How The Geography Of World War 1 Changed The World

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World War II gets all the attention as far as major conflicts go, but World War I (also known as the Great War) truly reshaped the world in some incredible ways. In this episode, we dive deep into the geography of World War I, how it all got started and where it ended, and what some of those global changes were as the world emerged from its first truly global conflict.
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[@Mr.Septon]

Oh man, I watch your other channel every single time an episode comes out, and I also follow you on Threads. I love your content, and this falls more directly in my wheel house of obsession. The World Wars, but specifically the Great War has become one of my highest focuses of study in life as it is single most defining conflict since the French Revolutionary and subsequent Napoleonic Wars and we have been living in the shadow of the Great War to this day. How the war was handled, how the defeat of nations was handled, how the splitting and creating of a slew of new nations occurred, the end of four massive European empires - Austro-Hungarian Empire, German Empire, Ottoman Empire, and the Russian Empire. The war and end result left quite the delicate financial situation on the global stage, and once things started to sour in the United States, the loans that the US was providing to Germany and the other former Central Powers, which was how Germany and others were able to "afford" paying back their debt payments to the United Kingdom and France, which in turn were utilizing payments from Germany and the others to in part be able to pay back their debts to the United States.
I long argued that the two World Wars were less of actually two separate wars, and in many ways were one war with a pause just long enough to raise a new generation of boys to be sent off to resolve the conflict. Then I eventually would stumble across the Winston Churchill quote used at the beginning of the History Channel miniseries the World Wars, focusing from 1914 until 1945 "One must regard these 30 years of strife in Europe as part of one story...one story of a 30 years' war." When the series came out, in addition to the quote, I felt far more validated for my view of the conflict, especially when you consider conflicts such as the Hundred Years War, lasting 117 years, but at many points there were years of relative peace, and it is more with hindsight that we can see that the series of wars were ultimately part of a much great war and conflict. The 20th century could easily be split into two main chunks: the World Wars and the Cold War, and even that could arguably be considered the slow conclusion of the World Wars playing out, spanning a period of 1914-1991. In the years prior to 1914. you have less of the 20th century, and more of the building of pressures built over centuries of strife, while after 1991 pretty much until September 11, 2001, was the false sense of security that came from a false sense of victory, when in reality what has been left in its wake is far messier and more complicated than ever before, and a complicated web of "western" powers that have aligned to try and maintain the order ever since but we have gone as far as these systems of alliance can take us.
The 21st century cannot rely on alliances built on 20th century design. While NATO is absolutely critical, and western powers do need to work together - not to do anything against other powers of the world, but to ensure that at least among nations who wish to take part, can maintain that economic and military security necessary, at bare minimum. In which, the concept of a truly global alliance is necessary. Not just a North Atlantic alliance, but one that includes our other critical allies such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, etc. But it cannot just be that dozens of nations are willing to fight together. Our military power has to become indistinguishable from one another, merging the forces into a singular force, able to defend against any collection of potential foes. The economies have to become so intertwined that one cannot separate from the other, any more than trying to have California and Texas be their own economic and military powers. Connected, no needing a 100% approval from dozens of nations, giving nations the ability to abuse that in times of crises, with Hungary and Turkiye being examples when it came to expanding NATO to include Finland and Sweden.
If it was more a matter of majority vote, and inseparable forces, then war becomes both easier and more difficult. The nations involved would no longer possess the power to launch a unilateral invasion against another nation, as their forces would be merged, and it would require approval beyond the whims of a singular power. Alternatively, it is also easier to get changes passed as individual nations wouldn't have the same power over the rest of the alliance and so democratic majority would decide how the new alliance would operate, who would be included, how to expand or change, and what conflicts to be involved in and how much they support or get involved.
Sorry to just ramble, if I don't stop now I'll just keep going and is anyone going to even read this far? lol

[@dcinput7645]

Meantions usa but not Serbia and Montenegro,or Greece...
I got a brain damage... How much Americanocentric you can be?
Since we talk about geography I thought it would be about connection of Ottomans and Germany - Central powers corridor, Balkan states that came in and out of the conflict (Serbia, Montenegro, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece) and Italy, battle of Galipoli, Adriatics stand off etc...
While western and Eastern fronts were on the sides, Germany meant to reach Azerbaijan oil depots...
Battle of caucasus between ottomans and Russia, local nationalist forces - Armenians, Assyrians, Arabs... Occupation of Persia and such... You can see a geographical pattern here - corridor from Germany to Baku.
But since minut one I feel like you missed it...