The War Aims of Each Nation in WWI (Part 2)

Whilst the Great Powers of Europe may have fought the First World War for grand ambitions of European and World domination, caught in between were smaller nations, pursuing their own more limited objectives.

This video aims to be a short documentary, looking at some of the War Aims pursued by a few of these more minor powers.

Sources:
Modern British Foreign Policy, 1880-1939, Paul Hayes
1914-1918, David Stevenson
The Struggle For Mastery in Europe, AJP Taylor
1914-1918 Encyclopedia

Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:17 Italy
2:52 Ottomans
5:01 Serbia
6:27 Bulgaria
7:43 Romania
9:15 Greece

#WW1, #History,

[ComradeHellas]

9:40 Greece ordered two dreadnoughts of their own, the irony of the situation is that Greece ordered them from Germany, while the Ottomans from Britain, and both ended up fighting on the opposite side of the war than the owners of the shipyard they ordered their dreadnoughts from.

[olefante]

The Italians were also promised dramatic amounts of land in Chad & Egypt, albeit mostly desert (Article 13 of Treaty of London) This land was rumored to have valuable metals in it, however it was just simply... useless desert. However, even though it was useless desert, the allies would only give a token of it to Italy, and would keep a land in particular known as the Aozou Strip, which they would be forced to give to Italy in the first act of Appeasement prior to WW2. Also, you may've had a research error, as they did not promise Italy a protectorate. Article 7 of the Treaty of London says that Italy - if they receive Dalmatia - promises to recognize the total partition of Albania between Montenegro & Greece. Italy would establish a protectorate over Albania, however it wasn't by any treaty obligations, and would be used to open a new southern front against Austria. They actually received international condemnation for such occupation.

[HobNob-trnm]

In part 3 you should do Japan, USA and Belgium

Edit: if you enjoy making content you could also do a Part 4 explaining the wishes of people groups without their own nations such as the Poles and the Czechs. It would be interesting to see what land they wished to receive in their nation and who they fought (for example if Poles rebelled in Russia after they signed their peace treaty with Germany)

[OldBritannia]

I hope you enjoy the long overdue second part of this war aims series. This is the first video I've made where I wrote the script without a good grounding in the subject already. Thus, whilst I have tried to be as rigorous as possible in my research, I am sure there will be a few omissions/mistakes apparent to those of you with a better knowledge of specific countries.

As such, I will try and include in this pinned comment any corrections/additions those of you with more expertise than me feel ought to have been included in the video.

Nonetheless, I hope to any that watch, you are able to derive some enjoyment from the video. Thank you for watching.

Corrections:
7:30 This should be ‘Northern’, rather than ‘Southern Dobruja’.

[potatogod]

when part 1 is in the beginning of summer and part 2 is at the end

[Economic_History_YT]

The best way to be balanced and fair is to have everyone equally unhappy with you - seems to be the strategy of the Entente with the minor powers. :)

Love your maps by the way - beautiful.

[guidoserafino]

Great video! Just to mention that the fact that Italy's claims were not accomplished became known as "Il mito della vittoria mutilata" or the mith of the mutilated victory. It was popularized by the man who inspired Mussolini, Gabriele D'Annunzio.

[omegawonton]

Entente: Lets bribe Italy to join the war so they can open a front in one of the most mountainous places in Europe! This will allow us to crush the Central Powers!

Also the Entente: Damn why Italy not pushing through the big mountains?

[ivc]

I'm suprised how much you knew about the Romanian hopes and goals, as well as the fact about Regele Ferdinard never signing the treaty of Bucharest. Very cool!

[jandromartinez]

Great video! I'd really like to see a third part covering other nations such as the US, Belgium, maybe even Japan, aswell as stateless nations such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Arabia...

[paulbrockschmidt]

Perhaps the most underrated history Channel on YouTube. For the quality of the work and astonishing lack of subscribers

[chrisyuri]

Thanks for all your work man, my only criticism is out of greed as I want more longer videos, if possible just talking over a still image would be more than adequate with your illuminating takes.

[angelb.]

Venizelos favored the British because Greece's position was mostly a maritime power seated at the eastern center of the the Mediterranean Sea, which was mainly controlled by the Entente powers (Britain). Geography played an important role in the conflict, as British supremacy could have shaped Greece's future if it answered accordingly. Going against them or favoring neutrality was like challenging a sea god. Sooner or later, the territorial claims that had been won from the Balkan wars would have been taken away by the very powers (British) who gave them in the first place.

King Constantine I and his royal court favored the Central Powers due to the existing notion of "divine rule" in autocratic societies (e.g. Germany, Russia), the king's ties with the Germans (his wife was the sister of the Kaiser Wilhelm II), the near invisibility of the German Imperial Army on the front at that time, and the fear of retaliation of neighboring countries who had a previous beef against Greece (including the Greeks from Asia Minor suffering reprisals from the Turks). Political division played a major impact on Greek society even after the end of WWI. Even Ioannis Metaxas (then an officer in Constantine's army, and later the future dictator of Greece), had a strong disbelief that both WW1 and the subsequent Greco-Turkish war would end in success for the Greeks.

[tznwyvuk]

Serbia lost around 25% of its whole population not just mobilised population.

[thesteamengineer]

As a Bulgarian i was taught that we picked the axis because their promises were more plausable. The Entante's promises meanwhile would have been harder to act on and were seen as less likely to be fulfilled.

[lukaswilhelm]

Enver Pasha's thought actually make sense when you think about it, the only thing that keep the Ottoman Empire still an empire at that time was because great powers of Europe want a balance of power by keeping it on weaken position, if one side lost as the video said it would be partition evantually by which ever side win. It's just Turks choose wrong side or more accurately got Shanghaied by the Germans.

[Hillbilly]

Brilliant work. Have been watching the playlist. Excellent. Cheers from Tennessee

[sticlavoda]

Quick correction. The territory Bulgaria had occupied is Northern Dobruja. Not Southern Dobruja as the video says.

[antaridae]

2:15: Only 3 British divisions were sent to Italy. Italy sent more troops to the Macedonian front than the British did to the Italian one. You should also mention that in 1917 the Bolsheviks publicated the (at the time secret) treaty of London.

[shiners]

Can’t wait to watch!
Edit:Amazing video!!!