Tag: World War Civ

We talk about the fearsome dreadnought, the race to build it, the Le Queax novels that were the Red Dawn of the 19th century, the Heartland theory of history, and conclude our discussion of the naval race. The tensions are getting high…

Part 1 of 2 on the Anglo-German Naval Race. We start with a modern theorist, Paul Kennedy, and his thesis that industrial power translates to military power. Then some earlier imperialist theorists we’ve mentioned before: Mahan and Mackinder, who Justin finally read. Then, the practitioners of naval power, Admiral Tirpitz on the German side and Fisher on the English. The first of two parts on the Anglo-German Naval Race leading up to WW1. 

First we announce Civ Books, where you can buy some of the best Civilizations Podcast transcripts in hard copy. Then, we reveal two of the most long-standing geopolitical disagreements that Dave and Justin have hitherto unresolved: one on the rights and wrongs of the Yugoslav war of 1999, and the other on the status of Russia in its neighbourhood. Do these affect the way we interpret events on things like the 1908 Balkan Crisis, when Serbia and Austria-Hungary almost started it all off? Perhaps it does. After our declarations of bias we talk about the unfolding of the crisis, how Bismarck would have handled it differently, how Lenin saw it all as theatrics to make socialists take their eyes off the prize, and how it all ended up leaving everyone learning the wrong lessons.

The Young Ottomans and then the Young Turks make a constitutional revolution in Turkey in 1908. We talk about them, the ideas (science, constitutionalism) that motivated them as well as the ideas that didn’t (socialism, equality). And of course how what’s happening in the Ottoman empire is an antecedent for WWI.

France’s incremental takeover of Morocco based on their colonization of Algeria; Germany declares that it will protect Morocco’s sovereignty, which it doesn’t actually do. See how Morocco’s colonization became another cause of World War 1. Also listen to Dave’s mic improve in the last half hour! 

The Austro-Hungarian Empire lasted hundreds of years but could not survive WWI. We look at its makeup, its economy, its socialist movement, at Franz Josef and the glamorous empress Sissi, and wonder whether the end of Austria-Hungary was inevitable.

The 1905 Russian Revolution was, though no one knew it at the time, the rehearsal for the 1917 Russian Revolution. Dave takes us from Bloody Sunday to the calculations and miscalculations of the Tsar; Justin uses everyone from Lars Lih to Isaac Deutscher to Simon Sebag Montefiore to draw some pictures of what Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin — you’ll be hearing more about these three — were up to in 1905…

The earth-shaking event where an Asian power defeated a European power in a war, leading to a revolution in Russia and a major shakeup in world affairs. We talk about the role education played in Japan’s victory; the Russian fleet that had to sail around the world; and the qualities of Tsar Nicholas that made him the perfect Tsar for a revolution…

First one of a mini-series about the 1905 Russian Revolution, we talk about the economic, political, and social conditions of Russia on the eve of the Russo-Japanese War. Foreign investment, infrastructural deficits, the question of nationalities. We also talk about the disastrous summer of 1874 when the revolutionaries went down to the countryside, debates about terrorism versus propaganda, peasants and industrial workers, and other revolutionary dilemmas.