What even is Europe?

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What even is the European Union? What is it's purpose in the context of the history of Europe? Meaning history as a political process of development? Europe is a political process that is intent on preventing war between nation-states and creating a post-imperial system of politics, and in this video, I outline the case for that.
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You might be interested in this video too: • The Danube and Europe'...
Intro (0:00)
Ni Hao (1:40)
The Myth of peaceful nationalism (4:17)
Peace through reconciliation (8:43)
Post-Imperial Politics (11:55)
A French hangover (15:35)
Cooperation as an international order (17:18)
Outro (18:14)
Thank you again, and don't forget to subscribe to watch more.

[@Kraut_the_Parrot]

Play Enlisted for FREE on PC, Xbox Series X|S and PS®5: playen.link/krauten2022 Follow the link to download the game and get your exclusive bonus now. See you in battle!

[@0rangevlad]

Progression can get a tad bit tedious, but overall a good game.

[@BoycottChinaa]

Europe is an impossible mix of cultures which are generally incompatible in terms of planning and implementation styles.

[@hamizanyunos1502]

Do you fully disagree with Realism as an International Relations Theory or simply Offensive Realism?

[@vottak5964]

2:33 spealing of Chinese viewer`s biases, nice/interesting map of "Europe"

[@lostonearth7856]

If this video was published 8 minutes ago, how is your comment 9 days old?

[@Littleyonder]

As a Chinese-American from Texas, I can confirm that referring to other nations as more backwards than us is just about the most Chinese thing we can do outside speaking Chinese.

[@richyhu2042]

As another Chinese American, I agree. Not sure if its akin to modern nationalism, but there is a huge amount of pride engrained in Chinese culture atleadt when talking about others. One of the things that came out of taling with some of my other ABC friends is "you dont call everyone around you a barbarian unless you have very tall towers and very thick walls". A favorite ancedote is that when the British first tried to negotiate with the Qing, the Qing ambassador spoke to him in Latin.

[@deathmorphosis]

You both better have a good VPN. Godspeed.

[@Jestergamer972]

Im from texas too what chinese traditions you celibrate if any

[@Rolando_Cueva]

​@@deathmorphosis In Texas? What for?

[@richyhu2042]

@@deathmorphosis why would I need a VPN?

[@Posiman]

This reminds me of an essay by George Orwell called "Towards European Unity." Written after WW2 he says that now that the nuclear bomb was invented, there are only three paths forward: 1) Total nuclear war, end of civilisation, return to the stone age. 2) Emergence of three or four nuclear imperialistic superpowers that will divide the whole world between them and devolve into all-encompassing bureaucratic dictatorships (basically the premise of 1984) 3) Foundation of the European Union. It's an incredibly prescient piece of text. The biggest threats for this plan, he writes in 1947, will be: - The UK, who will always prefer it's cross-Atlantic ties and boycott any European plans that don't involve the USA. - Russia who will never let go of its imperialistic tendencies...

[@tefky7964]

Wow,he wrote that in 1947.

[@Posiman]

@@tefky7964 Yeah, incredibly accurate. Well except for the third threat: he predicted that Vatican will oppose EU as well. But as far as I see, Vatican doesn't give a crap. To be fair, Orwell wrote it before the 2nd Vatican council, which modernized the church and made it less political.

[@energiasrenovablesdevenezu6919]

Only, that the European Union that was founded at the end, is 1984.

[@energiasrenovablesdevenezu6919]

@@Posiman Because what we got as European Union, is not the European Union born out of the wish to have stabile peace. It uses its name, but it is the second option: 1984!

[@tancreddehauteville764]

Amazingly accurate.

[@Kaiyanwang82]

your Chinese friend conveniently forgot the very pervasive Sinicization that happened in his lands. Not everyone was born Han.

[@edixonvc5101]

The Chinese will never miss a opportunity to call everybody except them backwards

[@domitiusseverus1]

Indeed

[@raxit1337]

I don't think he forgot it, the same thing happened in the Roman empire.

[@Kaiyanwang82]

@@raxit1337 No. Not in that extent and not in such pervasive manner. Spaniards or French don't say they are roman. Heck, even the arabs didn't go that far.

[@raxit1337]

@@Kaiyanwang82 The roman empire collapsed ages ago, of course Spaniards or French don't say they are roman. those areas were latinised by the romans though, they had completely distinct cultures before.

[@juliusoctavius942]

As a Chinese, I drew the opposite conclusion to your Chinese friend. Indeed, attempts to unify Europe failed but that of China succeeded explained the stark contrast between these societies. However, I think it is the the constant pressure of war that gave Europe its strength. From the middle ages through to WW2, the pressure of war necessitated technological development in order for European powers to stay relevant. In contrast, a united China gave rise to a group of decadent and corrupt aristocracy, undergoing cycles of internal conflicts over and over again, until they exhausted themselves only for an external power to take advantage of the situation and conquer them (e.g. Mongol and Manchurian), not unlike the late Roman history.

[@joeyjojojrshabadoo7462]

I personally think the best time for a singluar "civilisation state" to develop would have been the Napoleonic era. After industrialisation global spaning imperial empires simply couldn't coexist on the continent.

[@NaviRyan]

I view their is philosophical differences especially militarily between Europe, and China even during the Roman rule. Which is that generals in Europe only get respect by waging war and securing the loyalty of their soldiers with war loot aka winning wars constantly. Meanwhile the most respected generals in China are the strategic masterminds able to use the vast resources of the empire to perform impossible feats. Essentially Europeans know war by doing it, where as China strategizes to contain/ Control war.

[@neroatlas9121]

I agree with your views to the letter, the constant pressure in europe motivated constant progress and advancement which led to europe advancing its technology and helped it catch up eventually, while china instead got all cozy and aristocratic resulting in it stagnating dispite initially being at the forefront in technological advancement.

[@bobjones2959]

@@neroatlas9121 It's honestly not that simple imo. There are any number of reasons why dynasties fall and they're not all interrelated. For instance, the Song dynasty, which fell to the Mongols, was economically and culturally powerful but militarily weaker than most Chinese dynasties that came before it. This was because the founder of the dynasty explicitly suppressed the military because he himself was a general who overthrew his emperor and was afraid of the same thing happening to him. Then in referring to the Ming, they were the ones who overthrew Mongol rule but were inspired by the Mongols to be more despotic and autocratic than traditional Chinese dynasties would've been. There's also the fact that significant technological knowledge was lost during the collapse of the Han dynasty which set China back who knows how long. And then there's the Qing who actually were complacent, but they also set China back in a lot of other ways, mostly in the way they pitted ethnicities within China against each other to maintain Manchu rule over the majority Han population. Some civilizational characteristic of "complacency" or whatever is simply way too simplistic to explain historical events and trends and honestly it reeks of orientalism imo.

[@urphakeandgey6308]

I also subscribe to the theory that the constant pressure of war in Europe was what drove a lot of its technological development. For much of history in that part of the world, you'd quickly be conquered by some neighbouring kingdom if you didn't keep up. Parts of Asia didn't have this and China often dominated the entire region to the point everyone was basically a subsidiary of China, so war was a bit less constant. Japan even has periods of history where basically nothing happens for a couple centuries because of isolationism and the fact that it isn't exactly easy to invade since it's an island and much further from the main continent than Britain. Nothing happening and being left alone for even a single century is just something you'd never see in much of European history. Japan only caught up technologically because they didn't want to fall behind the growing European powers as well as the fact some European powers actually helped them catch up.

[@kasrakhatir]

Everybody asks " What even is europe? " Nobody asks " *How* even is europe? "

[@Poctyk]

>How is Europe In its 4th recession in a decade, thank you for asking

[@Symphonicrockfran]

Eating bugs and going monke

[@ilicdjo]

" How long is europe?"

[@chico9805]

Nobody asks that question as if they did, it would lead to asking further questions that would dismantle their presuppositions and force them re-evaluate their beliefs. This is something people don't tend to do willingly.

[@Dr-Ekmek]

I’ll do you one better, *why* even is Europe?

[@elcyrano]

I'm Polish and I have to admit, I didn't expect Piłsudski in this video

[@koobapl]

I knew he imagined Poland as a Federation in which Baltics, Belarus, Ukraine etc. are part of, with very high level of autonomy. But I didn't really know there was more to it.

[@quoccuongtran724]

the last time i heard the concept of intermarium (3 seas) mentioned was in a caspian report geopolitics video no idea it was formulated by pilsudski though

[@Shadowguy456234]

Rzeczpospolita Polska wiesz!

[@orkun62431]

Unexpected Atatürk got me the same.

[@JmMateo933]

I read this comment the moment he mentioned him

[@austinquinn476]

As an American, I found it really funny that the Chinese guy thought of the United States as a European mistake. I wouldn't say that he is wrong in that the US was definitely a failed British colonial policy, but I love the imagery of the rest of the world shaking their heads at the US and looking askance at the UK and the UK is like "I did my best..."

[@LMB222]

One does not expect an unbiased opinion from a member of the nation that calls itself "the nation of the center" (zhong guo).

[@juliuskresnik198]

As someone from the UK, we do kinda look at you like that. Though, I doubt it's the same as what the Chinese guy was saying.

[@owentill]

@@juliuskresnik198 yeah same…

[@nathanseper8738]

@@LMB222 It sounds even more ridiculous because that Chinese person ignores both the failures of Qing and Maoist China.

[@kylehendon]

Well what I tell people the world is better off with us here than without.

[@chardaskie]

The idea of the French Leader and German Leader standing together at their probable bloodiest spot for both and holding hands is quite powerful

[@Arnie58]

I love the phrase "ukrainian uranium"

[@greyghost2492]

Try saying it three times as fast.

[@boarfaceswinejaw4516]

@@greyghost2492 Ugly-crane urinal

[@OrkosUA]

Ukrainium

[@thegreatestoctopus9739]

Uraine

[@randomuser5443]

@@greyghost2492 The second syllable for me is so hard, i think a frickative i do not know the term, its not too hard

[@bartoszambroziak1607]

It's is very good video and very informative, but I want to point out 2 small mistakes. 1. When you mention boder co conflict between Poland and Czechosloviakia. The region - Cieszyn Silesia was majority Polish, exept the most western parts, which is shown in every population census at that time, even the Czech ones. Also this co conflict was not about taking the whole area, but about where to put the border. 2. Józef Piłsudski was not leader of First Polish Republic, but the second one. It's because in polish oficial name of our country lack the term republic (pl. republika) but we use term Rzeczpospolita - direct translation of Latin respublica into polish. Because oficial name of Polish-Lithanian Commonwealth was Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów, we refer to interwar Polish state as Second Rzeczpospolita.

[@patapax7033]

Yeah, for 1. I can add that the contested area contained an important railroad junction connecting Prague and Moravia to Slovakia (one of the two existing at the time afaik), so it was an important strategic land for Czechoslovakia to obtain aside of the resource question. The capture of this junction was also given as a reason of the Polish annexation of the region in 1938 as it would, besides settling old disputes, improve Polish security in case of an invasion from the West.

[@TapOnX]

@@patapax7033 That went well

[@xenamorphwinner7931]

Does that translate as The Republic of Two Nations?

[@jakubjaworski1593]

@@xenamorphwinner7931 No, the direct translation of Rzeczpospolita is Republic, or Commonwealth. That's why the First Polish Republic is often referred to, as Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, or the Commonwealth of the Two Nations. The second one is commonly used in Poland (Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów)

[@xenamorphwinner7931]

@@jakubjaworski1593 Thanks

[@Shadowguy456234]

As an American in Switzerland (it happens) I would like to share a story. When I first came for my job interview the HR lady asked me why I wanted to move out there. My response was that I have wanted to live in Europe for a very long time. Her follow-up: "Then why do you want to come to Switzerland?" At the time I laughed it off, but after 4 years of living there and watching this video, I see her point. EDIT: Looking back, probably the best response would have been, "Well, it's a lot closer!" 😂

[@arturodiazcoca7408]

I don't understand the HR lady. Switzerland is in Europe...

[@RiverRina]

@@arturodiazcoca7408 Yes, but it's painfully neutral. Switzerland isn't in the Union, so it doesn't quite have the same benefits people would get from living in a country that is part of the EU. Pretty sure they also developed their culture completely differently from their neighbors, but that could be wrong

[@sneaky_krait7271]

@@RiverRina Painfully? Amazingly neutral

[@malithaw]

@@RiverRina what do you mean painfully lmao. They are the only sane ones who practice neutrality instead of warmongering because muh demucracy and europoor values are under threat lol.

[@viktator4205]

@@RiverRina I would not call it completely different by any means, though by a quirk of history they managed to build a state and fierce national identity without basing it on language or really anything more than their security interests having pulled them together into a confederation. This has made Switzerland an inspiration for European Federalists in the past.

[@johannesrauhamaa1179]

Nitpicking on a very small detail here: As a Finnish person, I have never heard anyone talk about a 1921 Soviet invasion of Finland. I'm guessing you're referring to the East Karelian uprising. This would be much better understood as a secessionist conflict of a region that was ethnically close to Finland but never really a part of Finland.

[@LMB222]

That's indeed a minor error, so is the comment on the (most shameful) war between Poland and Czechoslovakia. Respect to Kraut for the video nonetheless.

[@nielskorpel8860]

@@LMB222 How is kraut wrong about the war between Poland and Chechoslovakia? And why is the war most shameful to you?

[@sergokovaltsov3427]

What about Soviet-Finnish conflict of 1918-1920 prior to Karelia uprising, when RSFSR recognized independence of Finland and Fins after that recognized Bolsheviks government. But Finnish white movement initialized war for Karelia territories and got some (not Karelia) territories in the end after Tartu peace treaty. Can you refer about which invasion you're talking?

[@rotmistrzjanm8776]

@@nielskorpel8860 He depicted it as Poland's invasion on majority German-Czech region for resources. In reality it was Czech invasion on majority polish region. Why? Because one of two raillroads to Slovakia was there and Czech gov saw loosinng it as national threat (potential slovak rebelion or hungarian invasion would need to just take control of small piece of raillway to cut off half of the country)

[@CivilWarWeekByWeek]

Fuck I thought Europe was like Atlantis

[@FLAMM3NW3RF]

That's fair. They do both start with a b after all

[@MiSt3300]

Support the EU from Poland. As a Pole I want Russia to join the EU after they have a democracy and overthrow the dictator. I've always seen Russians as Europeans, and part of our family. I strongly believe that they can reform and lift the curse of fascism plaguing their country. The Germans did it, and so will the Russians.

[@cyantwo936]

Lol, lmao even. Wishful thinking

[@araqweyr]

Wow, just wow. As a Russian I've never expected to see a sentence like this. It's unexpected but definitely a welcomed one. I too would like to see Russia join EU after we overthrow the dictator and establish proper democracy.

[@Jobe-13]

The Good Ending

[@MiSt3300]

@@araqweyr Many people don't understand that regular Russians are actually also victims of Putin and his clique. They are robbed of their money and beaten for critisizing how things are run. I really sympathize with those who are clever enough to see it for what it is, and am sad for those who don't. I really wish your people can overthrow the thieves and mafia government, and join our European family, as a democratic nation with rule of law. Cheers from Poland, mate!

[@notpokorp948]

I don't think it will happen. Even if Russia becomes democratic, many EU countries will be against it. Russia will be a huge imbalance in a system that has been taking shape for a long time, no one will like it. But I would like Russia and Western countries to become allies. Who knows, maybe in the future we will confront China together lol. Love and peace from Russia :)

[@wirelessgrapes2242]

First day of my Western History class in college, the teacher asked us "What is Europe", and proceeded to spend the next semester trying to give a good answer to that question

[@reecelongden3500]

And this is why the EU is doomed to failure. There is no unifying "European Identity". The only undeniably true definition of Europe is a geographic one.

[@nielskorpel8860]

And was the answer good?

[@FSPlata23]

A good answer to that question: "It's a continent". I hope this saves you another semester.

[@VMF-rj8qo]

​@@FSPlata23 In geography classes that affirmation would spark more discussion.

[@michaelimbesi2314]

As an American, you’re spot on the money about the European Union existing to prevent war. It’s one of the reasons that the US government has been fairly consistently pro-EU. Because WWI and WWII taught us that if Europe starts having a major war, the US will inevitably get dragged into it eventually. So anything that helps prevent another massive European land war is good for us too.

[@ruzicas.5819]

Ha its questonable. Until Nixon US were for EU, after him they realize EU could be a competitor to their economy and also an ally with its own will. Many problems exist in relationships between us. Look at the videos history of eu american ralations by TEPSA I think and another why are eu us relations broken

[@haplon33]

european wars gave america 50% of the world's resources in the 1950s lol. the population didn't like the wars but the ever expansionist govt sure did.

[@oldschoolpk]

@@haplon33 USA was a banana republic working in factories. Yes the population loved Post WW2

[@JamesJohnson-iq5wb]

America was never "forced" into any war. In the first world war, america wasn't willing to deal with the compromises that were imposed by a major european land war. They didn't want to limit trade and civilian movement between continents. The second world war was mainly a self-fulfilling prophecy imposed by US management of the situation in Asia. Both wars also had major anglophile factions that were very influential in the entry of America, especially in the first world war.

[@tf2godz]

I find the Chinese perspective on Europe fascinating, mostly on the view of Rome. That it was a stabilizing force that tragically failed rather than an imperial Empire of its time that had great achievements but also caused much suffering. "They made a desert, and called it peace." comes to mind. I think it shows reading history from another culture it's not necessarily correct to read it like your own history, history rhymes but it's not the same.

[@TheLivetuner]

As a Chinese, the way I interpret such infatuations we have for Rome stem from this: a powerful centralized state with a well maintained governing apparatus, strong army, influential high culture and language, evokes parallels to our first golden age, the Qin-Han dynasties. This lionized imagery of a strong dynasty ruled over by wise emperors is praised and alluded to not only in political pieces of later dynasties, but also ingrained into our historical and literary traditions, the Chinese utopia, in a sense.

[@khanhnguyen-tt3ff]

@@TheLivetuner lol I thought the ccp do alway with the mandate of heaven

[@tf2godz]

@@TheLivetuner There was that feeling of nostalgia for the Roman Empire as well but as time has gone on sympathy for it has lowered, as historians have been more critical of them. Particularly how their empire conquering mirrors European imperialism. Rome as a society is looked back on more critically as the years go on.

[@TheLivetuner]

@@khanhnguyen-tt3ff “The Mandate of Heaven” is a misleading English translation, as it was largely a secular idea represented using mystic language. It all comes down to honouring morality and political justification, there is really nothing religious about it in practice, thus the CCP isn't doing away with it entirely, just further eliminating whatever remains of the mysticism and the characteristic tied with dynastic structure.

[@Xalerdane]

@@TheLivetuner > “well maintained governing apparatus” Ehh…

[@ebbeb9827]

Europe is a unique chaotic union of countries that works surprisingly well

[@ZontarDow]

Well, it's easy to do that when all countries agree to screw over the people of their respective nations

[@januarysson5633]

It does? Haven’t noticed.

[@raphaelcavatoni1011]

« works » lmao

[@InsTance888]

Cut the loose nut Orban and it'll work as new again.

[@papito8273]

@@raphaelcavatoni1011 It does amazing work lol

[@SpanishDio]

This was ridiculously EXCELLENT! I would literally die if you made a long video about "WHY" European Imperialism changed the rest of the world

[@andresmartinezramos7513]

Pero si es el mismísimo Dio

[@TheMentorOfMomos]

MI DIOS DIO Me encantó tu serie del mod de The New Order, hay posibilidad de volver? 🥺

[@theflaneur__]

Quite simply, one of the best descriptions of post-Imperial Europe that I've ever read or even seen. Fantastic work.

[@parkerstroh6586]

krauts a bloody smart cookie i swear

[@janpuchyr1233]

As a Czech allow me to point out a few things: 1. The Slovak language would only fully form in the 19th century while there was an ongoing debate whether it was a dialect of Czech or its own separate language. But it had been deemed that the Slovaks are in fact a distinct nation with a distinct language decades before the Austro-Hungarian empire's collapse. 2. There were Slovaks such as Ján Kollár who saw unity with Czechs as a bridge towards a pan-Slavic solidarity which in turn was a bridge towards global humanism. 3. Slovaks were deemed to be unable to defend their own independence from Hungary, making Czechoslovakia itself a practical necessity more than anything else. 4. The idea of "Czechoslovakism" was then put forward for a specific purpose which was to outnumber the more than 3 million Germans living on the Czech territory. That's why it never appeared again after WWII, since almost all of the Germans got deported as part of the post-war settlement.

[@tomasvrabec1845]

You know... I wonder about this. Slovak language was pretty much unified due to Štúr in the 19th century when he Used the central Slovak dialect as the bench mark. However even to this day you can see a gradient from west of Cz to its east... And then from west of SK to its east. Where the regions between the two seem to overlap a little. Thus my idea here is this... If Slovak were not have been reformed by Štúr and the 3 Slovak dialects had remained intact... Would this gradient from Czech Republic to Slovakia be more obvious? After all Moravian Czech is easier and more akin to Slovak than bohemian one, and the region of Moravia called Slovacko is even more similar... Almost like a true blend sometimes. So.. in Theory... If this reform didn't happen and if Slovak dialects weren't diminished the Hungarian influence (which was part of the alarm for Štúr) .... Would czechoslovakia and the idea of Czechoslovak national unity be stronger and more possible? After all a level unity or at least strong Kinship/brotherhood was always there since Great Moravia really.

[@slXD100]

I have no idea about slovak/czech relations so I will not spew nonsense, but I do know enough that his comparison with serbia/montenegro is so off, it cannot even be taken seriously. there are so many issues with this video and obvious as well as not so obvious reasons how everything happened the way it happened, a lot of things simplified, biased/ignorant perspective, people really should put their noses in some history books instead of watching frauds like Kraut. there are many like him, I guess it's an overall internet phenomenon.. no wonder people don't know sh1t about history and claim a lot of things that could not be further from the truth. cheers

[@koobapl]

Czech an Slovak sound very distinct to me as a Pole. I understand Slovaks fairly well, and Czech not so much. So for me it feels like those are clearly separate languages. As for your pint 2. Piłsudski wished Czechoslovakia as a part of his pan-Slavic federation so those seems to be convergent views between him and Kollár

[@rowingodwinson6250]

přesně tak

[@squidwardtentacles244]

You are the only youtuber I have ever seen that has given Turks credit for anything other than military accomplishments. Thank you.

[@feastguy101]

Ataturk was one of the great men of the 20th century. A pity so few pay more attention to his achievements.

[@viysnjor4811]

@@feastguy101 It's probably because Turkey before Ataturk and now after Ataturk is just another middle eastern (culturally) authoritarian theocracy, so the genius that was Ataturk often gets forgotten sandwiched between those periods.

[@Devillunar]

@@viysnjor4811 Middle Eastern Theocracy... Erdoğan uses religion for politics. But Turkey is still a secular country. And trust me when I say this, the removal of secularism from the constitution would create a popular uprising. Same with the Kemalist ideology, Atatürk is pretty much still respected in Turkey (Even in the majority of Erdoğan supporters for some reason). What Turkey is experiencing is the possible future for Poland and Hungary. And they are not middle eastern last time I checked. Erdoğan's advantage is that he started earlier to corrupt the supreme court and military and has a much tighter grip to those than PiS or Orban currently has. You can say that we don't have an European culture. Sure. But we are not Arabs as well. The inclusion of Turkey to the Middle Eastern countries does not have any valid reason.

[@IntrusiveThot420]

Ah man the ataturk/turkey videos on this channel are so good. Literally "what if all the american founding fathers were fused into ONE PERSON" and BAM you have Ataturk

[@viysnjor4811]

@@Devillunar I understand the difference between Turks and Arabs, but Middle Eastern does not default to "Arab" either, anymore than saying a country has a "European" culture means they are Germanic. The issue is that modern Turkey has nothing in common with European nations, and instead far more in common with Middle Eastern ones (or Belorus/Russia) since Erdogan is an increasingly religious presidente-for-life type of figure.

[@citrus7487]

Props to you for putting Atatürk in an objective light, and not be heavily skewed like how generally people see him. If Turkey has any differences from other Middle Eastern nations, it's all thanks to his work be it 20% economic growth rates or dramatically increasing the literacy rate of the country by introducing Latin letters. Granting workers and women rights as well.

[@RandomGuy-df1oy]

Turkish view and practice of religion was always different from the other Middle Eastern nations. That helped Atatürk to accomplish his ambitions.

[@REDnBLACKnRED]

@@RandomGuy-df1oy Ottoman Empire itself was not the most heavy handed with religion because it was a multiethnic empire with several religious groups and practitioners. Modern day Turkey being the centre of power under the Ottomas, and the direct offspring of the empire, it also inherited this relatively liberal temperament.

[@lucasking4212]

A game theory observation; the importance of the rituals that kraut talks about is that they build trust and thereby make reciprocity possible. This makes it possible for national cooperation to become a positive sum game, which it seems the influence sphere/ imperialist view fails to recognise and consequently missed out on

[@RavignonCh]

This was very good! It's actually the best liberal response to realism from the European point of view - the fact that you can create what in our language is a Great Power which's rational self interest is internal cooperation. Now, it remains to be seen if countries will actually move in this direction (and there are reasons to doubt it, mainly that individual members would need to surrender various form of self interest), but if successful, a cooperative model could pretty much, as you put it, be the "death of Empire." It's a very ambitious project but if it succeeds it would be a very good thing.

[@Kamfrenchie]

Honestly i would never agree to such a thing as Frenchman, it would pretty much be the death of France as i want it to exist

[@zerologic7912]

It would only be the death of sovereign empire. Capital is very much an empire in its own right, but of a much different and ultimately more powerful kind.

[@frankwitte1022]

In many ways the EU represents the best attempt, so far, at bringing about the "Death of Empire" and it is interesting to note that the two countries most struggling with this in the past two decades, Hungary and the UK, are either (Hungary) shouting a lot but never really putting their money where their mouth is, or (UK) putting their money where their mouth was and finding out within the last few years what a stupidity that was while now facing a situation they'd prefer to undo but that can't be undone (internally or externally) as easily as it was to leave the EU. The UK experiencing that a modern-day Ireland backed by its EU siblings is in many ways more influential, and more ... 'sovereign', than a post-imperial UK on its own was very educational.

[@chico9805]

@@frankwitte1022 Leaving the sinking ship that is the EU was certainly the right choice. The problem is, the political and financial elite who control the UK do not agree, and made sure to sabotage the exit process. This can be seen from the flailing ineffectiveness of every administration, post-Cameron, in actually implementing Brexit. Leaving was not a mistake, entrusting the process to those who have all the incentive to stay was.

[@Quickshot0]

@@zerologic7912 I think it's best to not confuse and confound matters by mixing them, it only makes finding solutions harder in the end. What I mean in this is, is that the argument that the EU seems like one of current best efforts against one of the elements of empire. That other elements exist should not stand against this, if one can't take step forwards then how would one ever reach the goal after all? Beyond that it's probably important to always keep in mind what capital really is and is really about. It's not about empire in the end after all, instead it is about the gathering of resources so one can do larger projects with it, be these factories, canals, railways, social services, etc. All of these require more 'capital' in the most abstract real meaning of the word then any single person can gather. But in the end this just means you need to be able to gather resources for larger projects as well, it says nothing about how such should be gathered, used or controlled. There's no rule a single individual must control it after all, many alternate forms exist like quite large non-profit organizations that say run a theme park quite successfully. I suspect it is examples like these that might help in your apparent goals to escape what happens when enormous amounts of capital are controlled by but a single person. Though I'll admit I'm guessing at your goals and all there, so I can but hope it is of some help for you.

[@noecarrier5035]

That Piłsudski fellow had a fantastically impressive moustache, didn't he?

[@LeoFreitasUBGE]

As a Brazilian, i really hope Mercosul can properly develop.

[@Segregacionista]

no, these unions between Hispanic-Americans and Portuguese-Americans always end up with Brazil having to have the external responsibility of a Germany without German resources, in the end this MercoSul only means that we have to support the socialist dictatorship of South America and throw the our people in the hole, we should put all these projects, especially peso-real far away from here

[@joao.fenix1473]

I hope not. As a Brazilian

[@sabianaum7263]

@@joao.fenix1473 why not?

[@armandoventura9043]

​​@@sabianaum7263 because policies between South American countries are quite erratic and tend to change a lot between governments That is why the Central American countries and Mexico end up revolving in the orbit of influence of the US or China, because South America is too unstable

[@andevien2542]

@@armandoventura9043it is not like Europa was that much stable at that time. This kind of political projects require decades, maybe generations, it is a long process but not at all impossible. You must start from somewhere, Latin America has to stop to be the puppet of some imperialistic narcissistic nation.

[@meganegan5992]

I think it is also worth pointing out that the United States, while being an Empire, is also kind of a case of political cooperation between groups towrds a common goal: the United States is not just a branding thing, and that while the Federal government has a lot of power, we have a lot of individual states within us that have more power than is sometimes acknowledged.

[@benismann]

yea so how did germans or how do mexicans feel in ur notanempire

[@kingace6186]

Especially when you consider Alaska and Hawaii + every other territory, including D.C.

[@kingace6186]

Additionally, the United States's international relations position works as a formwork of cooperation for North America. In true Monroe Fashion, this network of cooperation extends towards the Pacific with Guam, A. Samoa, Japan, S. Korea, Taiwan -- plus the 'Indo-Pacific Economic Framework'.

[@harpunonosy1232]

​@@benismann ńáźì alert

[@goldenbrigain7031]

@@benismann ignored. The Mexicans have been ignored, and for the foreseeable future, that's how they'll stay

[@donovan5656]

Thanks for explaining France's unique position in the union. I keep hearing geopolitical analysts talk about France as an outlier but never understood why until now.

[@Croz89]

I think it was partly because the UK was the big outlier (but for slightly different reasons) until they left. Now the spotlight turns on France.

[@celestialorb1680]

France is one of the only European nations to have a large-scale military presence in Africa in fact if I remember correctly France only just recently withdrawn a majority of military units in Mali.

[@jgw9990]

@@celestialorb1680 France has continued to practice neo colonialism to this day. When Britain and France decolonised, France forced the newly formed countries into subservient contracts. This was most successful in Africa and is why France continues to interfere there.

[@ommsterlitz1805]

@@jgw9990 France buy there ressources instead of China or Russia, it's France who give these ressources value as they will never use them if France stop buying ressources in Africa by making nuclear fusion in the 2050's the locals won't start building nuclear reactors the next day it's a win win situation both for France, the EU and African countries.

[@jgw9990]

@@ommsterlitz1805 I think your African thralls might disagree

[@SamAronow]

Is it common in European education to overlook the bloodshed of the Interwar Period? The California educational system of the mid-2000s that I learned modern history in very strongly emphasized that the Interwar conflicts were nothing less than a run-up to World War II. It was an explosion of nation-states but was never characterized as a golden age of anything. Except maybe silent expressionism.

[@eldonad]

From my own experience (French public education), we are mainly taught about the post WW1 trauma and the rise of totalitarian nations, not much else. In general Eastern Europe history is barely touched upon. I'm assuming nationalists took their vision of a golden age of sovereign state from their own bottom, altough I'm far from knowlegable on their rethoric.

[@ferragus6737]

Yup at least in western Europe as far as I know, we tend to overlook anything that happened east of Germany tbh

[@cerdic6305]

It would be hard to generalise about "European education" because every European country has a completely separate education system. For me personally as a Brit, it wasn't discussed much if at all even though I studied history, but that's only because my history course didn't cover that period. Also your channel is incredibly good, easily one of the best history channels on the website especially given how little attention the topics you cover get elsewhere.

[@Am0nknight1234]

In the Netherlands, we tend to focus on our own history and those of our close neighbours. It's mostly about being scared shitless about what was happening during WWI and to mostly zoom in on all the factors that led to the NSDAP claiming power post-WWI and then WWII, the occupation and a few other events. We were taught nothing about the Interwar Period in Eastern Europe.

[@wederMaxim]

В России мы это проходим просто потому что это настолько нас касалось что это невозможно упускать. Жаль только что все больше и больше в наших учебниках оправдывают белогвардейцев.

[@optimusprime4750]

任何一个民族和国家 真正开始进化的时刻 并不是他们喋喋不休的宣扬自己相比于别人的优越性的时候 而是他们开始自嘲 开始发现并承认自己的错误 自己民族的劣根性 并且为此做出改正的努力的时刻

[@davidperin9938]

As an American dealing with a nationalist right wing refusing to acknowledge that America has become a backwards place. And in order to remedy that backwardness we must embrace European social democracy.

[@khai96x]

> be Chinese > open an English video > write a comment in Chinese > refuse to provide translation > leave

[@rizkyadiyanto7922]

@@davidperin9938 almost every nationalist/right wing american i know thinks america is declining.

[@davidperin9938]

@@rizkyadiyanto7922 here is the problem they refuse to acknowledge why it is declining. I.e allowing a massive rich poor divide that concentrates the vast majority of the wealth in the top 10 percent. Leading to an erosion of the power of the people to influence politics.

[@raiisleep]

@@khai96x >Be Chinese > Open an English video >Write a comment in Chinese even though I speak English because otherwise why would I watch an English video >Provide no translation >Leave

[@rfgnmf-nmesofuehsdjfnrmeowfsdz]

From the beginning of this video I kept thinking about Piłsudski it really shows the amount of work you put into your videos

[@GMolen91]

As a Georgian, I want to thank you for your wonderful channel and encourage you to continue portraying Georgia as a European nation (and a part of European history), which is critical for Georgians' self-perception.

[@rafanadir6958]

Why?

[@feastguy101]

From Portugal, I can tell you that I’ve always seen Georgians to be Europeans as a matter of course. Our maps show the Caucasus countries as being in Europe, and what I’ve seen of Georgia points to it being an European nation in all aspects. Can’t say the same of Russia. My opinion of Russia was never very positive, but it completely nosedived after their invasion of Georgia. Further history as only confirmed that negative view. My best wishes for Georgia, and my hope that you will eventually be able to liberate the unredeemed portions of your territory that were cut of you at gunpoint by the machinations of an evil imperial power.

[@Quickshot0]

It seems pretty obvious to me that Georgia should be considered European. But I guess when one is out near the edges of what is politically considered the European continent one might at times feel a bit less certain if everyone further towards the center actually agrees. Best of luck to Georgia though, it's certainly not in the easiest of positions right now, hopefully it can handle it all with out to much trouble.

[@MrGrizzly487]

@@feastguy101 I agree that Georgians are Europeans and while I'm not a fan of Russian aggression, that does not make their people non-European. Also let's not pretend that Georgia was some pure innocent victim, Abkhazians have a right to self-determination, their people have gone through enough suffering by Russian and Turkish empires, they don't need Georgian colonisation. Though I will say I am mixed on South Ossetia, Not trying to start a fight, just saying that too many rush to hate Russia blindly and anyone associated with them, but it's far more common that Russia uses people in difficult situation. Look at Armenians, Russia has them trapped, with Turkey and Azerbaijan constantly lobbying the EU and US if Armenia leaves the Russian sphere they will be isolated and possibly annihilated by an increasingly aggressive Aliyev regime. So yes Russia is an imperial power that cut that land away from Georgia, but blindly giving it back to Georgia in a heartbeat would not make the conflict that Abkhazians and Ossetians have with the central Georgian government go away, and Tbilisi to this day has shown no interest in any dialogue or appeasement. Important to remember that Stalin, who was a Georgian, ended the Abkhazian Soviet Socialist Republic and forced it to be a part of Georgia as an "autonomous" republic.

[@MeanMachine1992]

​@@feastguy101 "Caucasus countries" were either part of Iran, Turkey or Russia for more than a thousand years. To say they are a part of Europe is to tacitly claim Iran and Turkey are European countries, which is a laughable claim.

[@snipesu8328]

As an American, I have always had a very vague understanding of the European Union, but always wondered at (and got confused when trying to learn) anything more about it. As per usual, Kraut has managed to make a detailed and yet comprehensive video that has established a basic premise of the topic without shoehorning in too much personal opinion, and in turn, has made it significantly easier to understand. More excellent work from an excellent creator.

[@monkeyseatcatfood]

Completely agree with you. I also really liked that @Kraut explained the historical development of the EU, I was very important (and necessary) for a silly American like myself.

[@MIKE_THE_BRUMMIE]

@@monkeyseatcatfood He negates to mention the fact that unfettered immigration has led to brexit also, due to massive increases in terrorism, grape and murder on our streets not to mention the pushing of Islamic culture across our nation.

[@thexdatabase]

its a goverment for goverments

[@tedcrilly46]

Basically a gang. theres big China over here, and big USA over there. and some big powerful corporations creeping around. and russia is drunk again. im small, youre small, we're all small, so lets form up into one big force. so nobody can fck with us. and thats the eu. then suddenly .... ' yes but i deserve two slices of cake 🍰 because im Britain and im better than everyone and if you don't give me my two slices ill leave, theres probably more, and better cake outside anyway' - CLUNK. Adios. and that was brexit.

[@Alexander-cg1ey]

It's okay, our education system sucks. We should've taught this in HS

[@milvilleromain57]

I usually like your content but there are things bugging me here : - UK not being a nation state but an empire is a weird take. What made France a nation state and not an empire then ? - the position you have on France is kind of demonising. In what way is France nei colonising Africa? I don't mean to say they aren't but there are things to discuss : - the argument about the entry of Urkaine in the EU is irrelevant. First because other countries also are reluctant to let them enter, Germany for example. Second, yes policies on agriculture would be turned on their head with Ukraine entry. Saying that France should accept cheap uranium for the end of its agricultural sector is ignoring the lives of the farmers that would lose their jobs (lives that are already difficult). If you think in term of military presence in Africa, it was required in 2013 by Mali but was extended to several countries in the subsaharan region. It should be noted to say that a military presence in this region contribute to European security. France and Britain being the only two countries with expeditionary forces in Europe, it's no wonder why it's France there considering the special relation it has with its former colonies. May I had France left Mali after their demand but the few troops of Germany there will stay until 2024 despote what is wanted by Mali. About Uranium, some number on uranium origins for various uranium importées around the world would have been nice to make a point of comparison. If Niger Uranium is that cheap and only needs to travel half the distance of Canada to France, why France buy 50% from Canada ? I could mention other countries that slow European integrations : - Ireland and Netherlands act as tax heaven in the EU, sucking tax revenues from other countries - Doesn't spain have a special relationship with South American countries ? In what way does it not slow the EU to advance then ? - didn't Germany slow EU progression by being thus dependent to Russian gas ? Didn't it help them stay ahead in term of industry/economy and helped them leverage their power in the EU ? Is Germany afraid to lose its leadership to France in the EU now that there is no Russian gas anymore and that UK left ? I have never heard that argument about the relation between France and Africa slowing down EU integration, but it makes not a lot of sense to me as I can point a lot of other reasons about other countries that seem more reasonable and grounded

[@Whatshisname346]

I agree totally on the France issue, I think it’s a red herring when many other EU states are drags on greater integration. But I have to differ on the UK which is still an Empire. Ask an English person and they won’t see one but go to Wales and especially Scotland and Northern Ireland and you’ll probably find a large minority/majority who consider themselves attached to an empire against their democratic will. To have separatism in such close proximity to the seat of power is quite destabilizing and the English will have to find a way to peacefully deal with this before their empire disintegrates entirely. The EU was a good sticking plaster on that separatism but now it’s gone the pull will only get greater. This is simply not an issue in France where separatism is a very minor issue in most of mainland France and one defeated by economic necessity in its colonies and Corsica.

[@popkhorne5372]

His numbers about Uranium furnishers for France are completely false. Canada accounts for only a small fraction of france's uranium, Niger is at 17 %, and Khazakstan is the n1 furnisher, a bit a ahead of Niger and Uzbekistan.

[@fireandblood8142]

Je sais pas si t'es Français but you're absolutely right, I was thinking of making a comment but then I saw yours so thanks

[@picalc314]

it's interesting how that chinese viewer looks at the EU positively as a multipolar middle ground in between the US and China, when I know many Americans who view the EU positively in a similar manner but in the exact opposite direction, with the EU being an American aligned power with its democratic values.

[@unofficial_computer]

"Before I explain the history of the EU, enjoy today's sponsor, a wargame."

[@pfefferle74]

Like taking sponsorship from KFC in a video about veganism.

[@PakBallandSami]

"Europeans can meet the challenges of the coming century only by pooling their efforts. We are convinced that what they need is one Europe - peaceful and democratic, a Europe that maintains all its diversity and common humanistic ideas, a prosperous Europe that extends its hand to the rest of the world. A Europe that confidently advances into the future." ---Mikhail Gorbachev

[@MaticTheProto]

He’s correct.

[@MrMarinus18]

Indeed and I think what we need to do above all is avoid nihilism. Europe is not perfect and has many, many problems to work out that won't be easy to resolve. However we need to keep our trust in the EU and that if we all work hard we can resolve these conflicts. That for every problem there is a solution and if there isn't we can find a way to work around it or deal with it. The biggest threat to Europe is actually internal far right policies that threaten to tear the culture of cooperation apart. We shouldn't have delusions that it will be an easy thing or that no sacrifices will be needed. However we should keep the faith that we are all strong enough and wise enough to make it happen. Far right politics feed off of nihilism and that the only way to improve ourselves is to tear others down.

[@Gambit771]

So why didn't he back up his words by doing just that?

[@Gambit771]

@@MaticTheProto But never meant what he said.

[@Gambit771]

@@MrMarinus18 You trust the undemocratic eu? especially after the last few weeks?

[@studmuffinthuglife]

Wondetful video ! Your content is always appreciated and I just am so happy to see your channel shared. Question, how can France ever give up its influence? There's just no way I feel it would or could do that.

[@talete7712]

I don't think it's really that necessary for France to give up its influence. He made it seem like the influence that France has over other countries undermines European integration, but I disagree (I'm from Italy btw). The main two points of European integration, at least for me, are preventing any future major war inside Europe, which only makes European countries weaker, and allowing Europe to be autonomous on the global stage and not dependent on a giant country like the USA; I think that forcing a European country to give up every last bit of influence and strength they have on the global stage undermines that last objective, because it makes Europe even more irrelevant and powerless than it already is on the world stage.

[@volt_slovenija]

Thank you for another great video! Keep up the good work:)

[@maxpinchuk5245]

Man, this video is amazing. As a Ukrainian, I would definitely say, that the post-colonial future where Ukraine (and our bro Poland in no lesser sense) stop being the PVP zone for European/worldwide conflicts would be a nice change

[@meowerameowa6999]

Polish pvp is just hilarious

[@lena-trajkovic17]

I think that for a long time now, generally all slavic people have been the pvp zone for european/world wide conflitcs, the “europeans” have never likad us, we were always lower people, exploitable and living on land that was good for food, had its good resources and most importantly we have always been a border to Asia. Guarding Europe from Ottomans, Mongols and other invaders, and also preventing other europeans going to Asia. Also a unified tight connection between all slavic tribes was a big threat to them, as we are great in numbers and surface area, even before Russia expanded so far east. Sadly i don’t think we will ever get our peace

[@bigczad9869]

Thats the dream brother

[@MrMarinus18]

With Poland though I'm more worried about it taking over Russia's role as the imperial power of the region and starts to compete with Russia to dominate Ukraine. Democracy in Poland is starting to break down and the EU is not doing very well to correct it. I think Poland represents the modern EU better than any other member so integrating them is critical.

[@LMB222]

You - Ukrainians - have made it absolutely clear where you want to belong. No other nations paid with many lives for the wish to join the EU. It's shame on us that we didn't notice this, and act fast enough.

[@jakubhulanicki7101]

Fantastically clever and well-written video. One note at 18:30 : Piłsudzki was the leader of the Second Polish republic, not the first. The first would be what English speakers refer to as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The words "Commonwealth" and "Republic" are one and the same in Polish

[@tobi1314]

As a Colombian, We should be one block, from Rio Bravo to Patagonia, united and collaborative! Europeans showed the world that it is possible to ve together while independent

[@dannyboy-vtc5741]

Yeah i think that south american union would have much more sense than african union for example, and the big bonus would be the lgge that, at least foe the official ones are not as diverse as european or african ones, a lot of things would be much simpler and easier to do, and that union could wield some real power, but for that national countries, their elites would need to lose some power internally, that could be a problem, but overall it makes sense.

[@stalwartarjuna]

South American countries, however, suffer from grave political problems and instability dating back to decades - if not centuries - and until each individual country can solve those problems, a union of South American countries would be only like a dozen very sick men pretending they're one healthy person. Also, the effects of the Venezuelan diaspora show that in the event of a Schengen-like union of South America, the resulting displacement of people would be severely unequal and uncontrolled and it would destabilize more regions than it would improve. Besides, in many ways, the continent was already united - under the influence of Brazilian corporations, which for decades steered the domestic policies of entire Latin American countries and put in and removed government officials across the region as they pleased.

[@tobi1314]

@@stalwartarjuna True, just as Europe had too, for millennia even. Didn't stop them to get over them and change their ways. The difference between Europe and us is that we already know that it is possible and it works. So thanks, fellow Europeans, for being trailblazers!

[@LMB222]

Of course you should - but not under Colombia. Panama didn't like it.

[@dontreadmyprofilepic2124]

Estoy totalmente de acuerdo, pero los problemas politicos por los quales pasamos son muy grandes para permitir algo similar a la UE. Tenemos que cambiar mucho antes de todo eso

[@jgw9990]

Europe's division was a big reason it didn't stagnate like China did. Failing to evolve would mean your neighbour would defeat you. China was an evolutionary dead end pre-century of humiliation, they had no need to evolve and probably would have remained a pre industrial farming society. From this perspective, the EU means Europe has lost its greatest strength, the conflict which caused its evolution.

[@Royal-sp9pb]

Very thought-provoking comment, especially that last sentence. A rare perspective I've never heard before, and it might very well be true. Unity can certainly encourage stagnation and it might explain why the Romans rarely innovated after taking control of the Mediterranean.

[@ainzsama5101]

But in a more and more Globalised World there are new Rivals to be found

[@MasterGhostf]

@@Royal-sp9pb To me though I think we have to ask ourselves is stagnation really a bad thing. You cannot have infinite growth. You either gain more territory or can't keep up. But, the Earth is limited unless we go to space. But then we have the solar system. But what if we can't get past that? There will always be a roadblock to infinite growth. Is conflict really the solution? Like a phoenix die and rebirth? The peoples thousands of years ago no longer exist. There is no Sumerian, Hittite, or roman peoples left. There are a few Assyrians which is a miracle in of itself. The last old Europeans before Indo-Europeans are still alive in Basque. But, people die out and new people create new things. But, is that really good? Right now, in our globalized world we're seeing fewer individual cultures being relevant. more people try to emulate the west and learn English forgoing their native language. I don't know if thats a good thing. But, I think its something we need to discuss. Do we let conflict happen to let new ideas flourish and new people to emerge? Or do we embrace peace, globalization, stability, and stagnation and try to live with that.

[@cgt3704]

I love Europe as a romanian. Its a way for us to understand that we can win a lot more if we can cooperate instead of fighting one another as it has been the case for thousands of years. The EU isnt perfect however it has shown that it can still keep going despite the obstacles and crises.

[@Quickshot0]

Certainly isn't perfect, but it seems like a good idea and ideal to try and work on for now. Can't say I see much hope in the alternatives at least, none of those I've heard of seem to have nearly as much prospects to keep things peaceful and prosperous. If world peace could be achieved eventually via a method like this in time as well, one can but try at least I think.

[@schtreg9140]

As an Austrian, I agree. And I hate what my government did to you guys this year. Not fair.

[@stekra3159]

@@schtreg9140 Yes I agree thow we need to reform the eu in to a directly democratic leftist power house.

[@DerDop]

@@schtreg9140 No hard feelings, it's just politics, and you don't need to apologize. We retaliated and OMV profits were smashed by a tax introduced last week(Some billions) and Austrian banks are losing big. Austria did not win anything by doing this and lost a lot and it will continue to lose.. I mean, we have the biggest untapped oil and gas resources in the area, and until December you guys were the main partners in this win-win situation, and when I say win-win I am also speaking about bilateral high-level corruption.

[@cgt3704]

@@schtreg9140 this year. But hopefully it wont be the case the next year.

[@avet4952]

i love how portugal is having this back to back appearance at the very ends of the videos with their international ideas that i really hope aren't somehow linked to lusotropicalism

[@Jay_Johnson]

No I think it’s much more to do with geography. Like kraut pointed out in the Danube video there ought to be an EU cooperative block aiming to promote Atlantic trade with Portugal, Ireland, Iceland and the UK as they are separated from the Rhine, Danube, Baltic and Mediterranean regions.

[@Maia_Cyclist]

Portugal is a periferic country in the European settings so we tend to look to the oceans and trade there. Sure it's easy with the Portuguese speaking countries but we tend to keep past trade partners (India, Indonesia, Japan, etc) to promote peace and trade. Lusotropicalismo was a last effort to make the Portuguese empire survive past the ww2 and cold war

[@avet4952]

@@Maia_Cyclist As a whole, I agree. Its moreso I worry about some general attitudes alot of people have in our country

[@Maia_Cyclist]

@@avet4952 it's discontent with the politics and a lack of connection between the general public and political parties. Check partys like Volt Portugal IL or Livre more modern than the tradicional and not so extreme

[@ziadmaatouk1026]

Yet another banger. I love watching your videos Kraut, keep it up!

[@hubertdurajczyk-kosseski6726]

Great video as always. Keep up the good work. I think the topic of french neocolonial empire is so interesting that it would be great if you could make video about it.

[@The88Cheat]

The perspective of the Chinese viewer was SUPER interesting. I'd never thought about history like that.

[@Lobsterwithinternet]

That's because you're not Chinese. It's like an American viewing European history from an American perspective or an Inuit viewing Chinese history from their perspective.

[@worstedwoolens]

The Warring States/Spring and Autumn periods are a massive element of the Chinese cultural myth. The narrative goes that the major Chinese project of the first millennium B.C. was in finding a common bedrock. The Han identity and the Confucian societal model are seen as the legacy of that effort, and they're the reason China is such an anti-fragile entity today: China cares first and foremost about its own unity and security. You can see the same attitude in their modern "assimilation projects" in Tibet and Xinjiang, with those regions being deemed of paramount geopolitical importance to Han security. That's why they're willing to risk the bad PR that comes with cultural genocide these days.

[@erikziak1249]

We all can learn a lot if we are willing to listen to each other.

[@Boretheory]

@@Lobsterwithinternetexcept i as an italian and most of my friends in the classic classes think it this way

[@viktator4205]

@@Boretheory Yeah most people, especially people politically apathetic or not all that interested in history, don't tend to think this way, but plenty of people DO think this way about the Roman Empire, and Europeans themselves have thought about Europe this way probably from the fall of Rome. Charlemagne had a whole restoration of Rome in the West going on precisely because there was a desire for that. The Roman Church has attempted to keep the fragmented Europe under it united as much as it could too. The Renaissance really brought back nostalgia for antiquity as well. The more anti-imperial peace and unity idea is comparatively much newer, maybe only 500 or 600 years, only really taking off in the last 300, compared to the imperial peace which has existed since Rome and was still present as a motivation in the Napoleonic Wars.

[@slagmaxxing]

Really like this video. How the European project evolves is going to be rather interesting. Hopefully it is something that adapts & becomes a framework for other regions to consider.

[@benmcgrath3175]

have you even watched yet lol

[@willb_177]

@@benmcgrath3175 its from 9 days ago bro

[@willb_177]

idk how it happened but yeah ig this video is 9 days old??

[@patarboy]

@@willb_177 It's called early access :)

[@Wizzy88]

It's going to evolve into a mixed-race united states of Europe. Just like the founder Kalergi intended.

[@RTAvakian]

Perfect timing in the visual editing... And great argumentation! 11:37 Is a powerful statement accented by a hell of a good example.

[@samuelbrown4329]

Hi! Huge fan! As a Canadian I feel both our economy and politics are deeply interwoven with that of the United States. I think because I never got to learn much about the EU. I am fascinated by the prospect of more political cooperation from nations especially in Europe. Will you be doing any videos involving Canada? Recently, we seem very divided here politically in Canada and COVID seemed to make it worse. The trucker convoys and the pm evocation of emergency powers caught me off guard and I would very much like to here your opinion on what is transpiring here in Canada.

[@adamz7038]

Love Canada from PL

[@caiwilliams2905]

It won't happen, but I lowkey want Canada to join the EU. And to stop its mining companies being such dicks to the latin American/African nations who should otherwise be its allies. Because that would be a way for Canada to buy into a post-imperial world, and create levarage for itself against the US. The irony of this is that Canada is an empire, which still denies sovereignty to the Indigenous peoples within its borders, and fails to uphold the treaties. However the EU contains similar ironies, both with respect to Romani people who barely exist in the European imagination, and to national minorities within national borders (France, Spain, and the UK while it was still a member are still empires even without overseas colonies).

[@randomuser5443]

Southern neighbor here, florida man to be exact, he has a friend who is going over Canadian history. I think in his mexico series he links to the channel making it

[@myself2noone]

The issue with Canada is 9 times out of 10 it's the same story as The United States. But like 30% smugger.

[@icemysta30]

@@caiwilliams2905 somewhat tangent to the subject matter, but what would sovereignty of indigenous peoples in Canada look like in practice ? And why do you think that hasn't happened yet? I'm a leaf too btw

[@easy_eight2810]

To me, Europe is a place I'm too poor to travel to but admires every single bit of it

[@crazydinosaur8945]

so the EU is to you, what Norway is to me im danish

[@4ren64]

the East isnt that expensive tbh

[@easy_eight2810]

@@4ren64 The flight ticket prices are already enough to put me in debt

[@noahthenorthern174]

@@crazydinosaur8945 Hvo intet vover, intet vinder!

[@crazydinosaur8945]

@@noahthenorthern174 og intet taber

[@second2none914]

“The worst thing that ever happened to west Africa was the fall of the *Malian* empire.” I’ve often thought that a similar argument to the one made at the start about Rome could also be made about the west African region and the Malian empire.

[@scarletkingdom2359]

Where he say that

[@eliasstenman3710]

I think you could also make the case for the Songhai empire to have that role.

[@baha3alshamari152]

The fall of Rome was good for Europe tho

[@exaggeratedswaggerofablackteen]

Why though ?

[@second2none914]

@@eliasstenman3710 I see your point but in my mind Songhai is to Mali as Byzantium is to Rome. Some may disagree but I still view mail as being at the core and height of the Sehalian and west African imperial system.

[@Teh0ne4nd0nly]

Amazing content as always. Keep it up

[@kimisutra5730]

I swear Kraut has been reading my university thesis 😂 First European regionalism and now Intermarium! Love it!

[@maxkennedy8075]

As someone who’s first major political involvement was Brexit some grand RETVRN TO EMPIRE was absolutely not what drove people to vote leave. The only people claiming that were schitzos and remainers insisting that the Leavers wanted that. What got people’s back up more than anything was first the closed off clique of politicians commission that made all the laws that would be voted on and contained some very unpopular figures (unpopular in both Europe and the UK, if Von der Linde being burnt in effigy by the Bunderswehr was anything to go by) and the wasteful way certain things in the EU were done Then being fobbed off in negotiations by an EU that didn’t understand that Brexit was a large political movement (with most political parties promising a referendum as a major vote winner) confirmed in many people’s minds the EU wasn’t willing to change or take genuine anger at the situation seriously. Anyone but British people having legislative power of the UK was always going to be a hard sell. The UK also saw the EU’s movement towards centralised control as little more than an attempt to make the USA EU style since no one could propose legislation outside the commission I really think the EU would be better off not trying to become the centralised primary legislature of the nation states of Europe, its going to lead to more resentment. Cos if the EU fucks anything up (looking at you delayed vaccine rollout that took months to get a contract with its myriad phama companies) the entire project takes a massive hit

[@nico210]

Hello. There might be a hiatus between the nature of the Brexit debate, whiwch is the way the Brexiteers presented it to the population, and their own ideas and objectives. In essence (and that's also illustrated) by your post, it shifted attention on everything but oneselves. When you do that, all of the above in your post seems pointless.

[@maxkennedy8075]

@@nico210 Your post is incoherent What does that even mean “shifting attention from oneself” (I assume you mean brexiteer which isn’t true). This is a debate not about brexiteers but about the EU. The EU’s actions and inactions were central to the leave vote regardless about your feeling on the matter. With the referendum being that close I really think a more responsive EU actually willing to do take certain demands seriously would have made the difference

[@nico210]

@@maxkennedy8075 My post was a response to your post and your post was about the Brexit(eers), not about the EU. You think your post was about the EU, my answer is that it's only about the delusions and myths about the EU and Britain propagated during the referedum debate. Basically imaginary Britain vs a imaginary EU, and a way not to look properly in the mirror. Which part is not coherent?

[@Ekollie]

Props to the animator during the section detailing Piłsudski. Buttery smooth, clever use of negative space, and aesthetically pleasing to watch

[@andresjg6]

Commenting for the algorithm. Absolutely ,that animation was a joy to watch.

[@gabfelippi]

thanks for this comment, i almost fell of the chair because this part of the video was so delightful to watch i had to pause and take a long breathe.

[@orktv4673]

This might just be one of the most important contemporary political videos I've seen this year.

[@everythingwithashton5876]

My favorite joke about the UN is by the onion. I can remember it’s direct quote but it goes like: “UN increases training of peace soldiers to properly watch Genocides”

[@spectacles-dm]

Wow, what perfect timing! We just did a video on the empty chair crisis which was a really formative experience for modern Europe. Great video as usual!

[@nemolalilulelo5251]

I have the impression that France is not only using its African sphere of influence to increase its power in the EU, but is also using the EU to strengthen its African sphere of influence. The EU also has increasing centralist tendencies. If centralism in the EU prevails, the EU will become an instrument of imperial politics. For example, 40% of EU citizens could outvote the remianing 60% (this is how elections typically look) and send the future EU army to Africa.

[@Kraut_the_Parrot]

You hit on something that I cut out of the video to finish it faster. It is in fact a valid political concern in modern Europe. Spanish, German, Dutch, and Belgian troops, assisted France in its military mission in Mali. An assistance that was granted due to French influence over both Africa and political influence in the E.U. And it raises an issue that should be discussed: Should European troops fight the wars of a singular European state? In particular, if these wars are not even defensive?

[@Ruiseal]

Could you explain how 40% of eu citizens could out vote 60%, from my understanding that could only happen under the electoral system like first past the post which i think the uk is the only one in europe to use.

[@angelotufano9159]

That is not a thing that could happen given the European parliament elects its members proportionally

[@barmybarmecide5390]

@@Kraut_the_Parrot well, it was also because intervention in Mali had overwhelming public and political support in both Europe and across West Africa. The immediate success of the intervention was undermined by Mali overthrowing her own government (with the benefit of hindsight it's clear that Wagner were involved earlier than previously thought), but the fact remains that all of France's African allies, including the Malian government, and European participants in the intervention, had popular support across the board.

[@GOBFBC2]

@@angelotufano9159 It doesnt quite elect proportionally. Smaller countries generally have more representatives pr. voter as a way to keep the EUP from becoming dominated by the countries with the largest populations in Europe. I assume this is what is being refered to.

[@commandertex4389]

As an American I had the same idea as the Chinese viewer that the European union was an attempt to gain enough collective political power to create a European sphere of influence to compete with America and China spheres of influence. i guess its more a framework to get separate nation states to work together. I hope that the system does spread more and nation states are going to work together better

[@pauls6425]

I do too. This is the Realist worldview. Keep in mind that this is Kraut presenting his Liberal worldview (Liberal in the context of international affairs, not Liberal as in the free market or LGBT rights). I still recognise that it is a good alternative way of seeing things, but the Liberal theory is a bit flimsy atm.

[@talete7712]

Keep in mind that this is his way of seeing it, his point of view, but that's not necessarily what "the EU is about" according to everyone. I'm European (from Italy) and I view the EU as a way for Europe to gain collective political influence to stand its ground against giant countries like India, China and the US, and I hope for this reason that Europe will follow the path of integration and unity in the future, and so do many other European people too. To just dismiss the EU as "nations cooperating" seems unfair to me because it ignores European institutions such as the European Parliament, directly elected by European people, and the ideas of a lot of people who genuinely feel European and hope that European countries can recognise that they are much more similar than they are different. The UN is "nations cooperating", the EU is an "ever closer union", a political entity that calls its citizens "europeans".

[@stephenjenkins7971]

@@talete7712 The EU will not become a collective political influence until Europeans respect each other's geopolitical needs -and thus far that has proven to be impossible.

[@talete7712]

@@stephenjenkins7971 are you from an EU country? By your name I think you aren't. If you aren't then you have no say in this. Why do you even care so much?

[@stephenjenkins7971]

@@talete7712 I was giving an opinion on the state of the EU. Am I wrong? Seeing as you're trying to deflect to where I live, I'd say you know I'm correct.

[@schmoorfderschmied1763]

Intriguing idea. Thank you, Mr. Kraut!

[@Sidtheman]

Man really made a video so he could win an argument against a random dude

[@Kraut_the_Parrot]

I know it is a little petty. Forgive me.

[@bfedezl2018]

@@Kraut_the_Parrot What is the context of this? I wish to learn

[@bobspam585]

@@bfedezl2018 the Chinese guy I'm guessing

[@tachy1801]

I think your analysis of France was correct in the 80s (and generally speaking a large part of the early history of the EU), but is outdated in the modern period. African states can say "no" to France and do so all the time. There is no longer a French Empire, and there is no longer a Françafrique (in term of the ability of France to impose by force its will on African nations after the decolonisation, of course economic links remain but they are no longer maintained through force ; those economic links might be called "Françafrique" but I think it is not a good idea to use the same word to describe modern relation between France and Africa and relation between France and Africa during the 70s, 80s and 90s). Tight economic links are still present, but they are fading away. Recently MSC (an Italian company) bought Bolloré Africa Logistic (a French logistic company operating in Africa). Africa (and west Africa) is not the French playground that it was before. French companies are still present in Africa but it is a result of history rather than an advantage of France over other countries. When companies with superior capital want to push away French companies they can do so with ease. This is not only true with other european countries : when Chineese companies build infrastructure in ex-colonies, they can do it and France is not interfering. When French military forces are deployed in African nations, they do so with the consent of the local government. When the military junta decided to kick France out of Mali, France had the motive and the means to overthrow the Malian government like it did before when ex-colonies refused to cooperate with France, but simply left. Finally I think your example with uranium is not very good, because most of the value created by the nuclear industry comes from fuel processing (turning uranium ore and depleted fuel into new fuel) and power plant operation/construction. Both of those activities are mostly done in France. Uranium mining is not really relevant to the nuclear industry. It is at least several order of magnitude less important to the nuclear industry compared to the importance of oil (or gas) to the chemical industry for example. The competitive edge that France has (or more accurately had) was the ability to quickly and cheaply build nuclear reactors. EDF can deal easily with an uranium two times more expensive, however they cannot deal with the Flammanville's EPR cost. French electricity production was recently at risk not because of a lack of uranium but because EDF struggled to fix a design flaw in several reactors. Generally speaking economic links between France and Africa are not really that important anymore to France and no longer give France a relevant competitive advantage. France is a service based economy, and the large marjority of its trade is done with the EU, China and the US. Trade with Africa is not the engine of the French economy like it was in the past. And I am pretty sure that the lower importance of trade with Africa is the main reason why France is no longer heavily invested in Africa. The most important French military intervention in Africa in the past two decades was Libya, and it was a case of Sarkozy (then president of France) being corrupted and acting for himself rather than a grand French strategy. (Sarkozy is so corrupt that he is the first French president to be sentenced to prison under the 5th Republic, it is that bad) There is still a strong, (imo) legitimate anger towards France. And France is by no mean stopping to interfere with African politics out of good will (I believe they mostly do so because of lower economic interests in Africa). France is also probably going to keep being very important to African politics. But it won't be because France can conscript Africans to fight their wars, or because France can murder African politicians freely when they prevent French businesses to profit. Also, France's influence in Africa is no longer dominant, Russia or China can come and easily challenge France in western Africa. I believe european countries can absolutely come to Africa and developp stronger (and healthier) parternships than France but have so far lacked any motivation to do so in general. Thus I think describing modern France as an empire is innacurate. However it used to be accurate, and kept being accurate far longer than all of the other European countries (except Russia perhaps but I think you were only speaking about EU countries).

[@LarsPallesen]

Yeah, I'm sure those French colonies in Polynesia love having thermonuclear bombs exploded on their islands and atols. No French pressure there. Completely voluntarily.

[@tachy1801]

@@LarsPallesen Fair enough, but when did it happen ? Before the 2000s. Bad things have absolutely happened but France is no longer doing that. That was the point of my comment. France was an empire. That is a fact. But France is no longer an empire. It is a fact too. France can no longer go to French Polynesia and tests nukes.

[@Limedea]

@@LarsPallesen France doesn't have colonies, but oversea territories. Difference is everything.

[@stekra3159]

We should bild Africa railways and carbon-free power planets nuclear solar wind for free in Africa. To pay back the dead of our colonial past. France could build reactors ther why not.

[@tachy1801]

@Talleyrand Fan Regulation is only part of the problem. The other part is economy of scale. The cost of a nuclear reactor go down when you can build several reactors of the same type, because 1) R&D cost will be spread over more reactors 2) Your workforce will get better at building reactors 3) You will be able to invest into economies of scale. The problem of the Flammanville's EPR is that a single reactor was built. If two or three EPR had been built following Flammanville's reactor the cost of the later reactors would have been much lower and companies would have invested more into their tools and workforce. The new plan is to produce EPR2 by pairs and build a batch of at least 6 of them which should hopefully solve most of these issues. EPR which were produced by pairs like Taishan or Hinkley Point C have issues but are much less problematic compared to Flammanville's EPR.

[@leojohn1615]

wonderfully made video as always

[@FredoRockwell]

Thank you for introducing me to "Promethianism!" I find this idea fascinating!

[@rishi280]

I like that despite disagreeing with your Chinese viewer you still have the respect to refer to them as friend.

[@MrSamulai]

Being friends with people you disagree with is fun. No need to filter your opinions, no fear of echo chambers, monotony-breaking conflicts on demand...

[@rishi280]

@@MrSamulai I couldn't agree more

[@xenamorphwinner7931]

As a Lithuanian I grew up somewhat hating Pildsusky (butchered name) as in history classes it’s told that he did not recognized Lithuanian language and wanted to make Polandised federation alongside giving orders to Zeligovsky (another butcher) to create an unreal army mutiny and conquer Lithuania and Vilnius (read more, it’s somewhat sad to see previous brothers to go at each other’s throats). After changes in education system in Lithuania and learning more, I know see Pildsusky as a flawed man with great, but flawed ideas.

[@scorbiot]

It's not easy being Russia's neighbour.

[@qqtrol1774]

He was a Lithuanian in a very old sense strongly attached to the legacy of the grand Duchy but having nothing in common with lithuanian nation-state.

[@rweebrommel3998]

To be frank, as a polish student of history, I can tell you quite confidently that (at least in the academic circles of my university) the glorification and the Cult of Marshal Piłsudski, which was so prevalent over the years, is now being steadily torn down. He's facing much more scrutiny for both his foreign and especially internal policies. I can't with certainty capture the opinion of the general public, but I feel that it is also shifting towards a more critical view of his actions. Most people agree that he was instrumental, or at the very least incredibly important for Poland during its early years of independence, but his actions later on leave a lot to be desired. And, while his idea of Prometheanism was something that definitely had some potential, at least on paper, it would have been very difficult or even impossible to implement during the turbulent political situation at the time. Also he had always put Polish interests first on the diplomatic stage, so it's not that far of a stretch that his Prometheanism Project would have Poland take the center stage in this new "Cooperative Collective". Okay, that's enough of an essay, bye.

[@Quickshot0]

Yeah, lots of people who have some good ideas... but also many a flaw. We can but hope I guess to try and find the good ideas thought of over time and try to assemble them in to yet better new ideas. Hopefully we'll have some success at that.

[@xenamorphwinner7931]

@@qqtrol1774 He was more of the Vilnius citizen, so considered himself such. Also recently learned, that he actually spoke Lithuanian alongside Polish as his first language.

[@tomasmv1993]

What a good Chanel I have discovered today, thanks for the insight on the European identity!

[@Poithehero]

Kraut, that was a damn good video, best one so far imo

[@Gio-ym4uj]

Dude, your work is always so impressively well written and thoughtful. I hope to achieve your level of writing one day. Let me ask you, how much time do you take to research videos like this one? Does your education background helps you with it? Thank you and congrats for the vid, Kraut. :)

[@Eventhorizon66]

As usual a great video essay; please continue your fantastic work. Cheers from Canada! 🇨🇦 🍁

[@jorzemjo642]

In the case of a conflict between Poland and Czechoslovakia, you have confused some things. Zaolzie was an area inhabited mostly by Poles. I think you confused it with the Polish uprisings in Silesia against the Germans (although there were more Poles in Upper Silesia)

[@martindice5424]

As always fascinating sir. I have a few points of discussion but it’s New Years Eve and I am somewhat…incapacitated . I would make these observations at a later date but I fear I’ve already forgotten what they were .. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

[@jaceyoftheplains3750]

Reminder ping for you to bring the points of observation up if you haven't yet.

[@jaorlowski]

I must say that i am increasingly relieved and enjoying it when I see posts and videos that neither fear complexity and oversimplify, nor hide behind some form of codified language. It takes time to explain things. Leaving things open that are open and for discussion or the future to show. Well done! Also it's great to see less known figures from history that may not have had a brilliant success but simply hit the core of the problem or found some interesting (albeit mystified and romanticised) perspective and picture to see things. One needs to be very careful though with this European cooperation, welfare and prosperity thing. There is still another perspective that the EU may not bring peace in: in-vs-out, and have-lots vs have-nots and the asymmetry in political influence.

[@staszodrin7698]

Nice video as always. I completely agree with you that the EU should be seen as the prototype of the model for the post-colonial world Thanks from Ukraine for your content and Happy New Year

[@erikziak1249]

Post-colonial and post-imperial as well. Also: Слава Україні!

[@artoriastheabysswalker]

Calling the EU post-colonial is laughable. The members abuse their membership to pressure trading partners, especially in Africa, into unfavorable deals. The EU is not post-colonial, it is neo-colonial.

[@peytongonavy]

Yay! I was just thinking that. Took the words and the animations and the research and editing and the writing all out of MY mouth. I'll send you a bill for appropriate compensation.

[@jannsander]

This is an excellent video in every imaginable sense! Congratulations, seriously!

[@holajza]

Love how many Poland ball is in video, very like E: also i love how you say Piłsudski, it's nice to hear it said that way and you are very close to saying it perfectly

[@apostoldimov9856]

You are an absolute treasure dear Kraut, I wish you all the best and a Happy New Year 💙💙💙

[@ronnestman4696]

I love the content! Well done sir 👍

[@indiavanguardia266]

Hey Kraut can you leave citations for the upcoming videos you make? The content in your video is proving to be extremely useful; for my dissertation and some kind of academic references would be very helpful.

[@adamkiraly7866]

wow thank you for the great summary and over all view on the topic. I am Hungarian, and I always wondered why there were no reconciliations between Hungary and neighbouring countries, even tough I tought it would be beneficial for all of us. Sadly Not many of us Hungarians understand the EU, and why its there, hopefully in the future this can change.

[@boomerix]

We did have some official reconciliation with Serbia and compared to 20 years ago Hungarian relations with Slovakia and Romania are steadily improving. Governmental cooperation has been very well and the younger generations are less concerned about past grievances. (Schengen and the Internet probably helped a lot here). Most far right troublemakers are relatively fringe with a small size loud bark and are usually funded by Russia. The only country Hungary has a real problem with is Ukraine, because the Ukrainian officials can't help themselves but behave like dicks. It doesn't help that from a Hungarian point of view Ukrainians and Russians are seen as the same, both are just slightly different sounding Soviets.

[@vericulum6810]

Hungary is a very peculiar country as it was either under other Empire or was imperializing other countries.

[@DerDop]

As I like to say to all Romanian and Hungarian nationalists, there are more people living in 2 Asian cities than there are Hungarians and Romanians on the planet. The feud is pathetic, we were besties until 1848.

[@boomerix]

@@DerDop I agree. our division only makes it easier for the west and Russians to control us. If we work together we actually have a chance to build something decent.

[@someguycalledcerberus9805]

There were and are. The tripoint (hármashatár) at Rajka is a very good example of this. It is a point where the borders of Austria, Slovakia and Hungary meet. There are no walls, barbed wire or checkpoints. There is only a triangular table where the borders intercept. The problem is 1) the continued presence of large Hungarian ("hostage") minorities in the successor states and 2) it is politically expedient for these countries to cynically exploit the animosity. In Hungary, the remembrance of past grievances is kept continuously alive by the both nationalist provocation from neighbouring nationalist movements, and the constant stories of mistreatment of Hungarian minorities. This can be exploited for political gain, because it creates a "Hungary vs the world" kind of separatist mentality. This mentality then _demands_ rituals celebrating the historical Greater Hungary and the condemnation of the current status quo. Then, on the other side, Hungarians remembering Trianon is exploited by the neighbours as they overreact to the smallest of gestures (last thing was Orban wearing a scarf with the picture of Greater Hungary) because by presenting an external enemy and especially an internal threat (the Hungarian minorities), cynical politicians can energise their electorate. The way out would be: Joint effort by all parties to emphasise the meaninglessness of borders in Europe (sadly can't happen with Orban fighting his war of independence against Brussels...) Joint effort by all parties to downplay the real historic atrocities they suffered (not lying about them, just stop mentioning them all the time) Hungary must stop the victim narrative (prevailing narrative is that Hungary was the defender of Europe against the Turks, but was then betrayed and thrown to the wolves by the West after WW1) The neighbours must stop overreacting to minor gestures and must stop pretending Hungary has any capacity to threaten their territorial integrity (especially when it's now the poorest nation in the EU after Bulgaria and has its hands busy by trying not to collapse)

[@pedrofaria696]

Mercosur as an institution is not that ambitious, it comprises only Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. It's a customs union that never developed into an economic union and it actually has so many asterisks, small print and exceptions that it's more like a free trade agreement. I don't know if Mercosur can be compared to the EU in the building of a post imperialistic world. That being said, south america has the Unasur, which is a project focused on security and infrastructure, that may develop into a deeper integration, but since it was created by 'pink tide' politicians from the 2000's, when the tide was over latin american politicians abandoned the project (allegedly due to disagreements if Venezuela should be a part of it, but mainly because they thought that the project was too ambitious and each latin american nation state future lies instead with stronger ties to the U.S, China, Africa or any combination of countries rather than their neighbors). Right wing politicians created the Prosur, which is Unasur 2.0, which is fine, it's less ambitious and more slow paced, but still, both Unasur and Prosur are far from the grand vision of the EU. My point being, I don't know if latin america is building this post imperial order alongside Europe and Africa. Very long text to disagree with such a minor point of your video, I know, I'm sorry

[@mexicancactus403]

It also doesn't help that Uruguay has recently violated the MercoSur agreement by independently making a trade agreement with China, without facing much of any repercussions from the rest of MercoSur for the violation.

[@rodrigoskop6886]

In it's origins it was very ambitious with the intent to emancipate latin america from imperialism, especially from the USA. Right now? USA has proven to be very much still in charge, and it looks like turning to China will be the only way to stay afloat as to not end up like Africa. Lithium might be the last chance we have at emancipation but as dictatorships, international debt and soft coups are making a comeback it looks like we will be under imperialism until the collapse of the USA

[@couchgrouches7667]

​@@rodrigoskop6886It's a shame we (Americans, Latin Americans) don't have a similar relationship as the EU states do.

[@Symphonicrockfran]

In the end, we need money. The best is example is how a pro US government like Bolsonaro developed strong economical relationships with China and Russia.

[@Quickshot0]

South America has many challenges right now, yeah. But I think the point being made in the video and I think is at least some what reasonable is, is that perhaps the EU could try and help facilitate bringing this idea to other parts of the world as well. For instance if the EU created a carrot with some kind of South American EU equivalent, for instance by a favorable free trade agreement or other favorable cooperative elements. Then it could perhaps convince some of the South American countries to try more seriously to make such a system work. After all, there would be something quantifiable to gain then for the price of entry. It's something to at least consider as possibly a good idea to try I think.

[@KharlozPT]

As a portuguese I find it very odd seeing the portuguese pointing the way forward in the end

[@gianghuynh9570]

Basically what the Chinese guy was saying is: China did ethnic cleansing better than any other empire, so they became a successful empire for thousands of years. Meanwhile, facts are ignored such as the various subversive of the imperial rules and cultural domination by various outside forces that make China of thousands of years ago not the same China today. There has never been a proper Chinese Empire that lasted for thousands of years. I have met someone who is a doctoral candidate from China completing her thesis in Australia, and she doesn’t know Vietnam exists, and she kept insisting that Vietnam is a province of China. Like what kind of medieval propaganda they teach over in China? Also on that topic Vietnam is an example of Imperial China’s methods and the failure of said methods. They attempted to assimilate Vietnam by immigration and cultural conversion in ancient time. But the reverse happened and the Chinese immigrants became the major force of resistance against further Chinese subjugation. That is why in modern time you often hear about the Chinese government spying on their young students oversea. China’s superiority complex toward its neighbors is also a historic issue that resulted in even further division within the Sinosphere. In modern time Japan, Korea and Vietnam have this thing going where they examine their culture and emphasise, exaggerate and export the parts that make them unique, especially if those parts distinguish them from China, and one another. Because China’s method has always been “I see Chinese culture there, so it is my land.” It created a reaction from its neighbours to establish themselves as unique culture, even though said countries were heavily influenced by Chinese culture. It’s obviously easier to subvert a country’s government when they share the same language and custom, much harder when your target countries use different alphabets, speak different tongue.

[@Marc-.]

Chill, she doesn’t know, and most probably don’t care

[@laurajarrell6187]

Kraut! Wow, this sheds a lot of light on the events from past and present! Thankyou! And, I loved that you told about your Chinese viewers comments, it also, is a learning moment. Enlisted sounds fun. I'm so glad you're getting some sponsors! I still love your voice, lol, especially having to say, 'Eorpean Union' over and over! I'm surprised you got it so good, even with editing capabilities. Have a great New Year! 👍🎉♥️🎇💙✨💖🎆🥰✌

[@Hetschoter]

Hello Kraut, I'm glad that you finally started talking about Czechoslovakia in the context of Europe's history. However there are some statements that I disagree with/would like to comment on or are incorrect and I would like to point them out. I have seen some comments about some of the topics that I want to mention already and therefore I will most likely repeat what was mentioned already (also for context I'm Czech): 1. 6:56 the reason for Czechoslovak-Polish war at least from Czechoslovak perspective was for the control of Cieszyn/Těšín and the railway line on the left bank of the river Olza. Also there was the problem of Silesia being located in 3 separate states and most of Silesians (to my knowledge) were Poles at that time which gave Poles the justification to go into that war (tho the economic factor cannot be dismissed). Funny fact: I have seen some reports mentioning that to this day there are some Silesians in Poland who would like to have their own state. A state of Silesia. 2. 7:38 I think that good name/label for self limiting nationalism would be patriotism tho I understand that the waters would be somewhat muddied by existence of American patriotism. Also I think that drive/desire to dominate other nations by nationalism stands from the believe in their superiority over other nationalities and that self limiting nationalism doesn't have this desire because it doesn't see other nationalities as somehow inferior. It is instead replaced by the pride in ones nation to the extend that others might and should do the same, ie. its own nation is good but not necessarily better than any other nation. 3. 8:24 Never in my life have I heard that Slovaks were somehow part of Czech nation or that they should. The concept of Czechoslovakia simply came from necessity. At the time of the creation of the first Czechoslovak republic both Czechs and Slovaks had large minorities of Sudetens Germans in case of Czechs and Hungarians in case of Slovaks in their territories respectively and since Czechs and Slovaks were basically brothers, they could cooperate together and therefore lessen the ability of these minorities to destabilize the newly created state. It was to make it more paletable to the winners of the WW1 to allow them to create state for Czechs and Slovaks (also the size of such a state was a factor in case of new conflicts). There is a reason why the dissolution of Czechoslovakia happened so peacefully because Czechs never saw Slovaks as part of the same nation nor necessarily state and why Slovaks took the chance to create their own separate state after Czechia became the German Protectorate. Also I would like to mention George of Poděbrady (Jiří z Poděbrad) and his idea of proto European union/OSN. The idea was that conflicts between member states were to be solved peacefully and unite European states/kingdoms against the Turk expansion. Anyway, the video is good as always and it was still insightful. Can't wait for the next one.

[@westphalianstallion4293]

Hello Zeit Geist, everyone and every nation has its spin on the europe and the EU. But the fact, that poles, czech and germans can have discussion about Silesia without getting violent is an achievement in itself. The fact that all former sowjet occupied states accept their borders is something you dont see in other parts of the world.

[@adamz7038]

Except for HU, but that’s a WW1 story😄 Gruesse

[@westphalianstallion4293]

@@adamz7038 And some of our older generation as well. Accepting the "Oder-Neisse-Line" was a big step for many "displaced" . Hungarians, damn they havent raided us german for at least 800years. While defeating the french laid the foundation of the german empire, defeating the hungarians was the foundation of the holy roman empire. If you do Gruesse, go full German, Grüße^^ The "ß" makes the difference between german german and swiss german.

[@jakubjanota5086]

Yeah. The third point surprised me as well. I am a Czechoslovak child, so I spent my childhood in both countries and I have never encountered a serious claim about Slovaks being part of Czech nation. Language is different, also religious identity is much more important in Slovakia than it is in Czechia. Plus the folklore is different. Talking about nations in Central/Eastern Europe I would also like to remind people about Rusyns and their unfortunate fate, there is a high number of them in the eastern parts of Slovakia.

[@oleksandrivanchenko3299]

Very good piece of thought ! Thank you!

[@holydoggo4822]

Love your videos dude

[@klaesfuglsang6769]

great video as always Kraut. Hope to see more awesome content in 2023.

[@klaesfuglsang6769]

also looking forward to see more content, around scandinavia when the times come down the line. i always feel like we tend to be the forgotten corner in europe, tho i think it would be beneficial for people to study it further, to get a broader sense of history.

[@darnathlysander7581]

I'm french and even if you make it sound like a lack of investement in the eu that we refuse to compete with ukraine on the cereal market, it is mainly due to the there are a lot of farmers in France who, because of romanians or even ukrainian prices can't make ends meet and often resort to suicide. Combined with a culture mainly based on the "terroir" a pride in our agricultural diversity, we cannot afford to open europe to a larger pool of countries where norms and salaries are in no way comparable to ones of France. Even tho i'm sure you picked France as an exemple, we can also debate on the fact germany prefered to use coal for it's energy sector rather than using a french nuclear energy which would have improved our relations.

[@leobibi123]

Il y a beaucoup de choses qui ne vont pas avec cette analyse qu'on pourrait qualifier de simpliste. L'intégration européenne de l'Ukraine ou la "dépendance" française à l'uranium ne peuvent pas être arrangées de cette façon pour créer un narratif, c'est au mieux naïf au pire malhonnête.

[@ItsACrazyWorld]

Thank you for that simplified explanation

[@yehyunhong2910]

As a cellist, I was pleasantly surprised when I heard Haydn Cello Concerto no. 1 in C major as the intro music in your well made video. Thank you!

[@badethics7542]

Screw you. **picks up your cello and begins playing slap bass**

[@LMB222]

Why? Classical music is such an important part of European history.

[@Bagster321]

Having finished my European Political Issues class this semester that discusses the E.U at length it's good to see this video tackle this topic. I'd recommend Frank Mols' work on the subject.

[@osobaum]

You got any book titles you'd like to share?

[@Bagster321]

@@osobaum I can get some journal articles, chapters he's written and co authored. He specialises in populism

[@osobaum]

@@Bagster321 I'll look around and see what I can find. Thanks :)

[@Bagster321]

​@@osobaum hey one month later ik but how did you go?

[@nettcologne9186]

Fascinating. Your video is a real enrichment for everyone who is interested in history on the one hand and the EU in particular.