The Origins of the French Revolutionary Wars can be dated to 17th August 1787, when in Constantinople the Ottomans arrested the Russian ambassador Count Bulgakov in the Topkapi palace, and declared war on St Petersburg. Catherine the Great had deliberately provoked the Turks and now dragged in the reluctant Austrians into the war. The Austrian Emperor was Joseph II, the archetypal enlightened despot, who worked hard to reform his empire but from the top down. His reforms provoked the so-called Brabantine Revolution 1789-90 in the Netherlands which was similar in some ways to the contemporary French Revolution. 
www.patreon.com/historyeurope www.historyeurope.net
Music from Joseph Haydn (Symphony 94, 'Surpise'), Christoph Gluck (the opera 'Iphigenie En Tauride') and Mozart (the Turkish March), courtesy of www.musopen.org
Picture - January Suchodolski - the Siege of Ochakov 1788 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

64.2 Russo-Turkish War 1788 and the Reforms of Joseph II

A podcast on European conflicts from the perspective of each side to provide an alternative to the traditional national narratives. Going chronologically from the Ancient Greeks onwards I will describe to some extent how each battle was won or lost by particular decisions, tactics, technology or fortune. But the aim of each main narrative will be to place each battle in the context of the overall history of Europe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

History

Society & Culture

The Paris Peace consisted of a group of distinct treaties, but the main concern of the delegates was the settlement with Germany, embodied in the Treaty of Versailles signed in June 1919. Germany’s eastern frontiers presented far greater problems. 
www.patreon.com/historyeurope www.historyeurope.net
Music composed by Edward Elgar, Enigma variations, Variation IX (Adagio) Nimrod Picture - Treaty of Versailles, Big Four Theme tune for the podcast by Nico Vettese, www.wetalkofdreams.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

74.19 Treaty of Versailles

In Spring 1918 a massive German offensive made significant territorial gains, but ultimately not the intended breakthrough, and the Allied forces stood firm. Exhausted and demoralised at the scale of casualties, the Germans were pushed back in a major counter-attack in the late Summer and Autumn. And on 26 September, the Allies launched a general offensive along the entire Western Front. Meanwhile, the Habsburg empire was fast falling apart as various nationalities declared independence. 
www.patreon.com/historyeurope www.historyeurope.net
Music composed by Alexander Scriabin, Etude in C sharp minor. Courtesy of musopen.org Picture - US 64th regiment celebrate the Armistice Theme tune for the podcast by Nico Vettese, www.wetalkofdreams.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

74.18 Endgame, 1918

After the Russian withdrawal from the frontlines following the October revolution, the  treaty of Brest-Litovsk is negotiated between Germany and Russia. The Germans sought to conclude war on the Eastern Front as quickly as possible, while at the same time trying to establish an informal empire in east-central Europe, one composed of newly independent nation states on Russia’s western periphery. However, back on the German home front, after four harsh winters and widespread hunger, political unity was fraying, and riots and strikes occurred across the country.  Everything now depended on the success or failure of a German Spring Offensive on the western front. 
www.patreon.com/historyeurope www.historyeurope.net
Picture - German Spring Offensive - British Lewis gun team at the Battle of Hazebrouck 1918 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

74.17 The Final Gamble, 1918

While the nations of Europe fought each other to a bitter stalemate, the President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, urged both sides to make peace. However, no agreement is made and the United States joined the war on the side of the Entente allies. In the meantime, the Germans ordered a general withdrawal at the western front, abandoning the battlefields of the Somme in order to establish a shorter, straighter and more well-fortified line, the so-called ‘Hindenburg Line’. The eastern front is more volatile, seeing the collapse of the Russian army, a major defeat for the Italians at Caporetto and the fall of Jerusalem to the British
www.patreon.com/historyeurope www.historyeurope.net
Music composed by Vaughan Williams (Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis), courtesy of musopen.org Picture - Allenby enters Jerusalem 1917 Theme tune for the podcast by Nico Vettese, www.wetalkofdreams.com 
 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

74.16 War of Attrition on the Western Front 1917

As the year 1917 dawned, Europe had been at war for two and a half years, and pressures on the home fronts were becoming intolerable. Every participant nation came under huge strain.
In Russia the Tsarist regime falls in March, but the interim government is unstable and itself falls in the famous October Revolution, led by Vladimir Lenin, who promises to withdraw Russia from the war.
www.patreon.com/historyeurope www.historyeurope.net
Music composed by Frederich Chopin (The Polish Dancer) Picture - Vladimir Lenin, 1 May 1920 by Isaak_Brodsky Theme tune for the podcast by Nico Vettese, www.wetalkofdreams.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

64.2 Russo-Turkish War 1788 and the Reforms of Joseph II

Download our free app to listen on your phone