Why did Britain give Heligoland to Germany? (Short Animated Documentary)

[@HoennMaster]

One thing I've learned about history recently, small islands tend to cause big tension.

[@nordnord8141]

The more things change the more they stay the same.

[@ricardokowalski1579]

Search --------- Plazas de soberanía, sovereign territories There is a handful of spanish islands(?), rocks? in front of Morocco that are pure tension 😁 Regards

[@lucinae8512]

Or tiny bits of land, like Gibraltar.

[@boomerangfishact6754]

Crimea is a peninsula, not an island!

[@averagebalkaner1317]

Åland Islands, Corfu, the Aegean Islands, Cyprus, the Senkakus, Taiwan, Hans Island, Falklands/Malvinas, whatever the fuck is happening in the South China Sea Yeah this comment is pretty accurate

[@jabber1990]

Germany: "we want it" Britain: "but you can't have it" Germany: "we don't want France to have it" Britain: "yours"

[@cattysplat]

British military policy: France can't have nice things.

[@StumpfForFreedom]

Fun fact: the second largest manufacturer of RN ships was France. ;)

[@randombritishperson.]

​@@cattysplatIt's in the genetics of all French and us british people to hate each other no matter what.

[@delanovanraalte3646]

​@@randombritishperson.You brits have a tradition of attacking french every century hell you brits even attacked france in ww2

[@randombritishperson.]

@@delanovanraalte3646 Even though they said they wouldn't let the "bad german people" have their battleships and such, They were still kind of untrustworthy since they were occupied by the "the bad german people". So...sadly we had to do operation catapult.

[@alexanderzippel8809]

Funfact, because Helgoland is part of the Kreis Pinneberg, Pinneberg is the largest Subdivision in Germany based on the distance between the furthest 2 points from eachother within a Kreis

[@hansmaier1410]

It should be mentioned that pinneberg on its own doesn't even has a propper costeline(only access to the upper elbe river)

[@karlscher5170]

Ja shice die wand an

[@slyasleep]

Now my life is complete.

[@Adrian-1503]

Helgoland is also the highest point in Pinneberg

[@Gulliolm]

And also the inhabitants of Pinneberg are the worst drivers in the whole of germany!

[@PankoBreadcrumbs]

It's actually a misconception that the island was too difficult to blow up, it was more so that it was too expensive. The British government had reached out to James Bisonette for funding of the destruction of Heligoland but he was on holiday at the time and Heligoland continued on.

[@Chillerll]

On wikipedia it sounds like they just wanted to destroy the bunkers there with excess ammunition and bombs from ww2 which they didn't need anymore. Apparently they speculated it would destroy the island but it wasn't the main goal.

[@AlejandroGonzalez-fs5ez]

Can't believe James B. Still holding this channel 😂😂😂😂😂

[@balabanasireti]

Boooring

[@philipforinton5804]

My favourite comment, the comedy in the comment sections of HM videos are really underrated.

[@balabanasireti]

@@philipforinton5804 No

[@wambugugichuki]

As an east african we actually do learn about the heligoland land swap deal that happened in history class

[@Osterochse]

Since Freddy Mercury was born in Zanzibar. Me and a friend of mine liked to imagine what would have happended to music history if Sansibar and Heligoland would have never swapped. Would Queen have been a German-singing band? We celebrated that by attempting to make German versions of Queen songs.^^

[@mattks1001]

@@Osterochse The band name wouldn’t have been Queen, but Kaiser. They would have sang songs in German like “We Will Annex you” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” oh I guess that one does stay the same.

[@robinrehlinghaus1944]

@@mattks1001 Böhmische Rhapsodie

[@Osterochse]

@@mattks1001 to behonest I think the British annexed more places than Germany did.

[@phoule76]

@@mattks1001 would have sung

[@ronaldderooij1774]

Fun fact, on behalf of the British the "governor" after WW2 was a Dutch man, later famous in the Netherlands as a comic performer on TV (Rijk de Gooijer). He told in an interview that the plan was not to blow up Helgoland, but to bomb it into oblivion after evacuating all inhabitants. He opposed the idea and he implied that he had some influence in keeping the British executing this plan.

[@dv7533]

I would highly doubt the claims of Rijk de Gooijer about himself. He made other claims about his wartime/post wartime service that turned out to be less than truthful. Also I doubt the British would put a 22 year old interpreter they recruited from Dutch resistance in any position of influence. He may very well be against the plan, but I doubt his opposition had any influence on the actual decision making.

[@machinotaur]

Holy crap that's the Dutchest name I've ever seen. Hoogen floogen land and their fake language continues to deliver

[@AudieHolland]

@@machinotaur says someone whose own language originated in what are now Germany and The Netherlands whose language was violently penetrated by French language then, your traumatized language forgot how to properly enunciate vowels Ending up as the most phonetically incorrect language in the world.

[@cassidyjones2730]

clown on clown violence

[@Chillerll]

@@AudieHolland You don't know if English is his native language though

[@E_T_31]

1:31 In German that deal is commonly known as *"Helgoland-Sansibar-Vertrag" (Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty)* which sounds like they swapped these two islands, even though Germany _didn't actually own Zanzibar._ The latter being far bigger explains the "Trousers for a Button" misconception that sprang from that.

[@-haclong2366]

Yep, the British had to fight a war to actually take Zanzibar... Which took 20 minutes, but still a war.

[@DarthFhenix55]

@@-haclong2366 Actually it was 40 minutes, but yeah.

[@riazortho]

@@DarthFhenix55 Actually it was 38 minutes, but yeah.

[@notlucas6859]

@@riazortho as of reading this, this comment was posted 38 minutes ago

[@juandiegoprado]

@@riazorthoActually it was 38 minutes and 17.578 seconds but yeah

[@DanS044]

Sorry… what?! They were going to BLOW UP the Island?! I know you’re channel is about short concise historical questions. But I need more on this.

[@HoennMaster]

Ironically not the weirdest blowing up plan in history. There were once plans to nuke Egypt to build an inland sea.

[@theotherohlourdespadua1131]

That island if I remember correctly is a U-boat base for the Kriegsmarine...

[@Kadoshiun]

Long story short: After the war had ended the British viewed the island as "too dangerous to keep around" and just dumped their entire left-over ammunition from the war there and blew everything up in one go, creating the biggest man-made non-nuclear explosion in history....and a small dent in the otherwise perfectly fine island. You can actually still see this today. Since the island is one huge rock of sandstone it used to be divided into what you call the "upper land" on top of the rock and the "lower land" with everything else close to sea level. The explosion created some sort of crater which was creatively named "middle land". Also there are still A LOT of bunkers from WW2 on the island which you can visit.

[@Kadoshiun]

@@theotherohlourdespadua1131 before and during WW2 the Germans had plans to expand the island and build a giant naval base but those plans got scrapped as well because 1. to costly and 2. it wouldn´t have worked anyway. Turns out the island somehow really doesn´t want its size changed :D

[@marcushertz4434]

I think there's a movie about it starring Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck.

[@mountaineernews2]

I had no clue that the UK had that island I guess I do learn something new every day thank you as a history nerd my self

[@pabcu2507]

90 percent of world history/border conflicts come from Britain 💀 even to this day

[@tempest3286]

Safe to assume the British owned just about every island at some point in time (Yes I'm being hyperbolic for comedy's sake)

[@deleted-something]

Same

[@louvendran7273]

Us from Africa are well aware due to the Kaprivi Strip. Many SADF soldiers served there in late 1970's till 1990.

[@juanitoarcoiris5824]

It looks like you never played Victoria

[@euanduthie2333]

Heligoland also plays a part in Scientific history as well. Heisenberg went on holiday there to escape a severe bout of hay fever, and managed to make a key breakthrough in quantum theory while staying there.

[@Osterochse]

yes I read about that as well . Werner Heisenberg was there cure himself from illness and he discovered the uncertainty principle there, which later mae him win the noble price. So this tiny island is the place where humanity entered the realm of quantum physics so to speak.

[@balabanasireti]

The lyrics of the German national anthem was also written there

[@kremepye3613]

Thats where he met jessie and decided to cook

[@cvntkng]

@@kremepye3613 jesse we need to produce breakthroughs in quantum theories

[@scintillam_dei]

See my video proving Quandumb "physics" wrong. Idiots will say I would get a prize if I did what I did, but that's the bandwagon fallacy, argument from incredulity fallacy and AD VERECVNDIAM fallacy. Anti-Christs are always not smart.

[@frisianwarrior2295]

Heligoland is a holy island for the Frisian people, Frisian is still spoken there today and there is an inter-Frisian festival there every 3 years. I have been to it. Pretty fun to land on the island because the ship can't dock there, small boats come pick you up from the ship. in 1401 there was a huge pirate sea battle there with the hansa because the island was a safe haven for pirates! So many cool things about that island. One is a huge red rock, very different from the entire coastline surrounding it, and the other is just sand dune for seals to chill on.

[@siebrendeboer6540]

Helgoland has always been Frisian and will always stay that, no matter which state is claiming it for the time being.

[@DerSchoko-Ritter]

Well, to be honest, only a few of the Helgoland master the Halunder or the Halunder Spreek ;-) By the way, all this "pirate-thing" and their battles there are just legends or fairy tales or some sort of advertising ;-) The pirate battle of 1401 and the alleged capture of Klaus Störtebeker there cannot be verified. If we follow the traces of the Heligoland flint, we can assume an enormous commercial/economical importance of the island for the entire northern european area since the Middle Neolithic ages :-)

[@frisianwarrior2295]

@@DerSchoko-Ritter That doesn't make the island less important and holy for the other Frisian regions. I have never heard of the pirate stuff around Heligoland not being historical.

[@gunthermath2037]

I actually met people from Helgoland in north-western France

[@enderkatze6129]

Correct me if i'm wrong but isn't Frisian also a germanic subculture?

[@StevenEveral]

The British gave the Caprivi Strip to Germany to give them access to the Zambezi river. What the British didn't tell Germany was that the Zambezi river was only navigable to Victoria Falls. Because of that, Namibia has a weird strip that gives them an almost quadripoint with Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Zambia.

[@michaelverbakel7632]

I always wondered about that. When I look at the map the shape of Namibia is strange. Geographically the Caprivi Strip should belong to Botswana next door but Botswana at the time was a British colony and Namibia belonged to Germany. After Germany was defeated in World War I, the allies at the Versailles Peace conference decided to give all of Namibia to South Africa which it was a part of for the next 50 to 60 years. Namibia was then called Southwest Africa.

[@RedXlV]

While this does mean that to an extent Germany got swindled by Britain, the reality is that Germany didn't actually *lose* anything substantial in this treaty. The name "Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty" implies that Germany traded Zanzibar for Heligoland, but they never actually possessed Zanzibar. What they actually gave Britain was Wituland, a little slice of the Kenyan coast every bit as insignificant as Heligoland and the Caprivi Strip. But the name served Bismarck's goal of making Caprivi look like a pathetic loser the German people.

[@akend4426]

2:14 “Dodo may not be coming back. Experts will now start looking in people’s attics.” Tiny details like this are one of many reasons why I love this channel!

[@Root174]

"More on page 1666". That is not a newspaper, but a book or a series of books.

[@B3RyL]

@@Root174 I bet that it's some kinda ARG or code. IF you manage to put them in the right order, there's a hidden message. Or something :P Or maybe they're just references we're not getting XD

[@tommykawaii]

@@B3RyLmust be references we aren’t getting 😂

[@highpath4776]

@@Root174 Some papers numbered pages consecutively through a year or volume. But I presume 1666 was first discovery of Dodo ?

[@bschuss1]

@@highpath4776 more likely last seen. Those newspaper articles are always the gems of these episodes. Also the Bismarck piece :D

[@Elerad]

I'd never even heard of Heligoland. This was really interesting.

[@TheWazzoGames]

I remember briefly talking about it (The Heligoland Crisis) in the lead up to WW1 as a display of the increasing rivalry between Germany and Britain

[@AetherUtopia]

Read Heligoland by George Drower if you're wanting to learn more.

[@Draqson]

Funny, here in germany everyone knows about "Helgoland" - not because of the war, but because of the rock formation called "Lange Anna", it's just a beautiful island, lucky it didn't get bombed.

[@auto_revolt]

I only remember it because it's a Massive Attack album, ironically.

[@draphotube4315]

He shouldn't have shrugged over the part that Heligoland was inhabited by people, and the British just tried to bomb them out of existence with the Island. So far the good guys people!

[@savannahvarns2126]

I love how the most insignificant little islands can have the craziest backstory

[@NotaTechGuy177]

Yeah, like the Pacific islands in the Spanish-American War

[@a3aannaqvi627]

Falklands islands

[@Osterochse]

even though this island actually did have strategic significance.

[@dw620]

@@a3aannaqvi627 The Falklands aren't all that small - more than the size of every island in the Maldives 40 times over, plus 150 Heligolands.

[@dakapo8985]

Like Hans Island in the artic ocean and the 4 decades old Whiskey War conflict between Canada and Denmark. Which just ended last summer btw.

[@Dalynx09]

Explorers were so close to actually naming a place "Legoland" and I'm so mad that they didn't end Up giving that name to the island lmfao

[@readingking1421]

Wait seriously?? Missed opportunity

[@sevenprovinces]

If they did you'd most likely be playing with your Heligo's right now. My kid sister was seriously disappointed when she learned what Klaus Barbie was all about.

[@weskerkings651]

@@sevenprovinces such a brilliant man

[@sejanus855]

Tbh an are of my small ass german village is named Legoland, so I suppose there are many places in Germany with that name

[@SandsOfArrakis]

I believe Heligoland is a translation of heiligland, or holy land in High German.

[@mrgopnik5964]

We actually did discuss the deal in our history class (Germany) and my teacher basically said "while it was a trouser for a button, we actually kept the button in the end" XD

[@Osterochse]

even though it must be said that it was only a claim on Zanzibar at that point. Germany had not actually established a colonial government of any kind there. So they basically swapped an island that was real part of Britain for a claim on land that germany never enforced to begin with.

[@CountScarlioni]

Well, half a button after 1947!

[@jako77777]

0:49 Here, we witness one of the rare sound effects of the majestic History Matters channel. Love the content, keep up the great work!

[@somethingrandomfornow]

I really went back 10 seconds because I was so confused why I heard a sound

[@tahamuhammad1814]

Did anybody else notice the "more on page 1871" on the newspaper I honestly recommend always reading the entire thing they are filled with humor, information about what events were at that time and how people were feeling about them occurring at that time

[@edwardblair4096]

The other two stories are on Idaho becoming a state and scientists beginning to admit that the Dodo might be extinct.

[@ara9914]

I'm still giggling about the "Bismarck then went on a 45 minutes rant about how Caprivi is an Italian-sounding name and so it shouldn't surprise anyone that he didn't care about Germany." - I love the newspapers in History Matters.

[@DotRD12]

As of today, I can proudly say that I’ve watched every single History Matters video there is. Love your work, man. Keep it up!

[@manonational]

You forgot to mention one very important part: The people of Heligoland, who where evacutated during and after WWII, wanted to return back home. Two students in germany became aware of that, and travelled to the main island and rose the german flag, as a sign of protest and sovereignity. That german public was informed about this incident through newspaper, and became vocal about the ongoing occupation and destruction of the island (even though Operation: Big Bang failed, it was still used as a training- and target-zone for the RAF). That was one of the key reasons Heligoland became inhabitated again, otherwise it most properly would have been swept under the rug. There are two buildings named after the students on the main Island today

[@clawcross]

In usa they would have been shot and thar would be the end

[@AxelausDe]

As a German, this fact made me smile proudly. Danke Schön Bruder 🤝🏻

[@Darksnowman13]

My absolute favorite part of this channel is that every now and again I learn about something I've never heard of/about before

[@מ.מ-ה9ד]

2:32 Blow it up?! Heligoland is the sole home of the Halunder accent of the endangered North Frisian language! Not to mention the immense environmental damage (but the world didn't know or care about that, at that time...)

[@Marko_184]

I'm even surprised people thougt that was a good idea...

[@ak5659]

I thought all the dialects were imploding. Am I wrong? Maybe 10 or so years ago I read that the approach of 'grandparents-teach-grandchildren-so-they-can-have-private-converstions-Mommy-and-Daddy-can't-understand' was a success. But thanks to the internet all these kids were talking to each other and dialect levelling occured surprisingly quickly. So there are more native/fluent speakers but the dialects are fading. Or was the article I read totally off?

[@B3FMandCProductions]

I can say with near certainty that this is the first History Matters video about a topic I had never even heard of before, so kudos for all the great work

[@DerCaramelized]

Considering islands are today's themes, here are some suggestions (Hopefully my ideas aren't terrible this time.) Why does France own Saint Pierre and Miquelon? (Considering they have little value, and Britain could have taken them in any of the wars they fought with France) Why does Britain own the Channel Islands? And fitting with other events in the video: Why did Britain attack Copenhagen (Twice)? Or more specifically, the second battle of Copenhagen where they decimated the city and practically razed it to the ground.

[@looinrims]

Well that last one is easy; the British always shoot neutrals

[@AML2000]

The Channel Islands were part of the Duchy of Normandy before the conquest. When William I conquered England, he still kept Normandy. Over the centuries, France succeeded in taking over mainland Normandy, but never bothered with the Channel Islands. Fun fact: they aren't part of the United Kingdom, but are a separate entity that belongs to the British monarch personally as the Duke of Normandy.

[@Ginkgo_leaf_3000]

@@AML2000 you beat me to it. A better question would be why the Isle of Man is a crown dependency and not a part of England or Scotland as it has been in the past.

[@looinrims]

@pouya are you high on bath salts

[@DerCaramelized]

@@looinrims probably something more illegal than that. I’ll also probably delete or change this comment soon to word it better. And have it make sense.

[@attemptedunkindness3632]

"They tried to just blow it up, but it didn't work" An American bald eagle just shed a single tear when you said this. Anytime something is intended to be exploded but doesn't, freedom dies a little.

[@cooperross9495]

As does Mr. Torgue, for that matter.

[@oliverhughes610]

Well, they did explode something on it - an enormous quantity of leftover and captured munitions from the war - and created an enormous explosion that I think is the largest non-nuclear explosion in history. But the result wasn't that the island would be broken to the extent it fell under the sea level, instead it just has a very large crater in the middle of it which is still very visible today - the 1200 or so residents make a good amount of money from tourists coming to look at it and other wartime remains.

[@attemptedunkindness3632]

@@oliverhughes610 _But yet it remains in spite of the explosions_ If the U.S. National Anthem has taught me anything, it's that failed attempts by the British to blow something up actually generate _exponentially more Freedom_ I thank you for this enlightening comment, it has put my weary heart at ease. Perhaps Heligoland will be blessed with Bald Eagles of their own, someday.

[@thunderbird1921]

LOL, they probably would have needed something like the Tsar Bomba to destroy the island. You're not going to destroy an island with just a big set of conventional explosives piled on it (though you might destroy everything ON the island).

[@lindsayheyes925]

​@@thunderbird1921Er... Black Tom Island, New York, USA was completely obliterated by the Germans while the USA was still neutral during WW1. Shed no tears for a mere hole in Heligoland. Nobody died there... but innocent Americans had been killed on Black Tom Island, including a baby which was blown out of its cot.

[@Adrian-1503]

My Family is from Heligoland (Helgoland in German) so this video means a lot to me.

[@bananaboyTS]

since when is the island inhabited/how far does your lineage go?

[@Adrian-1503]

@@bananaboyTS approximately the Bronx age and and the oldest record of my family is from roundabout 1650

[@Ballum_64]

​@@Adrian-1503So you got frisian roots.

[@B3RyL]

2:12 - as always, the articles in the paper do not disappoint XD I almost caused water damage to my keyboard when I read about the Dodo XD Well played!

[@exploshaun]

Had to look up the "blow it up" part. Relived that they were trying to destroy military structures and not literally the entire island.

[@TheLocalLt]

Heligoland was actually not incorporated into the new West Germany in 1949, having previously been separated by the British from the rest of their administration in Germany. Instead it remained under British control for the time being. Heligoland was eventually handed over to West Germany in 1952, with German control of the island confirmed by the British in the 1990 Final Settlement.

[@seronymus]

Imagine if it remained British with Gibraltar-like status to this day. Might have affected Brexit somehow, or God forbid a war with Russia.

[@Donald_the_Potholer]

Alternately, give it to the Dutch in lieu of Ost Friesland (as opposed to "nothing at all")

[@patta8388]

@@Donald_the_Potholer Why should the dutch have Ost Friesland?

[@callsigndd9ls897]

@@Donald_the_Potholer The Dutch have West Frisia. The Germans have East and North Frisia. The Frisians don't care who owns them anyway. The main thing is that they are free citizens. The Frisian saying goes: “Lever duad üs slav” (rather be dead than a slave).

[@stevemc01]

Britain (19th Century): "Ehh we've conquered a lot. What good does one island do?" Britain (1982): "NEVER. AGAIN."

[@akamiguelsanchez9985]

I genuinely had no idea about this! Fantastic as always

[@andrewratto2782]

I like the idea that the unification of Germany coincided with the entire landmass suddenly rising up from the Baltic.

[@michellesbader1]

always a good day when history matters uploads

[@LegionMark59]

Oh and fun fact: the latin name is Abalus and in old Saxony (English and north German) the name was Avalon

[@mjbull5156]

The Brits tried to blow up King Arthur's retirement home?

[@varana]

{citation needed}

[@LegionMark59]

@@varana Helgoland wird oft als Rest Abalus' bezeichnet (Wikipedia) Heligoland is often referred to as the rest of Abalus. The sources for Avalon arent findable anymore. As they connected it with the old English word aelf "elf" or old Saxon Aelv or modern north German Alf. Simply as we would refer Poland and Polish. The mystical must've only come due to the fact, that they weren't christianized; as we look the same way to african voodoo practices. Or as they were more advanced, since they had real commerce with the roman empire, unlike the saxons.

[@varana]

@@LegionMark59 That's not a source, though, that's a random unsourced claim in a Wikipedia page. While it _may_ be that Abalus meant something in the North Sea, it's usually located in the Baltic Sea as it's supposed to be the origin of amber. The identification with Helgoland is a highly controversial fringe theory, and definitely not consensus enough to state it as "fun fact". As for Avalon, that's not how that works. Just because the two words (which come from very different ages and cultures) sound similar, doesn't mean they can just be called the same.

[@LegionMark59]

@@varana Abalus is in fact the Latin name for Helgoland, and "Rest (leftover)" because it is just a forth of its original size. Greetings from north Germany. And the rest isn't just speculation, I just couldn't find my original source; so I had to use Dumbpedia. They showed historical documents/maps of a region in the North See, with an Island called Abalon, where modern day Helgoland is. Edit: Oh and I forgot the name in Low German is "Helgeland" meanning holy land. Or Dat Lünn in Frisian meaning That Land

[@mediocreman6323]

I first thought you made a severe mistake, since I know the island in question under the name “Helgoland”, but I just found out that indeed in English there is an “i” in the name which is not there in the German version.

[@alanpennie8013]

No one knows what the name means. It's a North Sea mystery.

[@RAFMnBgaming]

It's because it's made out of aluminium.

[@ricardokowalski1579]

Another one of "you say potato, I say potato" mistery in life

[@the_engineer2345]

@@alanpennie8013 well, some say the island was in germanic times a kind of sacred place....dedicated to the germanic god of Forseti, the god of judgement and law

[@alanpennie8013]

@@the_engineer2345 Interesting.

[@unclenogbad1509]

Actually, the British, post WW2, did blow up quite a large part of the island, just not all of it (although they did wonder if they could manage that). Basically, it was a way of disposing of all the left-over German munitions that they'd collected. Shipped all of it to Heligoland and lit the blue touch paper. All of it in one go, apparently. If anyone knows where you can find a film clip of this happening, I'd certainly be interested.

[@geroutathat]

They also dumped a load in the irish sea and it keeps exploding to this day.

[@georgebailey8179]

And according to Wikipedia, they used it to destroy German fortifications there. So not quite as crazy as blowing up an island.

[@unclenogbad1509]

@@georgebailey8179 Apart from the U-boat pens, the fortifications used up very little of the truly massive amount of explosives gathered there. The whole island was probably just speculation (and, I'm guessing, would have involved huge, expensive and wasteful tunneling operations). Still, somebody thought it was worth a try, for some reason. Navigation?

[@NR-fd9wv]

@@georgebailey8179 the island is very small and there were tunnels and bunkers, so it basically was a little fortress. blowing up the fortifications inevitably means you blow up much of the island

[@RedXlV]

@@georgebailey8179 It did, however, destroy a noticeable portion of the island.

[@Muesli711]

In 1938, the British Government unilaterally gave back 3 deep water naval ports in the Irish Free State that it had retained following the Anglo-Irish Treaty, sixteen years earlier. Like Heligoland, Churchill was deeply unimpressed with the decision.

[@charlesburgoyne-probyn6044]

Just as war with Germany was impending and they had been useful in ww1 but when civil servants get involved...

[@GermanicWorldOrder]

Can you make a video why British Columbia joined Canada? (I asked it because in BC back then they were very dependent upon trade with the U.S. and interested join them instead of rest of Canada which was disconnected from BC)

[@toade1583]

I used to live in Canada. As far as I know, I think the tie between BC and the US was more that a lot of Americans settled in BC during the 1800s so they had a more favorable view of the US in general and were interested in joining, but Canada basically pull another "copy what the US did" and built an East to West railway system which allowed BC to be pulled into the Canadian sphere of influence due to a large part of its economy coming from trade with the rest of formerly British North America/ now Canada. Arguably one of the most important moments in Canadian history considering it marked the emergence of a pretty economically powerful Canada that was much harder to absorb into the US than it would have been if BC, a very well off region, did not join Canada. If such a region joined the US, it would give more incentive for other parts of Canada to do so which would have resulted in the potential annexation of all of Canada into the US.

[@Eed-gr5mr]

Oh my god this is so interesting to learn about. Just thank you for making videos like these.

[@mikewithtwoarms]

I had never heard of Heligoland until this. Quite an interesting bit of imperial rivalry history.

[@SophiaAstatine]

I've only heard of it because it's almost a swear word in Danish.

[@themanwithnoname6110]

The British trying to blow up Helgoland was a certified Minecraft moment

[@Pfalz536]

Video suggestion: how independent was the princely states in British India?

[@MilösiaSecondAcc]

The video Ending: James Bissonnette

[@daes9401]

The answer to the question I did not know I wanted answered. Thanks!

[@kabochaVA]

This channel never fails to answer the questions I never knew I had, on topics I never heard of in the first place!

[@worstspytf2824]

Britain: -Takes of Heligoland -Attempts to blow it up -Refuses to elaborate further -Gives up and leaves

[@vadertrap6535]

Gotta love how the brits were like: Be gone island and island was like: *how about no*

[@NAA81-d5z]

Me being freaked out because this past week I’ve been deep diving the history of these two specific island and then suddenly boom.

[@MausOfTheHouse]

Can you make a video about how Adjara gained autonomy within Georgia? Sadly, many people still don't know much about this topic.

[@HoennMaster]

I would actually love this too. I've always been intrigued by why Adjara hasn't tried to break away like South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

[@MausOfTheHouse]

@@HoennMaster Well, maybe they can make videos about those regions too.

[@dw620]

@@HoennMaster "Break away" with the "assistance" of Russia, as a warm up to Ukraine...

[@williammakupa5896]

The Heligoland Zanzibar Witu Treaty also known as the Anglo German Agreement of 1890 was part of my history curriculum in 1990.

[@wiings]

This is so cool! We used to learn this back in school (Kenya). It had some significant historical aftermath, as Zanzibar and the port city of Mombasa, which it already controlled, solidified their grip over the greater East African colonies of Kenya and Uganda. This consolidation enabled British control over the 2 for the next 70 years. And Tanganyika after WW1

[@notlucas6859]

well thats two east africans that learned about this in school (in this comment section)

[@TheCimbrianBull]

As someone not from East Africa I learned something new from your comment.

[@seleganttwanty1525]

Been to Heligoland 2-3 weeks ago. At first you wouldn't even guess that someone could have tried to blow up the island. Its massive cliffs seem quite unbreakable and being meant for eternity. But if you look closely and talk to locals, you can get an impression of what the island must have looked like before WWII. The beginnings of massive moles build to create Germanys main naval base in the atlantic, the massive craters on top of the cliffs due to british bombing and detonations (the Big Bang) and the insanely large bunker beneath the island to keep its residents and soldiers secure. A stunning island with really interesting history that is worth a visit (but keep in mind that it is a really small island where you have experienced everything after 3 days)

[@Osterochse]

Since Freddy Mercury was born in Zanzibar. Me and a friend of mine liked to imagine what would have happended to music history if Sansibar and Heligoland would have never swapped. Would Queen have been a German-singing band? We celebrated that by attemtping to make German versions of Queen songs.^^

[@user-rk3yb6nd1n]

LOL. A little different from the standard "What if the X had won the Y war" alternate histories. I like the inventiveness.

[@Trainsforpassion]

Apart from it being an important naval base and whatnot, its pretty chill out there and amazing to spend your hoildays there

[@Lukas4182]

These days, Helgoland is quite valuable to Germany as it secures a lot of area for its exclusive economic zone, largely used for big off-shore wind farms. Given that we'd lost the areas in Africa anyway, this sounds like a pretty fair deal to me!

[@michaelpielorz9283]

Please do not forget the brits made the biggest non-nuclear explosion and years of bombing on Helgoland (nice video on YT available ) and Germanyhad to rebuild it.

[@callsigndd9ls897]

@@michaelpielorz9283 Positive side effect: The bombing and the big bang caused fertile soil to form through the atomized surface of the rocks, so that there are today green gardens on the island that never existed before.

[@thkempe]

From what I understand, they defined a point in the middle of the North Sea and drew lines to their respective boundaries like a pizza. The island doesn't play a role. Since the Dutch and Danes had already discovered oil and gas in their maritime economic zone, these areas were excluded from the German slice, making it look like a duckbill. Before that agreement, exclusive economic zones were defined by drawing a line from a country's border at a 90-degree angle, leaving Germany, which lies in the southeastern corner of the North Sea, only a tiny portion of the area.

[@hugofernandez4459]

The naval combat here in Battlefield 1 was a lot of fun

[@paranoidandroid6095]

Second time has been said about the danish joining Napoleon but they actually really didn't want to and stayed neutral up to the shelling of Copenhagen

[@pfcrow]

I grew up in Idaho, so I loved the newspaper story about my state. I noticed as a kid that anytime someone needed a place in America that people had heard of but never been to, Idaho was the place. It shows up disproportionally in movies and such for that reason. If not for potatoes, we would be famous for being obscure.

[@thomasbravado]

And for having a funny name and a weird shape.

[@scintillam_dei]

Louis & Clark weren't pioners. The SPanish had Luisiana before the French, and both explored much of the regionnwhich leads to Idaho if you go to the NW.

[@seronymus]

Did you hear about the Greater Idaho project? You guys might be getting bigger

[@pfcrow]

@@seronymus Yes, but it's not something that I believe has any chance of really happening.

[@seronymus]

@@pfcrow apparently a friend wanted to move there but she told me you guys have such horribly high housing prices to keep even Californians out haha. I think adding Eastern Oregon would be good though... but oh well I guess it's confusing times for everyone.

[@henrikknudsen8125]

Yeah we Danes "opted" to side with Napoleon after Britain stole our ships in a surprise attack and burned our capital while our army was in Jutland manning a defensive line against... Napoleon

[@simonthompson9858]

Quite brilliantly explained. In your stellar output, one of the best

[@shohan5772]

I learned about Heligoland in Victoria 2 where after forming Germany there's a decision to acquire it from the UK.

[@snipingflute4346]

Imagine releasing Heligoland as a free nation accepting British, Danish, and North German cultures. A formable cultural union tag with that would become unstoppable.

[@What-The-Brick]

My brain keeps saying legoland and I keep telling my brain to shut up.

[@johnkittoiv2572]

Small island off the coast of Germany? Small island off the coast of Spain? Small island in the middle of the Mediterranean? Britain pretty much used these islands like mini CVs. They projected British naval power and ensured naval dominance over Europe until the late 20th century

[@cdntrooper3078]

Never stop making the newspapers they are such a good additive to the videos

[@luitzenhietkamp]

A fun fact, the local inhabitants speak a language more closely related to English than to German, so Britain having kept it wouldn't have been such a weird thing.

[@ak5659]

A type of Frisian or a type of Platt? I have to say I'm very fond of Platt. The two times I was in Hamburg I felt like I was such a fluent speaker of German. Yes, it's ok to laugh.

[@luitzenhietkamp]

@@ak5659 North Frisian is spoken on Heligoland.

[@williambrennan104]

The dodo headline reminded me of a short story in which some American farmer had been breeding dodos in his chicken farm but they eventually died out because he thought they were just a shitty breed of chicken

[@tonystidham4564]

A few years back looking through a bookstore, I found an interesting book on the history of the island. It's called "Heligoland, The True Story of the German Bight, and the Island that Britain Betrayed", by George Drower, published in 2002

[@Osterochse]

how did Britain betray it though? It is a German speaking island that was only for a hundred years a part of Britain who didn't really do anything with it.

[@seleganttwanty1525]

@@Osterochse been on Heligoland 2-3 weeks ago. They told us that the citizens of Heligoland didn't really feel like they belong to a country and more like they belong to the island. Though it being british territory for a long time, many citizens didn't expect british soldiers bringing harm to the island in WWII. Some believed they could just stay outside during an air raid alarm during WWII because they are formerly british and thus the british bombers would skip this island and throw all of their bombs at mainland Germany. They were wrong. All of them who didn't seek shelter in the bunker died. Also the 'Big Bang' was broadcasted live on radio and the citizens of Heligoland believed their island was vanished due to the explosion. Being heavily bombed during WWII and being attempted to get ones home blown up after the war (1953 I believe) by the British, their former homecountry, led to the thinking that they got betrayed by them

[@scintillam_dei]

List of British betrayals: 1. Catholicism betrayed. 2. Native Americans (pretty much all of them who had treaties with the Brutes. 3. Porkugal (se the African Ultimiatum) 4. Arabs in WW1. 5. Poland in WW2. 6. Britian betrayed itself by importing Islam. WHO WILL BRITS BETRAY NEXT? STay tuned.

[@svenblubber5448]

@@seleganttwanty1525 The island was home to major military installations during WW2. To assume the RAF wouldn't bomb them was extremely naive, not to say stupid....

[@seleganttwanty1525]

@@svenblubber5448 that's why most of the citizens sought shelter. They expected it, but you would still consider yourself betrayed if literally every single m² of your home was destroyed

[@madskristiansen]

In Danish, Heligoland is a soft swear word. Instead of saying "Hell!" (For Helvede!), you can say "Heligoland!" (For Helgoland!). It is a rather old saying, so not many people say that anymore.

[@Nitrousoxidification]

Britain back then: "Fine, if people can't play nice we're gonna blow the entire island up!" Britain now: "Fine if people can't play nice we'll blow our own economy up!"

[@Arceeel]

Really nice island! Nice video, didnt know the island had such a complex history

[@josephd.3654]

James Bisonette approved the transition

[@lucatampellini9734]

As a matter of fact throughout the XIX century Britain frequently defended Germany: 100 years before "Saving private Ryan", there was "Saving private Hans". It was only in the latter part of the XIX century that Britain started switching side towards to the French. They essentially did exactly the opposite movement compared to what we italians did - we started on the side of Napoleon and then ended on the side of Bismarck: exactly them in reverse.

[@PopeLando]

That corridor that connects Namibia to Zimbabwe is the reason that Botswana is one of the very few left-hand traffic landlocked countries that is completely surrounded by left-hand traffic countries, alongside its neighbour Zimbabwe as well as Eswatini.

[@alanpennie8013]

It's definitely one of the more peculiar relics of The Scramble for African. I've seen the inhabitants called Caprivians, which is quite a cool name.

[@86669Tommy]

I think it would be a worthy notion that Heligoland is a Frysian Island, an endangered Germanic minority culture, language group and peoples in the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. Every year there is a sort of "Frysian conference" where Frysians from those three countries gather on the Island.

[@ak5659]

I'l love to go to that! One more thing to do......

[@cannae920]

They really tried to blow up an entire island lol HM: "Prepare the island for a post-war existence" Britain: "Well about the 'existence' part"

[@prichards5113]

At the end of the war there was a huge amount of ammunition on the island and in 1947 the British had loaded a total of 7000 tones of all nature's of high explosives into the fortifications. At a distance of 15 km from the island the control ship, and aircraft with cameras recording, pushed the firing button and created the largest man made conventional explosion to that date.

[@sevenprovinces]

"The Anglo-German Agreement of Forever Friendship." Now my 2nd favorite after the actual, existing Dutch-American Friendship Treaty. Which is...let's face it, with the US having a law (The Service Member Protection Act) authorizing a US president to invade the Hague without congressional approval - if ever a US politician is tried for war crimes...as treaty names go...really a bit DAFT.

[@mrniceguy7168]

My favorite treaty is on this channel, but I forgot the video. It’s the Treaty of Eternal Peace between Poland and Russia which accomplished two things, one of them being that it showed that nobody understands the definition of eternal.

[@sevenprovinces]

@@mrniceguy7168 Hard to explain the concept of time and eternity to something that can't even understand object permanence. UN: "This is Poland" Russia: "Russia!" UN: "No! Po-land! Poland. Let's try another. U-kraine" Russia: "Russia!" UN: "Oh ffs"

[@ak5659]

​@@sevenprovinces And many, many other countries have had that exact same conversation with Russia.

[@ak5659]

​@@mrniceguy7168 I've never heard of this. Thanks!

[@jameslong4511]

Plan A: blow it up when that does not work; Plan B: give up. I'm going to start incorporating this strategy into my life.

[@helloimskip]

Hey everyone, I am currently making a History Matters Iceberg Explained video! It's currently on the editing process and I'll make sure it's out soon.

[@MomMom4Cubs]

That sounds potentially awesome.

[@pachekusdimitrescus1]

Actions speak louder than words, would've prefered to just watch the video right away; but I'll put the effort to atleast subscribe so I can keep an eye on that

[@Osterochse]

2:14 as always a great newspaper. I would lik to add some information on that. Bismarck indeed was extremely bitter about his successor Leo von Caprivi and left no occasion untapped to talk trash about him. He called his political decisions "caprivioles". It is wrong though that Bismarck advocated for a greater colonial empire in Africa. Quite the opposite. He was opposed to colonialize Africa since that would create a weak point in German defenses since you either have land that an enemy can easily occupy in times of war or you have a navy to protect it and a bigger German navy would create tension with the British. He also thought that France colonializing Africa would deviate France's attention away from Europa and towards another continent which could only be a good thing. He would not have minded if France would have taken all of Africa as long as that keeps them busy. Bismarck's famously once said about the whole colonization thing: "I'll show you my map of Africa. There is Russia. There is France. We are in the middle. That is what matters." He eventually greenlid German colonialization of the continent since most German politicians were in favor of it, many colonial "adventurers" already created faits acomplis by just colonializing without a formal approval of the government and the general opinion in Germany was pro-colonies at this point. Since he needed to base his power on something he had to give in. PS: the last dentist of Heligoland retired a few years ago and because of that the inhabitants of the island now have to go by ship to the continent whenever they have dental problems or want to have a check up. Don't know if they alleviated that problem by now.

[@raphaelleandergerich7609]

I live on Heligoland and right now I feel so special 😁😁😁

[@dansanger5340]

Fun fact: German physicist Werner Heisenberg famously came up with his theory of quantum mechanics while vacationing in Heligoland in 1925 to try to get relief from his severe hay fever.

[@joshuahawkins9847]

“The Royal Navy soon seized the island” is the story of the entire British imperial era

[@iankingsleys2818]

hen in late 1918, the Royal Navy landed on the island, they were met by a delegation of the Island elders who asked for the island to be reincorporated into the United Kingdom with a status similar to the Channel islands. Unfortunately Lloyd George refused

[@sumansaxena2277]

Can you make a video on how The Austrian soldiers defeated THEMSELVES in a battle against the Ottomans even though there were no soldiers?

[@Maus_Indahaus]

It is very likely that the battle never actually happened.

[@sumansaxena2277]

@@Maus_Indahaus It did happen.

[@Maus_Indahaus]

@@sumansaxena2277 And was forgotten for 60 years before the battle was mentioned for the first time?

[@riograndedosulball248]

@@Maus_Indahaus it's almost like Austria's enemies wanted something to ridicule them, interesting

[@sumansaxena2277]

@@Maus_Indahaus Not 60, that battle took place like at minimum 110 years ago, if you think I'm lying then just search it up bruh

[@SynomDroni]

The Island used to be joined and a fair bit larger than today. There was a chalk mining industry that tunnelled through the Island like swiss cheese. One years spring tide later collapsed huge portions into the sea.

[@prinzchen17]

Helgoland today is quite a tourist attraction, but also a fair share of people actually live on the island! There is a fancy modern ferry going from Hamburg. Its small but pretty and one of the few places in Germany where certain sales taxes are not applied, which means you can buy alcohol and tobacco for less €€€.

[@alanpennie8013]

It's surprisingly popular considering it's a windswept rock.

[@prinzchen17]

@@alanpennie8013 Agreed! But its a sturdy one - ask the Brits! 😁

[@alanpennie]

@@prinzchen17 There seem to be plenty of trees, though I've read that it's too windy for them to grow.

[@ak5659]

Decent beaches?

[@jayblake682]

I’m just thankful that Napoleon made a guest appearance.

[@Lueluekopter]

1:46 What is so special about that small strip of land?

[@BoDAssassin]

Germany gets access to the Zambezi River. Which was important because railroads weren’t built in that area in Africa yet.

[@m.douglas8492]

Looking at 0:48 like 'damn, the baltic sea is a lot bigger than I remember'

[@emmetcoyne6436]

I like how the British pondered with the idea to just delete the island.

[@jimmeearle]

The newspaper clips are always a treat

[@kiritugeorge4684]

I'm Kenyan and it was annoying to have Heligoland brought up in history class...mostly coz it was spoken of in the abstract. I was always wondering, where in the world is this Heligoland😂

[@Osterochse]

nice to hear from people from Kenya talking about this. The internet made it possible to hear from the other side of the contract and what they have to say. Greetings from Germany

[@FrancescMorales]

You should make one about Menorca returning to the Spanish Crown in 1802

[@kaydenhubert4085]

Would love to see "When did Bohemia become Czechia?"

[@KurtKind]

1918

[@mr.bonkers2310]

Basically never. Bohemia is one of the main historical regions of Czechia, but not the entire country. The other historical regions are Moravia and Czech Silezia.

[@jarnodatema]

Please make a video about the Dutch army in WW2. Theres a story that the government wanted to cut it’s already abysmal budget by a 100 million guilders, so they created a committee to see if this was possible. The committee that inspected the military basically told them “no way in hell” so they disbanded the committee, made a newer, more aggressive one who recommended to cut its budget by a 160 million guilders.

[@famguy292]

I really enjoy pausing and zooming in on the newspapers when they show up in the videos. Can confirm people still don’t know where Idaho is.

[@ToniTortelini]

Hi, i follow your contact for a long while now and you are great! Can you please make a video about Silesia (that's now in Poland). Pleas mention the autochthonous population, the Germans, Austrians, and of course the Polish and Czech. And maybe why Silesia isn't independent or a autonomy.

[@robinrehlinghaus1944]

Good idea!

[@Osterochse]

i can answer you the last question: why giving independence to place if you can have it yourself? :D other than that Silesia has a really fascinating history. I don't really know what you mean by autochthonous population though. The land is namened after a western slavic tribe that became a part of Poland. Before the slaves moved into that area germanic peoples lived in that area. before that probably celts and before that non-indoeuropeans.

[@ToniTortelini]

@@Osterochse By autohtomus population means people Thet lived before the People that live there now like the natives "Indians" in America or the Austrians in South Tyrol. Because besides the Polish or Germans ther was and STILL IS a minority of people that don't se itself as Polish or Germans.

[@ak5659]

I'll never forget the first Sląsk I heard : 'Dejte mnie zigaretten.' We were both 19 and drunk. Because I'd studied Russian and German (aside from my family's Polish) the sentence made perfect sense to me. At some later point my brain caught up and I was like, "Wtf was that?" And that was my introduction to Sląsk. But my ears might not be the best. The first time I heard Sorbian. My brain insisted it was Polish with a German accent. No, I wasn't too embarrassed.....😮

[@ToniTortelini]

@@ak5659 yeah! Sorbian is also fascinating!

[@evelinharmannfan7191]

The History of the people of the Island is also worth mentioning. The language that was spoken there is unique in certain ways. The old name used to mean holy Island. James Krüss, a German Poet and author of children's books grew up there. Helgoland was also given back because of peaceful protests by young Germans who were influenced by Gandhi and his ideas of non violent resistance. In the 19th century, Helgoland had Special marriage laws. That made it a destination for eloping German couples who wanted to get married without parental consent. Like the German Version of Gretna Green.

[@Ballum_64]

The language sp8ken there was/is frisian.

[@leeham1405]

So what part did Napoleon play in all this?