After WWI: The Collapse of Old Europe

Jesse Alexander
Jesse Alexander
Historian and Author

Jesse Alexander is a public historian based in Vienna, Austria. He holds an MA in Modern History from the University of Vienna, where he focused on propaganda in World War One. Jesse has also researched, written, and hosted documentary films on 19thย and 20th century conflict, including โ€œThe Great Warโ€ series. He is the author ofย 16 Days in Berlin: The Final Battle of World War Two,ย andย Rhineland 45: Decision in the West, and is currently working on a documentary and book about Napoleonโ€™s invasion of Russia.

Overview

After four bloody years, at 11:00 am on November 11, 1918, the guns fell silent as an armistice brought a stop to World War One. Or did it? The war between the Allies and Central Powers was over, but much of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East was racked by war for nearly fiveย moreย years. Right- and left-wing revolutions, coups, civil wars, wars of national liberation, Imperial interventions, and anti-colonial resistance plunged societies into chaos and helped shapeย todayโ€™s world. From Syria to Siberia and Berlin to Baghdad, American, British, German, French, Russian, Turkish, and Arab soldiers fought and died โ€“ long after the War to End All Wars was โ€œover.โ€

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In this talk, historian Jesse Alexander explains why World War Oneโ€™s incomplete and messy ending(s) opened a Pandoraโ€™s Box of Imperial greed, national dreams, ideological extremes, and incredible sufferingโ€“despite and because of Americaโ€™s arrival on the World Stage.

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Recommended Reading:

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The Vanquished: Why the First World War Failed to End,ย by Robert Gerwarth

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Peacemakers: The Paris Conference of 1919 and Its Attempt to End War,ย by Margaret Macmillan

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Russia in Flames: War, Revolution, Civil War, 1914โ€“1921,ย by Laura Engelstein

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Civil War in Central Europe, 1918โ€“1920: The Reconstruction of Poland,ย by Jochen Bรถhler

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Discussion Questions:

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1)ย ย ย ย Why couldnโ€™t the Allies agree on how the post-war order should be?

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2)ย ย ย ย Why didnโ€™t the Allies impose peace after theyโ€™d defeated the Central Powers?

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3)ย ย ย ย What can we learn from a re-assessment of the fallen Empires and new nation states that emerged after them?

 

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EDWARD WALSH

WWII and after

Totally lightning history what happened after the bullshit at the revolution in the end of World War I. I had no idea of how complicated all of the borders were given me 13 boundary wars in nine revolutions in the five-year period after the bolshevik revolution.. professor Alexander is an excellent presenter knowledgeable, smart, and delivers and easy-to-understand history.
So pleased that I tuned in to the lecture.

5 months ago
EDWARD WALSH

WWII and after

Totally lightning history what happened after the bolshevik revolution at the the end of World War I. I had no idea of how complicated all of the borders were given: 13 boundary wars and nine revolutions in the five-year period after the bolshevik revolution.. professor Alexander is an excellent presenter knowledgeable, smart, and delivers and easy-to-understand history.
So pleased that I tuned in to the lecture.

5 months ago
EDWARD WALSH

WWII and after

Totally lightning history what happened after the bolshevik revolution near the the end of World War I. I had no idea of how complicated all of the borders were given: 13 boundary wars and nine revolutions in the five-year period after the bolshevik revolution.. professor Alexander is an excellent presenter knowledgeable, smart, and delivers and easy-to-understand history.
So pleased that I tuned in to the lecture.

5 months ago
EDWARD WALSH

WWII and after

Totally enlightening history what happened after the bolshevik revolution near the the end of World War I. I had no idea of how complicated all of the borders were given: 13 boundary wars and nine revolutions in the five-year period. professor Alexander is an excellent presenter knowledgeable, smart, and delivers and easy-to-understand history.
So pleased that I tuned in to the lecture.

5 months ago
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