If only the real thing had only taken 5m55s.

July 28, 2014 3:25 PM

A day-by-day map of World War I.

Legend:

Maroon = Central Powers and annexed lands.
Burgundy = Areas militarily occupied by the Central Powers.
Red = Central Power puppet or client states.
Brown = Central Powers in an armistice.
Pink = Central Power gains for that day.
Dark blue = Allied powers
Blue = Central Powered lands militarily occupied by the Allies.
Blue-grey = Allied powers in an armistice.
Light blue = Allied gains for that day.

posted by absalom (16 comments total)

I wonder if in 100 years, we will see the war in Iraq in visualizations like this, with a finer level of local detail.
posted by oceanjesse at 3:36 PM on July 28, 2014

His channel is full of animated maps. It's his thing.
posted by absalom at 3:37 PM on July 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

I find it highly ironic that Russia was a ally in WWI and WWII, but then came the cold war, and now modern day.
The soundtrack reminded me of something out of a Total War Game, and the graphics reminded me of Burning Sand.
posted by QueerAngel28 at 3:46 PM on July 28, 2014

Drives home how static the war was in many ways. Moments of gains at this scale only occurring rarely and when powers surrendered, etc
posted by drewbage1847 at 3:49 PM on July 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

I find it highly ironic that Russia was a ally in WWI and WWII,

Russia was also an axis in WWII. The ironic part is that the world knew full well that the two were in cahoots, but that that England, although willing to declare war on Germany for invading Poland, was silent on Russia's role. Practicalities, of course - hard enough to fight Germany alone, never mind Russia - but really, how humiliating to have to gang up with that repulsive gangster.
posted by IndigoJones at 4:10 PM on July 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

I can sort of see why Germans felt they must have been backstabbed. They were doing so well! Until they surrendered.
posted by musofire at 4:23 PM on July 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

I'm glad he included the all too often neglected Russian front.
posted by doctornemo at 4:36 PM on July 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'm glad he included the all too often neglected Russian front.

And the colonial fronts as well.

It's funny, drewbage, I was struck by the opposite. Sure, the Western Front was static after the Schlieffen Plan ran out of gas, but it really drove home to me how dynamic all of the other theaters of conflict were, despite our collective narrative of the trenches. I was most surprised by how long the colonial holdings held out: I'd always sort of assumed they just folded up pretty rapidly.
posted by absalom at 5:04 PM on July 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

There is a lot of speculation that the second atomic bomb was a message directed towards the Russians.
posted by edgeways at 5:52 PM on July 28, 2014

Russia was also an axis in WWII.

The Allies also sent plenty of troops to fight against the Reds in the Russian Civil War.
posted by kirkaracha at 5:55 PM on July 28, 2014

If only the real thing had only taken 5m55s.

Maybe World War III will.
posted by aws17576 at 6:15 PM on July 28, 2014 [4 favorites]

I was most surprised by how long the colonial holdings held out: I'd always sort of assumed they just folded up pretty rapidly.


Well, that and the Balkan/Black Sea theatres, where you really see the effects of first the Bulgarian, and then the Italian entries into the war. And later, of course, when the Middle Eastern front really opens up. The African theatre is also interesting- people describe the current conflict in Congo/Rwanda as "Africa's World War I", but during World War I, over 200,000 African soldiers and bearers died in East Africa alone during the 1916 pursuit of von Lettow-Vorbeck.

It's when you take these campaigns of movement in Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia, which led the Central Powers (particularly Germany) to overextend themselves; and add them to the static meat grinder of the Western Front, which continued to turn out extraordinarily high casualty numbers for very little ground (not to mention the effects of the blockade of German ports), then you start to see the reason for what would otherwise appear to be a sudden and rapid collapse following the 1918 summer offensive.

Of course, with the Allied invasion of Russia, the civil war, the Polish-Soviet war, the activity of the Freikorps around the Baltic; not to mention the various efforts of Serbia, Poland, Romania and even Bulgaria to grab as much former Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian and Russian territory; as well as the efforts to establish the European mandates in the Middle East; and the Turkish fights against the Armenians and Greeks; it could be argued that World War I didn't really end until about 1923 or so.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:28 PM on July 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

Oh, I forgot about the Italians trying to grab significant portions of the Dalmatian coast and Albania.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 7:53 PM on July 28, 2014

I would have liked to see more detail on the Russian Revolutionary factions. Watching the greens and whites and blacks and reds swirl would be fascinating. I don't know what colour you'd paint the Czech Legion but for a while they controlled most of Siberia.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 1:40 AM on July 29, 2014

And the colonial fronts as well.

My geography-geek cred is slipping here: what's the bottom-left inset a map of? In other words, the colonial fronts shown are (modern) Cameroon, Tanzania, Namibia, New Guinea, and ... ?
posted by Johnny Assay at 5:40 AM on July 29, 2014

I believe it is the Japanese presence in Shandong.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 7:38 AM on July 29, 2014