[Music] [Click] As German troops
marched through Paris, the guns on the Western Front
had finally fallen silent. The horrors of the Great War,
which claimed over 30 million lives, and wrought havoc upon
all of Europe, had ended. The German Empire
had triumphed utterly. [Music] That morning the world
awoke to a new age. [Music] The age of the Kaiserreich. [Music] January, 1917. Wilhelm II, Kaiser
of the German Empire, holds a council with
his military advisers. These councils are regular, but this one will bring about
a decision that changes the course
of the war. High-ranking military officials, including the head of
the Imperial Naval Office, von Capelle, join Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg
in urging the Kaiser not to resume unrestricted submarine
warfare in the Atlantic Ocean, fearing the inevitable attacks on
American shipping will draw the United States into
the war on the Allied side. [Music] The opponents of unrestricted submarine warfare
brace themselves for defeat when Erich Ludendorff argues
in the strongest possible terms that unrestricted submarine
warfare should be resumed. The previous year, this Prussian son
of minor nobility had been raised to the
rank of Generalquartiermeister, a new role, placing him
in command of the German Army’s
logistics and supply. In reality, the role was far more powerful,
and Ludendorff was on-track to become de facto dictator
of all things military, in a duumvirate with Chief of the German General Staff,
Paul von Hindenburg. [Music] It was perhaps this
obvious desire for power, that made the Kaiser wary of increasing
Ludendorff’s influence further. Had he been given the
apparent authority to override the German Navy’s own wishes, there would have
been little standing in the way of his and Hindenburg’s
total dominance of the German state. Wilhelm, seeing this,
decides to act. [Music] After no more than a few
minutes, the die is cast. The Kaiser has decided against
resuming unrestricted submarine warfare. The decision will only delay,
not prevent, the rise of Ludendorff and Hindenburg
to supreme authority within the Empire. But while it sacrifices
the chance to starve Britain out of the war, it near-eliminates
the risk of the United States declaring war on
Germany herself. "The United States must be neutral
in fact as well as in name during these days thatare to try men’s souls. We must be impartial in thought
as well as in action, must put a curb upon our sentiments as well as upon every transaction that might be construed
as a preference of one party to the struggle before another.' Woodrow Wilson,
28th President of the United States. Wilson spoke for many Americans
who wanted the United States to stay out of any conflict. But there was a darker and deeper
reason behind US non-interventionism. As early as the mobilization of 1914,
agents of the Abteilung III b, the German’s elusive spy agency, had been infiltrating the highest rungs
of US political life. Moving through the swathes of German expats and
immigrants on the north-east, their single aim was to keep
the US from intervening in any European war. This would buy the Kaiserreich the time
to make a decisive strike against the Allies and claim her hegemony
over the continent. Had the German Navy returned to
unrestricted submarine warfare and claimed countless American lives, the Abwehr’s efforts
might have been in vain. But with no pressing
need to side against Germany, proponents of American neutrality
maintained control of Congress. President Wilson,
re-elected in 1916 with a slogan of ‘He
Kept Us Out Of War,’ was all too willing to steer clear
of foreign entanglements. 1917 was a turning point in the war diplomatically,
but also militarily. After three years of war,
cracks had begun to show in the determination of Allied forces. Heavy French casualties
at Chemin des Dames lead to widespread mutiny
among French troops. This disaster discourages
the French high-command from continuing great offensives
until the end of the year, giving Germany a chance to recover from the
unmitigated catastrophe of the Brusilov Offensive in the East. With both sides suffering
more than a million casualties, the aftermath of the
stunning and forward-looking offensive masterminded
by General Brusilov, was a pause in the
Russian advance. The Motherland simply had no further
reinforcements to send, and further attacks were out of
the question. The Central Powers, meanwhile,
had taken careful note of the devastating use of carefully targeted
artillery and small unit tactics, with which Brusilov
had found success. It was an approach which would
now be turned against the Russian Army,
which had exhausted itself. [Music] But even if German and
Austro-Hungarian forces had not been preparing an assault,
the Russian Empire’s time was running out. A peasantry and working class,
furious about looming famine, military incompetence and
a lack of compassion, turn their ire on Tsar Nicholas II. After riots, mass mutiny and rebellion,
the Tsar abdicates in March of 1917. A provisional government is formed
under the brilliant lawyer Alexander Kerensky, but the young man’s unstable reign
is quickly snatched away by a new emerging faction - the feared Russian Bolsheviks,
led by the enigmatic Vladimir Lenin. As the old guard of the Russian Empire
and Kerensky’s democratic forces form an unlikely alliance
against the Red Menace, it is not long before the broiling conflict
erupts in open war. The First Russian Civil War has begun. [Music] In Berlin, the news is met with delight. The Kaiser’s decision to secretly assist
Lenin’s return to Russia has paid off, and the Bear to the East is mortally wounded. Offensives drive deep into Russia, and in March 1918,
Germany signs the treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the secretly established
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Swathes of lands that
once belonged to the Tsar, now answer to the Kaiser
and to the Austrian Emperor. In Vienna, 1918 brings more for
Emperor Karl to celebrate. The stalemate of inconclusive and bloody
battles along the Isonzo river,
comes to an end with the Caporetto offensive, beating the humiliated Italian Army
back to the Piave river. Only a heroic last-minute defense prevents the
Austrians from taking Venice, and when the front line has settled, the Habsburg Emperor’s armies
are poised and ready for a fateful push into
the Italian heartland. [Music] Success for the Central Powers is not universal. The Ottoman Empire, long derided
as the Sick Man of Europe, proves incurable. After a series of devastating raids and attacks
by the dashing Lawrence of Arabia across 1917, the Sultan slowly loses control
of his precious railways. Lifelines to Ottoman
frontline soldiers. Chronically undersupplied and outmatched
by Allied and rebel Arab infantry, the Ottoman Army loses Baghdad and Jerusalem
to British forces. Celebrations in London are short-lived. In December 1917, another blow
to Allied morale rings a death knell for their relationship with
the United States. On a routine patrol, a British submarine mistakenly torpedoes an American freighter, carrying Christmas gifts to Germany,
killing several US citizens. Seizing their opportunity,
pro-German politicians in the United States move swiftly. Urging support for the Central Powers,
the backlash they whip up forces Britain into a partial opening of the blockade,
averting the looming specter of famine in Central Europe. The opening of the blockade,
combined with the relief of winning the war in the East, rallied German forces and
set off a series of cascading events that would eventually spell doom for the
beleaguered Allies on the Western Front. With Germany focused on the
East in the first half of 1918, the British and French realize that with
American support no longer a reasonable expectation, the time to strike is now. At this stage in the war,
the sides still seemed relatively even-matched, an assumption shattered by
the outcome of the Allied Great Spring Offensive. After three months of fighting, not
one of its objectives had been met, and an irrecoverable 800,000 casualties
had been suffered by the Allies. The capitulation of Greece
to Field Marshal Erich von Falkenhayn a month later, buoyed German spirits further. With Russia eliminated and the
Allies exhausted in the West, Germany has decisively claimed the initiative in the war. It is up to her to determine how to use it. She would do so in 1919. After spending the second
half of 1918 biding time and redeploying forces
from the Eastern Front, the German high command begins
its own Great Offensive, masterminded by Ludendorff. So-called ‘infiltration tactics’
prove devastatingly effective, and the crucial railway hub of
Amiens, the Allied headquarters, falls to Germany on the 26th of March. The British and French forces are
now unable to supply one another, and even communication becomes difficult. On 31st of May, the first short distance artillery shots
hit the capital, starting the siege of Paris. Ferdinand Foch is dismissed as supreme French commander
and replaced with Philippe Pétain. A final blow is not yet delivered. The long-awaited Austrian offensive
to knock Italy out of the war has stalled and German forces are diverted to
the southern front. While they will find success, Pétain
and the defenders of France are granted a short operational respite. The British Army uses this time to attempt a
fighting retreat to the Channel coast, hoping to withdraw safely
to the United Kingdom. The Entente Cordiale is crumbling. As the hungry citizens of Paris begin
to man the barricades once more, the desperate French leadership gambles everything on a counter-breakthrough in the Oise region. Miraculously, French tanks and cavalry divisions
punch through the German lines, offering tantalizing hope. The lasting impact, however,
is simply to delude the French high command that a further offensive
would have the same success. As she throws all remaining
resources into an attempt to link up with the isolated British forces
near the coast, France’s luck finally runs out. The rear of the front collapses in
the face of a German counterattack. [Music] “It felt like their great offensive
had come again, and soon we had no more shells to fire back.” [Music] Unnamed French soldier, 1919 [Music] There are no more supplies coming. Unrest and rebellion in French cities
has slowed war production to a crawl. Pétain advises against surrender,
but the matter is taken out of his hands by the French Army’s old enemy: mutiny. With her army crippled and with no other options, France requests an armistice
with the German Empire. On the 4th of October, it is signed,
both sides hurrying through negotiations. One condition is that on the 6th of October, the German Army’s victory will become unambiguous
with a march through Paris itself. Gefreiter Andreas Koch watches
from the Eiffel Tower as he and his men raise the flag of the
Empire that now unquestionably dominates mainland Europe. The Treaty of Versailles is signed a month later, punishing and humiliating the fragile
provisional French government. Its people are still up in arms. The Third Republic was born
with revolutionaries in Paris and German armies victorious on its soil. It dies in much the same fashion. From Dunkirk to the Dnieper river, the guns have fallen silent
on a new German continent. However, just across the Channel,
an Allied power remains. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, still confident in the might of her Royal Navy, refuses to come to terms. The stage is set for the Second Battle of Jutland, and the war seems far from over... [Music] To be continued... [Music] [Click] Wait, they're listening
with the audio on - ehh [Music] [Coughing] Mhm - eh [Music] The Kaiser Cat Cinema crew proudly welcomes you to the world's first alt-history webshop. We are a collective of artists, actors and musicians, who make
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and every sale helps us create more free content. My goodness! The mad cats actually did it! This is the first episode of our Kaiserreich
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the next one, Cats. [Music]