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Episode #1-Did WW1 Start WW2?
283 Plays6 years ago
This week we take a look at the question, "Did WW1 start WW2?" We also learn what not to do when you get mad in our funny story of the week.
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Transcript
Introduction to Hooked on History
00:00:06
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Hooked on History. It's a weekly podcast in which we take a look at an event, we talk about what led up to the event, and we also talk about what effects that event had on future events. We also take a look at a very funny history story each episode, and boy are there a lot. I'm your host, DJ Davison, and let's get started.
Connection between WWI and WWII
00:00:30
Speaker
For our first event that we were going to talk about, we're going to try to answer the question, did World War I start World War II? Now, there are many starting points that are debated for World War II. Did it start with Japan's aggression in the Asia Pacific region? Did it start with Germany's aggression annexing Czechoslovakia or when Germany invaded Poland, which mostly would be the official start? But what we're going to look at are the key components that led to World War II.
00:00:57
Speaker
And many of those key components actually come about at the end of World War I.
Causes of World War I
00:01:01
Speaker
See, World War I was fought mainly based on four different things. We know these as the main causes, M, A, I, and N, each one representing a cause. So the first cause we'll look at is the M, or militaryism. Militaryism is an aggressive buildup of a country's military force
00:01:23
Speaker
In the years leading up to the First World War, many European countries were aggressively building up their militaries. These buildups were not just focused on manpower, but also technology, which was advancing at a very rapid pace. The tactics, though, fallen behind. These European countries looked to build bigger armies, bigger navies, bigger guns, as well as trying to build up a bigger stockpile of all of this. All this buildup led to the countries competing with one another,
00:01:53
Speaker
And with competition comes paranoia. Each country became paranoid about each other's massive buildup. See Britain built the biggest Navy. Germany tried to match it. France built massive armaments. Germany tried to match it. Russia built the biggest army. Germany again tried to match it. Now you may be wondering why Germany tried to match everyone in all aspects of militarism.
00:02:22
Speaker
Our next main cause of World War I, alliances, should clear that up. The alliances are why World War I included so many participants. So what's an alliance? An alliance is a loose agreement between two groups in which both sides would come to the aid of the other if attacked. With all of the military buildup happening,
00:02:43
Speaker
Germany feared being surrounded on both sides by allied countries. They knew they needed to ally with another major power in Europe, so they entered into a loose alliance with Russia and Austria-Hungary. Russia would withdraw from this alliance though shortly after. See, France and Russia formed their own alliance. Germany, who is now in the middle of this alliance, is worried that France and Russia may decide to just split Germany in half.
00:03:12
Speaker
So Germany asked the Austro-Hungarian Empire to join them in a new alliance. France had a loose alliance with Britain while Russia joined an alliance with Serbia. Germany and Austria-Hungary feared their alliance would be outnumbered and so got Italy to join on one condition.
00:03:29
Speaker
Italy could leave if the other alliance members were the aggressors in conflict. Italy, wanting to hedge their bets, also joined an alliance with France, pledging support in case Germany attacked. Britain, wanting to strengthen an alliance it had with France, also agreed to loosely align with Russia. By the time war broke out, these complex alliance systems would begin to untangle one by one into the two clear sides that we will see.
00:03:59
Speaker
The next cause we look at for World War I is imperialism. Imperialism is when a stronger nation exacts political, economical, and ideological control over a weaker nation. During the lead up to war, the goal of European nations was to build the biggest empire. Since the age of exploration, European countries had maintained control of smaller and weaker nations around the world. Britain, France had already built up their empires, and Germany and Russia felt left out, wanting to build their own.
00:04:30
Speaker
With steam-powered ships being the new norm, coal stations abroad to fuel these ships became almost as essential as the ships themselves. Nowhere felt the grip of European imperialism more than the continent of Africa. In 1885, the European powers met in Berlin in what we called the West Africa Conference. Looking to avoid conflicts arising from the scramble for Africa, the participants set up rules for expansion.
00:04:59
Speaker
Surprisingly, the African people were not represented at this meeting. Unlike early imperialistic claims in the Americas, this time around, just planting a flag in African soil was not enough to hold your claim. Visible institutions like police stations had to be present. This led to rapid European expansionism and sub-colonialism.
00:05:23
Speaker
With his new race to build an empire, countries had to gain public support. No better way to gain public support than to build public pride in the nation. And that leads us to our last main cause of World War I, nationalism. See, nationalism is an intense form of pride and loyalty to one's country. This was spurred on by a sense of superiority that European powers felt. Many Europeans, especially those from England, France, and Germany,
00:05:50
Speaker
all felt their country was superior culturally, economically, and militarily. And this wasn't just an ideal spread by speeches of the diplomats or the royals. Arts, literature, music, theater, and the newspapers were all filled with nationalistic rhetoric. Militaryists in these countries seized the moment to build confidence in their military. Britain believed their navy with the backing of their big empire would give them the upper hand in any war.
00:06:16
Speaker
Germany placed their faith in their military efficiency and industrial strength to give them the leg up. The Russians placed their faith in their large size army, the biggest peacetime army in Europe, and a belief that God would sustain their empire in case of war. France put their faith in their new heavy industry and their system of defenses on their eastern border. All these countries believe that if war broke out, they would be superior and win in a short amount of time.
00:06:43
Speaker
But it wasn't just the great powers of Europe that experienced a swell of nationalistic pride. Southern and Eastern Europe experienced a rise of nationalism that was not rooted in national supremacy, but in the right of ethnic groups to be independent. This type of nationalism was best embodied by the Slavic people of the Balkans. Slavic nationalism was strongest in Serbia. Many Serbians were not happy with the Austro-Hungarian Empire's annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovania.
00:07:12
Speaker
Young Serbians joined radical groups like the Black Hand. Easy to say this area was one spark away from igniting into a hot zone of conflict. So these four main causes on their own could not start a world conflict. But when you mix them together, you have the recipe for a world war.
Impact of the Treaty of Versailles
00:07:31
Speaker
After four years of intense stalemate fighting and horrible living conditions, World War I came to an end. But with the end of the war came a new problem. Who was to blame for starting the war?
00:07:43
Speaker
In fact, not too many people could point to the country that started the war. See, when the Archduke was assassinated by the Black Hand, it kicked off a series of events in a short two months that led to the World War. And strap yourselves in, because it goes really fast. See, Austria blamed Serbia for the assassination and gave them an ultimatum. Serbia acquiesced on all but one of the demands. Austria was not happy with that, and Germany gave them a blank check to take care of Serbia.
00:08:10
Speaker
Russia decided they would come to the aid of the Slavic people in Serbia and begin to mobilize the massive army. Germany, fearing a war was going to occur, told Russia to stop mobilizing or expect a war to occur. Russia decided, though, to ignore and continue to mobilize. Germany declared war on Russia. France, Russia's ally, then declared war on Germany. Germany and Austria then declared war on France.
00:08:36
Speaker
France tries to get Britain to help, but Britain's like, possibly we'll see. Germany, afraid to fight on two fronts, had a plan in place, known as the Schlieffen Plan. They were to attack and defeat France first, before turning and defeating the slowly mobilizing Russian army. But in order to achieve this, they had to bypass those French fortifications known as the Maginot Line. That required them to go through Belgium,
00:09:04
Speaker
Belgium is neutral in this so far and when Germany decides to go through Belgium, Belgium says no, this violates to neutrality and this brings the British in on the side of the French. And all of this just happens in a few short summer months. The saying to the victors go the spoils could not have been more accurate.
00:09:23
Speaker
The central power is a way that a certain fate at the hands of the ally powers. And to answer the question of who's to blame, the allies decided a simple strategy. Whoever was last to surrender must be the real culprit for the start of the war. And that's none other than Germany. As the end of the war drew near, Germany's allies begin to sue for peace. Germany was the last to surrender. So when it came time to negotiate a peace treaty, it was the allies against Germany, almost four on one.
00:09:54
Speaker
In the summer of 1919, at the Palace of Versailles, the Allies set down to discuss the creation of a peace treaty. The Big Four on the Allies' side were the US, Britain, France, and Italy. Again, not represented in these peace talks were any of the central powers, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, or Turkey. Each of the Big Four came to the conference with a differing objective.
00:10:20
Speaker
France wanted to protect France from another attack by Germany through heavy war reparations. See, France had been attacked by Germany in almost a span of 20 years twice. Britain believed rebuilding Germany was key to getting them as a trade partner. Italy, who had switched sides partway through the war, wanted to gain influence in Europe and become one of the major powers through territorial gain.
00:10:49
Speaker
The US, new to the war, wanted a new world order of peace through Wilson's 14 points. What was meant to be an even discussion between the four countries very soon and very quickly unraveled and laid the great groundwork for World War II. Italy was denied its promise to territorial regions for swapping sides, prompting the Italian representative to
00:11:13
Speaker
take his ball and go home. He left the discussion, stormed out in a big huff, left it early on. Britain and France saw Wilson in the U.S. as too naive and unrealistic. See, after all, the U.S. had only joined the war towards the end and had not suffered the casualties or economic hardships that the other two countries had faced. Of Wilson's 14 points, only four were implemented to some degree.
00:11:40
Speaker
And in the end, the Allies levied harsh peace terms on Germany. The main causes of World War I that we had talked about, militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism, were heavily represented in these terms. Germany was forced to accept the blame for starting the war. This was to combat nationalism by hurting the pride of the German people. Germany had to reduce its fighting force, which included reducing the number of soldiers in their army.
00:12:08
Speaker
In fact, reduced it so much that if you looked at the country that sent the least amount of soldiers off to fight, they would double the size of Germany's army at this time. They also had to reduce the number of ships and armament that it could have stockpiled, and they had to completely get rid of their air force. This put in place to combat militarism in Germany. Germany could not enter into an alliance with another country, nor could another country enter into one with Germany.
00:12:39
Speaker
This took care of alliances. Germany had to reduce its territory in Europe by 10% as well as give up all of its overseas territories, which effectively wiped out the German empire. This took care of imperialism. And above all, the biggest peace term that crippled Germany was the huge war reparations or money for damages that they had to pay back to the allies. These harsh terms may not have immediately or directly led to World War II,
00:13:07
Speaker
But they did set the stage for some of the big players we'll see in between the wars in Germany, rising to power and pushing the country and continent into another major global conflict. So how could a treaty that was meant to end a war actually start a war? Well, to answer that question, you have to first look at what Germany was reduced to after the war.
00:13:29
Speaker
In the closing months of the war, the German people back home faced a broken economy and a food shortage. In times like these, history has shown that a group that gets the brunt of all blame and outrage during this time is the governmental structure in place. Germany was controlled by a Kaiser or Emperor. In hopes of quelling the uprising of the citizens of the country, the Kaiser abdicates his power to the Reichstag or the legislative branch of the German government.
00:13:57
Speaker
This placed control of all political and military branches in the hands of the Reichstag. Even with this shift in power, the threat of revolution was still prominent. Chancellor von Baden and his cabinet brought forth four new constitutional reforms. Each one worked together to consolidate power in the Reichstag, but these reforms were put in too late. The revolutionary movement had reached Berlin and von Baden quickly announces the abdication of the Kaiser as well as his handing off
00:14:26
Speaker
of the position of chancellor to Friedrich Ebert. Ebert wasted no time in calling for the creation of the German Republic. Party leaders drafted the constitution for the Wehrmacht Republic in 1919. This republic would last until 1933. This new republic had such potential at the start and saw some success in the beginning, but would fail to prevent Germany from entering into a severe depression, which opens the door for the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party.
00:14:57
Speaker
The biggest issue the Wehrmacht Republic faced was how to pay back the massive war reparations imposed on them by the Treaty of Versailles. Germany's economy was based on its ability to produce coal and iron. France and Belgium, not buying that Germany couldn't pay the reparations and in a blatant breach of the League of Nations, sent troops to occupy Germany's industrial area, known as the Roar, until Germany paid up. The Wehrmacht Republic told workers in the area to resist and go on strike.
00:15:26
Speaker
This sent the German government and economy into a downward spiral. To combat the spiral, the government decided the best way to repay reparations was to just print more money. This though is the worst ideal one could come up with to solve this problem. See, paper money is backed by precious metals like gold and silver. If you print more paper money, but do not increase your stockpile of precious metals, then your paper money is worthless.
00:15:57
Speaker
Germany prints money on such a massive scale that their paper money becomes completely worthless. It's so bad that a loaf of bread will reach a staggering 4 million marks. I mean you could imagine the absurdity of having to wheel a wheelbarrow of money to the store to buy just one loaf of bread.
00:16:19
Speaker
Germans begin to use this money, this paper money, as wallpaper and fire starters to get some worth out of it. This hyperinflation that comes from printing a bunch of money ruined the German economy and just about collapsed the country. Thankfully, new leadership is put in place in the Wehrmacht Republic and the workers return to their factories. The German mark that's become so worthless gets replaced by an American-backed currency.
00:16:49
Speaker
The Dawes plan further boosted Germany's repayment of the reparations by having Germany pay reparations in a more reasonable amount based on a sliding scale. They still gotta pay back the money, but at least now it's not all at once. Massive amounts gotta be sent. It's more reasonable that Germany could actually pay it back.
00:17:08
Speaker
This will help repair the relationship between Germany and France and Belgium and allowed Germany to join the League of Nations as well as to enter into international trade, further helping stabilize Germany and the Wehrmacht Republic and the economy. However, this system relies on the steady flow of American money. See, during the 1920s, America was getting rich off of this system. They would give money
00:17:34
Speaker
to Germany, who would then pay France or Britain, and those two would then in turn pay back the loans the US gave them.
00:17:43
Speaker
Each time the money grew as it passed along. It's a pretty ingenious system when you think about it. Say, for example, let's say that Germany owes France $2 but only has one. So the US who has $5 to begin with gives Germany $1 to pay France. Germany takes two bucks, gives it to France. France owes the US $4 but only had two to begin with. They take the two from Germany, the two they had, there's your $4, goes to the United States.
00:18:12
Speaker
So the US at this time will then have $4 after it's loaned to Germany, but then gets $4 from France. And so in the end, they have $8 in total. So you can see the US in this process makes $3 by the loaning $1 to Germany. Now that's a small amount of money. This is done on a massive scale, massive amount of money being shifted. And you can see how the US gets extremely rich during the 1920s.
00:18:40
Speaker
So the US was gonna use these new riches and they splurged on non-essential items like new washing machines, new vacuums, things that aren't really needed for daily living but are more comfort items. And buying all this creates a big rise in the stock prices cause stock prices to soar and the economy is booming.
00:19:04
Speaker
But it also creates a bubble. See, people at this time are buying items on credit and buying stocks on credit. And it's kind of like today's credit cards where you purchase something, but then you pay back in small amounts with some interest on top of that. And see, it sounds so easy at the start and you tell somebody, hey, this is what you're doing. This is how you do it. And it makes a lot of sense that, hey, I'll pay just a little bit. I can afford to pay $30 a month. I couldn't pay the $300 a month for that item.
00:19:34
Speaker
The only problem is, is the stock part of it, see the item part not too bad. As long as you can make the monthly payments, you're good to go. The stock part was a little on the dangerous side because we speculated stocks. Basically, I sold you a stock and I tell you the stock in the next two months is gonna double in profit. Do I know that? No, I'm just speculating. But you take my word for it, you buy the stock, oh, stock didn't double. In fact, it actually declined. You lose money, well, you can't blame me.
00:20:04
Speaker
And so this creates a big bubble that will burst in 1929. When it bursts, it leads to a great depression in the US.
00:20:14
Speaker
When the Great Depression happens in the United States, we no longer have the money to send over Germany, who's relying on that money to keep their economy afloat, pay back the war operations. So when it hits the German Republic, it's devastated. With the flow of US money cut off, unemployment rises and businesses fail at a staggering rate in Germany, and Germany faces another economic crisis.
Rise of the Nazi Party and Hitler
00:20:38
Speaker
Now, why is this important? During the hyperinflation crisis, the middle class in Germany, which is made up of their workers, took the brunt of it. With this new crisis now impacting the middle class again, many people in the middle class become distrustful of the government. This, coupled with a fear of a communist takeover, forces many to turn to extremist parties.
00:21:01
Speaker
And lo and behold, one of the big extremist parties during this time is the Nazi Party. Nazi Party gains the most new members during this time, led by a very infamous person, one that everybody knows, Adolf Hitler. So the Nazi Party had failed to overthrow the government once in 1923 in what was known as the Puigt-Bier-Hall riot. Basically,
00:21:26
Speaker
In a sense Hitler shows up to a beer hall and says, let's take over the government. They all walk out with their guns. They don't get stopped really by the army. They actually get stopped by a small police force, which doesn't, doesn't bode well for recruitment to that party. But this time around, instead of a hostile takeover with guns, they're actually going to try to overthrow the government by just simply winning elections. Very novel idea. If you're a party, you want to take power, just go win some elections. It's easier than.
00:21:54
Speaker
a military-type takeover. In 1932, the Nazi party will become the largest party in the Reichstag. Now they have the majority. In 1933, a year later, Hitler will be named chancellor. Germany has kind of a president-chancellor look here. Think of it kind of like if the US and England combined together with governments. We'd have a president and a prime minister. The chancellor is like the prime minister. It comes from the legislative body itself.
00:22:24
Speaker
Quickly, Hitler will exploit key features of the Constitution. They created the Wehrmacht Republic. He'll use key features of it to solidify his power. One such example is Article 48. The Article 48 of the Constitution gave the Chancellor power to suspend civil rights and operate independently in the event of emergency, basically becoming a tyrannical dictator if there was an emergency.
00:22:50
Speaker
Hitler will use this to squash many civil rights and suppress the Communist Party. He'll also introduce at this time the Enabling Act. Now, the Enabling Act is one that when you hear it, you're gonna be like, and how did this pass? So the Enabling Act gave him the ability to enact any law he wanted without needing approval of the Reichstag or the President.
00:23:14
Speaker
To get this passed, he'll keep the communist members from voting to ensure the act would pass. How does he do that?
00:23:23
Speaker
Through some political finagling, he convinces people that the communist people coming in to vote are evil people, and he kind of, his political opposition, he sends him to early concentration camps. Nothing compared to really one down the road what they'll look like, but these are the early forms of it where they'll go, they'll work, almost work them to death kind of a thing.
00:23:50
Speaker
So when this passes, this gives him complete control now with no checks on his power. But he still doesn't have control of the military from his position. See, even the Kaiser abdicated power and that branch fell underneath the Reichstag, that only fell underneath that the Reichstag could give, not so much orders, but could give directives to the military, but they weren't commanding the military. See, the president still commanded the military.
00:24:19
Speaker
President at this time is President Hindenburg, who is a major World War I war hero, led the entire German army.
00:24:28
Speaker
So, president has power to control the military. When President Hindenburg passes away, one of the deals he had, because him and Hitler both ran for President Hindenburg won, but he wanted to keep Hitler on his side, and so one of the things he said was, well, when I pass away, Hitler can take this spot. Well, Hitler cashes in on that. He immediately moves to have both the presidency and the chancellorship combined together into a new position that he will have, and he calls it the positions called the Fuhrer.
00:24:59
Speaker
which just means leader. This capped off Hitler's rise to power is complete control of Germany. Now all of this was made possible by the massive war reparations that the Allies had levied on Germany. Again, when the economy's going down, when unemployment's going up, businesses are failing, people don't have money, they're poor, there's depression going on. Usually the governmental system that's in place is the one that usually gets blamed and typically gets overthrown.
00:25:28
Speaker
Now, the war reparations were not alone in giving Hitler his rise to power. I want to make that abundantly clear. There are other aspects of the Treaty of Versailles that aided his ascension to the top. Hitler used the clause that forced Germany to accept blame for the war and the clause that reduced Germany's fighting capabilities as fuel to inspire support for him and his party. A lot of his campaign rallies
00:25:52
Speaker
He would talk about how he was going to return the pride to the German people that the Treaty of Versailles took away. He was going to rebuild the military to help out with all of that. He'll publicly denounce the Treaty of Versailles.
00:26:08
Speaker
Promise to build up the military if he was placed in power when he does achieve his power He places the country on aggressive militaristic path He'll give public speeches saying that Germany's not building up any type of military, but behind the scenes Germany is massively arming themselves at a high rate I mean it will surprise the Allies at the start of the war how much firepower
00:26:32
Speaker
planes, tanks, artillery pieces that the Germans have already at the start of the war. He'll restore the German military to its former glory and does so without any real effort from the League of Nations to uphold the Treaty of Versailles. Remember the League of Nations?
00:26:51
Speaker
you know, they're not gonna, they're not really effective at this time. So why is the League of Nations not doing anything to stop them? Why are they
League of Nations and WWII
00:26:58
Speaker
not so effective? Well, the answer is simple. It has no power. So the League of Nations was created by Wilson in his 14 points and was designed as a place for countries to come and air out their grievances with one another without having to go to war over it. I'm kind of a place to do a little more diplomatic part and not so much the fighting side of it.
00:27:17
Speaker
Its purpose was to prevent war from occurring. The only problem was that the most powerful country in the world after World War I
00:27:24
Speaker
and who would have given the league legitimacy, declines to join. That's right, the US, who is the nation responsible for the creation of the league, decided not for us. We're backing out of that one. So how and why was this decision reached, you may ask? Well, the answer lies in our constitution. So the constitution's pretty clear on who has the power to negotiate treaties and who has the power to approve them.
00:27:50
Speaker
At the Palace of Versailles, Wilson was carrying out the duty of the president to negotiate the treaty. But when Wilson returns with that treaty, he faces opposition in the Senate. The Senate holds the power to approve the treaty. The Senate feared involvement again with European conflicts and wanted to stay out of it. They did not like that Wilson had all but guaranteed that the Senate was going to approve it. And so in a show of power, the Senate declined to accept the treaty and its terms.
00:28:18
Speaker
Later 1921, they would pass resolutions ending the conflict with Germany. So you can see about 1919 is the official ending year for the war. About two years or so on down the road, we finally decide, hey, Germany, by the way, we're not fighting anymore. So when the Senate doesn't approve the treaty, this severely weakens the League of Nations, making it ineffective in stopping Adolf Hitler in World War II. To the extent that all they could do is levy
00:28:47
Speaker
trade embargoes on Germany which without a military is very hard to enforce. One of the most provoking steps though that Hitler will take in Europe was the seizure of massive amounts of land or whole countries sometimes in Europe. So why does Hitler make these huge land grabs? Well if you recall the Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to reduce its land size by 10%. The areas in which Hitler grabbed land were the very areas that Germany had given up.
00:29:17
Speaker
When this land grabbing was met with no resistance by other European countries, this emboldens Hitler to seek out more land to annex. During this period of appeasement, the League of Nations set idly by being powerless to stop it. By the time European countries realized that appeasement was not working, it was just too late. So to answer our original question, did World War I start World War II?
Link between WWI and WWII
00:29:41
Speaker
The simple answer is yes. It laid the foundations for World War II through the Treaty of Versailles.
00:29:46
Speaker
If Germany had not been made to pay the massive war reparations, their economy would have survived and Hitler would have lost one of his rallying cries. Had Germany not been forced to reduce its military to drastically low numbers, then maybe the Republic would have been able to retain control and Hitler would have lost more ammo for his rallies. If Germany had not been forced to reduce its land by 10%, then maybe Hitler would not have sought out land to annex for Germany.
00:30:11
Speaker
But just like the start and end of World War I is complex, the start of World War II is a complex mix of causes. Each one that I've listed on its own would not have triggered a world complex. When you add them together, and again, these are causes, they're not physical events. When you add them together and throw in the events of other countries, like we talked about with Japan, when you add them all together, it only takes a very little push to set the whole thing in motion. And that push is Germany invading Poland.
00:30:41
Speaker
And that's what gets Britain and France involved. And eventually us on down the road, we'll get involved. Now we don't get involved with Germany right away. In fact, we get involved with Japan first after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and.
00:30:54
Speaker
had Germany not declared war on us we would have only fought Japan and that's it we really wouldn't have probably fought Germany until maybe later on in the war when it might have been just us by ourselves fighting but Germany makes the fatal mistake of after Japan declares war on us Germany as a show of support will then declare war on the US even though again no need to at all so
00:31:18
Speaker
There you have it. There's the answer to the question. World War I, I think, lays the groundwork for World War II.
Humorous Historical Anecdote: Prague Defenestration
00:31:30
Speaker
So now it's time for our funny story of the week. And boy, do we got a good one for the first one. Have you ever been so angry that you threw someone out the window? This may sound like an odd question, but it's going somewhere. Well, if you have,
00:31:46
Speaker
And if you were a Protestant in Prague around 1618, then you may have said yes to that. That's right, our funny story from History for the Week comes to us all the way from Prague. The year is 1618. Catholics and Protestants are kidding along about as well as, well, cats and dogs.
00:32:03
Speaker
Both sides are trying to increase their following, each claiming they are the correct form of Christianity. The Protestants control Northern Europe, the Catholics control Southern Europe. And after years of intense confrontations, the two decide it's best to just meet and hash things out. They meet in Prague in 1618, and things turn from good to bad quickly. The discussion gets so heated that the Protestants see an open window
00:32:32
Speaker
and get this idea on their head. They grabbed the Catholic officials and they chucked them out the window. And that window is like 50 feet above the ground. I mean, this was like, we're intended to throw you out the window and cause you bodily harm. And then for good measure, they're so mad, they grabbed the Catholic's secretary, who in my mind, maybe just came back from getting the coffee orders, they grabbed him and they chucked him out the window as well. Catholics will survive this fall
00:33:02
Speaker
because they landed and this is again another layer of this story pun intended that will make you laugh more. They land on a pile of human refuse. That's right folks, in simpler terms I'm talking about human poop. They land in a pile of poop.
00:33:21
Speaker
The Catholics will held this as a miracle. The Protestants will held a meeting as a success. Both sides want to commission a painting as quickly as they can of the event telling their side. And you can guess that they look completely different. The Protestants made sure to show the Catholics landing in a pile of poop while the Catholics
00:33:43
Speaker
surprisingly replaced a pile of poop with angels who are depicted as cradling the men down to the ground safely. This event, what would you call it,
00:33:56
Speaker
Well, they would call this the defenestration of Prague. And before I tell you what defenestration means, this is the second defenestration of Prague. Yes, there was a first one, similar type of story. Maybe not Catholics and Protestants, but again, some people getting angry, chucking people out the window. So, defenestration, what does it mean? Well, humorously enough, defenestration means literally thrown out of a window. So this is the throw out of a window of Prague.
00:34:26
Speaker
And again, the second time this happens, this event will have a major impact on history. It's the triggering event that starts the 30 years war and will shape what regions practice what side of religion, whether they're Protestant, Catholic, what forms of Protestantism, because Protestantism is not just one singular, it's different. You've got Calvinism, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, you've got Puritans.
00:34:53
Speaker
30 years war, pretty big. And 30 years war, surprisingly, not fought in 30 years. And also, it's like four different wars combined together. But that's another podcast on Down The Road.
Episode Wrap-up and Next Preview
00:35:10
Speaker
Well, that'll do it for episode one of Hooked On History.
00:35:14
Speaker
Hopefully you've learned something new today and had a good laugh along the way. Join us next time when we talk about a spy ring that saved Washington and the revolution. It's 007 meets colonial times. Until then, stay safe and stay hooked.