The Cold War & Decolonization — History Summarized

August of 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. So I wanted to make a video about that. That was a bad idea...
What do you get when a Classically-Minded historian ventures about 2,000 years outside of their comfort zone? A mess. A well-intentioned mess is what you get. BUT a mess that we can learn from! So join me as we dig into the aftermath of the Second World War to analyze the origins of the Cold War and the decolonization of European Empires.

SOURCES & Further Reading: "The Cold War" by Gaddis, "The Wars of French Decolonization" by Clayton, "British decolonization, 1946-1997" by McIntyre, "The Cold War's Killing Fields" by Chamberlin, "The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction" by McMahon, and "Crash Course European History [Parts 42-47]" by Green.

Our content is intended for teenage audiences and up.

[OverlySarcasticProductions]

Some clarifications:
North Africa did of course see conflict, the pacific did get occupied — even the places that *didn't* (eg: India) still paid for the war. Damn double-negatives.
That weird Romania-Hungary-Russia border is a holdover from WWII. The border lasted until 1946 and was changed in 1947. Later in the video you'll see the more familiar borders.
Indonesia declared Independence in 1945 (Like Vietnam), but the Netherlands didn't withdraw until 1949, hence my mention of '49.

[mutantmaster]

Vampires hate crosses and garlic

Blue hates modern history, and anything not Venice

[Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

This feels very modern and I don't now how I feel about that. I prefer my history to be a long time ago -in a galaxy far, far away.-

[nps]

9:12
English: Gasp
French: *LE* Gasp

This is the kind of high quality intellectual comedy I subscribed for 😂

[JackRackam]

"Instead these conflicts played out via a series of proxy wars"
"Peru: '80 - "

I'm guessing this was just meant to be '80 but I like to imagine there's an ongoing Cold War proxy going on in Peru to this day that everyone just kind of forgot about

[hopehemingway]

“I’m going to go bother my pet kitten with fun facts about Florence”
“Why Father?”

I died at that

[jonathanjoestarwithpluck]

US and USSR: There’s no actual fighting going on, so we’re just gonna call it a Cold War.

All the 3rd world countries caught in the middle: Ah that’s hot! That’s hot...

[EmperorTigerstar]

“I will need a much bigger world map” Well I have the perfect solution for you!

[cosmicjester]

You can hear the discomfort in "modern" :D

[mandast]

Vietnam: We declare independence
France: No you don't
Vietnam: D I D I S T T U T E R

[notoriousd.i.g.]

It would be really fun if Blue went through every event in "We Didn't Start the Fire" and explained each event.

[natamyron]

"Today I'm going to make a terrible mistake..."

Ah so it's going to be an absolutely amazing video, got it.

[TheLuckySpades]

"I will need a much bigger worldmap"

Hopefully not with all the detail of Venice/Italy, that would kill you amd Indigo

[lewisirwin]

"Europe is, inconceivably, at peace."
*Glances furtively at Ukraine

[rachaelw]

It always gives me immense joy when I think about how 30 years or so plus years in the future some poor history undergrad is going to do a project on 2020 and loose their damn mind

[Fhaolan]

Growing up during the Cold War was... difficult. Not to say other generations had it better, but it definitely changed the way you thought. It was drilled into you that nuclear war was inevitable, that the leaders on both sides were too stupid to understand what they were playing with. At any moment, you would hear the sirens or the radio/tv go emergency broadcast. And *that noise* meant the missiles were already on their way and you had 10 minutes left. Any moment you could hear it, and everything will be dead...

10 minutes from now.

10 minutes from now.

10 minutes from now.

"This is the emergency broadcast network. This is not a drill. God help us all."

[mikebucket]

It is, admittedly and literally, A LOT. Your courage is admirable, as is your patience.

[AgentofChaos]

The Cold war, the world's most intense staring contest.

[aster-naut]

6:56 is that the opening chords to 'you'll be back'?

Genius

[Krixwell]

"Europe is inconceivably at peace" in this particular context hits differently a year and change later.