18th Century Warfare: Crash Course European History #20

Did you say Jaden Smith? 🤯 That's awesome!👍😁👍❤

I’m so happy you came back with new videos John Green!!!! Keep it up

As a Floridian, I approve that dig at Florida.

J O H N G R E E N I S F L O R I D A M A N

I'm old(er) and enjoy these for their perspectives and details. I also love being able to pause and zoom in on the paintings.

What in the heck does this have to do with 18th century warfare? You have managed to miss the MOST important aspect of 18th century warfare--mercantilism! Under this philosophy "useful" people--aka people who produced wealth like farmers and factory workers--were too valuable to waste in the army. Instead the monarchies relied on the "useless" people--aka criminals, foreign draftees and the nobility. Yes, they did think that the only use the nobility had was in leading armies and dying in the field.


Because most of the soldiers had nothing to fight for and did not want to be there in the first place this led to ferocious discipline, rigid formations, and a total dependency on supply lines. This was because the troops could not be trusted to forage since they might run away or turn their weapons on their officers. There was also very little skirmishing (except by highly paid mercenaries) because the troops could not be trusted to not shoot their officers. Wars took on an almost dance like quality since even a minor threat to an army's supply lines forced them to retreat and the armies themselves were so small and expensive that their owners were loath to risk them unless there was a very good chance of winning.

This makes what happened when these mercantile armies met citizen soldiers--aka the French Revolution and Napoleon so important. In France the revolution had broken the back of the nobility, gave rights to people who had none before and gave them a reason to fight. Unlike the Royal armies, the French could skirmish and that fact, combined with the ability to live off the land and the huge size of these armies made them overpowering. With or without Napoleon the "Napoleonic Wars" would have happened--it was the army structure and not the great tactics that produced most of the victories.

The only country to figure out what was needed to fight the French on their own terms were the Prussians (see "York and the Era of Prussian Reform 1806-1813 by Peter Paret). The Prussian ruler, convinced that the only way to get his people to fight like the French was to given them the sane rights as the French staged a "French Revolution" in Prussia by Royal decree. The result was huge armies of volunteers (there were even battalions of artists and poets) who could meet the French on their own terms--and win.

If you are going to do "military history" then at least find someone who knows what they are talking about.

By the way--the American War of Independence (it was not a Revolution) was fought with long serving professionals and NOT the militia--who were mostly useless. This use of a mercenary army instead of a citizen army (like in France) is why America did not have a revolution and ended up with the same rich people that had been in charge before the war in charge after it and most of the "Revolutionary" yearning of the average Americans disappointed.



The stuff in this video? Interesting but not important.

I dont understand why always showing the world map in india kashmir is always shown separate it is integrals part of india.

I miss the old John green

History videos are the best in the channel, thank you for doing them.
Would be interesting to have a video tracing the gold taken from the Americas to Europe.

John you have become fatter

I LOVE THIS SHOW!! THANK YOU Mr Green and Team

The French-Indian War is mostly a US appellation; just about everyone else rolls it into the Seven Years War, since Britain was fighting in several other parts of the world, against a variety of countries, including France and Spain, at the same time. Also, Adam Smith, in the Wealth of Nations, wrote that the colonies lack of political representation was only part of the problem. The other part that was leading to the crisis was that Britain insisted on a trade monopoly with the colonies and prohibited the manufacture of certain products, which was stifling the colonies' economic growth and the profit of their industry.

Where did the Napoleon episode go?

Visions of a thousand young women reacting to the idea of only having 5 outfits. . . . . . . . .

Actually Florida was sold.

wait... did they do a south american history yet?


love this series. as a european i love your showcase of the bigger picture!

Great video, i have to disagree with your point on how the us constitution enshrined slavery. In fact it did the opposite. It set the stage for slaverys end

Complete Joke: If you were looking from that time. You could say in The Grime Darkness Of The Far Future There Is Only War.

Just call it World War 0, World War -1 and so on

Can we get a Crash Course on East Asain history or African history? I feel like most Americans don't know anything about the history of these places.

@CrashCourse Episode #21 is not in the playlist ATM..

love the j alfred prufrock ref :D

I've noticed you are marking a part of Ukraine as a part of Russia on the map you're using in this crashcourse; this is not good.

omg JOHN IS A FLORIDA MAN

anyone else notice he's going over the 19th century??? 18th century would be the 1700's bud

Florida man makes rly interesting educational videos

Not a word on the War of Succession, that's how the century started. I guess it was more important to focus on the colonies.

I'm surprised there's very little mention of Canada during these times. Can we get a Crash Course on Canadian colonial history for all us loyal Canucks? ✌️

So who became the best most powerful Europe empire?
...
Canada...

The Russian Government actually had a monopoly on the production of vodka.

I have a question, what was the cluster of wars in the mid-18th century called?

I am speculating that those fierce female warriors in the region of the Amazon River was how that river got its name.

Bruh i hate portuondo

Jaden Smith and cool in the same sentence is truly an oxymoron.

Where the hell are the Swedes?? King Charles XII and his conquests were forgotten here.

So many wars everywhere! I'd say the Seven Years War (1756-63) was key in realigning power within Europe and globally, and ultimately leading to the American and French Revolutions. Lots of 'causes' for fighting but maybe the ultimate one was so many people, rulers, religious beliefs and cultures being crammed into a tiny part of the planet, bursting at the seams

So, are you sayin that YOU are "Florida Man"? :-)

Quebec act

I feel as though a warning should be given before reciting anything from The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock. I am just here to get an overview before I start researching the environment in which Lorenzo Da Ponte grew up in and now I'm having an existential crisis over the women which I know are coming and going, coming and going 🥲

Please do a literary analysis on that piece. It's soooo good.

It is gravely unfortunate that we live in a timeline where there is no Native American sovereignties present, not even one.