Good morning, we will finish with World War I and World War II documentaries for November today! December will be fun and frivolous documentaries. Last year I found it a challenge to find Christmas documentaries to fill the month, so this year I decided to do fun and frivolous to close out the year. The documentaries featured are documentaries to be shown more for fun and to fill a substitute teacher’s lesson plan than for something serious. Then the last weeks of December I will do my year in review, my Top 10 Lists, and finally take a week off from the blog.
For this documentary, I will conclude the month with World War I in Numbers, otherwise known as the Great War in Numbers. This episode of the first world war is nearly a year and a half old. Death and destruction have reached high numbers. It will get worse. It is the year of the Somme and Verdun. January 1916, bogged down neither side has achieved a breakthrough. The generals conclude that the only way to make way numbers and a very high number of numbers. Ordinary men have become sacrificial lambs. It was carnage on an unimaginable scale. Those men trusted each other but did not trust the generals. Many of the new men arriving on the front are newly trained and young. The European powers use forced conscription to fill their ranks. However, the British soldiers outnumber both the Austrians and Germans. However, the British needed to recruit more soldiers and 1,500 people alone from Liverpool signed up. The record is 30,000. However, the initial patriotism has vanished and so the British people were forcibly conscripted into the military. In 1916 the Battle of Verdun began. Germany wanted to kill as many French soldiers as it could. For the French, it was a matter of pride. Verdun was in Alsace-Lorraine, an area that they lost to Germany. They wanted it back. Before the battle, Germany shifted as many guns as it could. It was one of the greatest amounts of artillery found in the world. The results were catastrophic. The French soldiers were reported as losing their minds from the amount of shelling they endured. At the start of the battle, they were not issued steel helmets. When the shelling stops, the Germans advanced. They drove the French back to their original defense. The Germans were tracking them in the skies. It was the highest number of German planes during the war. Five days in, and the Germans have the upper hand. The Germans attempted to take Verdun itself and brought in 500,000 men. Unfortunately for the German Generals, they underestimated the French fighting spirit. The result of the battle was a meat grinder. Every French soldier was sent to Verdun to defend it. More French artillery was called for to give the Germans a taste of their own medicine. Huge losses were counted on both sides. The Germans expected the French to throw themselves into battle and they would be speedily slaughtered. Instead, they got a year-long battle where one thousand men lost their lives per day. It is a see-saw battle. Some villages changed hands fifteen times. Another momentous battle was going to begin: the Battle of Jutland. It will be a battle between dreadnaught battleships. The British had implemented a strong blockade against Germany. The German Navy looked to end it and they looked at the Battle of Jutland. Would Germany end the blockade? Tune into this episode to find out! This episode could be split into two: one on the battle of Verdun and the other on the Battle of Jutland for a lecture. It would be a good episode to show in a history class.
0 Comments
Good morning, we will continue with World War I and World War II documentaries with a look back to World War I and the numbers that were involved when the Americans joined the War.
The Great War in Numbers is a series that explores World War I and the numbers involved. Men, ammunition, aircraft, and ships in high numbers were involved. Numbers would factor in who would emerge victoriously and who would lose. This was the first time in history that such numbers were documented. One billion artillery shells, a million guns, and men dying at sixty thousand a day. No cost was too high to fight the Great War. At the end of 1917, the war transformed. The war has shifted with the technology that was developed. The Romanov dynasty was destroyed. The French were in munity. The Germans and British were bleeding each other dry. A new army arrived in Europe: the Americans. Will 1918 see the end of the war? Everyone is clear that the numbers will factor in the war. Those numbers would tip the balance in the Allies’ favor. However, the Americans were not ready until 1919. The United States Army did not have a huge number of soldiers trained to send over. Immigrants, African Americans, and poor rural farmers are going to get called up to fight in the war. American upper classes are largely exempt from the draft. Woodrow Wilson was a segregationist and did not want to arm African Americans. However, the French were happy to see the Americans. The French welcomed soldiers of all colors to their restaurants. So, the army took pains to limit contact between the soldiers and the French citizens. The Germans are alarmed that the Americans are coming. So, the Germans paid off the Bolsheviks to start their revolution and get rid of the Tsar. After the Tsar was disposed of, the Germans negotiated with the Bolsheviks for peace. Peace talks broke down and so Germany invaded Russia and came within miles of Petrograd. This forced the Bolsheviks to the negotiation table and German territory was enlarged. With peace between the Bolsheviks and Germany, Germany was able to transport its soldiers from the Eastern front to the western front. This transportation replaced their casualties. The British army could not replace their men and so the army shrunk. The British and German Forces came ahead on the Somme. In 1918, the German guns were launched in the largest barrage of the war. Over 1 million shells fell at the start of the battle. By the end of the day, over three million shells were fired. The Germans outnumbered the British soldiers on the ground. The Germans had it all, however, they did not count on the Americans. The Germans thought the British were tired of fighting and wanted to undermine their resolve. The Germans dropped leaflets over the front as well asking the British soldier what they were fighting for and telling them that the American help was a year away. The Somme also introduced the Storm Troopers. These soldiers were armed with guns and bayonets and grenades. They relied on speed to surprise the British soldiers. Within ninety minutes many soldiers were taken prisoner or killed. Some soldiers were taken prisoner without a shot being fired. At the end of the first day, fifty miles of the British line has fallen and the Germans advanced three miles. How could the British stop the German advance? Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more. This would be a fascinating episode to show in a World History Class. Good morning, we will continue with World War I and World War II documentaries with a look back to World War I and the logistical nightmares faced by both sides of the war. At the start of World War I, there were no trenches. The fronts were interdependent. The Germans moved men fast over railroads. So the allies had to attack all sides to split German resources.
Logistics was the challenge. There were large distances to cover. There were mountains to cross. Communications were a challenge as well. On August 17, 1914, the Russian Army invaded Germany. This would be a mobile war. Scouts went on head to get the lay of the territory. The German Army fell back one hundred miles. Two German generals were placed in charge of each of the fronts and these two generals would become more powerful than the Kaiser. The stakes were high for Germany because they were fighting to defend their native soil. Troops were brought from the western front to the eastern front by train. It would have been a baptism of fire for the soldiers who came from the Western front. The German Army stopped the Russians in their tracks and the generals were seen as the heroes of the nations. This raised the spirits of the German people. In the meantime, Austria-Hungary was fighting for survival. The Russians had invaded and threatened the heart of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Austria-Hungary would suffer defeat at this culturally important site. Many people were taken prisoners of war and were paraded in Moscow. The Germans decided to launch a major offensive against the Russians to push them back. Austrian-Hungarian soldiers were happy about the new German soldiers. The Russians were surprised and they eventually retreated. The Russian army fled from the advance and scorched the earth behind them. The Russians blamed the Jews for the war losses. Despite their service to Russia, the Jews were still blamed for the Russian losses. Once the war was over, the Russians planned to send them to Siberia. Thousands were uprooted from their homes during the war. The Jews looked to the Germans for better treatment and German officers promised them liberation from the Russians. The Germans continued to press on into the Russian empire. Poland and Lithuania were liberated. Germany repaired railways for Poland. However, the people saw these railroads as a way for Germany to collect war booty. The German army cataloged the people in conquered land and started disinfecting programs. While the larger nations fought, the smaller nations watched like vultures circling their prey. Each of these small nations had scores to settle and land they wanted back. They wanted their piece of the pie at the end of the war. Which side would they join? Who would pay them what they wanted? The price of any alliance would be high. Italy declared neutrality at the start of the war. In 1914, Italy decided to act for its good and would join the side of the highest bidder. The price the Allies offered: was huge land swaths back out of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. They would have the harshest border to fight. The Austrians had the advantage on the high ground, so would the Italians claw their way up the mountain? Tune into this episode to find out! This episode was a fascinating look at the start of the fighting. It was interesting to see that World War I did not start in trenches and that there was movement on the fronts. Another interesting tidbit was the fact that Italy was neutral and only joined up with the promise of returned lands. This would be on an episode I would consider for a classroom but if not then you can show clips because each of the chapters was divided. Good Morning, soon Thanksgiving will be upon us and November will transition into December. World War II in Numbers continues with the end of World War II. We will continue with the series World War II in Numbers.
March 1945, Hitler issued one of the most chilling orders of his regime. He gave the order to destroy everything that could help the enemy. Germany would have been totally destroyed by the order. The German commanders ignored the order. Why would Hitler order such a thing? In his mind, if Germany was defeated then they were the weaker nation and should not survive. On the other side of the world, the Japanese were willing to fight to the last man. July into August 1943, 2,300 Allied bombers reduced the city of Hamburg into rubbles. Three-quarters of the city was destroyed. A new type of plane was introduced by the Allies to the war: the fighter. These fighters could outmaneuver and outfight the German fighter pilots. These fighters could escort bombers to Germany and back again. IN the last twelve months of the war, an increasing number of bombs were dropped. The targets were Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden, Essen, Cologne, and Bremen are targeted over and over again. Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden, Essen, Cologne, and Bremen were important to the German war effort and were targeted again and again. This would have shifted war production as well as pulled forces back to Germany to defend German airspace. This meant fewer men and weapons on the front making it easier for the Allies to retake Europe. The bombings also slowed down the production of new materials for the war. The Allied forces are racing across Europe. They converge in the Ardennes Forest and encounter seventeen German divisions. The Battle of the Bulge was going to begin. The Germans gained the upper hand, but at Christmastime, the tide turned. The German tanks were gas guzzlers and it took a while to fuel up. A German recon effort found a fuel depot. This fuel would have fueled the German army to Antwerp. An American soldier and his fellow Belgian counterparts dug a trench, poured fuel in, and set the fuel on fire. This causes the soldiers to turn around. In the meantime, on the Eastern front, the generals are screaming for soldiers to slow down the Soviet progress towards Berlin. They do not get the troops they want to slow down the Soviet advance. The Red Army was marching forward into Germany. They are forty-four miles away from Berlin. The Germans continued to fight on. Propaganda was spread that the Allies were going to take revenge. The Germans fought hard against the Soviets. The Soviets took revenge to heart and there were reprisals against the Germans. The Soviet soldiers also witnessed the high standard of living that Germans had lived. This angered the soldiers and they took brutal revenge against them. Then the Soviets discovered the concentration camps. It shocked the Soviets to see such an industrial scale of the killing. The British and the Americans thought the Soviets were exaggerating until they saw the camps for themselves. The German soldiers rushed west to surrender to the British and Americans instead of facing the Soviet Army. The Soviets were getting close to Berlin and eventually, Berlin fell. Hitler had committed suicide and the German army surrendered. Then the world turned toward China and Japan. Who would emerge victorious in the final stages of World War II? Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more. This is another good series to show in the classroom because it talks about the end of the war and the numbers involved to end the war. Good morning, we are still continuing with World War I and World War II documentaries for November. This time we are coving the series Hitler’s Lost Battles. AS the war moved forward, Hitler made more decisions that would eventually cost him the war.
The year is 1942 and Germany is at war with the United States. Nazi Germany was at its breaking point. Operation Barbarossa failed to bring victory as well. Stalin’s victory forced the Germans back. Hitler had to make a choice, do a strategic withdrawal or continue on fighting. Hitler went after the Caucasus Mountains to get oil. The German blockade was effective, so the Germans needed the oil found in the Caucasus Mountains. He decides to attack. However, the distance is long and Hitler has continued to underestimate the strength of the Russian Army. So, Hitler splits his army into two. One army will take Stalingrad and the other will go after the oil in the Caucasus. Nobody could talk Hitler out of that decision. The Germany army pressed on. Hitler wanted to strike a blow against Stalin by taking Stalingrad. Stalingrad was an industrial city as well and would be a humiliating defeat for Stalin if his namesake was defeated. The Americans were coming and were supplying the Russians through the Volga. It Hitler could conquer Stalingrad, then that would stop the Americans from supplying the Russians through the Caspian Sea and the Volga River. The Battle of Stalingrad began in August and would be started with bombing. The vision was to turn Stalingrad into a ruin. However, the Germans did not factor in the difficulties of urban combat and the ruins would be great for defense. The tank, useful in an open field could not be used in the city as well. This changed the nature of the battle and the Germans had a lot of difficulty in adapting their strategies. The Germans suffered many lost but pressed on. The Germans ramped up the attacks, but the Soviets fought back district by district, house by house, and basement by basement. The Soviets replaced their forces rapidly and if there were no guns were found, they were told to take the guns of the fallen. If there were Soviet soldiers wanted to retreat, they were executed. Then winter came and the Germans were no equipped to take on the Soviet army. The Germans wanted to retreat but were told no. Supplies were limited. The Germans had to keep the army supplied during winter. The cold caused problems flying in supplies. The result is that much of the German army would die of starvation. The Germans were eventually forced to surrender and the soldiers just gave up. It was the first major defeat for the German army. Hundreds of thousands of German soldiers were taken prisoner of war. Less than 5,000 German soldiers made it back to Germany after the war. The Germans lost one million men. The Battle of Stalingrad was a turning point in the war. Meanwhile in Africa the Americans and the Britons were making inroads into North Africa. In 1942, the Allies opened a second front: North Africa. This would have given them a platform to invade Europe. The Germans started suffering defeat after defeat in Africa. However, much like in Stalingrad, Hitler refused to surrender. Little by little, the Allies take more and more of Africa and are inflicting serious casualties against the Germans. They persisted to fight onto the end. To continue to learn more about the troubles in Africa watch the rest of this documentary. This was another good episode to view. I am finding that each blunder easy to follow. This would be another potential episode to show in a history class. Since it is also a French produced documentary, you may consider showing this in a French class. Good morning, we are still continuing with World War I and World War II documentaries for November. This time we are coving the series Hitler’s Lost Battles.
It is July 1944, and the British Secret Service is putting a plan in place. Their goal was to assassinate Hitler. A man parachutes into Bavaria and he tracks down Hitler. However, the plan is abandoned. It has become clear that Hitler is the best way to defeat Germany. It has become clear that Hitler had made a series of blunders. When Britain had the chance to invade England, he pulled back allowing the army to rebuild. What other decisions did Hitler made that cost Germany the war? On May 10, 1940 Hitler attacked the Netherlands, Belgium and France all at once. This shocked the world. Hitler had divided his troops to invade three countries. The British were cornered on the North Sea. They are trapped in Dunkirk. The Germans wanted to press on, but Hitler called the attack off. This allowed the British to escape from Dunkirk. Hitler wanted to emphasize that he was in charge. He was also concerned about getting supplies to the army because the army had moved so fast the supply lines could not keep up. As a result, the British launched Operation Dynamo which allowed the British to evacuate their soldiers. Everything that could float was used to evacuate the soldiers from Dunkirk. Everyone gave a hand to help evacuate the soldiers. That did not stop the German Luftwaffe from harassing the ships. Several dozen ships were sunk as a result. The very survival of the British army was at stake. The British army was rebuilt, in the mean time the French soldiers and were sent across the Rhine as prisoners of war. Hitler tried to cut a deal with Great Britain after the French Defeat. It had everything to do that they were Anglo-Saxon descendants; therefore, they were an Aryan people. If he could make peace with Britain than he could invade Russia. However, Churchill was in charge and he was a man for war. There would be no deal with Hitler. Churchill played Hitler like a fiddle, Churchill needed time and Hitler gave it to him. England prepared for a German invasion. However, the attack came from the sky and the Luftwaffe bombed Britain instead. Goering said that he could conquer Britain in three weeks. The attack went ahead. These attacks would set Britain against the Nazis. Germany would invade the Channel Islands to help with their future invasion and launch ariel attacks. When the Battle of Britain begins the British had only 800 planes. The Luftwaffe outnumbered them. However, with their pilots and the plans maneuverability they were able to defeat the Luftwaffe. Britain also used radar to defend against the air raids. The Nazis were bombing military targets and war industry targets. Eventually London suburbs came under attack and so the British bombed Berlin as a symbolic gesture towards the Nazis. The bombing of Berlin shocked the Germans which angered Hitler. Hitler then ordered attacks on the city. London became the prime target for Nazi targets. The war industry in Britain was spared and Britain was rearming itself once again. Additionally, Britons came together to take care of each other. Despite this, over 50,000 people were killed. German losses were also high, and the Luftwaffe were facing defeat in the Battle of Britain. Tune into the rest of this episode to discover more about Hitler’s blunders during the Battle of Britain. This documentary is excellent and would be something I would show in a history classroom. World War II and World War II in numbers continue with the discussion of Blitzkrieg.
A group of men snuck across the Polish border. Their job was to seize a railroad junction in the mountains. This was going to be the first step in invading Poland. However, the attack was delayed and the Polish guards caught these men. Hitler denied everything about their plans and the Polish government believed. However, five days later the Nazis invaded Germany and after the invasion started, the Polish army blew up the railroad depot. The speed at which the Germans came shocked the Polish. What was going on was the lightning war. 1.5 million German troops were massed on the Polish border. It was the largest massing of troops since World War I. The rest of Europe wanted to avoid another World War. With the Polish nation under attack and the European powers had no choice. The Royal Air Force took to the sky to dump leaflets over Germany telling them that their leaders were going to inflict misery on the people. The French also invaded Germany for five days and then retreated. These were merely symbolic gestures. The British and French armies wanted time to prepare for war. The Poles were left on their own to fight. The Polish army was the fourth largest army in Europe and they would try to fight back against the Germans. However, the Germans were better equipped and had more technology. This advantage played into the Germans’ hands and allowed them to move with lightning speed across Poland. The Blitzkrieg Strategy stuck terror throughout the world. The Germans would punch a hole into the enemy line and then bring in the tanks to surround the enemy and surround them. The Germans used their tanks as shock weapons. The Panzer Tanks were very capable of handling the Polish Army. Still at the start of the lightning war, the Germans were still relying on horses to transport heavy armor. The German Army used more horses in World War II than they did in World War I. The Polish Army fell back to Warsaw to wait for the Allied Defense. However, they received a shock. The Germans signed a non-aggression agreement with the Soviets. Stalin then marched his army into Poland and seized control of half of Poland. Warsaw finally had to surrender. The Western powers allowed it to happen. Once in control, the Nazis started to murder thousands of Poles. This was going to be a different kind of war. Five hundred thirty-one Polish towns were raised and thousands of civilians were murdered. At the end of the war, 17% of the Polish people were killed. Thousands more escaped and would join up with the British Army to start their own divisions to liberate Poland. The French were extremely reluctant to go to war. The trauma of the first war still lived in their memory. To prevent this, the French-built tunnels and defenses along the German borders. They just worked to keep the Germans out. When this series of defenses came to Belgium, the Belgians refused to let them build the defenses citing it would violate their neutrality. Hitler turned his attention toward Norway. He would use the Norwegian coastline to launch his U-Boat fleet. The British sent a token defense to Norway but Norway would fall to the Nazis. This invasion finally forced Neville Chamberlain to resign which would clear the way for Winston Churchill. What would happen during this war? Tune into the rest of this episode to find out. The interesting section in this documentary was the invasion of Finland, which is something I have never heard about. Otherwise this is one episode to skip in the classroom. Good morning we will continue with our exploration of World War I and World War II. This time we are going back to World War II.
Pearl Harbor has been attacked and the Japanese Admiral feared that they had awakened a sleeping giant. Admiral Yamamoto predicted that the Japanese would have success in the Pacific for the first six months but if the war went longer than he expected nothing. He had lived in the United States and had some insights into what America was. Admiral Yamamoto’s predictions came true. How did the United States turn around its defeat? The United States built up its army from the eighteenth in the world to the second in the world. The navy was built up from 1,000 ships to 5,500 ships. It was a speedy turnaround after Pearl Harbor. The high numbers of supplies that the United States produced were war-winning. On December 11, 1941, Nazi Germany declared war on the United States. Hitler played into Roosevelt’s hands. Americans were reluctant to fight in another European War. By declaring war against the United States, the Americans could go and fight on both fronts. The United States would fight a containment war against Japan, focusing its efforts on Germany first. At first, the United States Army was small, even smaller than Portugal. Even as the war progressed, the army got bigger. The Navy was the size of the Japanese Navy. After Pearl Harbor, those numbers were reduced, which tipped the numbers in Japan’s favor. However, the American Navy still had its three aircraft carriers. The aircraft carriers were sent to the safety of the California coast. President Roosevelt then asked for a large budget to fight the war and the war budget was increased, a majority of the funding went to rearmament. More people also had to pay taxes to fund the war. Then he turned to private enterprise to build the materials needed to fight the war. American Enterprise turned the tide of war in the Allies’ favor. The most powerful American industrialist met in Washington DC to sign contracts for defense production. The business owners took those contracts signed them, and immediately put people to work for defense production. The unemployment rate fell and wages went up. The American Experience with mass production because of the auto industry would help with the war effort. Over 640,000 jeeps were produced in American Factories during the war. Some of the American Companies had a head start on war production. Ford had made vehicles for Germany. Adolph Hitler admired Henry Ford and had a portrait of Henry Ford in his office. Ford had contracts in Germany for German rearmament. Edsel Ford would go on to build a liberator bomber using mass production. Edsel had a factory built to build these aircraft. One aircraft every sixty-three minutes came out of the Ford plants. However, with the high number of men going to the front, a void was created in the workplace. Women would step into that place and work for the war effort. In 1945, 19,000,000 women were employed. The Axis factories were also trying to keep up with production and the Axis powers needed oil. Japan expanded to find oil. Germany lost an army in Stalingrad to find oil. Germany and the Japanese had to find oil. The Germans had to produce synthetic oil to help with the war effort. Would this oil be enough to turn the tide in the favor of the Axis powers? Tune into the rest of this episode to find out about how the defense industry turned the tide of World War II. This would be a good episode to show in both an American and World history class about World War II. Good morning, we are continuing with our World War I and World War II documentaries for November with another episode from the series World War I. The Timeline YouTube channel has split this episode up into smaller sections for easy viewing and that is a really nice feature of this episode.
Germany looked to spread the war into the Middle East and Africa and allied with the Ottoman Empire. The vast British Empire was hard to defend and hard to lose. The war was going to become global with Germany’s effort. Germany wanted to take the pressure off its armies in Europe by invading other places. This meant men and supplies would be sent elsewhere as well as others could do their fighting. Britain wanted to stop this from happening and would use the navy to stop it. The German Navy was a scattered fleet and they all were connected to Berlin by wireless. The biggest German fleet was stationed in China. The British could not attack this fleet and so turned to Japan. The Japanese navy seized the chance to expand and attacked the German fleet in China. Japanese and British soldiers fought together to take this fleet. Germany did not want to lose this fleet or the town it was based. Japanese took the town, however, the German fleet escaped. This turned the German fleet on the world. The naval officers had free reign to damage the enemy as much as they could. The fleet would meet the British fleet in the Falklands. They engaged and the British lost two ships. Another naval captain was wreaking havoc on British shipping in the Indian Ocean. This was having an impact on the British war effort. Things turned around for the British in the Falklands when they defeated the German navy. The British then turned their attention to Africa. In the meantime, the Germans were making overtures to the Ottomans to expand the war in the Middle East. The Ottoman Empire had lost its territories in failed wars and was trying to modernize the country. The Minister of War had seen Germany as a potential ally. Germany was not a danger to the Ottoman Empire. The Kaiser was trying to court the Ottoman Empire. There were rumors that he became a Muslim and went on a Pilgrimage to Mecca. He saw the Ottomans as someone who could be told what to do. In 1914, they formatted an alliance. The Ottomans declared a holy war against the Russians. They started the war in the middle of Winter. This was an error because the soldiers who were facing the cold were ill-equipped for the cold weather. Many died due to the cold. The soldiers would go to sleep and never wake up again. The guns froze up due to the cold as well. The Ottoman’s first grand offensive ended in catastrophe The Ottomans blamed the Armenian population for their defeat. The Armenians would pay a heavy price for this belief. The Armenians would be massacred and expelled from their country. Severe measures were taken against the Armenians. It was a disaster for the Armenian people. Many died from starvation. Would the Ottoman involvement in the war turn the tide towards Germany? Tune into the rest of this documentary to find out more about how the Ottomans got involved in World War I. This episode was a fascinating look at a front that does not get explored too much when the unit on World War I comes around. I have never heard of how the Ottomans got involved in World War I, only that they were involved. So if I was a teacher this would be one episode I would consider showing to the class. We will be throwing the clock back and will be reviewing a documentary on the start of World War I.
World War I started with a wrong turn. It was the most destructive war that had ever been. It was the first genuine global war. It was fought in the mountains, the sky, and the deserts. America was launched as a world power. The roots of World War II and the Cold War are found in this war. The Balkans took center stage in the war. It was fought over by the Austrian Empire, Russian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire. So how did this region spark the first world war? The Ottoman Empire had its roots deep into the Balkans, but the Serbians had tossed off their Turkish masters and established independence. However, there was an enemy to the north that wanted to challenge Serbian independence: the Austrian Hungarian Empire. Emperor Franz Joseph ruled the joint Austrian-Hungarian Empire and had been in charge of the Empire for sixty-six years. He had resisted a lot of change. The Serbians believed the Austrian-Hungarian Empire to be a repressive state. However, the Austrian-Hungarian Empire kept the peace in Europe. They were a multinational empire. Despite this, they were in a state of crisis. This would give her enemies opportunities to break away from the Empire. The Serbians were happy with this internal crisis because they could incorporate the Slavs into one superstate in the South: Yugoslavia. A secret military society the Black Hand was formed. They would use assassination and terrorism as their tools to bring about Yugoslavia. Gavril Princip was in Belgrade talking revolution with his friends. He had heard that Franz Ferdinand was going to visit Bosnia and observe the troop movements in the mountains of Sarajevo. Princip wanted to take action against Franz Ferdinand. For the Black Hand, the Austrian troops were just a smokescreen for an invasion of Serbia. The Black Hand okayed the assassination attempt. In 1914, Franz Ferdinand was Emperor in Waiting. In fact, his portrait was painted wearing the stars of an Emperor. He was a man who made his own way. He married a woman who was not of royal blood. He also had radical ideas for reform and it was a way to protect the empire and his own future as emperor. He toasted peace and wanted to avoid war. He did not see what was coming. Franz Ferdinand chooses to make his appearance in Sarajevo on their national day. The Serbian Ambassador warned them against making the trip. The Austrians laughed off the warning. Even with the warning, security was light. A bomb was thrown at Franz Ferdinand and his wife. The bomb missed and Franz Ferdinand made his way to the Town Hall. Franz Ferdinand left after visiting7 the town hall he made his way to the car. A driver made a wrong turn and was assassinated. Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie died on their way to the hospital. The Governor of Bosnia called for Austria to revenge for the assassination. Serbia must learn to fear the Austrians again. In a twist, a man who wanted peace was quickly becoming a rallying point for the war. War with Serbia was going to be unavoidable. What would happen if was declared? Who would fight in this war, after all it was just a local fight? Surely nobody else would declare war on Serbia, would they? Tune into the rest of this documentary to find out more about the start of World War I. This is an excellent documentary to show for a history class. |
Author
The reviews I do are my opinion and my opinion only. My opinions should always be taken with a grain of salt. I just want to help teachers out selecting documentaries. Worksheets
My Teachers Pay Teachers Store! Worksheets available as a Word Document.
Lulu Store
I am also on Lulu! If you're interested in genealogy I have several books available!
Archives
November 2024
Categories
All
Privacy Policy
HistoryDocTube will not collect any personal information and will not sell any personal information to a third party. We will not request any personal information.
The purpose of this blog is to share information on what can be used in a classroom, private school, or home school setting as well as serve as a portfolio of my personal and professional work. The reviews are my opinions and should be treated as such. I just want to provide a tool for teachers to select documentaries for their classrooms. |