CrashCourse History: The Cold War

In which John Green teaches you about the Cold War, which was occasionally hot, but on average, it was cool. In the sense of its temperature. It was by no means cool, man. After World War II, there were basically two big geopolitical powers left to divide up the world. And divide they did. The United States and the Soviet Union divvied up Europe in the aftermath of the war, and then proceeded to spend the next 45 years fighting over the rest of the world

CrashCourse History: Russia, the Kievan Rus and the Mongols

The study of Russia in most history courses inevitably focuses on the events of the 20th century. But how did the nation-state known as Russia form? This video hopes to explain that question.

CrashCourse History: Capitalism and Socialism

The Cold War was defined by its conflict between the 'Capitalist' West, led by the USA, and the 'Communist' East led by the USSR. By what is capitalism and how did it lead to socialism and communism? This video attempts to explain these developments.

CrashCourse History: Decolonisation

In which John Green teaches you about the post-World War II breakup of most of the European empires. As you'll remember from previous installments of Crash Course, Europeans spent several centuries sailing around the world creating empires, despite the fact that most of the places they conquered were perfectly happy to carry on alone. After World War II, most of these empires collapsed.