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WatchMojo
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From epic military blunders to disastrous political choices, human history is littered with terrible decisions that changed everything. Join us as we count down the most catastrophic judgment calls ever made! From igniting world wars to environmental disasters, these choices reshaped nations and cost millions of lives.
Transcript
00:00:00Anyone with half a brain knew that the Treaty of Versailles was essentially the starting gun
00:00:05for the Second World War. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the
00:00:1075 most outrageous decisions in the entirety of human history. In Berlin, 1945, there was a sense
00:00:18of impending doom. The optimists were learning English, the pessimists, Russian. Number 75,
00:00:24Thomas Austin infesting Australia with rabbits. You might not expect it, as they're adorable,
00:00:30but rabbits are a highly invasive species in Australia. It's the biggest mammal invasion
00:00:35that's ever happened on planet Earth, as far as we know. They destroy tons of crops every year,
00:00:40and were introduced sometime in the 18th century. Rabbits first arrived with the First Fleet in 1787,
00:00:47the first major Australian colonization fleet. Things got out of hand in 1859, when settler
00:00:53Thomas Austin brought 24 rabbits to his property, so that they could have some fun shooting them.
00:00:58In 2022, a study confirmed that pretty much all of Australia's rabbits come from Austen's.
00:01:03It's just one of many examples of outrageous ideas Victorians came up with before patting
00:01:08themselves on the back, as if they had done some sort of excellent job.
00:01:11Controlling invasive animals is not a solution that gives everyone the warm and fuzzy feelings,
00:01:16but if you don't do it, the problem isn't going to go away.
00:01:21Number 74, the Deepwater Horizon Spill. In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig exploded,
00:01:29killing 11 people and spilling tons of oil across the Gulf of Mexico.
00:01:33The U.S. Coast Guard received a mayday from the bridge and flashed this distress call.
00:01:39The Deepwater Horizon on fire, with all persons off the vessel, the person in the water.
00:01:44It's considered the worst oil spill of all time,
00:01:46and hopefully it stays that way as long as those responsible learn their lesson.
00:01:50BP was found to be responsible by a judge in 2014,
00:01:54and they were made to pay $20.8 billion in fines.
00:01:58They were extremely negligent leading up to the explosion.
00:02:01For instance, they executed a negative pressure test,
00:02:04which they decided went swimmingly, but as hindsight has shown,
00:02:08that was not at all the case.
00:02:09Describing the oil giant's role in the disaster,
00:02:13a U.S. judge has ruled that BP was grossly negligent and reckless.
00:02:17Number 73, the Battle of Adrianople.
00:02:20The Roman Empire split into two during its final centuries.
00:02:23The first signs of the empire being torn apart in its very fabric
00:02:27is the crisis of the 3rd century.
00:02:30You've got revolts, you've got civil war, hyperinflation, and a string of useless emperors.
00:02:37While the Eastern Roman Empire wouldn't fall until 1453,
00:02:41the Western Roman Emperor was deposed in 476.
00:02:44A lot of scholars believe the West's decline
00:02:47began with the catastrophic Battle of Adrianople in 378.
00:02:51It was a strategic disaster for the Eastern Army,
00:02:53who were decimated by Gothic rebels.
00:02:56Emperor Valens died, along with approximately two-thirds of the Roman military.
00:03:00It was unique, as the Goths were fleeing Hunnic invasions,
00:03:03so they were seeking a permanent home, as opposed to loot.
00:03:06Rome has been beaten on its home turf,
00:03:09and now many, many, many barbarian tribes will start to feel that they can do the same thing.
00:03:16Perception is everything in this, and the Romans are seen to be weak.
00:03:20They're on the way down.
00:03:21This set a terrifying precedent for the Romans,
00:03:24which led to a domino effect of them essentially playing whack-a-mole with foreign invasions,
00:03:28who sought to settle within the empire as the Goths did.
00:03:31Number 72, Thatcher's Worst Policies.
00:03:34Depending on who you're talking to,
00:03:37ex-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is either the Iron Lady or the Milk Snatcher.
00:03:41I have only one thing to say.
00:03:44You turn if you want to.
00:03:45The latter name comes from the fact that she abolished free milk in schools.
00:03:59One of her most inhumane laws was Section 28, which outlawed, quote,
00:04:03promoting homosexuality in schools.
00:04:05Keep in mind, she was in charge from 1979 until 1990,
00:04:09during the peak of the HIV-AIDS pandemic.
00:04:12Thatcher also decimated the British manufacturing industry,
00:04:15leading to major unemployment and strikes across the nation.
00:04:18The jeering began as soon as the Prime Minister set foot in one of West Yorkshire's most depressed areas,
00:04:23but she ignored the first group to talk to some of her younger supporters.
00:04:26Also, Thatcher supported capital punishment and went to war with Argentina.
00:04:31In the end, she introduced the poll tax,
00:04:33which was so controversial that she ended up losing control over the Tory party.
00:04:37Number 71. Pushing out the Ba'athists in Iraq
00:04:41Between 1968 and 2003, Iraq was ruled by the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party.
00:04:47It ended with the American invasion in 2003.
00:04:50Those who were on high before, in particular the Ba'athists,
00:04:54A promise to purge the Iraqi government.
00:04:56The Iraqi people will be removed from office.
00:04:58America decided to oust Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist government.
00:05:02Many government officials then went on to join a terrorist group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
00:05:07which became known as Al-Qaeda in 2004.
00:05:10After two years, they united with seven other groups to form the Islamic State of Iraq,
00:05:14better known as ISIS.
00:05:16While America sought to make Iraq democratic,
00:05:18many critics believed that banning an entire party was undemocratic.
00:05:22So there was widespread disaffection among the tribes.
00:05:25They began to engage in a series of protests against the regime.
00:05:29This led to the Islamic State's invasion of Iraq in the 2010s,
00:05:32where they almost took over the entire region.
00:05:34Number 70.
00:05:36The Supreme Court Presidential Immunity Ruling.
00:05:39America is a country founded in opposition to rulers who wield absolute power.
00:05:43This means you would expect them to dislike the idea of presidential immunity.
00:05:47The Supreme Court declared that former President Donald Trump
00:05:50is immune from criminal prosecution for any so-called official act taken as president.
00:05:56Unfortunately, this isn't the case, and the president is now above the law.
00:06:00This led to President Trump getting away with a whole bunch of illegal activities
00:06:04during his first presidency.
00:06:06In 2024, he became the first ex-president convicted of felony crimes.
00:06:10Then, after the election, he became the first felon president.
00:06:14They really have set a framework for all future presidents.
00:06:17Many criticized the decision as turning America into a dictatorship,
00:06:21and now consider him the most powerful president in U.S. history.
00:06:25Number 69.
00:06:26The U.S. and China Trade War
00:06:28For decades, America has had an increasing trade deficit with China.
00:06:33In simple terms, this means America gives China more money than it gives back.
00:06:37Trade tensions between the U.S. and China are intensifying yet again
00:06:40ahead of President Trump's expected meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
00:06:44This is because China manufactures far more products than America.
00:06:47To solve the issue, Donald Trump decided to introduce extortionate tariffs on all Chinese imports.
00:06:53Trump believes this will motivate a re-industrialization of the United States.
00:06:57Many economists don't believe tariffs are an effective way to achieve this.
00:07:01Turns out, the economists were correct, as America needs China more than China needs them.
00:07:06What does that actually mean, and who does it impact?
00:07:08Well, the American consumer.
00:07:10Specifically, as it relates to autos, cell phones,
00:07:14it impacts our defense sector as well as they need those rare earth minerals.
00:07:18At least Trump never followed through with putting tariffs on literally every foreign country,
00:07:23which is basically self-sanctioning.
00:07:25Number 68.
00:07:26The Fall of Dien Bien Phu
00:07:28France first began invading Vietnam in 1858 and finished the conquest by 1885.
00:07:35This led to the formation of French Indochina, which existed until 1954.
00:07:39It was a battle that lasted two months, left thousands dead,
00:07:43and saw the end of the first Indochina War and France's colonialism in Asia.
00:07:48Japan invaded in World War II.
00:07:50Then, after their surrender, Vietnam proclaimed independence, but France wasn't having it.
00:07:55A lengthy war ensued, with France failing in 1954 at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu.
00:08:01They chose a terrible position to defend, and underestimated the enemy forces.
00:08:06The French assumed they wouldn't have any artillery, but they were proven wrong.
00:08:09In a surprise, heavy bombardment, French supply routes were cut,
00:08:13and supply airfields damaged and put out of action.
00:08:16This poor mistake, motivated by hubris, led to their loss of Indochina.
00:08:20It wasn't a poor decision from Vietnam's perspective,
00:08:23although afterwards, things got far worse in Vietnam before they got better.
00:08:28Number 67.
00:08:29The Alamo.
00:08:30The turning point for Texas in its six-month revolution, beginning in 1835, was the Alamo.
00:08:35Texas is a province of Mexico, a rebellious province of Mexico,
00:08:40even before the Americans had arrived.
00:08:42It has since become mythologized by Texans, who consider it one of their finest moments.
00:08:47A major motivation for the revolution was to maintain legal slavery in Texas,
00:08:51which is often overlooked.
00:08:53In actuality, the Alamo was a major strategic miscalculation.
00:08:57It was defended by approximately 200 soldiers, who mostly perished fighting 2,000 Mexicans.
00:09:02They became martyrs afterwards, boosting morale for all Texans who fought against Mexico.
00:09:06The Alamo, in its day, gave them a moral cause.
00:09:12And so they raced into subsequent battles, saying, remember the Alamo.
00:09:16And of course, Texans have been remembering the Alamo ever since.
00:09:19Except for that defending the Alamo provided no strategic advantage.
00:09:22Still, it was a major turning point, and Texas won the war in April 1836.
00:09:28Slavery then became fully legal again in Texas, and stayed that way until 1865.
00:09:33Number 66. The FCC Repealing Net Neutrality
00:09:37Net neutrality is the idea that all data should be treated equally.
00:09:41What exactly are they voting on?
00:09:42What's happening is that the FCC is voting to undo its net neutrality rules,
00:09:45which are a set of regulations for internet providers that
00:09:48currently prohibit them from blocking websites or slowing them down.
00:09:53Without it, your internet service provider can choose what websites it wants you to see
00:09:57and how quickly they load.
00:09:58This means an ISP could take money from wealthy companies, and in return,
00:10:03they could make their websites load quickly.
00:10:05This means websites you enjoy could end up taking hours to load if they don't cough up to your ISP.
00:10:10In 2017, the FCC made enemies out of the entire internet when it began repealing
00:10:16net neutrality protections.
00:10:17People have tried bringing net neutrality back, but as of 2025, it isn't protected on a federal level.
00:10:24Net neutrality on the state level has prevailed. So California, for example, has net neutrality.
00:10:29That battle is more or less solved. And what the FCC is trying to do is put in place rules,
00:10:35including net neutrality, that allowed them to nationalize and then further regulate the provision of broadband.
00:10:42Number 65. The Battle of Cannae.
00:10:44The Roman Republic's greatest enemy was hands down Hannibal.
00:10:48The genius Carthaginian general rode across the Alps on elephants, then famously wreaked havoc
00:10:53upon Roman Italy for years. This was the Second Punic War, lasting from 218 to 201 BC.
00:11:00Rome made tons of mistakes, such as the Battle of Cannae.
00:11:04The ensuing battle would be one of the bloodiest ever fought.
00:11:08Hannibal fought an army almost twice as big as his, but as Rome soon learned,
00:11:13the only way they could beat Hannibal was not to fight him. Sources disagree on exact figures,
00:11:18but we know for certain the entire Roman army, roughly 80,000 strong, was either killed or captured,
00:11:24with only a few escapees.
00:11:26They will be surrounded on three sides. They will have nowhere to go but backwards.
00:11:32The Romans became too confident, falling for Hannibal's trap, which encircled their entire army.
00:11:38Number 64. Robespierre Killing Dissenters.
00:11:41As the name suggests, the Reign of Terror was one of the most violent periods of the French Revolution.
00:11:46One man would rise to inspire the nation, would cast aside a reluctant king and a hated queen,
00:11:53and a new republic would be born in blood.
00:11:57It's generally considered to have taken place from 1793 to 1794,
00:12:01until the end of Maximilien Robespierre.
00:12:04He was one of the most influential Jacobins during the Revolution,
00:12:07and a major motivator behind the Reign of Terror.
00:12:10It was a period when the French Republic executed tons of political opponents,
00:12:14many without trial.
00:12:16Robespierre oversaw this bloodshed, but in July 1794,
00:12:20he was arrested after making a controversial speech to the National Convention.
00:12:24Robespierre announced he was going to execute internal conspirators,
00:12:27but wouldn't name them.
00:12:28The convention responded by sending him to the guillotine,
00:12:31before he could do the same to them.
00:12:33What they understood by terror was striking terror into the hearts of the enemies of the republic,
00:12:40so that they would be either scared straight, as it were, or arrested and disposed of.
00:12:47Number 63.
00:12:49The Boer Wars.
00:12:50Dutch settlers formed Boer republics in South Africa during the 19th century.
00:12:53These wretchedly poor countries were perceived by the British to be of no value or importance,
00:12:58and in 1852 and 1854, they were respectively granted independence.
00:13:05The problem of the Boers had, it seemed, been solved.
00:13:09This brought them into conflict with the British Empire,
00:13:11which fought them in two separate wars.
00:13:13The first was from 1880 until 1881,
00:13:17and the second was from 1899 until 1902.
00:13:20The latter was one of the earliest uses of concentration camps in warfare.
00:13:25Both are largely considered tactical blunders,
00:13:27as Britain sent hundreds of thousands of soldiers to overwhelm the relatively small Boer forces.
00:13:32Despite winning the Second War, it came at a great cost of human life.
00:13:36There was growing concern in Britain about the morality of the war and of spiraling costs.
00:13:41Many argue it was the beginning of the end for the British Empire,
00:13:44which committed countless atrocities, all to loot South Africa of its natural resources.
00:13:49Number 62.
00:13:51The Battle of Karai.
00:13:52Next is yet another major defeat for the Roman Republic.
00:13:55This time, it happened near Karai, in present-day Southeast Turkey.
00:13:59They were fighting against the Parthian Empire,
00:14:01an Iranian power that spread from Turkey to India.
00:14:04The Romans were being led by Crassus,
00:14:06who did a disastrous job at planning his invasion.
00:14:09This resulted in the Battle of Karai in 53 BC,
00:14:12where roughly 40,000 Romans were destroyed by a force which they outnumbered four to one.
00:14:18Crassus was killed in the battle after they fell for the Parthians' trap,
00:14:21which led them into terrible terrain.
00:14:24Rome fought the empire for 270 years in total,
00:14:27then continued to fight their successors in the region well into the Middle Ages.
00:14:31Number 61.
00:14:33Sending troops to Tiananmen Square.
00:14:34After the death of Mao, China underwent the New Enlightenment movement during the 80s.
00:14:40This culminated in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests,
00:14:43with hundreds of thousands of individuals calling for democracy in China.
00:14:47They turned Tiananmen Square, the country's symbol of sovereignty,
00:14:50into a hub of dissent and protest.
00:14:53They want a crackdown on corruption.
00:14:55They want freedom of press.
00:14:56They call for an awakening to reform and progress in China.
00:14:59Things eventually got violent, prompting Deng Xiaoping's government to send in the military,
00:15:04which massacred the protesters.
00:15:06The event is still massively censored in China,
00:15:08with the younger generation only really learning about it when they travel abroad.
00:15:12It's unlikely that China will ever transition to a Western-style democracy in our lifetimes.
00:15:18It might surprise you to learn that a 2022 survey showed that over 80% of Chinese people consider China a democracy.
00:15:25Number 60.
00:15:26The Swedish Invasion of Russia.
00:15:28If you're not big on history, it might surprise you to learn that Sweden used to be one of Europe's strongest nations.
00:15:34Their empire dominated the Baltic Sea during the 17th century.
00:15:37Their downfall came when they decided to invade Russia in 1708.
00:15:41Russia is infamously difficult to invade, due to its size and harsh winters.
00:15:46The invasion started strongly, but the Russians used a scorched earth strategy and retreated inland,
00:15:51letting the great frost of 1709 decimate the Swedes.
00:15:54Only 543 men followed King Charles XII out of Russia.
00:15:59It was part of the larger Great Northern War, waged from 1700 until 1721, which was a major loss for Sweden.
00:16:07Number 59.
00:16:08The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
00:16:11Death begets death, begets more death, is the sad takeaway from most historical wars.
00:16:16But there are few clearer examples than that of Archduke Franz Ferdinand's demise.
00:16:22Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
00:16:27Today, he will be assassinated.
00:16:30This is the spark which will ignite the First World War.
00:16:33His assassination at the hands of Bosnian revolutionaries proved to be the match that ignited a powder keg of anger and vitriol between countries.
00:16:41It started as diplomatic machinations, which turned into military operations and soon escalated into the full-on declaration of World War I.
00:16:49It was a terrorist group, the Black Hand, that killed the Archduke.
00:16:53But by blaming the Serbian government, not the terrorists, Austrian hardliners saw a chance to take care of troublemaking Serbia once and for all.
00:17:04Things quickly spiraled out of control.
00:17:06The Bosnian assassins couldn't have known that by killing one man, they were effectively dooming as many as 22 million people to the same fate.
00:17:15Number 58.
00:17:16Operation Rolling Thunder.
00:17:17America came up with a variety of tactics to gain the upper hand during the Vietnam War.
00:17:21One of their worst tactics was Operation Rolling Thunder.
00:17:24On March 2nd, America launches its biggest military deployment in a decade.
00:17:39Operation Rolling Thunder.
00:17:41As the name suggests, it consisted of carpet bombing the Vietnamese countryside.
00:17:45They hoped to destroy communist supply lines, but foliage became the main victim of the operation.
00:17:52Vietnamese forces used effective guerrilla tactics, such as underground shelters, which protected them from bombs.
00:17:58On top of this, they frequently recycled American bombs, then threw them straight back at them.
00:18:03This, as well as peace talks, led to it only being used from 1965 until 1968, after which it was then abandoned.
00:18:10They oppose the draft and the surging death toll among troops and civilians.
00:18:16They say the war is illegal and immoral.
00:18:21Demonstrations across the country bear witness to the growing unrest.
00:18:24Number 57.
00:18:25The Munich Agreement.
00:18:27Appeasement was a policy cooked up by British politicians in the 1930s, which they hoped would prevent Europe from breaking out into another war.
00:18:34Despite Hitler's aggressive rearmament, Western powers remained largely inactive.
00:18:40Instead, they pursued a strategy known as appeasement.
00:18:43The policy of acceding to the demands of a potentially hostile nation in the hope of maintaining peace.
00:18:49With World War I still on everyone's minds, they believed that letting Germany break a few terms of the Treaty of Versailles would help avoid it.
00:18:56This culminated in the Munich Agreement in 1938, which ceded a vast portion of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany.
00:19:03Controversially, Czechoslovakia wasn't even invited to the talks.
00:19:07This was held between the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, and Italy, who collectively reached and signed an agreement.
00:19:14The Czech leaders were not invited to attend the Munich Conference at Hitler's insistence.
00:19:20He refused to tolerate their attendance.
00:19:22This led to riots in Czechoslovakia.
00:19:24As we now know, this did not prevent war.
00:19:28It only made it harder to win.
00:19:29Europe was understandably hesitant to declare war on Germany.
00:19:33If they had instead fought Hitler sooner, Germany would be weaker and the war might have been less bloody.
00:19:38But we can't say for certain.
00:19:40Number 56. Faulty Equipment Causes Nuclear Accident
00:19:44The most disastrous nuclear accident in American history happened on March 28, 1979 at the Three Mile Island nuclear facility.
00:19:51What is happening on Three Mile Island on this March night was never adequately planned for.
00:19:57It was caused by a handful of factors relating to poor equipment and operators' mishandling of the reactor.
00:20:03This caused one reactor to partially melt down, releasing a worrying amount of radioactive waste into the surroundings.
00:20:09Thankfully, they believe no one was hurt in the accident.
00:20:12It also led to an improvement in safety standards, which sought to prevent the disaster from repeating.
00:20:18Five frightening days in the spring of 1979 changed forever the face of nuclear power in America.
00:20:25They ended the nation's blind infatuation with the atomic miracle.
00:20:30Almost 50 years later, there have been no nuclear disasters in America that come close to the scale of Three Mile Island.
00:20:37Number 55. The Balfour Declaration
00:20:39The modern-day conflict between Palestine and Israel can be traced back to the Balfour Declaration of 1917.
00:20:46Arthur Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary, penned a letter that would change the face of the Middle East.
00:20:52It was a pledge by Britain that aimed to create a, quote, national home for the Jewish people.
00:20:57They chose Palestine to be their home, ignoring the fact that Palestinians already lived there, which made it controversial.
00:21:04After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, Palestine was ruled by the British Empire from 1920 onwards.
00:21:10It was considered a betrayal after Britain had already promised they would recognize Arab independence in 1915 in exchange for helping fight the Ottomans.
00:21:18It was one of many examples of a colonialist European power dictating the fate of a non-European one, with effects that are still felt today.
00:21:26The context is colonization. Those three forces, those three powers, are colonized powers.
00:21:31And they divided the land of what's so-called the Levant in that context.
00:21:36And they left Palestine in a way that, without a political status.
00:21:43Number 54. Refusing to aid the Irish Famine
00:21:46The population of Ireland peaked in 1841, when just over 8 million people called it home.
00:21:52From 1845 to 1852, the Great Famine caused one of the worst population declines in history.
00:21:58But in 1846, the blight returned.
00:22:02And that year destroyed almost the entire crop, leaving millions of poor Irish people to face starvation.
00:22:11Around 1 million Irish died, and another 1 million fled to places such as America.
00:22:16It was caused by a potato blight, which ruined Ireland's food supply.
00:22:20Their colonial overlords in the British Empire failed to help in any meaningful manner.
00:22:25They tried importing a small quantity of maize and cornmeal, then decided the market would naturally solve the famine.
00:22:31Some English officials, like Sir Charles Trevelyan, were so brutal that they believed the famine would be beneficial to them.
00:22:37Even today, in the 21st century, Ireland has still not returned to the population levels of 1845.
00:22:47Number 53. The Bengal Famine
00:22:49If you thought Britain would have learned from its mistakes after the Irish Famine, think again.
00:22:54In 1943, colonial Bengal began suffering from one of the most savage famines in history.
00:22:59Well, I do think that it is one of the examples of brutality and, you know, oppression, exploitation of the British government.
00:23:15It was caused by a cyclone and World War II, but it was made far worse by Winston Churchill.
00:23:21The British Prime Minister was quoted as pinning the blame on the locals, who he said bred, quote,
00:23:25like rabbits. One of the primary reasons he barely helped was to deny Imperial Japan resources.
00:23:31Between 1942 and 1945, Japan occupied modern-day Myanmar, which neighbored British India.
00:23:38So, helping Bengal may have helped the Japanese, but that doesn't change the fact that millions died in the famine.
00:23:44But I don't think we can blame Churchill for causing it.
00:23:47What we can say is that he didn't alleviate it or send relief when he had the ability to do so.
00:23:55We can blame him for prioritizing white lives and European lives over South Asian lives.
00:24:03Number 52. Starting the First Opium War
00:24:06No war highlights how contradictory the British Empire's existence was.
00:24:10They considered themselves a civilizing force, while at the same time, they got an entire country hooked on opium.
00:24:17The British grew opium poppies in India.
00:24:19There, they processed it in factories on a colossal scale.
00:24:28Finally, it was shipped to China and sold to smugglers.
00:24:33With the profits, British traders bought Chinese tea.
00:24:37Britain had an increasing trade deficit with China, from buying tea and other commodities.
00:24:41But China didn't buy anything back.
00:24:43So, they sought to solve the issue by flooding their nation with opium grown in British India,
00:24:48which China understandably decided to ban.
00:24:50The British argued it wasn't immoral, as they considered Chinese people a lesser race.
00:24:55While the British were primarily to blame, China's ruling Qing dynasty also made mistakes.
00:25:01The emperor refused to admit it was a war, instead calling it a border dispute,
00:25:05and didn't give the invasion the attention it deserved.
00:25:08The Chinese had no choice but to surrender and to open five ports to British trade.
00:25:14China had been forced to enter the modern global economy.
00:25:19Number 51.
00:25:20The Partition of Palestine
00:25:22Since 1947, the region of Palestine has been separated into two nations, Palestine and Israel.
00:25:29This decision was made by the United Nations, despite the local Arab population rejecting it entirely.
00:25:34Britain relinquished its mandate, and the state of Israel was born in 1948.
00:25:39A day after its adoption, a war between Palestine and Israel broke out, which lasted until 1949, ending with an Israeli victory.
00:25:47The region has been suffering since, with many criticizing Israel for its oppressive regime,
00:25:52which gives Palestinians fewer rights than Israelis.
00:25:55In the years following the Oslo Peace Accords, Palestine was divided even further,
00:26:00leaving more than 60% of the occupied West Bank under direct control of the Israeli military.
00:26:06Today, about 700,000 Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank in roughly 300 settlements and outposts,
00:26:13all of which are illegal under international law.
00:26:15Many say it's apartheid.
00:26:17And in recent years, Israel has been internationally condemned for what multiple organizations consider
00:26:22a full-blown genocide of Palestinians.
00:26:25Number 50. Spartacus Splits His Army
00:26:27Spartacus led one of the most famous slave uprisings in history, but a key decision likely doomed the rebellion.
00:26:34Whatever twist of fate brought Spartacus to slavery, it's clear he will not accept it idly.
00:26:40And Crixus will share his destiny.
00:26:43At one point, he agreed to split his forces.
00:26:46His co-commander Crixus took a large portion of the army's self.
00:26:49There's a reason why divide and conquer is a popular military strategy.
00:26:54Spartacus' move weakened the overall strength of his army.
00:26:57Worse, it allowed Roman generals to defeat each force separately.
00:27:01Crixus and his followers were crushed, costing Spartacus thousands of seasoned fighters.
00:27:06Gellius made a sudden surprise attack on Crixus' forces,
00:27:10who, because of their arrogance, had separated from Spartacus.
00:27:13The historian Apian.
00:27:18Crixus was in command of 30,000 men.
00:27:21Two-thirds perished, including Crixus himself.
00:27:25Although Spartacus continued to fight bravely, the rebellion slowly unraveled.
00:27:29His dream of reaching safety and freedom collapsed under the weight of Rome's growing counterattack.
00:27:35Number 49. The Winter War
00:27:37The Soviet Union thought it would crush Finland in weeks.
00:27:40Instead, it waded into a frozen nightmare in 1939.
00:27:45The plan of the Soviet invasion was for an overwhelming onslaught everywhere it was.
00:27:50Soviet forces were severely hampered by brutal winter conditions,
00:27:54disastrous leadership, and fierce Finnish resistance.
00:27:57Commanders underestimated the terrain,
00:27:59deployed poorly trained troops,
00:28:01and failed to equip their soldiers for Arctic warfare.
00:28:03Outgunned and outnumbered,
00:28:06the Finns used guerrilla tactics and the deep snow to shred Soviet formations.
00:28:10Troops on skis outmaneuvered tanks,
00:28:12supply lines collapsed,
00:28:14and entire divisions froze or starved.
00:28:16Although Finland was eventually forced to cede territory,
00:28:19the Red Army's staggering losses shocked the world.
00:28:22What was supposed to be a quick victory
00:28:24ended up exposing massive weaknesses in Soviet military planning and command.
00:28:28The Winter War was a formidable experience that still resonates with valuable lessons.
00:28:35Don't rely too much on technology.
00:28:37Technology is important, material, strength is important,
00:28:41but skill, how you use your equipment is even more important,
00:28:45and ultimately will.
00:28:47If you don't have the will to fight, nothing else matters.
00:28:50Number 48. Trusting Rasputin
00:28:52Desperate to heal their son, who was a hemophiliac in the early 1900s,
00:28:56Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra made a deal with the devil.
00:29:00They placed their trust in a wandering mystic by the name of Grigory Rasputin.
00:29:04For Nicholas and Alexandra,
00:29:07Rasputin symbolized the simple soul of the Staritz,
00:29:11the holy man of Russian folk tradition.
00:29:14They believed that God had at last answered their prayers.
00:29:18What began as a private act of faith quickly became an international liability.
00:29:23Rasputin gained extraordinary influence at court.
00:29:25He advised on everything from politics to military appointments.
00:29:29As World War I dragged on, rumors of his manipulation, corruption, and debauchery spread like wildfire.
00:29:36Alexandra defended him fiercely, even as his presence shattered public confidence in the Romanovs.
00:29:41No matter how grotesque the evidence,
00:29:44the Tsar could not take from his wife her one hope for Alexei's survival.
00:29:49Alexandra was becoming increasingly hysterical and paid little attention to public opinion.
00:29:54Their refusal to distance themselves from his rising power fed widespread outrage.
00:29:59Many historians see his unchecked influence as one of the key decisions that helped pave the way for revolution.
00:30:05Number 47.
00:30:06The Sykes-Picot Agreement
00:30:08In secret rooms thousands of miles away, European powers drew lines across a land they didn't understand.
00:30:15Conceived in Paris and London during the dark days of World War I,
00:30:20and drawn initially with a crude chinagraph pencil,
00:30:23the secret plan to redesign the Middle East was termed as the Asia Minor Agreement,
00:30:29with vast areas under British and French influence.
00:30:32In 1916, the Sykes-Picot Agreement had Britain and France carving up the Arab world for themselves.
00:30:38By doing so, both countries broke promises made to local leaders who had fought alongside them.
00:30:43When the deal was exposed, it shattered trust and sparked outrage across the Middle East.
00:30:48The betrayal didn't just redraw borders,
00:30:51it planted seeds of bitterness that would outlast colonial rule itself.
00:30:55It didn't account for the emergence of Turkey,
00:30:58nor did it allow for the future growth of Arab nationalism.
00:31:02But it was the beginning of what we know now as the modern Middle East, for good or for bad.
00:31:08Many historians argue that the chaos and resentment fueled by Sykes-Picot laid the foundation for a century of conflict,
00:31:14insurgency, and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism.
00:31:18Number 46.
00:31:19Officials ignore warnings about Fukushima
00:31:21This wasn't a natural disaster.
00:31:24It was a preventable one.
00:31:25It was a preventable one.
00:31:26It was a preventable one.
00:31:32It was a preventable one.
00:31:37For years, experts warned that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant couldn't withstand a major tsunami.
00:31:44In 2008, TEPCO engineers even ran simulations predicting a wave over 15 meters high,
00:31:49exactly like the one that struck in 2011.
00:31:52Their own experts said the plant's defenses were inadequate.
00:31:56But leadership dismissed the data, calling the risk, quote, unrealistic.
00:32:00When the earthquake hit, followed by a towering wave, three reactors melted down.
00:32:05The tsunami flooded the nuclear power plant.
00:32:08Result?
00:32:09Massive overheating and reactors one, two, and three suffered meltdowns.
00:32:13The result was the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl,
00:32:16one that could have been avoided with basic precautions.
00:32:19Number 45.
00:32:21The Battle of Isandluana
00:32:22In 1879, the British Empire marched into Zululand with arrogance and outdated assumptions.
00:32:29On January 11, 1879, British troops invaded the independent kingdom of Zululand in Southern Africa.
00:32:36Eager for a foothold in South Africa, the Redcoats were looking to intimidate the locals.
00:32:41Confident that a, quote,
00:32:42primitive army could never stand against rifles and artillery, they underestimated their enemy at every turn.
00:32:48Worse, they made a series of catastrophic tactical errors.
00:32:53They split their forces across hostile territory, left key supply lines exposed, and ignored advice to fortify their camps.
00:33:00After being lured into a trap with a few tiny winds, the trap snapped shut at Isandluana.
00:33:05The Zulu victory at Isandluana had been extraordinarily comprehensive.
00:33:09In many ways, the headquarters detachment of the entire column had been wiped out.
00:33:14The 1,800 British soldiers were swiftly humbled as some 20,000 Zulu warriors crested the bridge.
00:33:20The British were slaughtered.
00:33:22It remains one of the most humiliating defeats in British military history.
00:33:27Number 44.
00:33:28Charles II Fails to Pay His Men
00:33:30The Second Anglo-Dutch War was supposed to secure England's dominance at sea.
00:33:35Charles' younger brother James had suggested they seize lucrative colonial possessions from the Dutch to disrupt their trading dominance.
00:33:43Charles agreed he was keen for a popular war to boost his standing.
00:33:47The war was not a success.
00:33:50Instead, it turned into a costly stalemate that drained the treasury dry.
00:33:54Facing mounting debts, King Charles II made a disastrous decision.
00:33:58He stopped paying much of the Royal Navy.
00:34:00Sailors abandoned their posts, ships rotted in harbor, and key defenses were left wide open.
00:34:06The Dutch seized their moment.
00:34:08In 1667, they launched a daring raid up the River Medway, burning and capturing dozens of English ships.
00:34:15They attacked the English fleet at anchor in the mouth of the Thames.
00:34:19Many ships were destroyed, and it remains one of the greatest disasters in the history of the Royal Navy.
00:34:24The humiliation forced Charles to sue for peace on Dutch terms.
00:34:28One bad money-saving move devastated England's Navy and shattered England's naval reputation for a generation.
00:34:35Number 43. The Charge of the Light Brigade
00:34:38Few battlefield blunders are as famous, or as costly, as the 1854 Charge of the Light Brigade.
00:34:45Tennyson's famous poem put romanticized lipstick on a historical pig.
00:34:48But it is the men of the Light Brigade, and their valiant Doom Charge,
00:34:53immortalized in Tennyson's memorable poem, who are now part of British military folklore.
00:34:59During the Battle of Balaclava, British cavalry received a confusing order to, quote,
00:35:04advance rapidly and prevent the enemy from removing captured guns.
00:35:08But the commander on the ground, Lord Lucan, misunderstood the vague message.
00:35:12Instead of attacking a retreating force, he sent some 600 cavalry straight into a valley lined with Russian artillery.
00:35:19The mistake was obvious, but no one stopped it.
00:35:22The Light Brigade rode into a storm of cannon fire and was cut down in minutes.
00:35:26The shattered remains of the Light Brigade returned in battered and bleeding groups down the North Valley.
00:35:33The charge became a national symbol of reckless bravery.
00:35:37It was actually the story of massacre by miscommunication and pride.
00:35:41Number 42. Radcliffe Partitions India
00:35:44When Britain agreed to grant India independence, they needed new borders drawn fast.
00:35:49One of the largest, most ethnically diverse nations in the world has been divided.
00:35:55One country will now become two.
00:35:58India and Pakistan.
00:36:02As a British barrister draws a line on a map, a once peaceful land implodes.
00:36:07They turn to a man named Sir Cyril Radcliffe.
00:36:09There's only one glaring problem.
00:36:12He had never once set foot in India and had just five weeks to divide 175,000 square miles of territory.
00:36:20Working with outdated maps, incomplete census data, and immense political pressure,
00:36:25in 1947, Radcliffe drew the borders that created India and Pakistan.
00:36:29The results were catastrophic.
00:36:31His hurried lines split villages, families, and communities overnight,
00:36:35deepening sectarian divides between Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs.
00:36:39The partition triggered one of the largest and bloodiest mass migrations in history,
00:36:44displacing over 10 million people and killing up to 2 million.
00:36:47A rushed decision to divide a subcontinent left wounds that still haven't fully healed.
00:36:53Number 41. The Battle of Agincourt
00:36:55In 1415, Henry V's exhausted army was cornered by a massive French force.
00:37:24Instead of blocking the English retreat, the French charged headlong into a narrow, muddy field.
00:37:30Torrential rain had turned the ground into a swamp.
00:37:33Their heavy armor sank into the muck, leaving them easy targets for English longbowmen.
00:37:38Thousands of French knights were slaughtered before they even reached the enemy.
00:37:41The English, vastly outnumbered, barely broke a sweat.
00:37:45The mass of French infantry made a perfect target.
00:37:50Hundreds, thousands of English archers bent their backs and loosed their bows,
00:37:58unleashing an arrow storm.
00:38:00Agincourt became a legendary victory,
00:38:03and a brutal reminder that pride can drown an army faster than any sword.
00:38:07Number 40. Filling the Hindenburg with Hydrogen
00:38:10The Hindenburg was supposed to be the future of luxury air travel.
00:38:15Hindenburg provided something that no other type of aircraft could provide.
00:38:19Three-day passage from Europe to the United States, and great luxury.
00:38:24It was meant to usher in the era of international zeppelin travel.
00:38:27Instead, it became a flaming symbol of human error.
00:38:31It was originally designed to use helium, a much safer non-flammable gas.
00:38:36Thanks to U.S. export restrictions, its German engineers used hydrogen instead.
00:38:41Engineers knew the risks, but pressed ahead anyway,
00:38:44trusting that careful landing would prevent disaster.
00:38:47On May 6, 1937, the giant airship attempted to dock in New Jersey.
00:38:52Somehow, a spark tragically ignited.
00:38:55The ship erupted into flames in seconds, killing 36 people.
00:38:58Miraculously, about two-thirds of the people on actually live through this disaster.
00:39:04Filling a massive flying machine with hydrogen was a gamble leading to one of the most iconic disasters of the 20th century.
00:39:11Number 39. Russia Selling Alaska to the U.S.
00:39:15In 1867, Russia sold Alaska to the United States for $7.2 million.
00:39:21That's about two cents an acre.
00:39:23It was quite a bargain, even at the time.
00:39:25That didn't stop critics who had never seen Alaska from dubbing it Seward's Folly.
00:39:32At the time, the Russian Empire saw the territory as a frozen wasteland, impossible to defend and barely profitable.
00:39:39They believed it was much better to offload it before losing it in a future war.
00:39:43What they didn't realize was how much wealth lay hidden under the ice.
00:39:47Alaska would later yield massive oil, gold, and natural gas reserves.
00:39:52It became a key part of America's future booming economic success.
00:39:56Russia's short-term thinking handed away a resource-rich land for a bargain price.
00:40:00Alaska became our 49th state in January of 1959 and is today recognized for its vast resources,
00:40:07including 25% of America's oil and 50% of its seafood.
00:40:12Soviet-era Russians were likely kicking themselves for having lost out on a valuable foothold in the Western Hemisphere.
00:40:18Number 38. The Austrians defeat themselves at Karantsebesch.
00:40:23You don't always need an enemy to lose a battle.
00:40:26Sometimes, all you need are poor leaders and a whole lot of schnapps.
00:40:29In 1788, Austrian scouts were on the prowl for Ottoman forces.
00:40:33They stumbled across friendly locals offering alcohol instead.
00:40:36Soon, drunken brawls broke out between cavalry and infantry.
00:40:41Shots were fired.
00:40:42Someone shouted Turks and panic tore through the army.
00:40:45Austrian officers shouted halt in German.
00:40:48Non-German-speaking troops mistook it for Turkish and assumed the Ottomans had infiltrated the camp.
00:40:53Chaos exploded.
00:40:54In the darkness, the Austrian army began firing on itself.
00:40:58Commanders even ordered artillery strikes against their own men.
00:41:01By morning, hundreds were dead, all without the Ottomans ever firing a shot.
00:41:07Number 37. The fall of Singapore.
00:41:10British commanders called Singapore a, quote, impregnable fortress.
00:41:14They were wrong.
00:41:15When Japan attacked in 1942, they bypassed Singapore's massive sea defenses entirely.
00:41:20It was on the 15th of February 1942 that British High Command began to receive the first scarcely credible reports from the Pacific.
00:41:31The reports confirmed that Singapore, Britain's Gibraltar of the East, had fallen into the hands of the Japanese.
00:41:39Instead, they invaded through the jungle.
00:41:42British leadership had assumed the thick Malayan jungles were impassable and left their land defenses dangerously weak.
00:41:48Japanese forces moved quickly, outflanking and overwhelming Allied troops.
00:41:52Poor communication, outdated equipment, and a total underestimation of Japanese capabilities sealed Singapore's fate.
00:41:59After just a week of fighting, the British side surrendered more than 80,000 troops.
00:42:04As usual, a somber Winston Churchill reflected the mood of the country when he described the loss of Singapore as
00:42:10the greatest disaster and capitulation in British history.
00:42:15It remains the largest surrender in British history.
00:42:18Singapore's fall shattered the myth of Western invincibility in Asia and changed the course of the Pacific War.
00:42:25Number 36. The Battle of Hattin.
00:42:27The Crusaders didn't just lose a battle at Hattin.
00:42:30They lost the whole of the Holy Land.
00:42:33In 1187, King Guy of Lusignan made a disastrous call.
00:42:37He marched his thirsty army into the desert to face Saladin.
00:42:40Instead of holding their ground near water, the Crusaders staggered across open, dry plains.
00:43:04Saladin's forces cut them off from the wells, harassed them with attacks, and set the fields on fire.
00:43:10Surrounded and half-dead from thirst, the Crusader army collapsed.
00:43:14King Guy was captured, and most of his knights were slaughtered.
00:43:17By the end of the Battle of Hattin, the vast majority of Crusader forces had been either captured or killed.
00:43:30The list of prisoners included King Guy of Jerusalem, and the cream of Christian nobility,
00:43:38principal among whom was Reynold of Châtillon.
00:43:42The defeat shattered Christian power in the region, and cleared the path for Saladin to reclaim Jerusalem.
00:43:48Number 35. General Meade doesn't follow through.
00:43:52The Battle of Gettysburg in 1863 should have been the end.
00:43:55It could have been the end.
00:43:57Robert E. Lee's army was battered, retreating, and trapped against a swollen Potomac River with no clear escape.
00:44:02The Union army was too powerful for the Confederates.
00:44:06On July 4th, Independence Day, Lee and his rebels retreated back into Virginia.
00:44:12The tide of the war had been turned in the Union's favor for good.
00:44:15Union General George Meade had fresh reserves, higher ground, and the chance to crush the Confederacy once and for all.
00:44:22But the attack order never came.
00:44:24Meade chose caution over decisiveness.
00:44:26He allowed Lee to slip back into Virginia, bloodied but ready to rally.
00:44:30The feared counterattack by General Meade failed to materialize.
00:44:35And instead, on the afternoon of the 4th of July, Lee began his retreat.
00:44:39President Lincoln was furious, calling it a missed opportunity to end the war early.
00:44:44Instead, the Civil War dragged on for nearly two more years, costing thousands more lives.
00:44:49Meade had victory in his grasp and chose to let it walk away.
00:44:54Number 34. Brexit.
00:44:56It was supposed to settle a debate.
00:44:58Instead, it fractured a nation.
00:45:00In 2016, then-Prime Minister David Cameron called a referendum on the UK's membership in the European Union, confident Remain would win.
00:45:08On Monday, I will commence the process set out under our Referendum Act.
00:45:13And I will go to Parliament and propose that the British people decide our future in Europe.
00:45:19It didn't.
00:45:20The Leave campaign won by a narrow margin, fueled by anti-immigration sentiment, economic frustration, and vague promises of national sovereignty.
00:45:29The political and economic fallout was immediate.
00:45:32Cameron resigned.
00:45:33The pound crashed.
00:45:34And years of bitter negotiations followed.
00:45:37Brexit destabilized British politics, isolated the UK economically, and sparked renewed tension in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
00:45:44Cameron's gamble to quiet his right flank ended up reshaping Britain's global future, and not for the better.
00:45:50Even the most committed Brexit here would find it quite difficult to say that it is worked as promised.
00:45:57Number 33.
00:45:58The Battle of Teutoburg Forest.
00:46:00Rome thought Germania was pacified.
00:46:03It wasn't.
00:46:03In 9 CE, Roman General Publius Quintilius Verus marched three legions into unfamiliar forests, trusting a local ally named Arminius.
00:46:13Arminius was undoubtedly the liberator of Germania.
00:46:18He fought the Romans when their power was at its height and decisively defeated them.
00:46:24But Arminius wasn't loyal, at least not to Rome.
00:46:28Using his Roman military training, he lured Verus deep into the Teutoburg Forest.
00:46:32There, Germanic guerrilla attacks shattered the Roman columns.
00:46:37Trapped in dense woods, unable to form battle lines, the legions were systematically slaughtered over three brutal days.
00:46:43Verus fell on his own sword rather than face capture.
00:46:47So did many of his officers.
00:46:49Rome lost between 15,000 and 20,000 men, three legionary eagles, and its dream of conquering Germania.
00:46:55The empire's frontier would never again push farther to the north.
00:46:59Arminius' war of liberation was devastating to the empire.
00:47:03It constituted the first time in which the Romans withdrew from conquered territory.
00:47:09The end of Roman imperial expansion can be traced back with real validity to Arminius' victory.
00:47:16Number 32.
00:47:18Listening to Thomas Midgley Jr.
00:47:19Thomas Midgley Jr. wasn't just a bad scientist.
00:47:23He may be responsible for more accidental environmental harm than any other individual in history.
00:47:29But Thomas Midgley continued with his research and, within a few months, made a new discovery.
00:47:35We are still living with the deadly effects today.
00:47:38In the early 20th century, he introduced two innovations that changed the world.
00:47:42First, he added tetraethyl lead to gasoline, unleashing a neurotoxin that poisoned generations of children.
00:47:49Later, he helped invent CFCs like Freon, which would go on to shred Earth's ozone layer.
00:47:55Sometimes they would say safe as milk, that it was perfect in every way, and that it was a miracle chemical,
00:48:01and it was proof that chemistry could solve any problem that people would have.
00:48:06At the time, both were hailed as breakthroughs.
00:48:09But the long-term consequences were catastrophic.
00:48:12Elevated cancer rates, global air pollution, and a hole in the atmosphere itself.
00:48:18Number 31.
00:48:19The Dred Scott Decision
00:48:20Few Supreme Court rulings have aged as badly or caused as much damage as the Dred Scott Decision.
00:48:27In 1857, the court ruled that Black Americans could not be citizens and had no right to sue in federal court.
00:48:33That 11-year odyssey took them all the way up to the Supreme Court.
00:48:36The one that ruled against Dred Scott in 1857.
00:48:40Worse, it declared that Congress had no power to ban slavery in U.S. territories.
00:48:45The decision enraged abolitionists, widened the sectional divide, and pushed the country closer to civil war.
00:48:51It was a catastrophic legal failure rooted in racism, short-term political appeasement, and a total misreading of the national mood.
00:48:58The racist pro-slavery decision inflamed public opinion.
00:49:02It also angered a rising political star named Abraham Lincoln.
00:49:06Instead of settling the slavery debate, Dred Scott lit the fuse that would explode just four years later at Fort Sumter.
00:49:14Number 30.
00:49:14Diocletian splits Rome into East and West.
00:49:17He wants to destroy the Republic and rule Rome as a bloody tyrant!
00:49:23The Roman Empire became increasingly large in its early years, so much so that Emperor Diocletian decided to divide it into two in the late 3rd century.
00:49:33This was intended to make it easier to govern, but it instead caused its decline.
00:49:37While this decision provided short-term stability by streamlining the empire's administration, it also created two separate power centers with different priorities.
00:49:45The Eastern Empire received Egypt, the wealthiest province, while the West struggled to sustain itself economically.
00:49:52Over time, this separation weakened the cohesion of the Roman Empire, and made it increasingly difficult to manage.
00:49:58Eventually, Rome lost most of its Western provinces, culminating in the erosion of control in Italy, when the Empire fell to the Normans in 1071.
00:50:06Number 29.
00:50:08King Leopold II's Rush to Africa.
00:50:11The limbs and lives of millions of Congolese were brutally lost for the insatiable demands of King Leopold II, who governed this territory as his personal property.
00:50:20The scramble for Africa remains one of the most appalling European ventures of the 19th century.
00:50:25The Industrial Revolution paved the way for Europeans to expand aggressively across the globe, often resorting to exploitation and violence.
00:50:33Among them was Belgian King Leopold II, who claimed sole ownership over the Congo Free State in 1885.
00:50:40His regime became infamous for its widespread atrocities and for plundering the nation's resources, while offering little benefit to its people.
00:50:47In fact, Leopold's government forced the Congolese people to extract rubber from their own land, and punished those who failed to meet quotas with torture and mutilation.
00:50:55It was a private extraction economy, fueled by human suffering.
00:51:00Number 28.
00:51:01Sending Diego de Landa to Convert the Yucatan Peninsula
00:51:04Diego de Landa was a Spanish Catholic missionary, sent to the Yucatan Peninsula to convert the Maya people to Christianity.
00:51:19Once there, he sought to completely erase the indigenous beliefs, which he deemed heretical.
00:51:24In 1562, he ordered the burning of thousands of Maya books, claiming they were, quote,
00:51:29superstition and lies of the devil.
00:51:31This became known as the tragedy at Mani, and it erased tons of information about American history.
00:51:37In addition to this, Landa oversaw the torture of Maya people who refused conversion.
00:51:42His methods were so despicable that he was eventually recalled to Spain and put on trial for his illegal inquisition.
00:51:47This is our one and only opportunity to peer into the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans and hear these people speaking to us.
00:51:56Number 27.
00:51:57Romanos IV Recruiting a Diverse Army
00:52:00The Roman Empire spent centuries of the medieval era fighting off Islamic invasions from the east.
00:52:05The Roman-Seljuk border on the edge of Anatolia became the Roman Wild West, inspiring epic poems called the Acritic Songs.
00:52:12This all went downhill in 1071 when Romanos IV entered battle with the Seljuk Empire at Manzikert.
00:52:24His biggest mistake was recruiting a highly diverse army composed of mercenaries from various backgrounds with no loyalties to the empire.
00:52:32This led to a military disaster, or even deserting to the Turkic side, which wasn't surprising given that many were Turkic themselves.
00:52:40Rome never fully regained control of Anatolia, a region it had called home for over a thousand years.
00:52:46I am in your debt.
00:52:48Ask me for anything, and I will provide it.
00:52:52Anything?
00:52:54Anything.
00:52:55Number 26.
00:52:56Jefferson Removing an Anti-Slavery Passage from the Declaration of Independence
00:53:01When he wrote, behold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that was the first time anybody had bothered to write that down.
00:53:09And then you turn the clock back and think of when he was writing it, how young he was.
00:53:14The founding fathers fought hard to establish equality for all.
00:53:18It just so happened that equality prioritized white property-owning males over others.
00:53:22The original draft of the Declaration of Independence was more progressive than the final document, with Jefferson including a passage condemning slavery.
00:53:30Every single word was precisely chosen.
00:53:35I assure you of that, Dr. Franklin.
00:53:37Yes, but yours will not be the only hand in this document.
00:53:42It cannot be.
00:53:43It referred to the practice as a, quote, cruel war against human nature, which was ironic, considering Jefferson himself owned hundreds of slaves, but at least it was a step in the right direction.
00:53:53However, the omission of this passage allowed the cruel act to continue for decades and sowed the seeds of conflict that would later blossom into the Civil War.
00:54:02As a result, the eventual abolition of slavery was far more violent than it could have been.
00:54:07I think he was a great, uh, founding father, but I also know that he enslaved, uh, many of my ancestors.
00:54:16Number 25. Titanic Untested
00:54:18If there's the slightest bit of haze, we shall have to slow down.
00:54:22Let me know once if you're doubtful.
00:54:24Aye, aye, sir.
00:54:25The RMS Titanic was tested multiple times before its maiden voyage, and was deemed unsinkable.
00:54:30The vessel was an extraordinary feat of engineering, and the initial trials went remarkably well,
00:54:35with the ship successfully sailing down the River Lagan in 1911.
00:54:39Subsequent sea tests in 1912 successfully confirmed her speed and structure.
00:54:44And of course, what had happened, we slipped over the iceberg, and although she was supposed to be unsinkable, with a double bottom,
00:54:52the iceberg had cut her from forward on the starboard side to the engine room.
00:54:58Unfortunately, these all overlooked the real-world extreme conditions.
00:55:02For example, the water-tight compartments only reached the D-deck, meaning if water overflowed into upper compartments, it was doomed.
00:55:09Some argue that the disaster resulted from speeding at night, or turning into the iceberg rather than hitting it head-on,
00:55:15which only prolonged the collision.
00:55:17Ultimately, if it had only been tested more thoroughly, the tragedy might have been prevented.
00:55:22The bow section planes away, landing about a half a mile away, going 20-30 knots when it hits the ocean floor.
00:55:32Number 24. King Charles I dissolving Parliament.
00:55:36And he stepped through a window to a huge crowd, all of whom must have been very used to the idea of public execution, but nothing like this.
00:55:48The divine right of kings proved to be a myth when King Charles I was executed in 1649.
00:55:54This incident was spearheaded by Oliver Cromwell, whose revolutionary actions stemmed from the king's repeated dissolutions of Parliament.
00:56:01Charles did this in part after trying to secure funds for his wars abroad, and Parliament refused to comply.
00:56:07He then began imposing forced loans, putting people who refused to pay in prison.
00:56:12On one side of the war were the royalists, who supported Charles' position as supreme ruler.
00:56:20On the other were members of Parliament, who believed that their king was too powerful.
00:56:26Eventually, they passed the petition of Wright, seeking to limit his power.
00:56:30But Charles simply dissolved them, and ruled without Parliament for 11 years, a period known as the Eleven Years' Tyranny.
00:56:37His defiance culminated in the English Civil War in 1642, which was ignited by his relentless disregard for democracy.
00:56:45Mr. Speaker, you will inform the members of this House that their presence is no longer required by the nation.
00:56:52This Parliament is, by my authority, terminated, dissolved.
00:57:00Number 23. Operation Cyclone.
00:57:03The CIA has more advanced weaponry available, but is wary of tipping their hand to Moscow.
00:57:09If the Soviets learn of America's secret involvement in Afghanistan, it could escalate into nuclear war.
00:57:16The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan began in 1979, lasting an entire decade.
00:57:21America was vehemently opposed to communism, and sought to prevent Soviet success.
00:57:26This is where Operation Cyclone comes in.
00:57:28It was a covert CIA operation that provided financial and military aid to the Afghan Mujahideen fighters.
00:57:35While the Mujahideen ultimately prevailed, this operation unintentionally fostered the rise of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
00:57:41They understand that whoever comes in there ultimately wishes they hadn't, because nobody else ever stayed. Ever.
00:57:49After the war, the absence of a stable government caused a civil war, paving the way for a violent Taliban regime, notorious for human rights violations and collusion with terrorist groups.
00:58:00The region is still unstable today, and there have been numerous attacks on America since, orchestrated by the very groups it funded.
00:58:07There was wild jubilation inside the country of Afghanistan, as last weekend it became the first country in history to defeat the mighty Soviet Union.
00:58:18Number 22, Lenin installing himself as a dictator.
00:58:22Lenin didn't want to get involved with a movement that wasn't close to his ideas and under his control from the beginning.
00:58:29His idea of revolution was that it should be something which would be organized and disciplined and led by a revolutionary vanguard.
00:58:38Vladimir Lenin was a passionate revolutionary who helped overthrow the Tsar in the February Revolution of 1917.
00:58:44The Constituent Assembly was democratically elected, intended to be Russia's new form of government.
00:58:49This was monumental since it was the first ever election in Russian history.
00:58:53This is how we knew him, this is how we remember him, and this is the way he will live down the ages.
00:59:03The assembly didn't last long, however, as it was dissolved by Lenin shortly after its first session commenced, when the Bolsheviks failed to secure a majority.
00:59:11His seizure of power set the stage for the Soviet Union's totalitarian regime, with Lenin establishing the secret police and laying the foundations for Stalin's subsequent reign of terror.
00:59:23During the American Revolution, Louis XVI decided to provide substantial financial and military aid to the 13 colonies.
00:59:46While the support played a crucial role in securing the Americans' victory, it severely crippled France's economy.
00:59:52The effort cost the country 1.8 billion levers, which was more than double their annual income.
00:59:58America bankrupts France, in effect, because the debt which the French monarchy incurs in order to fight the American War of Independence
01:00:08turns out to be absolutely crucial in the financial situation of the French monarchy.
01:00:13This caused a further strain on an economy that was already burdened by massive debt from the Seven Years' War.
01:00:18By 1789, Louis XVI had hiked taxes massively, igniting the French Revolution.
01:00:24Of course, there were a myriad of factors that contributed to the uprising, like deep social inequalities and harvest failures.
01:00:31But funding the American Revolution was a disastrous miscalculation.
01:00:34Are you admiring your lime avenue?
01:00:41I'm saying goodbye.
01:00:43Number 20.
01:00:44The Bay of Pigs Invasion
01:00:45As the sun rises, there is a surprise attack from Castro's air force.
01:00:50The B-26s are shot down.
01:00:52In April 1961, the United States of America aided anti-Castro Cuban exiles in an invasion of their former country.
01:00:59It was a complete disaster.
01:01:01The Cubans knew they were coming, thanks to some loose lips by the exiles.
01:01:05And the CIA knew they knew, yet failed to inform President John F. Kennedy.
01:01:09Kennedy could see all sorts of complications.
01:01:12There was no reason to believe that we could take Cuba over in a week.
01:01:16Furthermore, the original invasion plan, which had been drafted under President Dwight D. Eisenhower,
01:01:21called for U.S. air and naval support, which Kennedy withheld after a certain point.
01:01:26The debacle only served to solidify Fidel Castro's rule,
01:01:30while also showing communist leaders worldwide that the U.S. could be defeated.
01:01:34The enemy was confused.
01:01:36He had thought that our defense would crumble under the very first attack.
01:01:40He did not expect all the Cuban people to rise against him.
01:01:43Oh, and it made possible the whole Cuban missile crisis thing.
01:01:47Number 19.
01:01:48The Donner Party's Shortcut
01:01:49Early autumn snowstorms trapped the wagons,
01:01:52and they were forced to construct makeshift camps for the winter.
01:01:56The result was extreme suffering and starvation.
01:02:00One of the most infamous pioneering groups in American history,
01:02:03the Donner Party consisted of 87 settlers who set out for California in the 1840s.
01:02:08By the time they reached their destination, only 48 remained,
01:02:12thanks to a multitude of costly errors.
01:02:14They set out too late in the season,
01:02:16leading to unfavorable weather throughout the journey.
01:02:19They were undersupplied and accepted more members as they went,
01:02:22leading to further shortages.
01:02:24They didn't have a guide and took a route that was untested.
01:02:27There was infighting and even murder within the party.
01:02:30And when the group was stranded by a blizzard in the Sierra Nevada mountains,
01:02:33some were forced to resort to cannibalizing their deceased members to survive.
01:02:37The Donner Party did everything wrong.
01:02:40Some people came through it heroically.
01:02:44And some of the people in that party were far from heroes,
01:02:47and they got worse as the conditions got worse.
01:02:50Number 18.
01:02:51Churchill Decides to Invade Gallipoli
01:02:53During the First World War, fighting had stalemated in Europe,
01:03:00and Russia was engaged with the Ottoman Empire in the Caucasus.
01:03:04Seeking to divert central power's forces from Europe and cut off the Ottomans,
01:03:08the Allies, with Winston Churchill spearheading it,
01:03:11decided to attack present-day Turkey.
01:03:13To reinforce naval forces, the Gallipoli Peninsula was invaded.
01:03:16The campaign was a colossal failure.
01:03:20The Allies drastically underestimated the Ottoman forces,
01:03:23and used inexperienced troops and commanders,
01:03:25resulting in a 10-month-long engagement with over half a million men killed or wounded.
01:03:30The Allies were forced to retreat,
01:03:32with Britain's reputation suffering heavily over the debacle,
01:03:36and Churchill losing his job.
01:03:37At least Turkey and the Allied New Zealand and Australia
01:03:40gained some national pride over their roles.
01:03:42Excuse me, sir.
01:03:43British are a short soothe.
01:03:44Are they meeting heavy opposition?
01:03:46None, sir.
01:03:47Apparently they've called a halt,
01:03:48and the officers are sitting on the beach drinking cups of tea.
01:03:51Number 17.
01:03:52Battle of the Little Bighorn
01:03:53The village was always on the move.
01:03:56They knew the army was out after them.
01:03:58And to the United States Army,
01:03:59to capture a fleeing village was an impossible task.
01:04:03Also known as Custer's last stand,
01:04:05the Battle of the Little Bighorn
01:04:07is one that has been romanticized in the folklore of the United States.
01:04:10However, General George Armstrong Custer's numerous mistakes
01:04:14have left its legacy far more muddled.
01:04:16In 1876, Custer met his end
01:04:19when attacking a force of Allied Plains Native Americans
01:04:22near the Little Bighorn River in Montana.
01:04:24Custer was outnumbered,
01:04:25and had split his forces into several smaller groups,
01:04:29and the Native Americans had superior rifles.
01:04:31He realizes he doesn't have enough troops to do the job.
01:04:36He sends a rider south with a note calling for more men
01:04:39and more ammo.
01:04:41Custer had rejected not only reinforcements,
01:04:44but also several Gatling guns,
01:04:46which may have turned the tide of battle.
01:04:48His decision to attack before the rest of the army arrived
01:04:51resulted in Custer's death,
01:04:52and the deaths of around half of his men.
01:04:55Lieutenant Colonel George Custer
01:04:57and over 200 of his men
01:04:58annihilated in a defeat that devastated America in 1876.
01:05:06Napoleon's Invasion of Russia
01:05:07The little corporal's grand army of 680,000 soldiers
01:05:11strolled into Russia hoping for a quick and easy defeat,
01:05:15only to find the Russian forces to be constantly retreating.
01:05:17Using what's known as a scorched earth tactic,
01:05:20the Russians would burn down villages
01:05:21so that the pursuing French army would have no supplies
01:05:24to feed their vast numbers.
01:05:26Eventually, winter came,
01:05:27and the French forces were subject to starvation,
01:05:30hypothermia, and eventually, defeat.
01:05:32It was a harsh lesson,
01:05:33but one that every military leader has since taken to heart.
01:05:37Never underestimate the environmental factors
01:05:39when fighting on enemy soil.
01:05:42Number 15.
01:05:43The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
01:05:45Now it's time for the Russians,
01:05:47or in this case, the Soviets, to take a beating.
01:05:49As the 1979 invasion of this Middle Eastern country
01:05:52was decidedly not a win for them.
01:05:54Wanting to protect communist interests in the country,
01:05:57the Soviets sent over 100,000 soldiers
01:06:00after the assassination of the president
01:06:02of the Afghanistan Communist Party.
01:06:04However, due to the alien nature of the communist way of life,
01:06:07an Afghani and Muslim resistance rose up
01:06:09with monetary aid from a certain western capitalist
01:06:12archenemy of the Soviets.
01:06:14The ensuing conflict would result in the death
01:06:16of almost 15,000 Soviet soldiers,
01:06:18a Soviet withdrawal,
01:06:19and a continued civil war in the country.
01:06:22Number 14.
01:06:23The Spanish Armada's Failed Invasion of England
01:06:26The difficult question
01:06:27of how to transport a Spanish army
01:06:31safely to England
01:06:32in the face of a very strong
01:06:35and active English navy.
01:06:38The summer of 1588
01:06:39saw the formation of a Spanish armada,
01:06:42which set sail for England
01:06:43in an attempt to overthrow Elizabeth I
01:06:45to restore Catholicism to the nation.
01:06:48However,
01:06:48the Spanish and Portuguese vessels
01:06:50were engaged in the English Channel
01:06:51by an English and Dutch armada.
01:06:53Although the Spanish armada
01:06:55had larger ships and more men,
01:06:56the defenders had more ships
01:06:58that were more maneuverable
01:06:59and better armed.
01:07:01The Spanish were defeated,
01:07:02forcing a retreat.
01:07:03Not only did they fail
01:07:04to restore Catholics to power in England,
01:07:07but their failure
01:07:08arguably emboldened Protestants
01:07:09across Europe
01:07:10and led to the decline of Spain
01:07:12as an international power.
01:07:14Now Drake had proved
01:07:16that the English designed warship
01:07:19was superior to anything
01:07:21that the Spanish or anyone else
01:07:24could put to sea.
01:07:25Number 13.
01:07:26The Fourth Crusade
01:07:27Pope Innocent III
01:07:28called for the retaking
01:07:30of Jerusalem by Christians.
01:07:32The Holy City
01:07:32was then Muslim-controlled,
01:07:34and the plan was to attack
01:07:35the Ayyubid Sultanate in Egypt,
01:07:37the largest Muslim empire at the time.
01:07:39However, a series of blunders
01:07:41led to the Crusaders
01:07:42doing nearly the opposite
01:07:43of their stated goal.
01:07:44When not enough Crusaders
01:07:45embarked from Venice,
01:07:47the army that arrived there
01:07:48could not pay for passage.
01:07:50Furthermore,
01:07:51these same Crusaders
01:07:52sacked Zara,
01:07:53a Catholic city,
01:07:54under Venice's instruction
01:07:55to recoup their investment.
01:07:56The Pope excommunicated them.
01:07:59Then, these Crusaders
01:08:00retook the Orthodox Christian-controlled
01:08:02Constantinople for Alexios IV,
01:08:04who promised them support
01:08:05in retaking Jerusalem.
01:08:07However, they sacked the city
01:08:08when he was deposed.
01:08:10The Fourth Crusade
01:08:11only served to weaken
01:08:12Christian-controlled Byzantium.
01:08:14Number 12.
01:08:15The Chernobyl Meltdown
01:08:16Comrade Diadlov,
01:08:18I apologize for what you're saying
01:08:20makes no sense.
01:08:21Face the power.
01:08:22No.
01:08:24I won't do it.
01:08:25It isn't safe.
01:08:26The Chernobyl nuclear disaster
01:08:27is arguably the world's
01:08:28worst nuclear incident.
01:08:30That wasn't intentional.
01:08:32On April 26, 1986,
01:08:34the No. 4 reactor
01:08:35at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
01:08:37exploded
01:08:38during a safety test.
01:08:39While the disaster
01:08:40was partly the result
01:08:42of failures
01:08:42in Soviet safety procedures
01:08:44and the design
01:08:45of the reactor itself,
01:08:46operator error
01:08:47also played a major factor.
01:08:49Extreme conditions
01:08:50were created
01:08:51due to the negligence
01:08:52of those in charge.
01:08:53Additionally,
01:08:54the test was conducted
01:08:55by the less experienced
01:08:56night shift at the plant
01:08:57instead of the day shift.
01:08:59The end result
01:08:59was an unprecedented catastrophe
01:09:01that had it not been contained
01:09:03could have poisoned
01:09:04most of Eastern Europe.
01:09:06At long last,
01:09:07we have arrived.
01:09:0812345 explosion.
01:09:13Number 11.
01:09:14Hernán Cortés' alliance
01:09:16with the Aztec's enemies.
01:09:17What rational beings live here,
01:09:20wrote Cortés.
01:09:21This is the best
01:09:22and richest land
01:09:24that ever there was.
01:09:25The Aztec Empire
01:09:26once ruled a vast
01:09:27and culturally diverse region
01:09:29of Mesoamerica,
01:09:30home to roughly
01:09:306 million people
01:09:32at its greatest extent.
01:09:33Hernán Cortés,
01:09:34a Spanish explorer,
01:09:35arrived in Mexico
01:09:36in 1519
01:09:37on a mapping expedition.
01:09:38He quickly realized
01:09:39how politically fragmented
01:09:41the region was
01:09:42and allied with
01:09:42some of the Aztec's enemies,
01:09:44of which there were many.
01:09:46He was a poor boy
01:09:47from the small town
01:09:47of Medellin,
01:09:49trained not in war,
01:09:50but in law.
01:09:52Although Cortés
01:09:52brought just over
01:09:532,000 Spaniards,
01:09:55these alliances
01:09:55swelled his forces
01:09:56to well over
01:09:57100,000 soldiers.
01:09:59Their superior technology
01:10:00and immune systems
01:10:01decimated the Aztecs
01:10:02in 1521
01:10:03and resulted
01:10:04in a full-blown
01:10:05cultural genocide
01:10:06of the indigenous peoples.
01:10:08Number 10.
01:10:09Mao's Great Leap Forward
01:10:11Murdering millions
01:10:12of your own people
01:10:13is always a bad idea,
01:10:15but that's just
01:10:15what happened in China
01:10:16during the early
01:10:17to mid-20th century.
01:10:19In an attempt
01:10:19to rapidly industrialize
01:10:21the nation,
01:10:22the communist leaders
01:10:23tried to institute
01:10:23a demand for crops
01:10:25that the people
01:10:25could not meet.
01:10:26the resulting famine
01:10:27caused deaths
01:10:28around the country.
01:10:29However,
01:10:30famine was not
01:10:31the only cause
01:10:32of death
01:10:32during the Great Leap.
01:10:33Many reports
01:10:34of torture,
01:10:35beatings,
01:10:35and people taking
01:10:36their own lives
01:10:37have surfaced
01:10:37throughout the years.
01:10:38An exact death toll
01:10:40is nigh impossible
01:10:41to nail down,
01:10:42but it's been estimated
01:10:43at anywhere
01:10:43between 23 and 55
01:10:45million people,
01:10:47and no amount
01:10:48of progress
01:10:48is worth
01:10:49such a steep cost.
01:10:50Number 9.
01:10:51Once again,
01:10:55we travel
01:10:56to the Middle East,
01:10:57but this time
01:10:57it's some devotees
01:10:58of capitalism
01:10:59that would make
01:10:59the mistake.
01:11:00The mission
01:11:00was known
01:11:01as Ajax
01:11:02in the US
01:11:02and Operation Boot
01:11:04in the UK,
01:11:05but the principles
01:11:06were the same.
01:11:06Protect Western
01:11:07oil interests
01:11:08in Iran.
01:11:09How?
01:11:10By overthrowing
01:11:10the democratically
01:11:11elected prime minister
01:11:12and installing
01:11:13a monarch
01:11:14more sympathetic
01:11:15to the US's
01:11:16and the UK's
01:11:17demands.
01:11:17That's exactly
01:11:18what they did.
01:11:19The CIA
01:11:19even hired
01:11:20local mobsters
01:11:21to incite riots.
01:11:23What followed
01:11:23was the death
01:11:24and subjugation
01:11:25of many
01:11:25of the Iranian people
01:11:26and a period
01:11:27of unrest
01:11:28that would eventually
01:11:29lead to the Iranian
01:11:30revolution of 1979.
01:11:33Number 8.
01:11:33Escalating the Vietnam War
01:11:35General,
01:11:36will this entail
01:11:37any offensive operations?
01:11:39No.
01:11:40No, I don't believe it will.
01:11:42In the 1960s,
01:11:43communism was spreading
01:11:44to Southeast Asia
01:11:45and the prospect
01:11:46of a country
01:11:47willingly embracing it
01:11:48was intolerable
01:11:49to the West.
01:11:50In 1956,
01:11:51an election
01:11:51to unify Vietnam
01:11:52was scheduled
01:11:53but the United States,
01:11:55supposed champions
01:11:56of the free world,
01:11:57opposed it
01:11:57for fear of communism
01:11:58being democratically
01:11:59and peacefully adopted.
01:12:01Eventually,
01:12:02in 1964,
01:12:03the Gulf of Tonkin
01:12:04incident occurred
01:12:05involving alleged attacks
01:12:06on US Navy ships
01:12:08by North Vietnamese
01:12:08patrol boats.
01:12:09The disillusionment
01:12:11for me began
01:12:12when I was going
01:12:13back to fight
01:12:14at places
01:12:14we'd already fought
01:12:15before.
01:12:17We had fought,
01:12:18captured,
01:12:19and then left
01:12:20and the envy
01:12:20came right back.
01:12:21One of these attacks
01:12:22apparently didn't even happen
01:12:24but that didn't seem
01:12:25to matter.
01:12:25The US used it
01:12:26as a pretext
01:12:27to escalate things further
01:12:28and eventually
01:12:29became embroiled
01:12:30in one of their
01:12:31bloodiest wars.
01:12:32The conflict
01:12:32claimed 58,000
01:12:34American lives
01:12:35and over a million
01:12:36Vietnamese.
01:12:37Number 7
01:12:50George W. Bush
01:12:51invading Iraq
01:12:52in 2003
01:12:53Whether you believe
01:12:54it was motivated
01:12:55by weapons
01:12:56of mass destruction,
01:12:57the 9-11 attacks,
01:12:58or a need for oil,
01:12:59we can all agree
01:13:00that this 2003 attack
01:13:01on the Middle East
01:13:02was divisive
01:13:03for the American people
01:13:04and devastating
01:13:05for the Iraqi.
01:13:06It kicked off
01:13:07a costly
01:13:078-plus year
01:13:08Iraq war
01:13:09which,
01:13:09rather than
01:13:10fighting terrorism,
01:13:11arguably fostered it,
01:13:12most notably
01:13:13giving rise to ISIS.
01:13:14On the home front,
01:13:15it turned America
01:13:16into a nation divided,
01:13:18with one half
01:13:19of the population
01:13:19supporting the war
01:13:20and the other half
01:13:21vehemently against it.
01:13:23In other words,
01:13:24some were a little bit
01:13:25country
01:13:25and some were
01:13:26a little bit
01:13:27rock and roll.
01:13:27Shout out to
01:13:28South Park fans.
01:13:30Number 6
01:13:30Austria-Hungary
01:13:32decides to start a war.
01:13:33In 1914,
01:13:35Archduke Franz Ferdinand,
01:13:36the heir to
01:13:37the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
01:13:38was assassinated
01:13:39by Bosnian Serb nationalists.
01:13:41Austria-Hungary
01:13:42couldn't let the killing
01:13:43of their next ruler
01:13:44go lightly
01:13:44and decided to attack
01:13:46Serbia in retaliation.
01:13:47However,
01:13:48with Russia
01:13:48allied with Serbia,
01:13:50they wanted support
01:13:51from Germany
01:13:51in any conflict.
01:13:53By delaying their attack,
01:13:54Austria-Hungary
01:13:55ensured that Russia
01:13:56and its allies,
01:13:56France,
01:13:57and later the United Kingdom,
01:13:58entered the conflict as well.
01:13:59All these events
01:14:01spiraled into
01:14:02the First World War.
01:14:03Granted,
01:14:04advances in military technology
01:14:06and the numerous
01:14:06European alliances
01:14:07ensured a massive conflict
01:14:09was bound to break out.
01:14:10But Austria-Hungary
01:14:11was the first
01:14:12to declare war.
01:14:14Number 5
01:14:14Russia invades Ukraine.
01:14:16The denazification
01:14:18and demilitarization
01:14:20of Ukraine,
01:14:21that was his
01:14:22outrageous justification
01:14:23for all this.
01:14:25The first based on a lie,
01:14:27the second
01:14:27a euphemism
01:14:29for invasion.
01:14:30Russia invaded Ukraine
01:14:31in February of 2022.
01:14:33Despite Russian claims
01:14:34of Ukrainian Nazism,
01:14:36it was more likely
01:14:37to prevent Ukraine
01:14:38from joining NATO.
01:14:39Regardless of the reasons,
01:14:41the invasion
01:14:41has been costly
01:14:42for both countries
01:14:43and the world economy.
01:14:44Tens of thousands
01:14:45have been killed
01:14:46on both sides.
01:14:47A refugee crisis
01:14:48has developed,
01:14:49not only in Ukraine,
01:14:50but also in Europe,
01:14:51as thousands
01:14:52seek to flee the draft.
01:14:54We are not afraid.
01:14:55We are ready
01:14:57to defend our country.
01:14:58Plus,
01:14:59countries worldwide
01:15:00have imposed sanctions
01:15:01on Russia,
01:15:02destroying its economy.
01:15:03This is an ongoing conflict,
01:15:05so the full extent
01:15:06of how bad
01:15:07a decision it is
01:15:08cannot be stated
01:15:09at this time.
01:15:10However,
01:15:10even the ramifications
01:15:11thus far
01:15:12are horrendous.
01:15:13This road
01:15:15lined with Russian tanks
01:15:17destroyed
01:15:18when the Ukrainians
01:15:19were able
01:15:20to take this town back.
01:15:22Number 4
01:15:23Japan brings
01:15:24the United States
01:15:25into World War II.
01:15:26During World War II,
01:15:28Japan had invaded
01:15:28China and Korea.
01:15:30This prompted
01:15:30harsh sanctions
01:15:31from the USA,
01:15:32Britain,
01:15:33and the Dutch,
01:15:34who all had territory
01:15:35in the Pacific
01:15:36and or ties to China.
01:15:37This effectively
01:15:38robbed them
01:15:39of many necessary resources,
01:15:41including oil.
01:15:42Rather than lose face
01:15:43by withdrawing,
01:15:44Japan decided
01:15:45to declare war
01:15:46on the United States,
01:15:47attacking Pearl Harbor
01:15:48in Hawaii in 1941.
01:15:50This was a huge mistake.
01:15:52The USA retaliated
01:15:53with a costly
01:15:54and brutal war
01:15:55in the Pacific,
01:15:56leading to millions
01:15:57of deaths
01:15:58and the only instance
01:15:59of nuclear weapons
01:16:00used in warfare.
01:16:01The long-term effects
01:16:02on Japan
01:16:03were immense
01:16:04and still ripple
01:16:05through the country today.
01:16:06Look at them all.
01:16:09I mean,
01:16:09we chewed them up.
01:16:11They just kept on coming.
01:16:13Number 3
01:16:14Hitler invading Russia.
01:16:16There's a quote
01:16:17that reads,
01:16:17those who cannot
01:16:18remember the past
01:16:19are condemned
01:16:20to repeat it.
01:16:21And that's exactly
01:16:22what the Nazis did
01:16:23in 1941.
01:16:24Despite studying
01:16:25Napoleon's first invasion
01:16:26of Russia as reference,
01:16:28the Nazis' attempted
01:16:29invasion of the Soviet Union
01:16:30resulted in a
01:16:31catastrophic loss of life.
01:16:33And in the eyes of many,
01:16:34it was the downfall
01:16:35of the Third Reich.
01:16:36Just like Napoleon,
01:16:37they planned on achieving
01:16:38a swift victory
01:16:39that never came.
01:16:41Operation Barbarossa,
01:16:42as it would come to be known,
01:16:43lasted over 5 months
01:16:44and resulted in
01:16:46over 5 million deaths.
01:16:48Number 2
01:16:49Angering Genghis Khan.
01:16:51Many angered
01:16:52the great Khan
01:16:53during his reign
01:16:53over the Mongol Empire,
01:16:55but none so spectacularly
01:16:57as the
01:16:57Allahuddin Muhammad II,
01:16:59Shah of the Muslim
01:17:00Karazmian Empire.
01:17:01The result of infuriating
01:17:03the Khan
01:17:03meant the destruction
01:17:04of Allahuddin's empire.
01:17:06But keep in mind,
01:17:06that didn't have
01:17:07to be the case.
01:17:08Genghis wanted peace
01:17:09with the Shah,
01:17:10saying,
01:17:11quote,
01:17:11I am master of the lands
01:17:12of the rising sun,
01:17:13while you rule
01:17:15those of the setting sun.
01:17:16Let us conclude
01:17:17a firm treaty
01:17:18of friendship and peace.
01:17:19The Shah refused,
01:17:20killing some
01:17:21Mongolian envoys.
01:17:23The result was,
01:17:23as previously stated,
01:17:25less than favorable
01:17:26for the Shah.
01:17:26It just goes to show,
01:17:28never mess with a Mongol.
01:17:30Before we continue,
01:17:31be sure to subscribe
01:17:32to our channel
01:17:32and ring the bell
01:17:33to get notified
01:17:34about our latest videos.
01:17:35You have the option
01:17:36to be notified
01:17:37for occasional videos
01:17:38or all of them.
01:17:39If you're on your phone,
01:17:40make sure you go
01:17:41into your settings
01:17:42and switch on notifications.
01:17:43Number one,
01:17:46the victorious allies
01:17:48impose harsh terms
01:17:49on Germany
01:17:49after World War I.
01:17:51The Treaty of Versailles,
01:17:53the moment
01:17:54that would define
01:17:55the next half
01:17:56of the 20th century,
01:17:57the moment
01:17:58that would lead
01:17:58to the rise of fascism,
01:18:00the Nazis,
01:18:00and eventually
01:18:01the Holocaust.
01:18:02After a long
01:18:03and brutal World War I,
01:18:05the victorious allies
01:18:06were tasked
01:18:07with punishing the losers
01:18:08and punish them
01:18:09they did.
01:18:10The most important
01:18:10factor of the treaty
01:18:11was that Germany
01:18:12had to take
01:18:13total and complete
01:18:14blame for the war,
01:18:15which meant
01:18:15they had to disarm
01:18:17and pay reparations
01:18:18to all affected countries.
01:18:20This would virtually
01:18:21bankrupt the European country
01:18:22and set the stage
01:18:24for a very sinister time
01:18:25in human history.
01:18:27Were there any
01:18:27particularly egregious mistakes
01:18:29we forgot to include?
01:18:30Let us know
01:18:31in the comments section.
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