Ignorant American reacts to WW1 - Oversimplified (Part 1)

Thank you for watching me, a humble American, react to WW1 - Oversimplified (Part 1)
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[@icetwo]

It's actually quite simple with both world wars: the first world war began because someone shot an Austrian. World War II started because someone didn't shoot an Austrian.

[@bobabier5394]

this one is good! i'm gonna steal it^^

[@RustyDust101]

Pfffhahaha... that's a damn good description... 😂😂😂😂

[@iKvetch558]

OK...that's a good aphorism...but I am curious...for the Austrian NOT being shot, are you thinking of the Henry Tandey incident?

[@reidithink]

​@brudnick39 he's talking about Hitler. Hilarious fought in ww1 but a British soldier spared him and he lived

[@iKvetch558]

@@reidithink That is what I was asking...Henry Tandey was the Brit who could have shot him but did not...I already knew who the Austrian in question was. 👍

[@suit1337]

as an Austrian I'm always amused that people think Germany is responsible for starting both world wars 😅

[@irrelevant_noob]

... i wonder, do you pass _all_ the blame to Mr G. Princip, or do you share part of it? ^^

[@79Testarossi]

I always say: passt schon 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@michaelgoetze2103]

You're jumping to conclusions. He didn't mention Princip at all.@@irrelevant_noob

[@fabianstriebeck8054]

ignorant stoopid people. well we dont call them people, as they are so dumb - just call them: pet. as they act like dogs & cats.

[@robertsmith4681]

Trying to blame the Russians and their allies for both wars ruffles too many feathers ... Although it is in many ways "technically" correct...

[@unimerc5116]

13:02 this guy is not smiling because he is happy. its shellshock. seeing this war and bombarded 24/7 you get mad. modern times you might call it PTSD, but i think the horror of WW1 is the highest level ever reach. You should watch some videos about shellshock WW1, but they are shocking, not because of the violence, but because of the state of the minds and madness of these ww1 soldiers..

[@Mumohan_]

Yep, imagine you're stuck for months in a damp hole in the ground, enemies a rock throw distance away, you never know when they will push the no man's land, both sides constantly shooting so no one can sleep, you're sick, cold and eat mostly crackers and canned beef It's a miracle that they all didn't go mad

[@MissTwoSetEncyclopedia]

That's why I'm always enraged when I here some boomers say "Hey, young people are too soft nowadays, they need a good war to toughen them up". Like... war doesn't toughen anyone up, you jerk. Either it kills you or it gives you physical and mental scars for life.

[@Boredofmostofit]

I guess you could say trenches are the closest you get to hell on earth. It's really belivable that, at some point, storming no mans land seems like a reasonable alternative...

[@TomiThemself]

Hearing Ryan saying "How did the countries communicate without internet? Without TWITTER!" is probably the most American thing I've heard today, lol

[@SirAlric82]

For real. As if diplomacy was invented by Jack Dorsey and didn't exist at all before that. -_-

[@yuppthaaa]

it's a reasonable question lol, u can't assume knowledge

[@aqwevony3275]

​@@yuppthaaa it's not

[@danielzaucha3840]

Yep

[@esrohm6460]

That one part France wanted is in fact a region where people simply knew French and German because pretty much every other week it changed what country they belong to

[@fusssel7178]

true, the people there were very mixed (germans and french). Nowadays I think it is mostly french people there with a bit of german influence.

[@irrelevant_noob]

@@inkognito9117 Ooh, i wanted to answer they are actually Gauls of Celtic heritage, but looking it up it seems i had somehow forgotten about the germanic *_Franks_* ... and only remembered Alamanni, Saxons, Teutons, etc. :">

[@robertsmith4681]

And that weekly war has been going on since medieval times, before France and Germany existed as defined countries ...

[@etiennelebeauf5068]

⁠@@robertsmith4681France already existe at médiéval time

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

@@robertsmith4681 It was pretty much an issue since the frankish empire was split in 843

[@grahamgresty8383]

They used spotter planes and balloons to see what the other side was doing, hence the gap was spotted.

[@nirfz]

Correct, but they didn't have radio to comunicate it, so they had to use other (often way slower) forms of relaying that information.

[@tobitobsen7826]

It ain't a smile. It's the 2000 yard stare...

[@gabecollins5585]

It’s called the thousand yard stare not the 2000 yard stare.

[@DalaiDrama-hp6oj]

@@gabecollins5585 So that's how the Brits did it? Went to France, talked about 'yards' and everyone was so confused that they all had to dig in to concentrate on the calculation process? 😉

[@Narangarath]

@@gabecollins5585 While you're correct, trench warfare is so brutal it kind of deserves the 2x status.

[@navineon4961]

I definitely don't mind the "ignorant" part, I focus on the "I'm aware I don't know everything but I have an open mind to learn" part. I think that's the most important mindset to have and the basic charm of your videos 😊

[@micade2518]

The Alsace/Lorraine region is straddling France and Germany, which both countries have fought over the propriety of for centuries. That "slither of land" as you call it happens to be extremely rich in coal ... that, before oil was discovered was "the" major source of energy, particularly since the industrial revolution.

[@iKvetch558]

I believe he used the word "sliver"...at least that is what I heard...but you are definitely correct about the importance of Alsace Lorraine. And nobody was expecting the casualties of WW1, so France had no conception that coveting that small piece of land would end up costing millions killed or wounded.

[@remivieilledent]

The issue around Alsace Lorraine was above all symbolic and nationalist. France wanted to take revenge on Germany and regain territory that it had lost at the end of the war against Prussia (which became the German empire) in 1871. But I don't believe that raw materials and energy played that important role in the situation. This may seem crazy today especially when we see the consequences of this war, but concerning Alsace Lorraine, it was not so economical and few strategic (exept maybe for an accès to the Rhine for France). Nationalism, the idea that certain territories historically belonged "by nature" to one or the other nation, and national honor played a role just as fundamental as pure economics. And, regarding the rivalry over Alsace Lorraine, we will be more on this model than on motivations of access to energy or strategic resources. Because finally, and for living in Alsace myself, I do not knox (old) coal mines here. The south of Alsace has a large area of ​​potash mines. The large coal mining area is rather in Lorraine, but in a part which was always French. Indeed, we talk about Alsace Lorraine, but in reality the most of Lorraine was still part of France. The part of Lorraine annexed by Germany in 1871 was Mozelle. This is why we should rather say Alsace Mozelle. And I am not sure, but I think their is few coal mine in Mozelle too.

[@Ruosteinenknight]

@@remivieilledent Franco-Prussian war so one sided that preceding Austro-Prussian war seemed like a fair fight in comparison.

[@TF2CrunchyFrog]

​@@remivieilledentwrote: "France wanted to take revenge on Germany and regain territory that it had lost at the end of the war against Prussia (which became the German empire) in 1871."

[@simonsays2774]

Nonsense. Culturally and linguistically, Alsace and Lorraine have always been German. The Alemanni settled there in the 6th century AD. It was part of this cultural area until the French stole it because the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation was busy with the Ottomans. Why do you think all the old people still speak German dialects? The French banned German after 1918 and 1945 and tried morbidly to suppress the culture and language. They were and have always been Germans.

[@DJChappie001]

I'm Belgian and even to this day there are still bombs and ammo being dug up from WW1 (and WW2 also). It's also very cool to visit the well preserved trenches in Flanders fields. Very chilling experience.

[@raven_m0rt833]

Cool, another Belgian

[@darthvader5802]

Couple things: -Alsace-Lorraine might be tiny, but has enormous mines of coal and iron (indespensable for industry), making them the most valuable region in time of war -Germany invaded Blegium non because of a mistake, but simply because Schliffen plan was the safest and quickest way to reach Paris. In facts, it worked in 1870 and 1940. They simply had no alternatives since invading from the east border would have resulted in facing heavy fortifications and Rhine river

[@edcote]

He was saying it was a mistake because entering Belgium caused Great Britain to enter the war, and then the US.

[@deathtrooper7760]

@@edcote the US was pulled in because the british started to use civilian ships as military transporters hopeing such incident would finally pull the americans in the war

[@Glimmlampe1982]

​@@deathtrooper7760and because Germany didn't see the US as any kind of threat as they had basically no military at all (I think it was less then a tenth of what Germany had at that time). What they didn't take into account was that the military industry was top notch, financed by the allies who bought lots of weapons from them. And basically building the army from scratch had the benefit of not having to deal with outdated machinery and weapons.

[@suit1337]

since you had kind of a jaw drop at the end In the battle at the somme in 1916 the British used 1,5 million Artillery shells in the first 7 days at the end of the battle about 4 1/2 months later more than 1 million lifes were lost the frontline was about 60 km wide and moved at most about 10 km at some locations, sometimes only a few hundred meters it is accounted as the battle in human history with the most casualties

[@michaelgoetze2103]

I think that should read UK history.

[@maozedong8370]

Now THIS is a great series to get into. Oversimplified makes LOTS of great videos on history and always finds a way to make things interesting.

[@raistraw8629]

No, they don't. They take complex history and simplify it. Through this process, they leave out many important things that would paint a different view of it.

[@notlyxu]

⁠that’s not true, sure they leave out some details, but it’s a great way for the average joe to learn some history

[@79Testarossi]

It’s 100 years old… nobody’s talk about that.. greetings from Austria 🇦🇹

[@Toujeo]

@@raistraw8629 couldn't have said it better

[@chonvoj_2280]

no way, real mao zedong... sing red sun in the sky pls

[@annedunne4526]

They did have telephones, telegrams and letters. Also Morse code.

[@Thurgosh_OG]

And hot air Balloons and spotter planes. Technology that could look down on a large area of the battlefield in one sweep.

[@frankmitchell3594]

And they could read each others newspapers

[@lloydcollins6337]

13:02 I don't believe the soldier with the sling has ever been identified but it's widely though that he had PTSD (then called "shellshock") and he had probably gone slightly or totally insane from days of bombardment. He may also have been pleased to be out of the front line, but he has the "thousand yard stare" look of someone dealing with a lot of sleep deprivation, stress, and combat fatigue.

[@stargazer-elite]

I wonder how that man would feel today, knowing that he is one of the possible lore origins of a creepy old man covered in black sludge that loves to torture people, in his pocket dimension 😂 Yeah, he may not have been identified but if you know about the SCP foundation universe then basically they used this guy who had an eerie smile in a bunch of different pictures as inspiration for a in universe origin of SCP - 106 the soldier, they dubbed him Corporal Lawrence Basically, the SCP foundation is a collective writing project of all kinds of genres. The foundations goal is to secure contain, and protect anomalous items, objects, and entities. And the fun thing about the writing project is that everything is Canon everything that people write on the site is canon to the lore even if it contradicts each other because it’s all based on interpretations and this guy is just one of the interpreted origins of SCP - 106

[@miztazed]

How do you get informed without internet and twitter? Well Ryan there was a great invention called Newspaper or Printing Press. Hahaha.

[@irrelevant_noob]

Also the telegraph.

[@frankmitchell3594]

Diplomats wrote letters to each other. Also many of them in all involved countries were aristocrats and were related to each other, so it was family conversations

[@issey1456]

And telephones

[@hr35rasmus]

My Grandfather fought in the trenches in WW1, he went over the top 4 times and got gassed 4 times, but survived and lived until the 1970s, I still have all his medals………😊

[@BastianNorW]

If you want to see some dark humor about WW1 - check out "Blackadder goes forth" (Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry) Amazing British humor! If you want to see an amazing depiction of how terrible it probably was, check out "All quiet on the Western front" (2022). Truly one of the most chilling war movies I've ever seen. Based on the book by Erich Remarque.

[@OkMaRcOs11]

the 2022 one sucked the 1930 and 1970s one are way better

[@dogti2959]

As a french person, I can't exactly point who we had the more beef with : english or german (and what came before). Great history with Spain and Italy too. When we weren't fighting among themself, because France was far from a simple country with united people and language. That must feel so weird for americans to understand our european history...

[@klarasee806]

I don‘t really think that it’s less weird for most of us Europeans.

[@Beremor]

If you wanna understand what Sykes-Picot did to the Middle East and is probably going to keep doing to the region for centuries to come, just look at the Treaty of Verdun. That one treaty is probably the reason why there has been such animosity over such a long time between what we call France and Germany today, long before the regions were known by those names.

[@zhufortheimpaler4041]

Archduke Franz Ferdinand was a dick. BUT he was the next in line for the austrian throne and also pretty supportive of the serbs, bosniaks etc getting their autonomy and independance. Unlike the rest of royalty. So killing him was the single most stupid thing the serbian independance movement could have done. By the way, the list of demands Austria had to Serbia was fulfilled with exception of one point: That austrian police officers should be able to enforce austrian law, with firearms and force, in serbia. EVERYBODY would have rejected that and the austrian chancelory did put that point intentionally into the list, because they knew that was going to be rejected, giving them a precedent for war. For reconnaisance they used biplanes and observation baloons, combat patrols etc And the guy is not smilng, that is shellshock. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

[@nirfz]

According to his children and the servants around his family, he wasn't a dick towards them. (But it's often used as a narrative as he was a rather grumpy and a little choleric guy in his job. And as his wife was never allowed on any event where he had to appear as heir to the throne, he seemed a bit grumpy on those occasions) And as far as i remember (from books by historians about WW1) Serbian officials even considered meeting that paragraph (As it was just for that investigation) before they got a sort of "blank check" (like the one austria-hungary got from germany) from a russian politician (who hadn't even confirmed that with his fellow russian politicians but acted on himself) With that backing they then refused that point.

[@zhufortheimpaler4041]

@@nirfz well there are different accounts about him. Officers accompanying him were regularly more than annoyed with him. Stuff like demanding to use the main battery armament of a dreadnought to fire at a whale school and bullshit like that. He was a maniac hunter and his residence is described as morbid mausoleum of dozens of species. In his lifetime he killed so many animals, that he is considered one of the most lethal individual organisms that lived on this planet till today. The royal family and extended royal family also largely regarded hm with disdain and tried to usurp him.

[@Teuwufel]

@@nirfz People are often nicer to their family (and servants back then) than in reality

[@nirfz]

@@zhufortheimpaler4041 If you consider the weapons that existed and that he used for hunting you would see that the numbers they give are ... let's say a bit unrealistic. They credit him with shooting aournd 270 000 animals. And on one day alone they credit him with shooting over 2800 gulls. Now let's just rethink the last number: this was not a time of semi auto shotguns, and semi auto rifles didn't exist either. This was the time of either single shot, double shot or Drilling hunting rifles. And nobody would be able to shoot 2800 birds (who don't stop and wait what that loud noise was, or come back to have a look) with a double barrel shotgun on one single day. Let alone this wasn't the only thing he did on said day. Hunting was maybe half the day. With the numbers they give he basically would need to use a beltfed machinegun for hunting (which wasn't and still isn't allowed where he hunted) as well as hit with almost every shot. When we take into account how much time of his not so long life he actually was able to use for hunting. And that the rest of the royal family "dissed" him was no surprise as he married "way under their status". He found a lady he loved and gave up a lot to be alowed to marry her. One of the things was being seen as equal by lot's of his relatives.

[@nirfz]

@@Teuwufel That's true, but i still think that he got a lot of bad press because his relatives were unhappy about his marriage way under status as the heir to the throne. There were several of them who are credited to be of the opinion that he should have ignored his love and married a woman of adequate status. Argumenting that his future position was more important than his feelings.

[@Helith99]

Don't forget that the King of England, The Kaiser of Germany and the Tsar of Russia were all cousins! This was the family dispute to end all family disputes, Queen Victoria would not have been amused.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

And she put her family in power everywhere exactly to prevent war. Because who would attack their cousins...

[@dogti2959]

@@HappyBeezerStudios Clearly, history has proven family inhéritance was never a problem, especially among royals x)

[@lesleyhawes6895]

And just to point out the original British 'Horrible Histories' had a very good song which pushed the point home, with all 3 actors with matching beards and.mustaches, like the original cousins did!

[@eurorpeen]

Very oversimplified ... and remember that Belgian army fought from 1914 to 1918 while usa did only 1917 to 1918

[@nirfz]

The only argument the americans could bring would be, that they had to travel the furthest of all the participants to even get there.

[@janfrodeengh5904]

The US fought 1918-1918. The first major US involvement was at The Battle of Cantigny, May 28th 1918, with 6 months left of the war and Germany all but done with the war if it weren't for Der Kaiser and a bunch of generals.

[@NeolithicalX]

So

[@unimerc5116]

keep in mind. the mindset was before WW1 "This is a war to end all wars.” quote by President Woodrow Wilson so every nation got all in and the soldiers (before battle) were happy to join this historic event to settle it for every time for ever...

[@astree214]

In french "la der des der" (the last of the last)

[@MichaelW.1980]

Back then they had a predecessor of Twitter. They even had a couple of them! They were called talking, reading newspapers and writing letters. 😅

[@hengsti2850]

Hey Ryan! Very importanr info to the guy who looked "crazy": The soldiers were not allowed to leave or run away from the permanent shooting of the artillery. This caused psychological stress diagnosed as "shell shock". The PTSD afterwards damaged the soldiers so much that they e.g. couldn't eat, sleep or stand on their own anymore and some of them trembled uncontrollably.

[@TimoLaine-pv5ph]

Alsace Lorraine, or Elsass Lothringen, was annexed by Louis XIV into France in 17th century ... Then Bismarck got it back 1871.

[@herb6677]

Learning stuff is never a failure. Simple History is the channel which my son looked a terrible lot, starting when he was 5 or so. It also helped him to learn English btw. Today he corrects his history teachers and is better at English than at his mother tongue German.

[@MichaelJohnson-vi6eh]

Wwi is important as "where did the current middle east problems come from?" " where did all the kings and emperors go that had been around for 1000 years?" "How did the USSR and Eastern Europe end up the way it did?" "Why did it take the US so long to join WWII?"

[@Azachiel]

Regarding the thing with the uniforms, they actually used to serve a purpose. Because in all wars prior to WWI, the troops fought each other with single-shot rifles/muskets, and basically all of them were muzzle-loaders. So quite frankly it was a fairly common tactic to have your men fire a single shot, and then charge the enemy to kill them with your bayonets, because if you tried to reload, chances were the enemy had charged you with their bayonets before you were done. Which is also why cavalry was still considered to be effective, because back then it still was. So basically it was expected that your troops would find themselves in melee-combat at some point in the battle. And that's where the brightly-colored uniforms came in, because it ensured that in the chaos of two large formations clashing, you could still easily tell who was a friend and who an enemy. And that's more difficult than it may sound, especially since the conditions were often bad, with smoke from gunpowder, dust kicked up by the fighting soldiers, especially if the cavalry got involved, or at times even just rainfall. So being in a chaotic fight where you got turned around a few times, maybe even knocked down once or twice, you can still immediately tell friend from foe, and judge where your own side is by looking which direction has the most friendlies. And while this made perfect sense at the time, the problem is that technical innovations like rear-loading rifles and especially the machine-gun rendered all of those old tactics obsolete if not downright suicidal.

[@rickbailey-ty8bq]

No one was using muskets by the end of the 19th century. Also a bright blue uniform coat and bright red pants served no purpose other than make them easy to spot.

[@chemina8541]

@@rickbailey-ty8bq True. They were colored like that because the die was cheap for mass production, originally. Since, hm, Napoleonic wars. And they did not stay vibrant for long out side the parade grounds. There are some very interesting diaries from soldiers who participated in the Peninsular Campaign about how raggedy everyone looked, even higher officers. The most identifiable feature was actually the cover and the flag on a pole to signify who someone fought for (and the officers, depending on how competent that individual was and how courageous/visible). Those big paintings... they lie^^

[@alwynemcintyre2184]

About the only place you won't find a praying mantis is Antarctica

[@claregale9011]

Roughly 8 million horses were killed during the first World War, if you get the chance I recommend you watch the film war horse its very moving .

[@jenniferharrison8915]

Yes, War Horse is essential viewing! Australia still hails a corporal and his brave rescue donkey as a big part of our WWI history, and the Australian stock horses we left behind in Africa!

[@lesleycarney8868]

We have loads of Praying Mantis here in Spain . They are harmless and do a lot of good.

[@catgladwell5684]

Not surprising they are endangered when the female is so apt to kill the male.

[@kathylecluyse7820]

I grew up in West-Flanders. Military cemetaries everywhere.

[@stevefoulston]

Yes we have praying mantis in Australia also did you know some species of praying mantis female eat the male that they are mating with. Peace out.

[@TheGabbia]

"this guy looks like he's smiling" that, my man, is the real original PTSD called "shell shock"....people in trenches either died phisically or mentally; nobody made it out really alive...

[@ebbhead20]

Texas had a lof of germans, and they have loads of towns that tell you about that. Kaufmann being one of them. They just dont pronounce it right. Im guessing they did around 1900 though. But there was so many germans in Texas that tou had to learn German in school by law. So all schools taught german as a second languages up until WWII where it became very unpopular to speak German and learn it. Everything german sort of went away in the 1940s. But before that german was a second language in many places around Dallas.

[@astraxatraxanan]

Fun fact: This little creature in the jar in Greece we call it "horse of the virgin Mary" and is bad luck to kill it. Although I don't like it. As for the video, I'm happy that you finally reacting to Oversimplified! Watch the rest of them too! And the "History of the entire world I guess" as well!

[@johanwittens7712]

2:00 That sliver of land was quite important back then as it contained large iron ore fields that could be used to build all kinds of stuff, including an army and a navy. It was the most important source of iron for France. Germany controlling alsace meant France had to now buy iron ore from Germany or get it somewhere else. Secondly, it was of strategic importance as a border between France and Germany. The east side of the Alsace -lorraine region is bordered by the Rhine river. Large rivers historically form a barrier that is difficult to cross for large armies. Besides that the region is quite hilly and thus easier to defend and/or fortify. If france controlled alsace, they could use the river as a barrier against Germany. If Germany controlled alsace, they could use it as a buffer against france and/or as a springboard to more easily invade france. On top of that, germany and france had been fighting over it for centuries. So while it seems unimportant at first glance, alsace was actually quite important for both sides, and had huge symbolic and strategic value for both sides. Iron ore and coal were importamt strategic resources back then. It's why the precursor to the european union was called the union of coal and steel. The idea was to prevent furure conflicts in europe by making these strategic resources common and not owned or controlled by a single or a few nations. It only evolved into a trade block and trade union much, much later. 12:55 That guy isn't smiling. He's completely shell shocked and traumatised. Millions of soldiers died, and of those that returned from WW1, many were completely traumatised and suffered from PTSD. The term "Shell shock" originated in ww1.

[@enemde3025]

Germany didn't start WW1 ! BLITZKRIEG was WW2 ! NOT " smiling"...SHELL SHOCKED !!

[@nirfz]

And Blitzkrieg was a term given to what had happened after WW2. (It was not the term that they used themselves during WW2)

7:45 Ryan: Oh, shoot! Firing squad: Don't rush us! 💀

[@arneniederhut5326]

The smiling soldier: Google "Thousand-yard stare"

[@NoldorianElf]

Dear Ryan, as long as one stays interested and curious you are not ignorant. Nothing wrong with some silly questions ;) Golly don't we all have some. You are hungry for knowledge and want to be educated and do not mind to learn as an adult. History of communication. Excellent thinking I bet you already heard about that. Maybe not when it started. Thanks for the inspiration to do some research. The first telegraph office in the US: November 14, 1845 report in New York Herald on telegraph lines coming into operation. 1 April 1845: First public telegraph office opens in Washington, D.C., under the control of the Postmaster-General. These were used very early on for goverments and economics, military. But hold on to your chair! I just read that up, too. Claude Chappe a young inventor >1792< in France set on mechanical telegraf stations. So news from Paris travelled only 20 minutes to the mediterrean coast. It was called "wireless" later on. The author Alexandre Dumas was so impressed by this invention he used as an vital element in "The Count of Monte Cristo" (1844). Through "fake news" so to speak Edmond Dantes was able to take revenge on his adversary Danglars.

[@Jeni10]

When I was in Primary school, we learned about these things and to reinforce it, we had to do homework on it, then the next week, we would be tested on it, just an in-class Q&A but you had to know the answers to everything because you never knew which questions you would be asked.

[@jenniferharrison8915]

Same! I remember the dates and numbers, and characters, before the rest though! 😄

[@24magiccarrot]

We all know it's because Archduke Ferdinand got hungry and shot an ostrich.

[@Sxgwxn]

There is not just one country responsible for ww1. Every country wanted a war or and provoked it so every country takes responsibility.

[@jenniferharrison8915]

Yes, HISTORY and GEOGRAPHY are really interesting and also important! 😁 If we don't learn from the mistakes of the past, we are destined to repeat them! War is stupid, and achieves nothing but misery! 🤨 Better late than never Ryan! 👍

[@louisrobitaille5810]

1:48 Before the internet, people still communicated 😂. It started as actual people running between cities, then horses came along and made transporting mail with horse-drawn carriages the standard for millenia. Finally, the telegraph was invented during the 19th century (1801-1900) which allowed people to communicate practically instantly over huge distances thanks to wires. Then phones came along, and finally the internet.

[@amishgirl1000]

Australia has praying mantis too

[@jaytbo5676]

"HOw? ON what?" Literally Tv/Radio and news papers bro xD

[@niketesambrosiosdelagrece2266]

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was actually badass. He would be good monarch. :/ BTW He even predicted a world war, the collapse of empires, and warned against it.

[@jonnymustermann1036]

Plz watch the movie „all quiet on the western front“! It won an Oscar this year and will show you an intense Story taking part at the time of WW1 👍🏼

[@Thurgosh_OG]

Even the original film (1930) shows the intensity of trench warfare and is based on an Anti-war book.

[@irrelevant_noob]

Wait, they *_remade_* it?! o.O ... Now i gotta clear up if i mean the classic or the modern version. :-s

[@jonnymustermann1036]

@@irrelevant_noob sure, such a great story has to be presented in the right manner to really unfold its potential

[@little_forest]

Or how about a different kind of reaction: we watch you as you read loud the book „nothing new on the western front“ :)

[@TF2CrunchyFrog]

​ @remivieilledent wrote: "France wanted to take revenge on Germany and regain territory that it had lost at the end of the war against Prussia (which became the German empire) in 1871." We shouldn't fail to mention though, the _reason_ the Prussians had to fight the French in the first place: Because the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte had conquered large parts of Europe including large parts of Prussian territory which had been under French occupation for quite a while... including the German-speaking regions of Elsass (Alsace) and Lothringen (Lorraine). Whoops. The French took its personally when the Kingdom of Prussia's army managed to free their lands from French occupation in the war of 1870-71 (which united the previously interwarring German states and tiny kingdoms in the north, south, west and wast of German-speaking lands as an Emperor war crowned to bring all the factions and feuding feudal nobles under control). At the start of the 20th century the French had allied with the Russian Empire of the Tsar against the freshly minted German Empire, while the Germans were allied with the Empire of Austria-Hungary (aka. the "K&K Monarchy" aka the Habsburg Empire). Ironically, at the start of the 20th century, the Tsar on the throne of Russia was blood-related to the German Emperor! But the French had been shoveling money into Russian to help the Russians build railway tracks all the way to the border of Prussia so that Russia could transport its troups quickly to attack. In fact, in the weeks leading up to WW1, France and Russian had both amassed troups to the west and east of Germany. France planned to march through the neutral Belgium to get into Alsace-Lorraine, while Russian would attack Prussia from the east at the same time; that has been historially proven from all the paperwork. The German Emperor simply made the mistake of "invading" Belgium first to march into France while the French were still gathering their troups; the Germans had actually asked the government of Belgium to allow them to march troups through, offering their word of honour they didnt intend to attack any part of Belgium, but Belgium had refused. For 200 years France had been the great warmonger of Europe, with the French and the British Empire fighting each other in various wars. Not to mention the French and the Prussians both supported the British colonists in North-America during the American Revolution against the British Empire. But complex alliances in 18th-19th century and early 20th century Europe were ever-shifting at the whims and interests of the powerful.. you started wars at the drop of a hat. Back then, Prussia bordered on Russia as it extended far eastwards and encompassed the entire Baltic Sea coast (which today is part of northern Poland and the Baltic EU states Estland (Esthonia), Lettland (Latvia) and Litauen (Lithuania); East Prussia with its capital Königsberg (which today is Belarus/White Russia while the capital city was renamed Kaliningrad by the Soviets); the small kingdoms of Böhmen and Mähren and Schlesia (Silesia) which today belong to the Czech Republic. Russia was allied with Serbia. Serbia had started _two_ wars on the Balkan in 1912 and 1913, as Serbian ultra-nationalists of the Black Hand dreamt of a slavic empire "Great Serbia" that would bring all of the Balkan under Serbian control; and while they were contend to let the other ethnic groups (i.e. Albanians, Croatians etc) live if they followed Serbian rule, the ultra-nationalists advocated the destruction of Austria-Hungary and the "ethnic cleansing" of the Magyars (Hungarians), as they were "not properly Slavic". At the same time, both the Russian Empire and the British Empire were eyeing the crumbling Ottoman Empire of the Turks greedily, both wanting to wrest control of the straights of the Dardanelles from Turkey. Greece was at the time under occupation by Turkey. (Greek culture had a millenia-long history in Anatolia in "Asia Minor", going back to the Bronze Age 1000 B.C./BCE, with Greek colonies existing all over what today is Turkey and northern Africa and even the kingdoms of Phrygia and Lydia using Greek letters for their languages. The Seljuk Turk tribes coming from Turkmenistan in the Asian steppes conquered Anatolia and settled there only in the 11th century CE.) The Dardanelles connect the Mediterranean Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara and via the Bosporus straight to the Black Sea.

[@lloydcollins6337]

5:30 so the alliance system was defensive - I.E. if Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia then Russia would declare war on A-H. And because Russia declared war on A-H Germany declared war on Russia. France actually didn't want to fight and it had previously withdrawn all troops 10km away from the front line to avoid any possibility of an incident which could provoke Germany, but because Germany had planned the offensive to be against France first (this is the Schlieffen plan which was also used in WW2) and the military was inflexible they decided to attack France first because they thought Russia would take 10-12 weeks to mobilise sufficient forces to prove a threat (turns out it took them 10 days).

[@jensschroder8214]

The German Kaiser asked his military, are we ready for war? The German military, yes! We won the last one against France and now we have a lot of new weapons to try out. Then the Kaiser said, let us win a war. After a few months the Kaiser asked, when did we win? The military, not yet we're stuck in Belgium. After a few months the Kaiser asked, when will we win? Not yet, was the answer. And this went on for many months and years At some point the Kaiser visited the troops, but found that there was no victory. The Kaiser had a nervous breakdown, so his wife told the military leader to carry on and not lose anything. This went on and on and the Kaiser never wanted to decide that the war was over. It only ends when Germany had completely lost and was in debt. Then the Kaiser abdicated and left Germany The first German democracy began with high debts and instability

[@sandrap.3399]

Austrian here. This Mantis is NOT huge ^^

[@MobPenguinstudios]

As a Montenegrinian I was suprised that he didn't forget about Montenegro in the animation.🇲🇪

[@Sirenossira]

Ryan the guy at 12:57 is not smiling he is shellshocked. He basicly snapped out of reality there. His brain tries to protect him and that is the result.

[@diesesphil]

if it weren't for Britain germany would have won. The reason they capitulated wasn't because of mayor defeat but because of a 4 year naval blockade by Britain and having to carry Austrias Military and Economy besides their own. Just Germany alone vs France and Russia would be A German Victory since they had the largest and most modernized Army in the world at the time + a bigger economy than Russia and France that wouldn't have collapsed without the naval blockade

[@nirfz]

A few things: WW1 on the russian front ended before WW1 ended. They didn'T carry austrias economy, that's why the economy and the military of austria hungary were in such a bad state at the end of the war. (edit: what i mean is they would not have been able to anyways, and nobody asked them to either) The germans did carry the military might on the eastern front, and contributed less than many think on the italian front. (the allies contributed more to italy. Italy outnumbered A-H on that front 8:1 and 5:1 in artillery guns and ammo and manpower. The british and french gave them artillery guns, ammo and crews while the US gave them ambulance cars and drivers. Ernest Hemmingway was an ambulance driver on the italian front) And yet 11 battles of the Isonzo A-H held their stand, and in the 12th, with said little german help, they moved italy way back. There they ran out of food and supplies, and still capitulated after germany. (->fun fact the country everybody counted on giving up first, actually gave up after germany. Not much and while being in a way more desolate state, but later)

[@kiyoomi9320]

I remember when me and my brothers realized that WW1 was basically a big family dispute LOL

[@lesleycarney8868]

We used Telegrams and phones

[@irrelevant_noob]

Maybe call them landlines, since nowadays "phone" generally means something else? ^^

[@giutu]

It's nice anyway to see this kind of video, they express curiosity and share knowledge :)

[@lloydcollins6337]

8:11 the burning of Louvain referenced in one of those posters there was actually witnessed by an American reporter. The Germans locked the reporter in a railway wagon to try and stop them from seeing the burning of the city but they saw it between the planks of the wagon. Afterwards the Germans were at pains to point out that they hadn't burned the US Consulate in Louvain and tried to make the point that they were flushing out partisans (soldiers ostensibly in civilian clothing sniping at the Germans) but the American reporter reported it as a German atrocity.

[@witthyhumpleton3514]

As much as the following channel has some very bad videos with major historical mistakes, I would suggest the following series since it is relatively well done and hasn't received much criticism and is factually pretty solid. The seminal tragedy by Extra History. It deals with the issue a bit more than the oversimplified video.

[@brigidsingleton1596]

Edit: Tragedy. 🖖❤️

[@lonelyboy9852]

Just came here from the Ryan Was channel (watched all ya Aussie videos) and kinda weird not hearing the "Happy arvo' at the start of the video lol, but yeah this was a bloody good video mate and hope your having a good one.

[@nearly_blind1017]

Anybody else who wants him to open a second channel now where he reacts to history stuff (Oversimpliyfied, Sabaton, Sabaton History, …)

[@persefone_k0re]

4:50 "It was the straw that broke the camel's back " -every Italian teacher while explaining this part

[@gelipterzg]

as the treaty of versailles was being signed after ww1, a french marshal Ferdinand Foch famously said: "This is not peace. It is an armistice for 20 years". talk about foresight xD

[@adrianmclean9195]

Let the mantis, go outside - but not in front of any birds - hide she/him. Yes, we have them. Not as common as they used to be, but can be green or light straw colour - can be huge - much bigger than your hand - length wise. Totally harmless.

[@emmyjade2454]

the berlin wall didnt have a „in between area“. it was just a wall with zones being guarded. so zone/ wall/ Zone and not Wall/zone/wall

[@Spido68_the_spectator]

Epic history TV did a more contextualised and detailed bunch of videos on it, while remaining relatively simple. It's a good compliment to oversimplified 's videos on the matter Oversimplified really did go a little too much into the " over " but it's his first vids, he kept getting better as time went on :) Also, to expand further on the feeling of trench warfare, you can watch the prologue of Battlefield 1 (Storm of Steel)

[@armelior4610]

"How could they take strategic decisions without awesome technology like satellites and instant communication ?" is such an American take on war

[@CornedBee]

Trench warfare was a bit more complicated than depicted here. The problem was that after you took the enemy's trench, you were now in a trench set up to defend against attackers coming from your side, but intentionally very bad at defending against attackers from where the enemy's next trench (there were multiple fallback lines) was. Also, the enemy was now out of the reach of your artillery, but you were very much within reach of theirs. So the counterattack would be nearly undefendable, and you'd usually lose the territory you just gained, get driven back to your old trench. End result: mass casualties on both sides, no change in territory.

[@drakefirheart6998]

curiosities about Belgium at the time. The reason why England was so interested in Belgium's security was because Belgium, with its neutrality, guaranteed trade and landings on the English coast. Occupying it was like holding a knife to the throat of the English. Add to the fact that Germany had almost the same fleet as the English, the English felt very threatened by this move.

[@jameswnoroski7841]

Smiling guy: Hey, guys, know what? I don't feel the pain in my arm anymore.

[@Vakaria-plays]

Teacher: In short tell me why and how WW1 began. Me: Two shots fired, one dead man, war became unavoidable.

[@rethekpista]

About the mantis. I live in hungary and once left my window open. A mantis just flew on top of my chest while i was watching youtube. We stared at eachother for about 3 minutes, it got bored and flew away. So either they are an invasive species or they live here too.

This oversimplified channel makes you feel better about horrible events usually by using most bizzare facts about the event....

[@SWLinPHX]

Ryan, you have to check out WW2 Oversimplified (parts 1 & 2) as well as both parts of The Cold War Oversimplified and even delve back to some of his earlier ones like the American Revolution, Russian Revolution, American Civil War, etc. (all oversimplified of course).

[@HenriHattar]

An interesting fact about the war in Europe in WW1, the Australians made up 10% of the total force, being the only major all volunteer army in the war, they inflicted over 25% (disgustint yes) of all the casualties inflicted on the Germans and also took 25% of all the land taken off the Germans, they eventually became innefective some time in 1918 because they were ALL volunteer and could not replace their losses.

[@MultiVeeta]

"This is Sparta" is a clue to how countries have had the ability to communicate since forever.

[@eurorpeen]

The Alsace Lorraine is not very important, what is important is they border the river Rhine which is a vital industrial part of Germany

[@afhb7447]

The picture of the smiling soldier was took by photograph to show to others how soldiers were mentally broken. That poor boy was not sane since he couldn't help but run away mentally to survive atrocities he saw. Their was not even good studies on that subject at that time so people couldn't even understand in what state these young boys were. A lot of them was between 16 and 25 years old!

[@bartman9400]

I was fascinated by some of the inventions and various other things that happened back then and during ww2

[@BobHerzog1962]

I highly recommend "Seminal Tragedy" by Extra Credit History. It really hammers down how, if someone wrote a novel about how WW1 came to be people would call it out for being over the top.

[@MattRumm]

Funiest bit was at the beginning: "How did they know anything without the internet? Hang on, what did they say? I missed it because I was talking to the internet 😂" (paraphrase)

[@TheAngelOfDeath01]

Yeah, it was a huge family feud.

[@Aussiedoll1]

Dude was suffering from shell shock

[@p3chv0gel22]

I Always quote swedish Power Metal Band Sabaton "6 Miles of ground have been won, half a Million men are gone"

[@lloydcollins6337]

5:57 the "sort of" alliance between Britain and France was called the "Entente Cordiale" and was a mostly secret agreement that if Britain or France got involved in a war with a European power France would send all her ships to the Mediterranean to fight the enemy whilst Britain would focus on the North Sea and the English Channel - this way they could maintain dominance in two places at once. As for Germany having a large navy, they didn't by British standards but they also didn't have to send ships all over the world to protect shipping lanes from India to Argentina by way of South Africa, Myanmar (then Burma), Singapore and Hong Kong. As Blackadder put it "the British empire spanned a third of the world, the German empire consisted of a small sausage factory in Tanganyika". The German navy was big enough though to fight Britain in home waters and have some chance of winning, at least tactically. This is why the British strategic plan for WW1 was to blockade Germany by blocking off the passages between Norway and Britain in the North Sea, and the English Channel, so that Germany couldn't import or export anything by sea. That, combined with the fact that they were fighting on all sides by land meant Germany mostly lost the war because they started starving at home and on the front lines, as well as running out of crucial war materials.

[@lozioparo6832]

Have you reacted to the "history of the entire world i guess"?

[@brigidsingleton1596]

Great recommendation. 🖖❤️ The edited version (swearing cut out for students / kids) or the original ? ☺️ I enjoyed that video immensely and would love to see Ryan (& Steve - "Reacting to my Roots" also in Indiana, btw) reacting to it. ❤️

[@Sharon-bo2se]

History in school tends to be rote which is boring. There are much better sources out there, both online and in libraries. You really need to broaden your knowledge; this is a start but so minimsl it 8s almost worthless. WWI was brutal and bloody. The sheer volume of artillery shells used was insane. There are still many left in fields that are uncovered every year and which have to be dealt with. The trench warfare was horrific, old style tactics used by commanders who were many years out of date but using far more powerful equipment. There were advances made, eg aircraft, but gas attacks and the rest left so many maimed or dead, suffering PTSD(modern term). Advances in plastic/reconstructive surgery came out of the war. There are large photographic catalogues showing the wounds men survived. Basically, a generation was lost. Your country held back in both wars, largely due to German sympathizers plus the wealthy magnates who wanted to break British power. War is a very lucrative business and akways has been. The US is a huge arms merchant to this day. At any rate, keep investigating history in greater detail. As they say, those who forget the past will repeat the mistakes.

[@polipantev84]

Dude, the guy "smiling" in the photo is having a psychological breakdown due to shellshock.

[@lloydcollins6337]

4:40 or as Blackadder had it "the war started because some guy called Archy Duke shot an ostrich because he was hungry"

[@MaryRaine929]

💪HERO! For saving your family from that bug! 😉 We have them too in Germany. They are a protected species here either.

[@Oi....]

Back in the day, some people read the newspapers, where you read about speeches by Diplomats from other Countries. Overseas correspondents in each Country would write Articles, like the internet but a lot slower.

[@TyrionLannister83]

12:08 They had spy zeppelins, spy ballons spy submarines and even primitive airplanes. Also, they knew how to read maps.

[@Karl.Kreuzberg]

2:43 I have searched for it on Wikipedia, mantis are native from the mediterranean countries, and was intrduced in Asia and North America. So yes, we do have them in Europe.

[@lloydcollins6337]

6:11 Blitzkrieg is a WW2 concept but is the updated armoured version of the same plan. It did work in WW2.

[@wightwitch]

I wrote an essay at uni about WW1 and effectively blamed the allied powers for it's root cause.