The ENTIRE History of WW1 Explained

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]From an arch duke getting shot at point blank range to a battle that killed a million men over a plot of dirt nobody actually wanted to a peace treaty so brutal it accidentally lit the fuse for an even bigger war. This is World War I.

[00:00:19]The war they called the war to end all wars. But spoiler alert it didn't. In fact, it might have been the most important four years in human history.

[00:00:30]Cuz empires fell, modern warfare was born. And by the time the smoke cleared, somewhere between 16 to 20 million people were dead. So strap in, soldier, cuz today we're going all the way back to 1914 when Europe blew itself up.

[00:00:50]because for decades all the major European powers have been doing four really stupid things at the same time.

[00:00:58]Number one, they were obsessed with their militaries. Every country was building bigger armies, navies, and guns. Britain and Germany were locked in an arms race so intense they were basically two kids at recess yelling, "My battleship's bigger than yours."

[00:01:14]Number two, they tangled themselves in alliances. On one side, the triple alliance had Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Italy. On the other side was the triple on taunt, France, Russia, and Great Britain. Imagine if your friend group made a pack that if anyone punched anyone, everybody had to throw hands.

[00:01:35]Number three, they were sprinting around the globe, grabbing colonies. Africa, Asia, the Pacific. Every empire wanted a bigger piece of the map and they kept bumping into each other doing it. And number four, there was nationalism, especially in the Balkans. That little region southeast of Austria where the Ottoman Empire had just collapsed.

[00:01:59]Suddenly, you had a bunch of tiny ethnic groups all wanting their own country, all hating each other, all backed by bigger empires, playing chess with their lives. So yeah, Europe was reaching a boiling point. But the United States, America was sitting on the other side of the Atlantic going, "Y'all have fun with that." Cuz back then, America's foreign policy was something called isolationism. Basically, let Europe do European stuff. We got our own continent to build. And honestly, it was a pretty smart playbook. But all that boiling going on in Europe needed a spark. And on June 28th, 1914, it got one. Cuz picture this. It was a sunny summer morning in Sievo, Bosnia, an Archduke France Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria, Hungary, was riding through town in an open top car with his wife Sophie. Good day, sir.

[00:02:57]Madam, he was basically the old version of Prince William, next in line for one of the biggest empires on Earth. But here's where it gets insane. A group of Bosnian Serb nationalists from a movement called Young Bosnia, armed and trained by a Serbian secret society called the Black Hand, had planned to assassinate him. And during the first attempt, a conspirator threw a bomb at his car and it bounced off, exploded behind him, and the Archduke survived.

[00:03:30]You'd think they'd cancel the parade, right? Nope. They kept going and later on the driver took a wrong turn, got lost, and the engine stalled when he tried to back up. And right there on the curb stood Gabrielo Princip, a 19-year-old who'd been waiting on the original motorcade route. Thinking his chance was gone, but he couldn't believe his luck, he pulled out his pistol, walked up to the car, and fired two shots. One hit the arch duke in the neck. The other hit Sophie in the stomach. Both dead within minutes.

[00:04:07]Yikes. And just like that, the world would never be the same. Cuz what happens next is what historians call the July crisis. Basically, a month of European leaders sending each other increasingly insane telegrams.

[00:04:23]AustriaHungary blamed Serbia. So, Germany handed Austria a blank check, meaning do whatever you want. we got your back. And Austria sent Serbia an ultimatum so harsh it was designed to be rejected. So as expected, Serbia rejected it. But then Russia mobilized to defend Serbia. So Germany declared war on Russia, then on France, and Germany invaded neutral Belgium to get to France faster, which dragged Britain into the war. So in a matter of 30 days, a regional dispute in the Balkans had spiraled into a continental war involving every major power in Europe.

[00:05:06]Sir, how did this escalate so fast? But Germany kicked off the real fight with the Schlieffen plan. A plan to sweep through Belgium, knock out France in 6 weeks, then turn around and deal with Russia. For about a month, it almost worked until they ran into French and British forces at a river called the MN just outside Paris. The first battle of the Marn stopped the German advance dead in its tracks. And what happened next changed warfare forever cuz both sides started digging. I'm talking trenches.

[00:05:43]Miles and miles of them from the English Channel all the way down to the Swiss border. A scar over 400 miles long carved across France and Belgium. In between the trenches was something called no man's land. A hellscape of barbed wire, mud, shell craters, and dead bodies. And here's why it became a slaughterhouse. The technology of killing had outpaced the technology of moving. Machine guns could fire 600 rounds a minute. Artillery could level a city block from 10 miles away, and poison gas could roll across a field and dissolve a man's lungs from the inside.

[00:06:25]But to attack, soldiers still had to climb out of the trench, walk across no man's land, and try to take an enemy trench on foot. It was a death sentence.

[00:06:36]Man, these poor guys. Meanwhile, way over in the east, Germany was hammering Russia. At the battle of Tannenburgg, German General Paul von Hindenburg and his chief of staff Eric Ludenorf completely destroyed a Russian army.

[00:06:52]Although Germany lost about 13,000 men, the Russians lost 30,000 killed or wounded and another 92,000 taken prisoner. Sheesh. Russia was huge, but disorganized, under supplied, and fleeting men by the millions. Cracks were forming in the empire that would eventually break it. And back on the western front, the meat grinder was just getting started cuz two battles in 1916 became the defining horror stories of the entire war. Battle one, Verdon, where German General Eric vonfalenheim had a chilling idea. He picked the French fortress city of Verdon, a place the French would never surrender out of pride and decided to attack it. But his goal wasn't to capture it. His goal was to breed France white. In other words, kill so many French soldiers that France would just give up. So the Germans opened with 1,200 artillery pieces, firing 1 million shells in the first day alone. The earth shook. forest vanished and entire villages were erased. But the French refused to break. Their commander, General Phipe Patine, organized something legendary called Lavois Saklay, the sacred way. A single road where over 3,000 trucks rotated supplies and men into the city 24 hours a day. Their motto, translation, they shall not pass. The battle lasted 302 days, 10 months. It was the longest battle of the war. And when the smoke cleared, the French had lost 377,000 men. And the Germans lost 337,000.

[00:08:50]That's over 700,000 casualties combined.

[00:08:54]And neither side gained much of anything. I can't believe it. But while Verdon was still raging, the British launched their own offensive to the north along the river Song. The British figured they just artillery the Germans into oblivion for a week, then walk across no man's land like it was a Sunday stroll. But the Germans, they just hid in deep concrete bunkers and waited. When the bombardment stopped, the British soldiers loaded down with 66 lb of gear, climbed out of the trenches, and started walking. and the Germans climbed back to their machine guns and opened fire. In a single day, the British suffered 57,000 casualties, 19,000 dead. It is to this day the bloodiest day in the history of the British army, one day. And that battle dragged on for four more months. When it finally ended in November, the British had advanced about 7 mi. And the cost was 420,000 British casualties, 200,000 French, and around half a million Germans. Over a million men killed, wounded, or missing for just 7 miles. Horrifying.

[00:10:13]But on the bright side, the song was where the British rolled out a brand new toy, the world's first tank. It looked like a metal box on tractor treads, but it could roll right over barbed wire and trenches or had a new monster now. And by 1917, the war had reached a level of misery nobody could have imagined 3 years earlier cuz Russia was breaking.

[00:10:38]The Russian people were starving. Their army had taken something like 2 million casualties. and the Russian people overthrew their own Zar Nicholas II in a revolution. By November, the communist led by Vladimir Lenin had seized power and Lenin he wanted out of the war. So in 1918, Russia signed the treaty of Bras Leovsk, surrendering massive amounts of territory to Germany just to make the killing stop. And that was terrible news for the Allies cuz now Germany could move every single one of their Eastern troops to the Western Front. So what did that mean? Well, across the Atlantic, America was slowly being dragged toward the fight. It started on May 7th, 1915 when a British ocean liner called the RMS Lucatania was steaming off the coast of Ireland. A German Yubot fired one torpedo into its side and the ship sank in 18 minutes.

[00:11:41]1,198 people died and 128 of them were Americans. Goodness. President Woodro Wilson, who'd campaigned on the slogan, "He kept us out of war," was furious.

[00:11:57]But he didn't pull the trigger. He demanded Germany stop sinking civilian ships. And for a while they did. But by 1917, Germany was getting desperate.

[00:12:08]They announced they were going back to unrestricted submarine warfare, meaning they'd sink anything they saw, including American ships. But that's when fate dropped a plot twist so crazy Mrs. Flappy thought I was making this up. But I'm not. I swear. Because the German foreign secretary, a guy named Arthur Zimmerman, sent a coded telegram to the German ambassador in Mexico. The message, hey, if America joins the war against us, we'll back Mexico in a war against the United States. We'll help you take back Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.

[00:12:47]I'm sorry, what? Yeah, Germany was trying to convince Mexico to invade the United States. But here's the kicker.

[00:12:56]British intelligence intercepted the telegram, decoded it, and handed it straight to President Wilson. So when the American press published the telegram, the country erupted. And a month later, Wilson stood before Congress and asked for a declaration of war. The world must be made safe for democracy. On April 6th, 1917, the United States officially entered World War I. Now we're talking, sir. But before we send the troops overseas, let me entertain you with the sponsor of today's video, ODO, the all-in-one management software that helps you run your business. Because let's be honest, running a business can be very chaotic.

[00:13:40]But that's exactly where ODO comes in.

[00:13:42]Because instead of juggling 10 different tools, ODO brings your CRM, accounting, inventory, website, marketing, and more into one single platform. And the best part, it's all connected. So when you close a sale, it automatically updates your inventory, logs your revenue, and gives you a real-time view of your business. No more outdated spreadsheets.

[00:14:05]Oh, and on top of that, it automates boring, repetitive work, so you can spend less time managing and more time growing. And getting started could not be easier because your first ODO app is free for life with unlimited support and hosting included. And when you're ready to scale up, you can simply add more apps one at a time and get access to all applications for $24.50 a month. If you're already running a business or looking to start yours, you can book a free consulting session with an ODO expert or simply start a 15-day free trial. No credit card required.

[00:14:41]Just click the link in the description and add ODO to your workflow. Now, let's get back to America stepping into the fight. Because the man tapped to lead the American Expeditionary Force was a tough as nails West Point general named John Blackjack Persing. Persing was old school, disciplined, demanding, and smart enough to know one thing. He was not going to let America's fresh young soldiers, nicknamed Doughboys, get fed into the meat grinder under foreign command. He insisted American troops would fight as a separate American army.

[00:15:16]Period. And by the time Germany realized what was coming, it was too late. Cuz over the next 18 months, 2 million Americans would land in France. And they were fresh, wellfed, wellarmed. And unlike the Europeans who've been fighting for 3 years and were emotionally hollow shells, they were eager to kill. So the math had officially flipped against Germany. But Germany wasn't going down without one final desperate haymaker. Cuz in 1918, Germany launched the spring offensive.

[00:15:51]And the plan was to use the troops they just freed up from Russia to throw everything at the Western Front and try to win the war before American reinforcements showed up in full force.

[00:16:02]It started at 4:40 a.m. with the largest artillery bombardment of the entire war.

[00:16:09]Over a million shells fired in 5 hours and it hit an area of 150 square miles.

[00:16:17]German stormtroopers, which were elite units trained in new infiltration tactics, surged forward through the morning fog. And for a few weeks, it actually worked. Germany pushed the Allies back further than they've been pushed since 1914.

[00:16:33]They were within 40 mi of Paris. But here's the thing about pushing forward in 1918.

[00:16:41]You outrun your supplies. Your soldiers get exhausted. Your artillery falls behind. And the allies, they were rallying. For the first time, all Allied armies were placed under one commander, French marshal Ferdinand Foch. And reinforcing them every single day were boatloads of fresh Americans. The Germans got close, but they couldn't close the deal. By July 1918, the spring offensive was dead and the Americans were just getting warmed up cuz the allies launched their counterattack at the Battle of Amy. Tanks, planes, artillery, infantry, all coordinated together for the first time in history.

[00:17:24]In one day, they shattered the German line, took 17,000 prisoners, and captured 330 guns. German General Eric Ludenorf called it the black day of the German army. Then came Samuel Persing's first independent American operation where over half a million American troops smashed a German position in just 4 days. And then came the big one. In September 1918, 1.2 million American soldiers launched the largest offensive in US military history. The MOS are gone. The mission was to punch through some of the most heavily fortified terrain on the Western Front, dense forest, rugged hills, and four lines of German defenses. It was absolutely brutal. For 47 days, the Doughboys ground forward through machine gun fire, mustered gas, mud, rain, and barbed wire, and around 26,000 Americans died.

[00:18:27]To this day, it remains the bloodiest battle the United States military has ever fought. But by November, the Americans broke through and the German army retreated in chaos. Inside Germany, things were falling apart even faster than at the front. A British naval blockade had starved the country for years. Civilians were eating turnipss and sawdust bread. Sailors were mutiny.

[00:18:53]Workers were striking. And revolution was brewing. So Kaiser Wilhelm II, the German emperor, abdicated and fled to the Netherlands, and the 47year-old German Empire was over. So around 5:00 a.m. on November 11th, 1918, in a railway car parked in France, German representative signed an armistice across the table from French Marshall Ferdinand Foch. There was no negotiation. The Germans were handed terms and told to sign. And the agreement said at 11:00 a.m. that morning, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, all hostilities would stop. But here's the thing. The armistice gave the armies 6 hours to spread the word. 6 hours. Picture a small French village north of Verdon.

[00:19:44]Cold November morning. So foggy you can barely see 20 ft in front of you.

[00:19:49]Through that fog, you can hear them.

[00:19:52]German machine guns hammering away from a roadb block just outside the village.

[00:19:57]Pinned down on the muddy road into town is company A of the 313th Infantry Regiment, also known as Baltimore's own, a bunch of drafties from Baltimore, Maryland. These guys had been in continuous combat for almost 60 days.

[00:20:14]They survived the margon and they are exhausted. And then at 10:44 a.m., a runner sprints up to their position. The war is ending at 11:00 a.m. 16 minutes.

[00:20:27]The men of the 313th look at each other.

[00:20:30]Wait, what? But the order from their brigade commander, Brigadier General William Nicholson, comes down clear as day. Absolutely no let up until exactly 11 a.m. Translation: Keep fighting for 16 more minutes. I'm sorry, what? The war is over. They know the war is over.

[00:20:53]The Germans know it. The Americans know it. And generals on both sides have already shaken hands. But because of one general's order, there were 16 more minutes of killing. So, crouched in the mud with company A is a 23-year-old private from Baltimore. His name is Henry Gunther. He's the grandson of German immigrants. He grew up in a German neighborhood, went to a German Catholic church, and was working as a bookkeeper at a Baltimore bank when he was drafted into the army. And when he shipped out, he was a supply sergeant.

[00:21:27]Smart kid, organized, and engaged to a girl named Olga back home. But weeks earlier, he'd written a letter home telling a friend that the trenches were horrible and to avoid the draft if he could, but the army sensors intercepted it and they busted him from sergeant down to private, took him off supply duty and sent him to the front lines as a rifleman. Back home, Olga broke off the engagement, and Henry's been brooding ever since. His comrades say he's withdrawn, sullen, and obsessed with proving himself. Proving he's a real American and not some German sympathizer. Two minutes left in World War I. He sees it. A German machine gun nest just up the road. So he fixes his bayonet to his rifle. His friend and squad sergeant Ernest Powell looks at him and says, "Henry, no." But Henry stands up and he charges. His comrades are screaming at him to stop. Gunther, get down. And the Germans see him coming through the fog. They wave their arms.

[00:22:36]They yell at him in broken English. Go back. Go back. The war is over. But Henry keeps coming. He fires a shot or two from his rifle as he runs. The German gunner has no choice. He squeezes the trigger.

[00:23:00]Across the entire Western Front, there's total silence. For the first time in 4 years, Europe is quiet. And the last soldier to die in World War I was a 23-year-old kid from Baltimore who wanted to prove he was American enough.

[00:23:19]Man, I'm so sorry, sir. The cost of World War I was absolutely devastating.

[00:23:26]Between 9 and 11 million soldiers died.

[00:23:30]Between 6 and 13 million civilians died.

[00:23:34]And the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which spread because of the war, killed at least another 50 million people worldwide. Four empires, the German, Austrohungarian, Russian, and Ottoman, all collapsed. Hundreds of years of monarchy disappeared in four years. But here's where it gets complicated. Cuz in June 1919, the Allied powers gathered at the Palace of Versailles to write the peace treaty. And President Wilson showed up with idealistic ideas like his famous 14 points, which called for self-determination, open diplomacy, and a new international body called the League of Nations that would prevent future wars. It was a noble vision. The only problem, Britain and France weren't really interested in noble visions. They wanted payback. Especially France, whose entire northern region had been turned into a moonscape. So, they pushed for terms so harsh even some allied diplomats got uncomfortable. The Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to accept full blame for the war, pay $33 billion in reparations, lose 13% of its territory and 10% of its population, surrender all overseas colonies, limit its army to just 100,000 soldiers, and demilitarize the rhinland. The Germans called it the dicttat, the dictated peace. And the British economist John Maynard Kees, who was actually at the conference, walked out in disgust. He warned that punishing Germany this severely would guarantee another war within a generation. And he turned out to be right. Meanwhile, back home in America, the Senate looked at Wilson's League of Nations and said, "Nah, cuz it would have required the US to defend other countries automatically." and American senators weren't about to let foreign politicians decide when American boys would die in foreign wars. So the Senate rejected the treaty and the US signed a separate peace with Germany instead and once again America pulled back into isolationism.

[00:25:51]A lot of Americans, and I tend to think they had a point, felt like Europe had dragged the world into a catastrophic mess, and the last thing the United States needed to do was permanently entangle itself in it. So, what did World War I actually do? It rewired the entire planet. Cuz new nations were drawn from the rubble, like Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Finland, and the Baltic States. And the map of Europe in the Middle East was redrawn with borders that we're still fighting over today. Oh, and modern warfare was born.

[00:26:28]Tanks, fighter aircraft, submarines, machine guns, chemical weapons, everything we now associate with war started here. But here's the part that should haunt you. Cuz somewhere in a German hospital, a 29-year-old corporal was recovering from a mustard gas attack on the Western Front. He had earned the Iron Cross and fought for 4 years. And as he laid in that hospital bed, hearing the news that Germany had surrendered, he wept. Not from pain, but from rage.

[00:27:02]Cuz in his mind, Germany hadn't lost on the battlefield. Germany had been betrayed by politicians, by communists, and by anyone else he could blame. This man would spend the next 15 years stewing on that rage, writing, speaking, and building a movement around it. And when the Treaty of Versailles crushed his country with reparations, when hyperinflation wiped out German life savings, when the Great Depression threw millions out of work, the German people were desperate for someone to tell them who to blame. And he was waiting. His name was Adolf Hitler. and the war he was about to start would make this one look like a warm-up. But speaking of warm-ups, remember that telegram Germany sent to Mexico? The one where they promised to help Mexico reclaim lost territory from the US? Well, that wasn't random. Cuz decades earlier, America had taken half of Mexico's land. And it all started with this war. From a wooden leg left behind in the mud to a 300lb American general to 30 Irish immigrants hanged the exact second the American flag rose over Mexico City. This is the MexicanAmerican War explained. So click this video right here and watch Manifest Destiny become Mexico's worst nightmare.