World War II didn’t appear out of nowhere. Dr. Roy begins by going back to the 18th and 19th centuries, explaining how the rise of the British Empire, the exploitation of India, the discovery of oil, and the unification of Germany set the stage for catastrophe. Along the way, he explores how nationalism spread through Europe, how industrialization and imperialism changed the global order, and why multipolar competition made world war almost inevitable.

Takeaways:

• Understanding World War II requires examining the British Empire, German unification, and industrial capitalism.
• How the Seven Years’ War, the American Revolution, and the conquest of India shaped British imperial dominance.
• The role of oil in shifting global power, from Persia to Standard Oil and BP.
• The unification of Germany and Italy, and the rise of nationalism after the French Revolution and Napoleon.
• How the Revolutions of 1848 signaled the struggle between socialism and nationalism across Europe.
• The collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the tangled alliances that destabilized Europe.
• How competition, arms races, and colonial rivalries pushed the world into World War I, and why that war’s aftermath guaranteed another.
• Why World War I was the worst war in history for soldiers, and how its horrors set the stage for even greater civilian suffering in World War II.

Resources & References:

• Treaty of Paris (1783) and British-American relations after independence
• Industrial Revolution and steam power (18th-19th centuries)
• Anglo-Persian Oil Company (later BP) and Middle Eastern oil concessions
• German unification under Bismarck (1871) and the Austro-Hungarian compromise
• French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars (1789-1815)
• Revolutions of 1848 across Europe
• Alliance systems before World War I (Triple Alliance and Triple Entente)
• The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1914)
• Trench warfare, chemical weapons, and the horrors of World War I
• Treaty of Versailles (1919) and its consequences

Beyond the podcast: 

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