Top 20 Worst Mistakes in History - WatchMojo Reaction

[@treasuren]

Turning off my alarm and telling myself, "just 5 more minutes," is undoubtedly one of the worst mistakes in history

[@erickburnham4870]

Right up there with "just one more youtube video before I go to bed"

[@GoshaFangs]

@@erickburnham4870 it's suddenly 4am and you got work at 8

[@raybuscus8257]

The exact mistake I’ve repeatedly made this very night as it is 1:12am and I have to be up for work in a few hours XD

[@MrEscape314]

The invention of the snooze button.

[@danielearley5062]

Just slightly behind 'I do'. 😄

[@TravisM.]

You should make a top 20 or their list of worst decisions in history. I’d love to see your list and hear why

[@jdr617]

Dude yes. I didn’t hear you mention one alternative after slamming their list

[@jdr617]

Except Lincoln

[@bentan1774]

yes we would love that.

[@joshuaesposito5409]

Yesss

[@johnkirk1772]

@@jdr617 yeah but some decisions put on the list were super idiotic as in super American-centric, they changed some events in the last few years but not (at least not on their own) the overall balance of power in the world - bay of pigs, Vietnam, Iraq war, Iran intervention.. if you look on a few hundred years from now, will they have significantly changed the course of history? some defeats indeed speed up the timeline of rise or decline of a superpower but they may not cause it in themselves (Iraq might have shifted things the most of the 4 I mentioned but isn't even as impactful as e.g. the US isolationist policy after WW1, non-ratification and withdrawal from League of Nations and 14 point plan)

[@alexo2235]

Videos like this from WatchMojo are "history for those who don't really want to learn history"

[@AquaWeiner]

yeah watchmojo is known for trash lists

[@pretzelman945]

Its not just history Its more like everything lol Watchmojo sucks

[@iKvetch558]

I would slightly modify your excellent suggestion for WatchMojo's motto...they are "history for those who want to learn history wrong." 😁

[@sweetmisslaura]

Well it is a Canadian Channel so it doesn’t surprise me that their info on US history is incorrect. I don’t think they even learn about us.

[@anathardayaldar]

More like the only 20 things the Mojo writers remembered from high school. Mojo is a clickbait channel. Why are you giving them your time? Unless you want someone easy to rant at.

[@matthewedmondson917]

Watch mojo deciding to make historical content is one of the Top 20 worst mistakes in history

[@EnergeticSpark63]

aloha

[@Its__Good]

Number One: “In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”

[@joshuacampbell1625]

Terry Pratchett right? Great author

[@brianhall4182]

@@joshuacampbell1625 Douglas Adams. Hitchhiker's Guide. Relatively similar styles though.

[@joshuacampbell1625]

@@brianhall4182 yeah think I had a Mandela effect moment lol.

[@p3chv0gel22]

But hey, at least the big bang burger bar is nice, isn't it?

[@boesvig2258]

@@joshuacampbell1625 GNU Pterry.

[@williamputnam5312]

Pete Carrol calling a passing play in the Super Bowl has to be up there

[@deebosamuelsfather6453]

I hate that you remind me of this.

[@Basedmursenary]

So bad.

[@deirdre108]

As a Seahawks fan, you killed me.

[@emc59789]

“Oh no!!” Throws headset 😂

[@alecxjones4419]

I’d put that top 3 without a doubt

[@HyperNexusYT]

I'm so sorry but watching Chris's face during number 19 just had me DEAD, this man was dying inside LMFAO

[@cameronskye94]

It’s so apparent 🤣🤣🤣

[@shaun2463]

19th: 40 deaths 18th: 500,000 deaths That escalated quickly 😂

[@thedoctor755]

And then his face at the end when seeing Wilson :)

[@rating9392]

Pure disgust lmao 🤣

[@jimmym3352]

Makes for good stories to scare kids, but ultimately had no effect whatsoever for the history of the U.S.

[@phen0mejon99]

The worst decision in history has to be Franz Ferdinand's driver making a wrong turn 😂😂

[@natedb99]

If watch mojo said that I would have absolutely pissed myself 😂

[@tomlxyz]

Alternatively you could also say that chosing a driving who isn't familiar with Sarajevo was a bad choice, given the rising tensions with nationalists

[@sonofeast11]

Yeah, this list is incredibly U.S and 20th century focused. How they haven't included the burning of the Library of Alexandria, yet have included Little Big Run and some travellers I've never heard of getting lost and dying (which happens literally every single day worldwide) is completely beyond me.

[@TheManInRoomFive]

Classic WatchMojo...

[@MoriguTheDead]

Which burning of the library of Alexandria do you mean? The first, second or the possible third and fourth? I mean the first was almost certainly a mistake, but the later burnings likely weren't mistakes and pretty much part of the goals.

[@TemplarWarden]

I mean as far as I recall the burning of the library of Alexandria was probably just an accident.

[@blakenorton8360]

Burning of the library of Alexandria is way over blown, not nearly as much information was lost as people think I’d recommend doing some research on it, I totally changed my opinion when I did.

[@Maria_Erias]

@@blakenorton8360 I'd say that Genghis Khan's sacking of Baghdad and the library there was a much, much greater disaster, as not only were many of the texts saved from Alexandria housed there, but also many works of the Persian, Greek, Egyptian, and Roman nations.

[@IrishZilla]

Also can we talk about the irony that Cherynobl was literally doing a SAFETY TEST when the worst ever nuclear meltdown happened

[@charliewenthe4411]

yeah at the same time it’s been overblown. yeah sure it’s the worst unintentional nuclear disaster but gotta hand it to the Soviets, they cleaned up pretty well. nature always reclaims what’s hers 🤷‍♂️

[@Inferiis]

@@charliewenthe4411 " nature always reclaims what’s hers " well, the area is still inhabitable, and will be possibly till the end of humanity at this pace :D

[@kacperaskawski3461]

@@charliewenthe4411 Not really yes they avoided a complete tragedy, but still radioactive dust that managed to get out still is the reason why so many people in Europe are suffering from cancer or at least eastern Europe. Let's not forget that Soviets tried to igonre the entire thing and hid the evidence if not the fact that USA was able to fing out what heppened then it would become a complete disaster, so yeah if not the Americans Soviets would hid the entire thing and likely Cherynobl would end up being problem till now and it still is a minor problem even after Americans reacted.

[@LordBloodraven]

WatchMojo isn't really doing justice to the thousands of costly mistakes in history because rather than produce their own historical documentaries, they edit together clips from ACTUAL documentaries. WatchMojo's scope of Human History is limited to what documentaries have been produced that they've been able to take clips from.

[@SaintPhoenixx]

WatchMojo is pretty much entirely based around the idea of "I just found this out, I have to tell someone." It seems like all their lists are written by someone while the credits of a documentary are still rolling in the background. No-one's going to WatchMojo for expert insight into super obscure events from 1353 but still, it's like they are just an aggregator for the top Netflix documentaries of the week.

[@burnypython8230]

I’m surprised VTH never contested WatchMojo for them mentioning Pearl Harbor and Operation Barbarossa. When it comes to the World War II “mistakes” many videos explain that Operation Barbarossa was the best decision the Germans could’ve done as both nations were thinking of invading each other at some point, the Austrian painter scheduled his invasion earlier due to Germany’s need for oil as despite Romania being Germany’s best friend in Europe, they still aren’t able to produce enough oil in order for them to be comfortable against the USSR so knocking them out right now is the go to option. The fact that the Soviets also humiliated themselves in the Winter War against Finland makes it more convincing as well. When it comes to Pearl Harbor, the problem was how the attack went for Japan, not that they attacked it in the first place, during the attack most of the important ships the United States had was doing a drill at the time. In addition, the Japanese weren’t able to destroy important structures such as the naval repair yards and the fuel storage tanks meaning that the damaged the United States experienced on the 7th would be heal itself much faster than it could’ve. TIKHistory made a really good video on why Germany lost World War II. Military History Visualized made a good video on why Japan would lose no matter what they did.

[@mike04574]

dont most youtbuers use clips from actual documentaries?

[@topace1038]

⁠@@burnypython8230I can agree with you on Barbarossa. But the Attack on Pearl Harbor is where I draw the line. Japan had no way of winning a war against the US. Even if the Carriers were in harbor and the docking facilities were hit. It would be catastrophic for sure. However Japan’s whole strategy revolved around causing so much bloodshed and surprise that the Americans would either bend the knee outright or be so crippled that the Japanese would be able to make such a strong foothold in the Pacific that the Americans would find it too costly to fight. The Pearl Harbor attacks did not shock the Americans into a submissive stance. If anything it enraged them enough that they were willing to defeat the Japs whatever the cost. Japan also did not have the resources of the US. Japan is an island nation with few natural resources so much so they were reliant on conquering other lands to get those resources. America did not have that problem and once America switched into War Time mode there was no stopping them. The US could churn out ships, planes and tanks (far superior tanks might I add. Japanese tanks were garbage due to prioritization on the Navy. Even the M3 Lee which was outdated in Europe by 1942 was still very much deadly in the pacific.) far faster than the Japanese. Once the US gets going they would simply out produce the Japanese and overwhelm them. Even if the whole US Pacific fleet Aircraft Carriers were wiped out the US could simply build them back in a Year once they are up and running. The Japanese Strategy of fighting the Americans was flawed from the start. More success at Pearl would certainly make the Pacific front longer and more bloody. The Japanese might even be able to take Hawaii. But they would be fighting a losing battle.

[@jimmym3352]

@@mike04574 They could have used still pictures and included actual meaningful decisions. Plenty of places to get still pictures. This list is absolute trash. Especially the Ukraine war.

[@mattm7798]

The crazy thing about Napoleon was he didn't have to invade Russia. He was bogged down in Spain and instead of focusing there...well you know. Also, it's hard to understate how big Napoleon's defeat was for the history of Russia and really the world. Europe would look very different most likely had Napoleon not been defeated so badly.

[@Inferiis]

basically the same with Hitler. If he stays neutral with the USSR and focuses on the western front, he may have won the war (although there's still the option that the US then plays a bigger part defeating Germany. However, in this case the USSR is not a part of the equation and the cold war doesn't happen)

[@mattm7798]

Yeah Germany was always racing against the clock in WW2. I think without the UUSR against them and the US out of the war directly, the allies would have sued for peace and Germany probably kept austria and half of poland and some other parts of central europe. I've heard Hitler invaded USSR because he was afraid USSR would do it first, which is not a crazy thought.@@Inferiis

[@DavidSmith-fs5qj]

The preemptive strike argument. One of the reasons why Hitler believed the conquest of the Soviet Union would be a walkover was the poor showing of the Red Army in the winter war with Finland, invaders have discovered that waging war on Russia hasn’t worked out well, when its been the other way around, it hasn’t worked out well for them.

[@DavidSmith-fs5qj]

Hitler was getting the oil he wanted from the Soviet Union before he invaded, imagine the Africa Corps having the manpower and recourses of the Barbarossa assault.

[@MrDeflador]

@@Inferiis Both are wrong. Both had little to no choice but to invade russia. Napoleon wanted to defeat the British. And he could not beat their navi. So the only he was able to do was to force main europe to trade with them. And Russia ignored that. If he would have done nothing other countries would have done the same. And with Nazi Germany, the extermination of Russian people was always a main goal. And they needed more Oil. While the Stalin gave Hitler Oil, it was not enough to fuel the whole war.

[@gazlator]

The consequences for eastern Europe, as a result of the fracturing of the Roman Empire after the Fourth Crusade, were, I think, hugely significant - not to mention the consequences for the Turkish beyliks in Anatolia (or potential lack thereof). There could be so many, many other examples from other parts of the world that could easily rank far higher (in terms of consequences alone) than some of the US-centric examples here, as you say, Chris.

[@Krafanio]

The division between 2 administration for the Roman Empire (West and East) was probably the thing that helped the empire survive another 1,000 years even after losing Europe. The definitive ending of the empire by the Ottomans was a world changing event, that's for sure.

[@alexlocatelli2876]

​@@KrafanioIt kept its presence in Europe during those 1000 years though. Plus he means the fracturing of the Byzantine Empire after 1204, not the division of Theodosius in 395.😉

[@Ugly_German_Truths]

The fracturing of the East Roman Empire was already ongoing before the Crusade. It may have cut off a few decades from the eventual duration, but it did not start or cause that.

[@Krafanio]

@@alexlocatelli2876 Got it, although even after the fracture of the Roman "Byzantine" Empire around 1204 one of those "fractured groups" managed to regain the capital Nova Roma-Constantinople and prolong the life of the empire for almost another 300 years. The life of the Roman Empire in medieval times, (what many know as "Byzantine") was one of real struggle to survive. I guess everything in this world has to have a beginning and an end, makes you think about the current world powers and what their possible endings would look like.

[@callumdixon7830]

He definitely has underestimated this, he’s not an expert in this area, believe he has underestimated the Byzantines a few times before. Considering how many times the Byzantine have bounced back before this the impacts of the Latin empire extended the instability

[@KeganStucki]

WatchMojo. Pretty sure this is the dark place Simba's dad told us to never go...

[@EpicWaffle1128]

This *NEEDS* to be pinned!!!!

[@adsventuresome7511]

That's quite the thumbnail... man watch mojo doesn't do a good job outsourcing it's script writing.

[@wedgeantilles8575]

I'd LOVE to hear what are your Top 10 or Top 20 worst mistakes in history. What I think could be labeled as a huge mistake: Alexanders neglect of having a successor. However, since he died very young, the war among his macedonian generals may have been inevitable. Even if he would have appointed a successor in his last weeks, it would have probably not changed a lot. I am curious what you guys think about this topic. In general, I think it is extremly difficult to make such a list - because in essence you need to know ALL of history. One may know a huge lot about the antics, about Greece, about Rome, maybe know a lot about the Middle Ages and the Renaissance as well. But what about e.g. Asia? That's why I guess such a list will always be very controversial and difficult. Still, I'd be very interested in your ranking :)

[@Noob232ww3]

Even if you think it would be hard, you can’t deny that 40 travelers dying to the weather is not a top 20 in history

[@brianhall4182]

The Sykes - Picot agreement is another one. It directly created the Middle East that we know today and everything that resulted from it.

[@johnalden5821]

I agree -- and good post. This was really the last gasp of British and French imperialism. It was hopeless, disastrous and calamitous, and it really set the course for many of the conflicts in that region since then. The U.S. should have broken with the British and French over it, and by endorsing it, we shot ourselves in the foot for the following century. We have never been a neutral arbiter in that region, and casting our lot with the Franco-British takeover was the first mistake in a long chain of them.

[@anderskorsback4104]

@@johnalden5821 all true. I would say, though, that the last gasp of British and French imperialism was the Suez Crisis invasion of Egypt in 1956. The way that combined American and Soviet pressure managed to force them to back down really showed everyone that Britain and France were no longer the colonial superpowers they had once been. One can even reasonably argue that the event was critical for European integration and the development of the EU, as it forced Britain and France to make common cause to make sure they would remain relevant on the world stage.

[@Davey-Boyd]

Definitely yes.

[@wardvos7925]

I agree that it was stupid, but i honestly don't think they could have done something that didn't cause many conflicts. That area of the world just has too many different groups that hate each other and fight for the same land.

[@e1123581321345589144]

@@anderskorsback4104 France still maintains a sort of indirect colonial empire to this day. They never really gave that up. They operate using finance in place of brute force, but the empire is still there and France is taking in a lot of profit from it.

[@TheLocalLt]

Worth noting that Afghanistan is not the Middle East, it’s mainly part of the Indian Subcontinent with the north being in Central Asia. I think the former presence of al Qaeda (an Arab group), and then 20 years of lumping it in with Iraq, have combined to confuse a lot of people on that. I’m not even sure how many people who follow geopolitics realize that, so it’s not surprising that a general entertainment channel like WatchMojo would make that mistake.

[@moralhazard8652]

About the Chernobyl disaster: I think you can make a fairly good case for this actually being a top 20 mistake because of the major hit to the reputation of nuclear energy that it caused. This led to a dramatic decrease in construction and research in the nuclear power sector which lead to most countries refocusing on fossile fuels instead. So a lot of the environmental and climate damage as well as many of the millions of lung and heart desease cases that were caused by fossile fuel co2/fine particle emissions can in fact be traced back to this disaster. Great video though. I always enjoy your perspective.

[@Zitsanrael1117]

I should've done some scrolling first because I just made pretty much the same comment, Lol. Though I also did leave a recommendation for Kyle Hill's "Half-Life Histories" series too. If you haven't seen it before you absolutely should, it's fascinating stuff.

[@vinylrecord1102]

Could you also argue that the shift in focus to fossil fuels like oil probably had some influence in geopolitics? Oil and gas play a major role in the world.

[@moralhazard8652]

@@vinylrecord1102 Possibly, but arguing that any particular conflict would not have happened without the Chernobyl disaster is probably very difficult. Most conflicts have a multitude of causes and oil would not have been completely worthless even with more nuclear power. So while it almost certainly made issues worse you can't blame it for any particular event.

[@rld1639]

I absolutely agree. Public opinion of nuclear energy took a massive hit after Chernobyl. Such a clean, abundant and efficient energy source was put on the backburner due to NIMBYism. But like he says, if it wasn't Chernobyl, another disaster would have had the same effect.

[@steveamsp]

Not done with the vid yet, but I was going to post essentially the same comment. The directly countable deaths are bad, but, the damage that this did to nuclear power overall, and the impacts that had to the climate overall certainly put it on the top 20. Fukushima put the period on the argument, but without Chernobyl, Fukushima would be seen as not a big deal, as there wouldn't have been panicked evacuations that killed far too many people, compared to the zero people that have died to any radiation effects of the incident.

[@allycat0136]

Chris! I’ve been watching your channel for several years now and I just guessed a point you were going to make before you said it! I’m weirdly proud of myself!

[@VloggingThroughHistory]

Nice. Good job!

[@CrisSelene]

WatchMojo always make bad decisions in their videos in my experience. Do some research, guys

[@Bonzi_Buddy]

They produce clickbait trash and nothing more.

[@gakster29]

Nah, research is too.much overhead for their business 😂

[@robertmiller9735]

Yeah, Japan didn't invade Korea during World War II, 'cause they'd had control of it for decades already. And referring to the Mongol Khan as "Genghis" as if it's his first name,🙄.

[@MrMiniman629]

They're too busy hiring narrators who over pronounce foreign words arbitrarily.

[@Souledex]

I mean when the topic is all of history that is a large task. Then again if you aren’t up for it- don’t make the video.

[@Pixel-Lucas]

Man, I absolutely love your channel! The algorithm put it in my path while watching some Over Simplified. As someone who was in college when BuzzFeed was launched, I have grown to be a fan of "listicles" from time to time, but as an adult who has developed more in depth interests, it's can be frustrating. I love you "de-simplification" and explanations of these existing videos. Now, please excuse me while I binge your entire reacts playlist.

[@rayross997]

A wise person once said, "history is new people making the same old mistakes". Thanks for helping JD.👍

[@Inferiis]

Hitler is the "perfect" example. As said in the video they even studied Napolen's Russian "adventures" yet made literally the same mistake

[@fcolli8889]

@@InferiisHe also thought that WWI was lost because Germany had to fight on the Eastern and Western front, and yet did the very same thing, mistakenly believing that Britain was not a threat. It reminds me of the old joke: "Have you learned from your mistakes?" "Yes, and I'm going to repeat every single one!"

[@thomasroach1617]

I vaguely remember something about Guy Du Chalic slandering another medieval surgeon for hand washing and this caused lack of hygiene in surgery till Ignaz Semmelweis. 500 years of not washing hands probably caused as many deaths as the world wars perhaps.

[@Friedericus]

I think arguably Mark Antonys decision to invade Parthia could be on here. Before that point, his eastern "empire" was a real power house and he was the main protagonist in defeating Cassius and Brutus. His failed invasion weakend him militarily and politically, which allowed Augustus (then Octavian, but really Agrippa as a military man) to destroy his forces later. Due to this, Augustus could form his empire, which dominated europe, west asia and north africa for the next 3 to 4 centuries (byzantium for 15 centuries) and whose effects we can feel to this day. So his mistake ultimately led to something arguably good, but for him, it was still a huuuuge mistake with enormous consequences.

[@IliyanStoychev]

I have to respectfully disagree with you. At the time of Parthia's invasion, Augustus already controlled the richest and militarily the most "juicy" land in the whole of the Empire - Italy. Thus, in wealth and manpower he was in an inifinetely better situation. North Africa was providing the food. Gaul the auxilaries. Spain the surplus gold and silver. On average, the eastern part of the Roman Republic was richer, yes, but the concentrated wealth was and will be in Italy. His food situation was good, given he controled Egypt. How about soldiers - here he is shown to be pretty weak. The biggest reccruitment centers for soldiers were all in the West. When we compare the two - Mark Antony and Octavian, Octavian holds most advantages, so it was only natural that he won.

[@Ugly_German_Truths]

Only that Marc Anthony winning could have caused a very similar Empire to rise, just under a different family (or it might have prolonged the civil war until no more Julio Claudian Pretenders to the throne were around to "Avenge Gaius Iulius"...)

[@steveclarke6257]

The truth is not really known because so much ancient writings discount/dismiss the political talents of women. For Anthony's errors I would look after the failed Parthian campaign. I think Anthony's big mistake was probably due to Cleopatra,and their underestimation of Octavian's scheming. Truth be told Anthony was not a good politician unlike Crasus, Caesar and Pompey Magnus before him ( as you hilighted in his failures in Parthia), he should have known his limitations (like Agrippa did) but I think the political decisions were in this case mostly driven by Cleopatra. His actions at Actium also show he had no idea how to plan a fight at sea and should have found a more competent naval commander to act on his behalf. If you want more info..... find a copy of Prof. Peter Green's book 'Alexandra to Actium ', but be warned it's a university level text book on the period and it has huge numbers of references if you want to fall deep down that rabbit hole.

[@reddeaddude2187]

Egypt was stupid rich and the bread basket of the Mediterranean. Antony controlled Egypt, thus he was at a massive advantage. Parthia was an unnecessary distraction, the original poster is correct. Rome's influence on Europe is objectively a net good.

[@xellosmoon4876]

not even close

[@acediadekay3793]

It's weird that Africa and South America isn't a part of history. I guess they just never made any horrible mistakes...

[@bancygitonga3213]

Enslaving an entire continent ... Really... How does that not make the list

[@markallen9896]

Since you seem to have idea can we get your list of the top 20 or at least maybe Top 10 worst decisions in history? I think it would be cool to know your list and reasons for the events on your list.

[@TheLocalLt]

Overthrowing Mossadegh is definitely not top 20, and I would potentially argue that it wasn’t even a mistake. Beyond the simple realpolitik of the Cold War, what Mossadegh wanted to do was expropriate (essentially steal) foreign holdings in the country, such as BP, all without the consent of Iran’s own monarchy. America and Britain helped facilitate swift action to protect against this. What happened in 1979 was a full-blown revolution, which can be attributed more to the Shah’s own personal failings as a leader than anything that happened in 1953. That’s America giving ourselves too much credit for the outcome, and in a misguided attempt to self-flagellate no less.

[@SylviusTheMad]

I can see Austria's decision to invade Serbia making the list, because it enabled all of those other WW1 battles, but singling-out individual battles is silly.

[@ikpts]

Knowing WatchMojo's style, my expectations were low for this. I imagined you'd consider 1 or 2 to actually be huge mistakes and just roll your eyes at the other 18. I'm pleasantly surprised that you agreed with several (I think 6-7) of them as definitely worth considering to be top20. I'm not a history buff but I always enjoy your videos and explanations as an education source. Thanks for doing what you do!

[@masterplokoon8803]

Watch mojo is not only too US centric but often outright favours minor or wrong examples over major ones. In the "biggest traitors" video they put a guy that changed from the democratic party to the Republican party( not sure why he would be a traitor) but mir Jafar (one of the most infamous traitors) wasn't even on the list. In their famous military ships video they stacked it with US ships that are not well known outside the US but the iconic Yamato didn't make the list and almost all the ships were American.

[@zan4336]

Man in Bengal we still spit on any slightest mention of the name Mir Jafar lol no way they missed him.

[@jcpfitz]

Watchmojo is a far left youtube channel, so anything Republican is evil to them.

[@masterplokoon8803]

@@zan4336 they did 😅

[@arealconservative8712]

WatchMojo is also despicably leftist, which is why they put Joe Lieberman (the guy who switched political parties to the Republican side) as one of the worst traitors. In their list of "Celebrities we liked before they got too political," the majority of them were conservative, even though most politically-charged-to-the-point-of-annoying celebrities are liberal. Also, in their list of "celebrities that allegedly murdered someone," they included Laura Bush, even though the "murder" was an honest accident. And yet the Clintons' alleged murder of Vince Foster (which you'll never convince me wasn't an orchestrated event) was nowhere to be found.

[@bigbake132]

WatchMojo is very left wing. I stopped watching them years ago.

[@SomeDudeSomewhereOverThere]

Top 20 Worst Mistakes in History (that we have films and documentaries for)

[@84tand]

Afghanistan is not a middle eastern country!! It’s a central Asian country

[@redstarr1]

I rolled my eyes so far back when I heard that, I could see the back of my skull.

[@maruso2221]

The Chernobyl argument could be how it impacted the world's view on the safety of nuclear power. Had it not occurred, we may be way further along the transition towards clean energy than we currently are as a global community.

[@argantyr5154]

How about China, adopting isolationism, in the 14th hundreds, when their technology where ahead of most other Countries. Their Fleet reaching Africa before the European. But then they stopped investing in treasure fleets, and even declared sailing from the Chinese coast in a multi-masted ship a capital offense. Imagine how the World could have looked if they have continued to explore and make trade routes.

[@justinissocool1]

Hell they probably would’ve engaged quite a bit in imperialism later and started colonizing much of the world. Lots more places would be speaking mandarin I imagine

[@justinissocool1]

Hell they probably would’ve engaged quite a bit in imperialism later and started colonizing much of the world. Lots more places would be speaking mandarin I imagine

[@ethanstrong]

The Spanish Armada failure was more largely due to Weather than superior warship design on Englands part. Russia Invading Ukraine is nowhere near one of the worst decisions of all time. Russia’s economy was not ‘destroyed’ by sanctions. If anything, Western economies are struggling just as much if not more. Zelenskyy’s decisions may go down as top 20 worst decisions all time.

[@spencerheaton3332]

Number 1: CGP Grey trying to attack Vlogging Through History

[@mojorisin7371]

Perhaps the creator of this worst mistakes in history episode on WatchMojo made the worst mistake in WatchMojo history by trotting out this piece of poorly researched garbage, they should go back and do some real meaningful research of history and then come back and tell us whether you think this obtuse list rises to the title of 20 worst mistakes in history 🤔

[@tgb0079]

Wait… if you’re a history teacher, why don’t you make your own list of top 20 worst decisions in history?

[@reddeaddude2187]

That's a terrific idea!

[@JohnSmithdhtxu4fif]

I feel like it’s pretty much impossible

[@ludwigvonsowell5347]

Depends on a variety of presets. Worst for whom? Over what time period of consequences? First domino to fall? Alternatives available? Weighing the bad outcomes against good outcomes? Morality of such decisions. Etc…

[@tgb0079]

Yeah, if we change something in the past past, it’ll lead to a rabbit hole and spiral out of control to a point we can’t comprehend, thanks for bringing it up

[@jimmym3352]

Worst from whose perspective? That's the problem with such lists. Some mistakes some large empires did that led to their downfall might have actually been beneficial for the advancement of humanity.

[@295Phoenix]

I think the Fourth Crusade was a decisive event in that it ensured a Byzantine revival, like the Kommenian Restoration following Manzikert became impossible. Sure, the Ottoman Empire may still rise if Constantinople isn't sacked but I don't think it's by any means guaranteed, especially if the criminally incompetent Angeloi dynasty don't stay in power for too long.

[@toreadoress]

Maybe the worst mistakes in history are the friends we didn't make along the way.

[@pablomunoz-lobato5774]

"Twenty worst mistakes with a US only perspective"

[@jackcoogan310]

I like the mass appeal of WatchMojo. Those guys and gals built a massive brand, but I agree with your description of “surface level”. Nothing but respect all around, glad you were able to add some deeper context

[@ImperialGeneral]

I don't begrudge Watchmojo for being what they are. At least they don't shy away from it. And frankly, if this was titled "An unsorted list of famous bad decisions" it would be fine for the most part, especially for clickbait.

[@josephmckenna5760]

Although most WatchMojo lists are terrible, I'll give them credit with one. Their Top 10 Anime wars list is solid. To my shock and pleasure, they put Gundam's One Year War as #1. As for this list, I'll contribute to the debate over the 4th Crusade. For Christian Europe, it ended what existing cooperation there was between orthodox Christianity and Catholicism. However, one of the biggest losses was to culture and history. The amount of art/artisanry/artifacts that were lost were incredible. To be honest though, I would assume that most of the top 20 worst decisions are in China considering how many events in that country have resulted in millions or hundreds of thousands of deaths. Oh, and rejecting Hitler's admission into a French art school. (Or honestly, the chancellor's abdication to Hitler.)

[@robertohorcajada2818]

I think it is a great mistake that of the Anglo-Saxon warriors that in the middle of the battle of hastings thought "seems that the Normans are running away, let's finish them all", as that battle did really changed the course of history

[@BravestOfTheBrave]

I had this very same thought. The way the anglo-saxons lost England still breaks my heart.

[@butterxo3094]

Like 80% of this list happened in the last 100 years that’s when you know it is terrible

[@mandyb8675]

Fourth Crusade is within my top 10. Without it, I doubt Eastern Europe and even some parts of Anatolia would have fallen to Turkish rule. Eastern Rome had been pushing back the Turks just before the fourth crusade, and I doubt we would see an Ottoman Empire if romans hadn’t been weakened so much.

[@VideoMask93]

It also likely contributed to solidifying the East-West Schism. Many Orthodox are still extremely pissed about it, and rightfully so.

[@AbdulRahman-uw4nd]

It was terrible and jut ridiculous. The fact that the pope basically allowed the people todo whatever thy want as they would be forgiven is insane

[@VideoMask93]

@@AbdulRahman-uw4nd That's completely untrue. The men responsible for the Sack of Constantinople had already been excommunicated, meaning they could not receive the Sacraments, because they had attacked a Catholic city at the Venetian Doge's request rather than the Ottomans in Egypt.

[@matsand4719]

In the US civil war Jefferson Davis was more of a Micromanager than Lincoln

[@hochungyip1123]

Japanese fully invasion China could also be the worst decision ever. Regardless of how bloody the consequence is, this decision was not approved by the Japanese highest officials but was made by some bloodthirsty Japanese soldiers who wanted to gain glory and rise up in ranks. But the war had no objectives and the japaneses didn't know when and where to stop. So they came up with a reckless idea: conquer the whole china. Taking the costals and ports was a easy job for japanese but taking a continental size of land need tremendous amount of resources and manpower for which the Japanese didn't have. Eventually, Japanese had dug into a war they could not afford and indirectily tiggered the war with America.

[@jonathanbrown7250]

Yeah, and for two reasons. One, as you said, China was fighting against Japan until the war ended. There's no guarantee Japan, just because of pure numbers, doesn't get bled out of China eventually anyway, making the whole war not worth it. Two, it gets them sanctions from the US when they're already concerned about resources, which gets them a war Yamamoto said they had to win in six months or be screwed.

[@diniodo5898]

didn't expect Iranian history to make it to the list two times. appreciate the representation. in Iranian history we still ridicule and damn Khwarazmshah muhammad the second's decision, as it led to brutal invasion and destruction of Iran lands, people, culture and books. though some still say with little proof that it was a set up from the Khan giving them reason to invade such relatively powerful empire.

[@Magplar]

Your video are special to me because it’s essentially like sitting down watching a history video with a buddy. Top tier, thanks for everything you do.

[@danielmaluenda9731]

I support this too !

[@fumoffu1]

The Donner Party: 40 people died The Carolean Death March: 4000 soldiers and Sweden's great power status

[@billy9497able]

Maybe it should be called the most well known historical mistakes instead of the biggest mistakes.

[@StaceyUX]

You captured the Donner Summit area beautifully with the way you described it. Was fortunate to live close to the area and really got a chance to understand the Donner story from my time there. Don’t want to get stuck in those mountains during snow. Not. Fun. Ask me how I know! 😅 Camping is top tier though. Highly recommend.

[@Stax62]

Be careful Chris, if I remember correctly watchmojo we’re pretty notorious for striking people for using their videos. That may have changed in recent years however

[@Aerakade]

It's awfully ironic that they do that considering their entire channel is based on fair use.

[@xenotypos]

Honestly Chris is the only thing that makes their trash-video watch-able.

[@AbdulRahman-uw4nd]

that would be terrible as Chris himself is basically introducing his channel us all

[@Jn-tj2ob]

Bruh Russia-Ukraine at 5 is beyond absurd…

[@JLHFans]

I would like to argue with your statement about Fourth Crusade if you don t mind. It was a history and outcome changer definitely. In the XII. century under Komenios dynasty, Byzantium was a major power one more last time, it recaptured the whole Balkans and most of Anatolia as well except the center, which was kinda useless economically anyway. Had the fourth crusade didn t happen, they would have surely kept their status ( or even conquer Syria one more time) and probably hold the Osman Empire in bay even before they became dangerous. But the sack of Constantinaple ended their status for once and for all and they had no more hope about recovery.

[@Noone-xy4ot]

I would argue that the Byzantine Empire could of defeated the Turkish tribes,and forcing them to Syria, and the rest of the Muslim controlled territory.

[@deasttttt]

The mongol invasion of Khwarazmian empire really was set off by the dumbest of things resulting in unimaginable slaughter. Basically Genghis khan reached out to Muhammed II and they made a trade deal. However one of these traders sent by Genghis was killed by a guard and his merchandise stolen. Even then Genghis sent envoys to demand this guard be punished at which point Muhammed promptly maimed the envoys and sent them back. Estimates are all over the place due to few people being able to keep track of the death toll while trying to survive themselves but we know that the area was left depopulated for centuries recently emptied land turned into pasture for mongol horses. There were more than few muslim writers proclaiming God's wrath or even the end of the world due to how complete the destruction was. Definitely a decision that deserves its place in top 20 worst ever made.

[@pergos1]

Agreed. Some historians argue that the region still hasn't recovered.

[@history-jovian]

​@pergos1 it still may not have. Temujin was really angry man

[@benschultz1784]

The event that turned Baghdad from the center of Islamic civilization to a near backwater, leading to the rise of non-Arabic Islamic empires, such as the Ottomans and Safavids dominating Mesopotamia and the Levant

[@jonathanbrown7250]

The Monguls smashed modern day Iraq and Iran, arguably the center of Islamic civilization. If you've every wondered how the muslims had mathematics, scholars, developed algebra, were ahead in science, and generally far advanced of western Europe during the early dark ages, then move the clock forward and and Western Europe is ahead while the Muslim countries have fallen behind, technologically, scientifically, and many other ways; A lot of the answer is "The Monguls happened" to them. Hard to argue this is not as fateful a decision as they come.

[@e1123581321345589144]

30:57 more people died in Ethiopian war in the last couple of years than in Ukraine. The decision is certainly disastrous for Russia and time will tell if they're able to recover after the dust settles. If it turns out to be the end of that country, which is a possibility even though unlikely, then it might be considered one of the worst in history. Time will tell, but as of today it's too early to make that analysis.

[@XaviRonaldo0]

While I agree Gallipoli wasn't all on Churchill and it certainly doesn't deserve a spot on this list Churchill is considered a downright enemy of Australia. Starting with Gallipoli and then in WW2 as PM he vehemently opposed the withdrawal of Australian troops from North Africa to return to defend Australia against Japan stating "if it falls we'll get it back later". He simply didn't give af

[@Ghatbkk]

He gave af. But about English, not Australians or New Zealanders or Irish or Indians or Canadians or Scots or anybody else except English.

[@XaviRonaldo0]

​@@Ghatbkktrue

[@YerDa67]

@@Ghatbkk Yep. He was famously chased out of Scotland.

[@sayberwarrior7928]

I hate recency bias. It’s just because it’s in the moment, but just wait till something really huge happens then we will get a big picture of a really bad decision.

[@milancase4507]

Byzantium was already delicate as hell by the time the Crusaders sacked it. It's walls held, but it never recovered. Many years passed by. The Slavs and the Turks encroached. Eventually, almost inevitably, Byzantium fell.

[@milancase4507]

And that was it. The Roman Empire had run it's course. With that, Mehmet drew the curtain down on 2,000 years of human endeavor. The crusader sack of Constantinople hardened the schism between the Orthodox and the Roman churches. There was no greater Christian community to come to Constantinople's aid. For that reason, I would agree that that the sack of Constantinople during the IV Crusade, was among the worst mistakes in history.

[@serpent645]

In 1995, we (my family and I) drove from the Presidio of Monterey to Boise. We had some snacks, including a bag of potato chips, which had been packed at sea level. Before reaching the summit of Donner Pass, the changing air pressure caused the bag to explode. A very high elevation.

[@trevorperkins4585]

Clearly, buying that bag of chips should be on the list. Maybe around number 17 or so.

[@BennyTheNubb]

@@trevorperkins4585I’d say 2 or 1

[@Idiodyssey87]

A really bad one in hindsight: The Chinese government not greasing the civil service exam results of the guy who started the Taiping Rebellion

[@moviefan005]

Or Austran art school not accepting that one Painter to their school

[@mike04574]

why

[@JosephPastori]

For number 15 I think you have a much easier time arguing that the Soviet-Afghanistan war eventually leads to the rise of extremist/terrorist religious groups. The U.S. was really not a “good guy” in the Cold War (neither were, but I’m pointing it out because a lot of our poor conduct is glossed over in American education systems while the soviets acts are usually explicitly stated). We would fund far right groups (which tend towards conservatism and in many cases extreme religious doctrine, not all, but many) that were fighting communism. We did this a lot in Latin America and it actually lead to the deaths of some notable figures (an archbishop from the Catholic Church was killed in I want to say El Salvador) were killed by guerrillas we trained and funded. Civilians were very often killed due to suspicious of aiding the other side or caught in the crossfire of the larger conflict. If you look at the numbers of people killed it’s horrible, in some cases completely legitimate democracies were overthrown because leaders had socialist views (and American fruit companies saw many of the worker reforms as a risk to their profit margins). Anyways I’m getting off track, if you can argue that the Soviet-Afghanistan war at least lessens the number of extreme groups or the weapons they have access to, then you can draw arrows towards other big events in history like the Iraq war, 9/11, the U.S. invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, ect.

[@JosephPastori]

Just to add to hitler invading russia, he could’ve avoided that entirety. Before he invaded russia offered to join the axis powers. If they join the axis it’s incredibly likely the British are knocked out entirely, especially if they join the war effort against the British (which I can see them doing, assuming they lay claim to British colonies out East or something like that.) Now, war between the two was probably inevitable. Hitler was never exactly shy about his options on the people living in Russia and communism. War would’ve likely occurred sooner or later between the two. Knocking out the British and securing North Africa likely makes it a much harder fight for the Russians.

[@omalleycaboose5937]

The Donner party? really? sucks to be them sure but... really?

[@DanielWolfe-t7j]

I would probably add the Athenian involvement on Sicily during the Peloponnesian War. Probably the Persian invasion of mainland Greece under Xerxes I. If you do include Montezuma, then Atahualpa's request to meet Pizarro and deciding to only bring a small group of his reportedly 80,000 man army should also be on there. It's definitely a "what if" but I think I diagree that the Spanish would have just kept sending force after force. With both the Aztec and Inca the very paltry conquistador forces were only able to win because of other native groups who weren't too happy with their respective overlords, this is true. But mostly because the emperors' were essentially gods to their people, had they not been so easily captured it may have been very different. Imagine European politics without Spain's massive amounts of New World gold and silver. Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939 before it's military and economy were really ready for war (not to mention Italy wasn't anywhere near ready for a major war). Germany deciding to declare war on the United States. I feel like these are just as important than Barbarossa. Basically though, German decisions in WW2.

[@ryantannar5301]

Genghis Khan was so impactful on what was then Persia that the population of the area did not return to pre Mongol levels until the late 20th or 21st century.

[@sgburk2]

#1 worst mistake in history…pineapples on pizza. Terrible shame. Would love to see you’re top 10-20 worst mistakes in history.

[@JohnnyOlsson]

Here's my top 5 of the worst mistakes in history: 5: The natives giving food to the pilgrims. 4: von Pappen going "let's make this Adolf-guy chancellor. That'll shut him up." 3: Iron Maiden replacing Bruce Dickinson with Blaze Baley. 2: Tommy Salo's attempt to save a shot from the neutral zone in overtime at the Olympics in Salt Lake City. 1: Watching WatchMojo.

[@JohnnyOlsson]

@jailow8310 Not on purpose. :)

[@willemdafuck]

I liked Blaze:)

[@gradyjones7017]

I could argue that the assassination of Franz Ferdinand was the most costly (although they kind of did mention it with the Austria-Hungary one). Without that, there’s no WW1, which means no Treaty or Versailles, which means no WW2. No WW1 also means Germany wouldn’t send Vladimir Lenin to overthrow Russia, meaning no Communism, meaning no Cold War, meaning Russia and the West are still probably friends today, meaning no Ukraine war. Hitler also wouldn’t have risen to power meaning no Holocaust. Pretty much every major political event since the assassination is directly caused by it

[@kineuhansen8629]

treaty of versailles much be at least top 5 worst mistakes

[@thibaultsardet7399]

The treaty wasn't harsh, it was especially inconsistent with all these national interests at once.

[@Eric6761]

​@@thibaultsardet7399 harsh or not still created a enemy

[@thibaultsardet7399]

@@Eric6761 Germany still had 65 millions of inhabitants, and their militarism and industrial force was still intact. In definitive, despite the outcome of 1918, they were jubilant to not had been destroyed as a geo-political force. On the contrary, The Big mistake had been to be to complacent with a vengeful and wounded beast. Their weight could always counter-balance the weight of europe. Especially if a man could relaunch the machine. This was the economic crisis in 1929, which contributed to put the nazis on power in 1933, before that, Hitler largely lost all the elections.

[@Eric6761]

@@thibaultsardet7399 fair

[@lysimaquetokmok6755]

How? So Poland didnt deserve to be a country? France didn't deserve to take back Alsaces Lorraines?

[@TehIdiotOne]

While obviously there are tons of other bad examples in this list, i'm baffled by the Ukraine one in particular. It's a conflict that's still ongoing and we don't even know the full consequences off, especially with regards to Russia.

[@debrickashaw9387]

When WatchMojo says "top" they mean "most commonly known". They are extremely basic by design

[@joshuawindsor-knox3626]

This was a pretty bad list on the subject of a few of the bad choices: Having WW1 was a worse mistake than the treaty of Versailles, as for Pearl Harbor while not a great decision having read the transcripts of the 1941 Imperial Conference it was probably the best shot they had at wining the war in China at that point and the actual big mistake was the apathy and refusal to reign in militarist elements particularly the Kwantung Army that led to the war in China in the first place. As for one I think should have been on here I'd say China's one child policy, which we're only starting to see the ramifications of but it's already pretty dire China's going to lose nearly half thier population by the end of the century the massive age imbalance is going to result in an elderly population that will be extremely economically costly an most likely this move alone is going to preclude them from overtaking the United States as the world's leading economy. P.S they talk about Japan invading Korea at the same time as invading China, Korea was annexed by Japan before WW1 so I don't know where they got that from.

[@lightwalker222]

WatchMojo gives me a vibe like they take their lists from Reddit posts or somebody's Quora answer, then just edit some random clips together while they read from the first search result on Google for each topic. Never have I gotten the impression that they actually understand or have insights to share about the information they're presenting. But hey, if they don't have anything useful to say, it gives Chris more opportunity to expand on it. So I guess I can see why their videos would make sense for a VTH reaction.

[@stevendebettencourt7651]

I'm actually a bit surprised British Appeasement toward Nazi Germany wasn't on this list, but I guess you could argue that is more NOT doing something, which WatchMojo explicitly stated would not be eligible for this list. While we may deride Neville Chamberlain as a fool for his policy of Appeasement, at the time the policy had good logic to it: Buy time for the UK and France to build up their militaries to match, and then exceed, Germany's, then you can put the screws to Hitler in future negotiations. The issue was that, I suppose, Kristallnacht finally convinced British political leadership that Hitler had to be opposed at the next viable opportunity (meaning Poland), thus abandoning the policy of Appeasement before it could produce the results it was meant to. Had the UK and France not guaranteed Polish independence, how much longer could France have avoided the German hammer? Cause by the time 1941 would come around, Germany would probably not be able to beat the UK and France militarily (and even in 1940, Hitler got very lucky that French military leadership played right into his Ardennes gamble). There is a video by Old Britannia on KZbin called "Flawed Realpolitik: Chamberlain and the Logic of Appeasement" that tries to present Appeasement as a valid strategy to deal with Hitler in the context of the time, and I think it would be a great video for you to react to Chris (your reaction would probably need to be split into two parts, though; it is a long and dense video), along with a bunch of Old Britannia's other videos.

[@daniellastuart3145]

Gallipoli was a great idea that just very badly executed

[@braize6279]

Cao Cao's defeat at Red Cliff is one I'd definitely put up there. Not only was Cao Cao defeated, there were many bad decisions made in order for it to happen. Though to be fair, a lot of it was good strategy by his opposition. After finally taking over Northern China, he now turned south. And despite his superior numbers, he was absolutely annihilated at the battle of Red Cliff by Shu and Wu forces. If not for this, Cao Cao would have easily taken over China. Wei never really did recover, despite being what many thought to be an unstoppable force.

[@BaeBunni]

One of the problems with watchmojo is they usually do pulls. So they probably didn't thoroughly research this but relied on essentially your average youtube watcher to give them 20 suggestions.

[@Gruppetstudios]

Regardless of your opinion of the Russia/Ukraine conflict, I think it’s so ridiculous for WatchMojo to call it one of the worst mistakes in history when it HASN’T EVEN ENDED YET?

[@steveclarke6257]

I find these channels go towards the "sensational"....not quite click bait but close.

[@foley15136]

Why don’t we talk about Mao and that atrocity? The newest generations love communism and socialism. To them, the Holocaust is THE WORST thing that humans have ever done. It’s not being overlooked because the Chinese are Asian. It’s about political stuff. They see people that aren’t pure on the left as “Nazis”. I say “pure” because you can agree with them 85% and that’s not good enough. You’re a Nazi. Anyway, any atrocities committed by a communist group gets ignored or blame gets deflected. (I also, am not downplaying the events of the Holocaust. I’m just pointing out that there were worse things)

[@joegibson1566]

With regards to your words about the Fourth Crusade and the sacking of Constantinople, it did not alter the situation in Europe too much; the Christians held the city but the Byzantines took it back shortly after. What it did was hammer the final nail in the coffin that was the Byzantine Empire. The empire was already losing a bunch of money and the Crusaders took what wealth was left and the Byzantines never really recovered. It just accelerated the decline of the empire.

[@stevenchilds7635]

You will find most of the wealth of Constantinople in Venice, Italy.

[@joegibson1566]

I once had a professor who was Greek and he mentioned once during a lecture that while on a trip to Istanbul he spat on the grave of Enrico Dandalo.

[@ABhaim]

I also disagree about Russia's invasion in the list being far too recent to judge - but I will not argue that 2 new NATO members when Russia sought to keep one out is a hell of a geopolitical backfire. Also, comparing outright Hitler to Napoleon in their own invasions to Russia\USSR is over simplistic. Napoleon rode straight on to Moscow, something his generals wanted to do, but Hitler wanted to avoid that, when he wanted the Red Army truly defeated by the Wehrmacht's arrival to Moscow and beyond. Napoleon Arrived to burned Moscow - and just waited. The Red Army put up a fight and Hitler kept changing objectives

[@Volaer1]

Personally I would definitely put the fourth crusade in the top 20. Without it the Anatolian Beys would never take western Anatolia including one ruled by a certain Osman. Which means the Eastern Roman empire would survive for much longer perhaps until today, there would be no creation of the Holy League, no siege of Vienna, the age of discovery would probably be postponed as well. The impact is huge in my opinion.

[@Alexs.2599]

Very true, however I don't think the Byzantine Empire would be around today. In it's place would most likely be a larger Greek nation state. Encompassing what is in our timeline Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, Cyprus and at least most of Anatolia.

[@jonathanbrown7250]

The fourth crusade greatly weakened the Byzantines in a way they never really recovered from. Maybe they're not around today, but it's arguable their demise would have been slowed down by at least 100-200 years. That means the muslim invasions of Eurpoe don't happen. Pretty big mistake

[@AbdulRahman-uw4nd]

23:11 Actually, the amount of soviets killed in those camps is also estimated at 6 million, with other groups adding up to almost 4 million. We should really talk more about the non jewish victims of the holocaust as well. 24:40 That is very impactful cuz not only did the coup give an outpost to the US in the middle east at such a crucial time, the revolution that toppled Reza Shah completely changed the tables of the middle east, bringing for the first time an actually religious leader to power in the middle east (others were pretty secular), and spread fear of the revolution spreading in other Muslim countries. Iran is also very important cuz it is dominated by Shia Muslims (As a Sunni I dont like calling them Muslims but they do, please dont start a war in the replies) and other Sunni countries wont like get subjugated under Iranian clergy, as the revolution did pop up in a Shia country. 27:19 The war is completely unjustified. The US found no evidence of Iraq trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction, but blatantly lied anyways. The 9/11 attacks had nothing to do with Saddam, but he was somehow displayed as the leader of terrorism. Oil is just a lazy answer, why on earth would a country with massive oil deposits go to the other side of the world (not really but u get it) to fight a war over it. Venezuela is also part of the America's and has massive oil deposits, a very weak and corrupt leader, and not a very strong defense system. The fact remains that the invasion of Iraq is nothing but an act to show US capabilities. There were so many anti war protests all across the western world. I completely agree that Saddam was a bad person, but the insane unrest brought on by the war can hardly be overstated. So many deaths and a half baked democracy just lead Iraq to even more instability. 30:00 I believe that the invasion WAS justified now hear me out. Ukraine is immensely important to Russia. Ukraine has the nickname of little Russia, and was the birth place of the first Russian state, the Kievan Rus. The historical connections go on and on, but they aren't too convincing to people. After the collapse of the USSR, many Russians found themselves in Ukraine, especially the Donbass (Donetsk and Luhansk). The Russian dominated parts of Ukraine didn't really want to be a part of Ukraine. Russian became banned to be taught in schools, and he country Ukrainianized (linguistically). For example, Kiev was turned to Kyiv. This is unacceptable, as Kiev itself was the first capital of the first Russian state, Kievan Rus. Sometimes, the Kievan Rus is literally called Kievan Russia. Ukraine's pro Russian government was also overthrown in 2014, and a more western oriented regime came into power. The threat of Ukraine joining NATO rose extremely high. Ukraine joining NATO would push NATO's boundaries so incredibly close to Russia, which would not be able to defend such a large and flat field without nukes NATO had already broken a promise to never push east of Germany, and Russia now has no buffer between it and Moscow and it's industrial heartland. Ukraine would have collapsed in less than two months for sure if it weren't for the extreme support by the west. The amount of ammunitions, guns, tanks, defense systems etc. given by the west are unfathomable. I have openly supported Russia like this in the past (and won the debate proceeding it) and I am not scared of having doing one again. Just remain civil as I do not like when people throw propaganda without facts, and just write rubbish that is not even closely related to geopolitics. 30:37 not reallllly. You can easily argue that the sanctions backfired. It did insane to the Ruble, but it quickly recovered. Russia was already heavily sanctioned, and so didn't get impacted much. In fact, Russia's economy is projected to even increase by the end of 2023. Things like McDonalds have been removed from Russia, but other companies similar to the western ones have taken their position and are not bad at all. The prices of things like natural gas and petroleum have skyrocketed in western Europe and many Europeans are not happy with their governments. I am not even bluffing, this is taken from comments of Europeans. One even called his (/her) government "idiotic" and doesn't support his governments decision of supporting Ukraine so heavily. Chris (I hope I'm remembering his name correctly) is totally right on propaganda. The insane amount of cries that are not exaggerating but heavily just indirectly misleading Russia are just annoying to see as a person who does not like such bias. The US didn't do any better, and meddles around in so many countries directly, and many, many more indirectly. There is leaked footage of the US air force commanders of cursing (swear words) and shooting an innocent Iraqi who had his hands in the air (with his child). It is absolutely horrific. In Pakistan, my home country, there is no democracy or rule of Law in practice. The supreme court is basically commanded by the US, and Imran Khan was ousted by bribes spearheaded by the US. Why does nobody raise their voice for this stuff? The answer all has to do with the unfortunate fact that the internet is so heavily dominated by the west, which cover up their own sins and cry out whenever something happens against them. 34:20 They only mentioned one example, and collectively yes 100% going against Genghis with his powerful cavalry mounted archers was a terrible decision for the ones who did. There is an example of not resisting in Russia, where the Mongols did do damage, but the Russian principalities did get authority to reign and control their own territory (Jaarlig) from the Mongols. No body could stop Genghis. 36:31 The were absolutely terrible, but Hitler had a different idea of cancelling the treaty's conditions (basically ignoring them), and so you cant really blame the victors for not seeing that as Hitler was but a wounded soldier at the end of WWI, and no body would expect a guy like him to come to power with such rage. There is also the example of carthage and Hannibal, with a very similar context. This time however, Hannibal (and so carthage) were completely obliterated. The fact is that Germany should not have been ignored as it ignored the treaty of Versailles and gobbling up Austria and Czechoslovakia.

[@abraxaszee8953]

Chris, please address the error of Custer’s rank. He was NOT a general at Little Big Horn. His commission as a Major General expired in 1866. At the time of his death he was a Lieutenant Colonel.

[@goober5713]

That always annoyed me.

[@threatz7589]

I have got to disagree with the Invasion of Iraq/3rd Gulf War, I don't think it was a bad decision to go to war against Saddam per se. As always history, even recent one is often more complex than a black and white scheme aka "War x was or was not a mistake". Saddam was still a brutal tyrant unleashed 2 mayor wars that destabilized the whole region more than the Invasion ever could and killed thousands of people at the end of the Iran-Iraq war with chemical weapons (e.g. in Halabdscha). In a sense, he was worse than Milosevic. And as an intervention worked in the Balkan and even nation-building, why not intervene in Iraq? The initial invasion was a greater accomplishment than Desert Storm, taking the country with minimal casualties on both sides and even being welcomed by the population in several cities (e.g., Baghdad). But if you want to talk about the worst mistakes in history you could talk about the appointment of Paul Bremer to the CPA, as he took the 3 decisions that directly led to the insurgency and botched any future nation-building attempts: De-Baathication, decommissioning the Iraqi Army and a constitution based on sect. Additionally, doing so when one part of your ministers want a light footprint, the least amount of soldiers that s necessary (Rumsfeld) and quickly give power back to the Iraqis and leave. Meanwhile, the other part of the government (Wolfowitz et al.) and the military (Gen. Franks) wanted a way larger footprint to nation-build and to secure the De-Baathication, just like the De-Nazification. So in the end, when a compromise is taken, both approaches are botched, which is essentially what happened. So when they did Iraq would surely look much different today if any of these decisions had not been taken. Even then, it is still the only thing that resembles a democracy in the whole region, apart from Israel of course. Make of that what you want, but don't forget how many people Saddam killed and that the Arab Spring happened 8 years later, so imagine what would have happened then in Saddam's regime. All in all, I just want to say that even for this war, the situation is not black and white, but far more complex, parts of it worked other parts did not, some outcomes were positive (democracy in a country that never had one in a region that never had one, no more Saddam, no more chemical attacks against your own people) other were negative (deaths, IEDs, influence of Iran, sectarianism).

[@asimplierlife3104]

Yet another original video that I couldn't make it through until you bring your insights. It literally takes garbage from Mojo and makes it quality. TY for what you do :).

[@ryanbarnes840]

I disagree about the lack of a correlation between the Soviet failure in Afghanistan and their collapse. It's totally there. Not only did that war cost them a ridiculous amount of money, money they didn't have, but it showed the US that the Soviets were not as strong as they maybe thought, and pressure was put on the Soviets. I think that it's a lot of things, but that is definitely a big part of it, combined with Gorbachev's transparency towards the end of the decade, Chernobyl, etc.

[@EinMor]

I think another reason why the Aztec decision to invite cortez was not one of the worst decisions, is that disease would have destroyed the empire anyway. Sooner or later, the Autec empire would have crumbled anyway.

[@reneszeywerth8352]

First things first: Trash list as expected from Watchmojo. A lot of those decisions were bad because the desired outcome (which had a decent chance though) didn't happen. I would argue that there are worse decisions because there was never a chance that any good would come from it. E.g. Germany invading the Soviet Union: What were they supposed to do? They couldn't invade their main enemy at the time (Britain) and where they fought them (Africa) their logistics were awful. And war with the Soviets was bound to happen and they Soviets would only get stronger with time. Take the Soviets off the board and solve your oil and food problems - could have succeeded. Declaring war on the US was the really stupid decision by the Germans. That had zero upside.

[@noelostetter8236]

I would say in worst decisions ever : -Hannibal’s decision not to attack Rome directly after the battle of Cannae which let Rome rebuild its forces and win the war in the end - Napoleon III’s decision to attack Prussia in 1870 which led to the end of the second French empire, the ceasing of Alsace-Moselle, the formation of the German empire and for French political and social turmoil who led to the bloody events of the Parisian commune - in the série of don’t attack Russia in the winter : Gustav Adolph of Sweden who after defeating Denmark, Poland and Russia received a peace offer from the latter, refuses it, keeps fighting, gets caught by the Russian winter, loses most of his army, has to go in exile in Turkey, comes back home 5 years later with Denmark and Poland at war against him again, dies in battle in Norway which causes Sweden to sue for peace, losing a big chunk of land around the Baltic Sea which put an end to Sweden being a major European power

[@greglane5607]

Hannibal lacked the siege capability to sack Rome. Hannibal beat Rome time after time on an open battle field but couldn’t siege Rome.

[@noelostetter8236]

@@greglane5607 i saw the History marche series on him and they said it’s pretty much a misconception because he had a navy not far away able o blockade around and Rome didn’t had the forces to garrison everything and the Carthaginians were very capable at besieging and had what was necessary

[@annekelly3485]

In reference to the Swedish one, you're thinking of Charles XII not Gustavus Adolphus. GA started the era of Swedish dominance with his victories in the 30 years War, until his death. Charles XII ended the era of Swedish dominance as you said by attacking Russia after they sued for peace, because he felt the only way to end a war should be by the destruction of his enemies.

[@noelostetter8236]

@@annekelly3485 oh yeah absolutely My bad I confused them thanks for correcting

[@dor14bur]

A bit of a nitpick, but Napoleon was never known as "The Little Corporal." That was Hitler... at least according to Von Rundstedt.

[@HistoryandHeadlines]

What do you think was the worst mistake in history?

[@Eric6761]

Second World War

[@carramrod8232]

@@Eric6761 how?

[@Eric6761]

@@carramrod8232 Second WW was one of the bloody moments on history

[@carramrod8232]

@@Eric6761 yes it was. But it wasn’t our mistake. Fighting the Axis machine was necessary

[@adamlatosinski5475]

Killing a carpenter trying to stop his religious following.

[@Orion4976]

Wow, most anglos have a very wrong idea regarding the failed spanish armada. They seemed to think that this is what began the decline of the empire and the rise of the english one. Far from it. Spain would still be the number one empire in Europe for antoher 50 years or so, till they fell second to..... The French!!! England was a small european empire in the 1500s and an internal mess during the 1600s. Wasnt until early 1700s that Great Britain formed and THEN they started to really take off as an empire, eventually rivalling the french and eventually dethroning them after Napoleon. Also, England sent a counter armada to Spain the very following year to try and capitalize on momentum, even larger than the spanish one, and also failed miserably.

[@the_kelvinator_]

I like the think of these decisions as “single person decisions”…if that’s the case, Gavrilo Princip deciding to eat a sandwich has to be #1

[@shadowmandeathstroke8232]

Or Franz Ferdinand's driver taking a wrong turn