DePue Origins of WWI

[@gregoryeastwood9068]

The speaker is correct in being dumbfounded on how the soldiers in both the American Civil War and the 1st WW got up out of their trenches and charged no man’s land.

[@1TruNub]

Love your Lectures but Germany was unified in 1870 after the Franco-prussian war

[@luigicadorna8644]

Hence the name “Franco-Prussian War,” not “Franco-German War.”

[@daveyork0]

Thanks Serbs

[@thomasjamison2050]

Ahhhh, further proof that no one actually seems to be able to read Darwin or his best interpreters.

[@deoglemnaco7025]

Germany should have looked to our quagmire in Vietnam. If they would have done that perhaps this could have been averted

[@billolsen4360]

WWI was 60 years before the Vietnam war

[@deoglemnaco7025]

@@billolsen4360 and spread farther apart every day

[@blogbalkanstories4805]

1:05:00: DePue displays some rather classic American ignorance. Involuntarily, he makes an important point, though. He dismisses the last point of the Austrian ultimatum to Serbia as unacceptable, paralleling it to nowadays, saying: Imagine if the US asked Serbia to surrender much of its sovereignty. Now, the interesting point is that exactly that has been done by the US time and again in the second half of the 20th century, as well as by other great powers. Doesn't usually trouble Americans at all. Today, most of the other points of Austria's ultimatum would be considered unacceptable, such as demanding the infringement of the freedom of press (he doesn't mention that) - this being a point the Serbian gov't accepted, btw. Demanding that your own law enforcement officers in some way participate in an investigation abroad - the point Serbia rejected - has almost become standard practice. Interesting how the world has changed, isn't it?

[@thomasjamison2050]

"Imagine if the US asked Serbia to surrender much of its sovereignty" Ahhh, I do seem to remember something about Bill Clinton doing just that, and bombing Serbia too.....

[@thomasjamison2050]

BTW, if you think he isn't all that sharp, just imagine what his audiences are like....

[@renek243]

@@thomasjamison2050 Apples and oranges, the situation is utterly different. Clinton knew that by the mid 90s Russia wouldn't intervene on Serbia's behalf, there was no risk whatsoever that the US/NATO intervention would trigger a major international conflict. Obviously the US/NATO would have never intervened in a Balkan conflict 30 years earlier in the midst of the cold war, risking the involvement of the USSR/Warsaw pact and triggering WWIII. On the other hand, in 1914 Austria and Germany knew perfectly well that Russia would intervene, risking Russian mobilisation which would set into motion the Schlieffen plan.

[@tamlandipper29]

@@renek243 While I agree that it was pretty clear that the Russians would act in support, didn't the Austrians deliberately declare war while the German Kaiser was on holiday? I think the focus on German culpability is just because that's who the Western Allies fought.

[@tamlandipper29]

@@thomasjamison2050 since we're being coy, I also remember something about horrifying atrocities...

[@JustMe00257]

Well articulated lecture. There will long be disagreements and discussions as to what ultimately caused the war. Being in no way an expert but enjoying this kind of lecture, I reckon that there is quite a variety of views and it is difficult 100 years later to get a sense of the reality of these days. However I would personally tend to go with the non-determinist analysis ie while many circumstances favoured the possibility of a conflict, it was not an unavoidable fatality. The archduke Franz Ferdinand was not a big loss to his country apparently. The Kaiser went on vacation when the Austrian ultimatum was being discussed and a British diplomat of the time noted that it was the quietest moment he had seen in a long time... Not really the obvious indication of a large-scale conflict looming over Europe! Just like in other periods in History, the stage was partly set but some particular people triggered a chain reaction the magnitude of which they clearly hadn't fathomed.

[@Flowerz__]

Hey nice comment. It’s like a lot of stuff, it’s hardly ever black and white or one single thing. If it wasn’t Ferdinand it may have been something else. And the circumstances leading to to ferdinands assassination can be traced to other events themselves

[@MahmutAyabakan]

Hall Jennifer Jackson Cynthia Gonzalez Robert

[@billolsen4360]

No new information from this guy. The same sad tale they told when I was a h.s. sophomore.

[@RANDALLBRIGGS]

Show the slides, please.

[@williamstall4420]

5:50… For a good laugh watch THE RUSSIAN 2nd PACIFIC SQUADRON - VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED If anyone ever makes a movie about this people would never believe it!

[@tamlandipper29]

Is that you, Kamchatka. Is this me?

[@williamstall4420]

@callyharley Yes. And off the coast of Africa, etc... And the one that almost got Russia into a war with France, Germany and Sweden except her gunnery was so poor she never hit their ships.

[@williamstall4420]

@callyharley Yes.

[@paulkennedy5822]

I think he did a good job hanging all of the disparate concepts together to give a very good overview

[@blogbalkanstories4805]

A couple of factual errors and inaccuracies, combined with oversimplifications.

[@sgtmajvimy]

Blog Balkan Stories yup, spotted ... not being pedantic, but those errors are truly flagrant. Stopped me from watching the rest.

[@gregoryeastwood9068]

Where exactly were the factual errors.?

[@mito88]

6:38 great britain neutral????

[@joefish4466]

This a better than a high school history lecture. Some of the background information is good, but misses some of the big picture ideas on the Origins of WWI.

[@57Carlibra]

Try to figure out what is causing the microphone to keep popping, it's really annoying,

[@Emanon...]

Thank you Eileen

[@fritziematt31]

The AJ the elusive Eileen must be great at introductions

[@hockeyreisu5571]

That’s pretty good for no notes

[@frankrosati6403]

SHOW THE SLIDES! SHOW THE SLIDES! IN A 1:15 lecture, show the talking head for 15 minutes and the data that he is presenting to the audience for 1 hour. You have it reversed. REALLY, REALLY DISTRACTS FROM THE PRESENTATION.

[@57Carlibra]

Absolutely, the priority of the speaker over the slides is opposite of what it should be. My suggestion would be to put the speaker in a small corner of the slide image.

[@billolsen4360]

@@57Carlibra It's just an amateurish production.

[@Nounismisation]

Painful. DePue, you're great on rifles and arty and stuff, but you've just made a load of geo-political errors within 6 minutes. Like any polite audience member, I'll stick around for as long as I can.

[@tlw4237]

He’s not that great about the military hardware either unfortunately.

[@groovypokemon5132]

My last name is also DePue

[@sashek8451]

Love his lectures

[@BudFieldsPPTS]

An interesting discussion. Too bad we couldn't see the slides. :(

[@marymoriarity2555]

Very interesting lecture