History That Doesn't Suck

128: The Causes of World War I (From the Congress of Vienna to Franz Ferdinand & the Marne)

27 Feb 2023

Audio

Description

“Sopherl, Sopherl! Don’t die on me. Live for our children.” This is the 99-year story of Europe’s descent into total war. The Napoleonic Wars devastated Europe. The continent’s five great powers responded by meeting in Vienna in 1815 to establish a balance of power between them. In the future, no single power should be able to lead the continent into war. They also agree to meet as a “Concert of Europe” to hash out future developments. The years give way to decades. The Concert endures the rising pressures of industrialization, rising nationalism, New Imperialism, militarism, and a few smaller localized wars, particularly three conflicts engineered by Prussian Minister-President Otto von Bismarck. He isolates France to maintain peace, but after his departure, rigid alliance systems with secret clauses fully displace the flexibility of the Concert. And without that flexibility, a minor event could spark an outsized reaction. It’s in this situation that Austria-Hungary’s heir presumptive travels to the unstable Balkans and meets disaster in the streets of Sarajevo. ____ Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations join discussions in our Facebook community get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette come see a live show get HTDS merch or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcription

This episode hasn't been transcribed yet

Help us prioritize this episode for transcription by upvoting it.

0 upvotes

🗳️ Sign in to Upvote

Popular episodes get transcribed faster

Other episodes from History That Doesn't Suck

Transcribed and ready to explore now

197: The Doolittle Raid & the Bataan Death March (Spring 1942)

19 Jan 2026

History That Doesn't Suck

174: The First “First Hundred Days:” FDR Kicks Off the New Deal

24 Feb 2025

History That Doesn't Suck

View all episodes from History That Doesn't Suck

Comments

There are no comments yet.

Please log in to write the first comment.

Report any issue

History That Doesn't Suck

128: The Causes of World War I (From the Congress of Vienna to Franz Ferdinand & the Marne)

This episode hasn't been transcribed yet

Other episodes from History That Doesn't Suck

197: The Doolittle Raid & the Bataan Death March (Spring 1942)

174: The First “First Hundred Days:” FDR Kicks Off the New Deal

Sign in to Audioscrape

Share this moment