A History of Europe, Key Battles

A History of Europe, Key Battles


Latest Episodes

74.19 Treaty of Versailles
October 20, 2023

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.Germanys eastern frontiers presented far greater problems. www

74.15 The Russian Revolution 1917
July 14, 2023

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 i

74.14 Battles of Verdun and The Somme 1916
June 30, 2023

Europe entered the year 1916 exhausted by one and a half years of conflict of a scale hitherto unimaginable, with profound effects on citizens at home, as well as those on the front line.The most intensive battles on the western front in 1916 are at Verdu

74.13 Eastern and Western Fronts 1915
June 16, 2023

For the Germans, 1915 was a year that should not have been. Their whole strategy had been based on a quick war, but they now found themselves embroiled in a two-front war on the eastern front against Russia, and on the western front against France fully

74.12 Turkey and Italy Enter the War, 1915
June 02, 2023

The first months of fighting in the First World War had seen no major breakthrough from any side. The Germans had captured about ten percent of France, and reached within sixty miles of Paris, but then reached a stalemate as both sides fortified their pos

74.11 The Eastern Front 1914
May 26, 2023

The Russians strike hard against their most powerful enemy, Germany. Austro-Hungary help their German ally although their military forces are under-resourced, in large part because through the years the Hungarian parliament had restricted military finding

74.10 The Western Front 1914
May 12, 2023

The first main clash of the First World War was on the borders of France and Germany and in Belgium. The Belgians put up more resistance than the Germans expect. However, the Battle of the Frontiers, on the Franco-German border, from 7 August to 6 Septemb

74.9 Europe Goes to War 1914
April 28, 2023

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne. A month later Austria retaliates by declaring war on Serbia, which in turn brings Russia and the other great powers of Europe into conflict. As Edward Grey memorably expressed it:

74.8 Countdown to Catastrophe (First World War)
April 14, 2023

Why did the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand trigger the First World War?I also describe how the long struggle between European powers for mastery in central Africa reaches its climax. www.patreon.com/historyeuropewww.historyeurope.netPictur

74.7 The Balkan Wars 1912-13
April 07, 2023

An analogy often given to the Balkans leading up to the First World War is a tinderbox, awaiting a flame to ignite it and set off a major conflagration across Europe. In fact, the region suffered a large-scale conflict already two years before the First W