Crash Course
The Protestant Reformation: Crash Course European History
You may have noticed that the internet is terrible at religious discourse. Well, this is not a new phenomenon. In the early 16th century, the Roman Catholic church dominated Christianity in Europe, and the institution was starting to...
Curated Video
The Columbian Exchange: Crash Course World History
In which John Green teaches you about the changes wrought by contact between the Old World and the New. John does this by exploring the totally awesome history book "The Columbian Exchange" by Alfred Cosby, Jr. After Columbus...
Curated Video
USA vs USSR Fight! The Cold War: Crash Course World History
In which John Green teaches you about the Cold War, which was occasionally hot, but on average, it was just cool. In the sense of its temperature. It was by no means cool, man. After World War II, there were basically two big...
Curated Video
Who Started World War I: Crash Course World History 210
In which John Green teaches you WHY World War I started. Or tries to anyway. With this kind of thing, it's kind of hard to assign blame to any one of the nations involved. Did the fault lie with Austria-Hungary? Germany? Russia? Julius...
Crash Course
Post-World War I Recovery: Crash Course European History
In which John Green looks at Europe's attempts to recover from the devastation of World War I and forge a lasting peace. The peace did not last. Today we're talking about the economic cultural recovery of the 1920s, and the economic...
Crash Course
Witchcraft: Crash Course European History
During our last several episodes, Europe and the European-controlled world have been in crisis. Wars, disease, climate changes, and shifts in religious and political power threw the European world into turmoil. People were looking for a...
Crash Course
World War II Civilians and Soldiers: Crash Course European History
Our look at World War II continues with a closer examination of just how the war impacted soldiers in the field, and the people at home. For many of the combatants, the homefront and the warfront were one and the same. The war disrupted...
Crash Course
The Congress of Vienna: Crash Course European History
The end of the Napoleonic Wars left the great powers of Europe shaken. Judging from the destruction that had been wrought across the continent, it seemed to the powers that be that the Enlightenment had liberated the people, and led to...
Curated Video
Columbus, de Gama, and Zheng He! 15th Century Mariners. Crash Course: World History
In which John Green teaches you about the beginning of the so-called Age of Discovery. You've probably heard of Christopher Columbus, who "discovered" America in 1492, but what about Vasco da Gama? How about Zheng He? Columbus gets a bad...
Crash Course
War and Civilization: Crash Course World History 205
In which John Green investigates war, and what exactly it may or may not be good for. Was war a result of human beings organizing into larger and more complex agricultural social orders, or did war maybe create agriculture and...
Crash Course
Florence and the Renaissance: Crash Course European History
The Renaissance was a cultural revitalization that spread across Europe, and had repercussions across the globe, but one smallish city-state in Italy was in many ways the epicenter of the thing. Florence, or as Italians might say,...
Crash Course
Fall of The Roman Empire...in the 15th Century Crash Course World History
In which John Green teaches you about the fall of the Roman Empire, which happened considerably later than you may have been told. While the Western Roman Empire fell to barbarians in 476 CE, the Byzantines in Constantinople continued...
Crash Course
Migrations and Intensification Crash Course Big History 7
In which Hank and John Green teach you about humanity conquering the Earth. Or at least moving from Africa into the rest of the Earth. As human beings spread out across the world and populations grew, humanity reached a critical mass of...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: History through the eyes of the potato - Leo Bear-McGuinness
Baked or fried, boiled or roasted, as chips or fries; at some point in your life you've probably eaten a potato. But potatoes have played a much more significant role in our history than just that of the dietary staple we have come to...
Crash Course
Globalization II - Good or Bad Crash Course World History
In which John asks whether globalization is a net positive for humanity. While the new global economy has created a lot of wealth, and lifted a lot of people out of poverty, it also has some effects that aren't so hot. Wealth disparity,...
Crash Course
The Roads to World War I: Crash Course European History
Much has been written about what exactly caused World War I. As befits a true global war, the reality is that there isn't a single cause. There aren't even three causes. There are a vast array of causes. Today we'll get into just a few...
Crash Course
Democracy, Authoritarian Capitalism, and China: Crash Course World History 230
In which John Green teaches you about the end of World History, and the end of the world as we know it, kind of. For the last hundred years or so, it seemed that one important ingredient for running an economically successful country was...
Crash Course
Catholic Counter-Reformation: Crash Course European History
When the Protestant Reformation broke out in Western Europe, the Catholic Church got the message, at least a little bit. Pope Paul III called a council to look into reforming some aspects of the Catholic Church and try to stem the tide...
Crash Course
The Industrial Revolution: Crash Course European History
We've talked about a lot of revolutions in 19th Century Europe, and today we're moving on to a less warlike revolution, the Industrial Revolution. You'll learn about the development of steam power and mechanization, and the labor and...
Crash Course
Italian and German Unification: Crash Course European History
So, we haven't talked much about Italy and Germany so far in Crash Course Euro, and that's because prior to the mid-19th century, those two nation-states weren't really a thing. Today we'll look at how Italy and Germany pulled it...
Curated Video
Coal, Steam, and The Industrial Revolution: Crash Course World History
In which John Green wraps up revolutions month with what is arguably the most revolutionary of modern revolutions, the Industrial Revolution. While very few leaders were beheaded in the course of this one, it changed the lives of more...
Crash Course
Alexander the Great and the Situation ... the Great Crash Course World History
In which you are introduced to the life and accomplishments of Alexander the Great, his empire, his horse Bucephalus, the empires that came after him, and the idea of Greatness. Is greatness a question of accomplishment, of impact, or...
Crash Course
Revolutions in Science and Tech: Crash Course European History
In the decades following World War II, life changed in many ways, and a fair number of those changes were for the better. Many of those improvements were driven by advances in science and technology, in fields like biology,...
Crash Course
The Vikings! - Crash Course World History 224
In which John Green teaches you about Vikings! That's right, one of our most requested subjects, the Vikings, right here on Crash Course. So what's the deal with Vikings? Well, the stuff you've heard about them may not be true. The...