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WW2 - OverSimplified (Part 1) — Transcript

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0:00This video was made possible by Skillshare.
0:03Churchill was a man with many talents.
0:05He was an artist, a butterfly enthusiast, and he had an unpublished manuscript about aliens.
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1:09Be sure to try it out using the link in the description, and learn something new today.
1:14Now, without further ado -
1:18It's 1902.
1:19A young man by the name of Benito Mussolini moves from Italy to Switzerland
1:22to avoid military service.
1:24He gets big into socialism,
1:25working for trade unions, writing for socialist newspapers,
1:28advocating a violent overthrow of European monarchies,
1:30the whole shabang.
1:31This gets him in a bit of trouble with the Swiss police.
1:33So he gets arrested,
1:34sent back to Italy,
1:35set free,
1:36returns to Switzerland,
1:37is arrested again,
1:38goes back to Italy again,
1:39completes his military service after previously avoiding it,
1:42and then after a brief stint as an elementary school teacher,
1:44he finally returns to work as an avid socialist.
1:47His speeches and journalistic abilities made him famous among Italian socialists.
1:51He was anti-war,
1:52so when Italy colonised Libya in 1910,
1:54he rioted.
1:55And got arrested.
1:56Then WW1 came along,
1:57and once again, he protested Italy's involvement.
1:59But then he thought, 'Wait a minute.'
2:00'This war could bring about the social climate needed to overthrow European monarchies,
2:04and bring about the socialist revolution everywhere.'
2:06And suddenly he was pro-war.
2:08But his fellow socialists didn't like his new pro-war stance,
2:10so they kicked him out of the party.
2:11So then he said, 'You know what?
2:13I'm done with socialism.
2:14We need something new. Not based on class divisions tearing us apart,
2:17but based on unity through nationality.
2:19We'll conquer the Mediterranean,
2:21and reunite all Italian peoples,
2:22just like the days of the Roman Empire.
2:24I'll call it "Fascismo"
2:25and it will guide the Italian nation to greatness.'
2:27'That's all well and good, Mr Mussolini,
2:29but what kind of haircut am I giving you?'
2:31'Let's go with...
2:33bald.'
2:34♪ Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture ♪
2:48Italy had been on the winners' side in WW1,
2:50and they hoped they were going to get a lot out of it.
2:52But in the end, they only got a little, and they felt cheated.
2:55On top of that, a bad economy,
2:56and weak governments meant that the Italian people were a little unhappy.
2:59So when Mussolini came along,
3:01and said that he could fix everything,
3:02his fascist movement gained a lot of support.
3:04In 1922, he went to the King and said, 'Make me prime minister, or I'll make me prime minister.'
3:08And the King said, 'You and what army?'
3:10'This army.'
3:13'Fair enough.'
3:13Then he went about establishing a dictatorship
3:15with himself at its centre.
3:17Europe had its first fascist dictator.
3:19Next up: Germany.
3:20Germany had been on the losers' side,
3:22and they got absolutely wrecked
3:23by the Treaty of Versailles.
3:25They lost territory,
3:26had to demilitarise the Rhineland,
3:27had to reduce their army to just 100,000 men,
3:30couldn't have an airforce,
3:31had to pay the Allies a huge amount of money that it didn't have,
3:33and a new rule was established that every Englishman witheld the right
3:36to walk into the center of Berlin,
3:38pick out any German they wanted,
3:39and spank the hell out of them.
3:40I made that last one up,
3:41but it helps you understand how all of this felt to Germans.
3:44On top of that, a bad economy and weak governments
3:46meant that when a small, angry man with a silly moustache came along
3:49and said that he could fix everything,
3:50the German people loved it.
3:52Hitler had been a soldier during WW1,
3:53and he was crazy patriotic.
3:55And nobody was madder than him about Germany's humiliation.
3:58He helped start a new political party,
4:00and in 1923,
4:01attempted a march on Munich with his boys.
4:03And then he got arrested.
4:04But his popularity grew and grew,
4:06and in 1933, the President made him Chancellor.
4:09He believed he was Germany's great destined saviour,
4:11and he went full megalomaniac,
4:13establishing a dictatorship with himself at its center.
4:15Europe had Fascist Dictator No. 2.
4:18Hitler and Mussolini had a lot of the same ideas.
4:20But more importantly,
4:21they had the same enemies.
4:22And they started to get along.
4:23'Anyone else wanna be friends?
4:25Franco?
4:26No?
4:26You good?'
4:27'I do.'
4:28'Who's that?'
4:28It's Japan.
4:29And they've taken over northern China.
4:31Let's rewind a bit -
4:33Japan had isolated itself from the rest of the world for over 200 years.
4:36Until the Americans showed up and said, 'You're going to trade with us, and you're going to like it.'
4:40Then the Western powers imposed a bunch of 'Unequal Treaties'.
4:42Meaning Japan's economy was bust.
4:44They also had no natural resources.
4:46So they decided to go get some.
4:48They went to war with China to gain a sphere of influence over Korea,
4:51and they took a bunch of China's stuff.
4:52But then the West said, 'Hey!
4:53Cut that out.'
4:54And since Japan couldn't take on the West,
4:56They said, 'Okay, I guess we'll just go home -
4:58Wait a minute!
4:59What are you doing?'
4:59'Taking advantage of a weakened China and setting up spheres of influence.'
5:02'But I was the one who weakened them.'
5:03'We know.'
5:04'And you guys didn't let me have anything.'
5:06'We know.'
5:06'That seems unfair.'
5:08'We don't think so.
5:10Okay. See ya.'
5:11So Japan thought, 'Screw this!'
5:12and went to war with Russia,
5:14and stunned everyone by actually winning.
5:15Then they fully annexed Korea,
5:17but they didn't stop there.
5:18In WW1, they took Germany's colonies and islands in Asia.
5:21And then in an incident that was maybe staged by the Japanese army,
5:24a bomb blew up a Japanese train in Manchuria,
5:26giving them an excuse to launch an invasion and take over.
5:29So, here's the situation:
5:30Nazi Germany, fascist Italy and Japan,
5:32all believe they're racially superior.
5:34All feel hostility towards the Allies,
5:36and all want to militarise and take over more stuff.
5:38And so they did.
5:39Let's start with Germany.
5:40Hitler hated the Treaty of Versailles,
5:42and now he was ready to begin undoing it.
5:44In complete violation of the treaty,
5:46the first Luftwaffe squadrons were set up,
5:48conscription was introduced,
5:49and he pimped up his army.
5:50The Allies did nothing.
5:51Then Hitler sent his army back into the demilitarised Rhineland,
5:54giving orders to immediately retreat if the Allies showed up.
5:56The Allies did nothing.
5:57With his military restrengthened, he could now move on to Step 2.
6:01He wanted to rapidly increase the Aryan population.
6:03And to do so, he needed lebensraum,
6:05or in other words, he would have to take over the world.
6:07But for now, a good portion of Europe would do.
6:09And he began eyeing up his neighbours.
6:11The Allies finally started to get worried,
6:12so they implemented a fairly useless diplomatic strategy called appeasement.
6:15And it went a little something like this:
6:17Hitler would say, 'I want that thing.'
6:19And the Allies would say, 'You can't have that thing -
6:21Okay you can have that thing but no more.'
6:23'I want that thing.'
6:24And repeat.
6:26In 1938,
6:27Hitler's army marched into Austria,
6:28and just took it,
6:29with no resistance.
6:30Boom.
6:30This is Germany now.
6:32Next, he demanded to be given the Sudetenland,
6:34an area of Czechoslovakia with many ethnic Germans.
6:36The Allies held a meeting with Hitler in Munich and said,
6:38'Look, we're going to give you wha -'
6:39'HANG ON.
6:40This meeting is about my territory, shouldn't I come to the meeting too?'
6:44'Anyway, we're going to give you what you want.'
6:46'Really?'
6:47'Yeah.'
6:48'Just like that?'
6:49'Yep.'
6:49'What's the catch?'
6:50'Just sign this piece of paper promising you won't invade the rest of Czechoslovakia.'
6:54'Okay.'
6:55Then Chamberlain returned home victorious, waving his signed piece of paper in the air,
6:58declaring crisis to be averted,
6:59and the continuation of World Peace,
7:01and we built a statue of Chamberlain in his honour
7:03and every day on the 30th of September we celebrate Chamberlain Day -
7:05'Hitler's invading the rest of Czechoslovakia.'
7:07'What?'
7:08'He's invading the rest of Czechoslovakia.'
7:10'Oh.
7:12You lied to me.'
7:13'What do you expect?
7:14I'm Hitler.'
7:15Not to be outdone, Mussolini also wanted to get in on the action.
7:18He thought to himself,
7:19'Isn't there a not-yet-colonised nation somewhere
7:21which is so underdeveloped
7:22that the people would be defending themselves against our tanks with literal bows and arrows
7:25and wooden spears?
7:27Oh there is?
7:28Fantastic!'
7:30And so he took it.
7:31Italy also wanted to control the entrance to the Adriatic Sea.
7:33So they occupied Albania.
7:35Then, in another incident that was maybe staged by the Japanese,
7:38gunfire was exchanged by Japanese and Chinese troops at the Marco Polo Bridge.
7:42And the Japanese launched yet another invasion against China.
7:45They swept through Beijing and Shanghai,
7:47and then advanced through the Yangtze Valley to China's then-capital, Nanking.
7:50It was here that saw the worst of Japan's shocking atrocities
7:53committed against the Chinese people.
7:56Back in Europe, Germany and Italy made their relationship status official
8:00by signing the Pact of Steel.
8:01Then, Hitler turned his eyes towards Poland,
8:03and the hated Polish Corridor splitting Germany in two.
8:05At this point, the Allies really had to put their foot down.
8:08And they warned him that an invasion of Poland
8:10would mean war.
8:11Hitler had planned to continue his advance eastward,
8:13but he didn't want to end up fighting a war on two fronts.
8:15So for now he made an alliance with Stalin, saying,
8:17'How about we both invade Poland and split it between the two of us,
8:19and I definitely won't not refrain from not betraying you sometime in the future.'
8:24'Sounds...
8:27good.'
8:28This new alliance stunned the West.
8:30On the 1st of September 1939,
8:32German troops entered Poland,
8:33and Britain and France declared war on Germany.
8:38The Poles fought hard,
8:39but they were no match for the two giants crashing down on them from either side.
8:42Then came a period known as 'The Phony War',
8:44where everyone just sort of sat around not doing much.
8:47The French had launched a small invasion into the Saar Land,
8:49but they maintained mostly defensive positions,
8:51and after a while decided to just turn around and call it a day.
8:54Speaking of France,
8:55the French were still super proud of their victory in WW1.
8:57And they hadn't really moved on from it.
8:59They still used horses,
9:00they dispatched messages by motorbike instead of using the radio,
9:03orders from the commander-in-chief were usually pretty vague,
9:05and the troops were rarely inspected.
9:08They built a line of defenses along their German border,
9:10but didn't bother extending it all the way to the Channel,
9:12and they wouldn't launch artillery strikes against Germany
9:14out of fear of being retaliated against.
9:16In a war.
9:17They didn't want to attack the enemy.
9:19And at first, the UK wasn't much better.
9:20Chamberlain still naively hoped that the war could be ended diplomatically.
9:24Instead of bombing raids, the RAF dropped propaganda leaflets over German cities,
9:27which one air marshall said likely did nothing but provide the continent with toilet paper
9:31for the duration of the war.
9:32They also only sent 200,000 men to France,
9:34while the French had mobilised millions.
9:36Both Britain and France wanted to avoid a repeat of the First World War,
9:39and so they wanted to keep the war as far from home as possible.
9:42So they turned their eyes north,
9:43towards Norway.
9:45Neutral Sweden was exporting iron ore to Germany,
9:47through neutral Norway.
9:48So the Allies asked them if they could please stop exporting iron ore to Germany.
9:51But this request was refused.
9:52Then, the Soviet Union attacked Finland.
9:54So the Allies said, 'How about we land troops in Norway
9:57and move them across Sweden to go help out your good pal Finland?
9:59And then along the way maybe take control of all your iron fields.'
10:01But Norway and Sweden still said no.
10:03So the UK mined the waters around Norway
10:04to force any transport ships into international waters,
10:07and they also attacked a German tanker they found in the area.
10:09Hitler realised what the Allies were up to,
10:11and he quickly moved to secure his supply of iron ore.
10:13He launched an invasion through Denmark into Norway.
10:15The Allies rushed to land troops at quay ports along the coast,
10:18but Germany had taken control of Norway's airfields,
10:20and their air superiority decided to fight.
10:22The Allies had to retreat.
10:24After this slightly embarrassing failure,
10:26Chamberlain resigned.
10:27And was replaced with Winston Churchill,
10:28who had a slightly different approach to dealing with the Germans.
10:31Hitler's overall strategy was similar to Germany's WW1 strategy.
10:34Attack France, defeat France, knocking out the UK in the process,
10:38then turn on the Soviet Union and win the war.
10:40During the Phony War, the Allies had given Hitler enough time to prepare his forces.
10:43Now, he was ready to attack.
10:45The Allies had wanted to place troops in Belgium,
10:47but Belgium had refused.
10:48And in a move that surprised pretty much no one,
10:50Hitler launched an invasion to get around France's defenses.
10:52The Allies charged into Belgium at full speed,
10:54to meet the German invasion head-on,
10:56and it looked like a repeat of the First World War was coming.
10:58But this time, Hitler had a trick up his sleeve.
11:00Blitzkrieg.
11:01As the Germans advanced, they sent thousands of refugees westward,
11:04slowing down the Allies.
11:05Then, to the south,
11:06the French had left the Ardennes, an area filled with hills and forests,
11:09pretty under-defended,
11:10because they thought it was naturally impenetrable.
11:12Well, the Germans were about to penetrate it with everything they had.
11:15They smashed 50 Wehrmacht divisions through,
11:17and encircled the Allied armies at lightning speed.
11:19The best of the Allied forces were now trapped.
11:21The Germans squeezed in from all sides,
11:23taking out France's best armies,
11:24and nearly wiping out the British, too.
11:26But they managed to make a desperate last-minute escape at Dunkirk,
11:29with British civilian ships even making the perilous journey to bring their young men home.
11:33With most of the French forces depleted,
11:35the Germans breezed through,
11:36taking Paris, and France fell.
11:38What the Germans couldn't do in WW1,
11:40Hitler had done just like that.
11:42Hitler hoped that with the fall of France,
11:44the UK would also lose hope and sue for peace.
11:46But quite annoyingly, it didn't.
11:48And he needed to secure the Western Front.
11:49So he tried to force them into submission,
11:51with mind games.
11:52The UK were now all alone and Hitler wanted to emphasise that.
11:55First of all, just before France fell,
11:57Italy finally declared war on the Allies,
11:59making the UK's situation even worse.
12:01Next, instead of just occupying all of France,
12:03Hitler occupied the coastal areas for defense,
12:05but allowed France to continue its existence as a German puppet state.
12:08This way, it looked like the UK's old ally had decided to switch sides.
12:12Hitler also hoped that the UK wouldn't attack
12:13any of her old ally's navy bases or colonies in Africa,
12:16giving Hitler an extra line of defense to the south.
12:18But the UK made sure to respond to this by sailing down to France's navy base in Algeria
12:22and wrecking a bunch of ships.
12:23So, have at it.
12:25Hitler then began laying down plans for an invasion of Great Britain.
12:28Before German troops could land on British soil, he would first need air and naval superiority
12:31across the Channel.
12:32Waves of German bombers came,
12:34while the completely outnumbered RAF worked bravely around the clock
12:37in an attempt to quell the German attacks.
12:38At first, the Luftwaffe targeted British ports and coastal facilities,
12:42then it attacked RAF bases,
12:43crippling the RAF's ability to defend the nation.
12:45And it looked like Hitler's great British invasion was coming.
12:48But then, Churchill ordered a small, pretty insignificant bombing raid over Berlin.
12:51It didn't do much damage,
12:52but Hitler was furious,
12:54and he immediately ordered the Luftwaffe
12:55to refocus its attacks on civilian targets in London.
12:58Children were sent off to the countryside,
13:00away from their parents,
13:01to avoid danger.
13:01And frequent trips to air-raid shelters became a daily occurrence.
13:04But British morale held firm.
13:06Smiling, knitting, lounging casually,
13:08these people have balls of steel.
13:09This refocusing on London also gave the RAF
13:11breathing space to reorganise.
13:13So Hitler kind of shot himself in the foot there.
13:16Just the foot for now.
13:17Finally, the Luftwaffe sent one massive all-out attack on London,
13:20and the RAF successfully repelled it,
13:22destroying many of the German aircraft,
13:23and placing air superiority firmly in British hands.
13:26Hitler's invasion had to be postponed,
13:28but the bombing of British cities continued for some time.

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