austro-Hungary on the other. The idea was to have two vast opposing armies, each acting as the other's deterrent. That way there could never be a war.


Baldrick: But this is a sort of a war, isn't it, sir?


Edmund: Yes, that's right. You see, there was a tiny flaw in the plan.


George: What was that, sir?


Edmund: It was bollocks.

[phil]

This is probably the first ever english speaking documentary towards this topic that is not clouded in WW1 propaganda. Very very well done and subbed

[vegamineral]

Expecting WW1 not to start and having every other European country pitch in is like expecting your dominoes to stay standing in a hurricane

[ktipuss]

15:36 The Archduke not only continued on in that open car after the first bomb, but also told the driver to stop when he realised that they were taking the wrong road to the hospital. In the process of sorting that out, the car had by chance stopped directly next to where Gavrio Princip was standing, and thus gave Princip a clear shot at the stationary car instead of a moving one. He could hardly have missed...and didn't.
The car by the way is still in a military museum in Vienna.

[kathrynroma]

I remember doing a paper on this for my historiography class in college. We each had to argue why a specific country was responsible for WW1. Definitely one of my favorite papers.

[nelsnelsen]

Archduke Franz Ferdinand went to Bosnia so that his wife, who was actively snubbed by the Austrian nobles, could be treated with the respect of a state visit. Several in Austria were eager to go to war in Serbia, especially Hotzendorf, who had several times prior pushed for war, and he ironically had been opposed by the Archduke. Many in Germany wanted to go to war with Russia before Russia had completed their railway upgrades (funded in large part by France). France actively encouraged Russia to go to war with Germany. France actively pursued an alliance with Russia after the Franco-Prussian war. France wanted revenge for Germany taking Alsace Lorraine, and they sought an alliance with Russia to acheive that aim. During the 'July Crisis' there was little done by France to prevent war from breaking out. There is positively no way to pretend Serbia was not agitating for war, and had completely expected Russia to support them.

It should be noted that the actual first shots of the war was by Austria on Serbia at Belgrade, July 28th, nearly a week before Germany crossed the Belgium border on August 4th.

Who is to blame? The war hawks in Serbia, Austria, Russia, Germany, and France. Each of those countries had politicos who purposely agitated for a war, and they got it. Britain was happy to have an excuse to go to war against the rising power of Germany. Italy and the Ottoman empire joined the side they felt would give them the best spoils of war.

If one wants to blame any single country for the Great War, they don't understand how eager each and every one of those initial five countries were for war. The celebrations held and filmed in each country gives adequate testament to that eagerness.

It's like blaming a fist fight between two people on the one who threw the first punch but totally ignoring that the other guy was provoking it the whole time. They're both to blame.

[spartandud]

One thing should be noted about Austria is that many people in Austria wanted a war with Serbia long before the assassination. In 1913 Austrian chief of staff Conrad von Hötzendorf proposed war with Serbia 25 times. Again, this was the year before the assassination.
But he's not the only person. Many in Europe wanted a war. It really was a powder keg and any spark would have set it off.

[iNotoriousAJ]

Rest in peace to all the innocent lives lost from all sides during the conflict and thank you for the informative video!

[michaelburggraf]

When one of my great-grandfathers, an officer in the Austrian army, returned home from WWI he remarked that he hadn't shot a single bullet at the enemy. He was responsible for the provision for men and horses at the fronts to which he was sent. He was very patriotic and deplored the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Realizing that Austria was reduced to even less than the German speaking parts he strongly doubted that the first Republic of Austria would be a sustainable political and economic entity. Hence he was slightly in favour of Austria joining the first Republic of Germany.
It's possibly impossible for people today to understand what a shock and humiliation the consequences of WWI were for many people in Austria and Germany. As a result a huge barrier was set up against investigating, reflecting and understanding the root causes of that desaster.

[mowogfpv]

I think it's important to remember that periodic wars had been a reality in European politics essentially forever. The leaders of Europe were recruited mostly from the pre-industrial aristocracies that had fought those previous wars and they completely failed to grasp the way in which industrialisation had changed what a full scale European war would mean.