Great video Kraut. I like what you said about us not being prisoners of history. Still, I really can't imagine anything Denmark does being successfully emulated on the federal level of the US. I could always imagine social democracy might work on a state level, at least in New England.
@@BaxstabberzZ Regardless of whatever political direction your country goes, I do wish you luck in achieving independence one day. Cheers from a Dane 🇩🇰🤝🏴
I could see it working in the more community oriented parts of the Midwest as well, but the US population can be rather stubborn about social programs.
The history of the Danish revolution that created the parliament is adorable and probably the only completely bloodless, democratic revolution. The TLDR version is that basically the commoners contacted the king and said, "we're going to have parliament or we'll reenact the French Revolution." and since the king liked his head attached to his neck and decided that having a reduction in power and still have some influence in the parliament was vastly more preferable to getting beheaded. So he said, "we now have a parliament and this is how it'll be - I've decided."
Arguably the French Revolution and it's terror were necessary for future liberal states to come into existence, because it empowered the people and gave monarchs something to fear.
@@viktator4205 The French Revolution was an abject failure. The people of France welcomed Napoleon when he seized power. It was only after his ouster that the French Revolution II brought about democracy as we know it and from that the humanistic principles that have led to modern civilization largely arose. The Timeline goes like this Feudal nobility -> French Revolution I -> Napoleon (with strong public support) -> Napoleon ultimately loses the Napoleonic Wars -> (silent) French Revolution II -> the establishment of what would later become modern Democracy. The French Revolution was just a good scare image to bring up to monarchs who were on the fence since staying alive was preferable to staying in power.
(Indonesian) Hey ada Inspect History. Halo 😀. (English) Hey it's Inspect History. Hello 😀. Edit: (Indonesian) Mungkin suatu hari kamu bisa colab sama Kraut. (English) Maybe one day you'll get to do a colab with Kraut.
You have no idea what you're talking about, son. Come here and sit, while I tell you a story. 10 years ago me and an adventurous party of a dozen daredevils that I rescued from the French Foreign Legion set off to climb the mighty Rytterknægten in Bornholm. The legendary and sacred mountain of the island which according to legends is inhabited by trolls that prevent anyone from ever climbing to the top. The natives call it "the mountain of mountains." As we reached the foot of the mountain a storm was brewing and we had to plan our ascent via the northern route in order to be safe. No one wanted to repeat the mistakes we made in the Caucasus back in the day, when we lost 20 good men. May God have mercy on their souls. The climb was long and arduous but I made it in the end. I can't remember if others made it too or if I was hallucinating at this point because I dragged myself up there on bleeding hands and feet. It's a sheer miracle I'm still alive. It must have taken us 5, if not 7 minutes to climb the 160 meters or so and the worst thing was that there was no Krølle-Bølle Soft Ice Cream at the top. So don't tell me that there is Krølle-Bølle soft ice everywhere on Bornholm, because I know exactly that there isn't!
Congratulations to everyone who worked on this project. Knowing the issues faced & all the hard work put in, it’s great to see the end result being of high quality yet again.
I feel its weird, because we essentially learn this in school. But when i looked at the Wikipedia for social democracy, Denmark was just a footnote. Here in Denmark, we do learn thay social democracy was created here, but i cannot find any nok danish sources for this. Thank you for this vid!
The general idea of social democracy was invented by German reformist marxists who saw reform instead of revolution as a way to create a more equal and emancipated society. Some might claim that Denmark and the Nordic countries refined that idea and made it work practically but the ideology stems from German leftist thinkers.
I study English IN DENMARK and even the history courses here make it out to be Britain inventing social Democracy. Very weird considering our own version is significantly older.
As a Dane i would like to add a few things that was either forgotten or something Kraut did not understood its important First of the Grundvig schools today (last 50+ years) is no longer a school in opposition to our public schools. (ofc not. We are all forced to join the public/private schools. And they are all run under the same law). The Grundvig schools now is not about grades. They are now purely about learning. Learning about what the school focus on: Sport, music, history, religion etc etc. But in all these schools there is classes in how the society/democracy works in Denmark. When you finish you get a diploma, that you have taken part. You are not getting "judged" by exams. The teachers will though, write something about your time on the school. So what can you use this shit for? Well other then specialising for up to 1 year in something ofc. For your own benefit. But if you dont have the grades from highschools to get in to university, then spending time on a Grundvig schools can help you get in. In other words Danish universities like to get people in, who has spend time on something that interests them, and have had studies in the society/democracy. Even though you have failed in the "normal" classes in our public schools. I think this is a sign on what our education is also about and how we like to shape our population. Oh yeah ofc. The government give subsidies to these kind of schools Another important thing that i think can be taken right back to the power our king gave the people early on, is the way Denmark decide what the pay and the benefits should be for the working people. As some of you might know, EU is right now trying to force a minimum payment to all EU citizens. I think the only country (maybe Sweden as well) that is fighting to avoid this is Denmark. In Denmark we do not have a minimum wage decided by the government. The minimum wage is decided between the unions of the workers and the unions of the companies that offer work. The representatives sit down once a year and find out the minimum wage, the benefits and the demands. Then the unions go back to there members and let them vote for the offer. Up until now the government has stayed out of it. In case the both members vote yes, then all is cool. In case 1 of the unions members vote no, then a whole new process starts. Super complicated, but still without the government do anything. In the end it might end in a symbolic strike and if everything go sour, then a real strike. And then in the end the government can intervene and force something on both unions. So does this work? Maybe once every 5-7 years we have a strike. And funny enough 90% of those strikes is when a union is negotiating with the minister that represent the hospitals, schools etc. When ever it is a private union it always go fine. I think it is more then 30 years ago we had a strike amongst those workers Does history matter, Kraut. Yes it does. If you introduced the Danish society to Americans they would scream and riot. They have been molded for hundreds of years in a different way then Scandinavians have. To get a Social democracy in to an American society you have to start now, and slowly "teach" the citizens. Then maybe in 50-100 years they will have integrated a Social Democracy system. We did try to "give" democracy away for the last 20 years that did not ask for it. Not enough of the citizens accepted it, for it to work fully. But they got a taste for it, and maybe in another 30 years Afghanistan and Iraq will have democracy or what ever system they prefer
As an American, I think the biggest obstacles for U.S. citizens to adopt the Danish system are their mistrust in institutions and ardent individualism. I wonder if regaining trust in wider society might lax the individualism, too.
@@TV-8-301 About the individualisme, it is to me a mystery what Americans mean when they say it. And i think there can be 2 reasons for it. 1. We Danes has been brought up in this system and we feel just as individual (free?) as any other nationality, but objectively maybe we are not 2. We dont have this focus on individualisme as Americans have, it is just part of our society and not something we need to highlight, since we are an old nation. If you compare Denmark to Norway they also talk about individualisme much more then we do, and they are a very young nation (about 115 years old). When i talk to Norwegians i use to tell them there nation is just a teenager and Denmark is an grown up nation.
You're right about America needing a longer amount of time to accept Danish style democracy. It will be a very long time. But I hope my country gives this type of system the chance it deserves.
@@TV-8-301 I think you are on the right track. I suspect US individualism is really just a representation of their (frankly well founded) mistrust in their governmental institutions. The real issue then becomes: How do you build trust? I think the answer must start with making trustworthy institutions. As long as the US government does not act in the interest of its people, a social democracy (based on voluntarism, as mentioned in the video) simply cannot form. People won't work to support a system that betrays them; the solution isn't force a Danish model unto them until they start working, the solution is to stop betraying the people, and once trust has grown, the Social part will develop naturally from humans understanding that we are stronger together than apart.
Corrections, Critizisms, and Questions: 1: One mistake I already noticed before publishing this video: The SPD changed from "The German socialist party" to the "German social democratic party" back in the 1890s. The book I read curiously listed the name change of the Austrian party in the same sentence as the name change of the German party, thereby giving me the impression that they both happened at the same time. Which isn't the case, the Austrian name change happened after WW2. However what still stands as a point is that the German SPD changed substancially after WW2. Until the 1960s it continued to advocate for "socialism through democracy" and policies such as a reunification with the communist east under a shared socialist system. It was very m,uch still a Marxist party until Willy Brandt took over and changed it. So besides this minor error, the rest of the point is still correct. 2: "Denmark actually did tax the sea!" Answer: Nope... I disagree with you. Denmark taxed the straights into the Baltic. If you didn't cross the straights you could still trade freely for most as the Scandinavian coastlines were hard to control. Also... one of the funniest things to research are the various methods of medieval and renaissance tax evasion used by traders to avoid the Danish straights toll - go read it yourself. 3: "Danish democracy in 1849 only granted votes to landowners. Not to all men" Answer: Yes. Shit. I think i said "Universal male sufferage" that would be incorrect. Damn. I misspoke in the recording and didn't notice. My apologies. I knew that is not the case. Which makes this very embaressing. 4: "You depict early medieval storage economies as a form of class-conscious cooperative action, and that is not the case." Answer: No. You are viewing storage economies through a Marxist lens as something shaped through class-consciousness. I am doing no such thing, because I am not a Marxist. You are trying to force your Marxist narrative onto history to explain your current views, I am merely describing a socio-economic development of the past. 5: "You left out X, Y, and Z." Answer: Again. This is a short video. I make decisions on what information I cut out, and what I leave in the video. You can agree or disagree with those decisions. 6: "Did you forget Iceland?" Answer: Yes. lol. Sorry. I'll make up for it with a video about Iceland in the future. 7: "Why did you not mention Finland as much?" Answer: Because Finland went through a bit of a different development thanks do being part of the Russian Empire. Republicanism and the struggle for independence against Russian Imperialism play an important role in the political development of Finland. Something we might discuss in another video later. 8: "Why did you pick the Normans as an example of Viking law?! That's wrong! They were influenced by France! bla bla bla I prefer another Viking kingdom!" Answer: Let me stop you right there. Because I can guarantee you, that if I had picked any other Viking kingdom. Be it one of the many in Ireland, England, Scotland, the Baltics, Ukraine, or even in Scandinavia itself - someone like you would have leveled the exact same complaint. "Buhuhu! Why did you use the Viking-Rus as an example". My point still stands. The Vikings took European feudalism and drove it to an extreme. I merely picked the Normans as an example because I find the Normans interesting, and because they had an enormous impact on wider European political development. 9: "I do have to say you are completely incorrect with the idea of taking nordic laws to the extreme. Women if widowed inherited the lands meaning an old woman could actually be quite wealthy and desirable. Concuibages were very uncommon (stealing wives). Norman law is also was a direct result of Frankish influence. Nordic law had a democratic system called the thing; pretty far-flung from the absolute monarchy of Normandy." Answer: Admittedly, the Normans are an extreme example of a Viking kingdom driving feudalism into an extreme. That is probably why I picked them as my leading example. But, concerning the examples you give of, for example, property inheritance by women, those are according to Marc Bloch an unintentional consequence of feudalism, not of tribal germanic social organization.
@@TheChowster I assume you mean the idea of a free city in general. In medieval Germany, at the time called "The Holy Roman Empire" the country was divided very locally between feudal lords, but some few places, known as free cities, were not ruled by nobles, but by local councils. There is more to it than that, but I would have to look it up again to remember all the details.
One error you made was reffering to Finland as part of Scadinavia. It's not. Scandinavia is: Denmark, Sweden, Norway. Fenno-Scandinavia is: Sweden, Norway, Finland. The "Nordics" is probably a more apt term to use. Sweden did send military leaders to Denmark as "Volunteers", during the Dane-German war. (This because Denmark did not have the numbers of Generals, Admirals, and Lieutenants such to actually lead their army. And Sweden did not actually want to go to war with the Germans, even if the most Swedes wanted to "Protect their Danish Brethren").
Small thing about Denmark joining France doing the napoleon war. At the time, Denmark had the largest naval fleet in all of Europe and was actually neutral, trading with both the English and France sides. However because of this England got kinda paranoid about Denmark joining France and thereby giving France access to the massive Danish fleet. So England send a platoon of soldiers to Copenhagen with the mission of burning down the Danish fleet, which they were successful doing so. So after this Denmark was like "wow, those Englishmen are kinda bad" and joined napoleon.
That 'platoon of soldiers' was the British Navy. They bombarded Copenhagen until the commandant of Copenhagen surrendered and handed over the Danish navy's ships to the English as they demanded.
Scandinavians had another reason for not taking part in the colonial empire building. We were too preoccupied with fighting each other. Between 1563 and 1814 Denmark-Norway fought 11 wars with Sweden resulting in 5 wins for Denmark-Norway, 5 wins for Sweden and 1 draw. Though in terms of territory lost Denmark was the clear looser and finally after the loss of Schleswig and Holstein to Germany Denmark finally realized that we just plain suck at war and the dictum: What is lost outside must be rebuilt inside became the phrase of the day. A big part of the agriculture reform mentioned in the video included the draining of vast marsh areas to replace all the lost farmland in the lost provinces. It was a great communal undertaking unlike any before it. Also, before the great land reform farmers would live close together in villages, they would plant the fields around the village and when harvest came they would harvest the closest fields until they had enough to pay their taxes and feed themselves through the winter. The outer fields were only planted in case of a lean yield, which meant that often many fields went unharvested which by many was considered a huge waste, but few farmers fancied spending half the day traveling to and from a field to do half a days work that did very little to benefit them. So the act of dividing land up between individual families was both a way of giving individual incentives and a logistical move, both to maximize efficiency.
Eh, we really only started to lose a lot of wars from the Renaissance and onwards. The biggest reason for that is that our kings during that time were mostly all incompetent drunks.
@@Ladosligese You don't think I know that? I was talking about 1864 onward, and *only* then. We have not initiated a single war since. We don't have the resources or the manpower to fight modern aggressive wars, and we don't have the geography to fight modern defensive wars. We could invade Germany tomorrow, blaze down past Hamburg without suffering a single casualty and still have to quit after two weeks because we'd have run out of ammunition. You can pound your chest all day and dream of the glory days of the vikings, but that has absolutely *no relevance* to my comment. No one is impressed by a football team who's last league win was back in the 70's that is currently playing 3rd. division.
man this topic is really interesting to me because a lot of countrys can learn form denmark but we need to also remember that culture institution like the health care of denmark is due to it history, politics, and even to a certain extent it's geography play an important role in developing the country you can just not do what every denmak did and found instant success you need to see what you can do in your country because you have unique problem with is native to you region of the world and people like you kraut are the one who help us understand the fact more clearly these videos are well made and jet the point across quickly and effectively and that great
@@aleksaradojicic8114 Perfect question, I am fairly sure Danish Imperialism is very low relative to other countries. For example the Ottoman Empire had massive imperalism, and look at Turkey today - they are still rather poor. Using the typical "imperalism" argument, in this case where it is vastly unsubstantiated I would even say in relation to most imperalistic countries that existed, is simple and probably untrue. :) The success more likely lies in other areas, such as those partly described in this video, along with innovation, market economy, good agricultural business and nowadays a lot of energy investments and medical sector, a long with a massive service sector being the biggest part of the danish economy. Creating the possibility for such a service sector, by allowing high education and massive economic support to students, free education, good education systems, welfare to care for families so one can study instead of work, the general population contributing to the future generations in a great deal, for example big SU (student grants), and so forth, are more likely causes for a succesfull country. Along with the flexicurity model of a social safety net on the work market combined with the required flexibility of employeers to fire and hire personell without being too limited by employement laws. Then a great wage and living conditions attracting and keeping high skilled workers along with just a nice socieity to live in. These are not things that come from any "imperialism" Benne is talking about, but instead culture, values, innovation, economic systems, and working to create a good socieity for the common good, and giving up parts of your money in taxes to achieve this in an efficient way.
There were 3 Peaks of Denmark (1. North Sea Empire : 1013-1042) (2. Kalmar Union :1397 - 1523) (3. Danish Empire/Denmark-Norway : 1524-1953) They all happened through out one of Denmarks Empires. @@yonatanbehar3322
Professional cook here. Hey Kraut, now that you have professional knives, time for you to learn better knife technique. At 1:08, when you're cutting that onion, you're holding it with the tips of your index and middle finger, exposing your fingers to the knife blade. What you want to do it curl your fingers in so that you're holding the onion with your knuckle. That way, the potential danger is reduced from cutting off a whole fingertip to simply cutting the back of your finger. Further, this allows you to brace the knife against the back of your fingers, letting you cut a lot faster and with greater precision. You're doing it correctly when you chop that carrot, but it's important to do it every time. Sharp knives are a whole different ball game from the dull knives most people are used to and it's very easy to get a deep cut if you're not following proper technique. Second, it looks like you're extending the index finger of your knife hand along the blade itself, which is not correct. You want to grip the blade of the knife right above the handle with your thumb and the first knuckle of your index finger, this'll give you the most control and the least wrist problems. Third, that small knife isn't for chopping, you chop with a big knife even if you're chopping something small like an onion. That small knife is for paring and other precise, delicate operations; realistically for most home cooks, it'll very rarely be the best knife for the job unless you spend a lot of time carving veggies into specific shapes. It does seem like that kit is lacking a workhorse chefs knife; if you ever want to expand your kit, I'd look into an 8 inch chefs knife (which is a style of knife). And finally, some comments on knife care. Japanese knives require a little babying: do not, under any circumstances, run them through a dishwasher or leave them wet after you wash them, you need to dry them off immediately. Further, you'll definitely want to sharpen with a whetstone, like you said, rather than a grinder, but for a home cook, you will only need to sharpen once or twice a year. In order to maintain the blade's edge, you'll want a honing steel, which is a different process from sharpening: rather than removing metal to effectively form a new edge, a honing steel realigns the edge that's already there. You'll want to use a honing steel whenever you start to feel more resistance from whatever you're cutting; I generally hone my knife every time I use it. It's extremely easy to cut yourself while honing though, and whetstones aren't the easiest to use, so I'd certainly recommend watching some tutorials. I'm excited for you! I hope you have fun cooking with your new toys.
at 23:00 i think it should be mentioned that a major reason for the peaceful transition to democracy in Denmark was that the king was very afraid of the masses rising up against him as they had done in France a year earlier. Also only landowning men aged 30+ were allowed the right to vote (constituting 15% of the population), so calling the section the "enfranchisement of the peasantry" may be a bit over the top
Very well stated. The revolutionary movements from France have always caught up with most or all of Europe in socialist or republican frenzies. Also, is too much to ask for a democracy to nail voting rights from the get-go?
The voting part isn't too dissimilar to the states. Only white land owning men could vote originally. But after many hard fought years those rights were extended to all adults. And it was so successful, many things are being done to roll it back
Thank you for making this information so simple and easy to understand. As an American, I was never taught anything about the differences between socialism and social democracy and I appreciate you enlightening me.
Socialism aims to abolish capitalism and create a fair and just society on the basis of equality and democratic influence. Social democracy on the other hand aims to humanize and control capitalism in the pursuit of a more socially just society. Most social democratic parties of Europe are pretty neo-liberal these days, slowly drifting away from their reformist marxist roots.
@Horseshoe Party you are literally spitting facts to our faces :D Also for the commies that got stuck in 1800s, adapting the 21st century and modern day dynamics usually understood as traiting the "cause". That propagandised and almost dogmatic mindset -just like you mentioned above- creates a tremendous contradiction with the so-called enlightened ideology and its "pioneer" supporters. And thinking your etical beliefs or moral codes are deep insidely superior than others. But man, isnt that "the religion"? I mean exact mirror of far right or religion.
Just a little heads up for the future, the blue island on the bottom of the screen at 13:06 (Bornholm) is actually Danish, and should therefore not be colored accordingly with the rest of Sweden. Dont worry though, most people mistake us for being Swedes since we are quite a bit away from the rest of mainland Denmark. Great video as always. :)
@@taargustaargus9908 @Chocolatepenguin I think that the map in question was not of current day sweden and that perhaps those two territories where part of sweden at the point of time that the map is depicting.
@@Ossian-dr1vr Sweden only owned the island of Bornholm for 2 years (1658 - 1660) and during those two years Sweden also owned all of Finland, a chunk of Norway, all of Estonia, half of Latvia, St Petersburg, and a good hunk of northern Germany. So it would be weird to include the historical ownership of Bornholm under Sweden and not include any of their other holdings at the time. It's just a tiny mistake that's easy to make.
Gotta remember why Denmark sided with Napoleon. We were initially neutral, but the brits were afraid that napoleon nipped in and took our substantial fleet to fight britain, so the brits went in, bombarded Copenhagen and took our fleet. No shit we joined in with Napoleon after that. It coined the term Copenhagenization, apparently.
We didn't "join with Napoleon". It was a necessity given the national humiliation involved in getting our fleet nicked and still not declare war. When Bernadotte came marching a few years later we joined the coalition. Again, out of necessity.
I've yet to see a Danish history book that doesn't openly state that Denmark caused its own disaster in the Napoleonic wars by letting its merchants navy sail under convenience flags.
As a Swede, I find it very funny comparing how outside countries sees us scandis to how inter-Scandinavian relationships usually are. About 11 years ago a Swedish radio comedy show had a competition where the listeners could vote for “the worst country in the EU”. Denmark, not very surprisingly, won by a landslide.
In Denmark, Sweden is is known to have a shitty irresponsible economy and Norwegians are known as backwards Jesus lovers. In reality the Swedish economy is really good and Norwegians are really progressive, it’s just that Sweden and Norway do slightly worse in those areas than we do and therefor they are very bad at it. It probably comes back to the whole being family thing. You judge your own family harsher and hold them to higher standards than you do strangers
An incredible video once again! Its so interesting to hear you talk about Japanese kitchen knives. I had no idea they were so fascinating! Oh yeah the part about Denmark was pretty cool too.
The spread of education in Denmark was also mirrored in Scotland, which is why after the Union, the new British state had a wealth of bureaucrats and clerks to run its Empire.
Yes - since the 17th century Scotland had among the highest (if not highest) literacy rates in Europe owed to a proliferation of parish schools emphasising reading the bible of course
So, my main take away from this video is that government and law can only do so much, and it's up to the people to work for the betterment of the society.
I like how you mentioned the Philippines as an example of a stringent anti-corrupt country. My takeaway from this is that beyond the government, a trust between citizens with one another and the citizens with the government is a prerequisite to actually start cracking down on corruption. The distrust with one another just creates the breeding ground to be more selfish and better oneself over bettering the citizenry. It does not help that we are not a homogenous state, and that tribalism is very rampant among the different ethnicities and languages. Philippines has a looooong way to go
It's because we don't have parliamentary you expecting a transparency and accountability of the government in Presidential system keep in mind that Scandinavian countries are Federalism Parliamentary and open FDI plus with their current ideology called Social Democracy...
@@_wrath_2087 Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Turkey, Iraq, and East Timor are all countries with federalism, yet they are all poor. In Ethiopia's case, federalism did nothing to stop a civil war between the nation's ethnic groups
@@redpotato2585 It has to do with a federal parliamentary system, as the constitutional reformists in the Philippines now desire so it can attract foreign direct investment, actual national government accountability and regional development that won't have to be micromanaged from one place but rather allow the developmentof multiple urban centers with diversified economic outputs. Plus the Philippines is culturally diverse about a hundred tribes that were united by Spanish and American colonialism. The big challenge would be how to precisely establish the federal regional states of the country if the constitution will be reformed based on how culture, history and economic livelihoods. If the country adopts the federal parliamentary institutional frameworks found in say, Austria and Germany maybe with Singapore's economic policies and the nature of social democracy/class consciousness in Denmark, then perhaps the Philippines will finally be the next Asian economic miracle.
@@_wrath_2087 the red flag I see is how well are anti-corruption measures actually enforced? particularly when its a political ally? You can create as harsh of anti-corruption measures as you want but that wont stop it with the aforementioned enforcement and may due to harshness, deter convictions or as with the British bloody code, Increase the severity of the crime.
It is not often that Scandinavian history is tackle on UA-cam so it was a delight for me as a Dane to see it done this well and thoroughly. Great video
This was worth the wait, and a MASSIVE thanks to the entire team. I hope everything gets sorted out soon Kraut. And have a safe X-mas. 13:27 Concept kinda applies to the video in a sense. After all, all the artists that helped pitched in ended up creating this video.
The nature of the Finnish welfare state, as Kraut already mentioned in his pinned comment, came about from fairly different background than the other Nordic countries. As a Finn, I would like to shed some light to the Finnish history with social democracy and welfare to the best of my ability. Finland shared much of the same geographical factors as Sweden, Denmark and Norway with it having crappy road networks leading it to rely on more naval trade, in part facilitated by our more than plenty lakes which when frozen were still super good as it was continuous flat ground to move on with dogs for example. This was definitely something that the other Nordic countries didn't have to the same extent, with the closest one being probably Sweden with its big lakes in its south. Another notable difference is the fact, that Finland never formed its own kingdom or state and instead was taken over mostly by the Swedish kingdom and in the east by the Novgorod republic. The treaty of Nöteborg which divided Finland between these two conquerors also to this day still can be seen on the statistics maps of Finland with the Novgorodian side generally faring worse, though it is important to note that the geography also plays a big part in this (most notably, the eastern and northern parts are more rural, further away from the coast and harsher in terrain and climate). Sweden would come to rule all of Finland and beyond, and as such they are of the most importance for Finnish history, especially as Novgorod never truly developed their Finnish lands to the scale Sweden did. A very significant part of Finnish history is the story of settlement, most notably in the way that the Swedish rulers seeking to enforce their claim on the Finnish lands gave tax and other incentives for Finns to clear land for farmland that they would get to keep, that in turn meant that the Finnish peasants got to enjoy great power as the people colonizing an unpopulated eastern frontier of endless forests and lakes. Along side this colonization or settlement of the unpopulated eastern lands, significant pieces of land would end up being ruled by counts and dukes, with the western coast, the Kajanland and much of Eastern Karelia being ruled by said counts and dukes until the king seized much of these lands in the event that became known as the Great Reduction. Map of the counties and baronies in Finland during the 17th century from my school book(red for county, light red for barony): app.studeo.fi/files/Section/11179/files/HI5-l%C3%A4%C3%A4nitykset-1600-luvulla%281%29.png Also in my opinion it is important to note, that in Finland due to the lacking development, the land would be taxed more in taking boys or men for military service in the place of monetary tax, and this is how the Hakkapeliita were born, and Finland would be a source of more manpower for the Swedish army rather than a source of taxes for the treasury. Subsequently the Swedish loss against the Russians in the Finnish war after having already lost Eastern Karelia would play its part in making Sweden a bastion of neutrality, as the loss of the manpower pool left Sweden with little capacity for war. Along with this, the humiliation caused by the defeat led to the incompetent king being deposed, and this played its part in pushing Sweden towards democracy along side the predecessors of two political parties during the 18th century, the hats and caps. The big thing that defined much of Finnish identity later on was the Finnish war, and the subsequent annexation into the Russian Empire. However Finland was granted a state of autonomy as the Grand Duchy of Finland, where the local Swedish elite were allowed to run things as they had before, except that they were now answering to Russia instead of Sweden. This arrangement was allowed by the Russians because they knew war with France would come and the last thing they needed was the recently conquered Finnish region to rebel. This arrangement then worked perfectly, and the Finns became loyal subjects of Russia all and large thanks to their autonomy. Then under Nicholas the second with Russification becoming the strategy, the Finns who had started to grow a national identity and had been building it felt that the Russians had betrayed them, and in turn they resisted against the Russification. By WW1 the Finns were no longer the loyal subjects they had once been as they saw Russians as oppressors. Then WW1 came, broke Russia, caused two revolution and in the wake of the civil war and the new Russian Republic being busy with fighting the communists and also fracturing, Finland seized the opportunity and declared independence. The Grand Duchy of Finland had already established a parliament in 1906 following the 1905 Russian revolution, while also giving women the right to vote. With a lack of food and basic goods resulting from the First World War, militias running basically uncontrolled and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) losing their majority in the parliament causing the red side to fear that they would have no other hope of enacting their desired programs than by revolution. Eventually the civil war erupted as the government tried to disarm the red militias while declaring white militias as official forces. In the end the Reds lost and caused a divide in society between the reds and white which would only be reconciled by the invasion of the Soviet Union. The SDP despite having instigated the civil war still won the most parliamentary seats, and to this day they remained generally the most popular party, with the agrarian/center party coming to rule during the cold war era during the Kekkonen presidency, that in some ways looked like a benevolent soft dictatorship with Kekkonen winning election after election. Another notable thing was how Finland basically censored anything anti Russian for a long time to ensure that the Russians would not have a reason to see it as an enemy, making Finland a democratic country with a restricted press and freedom of speech over talk on the Soviet Union which was mostly self imposed. After the civil war, Finland retained its democracy unlike most other new East European countries with them shutting down a fascist revolt through a radio speech by the president. The two wars against the Soviet Union ended up in mostly a defeat, though Finland did retain its independence nominally. The communists that were quite friendly towards the Soviets gained much power in the Finnish government following the 1945 parliamentary elections after the Soviet Union forced Finland to lift the ban on communist parties, but in the end the Finnish institutions were strong enough to halt a communist take over and in the next elections the communists lost seats and there was basically a purge of communists from the most prominent positions of power, like the head of the central police. During the inter war period and especially during the post WW2 era, the Finnish state built an extensive welfare state, though after the 1990s overheating of the economy and the subsequent economic depression brought an end to the most generous parts of the welfare system. That is what I can offer as insight on Finland, and its own path.
Thank you. As a Finn, this is an excellent summary of our history. I should perhaps note that earlier on in the end of the 19th century, the Russians encouraged using the Finnish as a counter-measure to limit the influence of the Swedish. The Edict of 1863 practically meant Finnish was now at the same level of Swedish as an official language. This came along with the restoration of the Estates in 1860s, when they began convening regularly again and drafted new laws. The Estates at the time consisted of four houses: Nobility, Clergy, Bourgeoisie and Peasantry. Essentially all Swedish-era laws were re-written in the 1860s and the economy was now more liberated than before, as the old regulations of trading and commerce and guild structures were abolished. This greatly contributed to the industrialisation than began in earnest near in the end of the 19 century, along with many railroad projects, channels and steam ships connecting formerly hard to reach areas of Finland. The Russification began in 1899, and it was opposed by many Finns who had formerly been happy to be part of the Russian Empire, as they saw it granting more freedoms and autonomy than the Swedish had. The Russian saw it unifying and standardizing their empire but Finns thought of it as taking away their liberties. Some progress was achieved by the first parliament and universal right of vote in 1906, for all adult men and women, but the Czar still had the right to veto any legislation, essentially disposing it of much of its power.
Due to both luck and effort. The early adoption of democratic parliament system from 1906 must have helped. National identity was also being forged in the end of the 19th century even if the country was still heavily divided between the classes. Communism was averted by Whites winning he civil war, but this led to atrocities and excacerbated the class divide that existed socially in Finland. Gradually though, Finland again grew together as a society and old enemities were forgotten. The irony is that the parliament actually accepted many laws that were demanded by the Reds specifically, even if they had lost the civil war. In WWII we were helped by our readily somewhat easily defensible geographic location and alliance with Germany (mandated by circumstance). Unlike the Baltic States, Finland chose to engage the Soviet Union in war and actively resisted them instead of giving in to their demands, so that decision must have played some role. After WWII we narrowly avoided becoming a Soviet satellite state. Yet, the compromise we had to make was self-censoring and appeasing the communist block, while still maintaining relations with the West and the democratic and capitalist system. The power of president Kekkonen (presidential term 1956-1982) came close to becoming dictatorial and authoritarian, yet he never abused his power and other aspects of society stayed democratic. He was a charismatic leader who could navigate relationships to both West and East, and greatly used this to his advantage. In the post-WWII era massive urbanisation coincided with the expansion of the welfare state. Farming became industrial and could no longer support families in the countryside. Thus, people now worked and educated outside of their social background, greatly enhancing societal unity and class mobility. Economic growth was phenomenal from 1950s to the 1980s like in the rest of Europe. The education system was expanded, but actually a basic education had been offered from the 1920s onwards, it was now reformed according to the Swedish model and university education was more widespread. Finland benefitted from trading with both West and the East. Finland could exploit the East trade to their benefit, and Finnish economy was suffering heavily on the 1990s when the Eastern block collapsed.
The quality standards of you channel are incredible, each video is incredibly detailed and still better than the previous one. Compliments from Italy 🇮🇹❤️
Hello Kraut. I'm Danish and a long-time viewer of your channel. I really love this episode about our institutions and the fortunate circumstances that brought us this outcome. Really loved hearing about Grundtvig and the role he actually played in shaping Denmark. Nowadays he is mostly associated with Efterskoler, which is like a much more lax version of a boarding school for the last years of Folkeskole/middle school. And yeah we got lucky with our kings the and the relationships between the classes. Doesn’t hurt one of the kings was incompetent can mentally ill and only trusted his doctor who was very into liberal ideas to improve the common people’s lives. Overall love the video and keep up the good work. Or as we say in Denmark “Fortsæt med det gode arbejde” And yeaaah “A” for effort when it comes to the pronunciations, it’s hard😊
Grundtvig invented the highschool and then the highschools went and invented afterschool schools (efterskoler) much, much, later on. He’s not associated with efterskoler and he’s not remembered for them.
@@night6724 We’re doing better than any other country during the pandemic and we’re setting records for employment. Don’t know where you’re getting your news from but it seems like you should consider another news outlet.
You are absolutely right, copying laws doesn't always works. I am from India, and India is the largest democracy in world, and having the largest constitution. Having largest constitution, still we can't control corruption, and poverty. India has a lot of resources, talented people, but we can't use them, just because of corrupted politicians. Btw, your video is awesome. Love from India🇮🇳😁
There is a similar meme to "getting to Denmark" on Chinese social media: "running to Northern Europe". Basically it's the same message, but it's used mainly by dissidents when the pro-establishment people bring up socialist China's economic accomplishments. The point is that the "socialist" system in China led to to much inequality, while true socialism only exists in Denmark/Scandinavia.
In my opinion Denmark is more socialist than China. From what I hear about China there are no safety laws and regulations and if China does make a law it’s just to maintain power. Denmark uses laws and socialism to help its people, China uses them to consolidate power.
GloriousTigerEye also, wtf does socialism even freaking mean these days? Last time I checked it was a stepping stone to communism, but it's clearly not that in the case of Denmark.
Awww, as a Dane, this makes me feel all warm inside ;) I want to point out some Danish easter eggs i noticed throughout the video: The text at screen at 21:23 and 29:01 is a Danish translation of the “Navy Seal Copypasta,” made me almost die of laughter when I noticed! Also, the banner at 30:02 is simply saying “we are holding a banner”
Wow learned a lot! I'm a hong konger (ethnically Chinese) who lived in new Zealand, US, France and Morocco. So far I've only learned the Anglophone and francophone (European) sides of the story, honestly didn't know much about the root of the "Scandinavian structure" until now. One thing I'd like to say is that the storage culture seems to be the basis of the altruism of the culture, and sadly, if that's correct, such culture is not possible in places like China where you can survive, or even live better by killing off your neighbors. Also the concept of common good, a bottom-up social welfare policy cannot exist in a nation where there's different geographies, which resulting in hugely different economies where the needs and demands of the people could be very different.
The video kind of forgets about switzerland. yeah, the swiss social democrats only came about to be 10 years later as official national party. but switzerland is both in terms of culture and politics much more diverse. so the social democrats never ruled switzerland. but without them, and the same basic cultural principles which made scandinavian countries successful, switzerland would either have broken apart or lacked success. what you see in common: the is a strong cultural bias to not fall for the tragedy of the commons. the also all boost strong regulations, while promoting competition within the framework of said regulation. there is a enormous difference in the wants and needs of swiss cities and remote mountain valleys. (important note: green party are also social democrats, not just the spd (swiss, not german one))
I love the part where you emphasized that the developments that led to Scandinavia's growing power among peasants and storage sharing culture had parallels in other countries but had different outcomes. Made me think about how many times I'm told a rational answer that could very much be false or painting a biased narrative.
This is so interesting. Coming from Holstein, I have sometimes wondered how our region would look if we were still part of Denmark. I most of the time assumed we would be more "Danish" culturally than we are now. But this video had me thinking about how Denmark would look with Schleswig and Holstein still being part of it. I think it could be very different. The procedures of the 19. century that drove nationalism and the anger amongst the Holstein and Schleswig German nationalists were ultimately the same ones that made Denmark the nation it is today. In a nutshell, in 1848/49 the Danish monarch had to decide between the wishes of the Danish people and the German people in Schleswig and Holstein and ultimately decided in favour of the Danish. This paved the way for Denmark to become the social democracy it is today and it started the first Schleswig war at the same time. I would have loved to hear a little more about Schleswig and Holstein in this video, as they were together about as populated as the kingdom of Denmark at that time and since their fate was so influential for both Denmark and Germany. But I get that this could be the topic of an entire video of itself
My family moved from Magdeburg (I think), to northern Sønderjylland, after the war, in 1864. What was then Northern Schleswig. After the great War, they of course became Danish in 1920. I know my grandfather (1901-1991) didn't feel German at all. He had a hate towards Germans. Im not sure why. But the Germans felt more like Danes, and were happy to join Denmark. Maybe the hate was because everyone spoke Danish, but they were forced not to speak the language, in school. Even when i was a child, there was a certain hate towards Germany, in Sønderjylland. Not only because of WWII, but also because of previous wars (1848, 1864).
Nowhere else can you find a format so extensive and informative, yet so condensed as your videos. I’m truly blown away by the quality in which you make these, and your ability to relay complex political concepts so easily and in such little time.
20min in, but i just gotta say it: im so fucking grateful i found your content in this endless ocean of distractions. Please keep up the truly incredible work
Such amazing work. For a 'short' video, this goes over a large amount of history and very elegantly sums up major events without taking a real stance, and putting in a healthy dose of memes to keep you going. As a young American struggling for basically everything mentioned in this video, thank you for taking the time to make this.
Kraut I love your videos but around 12:00 you mentioned that you couldn’t tax the sea. But the Danish Sound Tolls or Øresundstolden were an essential part of the Danish Crowns’ income from the 15th to 19th century. It helped centralize Copenhagen as a major economic center.
The point about taxing the sea was that peasants all over coastal Scandinavia had much easier access to trade than most Europeans did. The video is mainly tracing the development of strong community institutions, not necessarily state ones.
To Kraut and Krew, well done. I have heard of the struggles and hardships that came with this video. That you for working hard and consistently on what I am sure is about to be an amazing video. Very excited to watch my favorite Channel today! :)
To sum up, Denmark's democracy is partly a byproduct of the Danish monarchs doing a the-enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend move against the aristocracy, and partly because feudalist administration simply did not take so much of a hold like it did elsewhere in Europe.
@@graded_s another thing of note. The monarchist Thailand is surrounded by nations that don't tolerate LGBT people or put them in media but Thailand does and and it's basically a meme in media from Japan that any sex change in their media got it in Thailand.
You've come a long way since 2014 and the madness that gripped a lot of people back then. I suppose a lot of us have. Well done, man; that's not an easy hole to leave.
Since Danish Socialism was born from Denmark become largely homogenous, and given how WWI changed Denmark, how much of an effect (direct & indirect) did the reincorporation of Northern Schleswig have on Denmark, and, more importantly, how different were the institutions in the formerly-German parts of Denmark and how easily were they incorporated/changed into the Danish model?
As a Danishman, We were very happy to get Sønderjylland (Northern Schleswig-Holsten) back from the Germans in 1920. It was a largely symbolic thing, but it was hard to incorporate the Germans into Denmark. To determine what territories went to which country, They held a vote to determine it. To this day, there are families from the area that speak both German and Danish. The schools in the area teach mainly danish, but you can also take courses of german if you so like. They tried to make the institutions as fair to the germans as possible, as they didn't want a new war. It took about 20 years to really incorporate them, when Germany invaded and started it all over again. After WW2, Denmark started again, and by the mid sixties, They had largely incorporated the schools in a german friendly way.
Pretty easy actually I have a lot of mates from south Jutland and they are all grateful for the reunification Not a single Danish person wanted the occupation. Not even the ones living under it
it was up for a vote in in the areas if they wanted to stay german or become danish, so denmark mainly just got danes with a small german minority and vice versa
Well, the entire thing was decided by vote, so only the areas that majorily WANTED to go back to being part of Denmark (which were only the northernmosts parts of Schleswig) did so. Thus it was a very minor change.
man this makes me happy to be a Dane. awesome vid as usual mate. even tho i am Danish and was taught this i still find that much of what you bring up brings new light to it. so thank you
Thank you so much for this video Kraut! Videos like yours inspire me to reform my political Idology to try and attempt to fix the problems in my country of America. Over here we are losing hope that nothing can be changed here for the better but you still give me hope and arguments I can use to change peoples minds. Thankyou.
Another great vid. Being from the US, I really wish our history classes (especially at the high school level) were taught in more of this manner, meaning displaying how history manifests itself in our time. Keep it up. Happy holidays.
What I absolutely love in your videos is that you teach history for a reason. I really like spending my time, learning history of other countries but they are often presented as just a fun story. Your videos not only present history as a process that shaped modern day world, but also how we can understand it to better think about politics and economy.
Love the fact that you got a sponsorship, but I need to address this one… PSA: Kamikoto is Chinese. They have a branch in Japan, but there is no guarantee that your knives are made there. They source a poor grade of steel from Japan, and manufacture their knives in China (not that China can’t make maxing knives, this is just not it, bro). If you want a great Chinese knife, buy from a reputable Chinese brand that doesn’t try to trick you into thinking their knives are Japanese. If you want a great Japanese knife, buy from a reputable dealer such as Tawa knives or Burrfection.
21:24 "What the hell did you just say to me, you bastard? I'll have you know that I graduated at the top of my class from the Frogman Corps (elite special forces) and that I've been on numerous secret raids against Sweden and that I have 300 confirmed kills..." Where on earth did you get this?
23:05 A consequence of the disastrous war in 1864, which caused huge amounts of territory to be lost, was that it created a (in a sense) national movement. The movement, lead by Enrico Dalgass through the moor company helped create a central public spirit. The movement had the slogan "that which is lost outwards, must be won inwards". The company had by 1916 drained over 70.000 acres and turned 80.000 acres into farmland, but it also started a sense of national pride that lasts to this day.
The most important point for the Norwegian Labour Party was when they chose to leave the Socialist International to work for a kind of democratic movement instead. Only small splinter groups remained as various forms of commies (for instance the Maoists) and (actual) socialists.
Ah yes, Tjen Folket, NKP, and AKP-ml...The only one left is TF, and they're just part-time criminals and bullies that want to pretend that their bullshit is for the greater good.
I would argue that the goal of socialism is a completly free democracy, the social democrats only parted from socialism so that they could cater to more centrist voter
21:26 - thank you for translating the meme and doing a good job of it as well! Gave me a good laugh. To those not in the know because of not being able to read/speak danish, they've translated the Navy Seal copypasta meme.
@@512TheWolf512 It is basically the Navy seal copy pasta but translated to a danish version. But instead of copying it word for word it uses words that are very distinctly funny in danish.
I often listen to your videos at work. The way you present these topics in your videos are interesting. Unfortunately listening to at work comes with the downside of actually focusing on whatever i need to do to earn for myself i have to watch your videos after work to fully take it all in and i dont mind at all, love these videos!
Awesome video. I often find that I learn about things in your videos that I hated in highschool history. You tie them into topics I'm interested in and explain things in such a way that makes it not just bearable but interesting.
It is pleasing and sad that my country was used as an example in corruption (Philippines). We copied strict laws but we are not able to enforce them, there are people running to become senators and even a president that were known tax evaders, grafters and corrupt officials. Thus i understand why my country is one of the most corrupt countries out there and it is sickening. Good video Kraut, as always.
I mean it could work Just put your officials on minimum wage under threat of death, then just track their accounting for the rest of their lives alongside their families for sudden donations Then again you need a trustworthy system for that, since the moment the people in charge of keeping them in check get corrupt it's just a downward spiral that can only really be fixed by a large scale purge of the political class
@@ianhomerpura8937 What’s even more worse is that all our candidates are known to have a history of graft and corruption and no matter how people in social media twist the facts for their preferred candidate, you can’t deny that all of them are the same either way. Not only that ever since the 2016 elections, our politics has been polarizing significantly with Duterte supporters and the Liberals. And that with Bongbong Marcos and other political candidates added to the mixed, I just hope that it won’t end up in a political crisis and that the people who support their preferred candidates and the political candidates themselves won’t go overboard. (Sorry if my rant went too long)
Our dysfunctional public education system contributes to this dilemma too. We're still trying hard to use English when it's not even a native language used in daily conversation by the average filipino. No surprise we rank so poorly in reading comprehension. How are you supposed to increase awareness of democratic principles with a functionally illiterate(at least in English)populace?
I'm a Dane and an active member of the Social Democratic Party and it's youth organisation (DSU) and this video is spot on! Denmark is ruled by social liberalism, we have over 14 different political parties and all political arguments are really only about how we make the country better for the people and not whether we should continue to do so. We all agree that the country must be furthered for the people, we just don't agree on the details as to how and how fast. Another thing I'd like to mention is your use of the rose, as it is the symbol which the Social Democratic Party (Socialdemokratiet) still use today as our main logo. We use it because the rose is a symbol of peace and candidates will typically give out roses while campaigning and talking to the citizens about what they would like to see changed in their city or in the nation as a whole. Some candidates have though abolished the handing out of roses, due to environmental concerns as the roses are usually shipped in from outside and thus these candidates would rather not hand out roses to show the people that they truly do care about the environment (which is a highly important topic in Denmark). I may add that power in our democratic nation is split in 3. We have the legislative power, which is our parliament. The executive power, which is the government and ruling party. And then we have the judicial power, which is the courts. The police has no power of its own, but is instead a part of the executive power, but they cannot be freely used by the government and/or ruling party as there are many, many regulations, which also includes that none of the 3 powers may interfere with one another. It is also important to notice that the country itself is divided into 3 main institutions. The nation, the regions and the cities. Every 4 years there are national elections and every 4 years there are municipal and regional elections, although these are postponed by two years from the national elections (so in reality we have elections every second year). Feel free to ask any questions, I'll gladly respond 😊 It can though be a good idea to ask me on my channel as UA-cam has decided not to notify me when someone replies to my comments (which is quite annoying tbh). 30:50 is the reason why Denmark is so heavily against the EU's minimum wage proposal, as we have fought for almost a century to get the worker benefits that we have today. Our wage model is a deal made between the worker union and the employer and it consists of not only the general wage, but also money for pension, vacation, sick leave, maternity leave and more. The EU minimum wage would instantly eliminate all what we've worked so hard for and it could very well be the reason for a Danish exit out of the EU - without paying anything for leaving may I add, as our entire membership is tied to the EU not messing with our sovereignty and primary laws. Since the EU wants the minimum wage to be law over all of Europe and since they want it to be defined in Bruxelles, they are directly breaking the agreement of our membership, hence why we would wish to leave without paying.
Can you elaborate why a minimum wage would destroy the social contract? Germany's wages are in large (albeit shrinking) fields of the industries negotiated between trade unions and employers, yet we have had a minimum wage since 2015. I have not followed European minimum wage initiatives, so I am curious where the differences are.
What happens if we flood Denmark with migrants from the Middle East who are willing to work for lower wages? Would you turn to the government for a minimum wage law, or secure your borders?
@@cv4809 There is some but generally Danes are pretty pro-EU. I would imagine that this would quickly change though if the EU tried to force a change of our Danish Model. Anti-EU sentiments were pretty prevalent during the Euro crises and refugee crisis which lead to the anti-immigration and anti-EU party becoming the second largest Party in Denmark in 2015. I think a decision from the EU to forcefully threaten/remove danish traditions in such a way would be met with even greater backlash and I actually think it could lead to a "DEXIT" if no compromise was found.
So in order to get to Denmark you need many things, but above all it seems you need a national consensus on caring for your fellow man. I see why this will take a while to implement in North America 😆
I have actually discussed this with American Republicans before. And they thought the idea of free education was ridiculous because they didn't think they should pay for other people's kids, they even called it stealing. So you are def right. It's kinda funny though when they at the same time are preaching "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself"
high quality work as always, while as a dane there's small things here or there that you skipped over, but they're pretty inconsequential and i did actually learn something new.
An event I definitely felt was missing was the land reform of 1919. I dont know if the danish peasantry held a large part of the land compared to other European countries, but in 1919 more than 25% of the country was still the property of some 100 estates. In an attempt to convert the country into modern capitalism and out of fear from communism that had just succeeded in Russia, the danish government confiscated some 33% of all the wealth and land of the nobility and sold it at a bargin to individual farmers.
Kraut as a foreigner in Denmark when I hear how Denmark promote his achievements I always think that miss the way of achieving it is more important to share ... so here you are ! Great video and research and mediation !
I think the extent of free trade across the Baltic Sea is extremely mischaracterised (ironically so, considering the main character of the video) when Denmark was especially infamous for instituting the Øresund Toll, to the great dismay of both the Hansa and the Swedes. In fact, Denmark got filthy filthy rich by essentially controlling everyone who sailed in and out of the Baltic Sea.
@@Nark0Punkz The Hansa and Swedes literally fought several wars against Denmark because the toll was so restrictive on trade. It's why the Swedes eventually took Scania from Denmark after over a millennium of Danish rule.
How long has the "getting to Denmark" meme existed? I ask because, as a Swede, I've noticed that we're seldom held up as an ideal to strive for any more(due to developments that I understand people do *not* wish to repeat) and people still point to Denmark. And the two countries are similar enough that calling them basically the same would probably be for the large part fair for foreigners. If the meme is recent then the specificity could partially be attributed to the latest developments, if it is old then I am simply biased by Swedish media obviously focusing on what's more relevant for Swedes.
I was actually curious about this aswell, when I saw that Sweeden started to drop off all the charts that the nordic countries have held together for so many years. I expected to see any research into this or a good video or article but I found nothing.
In recent years Sweden is falling behind because of a unwillingness to do institutional changes during the financial crisis instead using short term solutions (devaluation of the Swedish krone) Your refugees are not really a problem which would impact your prestige especially with the theme of solving problems before they happen with an aging population. Denmark did not Norway will be disregarded because of their natural resources unlike Denmark who don't really possess much which makes it harder to dismiss.
@@rasmush.jensen5354 Such bs. Sweden has a budget surplus and one of the strongest economies across Europe. It ranks 3rd on the democracy index while Denmark is on nr 7.
That's the thing. It's the implementation that's the question, not the feasibility. the US is a large not very centralized, federal constitutional republic where a king cant make decrees and the federal government is constrained by constitutional limitations will struggle to get to Denmark, regardless of the economics of it. Couple it with a wholly different cultural root informed by a unique national experience, history with diverse populations, and national narratives about " What is important" just compound on this. I think even more pertinent to this is the fact that for Germany, Austria, and Spain to form social democracies, their countries literally had to die, some times multiple times (Germany in WW1 and then WW2), Spain in the Civil war and the collapse of the Franco dictatorship, and Austria first dissolving from the death of Austria-Hungary and then being eaten by Germany and then being occupied by allies. Russia, Japan, France, Italy, etc all also had similar experiences. Even Denmark had to suffer a long strain of national humiliations until it was whittled down to a core that could "birth" social democracy out of necessity. The US not only hasn't had anything close to this happen to it. On the contrary, the US has faced almost no setbacks on its national path, winning almost every war it has ever fought up until the second half of the 20th century and even at that always bouncing back from failures. Its sheer inertia and luck even manifest itself culturally in this belief of providence and American exceptionalism because... I mean when you've literally been that successful and powerful as a state you start to believe your own hype. I think this factor is something Europeans and Americans both Underestimate. Being an immigrant myself it is very evident that the US has literally never needed to invent social democracy, and on a broader scale that applies to much of the anglo world as well (which has some of the least developed welfare states among peer countries) because the Anglos have been the dominant peoples of the past 3 centuries suffering almost no great setbacks. I mean the anglos have beat all their rivals since the war of the Spanish succession in 1701 (maybe even further back) the & year war, the Napoleonic wars, the world wars, the cold war, and everything in between. the Anglos have just never suffered the cultural blow that forces them to come together like the French, Germans, Spanish, Scandinavians and even Russians had. I feel this is something that isn't talked about enough apart from structural reasons the very fact that the status quo in the anglo world and the US, in particular, has not faced a structural challenge sufficient enough to necessitate wanting to get to Denmark. And no, being 33rd in the world in healthcare isn't sufficient. Especially when you're The Global hegemon. I'm sorry if it was a bit long, just wanted to put something to think about.
I've been reading up on Southeast Asian history and my country (Thailand) is definitely an example of a country who's experiences through horrific historical events (Burmese invasions in the 16th and 18th centuries) has helped my country build a strong cadre of leadership and bureaucratic administration that played a role in Thailand's survival through colonialism, yet despite that, it's recent history of failing to democratize (as well as miraculously going through WWII virtually unscathed) and being on the winning side of the Cold War certainly has its downsides on my country in recent times.
@@zyanego3170 No, I’m saying the old Germany had to die before it embraced social democracy Ie it was humiliated not once but twice and it’s entire political class was wiped out In the summer of 1945 it was very much a question weather there would even still be a “Germany” In the aftermath of such a catastrophe the Germans decided to chart a new path, and so far a very successful one.
I don't know why but this video filled me with an extremely strong sense of optimism throughout the video. The fact that a handful of people were able to change communist parties to social democratic parties on its own already showed that we can change things. Something only hammered home by the bit at the end regarding being prisoners of history, which is likely only true if we decide to believe it to be true that we are prisoners and don't due anything to make it false.
This video truly reeinforce my Norwegian wish for a video on Norway, and perhaps also Swedish wishes for a video on Sweden. Cause we are all too familiar with both the similarities and the differences between the Scandinavian nations. There is small satisfaction in videos regarding the Scandinavian nations as close to one entity or where one nation are representing all three nations.
Its kinda weird growing up in Denmark, seeing the inequality and the corruption, and then finding out everywhere else is either much worse or slightly worse.
@@aturchomicz821 came here to say this. The only way to be free of corruption is to aggressively take action against it whenever it occurs, and proactively disincentivize it whenever possible.
This is an amazing video - I've been thinking about this exact problem for some time now in relation to carbon taxes and institutional trust. Thank you for covering this topic
33:09 That kinda contradicts history. In the Novemberrevolution of 1918 the SPD was split in MSPD and USPD with the MSPD being bigger. The USDP wanted a marxist revolution, the MSPD wanted democracy. The bigger MSPD succeeded and together with other parties founded the Weimarer republik, once the Kaiser was gone because of WW1. Communists felt betrayed and created the slogan "Wer hat uns verraten, Sozialdemokraten". Yes, that slogan existed before Schröder.
Denmark is a great country, I met many Danish people through playing CS:GO and they are the only people I've made friends with (other than one Polish and one Estonian guy), being from Israel usually means I meet a lot of Nazis (I'm not a Jew calling everyone anti-sematic, I'm talking about actual Nazis) but the Danes are the only ones that actually accept me. Over the last 4 years I've made 10 friends from Denmark which I'm still in contact with.
This video couldnt have been uploaded at a better time! I've been going through a sort of "personal political renaissance", where I have finally begun figuring out where I stand and what I stand for, and I found myself in the Social Democrat area of things. This does help explain it even more to me.
Great video Kraut. I like what you said about us not being prisoners of history. Still, I really can't imagine anything Denmark does being successfully emulated on the federal level of the US. I could always imagine social democracy might work on a state level, at least in New England.
Wait, you’re danish?
@@zazo9able Alt is an American.
@@BaxstabberzZ Regardless of whatever political direction your country goes, I do wish you luck in achieving independence one day. Cheers from a Dane 🇩🇰🤝🏴
I could see it working in the more community oriented parts of the Midwest as well, but the US population can be rather stubborn about social programs.
I say states should go for it, as someone not sure their efforts will work. The Laboratories of Democracy should be, well, experimenting!
Denmark: "We did politics right! Do you guys want help?"
Netherlands: * *eats prime-minister* *
In what sense?
Christ...
@@marcomd4093 the literal sense. Look up Johan de Witt, and how he met his end.
@@wasneeplus Read it. It was disgusting.
@@marcomd4093 indeed it is. Aren't we a quirky bunch?
The history of the Danish revolution that created the parliament is adorable and probably the only completely bloodless, democratic revolution. The TLDR version is that basically the commoners contacted the king and said, "we're going to have parliament or we'll reenact the French Revolution." and since the king liked his head attached to his neck and decided that having a reduction in power and still have some influence in the parliament was vastly more preferable to getting beheaded. So he said, "we now have a parliament and this is how it'll be - I've decided."
Thanks, France.
You're forgetting the best part of the speech.
"And from now on I will sleep late every morning."
Strunge.
Arguably the French Revolution and it's terror were necessary for future liberal states to come into existence, because it empowered the people and gave monarchs something to fear.
@@viktator4205 The French Revolution was an abject failure. The people of France welcomed Napoleon when he seized power.
It was only after his ouster that the French Revolution II brought about democracy as we know it and from that the humanistic principles that have led to modern civilization largely arose.
The Timeline goes like this
Feudal nobility -> French Revolution I -> Napoleon (with strong public support) -> Napoleon ultimately loses the Napoleonic Wars -> (silent) French Revolution II -> the establishment of what would later become modern Democracy.
The French Revolution was just a good scare image to bring up to monarchs who were on the fence since staying alive was preferable to staying in power.
Another masterpiece 🍻
Eye Abang Inspect History disini. Bagi abang Indonesia cocok gak kalau jadi Sosial Demokrasi
(Indonesian)
Hey ada Inspect History. Halo 😀.
(English)
Hey it's Inspect History. Hello 😀.
Edit:
(Indonesian)
Mungkin suatu hari kamu bisa colab sama Kraut.
(English)
Maybe one day you'll get to do a colab with Kraut.
Mimin juga subscriber Kraut ya? :)
@@nenggo2540 Indonesia seharusnya juga wajib ikut sosial demokrasi sesuai butir ke- 5 Pancasila tapi kenyataanya justru lain.
I never stopped finding it hilarious to see Denmark on screen while Kraut was talking about the mountains of Scandinavia. Great video, as always.
You have no idea what you're talking about, son. Come here and sit, while I tell you a story.
10 years ago me and an adventurous party of a dozen daredevils that I rescued from the French Foreign Legion set off to climb the mighty Rytterknægten in Bornholm. The legendary and sacred mountain of the island which according to legends is inhabited by trolls that prevent anyone from ever climbing to the top. The natives call it "the mountain of mountains."
As we reached the foot of the mountain a storm was brewing and we had to plan our ascent via the northern route in order to be safe. No one wanted to repeat the mistakes we made in the Caucasus back in the day, when we lost 20 good men. May God have mercy on their souls.
The climb was long and arduous but I made it in the end. I can't remember if others made it too or if I was hallucinating at this point because I dragged myself up there on bleeding hands and feet. It's a sheer miracle I'm still alive. It must have taken us 5, if not 7 minutes to climb the 160 meters or so and the worst thing was that there was no Krølle-Bølle Soft Ice Cream at the top.
So don't tell me that there is Krølle-Bølle soft ice everywhere on Bornholm, because I know exactly that there isn't!
i don't know much but i also though denmark was a mostly flat country, but to be honest almost any country is flat compared to where i live (chile)
@@ernstschmidt4725 yeah its very flat, we dont have any mountains
@@ernstschmidt4725 no its really flat. biggest hill in denmark is like 120m
Its about as flat as my ass.
As a Filipino, the description of the Filipino institutions and society are spot on.
Congratulations to everyone who worked on this project. Knowing the issues faced & all the hard work put in, it’s great to see the end result being of high quality yet again.
Thanks for the opportunity to work with you Kraut, and a great video once again :D
thank you, I hope to work with you again in the future.
I feel its weird, because we essentially learn this in school. But when i looked at the Wikipedia for social democracy, Denmark was just a footnote.
Here in Denmark, we do learn thay social democracy was created here, but i cannot find any nok danish sources for this. Thank you for this vid!
That's the tendency in general on the English Wikipedia.
The general idea of social democracy was invented by German reformist marxists who saw reform instead of revolution as a way to create a more equal and emancipated society. Some might claim that Denmark and the Nordic countries refined that idea and made it work practically but the ideology stems from German leftist thinkers.
Wikipedia is notoriously unreliable and biased.
Wikipedia is basically propaganda now
I study English IN DENMARK and even the history courses here make it out to be Britain inventing social Democracy. Very weird considering our own version is significantly older.
As a Dane i would like to add a few things that was either forgotten or something Kraut did not understood its important
First of the Grundvig schools today (last 50+ years) is no longer a school in opposition to our public schools. (ofc not. We are all forced to join the public/private schools. And they are all run under the same law). The Grundvig schools now is not about grades. They are now purely about learning. Learning about what the school focus on: Sport, music, history, religion etc etc. But in all these schools there is classes in how the society/democracy works in Denmark. When you finish you get a diploma, that you have taken part. You are not getting "judged" by exams. The teachers will though, write something about your time on the school. So what can you use this shit for? Well other then specialising for up to 1 year in something ofc. For your own benefit. But if you dont have the grades from highschools to get in to university, then spending time on a Grundvig schools can help you get in. In other words Danish universities like to get people in, who has spend time on something that interests them, and have had studies in the society/democracy. Even though you have failed in the "normal" classes in our public schools. I think this is a sign on what our education is also about and how we like to shape our population. Oh yeah ofc. The government give subsidies to these kind of schools
Another important thing that i think can be taken right back to the power our king gave the people early on, is the way Denmark decide what the pay and the benefits should be for the working people. As some of you might know, EU is right now trying to force a minimum payment to all EU citizens. I think the only country (maybe Sweden as well) that is fighting to avoid this is Denmark. In Denmark we do not have a minimum wage decided by the government. The minimum wage is decided between the unions of the workers and the unions of the companies that offer work. The representatives sit down once a year and find out the minimum wage, the benefits and the demands. Then the unions go back to there members and let them vote for the offer. Up until now the government has stayed out of it. In case the both members vote yes, then all is cool. In case 1 of the unions members vote no, then a whole new process starts. Super complicated, but still without the government do anything. In the end it might end in a symbolic strike and if everything go sour, then a real strike. And then in the end the government can intervene and force something on both unions. So does this work? Maybe once every 5-7 years we have a strike. And funny enough 90% of those strikes is when a union is negotiating with the minister that represent the hospitals, schools etc. When ever it is a private union it always go fine. I think it is more then 30 years ago we had a strike amongst those workers
Does history matter, Kraut. Yes it does. If you introduced the Danish society to Americans they would scream and riot. They have been molded for hundreds of years in a different way then Scandinavians have. To get a Social democracy in to an American society you have to start now, and slowly "teach" the citizens. Then maybe in 50-100 years they will have integrated a Social Democracy system. We did try to "give" democracy away for the last 20 years that did not ask for it. Not enough of the citizens accepted it, for it to work fully. But they got a taste for it, and maybe in another 30 years Afghanistan and Iraq will have democracy or what ever system they prefer
Thank you for saying what often isn't said.
As an American, I think the biggest obstacles for U.S. citizens to adopt the Danish system are their mistrust in institutions and ardent individualism. I wonder if regaining trust in wider society might lax the individualism, too.
@@TV-8-301 About the individualisme, it is to me a mystery what Americans mean when they say it. And i think there can be 2 reasons for it.
1. We Danes has been brought up in this system and we feel just as individual (free?) as any other nationality, but objectively maybe we are not
2. We dont have this focus on individualisme as Americans have, it is just part of our society and not something we need to highlight, since we are an old nation. If you compare Denmark to Norway they also talk about individualisme much more then we do, and they are a very young nation (about 115 years old). When i talk to Norwegians i use to tell them there nation is just a teenager and Denmark is an grown up nation.
You're right about America needing a longer amount of time to accept Danish style democracy. It will be a very long time. But I hope my country gives this type of system the chance it deserves.
@@TV-8-301 I think you are on the right track. I suspect US individualism is really just a representation of their (frankly well founded) mistrust in their governmental institutions. The real issue then becomes: How do you build trust?
I think the answer must start with making trustworthy institutions. As long as the US government does not act in the interest of its people, a social democracy (based on voluntarism, as mentioned in the video) simply cannot form. People won't work to support a system that betrays them; the solution isn't force a Danish model unto them until they start working, the solution is to stop betraying the people, and once trust has grown, the Social part will develop naturally from humans understanding that we are stronger together than apart.
Corrections, Critizisms, and Questions:
1: One mistake I already noticed before publishing this video: The SPD changed from "The German socialist party" to the "German social democratic party" back in the 1890s. The book I read curiously listed the name change of the Austrian party in the same sentence as the name change of the German party, thereby giving me the impression that they both happened at the same time. Which isn't the case, the Austrian name change happened after WW2. However what still stands as a point is that the German SPD changed substancially after WW2. Until the 1960s it continued to advocate for "socialism through democracy" and policies such as a reunification with the communist east under a shared socialist system. It was very m,uch still a Marxist party until Willy Brandt took over and changed it. So besides this minor error, the rest of the point is still correct.
2: "Denmark actually did tax the sea!"
Answer: Nope... I disagree with you. Denmark taxed the straights into the Baltic. If you didn't cross the straights you could still trade freely for most as the Scandinavian coastlines were hard to control. Also... one of the funniest things to research are the various methods of medieval and renaissance tax evasion used by traders to avoid the Danish straights toll - go read it yourself.
3: "Danish democracy in 1849 only granted votes to landowners. Not to all men"
Answer: Yes. Shit. I think i said "Universal male sufferage" that would be incorrect. Damn. I misspoke in the recording and didn't notice. My apologies. I knew that is not the case. Which makes this very embaressing.
4: "You depict early medieval storage economies as a form of class-conscious cooperative action, and that is not the case."
Answer: No. You are viewing storage economies through a Marxist lens as something shaped through class-consciousness. I am doing no such thing, because I am not a Marxist. You are trying to force your Marxist narrative onto history to explain your current views, I am merely describing a socio-economic development of the past.
5: "You left out X, Y, and Z."
Answer: Again. This is a short video. I make decisions on what information I cut out, and what I leave in the video. You can agree or disagree with those decisions.
6: "Did you forget Iceland?"
Answer: Yes. lol. Sorry. I'll make up for it with a video about Iceland in the future.
7: "Why did you not mention Finland as much?"
Answer: Because Finland went through a bit of a different development thanks do being part of the Russian Empire. Republicanism and the struggle for independence against Russian Imperialism play an important role in the political development of Finland. Something we might discuss in another video later.
8: "Why did you pick the Normans as an example of Viking law?! That's wrong! They were influenced by France! bla bla bla I prefer another Viking kingdom!"
Answer: Let me stop you right there. Because I can guarantee you, that if I had picked any other Viking kingdom. Be it one of the many in Ireland, England, Scotland, the Baltics, Ukraine, or even in Scandinavia itself - someone like you would have leveled the exact same complaint. "Buhuhu! Why did you use the Viking-Rus as an example". My point still stands. The Vikings took European feudalism and drove it to an extreme. I merely picked the Normans as an example because I find the Normans interesting, and because they had an enormous impact on wider European political development.
9: "I do have to say you are completely incorrect with the idea of taking nordic laws to the extreme. Women if widowed inherited the lands meaning an old woman could actually be quite wealthy and desirable. Concuibages were very uncommon (stealing wives). Norman law is also was a direct result of Frankish influence. Nordic law had a democratic system called the thing; pretty far-flung from the absolute monarchy of Normandy."
Answer: Admittedly, the Normans are an extreme example of a Viking kingdom driving feudalism into an extreme. That is probably why I picked them as my leading example. But, concerning the examples you give of, for example, property inheritance by women, those are according to Marc Bloch an unintentional consequence of feudalism, not of tribal germanic social organization.
@Kraut Please please make a video about Bangladesh.
What was the “free city” referenced at 12:40?
@@TheChowster I assume you mean the idea of a free city in general. In medieval Germany, at the time called "The Holy Roman Empire" the country was divided very locally between feudal lords, but some few places, known as free cities, were not ruled by nobles, but by local councils. There is more to it than that, but I would have to look it up again to remember all the details.
One error you made was reffering to Finland as part of Scadinavia. It's not.
Scandinavia is: Denmark, Sweden, Norway.
Fenno-Scandinavia is: Sweden, Norway, Finland.
The "Nordics" is probably a more apt term to use.
Sweden did send military leaders to Denmark as "Volunteers", during the Dane-German war. (This because Denmark did not have the numbers of Generals, Admirals, and Lieutenants such to actually lead their army. And Sweden did not actually want to go to war with the Germans, even if the most Swedes wanted to "Protect their Danish Brethren").
18:01 what about Maria theresa's compulsory education law in 1774 ? do i miss something ?
Small thing about Denmark joining France doing the napoleon war. At the time, Denmark had the largest naval fleet in all of Europe and was actually neutral, trading with both the English and France sides. However because of this England got kinda paranoid about Denmark joining France and thereby giving France access to the massive Danish fleet. So England send a platoon of soldiers to Copenhagen with the mission of burning down the Danish fleet, which they were successful doing so. So after this Denmark was like "wow, those Englishmen are kinda bad" and joined napoleon.
Yeah denmark was about to be really strong But Britian ruined it
and england made the first terror bombing of a country, denmark
Ah yes, im scared of this neutral country joining my enemy, so i will terror bomb it just to make sure they dont join agaisnt me -britain
british moment
That 'platoon of soldiers' was the British Navy. They bombarded Copenhagen until the commandant of Copenhagen surrendered and handed over the Danish navy's ships to the English as they demanded.
Scandinavians had another reason for not taking part in the colonial empire building. We were too preoccupied with fighting each other. Between 1563 and 1814 Denmark-Norway fought 11 wars with Sweden resulting in 5 wins for Denmark-Norway, 5 wins for Sweden and 1 draw. Though in terms of territory lost Denmark was the clear looser and finally after the loss of Schleswig and Holstein to Germany Denmark finally realized that we just plain suck at war and the dictum: What is lost outside must be rebuilt inside became the phrase of the day. A big part of the agriculture reform mentioned in the video included the draining of vast marsh areas to replace all the lost farmland in the lost provinces. It was a great communal undertaking unlike any before it. Also, before the great land reform farmers would live close together in villages, they would plant the fields around the village and when harvest came they would harvest the closest fields until they had enough to pay their taxes and feed themselves through the winter. The outer fields were only planted in case of a lean yield, which meant that often many fields went unharvested which by many was considered a huge waste, but few farmers fancied spending half the day traveling to and from a field to do half a days work that did very little to benefit them. So the act of dividing land up between individual families was both a way of giving individual incentives and a logistical move, both to maximize efficiency.
Eh, we really only started to lose a lot of wars from the Renaissance and onwards. The biggest reason for that is that our kings during that time were mostly all incompetent drunks.
@@snowsoldier7779 That is the abridged version that is taught in grade school. It's way more complicated.
@@Fangs1978 What I said was just a comment to when you said that we suck at war.
Denmark suck at war ? .. you better look up forther back then 1500s then my man haha
@@Ladosligese You don't think I know that? I was talking about 1864 onward, and *only* then. We have not initiated a single war since. We don't have the resources or the manpower to fight modern aggressive wars, and we don't have the geography to fight modern defensive wars. We could invade Germany tomorrow, blaze down past Hamburg without suffering a single casualty and still have to quit after two weeks because we'd have run out of ammunition.
You can pound your chest all day and dream of the glory days of the vikings, but that has absolutely *no relevance* to my comment.
No one is impressed by a football team who's last league win was back in the 70's that is currently playing 3rd. division.
man this topic is really interesting to me because a lot of countrys can learn form denmark but we need to also remember that culture institution like the health care of denmark is due to it history, politics, and even to a certain extent it's geography play an important role in developing the country you can just not do what every denmak did and found instant success you need to see what you can do in your country because you have unique problem with is native to you region of the world and people like you kraut are the one who help us understand the fact more clearly these videos are well made and jet the point across quickly and effectively and that great
All Denmark’s wealth comes from stealing it from poorer countries aka imperialism
@@bennelong8451 Which Denmark imperialism?
@@aleksaradojicic8114 a few islands here and there as far as i remember
@@aleksaradojicic8114 Perfect question, I am fairly sure Danish Imperialism is very low relative to other countries. For example the Ottoman Empire had massive imperalism, and look at Turkey today - they are still rather poor. Using the typical "imperalism" argument, in this case where it is vastly unsubstantiated I would even say in relation to most imperalistic countries that existed, is simple and probably untrue. :)
The success more likely lies in other areas, such as those partly described in this video, along with innovation, market economy, good agricultural business and nowadays a lot of energy investments and medical sector, a long with a massive service sector being the biggest part of the danish economy.
Creating the possibility for such a service sector, by allowing high education and massive economic support to students, free education, good education systems, welfare to care for families so one can study instead of work, the general population contributing to the future generations in a great deal, for example big SU (student grants), and so forth, are more likely causes for a succesfull country. Along with the flexicurity model of a social safety net on the work market combined with the required flexibility of employeers to fire and hire personell without being too limited by employement laws. Then a great wage and living conditions attracting and keeping high skilled workers along with just a nice socieity to live in. These are not things that come from any "imperialism" Benne is talking about, but instead culture, values, innovation, economic systems, and working to create a good socieity for the common good, and giving up parts of your money in taxes to achieve this in an efficient way.
@@Sinaeb Which proves that almost 0% of Danish wealth came from imperialism...
As a dane i love the fact that loosing an abundance of wars made us successful
Wasn't really that many. We actually won more wars than sweden and had a gigantic Empire once that no one really talks about and is ALOT underrated.
The perfect country doesn't exi-
are you talking about the north sea empire?@@TheDaneOfficial
@@TheDaneOfficial when was it gigantic? It was powerful but never gigantic
There were 3 Peaks of Denmark (1. North Sea Empire : 1013-1042) (2. Kalmar Union :1397 - 1523) (3. Danish Empire/Denmark-Norway : 1524-1953) They all happened through out one of Denmarks Empires. @@yonatanbehar3322
Professional cook here. Hey Kraut, now that you have professional knives, time for you to learn better knife technique. At 1:08, when you're cutting that onion, you're holding it with the tips of your index and middle finger, exposing your fingers to the knife blade. What you want to do it curl your fingers in so that you're holding the onion with your knuckle. That way, the potential danger is reduced from cutting off a whole fingertip to simply cutting the back of your finger. Further, this allows you to brace the knife against the back of your fingers, letting you cut a lot faster and with greater precision. You're doing it correctly when you chop that carrot, but it's important to do it every time. Sharp knives are a whole different ball game from the dull knives most people are used to and it's very easy to get a deep cut if you're not following proper technique.
Second, it looks like you're extending the index finger of your knife hand along the blade itself, which is not correct. You want to grip the blade of the knife right above the handle with your thumb and the first knuckle of your index finger, this'll give you the most control and the least wrist problems.
Third, that small knife isn't for chopping, you chop with a big knife even if you're chopping something small like an onion. That small knife is for paring and other precise, delicate operations; realistically for most home cooks, it'll very rarely be the best knife for the job unless you spend a lot of time carving veggies into specific shapes. It does seem like that kit is lacking a workhorse chefs knife; if you ever want to expand your kit, I'd look into an 8 inch chefs knife (which is a style of knife).
And finally, some comments on knife care. Japanese knives require a little babying: do not, under any circumstances, run them through a dishwasher or leave them wet after you wash them, you need to dry them off immediately. Further, you'll definitely want to sharpen with a whetstone, like you said, rather than a grinder, but for a home cook, you will only need to sharpen once or twice a year. In order to maintain the blade's edge, you'll want a honing steel, which is a different process from sharpening: rather than removing metal to effectively form a new edge, a honing steel realigns the edge that's already there. You'll want to use a honing steel whenever you start to feel more resistance from whatever you're cutting; I generally hone my knife every time I use it. It's extremely easy to cut yourself while honing though, and whetstones aren't the easiest to use, so I'd certainly recommend watching some tutorials. I'm excited for you! I hope you have fun cooking with your new toys.
thank you.
poggers
at 23:00 i think it should be mentioned that a major reason for the peaceful transition to democracy in Denmark was that the king was very afraid of the masses rising up against him as they had done in France a year earlier. Also only landowning men aged 30+ were allowed the right to vote (constituting 15% of the population), so calling the section the "enfranchisement of the peasantry" may be a bit over the top
important point
Very well stated. The revolutionary movements from France have always caught up with most or all of Europe in socialist or republican frenzies. Also, is too much to ask for a democracy to nail voting rights from the get-go?
The voting part isn't too dissimilar to the states. Only white land owning men could vote originally. But after many hard fought years those rights were extended to all adults. And it was so successful, many things are being done to roll it back
@@anjetto1 Except, unlike in the States, voter suppression is not enough of a demographical issue to be a threat to Danish social democracy.
Thank you for making this information so simple and easy to understand. As an American, I was never taught anything about the differences between socialism and social democracy and I appreciate you enlightening me.
Socialism aims to abolish capitalism and create a fair and just society on the basis of equality and democratic influence. Social democracy on the other hand aims to humanize and control capitalism in the pursuit of a more socially just society. Most social democratic parties of Europe are pretty neo-liberal these days, slowly drifting away from their reformist marxist roots.
@Horseshoe Party you are literally spitting facts to our faces :D Also for the commies that got stuck in 1800s, adapting the 21st century and modern day dynamics usually understood as traiting the "cause". That propagandised and almost dogmatic mindset -just like you mentioned above- creates a tremendous contradiction with the so-called enlightened ideology and its "pioneer" supporters. And thinking your etical beliefs or moral codes are deep insidely superior than others.
But man, isnt that "the religion"?
I mean exact mirror of far right or religion.
@Horseshoe Party I don't necessarily agree with everything you said but it was well written and argumented so kudos for that.
As a lesbian, I’m also grateful
As a lesbian, I’m also grateful
Just a little heads up for the future, the blue island on the bottom of the screen at 13:06 (Bornholm) is actually Danish, and should therefore not be colored accordingly with the rest of Sweden. Dont worry though, most people mistake us for being Swedes since we are quite a bit away from the rest of mainland Denmark.
Great video as always. :)
It also doesn't help that Bornholm is part of Skåneland, with the rest of Skåneland (Skåne, Blekinge and Halland) being Swedish.
Also the Åland islands are a part of Finland (although they speak Swedish mostly)
@@taargustaargus9908 @Chocolatepenguin I think that the map in question was not of current day sweden and that perhaps those two territories where part of sweden at the point of time that the map is depicting.
Maybe you should be :)
@@Ossian-dr1vr Sweden only owned the island of Bornholm for 2 years (1658 - 1660) and during those two years Sweden also owned all of Finland, a chunk of Norway, all of Estonia, half of Latvia, St Petersburg, and a good hunk of northern Germany. So it would be weird to include the historical ownership of Bornholm under Sweden and not include any of their other holdings at the time. It's just a tiny mistake that's easy to make.
Gotta remember why Denmark sided with Napoleon. We were initially neutral, but the brits were afraid that napoleon nipped in and took our substantial fleet to fight britain, so the brits went in, bombarded Copenhagen and took our fleet. No shit we joined in with Napoleon after that. It coined the term Copenhagenization, apparently.
Based brits lol
So true plus, this obsession with revanchism against Britain is also why the Napoleonic Wars are also referred to as "The England Wars" in Denmark
Therfore i thank the Brits
We didn't "join with Napoleon". It was a necessity given the national humiliation involved in getting our fleet nicked and still not declare war. When Bernadotte came marching a few years later we joined the coalition. Again, out of necessity.
I've yet to see a Danish history book that doesn't openly state that Denmark caused its own disaster in the Napoleonic wars by letting its merchants navy sail under convenience flags.
As a Swede, I find it very funny comparing how outside countries sees us scandis to how inter-Scandinavian relationships usually are. About 11 years ago a Swedish radio comedy show had a competition where the listeners could vote for “the worst country in the EU”. Denmark, not very surprisingly, won by a landslide.
If we did the same here in Denmark we would defenetly do the same
As a Danish person, I find this supremely funny! 🤣😂
In Denmark, Sweden is is known to have a shitty irresponsible economy and Norwegians are known as backwards Jesus lovers. In reality the Swedish economy is really good and Norwegians are really progressive, it’s just that Sweden and Norway do slightly worse in those areas than we do and therefor they are very bad at it. It probably comes back to the whole being family thing. You judge your own family harsher and hold them to higher standards than you do strangers
In Norway the Sweden is mocked all the time
I wouldn't have it any other way.
Enjoyed doing drawings for this, I hope you all enjoyed my work as much as I enjoyed making it for this great video.
Many thanks, I hope to work with you again in the future.
No way beace
@@Kraut_the_Parrot Heyyy, Can you do a video about Philippines ( Nepotism, Corruption, Hierarchy )
@@canyou7670 Sounds like Turkey
Yes I did :)
An incredible video once again! Its so interesting to hear you talk about Japanese kitchen knives. I had no idea they were so fascinating!
Oh yeah the part about Denmark was pretty cool too.
A very good video, and a very important subject.
The spread of education in Denmark was also mirrored in Scotland, which is why after the Union, the new British state had a wealth of bureaucrats and clerks to run its Empire.
That's actually super cool! I wonder if you know any books or vids about that topic!
Yet another thing that makes Scotland almost feel like a Scandinavian enclave
Yes - since the 17th century Scotland had among the highest (if not highest) literacy rates in Europe owed to a proliferation of parish schools emphasising reading the bible of course
@@marodriguez1608 The "classic" is How Scots Invented the Modern World.
@@dairallan nice thanks
Amazing video but ngl after watching that sponsorship ad we need more cooking with Kraut content.
So, my main take away from this video is that government and law can only do so much, and it's up to the people to work for the betterment of the society.
I like how you mentioned the Philippines as an example of a stringent anti-corrupt country. My takeaway from this is that beyond the government, a trust between citizens with one another and the citizens with the government is a prerequisite to actually start cracking down on corruption. The distrust with one another just creates the breeding ground to be more selfish and better oneself over bettering the citizenry. It does not help that we are not a homogenous state, and that tribalism is very rampant among the different ethnicities and languages. Philippines has a looooong way to go
It's because of our system.... Presidential
It's because we don't have parliamentary you expecting a transparency and accountability of the government in Presidential system keep in mind that Scandinavian countries are Federalism Parliamentary and open FDI plus with their current ideology called Social Democracy...
@@_wrath_2087 Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Turkey, Iraq, and East Timor are all countries with federalism, yet they are all poor. In Ethiopia's case, federalism did nothing to stop a civil war between the nation's ethnic groups
@@redpotato2585 It has to do with a federal parliamentary system, as the constitutional reformists in the Philippines now desire so it can attract foreign direct investment, actual national government accountability and regional development that won't have to be micromanaged from one place but rather allow the developmentof multiple urban centers with diversified economic outputs. Plus the Philippines is culturally diverse about a hundred tribes that were united by Spanish and American colonialism. The big challenge would be how to precisely establish the federal regional states of the country if the constitution will be reformed based on how culture, history and economic livelihoods.
If the country adopts the federal parliamentary institutional frameworks found in say, Austria and Germany maybe with Singapore's economic policies and the nature of social democracy/class consciousness in Denmark, then perhaps the Philippines will finally be the next Asian economic miracle.
@@_wrath_2087 the red flag I see is how well are anti-corruption measures actually enforced? particularly when its a political ally? You can create as harsh of anti-corruption measures as you want but that wont stop it with the aforementioned enforcement and may due to harshness, deter convictions or as with the British bloody code, Increase the severity of the crime.
The long wait is over and the reward is huge. Congrats to everyone who worked here!!
It is not often that Scandinavian history is tackle on UA-cam so it was a delight for me as a Dane to see it done this well and thoroughly.
Great video
This was an incredibly well-researched video, bravo
This was worth the wait, and a MASSIVE thanks to the entire team. I hope everything gets sorted out soon Kraut. And have a safe X-mas.
13:27 Concept kinda applies to the video in a sense. After all, all the artists that helped pitched in ended up creating this video.
The nature of the Finnish welfare state, as Kraut already mentioned in his pinned comment, came about from fairly different background than the other Nordic countries. As a Finn, I would like to shed some light to the Finnish history with social democracy and welfare to the best of my ability.
Finland shared much of the same geographical factors as Sweden, Denmark and Norway with it having crappy road networks leading it to rely on more naval trade, in part facilitated by our more than plenty lakes which when frozen were still super good as it was continuous flat ground to move on with dogs for example. This was definitely something that the other Nordic countries didn't have to the same extent, with the closest one being probably Sweden with its big lakes in its south. Another notable difference is the fact, that Finland never formed its own kingdom or state and instead was taken over mostly by the Swedish kingdom and in the east by the Novgorod republic. The treaty of Nöteborg which divided Finland between these two conquerors also to this day still can be seen on the statistics maps of Finland with the Novgorodian side generally faring worse, though it is important to note that the geography also plays a big part in this (most notably, the eastern and northern parts are more rural, further away from the coast and harsher in terrain and climate).
Sweden would come to rule all of Finland and beyond, and as such they are of the most importance for Finnish history, especially as Novgorod never truly developed their Finnish lands to the scale Sweden did. A very significant part of Finnish history is the story of settlement, most notably in the way that the Swedish rulers seeking to enforce their claim on the Finnish lands gave tax and other incentives for Finns to clear land for farmland that they would get to keep, that in turn meant that the Finnish peasants got to enjoy great power as the people colonizing an unpopulated eastern frontier of endless forests and lakes. Along side this colonization or settlement of the unpopulated eastern lands, significant pieces of land would end up being ruled by counts and dukes, with the western coast, the Kajanland and much of Eastern Karelia being ruled by said counts and dukes until the king seized much of these lands in the event that became known as the Great Reduction.
Map of the counties and baronies in Finland during the 17th century from my school book(red for county, light red for barony): app.studeo.fi/files/Section/11179/files/HI5-l%C3%A4%C3%A4nitykset-1600-luvulla%281%29.png
Also in my opinion it is important to note, that in Finland due to the lacking development, the land would be taxed more in taking boys or men for military service in the place of monetary tax, and this is how the Hakkapeliita were born, and Finland would be a source of more manpower for the Swedish army rather than a source of taxes for the treasury. Subsequently the Swedish loss against the Russians in the Finnish war after having already lost Eastern Karelia would play its part in making Sweden a bastion of neutrality, as the loss of the manpower pool left Sweden with little capacity for war. Along with this, the humiliation caused by the defeat led to the incompetent king being deposed, and this played its part in pushing Sweden towards democracy along side the predecessors of two political parties during the 18th century, the hats and caps.
The big thing that defined much of Finnish identity later on was the Finnish war, and the subsequent annexation into the Russian Empire. However Finland was granted a state of autonomy as the Grand Duchy of Finland, where the local Swedish elite were allowed to run things as they had before, except that they were now answering to Russia instead of Sweden. This arrangement was allowed by the Russians because they knew war with France would come and the last thing they needed was the recently conquered Finnish region to rebel. This arrangement then worked perfectly, and the Finns became loyal subjects of Russia all and large thanks to their autonomy. Then under Nicholas the second with Russification becoming the strategy, the Finns who had started to grow a national identity and had been building it felt that the Russians had betrayed them, and in turn they resisted against the Russification. By WW1 the Finns were no longer the loyal subjects they had once been as they saw Russians as oppressors.
Then WW1 came, broke Russia, caused two revolution and in the wake of the civil war and the new Russian Republic being busy with fighting the communists and also fracturing, Finland seized the opportunity and declared independence. The Grand Duchy of Finland had already established a parliament in 1906 following the 1905 Russian revolution, while also giving women the right to vote. With a lack of food and basic goods resulting from the First World War, militias running basically uncontrolled and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) losing their majority in the parliament causing the red side to fear that they would have no other hope of enacting their desired programs than by revolution. Eventually the civil war erupted as the government tried to disarm the red militias while declaring white militias as official forces. In the end the Reds lost and caused a divide in society between the reds and white which would only be reconciled by the invasion of the Soviet Union. The SDP despite having instigated the civil war still won the most parliamentary seats, and to this day they remained generally the most popular party, with the agrarian/center party coming to rule during the cold war era during the Kekkonen presidency, that in some ways looked like a benevolent soft dictatorship with Kekkonen winning election after election. Another notable thing was how Finland basically censored anything anti Russian for a long time to ensure that the Russians would not have a reason to see it as an enemy, making Finland a democratic country with a restricted press and freedom of speech over talk on the Soviet Union which was mostly self imposed.
After the civil war, Finland retained its democracy unlike most other new East European countries with them shutting down a fascist revolt through a radio speech by the president. The two wars against the Soviet Union ended up in mostly a defeat, though Finland did retain its independence nominally. The communists that were quite friendly towards the Soviets gained much power in the Finnish government following the 1945 parliamentary elections after the Soviet Union forced Finland to lift the ban on communist parties, but in the end the Finnish institutions were strong enough to halt a communist take over and in the next elections the communists lost seats and there was basically a purge of communists from the most prominent positions of power, like the head of the central police. During the inter war period and especially during the post WW2 era, the Finnish state built an extensive welfare state, though after the 1990s overheating of the economy and the subsequent economic depression brought an end to the most generous parts of the welfare system.
That is what I can offer as insight on Finland, and its own path.
Thank you. As a Finn, this is an excellent summary of our history.
I should perhaps note that earlier on in the end of the 19th century, the Russians encouraged using the Finnish as a counter-measure to limit the influence of the Swedish. The Edict of 1863 practically meant Finnish was now at the same level of Swedish as an official language. This came along with the restoration of the Estates in 1860s, when they began convening regularly again and drafted new laws. The Estates at the time consisted of four houses: Nobility, Clergy, Bourgeoisie and Peasantry. Essentially all Swedish-era laws were re-written in the 1860s and the economy was now more liberated than before, as the old regulations of trading and commerce and guild structures were abolished. This greatly contributed to the industrialisation than began in earnest near in the end of the 19 century, along with many railroad projects, channels and steam ships connecting formerly hard to reach areas of Finland.
The Russification began in 1899, and it was opposed by many Finns who had formerly been happy to be part of the Russian Empire, as they saw it granting more freedoms and autonomy than the Swedish had. The Russian saw it unifying and standardizing their empire but Finns thought of it as taking away their liberties. Some progress was achieved by the first parliament and universal right of vote in 1906, for all adult men and women, but the Czar still had the right to veto any legislation, essentially disposing it of much of its power.
props to you Finns, you outdid everything we did in like 100 years of actual independence while we had more than 1000 years
Due to both luck and effort. The early adoption of democratic parliament system from 1906 must have helped. National identity was also being forged in the end of the 19th century even if the country was still heavily divided between the classes. Communism was averted by Whites winning he civil war, but this led to atrocities and excacerbated the class divide that existed socially in Finland. Gradually though, Finland again grew together as a society and old enemities were forgotten. The irony is that the parliament actually accepted many laws that were demanded by the Reds specifically, even if they had lost the civil war.
In WWII we were helped by our readily somewhat easily defensible geographic location and alliance with Germany (mandated by circumstance). Unlike the Baltic States, Finland chose to engage the Soviet Union in war and actively resisted them instead of giving in to their demands, so that decision must have played some role.
After WWII we narrowly avoided becoming a Soviet satellite state. Yet, the compromise we had to make was self-censoring and appeasing the communist block, while still maintaining relations with the West and the democratic and capitalist system. The power of president Kekkonen (presidential term 1956-1982) came close to becoming dictatorial and authoritarian, yet he never abused his power and other aspects of society stayed democratic. He was a charismatic leader who could navigate relationships to both West and East, and greatly used this to his advantage.
In the post-WWII era massive urbanisation coincided with the expansion of the welfare state. Farming became industrial and could no longer support families in the countryside. Thus, people now worked and educated outside of their social background, greatly enhancing societal unity and class mobility. Economic growth was phenomenal from 1950s to the 1980s like in the rest of Europe. The education system was expanded, but actually a basic education had been offered from the 1920s onwards, it was now reformed according to the Swedish model and university education was more widespread.
Finland benefitted from trading with both West and the East. Finland could exploit the East trade to their benefit, and Finnish economy was suffering heavily on the 1990s when the Eastern block collapsed.
@Louis XIV I am almost of the same opinion here, but I think Finland should be apart from Sweden and Russia
@@deadweight2121 Lol, what kind of logic is that?
The quality standards of you channel are incredible, each video is incredibly detailed and still better than the previous one. Compliments from Italy 🇮🇹❤️
Hello Kraut. I'm Danish and a long-time viewer of your channel. I really love this episode about our institutions and the fortunate circumstances that brought us this outcome.
Really loved hearing about Grundtvig and the role he actually played in shaping Denmark. Nowadays he is mostly associated with Efterskoler, which is like a much more lax version of a boarding school for the last years of Folkeskole/middle school.
And yeah we got lucky with our kings the and the relationships between the classes. Doesn’t hurt one of the kings was incompetent can mentally ill and only trusted his doctor who was very into liberal ideas to improve the common people’s lives.
Overall love the video and keep up the good work. Or as we say in Denmark “Fortsæt med det gode arbejde”
And yeaaah “A” for effort when it comes to the pronunciations, it’s hard😊
PS the references are pure gold
Grundtvig invented the highschool and then the highschools went and invented afterschool schools (efterskoler) much, much, later on. He’s not associated with efterskoler and he’s not remembered for them.
kræv din ret og gør din pligt. demand your rights and do your duty, thats the corner stone, of danskheden, ( the danich cultur)
@@night6724 We’re doing better than any other country during the pandemic and we’re setting records for employment. Don’t know where you’re getting your news from but it seems like you should consider another news outlet.
@@night6724 We did.. Sweden didn’t.
I can’t be arsed to catch you up. You don’t seem like the type of person who knows basic facts anyway.
You are absolutely right, copying laws doesn't always works. I am from India, and India is the largest democracy in world, and having the largest constitution. Having largest constitution, still we can't control corruption, and poverty. India has a lot of resources, talented people, but we can't use them, just because of corrupted politicians. Btw, your video is awesome. Love from India🇮🇳😁
Yo, bro. Me also from India🇮🇳🇮🇳. You are damn right. Not only politicians, Civil Servants are also corrupt.
You guys should take some notes from China...
@@mitonaarea5856 sorry, we dont want our country to become a dictatorship.
@@lahauli9008 long live the dictatorship of the proletariat
You all still have higher voter turnout than us in America though!
İ was just saying to myself a few days ago man i can't wait till kraut uploads a nice long video my brain needs food
There is a similar meme to "getting to Denmark" on Chinese social media: "running to Northern Europe".
Basically it's the same message, but it's used mainly by dissidents when the pro-establishment people bring up socialist China's economic accomplishments. The point is that the "socialist" system in China led to to much inequality, while true socialism only exists in Denmark/Scandinavia.
Humanity never stops to amaze me how often and how varied the comparisons are with my country.
In my opinion Denmark is more socialist than China. From what I hear about China there are no safety laws and regulations and if China does make a law it’s just to maintain power.
Denmark uses laws and socialism to help its people, China uses them to consolidate power.
GloriousTigerEye Denmark ranks much higher than china in the economic freedom index?
GloriousTigerEye also, wtf does socialism even freaking mean these days? Last time I checked it was a stepping stone to communism, but it's clearly not that in the case of Denmark.
@@glorioustigereye it’s more like completely different than just say “more”
Awww, as a Dane, this makes me feel all warm inside ;)
I want to point out some Danish easter eggs i noticed throughout the video:
The text at screen at 21:23 and 29:01 is a Danish translation of the “Navy Seal Copypasta,” made me almost die of laughter when I noticed!
Also, the banner at 30:02 is simply saying “we are holding a banner”
Thanks! I wondered what that was haha!
I laughed at Sven, Sven and Sven.
Yep - with Sweden instead of Al-Qaeda.
“Horeyngel” hahahah
So I am not the only one who paused the video to read the text of the mighty "Navy Seal"
Wow learned a lot!
I'm a hong konger (ethnically Chinese) who lived in new Zealand, US, France and Morocco. So far I've only learned the Anglophone and francophone (European) sides of the story, honestly didn't know much about the root of the "Scandinavian structure" until now.
One thing I'd like to say is that the storage culture seems to be the basis of the altruism of the culture, and sadly, if that's correct, such culture is not possible in places like China where you can survive, or even live better by killing off your neighbors. Also the concept of common good, a bottom-up social welfare policy cannot exist in a nation where there's different geographies, which resulting in hugely different economies where the needs and demands of the people could be very different.
The video kind of forgets about switzerland. yeah, the swiss social democrats only came about to be 10 years later as official national party. but switzerland is both in terms of culture and politics much more diverse. so the social democrats never ruled switzerland. but without them, and the same basic cultural principles which made scandinavian countries successful, switzerland would either have broken apart or lacked success.
what you see in common: the is a strong cultural bias to not fall for the tragedy of the commons. the also all boost strong regulations, while promoting competition within the framework of said regulation.
there is a enormous difference in the wants and needs of swiss cities and remote mountain valleys.
(important note: green party are also social democrats, not just the spd (swiss, not german one))
I love the part where you emphasized that the developments that led to Scandinavia's growing power among peasants and storage sharing culture had parallels in other countries but had different outcomes. Made me think about how many times I'm told a rational answer that could very much be false or painting a biased narrative.
Another one done! Here's to a 2022 of even sharper and greater content... like a KAMIKOTO KNIFE
This is so interesting. Coming from Holstein, I have sometimes wondered how our region would look if we were still part of Denmark. I most of the time assumed we would be more "Danish" culturally than we are now. But this video had me thinking about how Denmark would look with Schleswig and Holstein still being part of it. I think it could be very different. The procedures of the 19. century that drove nationalism and the anger amongst the Holstein and Schleswig German nationalists were ultimately the same ones that made Denmark the nation it is today. In a nutshell, in 1848/49 the Danish monarch had to decide between the wishes of the Danish people and the German people in Schleswig and Holstein and ultimately decided in favour of the Danish. This paved the way for Denmark to become the social democracy it is today and it started the first Schleswig war at the same time. I would have loved to hear a little more about Schleswig and Holstein in this video, as they were together about as populated as the kingdom of Denmark at that time and since their fate was so influential for both Denmark and Germany. But I get that this could be the topic of an entire video of itself
My family moved from Magdeburg (I think), to northern Sønderjylland, after the war, in 1864. What was then Northern Schleswig.
After the great War, they of course became Danish in 1920. I know my grandfather (1901-1991) didn't feel German at all. He had a hate towards Germans. Im not sure why. But the Germans felt more like Danes, and were happy to join Denmark.
Maybe the hate was because everyone spoke Danish, but they were forced not to speak the language, in school.
Even when i was a child, there was a certain hate towards Germany, in Sønderjylland. Not only because of WWII, but also because of previous wars (1848, 1864).
Very nicely done with the video! Here is to 2022, to new subscriber milestones, and to new, successful videos!
Nowhere else can you find a format so extensive and informative, yet so condensed as your videos. I’m truly blown away by the quality in which you make these, and your ability to relay complex political concepts so easily and in such little time.
20min in, but i just gotta say it: im so fucking grateful i found your content in this endless ocean of distractions. Please keep up the truly incredible work
Such amazing work. For a 'short' video, this goes over a large amount of history and very elegantly sums up major events without taking a real stance, and putting in a healthy dose of memes to keep you going. As a young American struggling for basically everything mentioned in this video, thank you for taking the time to make this.
Kraut I love your videos but around 12:00 you mentioned that you couldn’t tax the sea. But the Danish Sound Tolls or Øresundstolden were an essential part of the Danish Crowns’ income from the 15th to 19th century. It helped centralize Copenhagen as a major economic center.
@Kraut
Read his pinned comment. His point still stands dude
@@TheSilverwing999 there is no pinned comment
The point about taxing the sea was that peasants all over coastal Scandinavia had much easier access to trade than most Europeans did. The video is mainly tracing the development of strong community institutions, not necessarily state ones.
It’s a lot easier to patrol roads than open sea.
Your voice is so soothing. I really enjoy watching your content, even if it really is just listening to it in the background.
To Kraut and Krew, well done. I have heard of the struggles and hardships that came with this video. That you for working hard and consistently on what I am sure is about to be an amazing video.
Very excited to watch my favorite Channel today! :)
To sum up, Denmark's democracy is partly a byproduct of the Danish monarchs doing a the-enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend move against the aristocracy, and partly because feudalist administration simply did not take so much of a hold like it did elsewhere in Europe.
Based monarch
@@graded_s another thing of note. The monarchist Thailand is surrounded by nations that don't tolerate LGBT people or put them in media but Thailand does and and it's basically a meme in media from Japan that any sex change in their media got it in Thailand.
except aristocracy helped people more than socialism
You've come a long way since 2014 and the madness that gripped a lot of people back then.
I suppose a lot of us have. Well done, man; that's not an easy hole to leave.
Wait I'm new here, what exactly happened
what happened in 2014?
Iirc I believe he used to be a bit politically spicy, but this background was probably a good personal growth thing.
@@lucyadam9128 He came up as an anti-SJW youtuber in the gamergate space.
bless you for clearly marking when the sponsorship ends
i usually end up jumping past ads but i actually sat through this one
Since Danish Socialism was born from Denmark become largely homogenous, and given how WWI changed Denmark, how much of an effect (direct & indirect) did the reincorporation of Northern Schleswig have on Denmark, and, more importantly, how different were the institutions in the formerly-German parts of Denmark and how easily were they incorporated/changed into the Danish model?
As a Danishman, We were very happy to get Sønderjylland (Northern Schleswig-Holsten) back from the Germans in 1920. It was a largely symbolic thing, but it was hard to incorporate the Germans into Denmark. To determine what territories went to which country, They held a vote to determine it. To this day, there are families from the area that speak both German and Danish. The schools in the area teach mainly danish, but you can also take courses of german if you so like. They tried to make the institutions as fair to the germans as possible, as they didn't want a new war. It took about 20 years to really incorporate them, when Germany invaded and started it all over again. After WW2, Denmark started again, and by the mid sixties, They had largely incorporated the schools in a german friendly way.
Northern Schleswig was largely populated by Danes, so I imagine it wasn't too much of a hassle.
Pretty easy actually
I have a lot of mates from south Jutland and they are all grateful for the reunification
Not a single Danish person wanted the occupation. Not even the ones living under it
it was up for a vote in in the areas if they wanted to stay german or become danish, so denmark mainly just got danes with a small german minority and vice versa
Well, the entire thing was decided by vote, so only the areas that majorily WANTED to go back to being part of Denmark (which were only the northernmosts parts of Schleswig) did so. Thus it was a very minor change.
man this makes me happy to be a Dane. awesome vid as usual mate. even tho i am Danish and was taught this i still find that much of what you bring up brings new light to it. so thank you
Thank you so much for this video Kraut! Videos like yours inspire me to reform my political Idology to try and attempt to fix the problems in my country of America. Over here we are losing hope that nothing can be changed here for the better but you still give me hope and arguments I can use to change peoples minds. Thankyou.
Another great vid. Being from the US, I really wish our history classes (especially at the high school level) were taught in more of this manner, meaning displaying how history manifests itself in our time. Keep it up. Happy holidays.
This is very well made. Thank you!!
Excellent, informative video as always Kraut. Congratulations to you and everyone involved for another success!
Love it! As a person who has lived in Denmark I was very happy to learn more about its history. Thank you for all your great videos mate
Great and comprehensive video Kraut, Good job.
What I absolutely love in your videos is that you teach history for a reason. I really like spending my time, learning history of other countries but they are often presented as just a fun story. Your videos not only present history as a process that shaped modern day world, but also how we can understand it to better think about politics and economy.
Love the fact that you got a sponsorship, but I need to address this one…
PSA: Kamikoto is Chinese. They have a branch in Japan, but there is no guarantee that your knives are made there. They source a poor grade of steel from Japan, and manufacture their knives in China (not that China can’t make maxing knives, this is just not it, bro). If you want a great Chinese knife, buy from a reputable Chinese brand that doesn’t try to trick you into thinking their knives are Japanese.
If you want a great Japanese knife, buy from a reputable dealer such as Tawa knives or Burrfection.
Oh no, now China owns part of the economic output of Kraut’s Kitchen!
Most true Japanese chefs'' knives are actually purposely designed not to be smooth on the sides so that they can maximize sharpness.
Yeah Shadiversity did a deboonking on Kamikoto.
people like you are awesome, the information is valuable to potential buyers 👍
Amazing video, glad to see the dedication to your craft!
Greetings from another Dane
As a Dane, i love how you just, sometimes, write totally random things in your slides
Thanks for an excellent birthday gift Kraut. Wishing you a merry Christmas.
21:24 "What the hell did you just say to me, you bastard? I'll have you know that I graduated at the top of my class from the Frogman Corps (elite special forces) and that I've been on numerous secret raids against Sweden and that I have 300 confirmed kills..." Where on earth did you get this?
Shhh, don't share the secrets.
😂🤣😂
23:05 A consequence of the disastrous war in 1864, which caused huge amounts of territory to be lost, was that it created a (in a sense) national movement. The movement, lead by Enrico Dalgass through the moor company helped create a central public spirit. The movement had the slogan "that which is lost outwards, must be won inwards". The company had by 1916 drained over 70.000 acres and turned 80.000 acres into farmland, but it also started a sense of national pride that lasts to this day.
The most important point for the Norwegian Labour Party was when they chose to leave the Socialist International to work for a kind of democratic movement instead. Only small splinter groups remained as various forms of commies (for instance the Maoists) and (actual) socialists.
Ah yes, Tjen Folket, NKP, and AKP-ml...The only one left is TF, and they're just part-time criminals and bullies that want to pretend that their bullshit is for the greater good.
What? Thats not true. The Norwegian Labour Party withdrew from the organization in 2016. The SI still includes many social democratic parties.
I would argue that the goal of socialism is a completly free democracy, the social democrats only parted from socialism so that they could cater to more centrist voter
Great video. You made it more interesting than my teachers in Danish elementary school ever did.
21:26 - thank you for translating the meme and doing a good job of it as well! Gave me a good laugh.
To those not in the know because of not being able to read/speak danish, they've translated the Navy Seal copypasta meme.
They replaced it with frømandskorpset too lol. Basically the danish equivilant.
It's nice to see a sponsorship on a trusted UA-camr where the UA-camr actually enjoys the product
Another wonderful video kraut. I absolutely adore the work you do. You have such a gift at being able to educate it such a nuanced way.
As a dane seeing the copy pasta at 21:23 had me crying with tears. Very well done I tip my hat to that.
explain?
@@512TheWolf512 It is basically the Navy seal copy pasta but translated to a danish version. But instead of copying it word for word it uses words that are very distinctly funny in danish.
And at 29:02
@@antonkistrup9519 Yup, same copy pasta you but you can only see the top of it.
I often listen to your videos at work. The way you present these topics in your videos are interesting. Unfortunately listening to at work comes with the downside of actually focusing on whatever i need to do to earn for myself i have to watch your videos after work to fully take it all in and i dont mind at all, love these videos!
Awesome video. I often find that I learn about things in your videos that I hated in highschool history. You tie them into topics I'm interested in and explain things in such a way that makes it not just bearable but interesting.
Kraut makes yet another informational bomb, love it
As a Dane I am damn floored how accurate this is.
To you good sir I give you a bow.
Only watched 22 minutes of the video but this is personally my favorite video by Kraut yet!
It is pleasing and sad that my country was used as an example in corruption (Philippines).
We copied strict laws but we are not able to enforce them, there are people running to become senators and even a president that were known tax evaders, grafters and corrupt officials. Thus i understand why my country is one of the most corrupt countries out there and it is sickening.
Good video Kraut, as always.
Worse, we are about to be have elections in six months. Babaha na naman ng pera.
I mean it could work
Just put your officials on minimum wage under threat of death, then just track their accounting for the rest of their lives alongside their families for sudden donations
Then again you need a trustworthy system for that, since the moment the people in charge of keeping them in check get corrupt it's just a downward spiral that can only really be fixed by a large scale purge of the political class
@@ianhomerpura8937 What’s even more worse is that all our candidates are known to have a history of graft and corruption and no matter how people in social media twist the facts for their preferred candidate, you can’t deny that all of them are the same either way. Not only that ever since the 2016 elections, our politics has been polarizing significantly with Duterte supporters and the Liberals. And that with Bongbong Marcos and other political candidates added to the mixed, I just hope that it won’t end up in a political crisis and that the people who support their preferred candidates and the political candidates themselves won’t go overboard. (Sorry if my rant went too long)
Our dysfunctional public education system contributes to this dilemma too. We're still trying hard to use English when it's not even a native language used in daily conversation by the average filipino. No surprise we rank so poorly in reading comprehension. How are you supposed to increase awareness of democratic principles with a functionally illiterate(at least in English)populace?
Just do the same thing with them as they did in france. off with the head!
I'm a Dane and an active member of the Social Democratic Party and it's youth organisation (DSU) and this video is spot on! Denmark is ruled by social liberalism, we have over 14 different political parties and all political arguments are really only about how we make the country better for the people and not whether we should continue to do so. We all agree that the country must be furthered for the people, we just don't agree on the details as to how and how fast. Another thing I'd like to mention is your use of the rose, as it is the symbol which the Social Democratic Party (Socialdemokratiet) still use today as our main logo. We use it because the rose is a symbol of peace and candidates will typically give out roses while campaigning and talking to the citizens about what they would like to see changed in their city or in the nation as a whole. Some candidates have though abolished the handing out of roses, due to environmental concerns as the roses are usually shipped in from outside and thus these candidates would rather not hand out roses to show the people that they truly do care about the environment (which is a highly important topic in Denmark).
I may add that power in our democratic nation is split in 3. We have the legislative power, which is our parliament. The executive power, which is the government and ruling party. And then we have the judicial power, which is the courts. The police has no power of its own, but is instead a part of the executive power, but they cannot be freely used by the government and/or ruling party as there are many, many regulations, which also includes that none of the 3 powers may interfere with one another. It is also important to notice that the country itself is divided into 3 main institutions. The nation, the regions and the cities. Every 4 years there are national elections and every 4 years there are municipal and regional elections, although these are postponed by two years from the national elections (so in reality we have elections every second year). Feel free to ask any questions, I'll gladly respond 😊 It can though be a good idea to ask me on my channel as UA-cam has decided not to notify me when someone replies to my comments (which is quite annoying tbh).
30:50 is the reason why Denmark is so heavily against the EU's minimum wage proposal, as we have fought for almost a century to get the worker benefits that we have today. Our wage model is a deal made between the worker union and the employer and it consists of not only the general wage, but also money for pension, vacation, sick leave, maternity leave and more. The EU minimum wage would instantly eliminate all what we've worked so hard for and it could very well be the reason for a Danish exit out of the EU - without paying anything for leaving may I add, as our entire membership is tied to the EU not messing with our sovereignty and primary laws. Since the EU wants the minimum wage to be law over all of Europe and since they want it to be defined in Bruxelles, they are directly breaking the agreement of our membership, hence why we would wish to leave without paying.
Are there any serious anti-EU sentiments in Denmark?
Can you elaborate why a minimum wage would destroy the social contract? Germany's wages are in large (albeit shrinking) fields of the industries negotiated between trade unions and employers, yet we have had a minimum wage since 2015. I have not followed European minimum wage initiatives, so I am curious where the differences are.
Please leave, its for your own good. dont let brussles ruin your country.
What happens if we flood Denmark with migrants from the Middle East who are willing to work for lower wages? Would you turn to the government for a minimum wage law, or secure your borders?
@@cv4809 There is some but generally Danes are pretty pro-EU. I would imagine that this would quickly change though if the EU tried to force a change of our Danish Model. Anti-EU sentiments were pretty prevalent during the Euro crises and refugee crisis which lead to the anti-immigration and anti-EU party becoming the second largest Party in Denmark in 2015.
I think a decision from the EU to forcefully threaten/remove danish traditions in such a way would be met with even greater backlash and I actually think it could lead to a "DEXIT" if no compromise was found.
Love your videos Kraut. Quality work as always. Thanks to all involved
So in order to get to Denmark you need many things, but above all it seems you need a national consensus on caring for your fellow man.
I see why this will take a while to implement in North America 😆
in that case sadly not only in NA, it will take a while to implement it in majority of the world
@@Akaki1999 General humanity is everywhere except NA
@@50shekels South-America would like a word with you. Also, Canada is part of NA so that's not correct.
Probably never will.
I have actually discussed this with American Republicans before. And they thought the idea of free education was ridiculous because they didn't think they should pay for other people's kids, they even called it stealing. So you are def right. It's kinda funny though when they at the same time are preaching "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself"
high quality work as always, while as a dane there's small things here or there that you skipped over, but they're pretty inconsequential and i did actually learn something new.
An event I definitely felt was missing was the land reform of 1919. I dont know if the danish peasantry held a large part of the land compared to other European countries, but in 1919 more than 25% of the country was still the property of some 100 estates. In an attempt to convert the country into modern capitalism and out of fear from communism that had just succeeded in Russia, the danish government confiscated some 33% of all the wealth and land of the nobility and sold it at a bargin to individual farmers.
Wow, what an incredible video. Definitely gonna go bench watch a bunch now! Great job!
Everyone: so Denmark how did you create a social democracy?
Denmark: *b o a t s*
And a king who was fed up with the aristocracy :)
Kraut as a foreigner in Denmark when I hear how Denmark promote his achievements I always think that miss the way of achieving it is more important to share ... so here you are ! Great video and research and mediation !
This felt like going back to school again heheh nice refresher
I think the extent of free trade across the Baltic Sea is extremely mischaracterised (ironically so, considering the main character of the video) when Denmark was especially infamous for instituting the Øresund Toll, to the great dismay of both the Hansa and the Swedes. In fact, Denmark got filthy filthy rich by essentially controlling everyone who sailed in and out of the Baltic Sea.
Yep Baltic trade flourished despite Denmark not due to it.
But even so, then why the Aristocrats or the Monarchs didn't have bargaining power from øresund toll?
@@Nark0Punkz The Hansa and Swedes literally fought several wars against Denmark because the toll was so restrictive on trade. It's why the Swedes eventually took Scania from Denmark after over a millennium of Danish rule.
@@grundergesellscahftmkii6196 The monarchs did. The king was the one sitting in Copenhagen, next to Øresund, instituting the toll.
As a dane i agree
How long has the "getting to Denmark" meme existed? I ask because, as a Swede, I've noticed that we're seldom held up as an ideal to strive for any more(due to developments that I understand people do *not* wish to repeat) and people still point to Denmark. And the two countries are similar enough that calling them basically the same would probably be for the large part fair for foreigners. If the meme is recent then the specificity could partially be attributed to the latest developments, if it is old then I am simply biased by Swedish media obviously focusing on what's more relevant for Swedes.
Yeah, because Norway doesn't exist.
@@hackhenk Fair point.
I was actually curious about this aswell, when I saw that Sweeden started to drop off all the charts that the nordic countries have held together for so many years. I expected to see any research into this or a good video or article but I found nothing.
In recent years Sweden is falling behind because of a unwillingness to do institutional changes during the financial crisis instead using short term solutions (devaluation of the Swedish krone)
Your refugees are not really a problem which would impact your prestige especially with the theme of solving problems before they happen with an aging population.
Denmark did not
Norway will be disregarded because of their natural resources unlike Denmark who don't really possess much which makes it harder to dismiss.
@@rasmush.jensen5354 Such bs. Sweden has a budget surplus and one of the strongest economies across Europe. It ranks 3rd on the democracy index while Denmark is on nr 7.
I've been waiting *SO LONG* for a video as good as this one to appear in UA-cam
That's the thing. It's the implementation that's the question, not the feasibility. the US is a large not very centralized, federal constitutional republic where a king cant make decrees and the federal government is constrained by constitutional limitations will struggle to get to Denmark, regardless of the economics of it. Couple it with a wholly different cultural root informed by a unique national experience, history with diverse populations, and national narratives about " What is important" just compound on this.
I think even more pertinent to this is the fact that for Germany, Austria, and Spain to form social democracies, their countries literally had to die, some times multiple times (Germany in WW1 and then WW2), Spain in the Civil war and the collapse of the Franco dictatorship, and Austria first dissolving from the death of Austria-Hungary and then being eaten by Germany and then being occupied by allies. Russia, Japan, France, Italy, etc all also had similar experiences.
Even Denmark had to suffer a long strain of national humiliations until it was whittled down to a core that could "birth" social democracy out of necessity.
The US not only hasn't had anything close to this happen to it. On the contrary, the US has faced almost no setbacks on its national path, winning almost every war it has ever fought up until the second half of the 20th century and even at that always bouncing back from failures. Its sheer inertia and luck even manifest itself culturally in this belief of providence and American exceptionalism because... I mean when you've literally been that successful and powerful as a state you start to believe your own hype.
I think this factor is something Europeans and Americans both Underestimate. Being an immigrant myself it is very evident that the US has literally never needed to invent social democracy, and on a broader scale that applies to much of the anglo world as well (which has some of the least developed welfare states among peer countries) because the Anglos have been the dominant peoples of the past 3 centuries suffering almost no great setbacks. I mean the anglos have beat all their rivals since the war of the Spanish succession in 1701 (maybe even further back)
the & year war, the Napoleonic wars, the world wars, the cold war, and everything in between. the Anglos have just never suffered the cultural blow that forces them to come together like the French, Germans, Spanish, Scandinavians and even Russians had.
I feel this is something that isn't talked about enough apart from structural reasons the very fact that the status quo in the anglo world and the US, in particular, has not faced a structural challenge sufficient enough to necessitate wanting to get to Denmark. And no, being 33rd in the world in healthcare isn't sufficient. Especially when you're The Global hegemon.
I'm sorry if it was a bit long, just wanted to put something to think about.
I've been reading up on Southeast Asian history and my country (Thailand) is definitely an example of a country who's experiences through horrific historical events (Burmese invasions in the 16th and 18th centuries) has helped my country build a strong cadre of leadership and bureaucratic administration that played a role in Thailand's survival through colonialism, yet despite that, it's recent history of failing to democratize (as well as miraculously going through WWII virtually unscathed) and being on the winning side of the Cold War certainly has its downsides on my country in recent times.
@@Urlocallordandsavior Yh this is a frequently underrated factor
Social Democracy didn't make Germany die.
@@zyanego3170 No, I’m saying the old Germany had to die before it embraced social democracy
Ie it was humiliated not once but twice and it’s entire political class was wiped out
In the summer of 1945 it was very much a question weather there would even still be a “Germany”
In the aftermath of such a catastrophe the Germans decided to chart a new path, and so far a very successful one.
@@zyanego3170 He's saying that Germany had to "die" in order to pursue Social Democratic institutions.
I don't know why but this video filled me with an extremely strong sense of optimism throughout the video. The fact that a handful of people were able to change communist parties to social democratic parties on its own already showed that we can change things. Something only hammered home by the bit at the end regarding being prisoners of history, which is likely only true if we decide to believe it to be true that we are prisoners and don't due anything to make it false.
This video truly reeinforce my Norwegian wish for a video on Norway, and perhaps also Swedish wishes for a video on Sweden. Cause we are all too familiar with both the similarities and the differences between the Scandinavian nations. There is small satisfaction in videos regarding the Scandinavian nations as close to one entity or where one nation are representing all three nations.
Great as Always. ;-)
Its kinda weird growing up in Denmark, seeing the inequality and the corruption, and then finding out everywhere else is either much worse or slightly worse.
huh
Denmark's the least corrupt country on Earth. Still, we will only remain that way by putting our foot down at the first sign of it.
@@50shekels Based
@@aturchomicz821 came here to say this. The only way to be free of corruption is to aggressively take action against it whenever it occurs, and proactively disincentivize it whenever possible.
Same in sweden, its actually really sad
It’s very interesting to see how social democracy evolved in Scandinavian whereas the British welfare state comes about through class struggle
This is an amazing video - I've been thinking about this exact problem for some time now in relation to carbon taxes and institutional trust. Thank you for covering this topic
33:09 That kinda contradicts history. In the Novemberrevolution of 1918 the SPD was split in MSPD and USPD with the MSPD being bigger. The USDP wanted a marxist revolution, the MSPD wanted democracy. The bigger MSPD succeeded and together with other parties founded the Weimarer republik, once the Kaiser was gone because of WW1. Communists felt betrayed and created the slogan "Wer hat uns verraten, Sozialdemokraten". Yes, that slogan existed before Schröder.
Denmark is a great country, I met many Danish people through playing CS:GO and they are the only people I've made friends with (other than one Polish and one Estonian guy), being from Israel usually means I meet a lot of Nazis (I'm not a Jew calling everyone anti-sematic, I'm talking about actual Nazis) but the Danes are the only ones that actually accept me. Over the last 4 years I've made 10 friends from Denmark which I'm still in contact with.
Danes are normally harder to be actual friends with, but a friendship with a Dane is for life, so you are in for a long run 🌸
Our only proud moment in WWII was that we saved “our” Jews from the Germans.
*anti-Jewish
This video couldnt have been uploaded at a better time! I've been going through a sort of "personal political renaissance", where I have finally begun figuring out where I stand and what I stand for, and I found myself in the Social Democrat area of things. This does help explain it even more to me.