The War Aims of Each Nation in WW1 (Part 1)

Throughout the Great War, each nation maintained a set of War Aims they hoped to achieve through the eventual peace conference. These could be quite vague (such as Germany's plan for a European economic union) or very specific (such as France's desire to reclaim Alsace-Lorraine).
This video looks at some of the proposals each of the 5 Great Powers hoped to achieve in the war.

Sources:
Max Hastings, Catastrophe
David Stevenson, The History of the First World War
AJP Taylor, The Struggle for Mastery in Europe
Paul Hayes, Modern British Foreign Policy

Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:55 Germany
4:53 France
6:40 Russia
8:35 Austria-Hungary
10:32 Britain

#History, #WW1, #Britain

[philip]

"a european economic union dominated by germany as a market for german goods that excludes britain"

well congratulations mr. kaiser, your goals have been achieved. and it didnt even take one bullet fired in the end.

[Economic_History_YT]

Such an interesting and underrated aspect of WW1 era strategy. Whilst the battles on land and sea were on-going, the diplomatic scheming behind the surface also had a huge part to play.
Thanks for covering it.

[aaronfire]

That’s the thing about the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It wasn’t an empire in decline, it was an empire in need of reform and transformation. Franz Ferdinand and Kaiser Karl I could have achieved that. But as the War dragged on and became a total war, the empire became increasingly strained. I still feel that the Allies should’ve continued to consider reforming the empire much along the lines of federalism like Franz Ferdinand intended, but they eventually decided against that, with much help from Wilson too…

[voiceofreason]

As an American who had a lot of ancestors men and women serve the federal government in WWI, money was the motivator. The southern US was very pro war because it was our first opportunity to serve the fed govt in massive numbers since before the civil war. Our region had been very poor since the war and when WWI came around we got the opportunity to serve and get paid the same amount as people from other regions. I had multiple great great aunts who spoke English and French and applied to serve as bilingual secretaries. One of them got the job and bought a house with that money. Another great uncle made friends with soldiers from New England and had Winchester guns shipped to the south where they sold like hot cakes. WWI really lurched the South out of poverty

[reviveempires]

I've seen a lot of people online who view British flexibility as part of some grand conspiracy when in reality you really can't name a nation that lost while winning more than them in both wars. While WW1 appeared to be a victory for Britain reaching it's territorial zenith, the delaying of Home Rule in Ireland literally disunited the kingdom in the following years and left the door open for Welsh and Scottish nationalists we see today. Britain left the war bankrupted to the Americans, and again after the second war as well. Had war not happened, somehow, it would have suited British interests more than any other outcome as Britain was winning the battleship production war against Germany. Colonial nationalism also began due to the war with a lot of early Canadian, Australian and New Zealander histories pinpointing the end of the war as the start of their growing independence and national identities. The League of Nations put a dagger in the back of the Anglo-Japanese alliance with the forced hand Britain was dealt by the racial equality statute they voted against to appease Canada and Australia who had feared Asian immigration and by the question of India causing a huge rift between Britain and it's only real ally preceding the war.

While Britain's victory gave it huge potential in reasserting its global position, the costs of the war far outweighed its benefits and all its gains would be gone in a generation, hardly some grand conspiracy in their favour.

[OldBritannia]

Edit: Reading through the comments, I understand some of you feel a bit duped by the initial title, and in hindsight I completely understand why, my apologies. I promise it wasn't intentional, more that I thought 'Each Nation' sounded less clunky that 'The War Aims of the 5 Great Powers in WW1'.
Because the response to the video has been way more enthusiastic than I expected, I will do a part 2 to this that will look at Italy, the Ottomans, and the Balkans. Thank you for watching.

I hope you enjoy this short video about the war aims of the 5 great powers in WW1. Apologies about the lack of uploads, I have had quite a heavy workload over the past few weeks, hence why this video is also less intensively edited compared to my previous output. I'll add a disclaimer here that these are only some of the war aims each nation had, mainly those I personally found most interesting. I've also avoided talking about colonies outside Mesopotamia for the sake of brevity, apologies to any Mittelafrika fans.
Even so, I hope you find the video at least semi-interesting.

[bob_]

You easily make some of the best historical content on YouTube, keep it up

[diarmuidbuckley]

Interesting. I suppose an implied British Empire war aim was to retain Ireland. Following WWI the Empire lost (most of) Ireland despite the sacrificial efforts of the Sherwood Foresters in an enfilade in the Battle of Mount Street. The enthusiasm for "Self-Determination" and Freedom of Small Nations seemed not to apply so close to home. It surprises me that this isn't widely spoken about.

[formgrya]

A fascinating topic thank you for sharing it with us.
Since the final settlement of ww1 was quite Wilsonain, I've always wondered what would have happened to the peace settlement had there been no American influence.
Maybe you can also make a part 2 of this video, talking about the intended war aims of the minor powers in ww1 i.e. the balkans countries, the Ottoman empire, and the Italians. I think that could be pretty interesting.

[noaccount]

Excellent video
Though I'm surprised that AH's war aims weren't summarised as "dear god let us survive"

[oboonkero]

High quality and lesser known events in history makes this channel one of the best and will surely grow with time

[DogeOfWar]

Was waiting for the next one! Glad to see the content continuing!

[fartman]

Very interesting. Just found this channel, definitely one of the most informative history channels on this site. Keep up the hard work!

[aadcc]

Great video! I don't usually write these type of comments but I was very impressed by the quality of your work! I have many ancestors and family members who died in WW1 so it's always nice to show my respect to them by learning about the Great War.

[outerspace]

I support a part 2, showing the goals of other powers like Italy, Japan, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire, but also one that shows each nation's goals when it came to one another's colonies worldwide.

[BGerbs]

I'm excited for you to blow up like the other history YouTubers have. Your content is very interesting and informative while shown in a very professional manner

[neilmccarthy]

Margaret MacMillan's great book 'Paris 1919' noted the one ally that got everything and then some at Versailles was Romania. Subsequent events led to attempts to return to 1914 borders but, save for Moldov/Bessarabia, Romania has remained the same since 1920.

[HowTheyWeep]

I'm always impressed by the fluidity and eloquence of your speech, in particular your diction. A capable writer or orator in the making, no doubt.

[tacolordc]

I’ve looked for a video like this for years!!! Thank you for making this

[jameswebb]

I’m loving your videos! I look forward to seeing more in the future