History Matters

During the Napoleonic Wars, Britain seized the Dutch East Indies to prevent it from enriching France. After Napoleon was defeated, Britain chose to hand it back, so why? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.

Thailand is one of the lesser known of the countries that fought the allies in World War 2 and whilst it was never formally a member of the axis it was aligned with them. So why did it do so? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.

The Hanseatic League was a consortium of trading towns which all-but monopolised trade in the north and baltic seas between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. But how did they manage to achieve this and what led to their decline? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.

Austria was one of the great powers of Europe in 1814 but in 1914 it wasn't doing so well and had been eclipsed by its rivals. So why did this happen? Why did Austria and later Austria-Hungary decline?

Unlike the previous world war, Germany was allowed to rearm after World War 2 in spite of the amount of damage the country had done during it. Given how badly ruined much of Europe was, why did the victorious allied powers allow Germany to rearm? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.

After a certain moustachioed leader of Germany during World War 2 became indisposed he was succeeded by the head of the German navy instead of one of his political cronies. So why was this admiral chosen instead the most likely candidates? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.

In the 1600s Sweden was a great military power and spent most of its free time wrecking the faces of Austria, Russia, Denmark and Poland-Lithuania but nowadays its definitely no longer considered a great power. So why not? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.

Despite a terrible occupation and suffering immense damage, Belgium received very little territorial compensation after World War One. So why didn't it get more despite asking for more? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.

After the US Revolution was over Britain just sort of accepted that America was free and never made any real effort to end it or recapture some of its old colonies. So why not? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.

One of the most famous acts by a pope was the attempt by Innocent II to ban the use of crossbows in medieval warfare. This was entirely ignored by everyone so why did the Pope even try? What reasons did he have to try to ban crossbows? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.

The leaders of the Soviet Union firmly considered themselves to be in control of a union of equals. Whereas many of those in the west considered it to be little more than a continuation of the Russian Empire it replaced. So which was it? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.

Italy was promised a lot to enter the First World War on the side of the Entente. But when it came time to pay up, Britain, France and the United States all had other ideas and the territories promised to Italy mostly went to Yugoslavia. So why did this happen? Why did the Entente go back on their word to Italy? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.

We all know the USA and USSR weren't the best of friends during the Cold War. But how did they see each other before this from the Russian Revolution to the beginning of World War 2? Did the United States and Soviet Union always hate each other? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.

Rome's reach extended across much of the European continent at one point or another during its life. The notable exception to this is northern Europe where Rome's relationship with Scandinavia is less well understood. So what did Rome know about Scandinavia and the people who lived there? Did they get along or fight wars with each other? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.

World War One famously broke the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Given the dire straits of the state in 1918 and the terrible time the Dual Monarchy had been having up until that point during the war why didn't it try to make peace and attempt to save the Empire from collapse. To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.

India, despite hating their British colonial overlords, made no effort to rebel during the World Wars. Britain's attention was elsewhere and its global position was massively weakened and it's unlikely that it could have prevented India independence. So why didn't India rebel? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.

After the American Civil War was won, the US government never tried or convicted any of the primary political and military leaders of the CSA despite the immense suffering of the previous four years. So why not? Why didn't the US government punish the Confederate leaders? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.

In 1941, in solidarity with Japan, Germany formally declared war on the United States thereby bringing the US into the conflict in Europe. Germany was under no obligation to do this and given that the American military made life very difficult for Germany it raises the question: why did Germany declare war on America? To find out why watch this short and simple animated history documentary.

A lot of the original 13 Colonies are named after British things or monarchs. But given that the US fought a long war to get rid of British monarchical rule, why didn't the newly independent nation change the names of its states and remove any traces of Britain from them? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.

After France's defeat in 1871 to Prussia, the rest of the German Confederation and later the German Empire, it lost the region of Alsace-Lorraine and a bunch of money. But given how decisive the Prussian victory was, why didn't it demand more territory from the French? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.

In 1956 the United States forced Britain and France to withdraw from Egypt after the two invaded to secure the Suez Canal. This was at the height of the Cold War where the US' main goal was building and maintaining an anti-Soviet alliance and standing against two important allies may have threatened that. So why did the US do it? Why did America side against Britain and France during the Suez Crisis? To find out watch this short and simple animated documentary.

Italy is famous for being the birthplace of the Renaissance which saw the flourishing of art, architecture and classical learning that soon spread across Europe. To some this marks a potential end of the medieval era and the beginning of the Early Modern Era but given how important the Renaissance was why did it specifically begin in Italy? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.

Germany demanded numerous territorial concessions from basically everyone in the lead up to World War 2. Everyone gave them exactly what they wanted until Poland who said no to the return of Danzig and some territory called the 'Polish Corridor'. So given that everyone had caved in to Germany's demands up until this point, why was that Poland was the first to refuse?