The Fall of the Monarchies

Between 1905 and 1922, five of the world's most powerful monarchies--the Habsburgs of Austria-Hungary, the Hohenzollerns of Germany, the Romanovs of Russia, the Osmanlis of the Ottoman Empire, and the Aisin-Gioros of China--were all brought down by a spectacular chain reaction of events that were unprecedented in an earlier age. This deep dive video tells the story of how these five dynasties, who at the beginning of the 20th century controlled the fates of a third of the world's population, lost their power through the series of wars and revolutions that marked one of the most chaotic periods in human history, which included World War I, the Chinese and Russian Revolutions and much more. There is a companion video to this one, specifically dealing with the July Crisis that began World War I: Sources for this video include Edmond Taylor The Fall of the Dynasties: The Collapse of the Old Order, 1905-1922 (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1963); Barbara Tuchman, Th