March 25, 2025 • 37 mins
War has always been a chaotic, messy endeavor -- and, sometimes, it's downright ridiculous. In this week's special two-part series, the guys welcome returning special guest Ben Thompson, creator of Badass of the Week, to learn more about the bizarre turn of events that led to the Battle of Karánsebes. In part one, Ben introduces the gang to the legendary 'enlightened despot,' Joseph II, a guy who, diplomatically put, took self-confidence to a whole new (and possibly undeserved) level.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome back to the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as
always so much for tuning in. Let's hear it for
the man, the myth, the legend of Friendly Fire. Our
super producer, mister Max Williams.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Hello, Max Williams.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yes, Max Williams. Now, who are those dulcet tones? We
may be asking ourselves. It's none other than Noel.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Brown and Ben Balen. That's you.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
You two have dulcet tones, and together we make we
should start a like a like a like a kind
of a do wop band called the Dulcet Tones.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
There we go, There we go. We could do boys
to men? Is that a name that's already a thing?
Speaker 4 (01:03):
ACBBD, BVD or BBD.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
I've never fully understood.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I love it, man, I would love it. We actually, uh,
in the past, have hung out outside of our our
daily remit.
Speaker 5 (01:17):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
No, we are, as you know, fans of Ridiculous History.
We are especially fans of bad asses. This is a
pretty blatant segue, because, oh, friends and neighbors, we are
(01:39):
joined with a guy. Now, I know I sound biased
because his name is also Bet, but you're you remember
a little while back we talked with the guy who
created the concept of a Badass of the week. That's right, folks,
we are joined today with none other than the creator
of Badass of the Week, an ongoing exploration of history
(02:05):
that is ridiculous in the most amazing way. Please join
us in welcoming the one and only Ben Thompson.
Speaker 6 (02:17):
Hello, thank you guys for having me on the show.
I regret to inform you that I do not have
dulcet tones and I am not appearing with a badass today.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
You're the only badass we need, and don't sell your
tones short, buddy, there are plenty dulls.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
No, you're in the band, for sure. You're you're in
the band.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
Okay, all right, I'll take it. I'm not gonna say no.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
You know, what's your voice? What's your vocal register? Are
you like a baritone tenor?
Speaker 5 (02:45):
I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 6 (02:46):
I have I'm at the level where I have a
list of songs on my telephone that I cannot stray
from if I put my name in for karaoke. Yeah,
I generally stick to like cake and the violent fems
and bands that don't involve singing just speak the words,
you know, that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I respect that, but yeah, yeah.
Speaker 6 (03:08):
I have this list and it's like, these are the
ones that I know, because you know, there's nothing worse
with karaoke than getting up there and the music starts
and you do the first line of the song. You're like, uh, oh,
not only do what? Can I not sing this? But
I don't know all the words to it? And it's
super long.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
You know.
Speaker 6 (03:26):
You get up there, like everybody will sing along and
you start and you're like, I can't do this.
Speaker 5 (03:30):
Nobody's singing along. You're like, I just want to die.
I just want to put the.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Mic a rookie mistake, Bohemian Rhapsody. Never It's almost as
bad as doing like Stairway to Heaven. But I do
have to say the most important thing when it comes
to karaoke and history is going the distance.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
Yes, yes, you can make up for a lot of
lack of talent with effort.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Oh my gosh, I'm feeling very cold out now. But
uh but speaking of talent, speaking of effort and acumen, Ben,
congratulations on one hundred episodes of.
Speaker 6 (04:03):
Badassk Yeah recently, So that's awesome, you know, the website
started in four so the website can drink.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
Now, that's how old that is.
Speaker 6 (04:15):
And now the podcast at one hundred episodes, so you
know that's you know, the good news is it's hard
to run out of badasses to talk about in history,
which I love really fun. You know, every time I
do an episode, every week, I do one episode, but
I get like five recommendations for somebody I haven't written
(04:35):
about before. So the list continues to get bigger.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
And yet you say, you come to us today, badass free.
What's that about? Explain yourself, sir.
Speaker 6 (04:44):
So Badass of the Week comes out on Tuesdays, and
I'm gonna, you know, double post this on my feed,
this episode on my feed. But for me, this episode
will be released on April Fool's Day, so I always,
you know, it's rare. I used to update the website
on Fridays. The podcast comes out on Tuesdays, but whenever,
like the exact day lands on April Fools, I like
to try to do something fun. So today, rather than
(05:06):
talk about a badass, I want to talk about the
dumbest battle in history as far as I'm.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Consuming, which is you know, that's a that's a that's
a competitive list.
Speaker 6 (05:19):
It's a competitive list, and you would think it would
be really difficult to pick the dumbest battle in history.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
You know, I'm in I'm in Washington State. We had
a pig war here where we.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Know what the pig war. We did the pig war,
didn't we, Ben? We did the pig war.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
We had to. There was a war uh entirely based
on a guy losing an ear.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
Uh yeah jenkins ear.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Yes, yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
They put it in the name, something about throwing potatoes
from a submarine. I seem to remember that one. I
do have to say, though, Ben, I hope that the
the ridiculousness of this battle really makes up for a
mega dry episode on the Russo Japanese War that we
did recently.
Speaker 5 (05:58):
Russo Japanese War is pretty bad ass. Like Admiral Telle Yes,
nuts like that. That Battle of Tsushima is insane.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
So Ben set the scene for us first off. Also,
clearly I'm biased because I love other people named Ben.
I'm sorry. I don't want to make it weird, but
I do want to be Trys.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
You're making it a little weird.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Honestly, I'm going for you guys collectively as the Benz.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
All right, the Benz. Yeah yeah, yeah, so sounds dangerous.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Baby's got the Benz.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
So let's cast our memories back to first off, start
this way, Ben Noel, Max Fellow, ridiculous historians have yet
ever traveled to Austria.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
When I was a young German boy, I most likely
set foot in Austria, but not since then, No, I
don't believe.
Speaker 5 (06:50):
So.
Speaker 6 (06:50):
I was in exchange student to Germany in nineteen ninety
six and we drove down to Bavaria. We crossed over
to Saltzburg and I went to the castle there. I
saw Mozart was born, and I climbed up to the
top of the castle there. That was pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Did you see where Arnold Schwarzenegger was born?
Speaker 5 (07:06):
I did it.
Speaker 6 (07:07):
But I learned something interesting about Arnold recently that made
me laugh. Apparently this is going to be one of
I'm sure many segues that I'm gonna are gonna I
learned about Arnold recently that he wanted to when the
Terminator came out. He wanted to do the German dub
of the Terminator because he speaks German and it's going
(07:28):
to be released in Germany. But apparently he is from
some mountain town in Austria, and he has some like
super rednecky German accent, And so they were like, no,
nobody will believe that the sophisticated cyborg killing machine from
the future talks like a hillbilly. So we're gonna with
somebody else with a much more like appropriate German accent.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Oh wow, all right, I love it. And it goes
to show that even the most modern badass has a
couple things that stay with them.
Speaker 5 (08:01):
Yes, you know, nothing's perfect, right, nobody's perfect.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Nothing's perfect right, And even the most sophisticated militaries can
sometimes step on their own.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Toes, foisted on their own petard.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
So take us, like, we're not just spinning our wheels here, right,
We're not just uh, we're not just flexing our leader
hosen or what have you. You do.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
They are a little tighter, Well, they have like suspender
esque Well, when you do those oompa dance moves, you
gotta have they gotta have a little give to it,
or you might, you know, rip the back out, you.
Speaker 6 (08:35):
Know, Yeah, yeah, that'd be dangerous. That's worse than trying
to do Bohemian rapsy to karaoke. Blowing out your leader.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
By the way, guys, uh umpa version of Bohemian Rhapsody,
just saying, just putting that out there.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
The world needs this, so sorry, carry on.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Please, let's call let's call weird al on this, Let's
get top men.
Speaker 5 (08:55):
I'm sure it might. Maybe it's been done. I don't know.
I feel like there's so many verse sets.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
A version of everything. Yeah, so that's sort of the
whole deal.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
I love that. I love that there's a new version
of everything. Uh Ben, tell us what friendly fire is?
Speaker 6 (09:09):
Okay, friendly fire is when you shoot your own guys
by accident. They call it friendly fire. It's not that friendly.
It's when you accidentally shoot your own guys on your
own on the same side as you go.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
It is, you know, and in like certain shooter games,
if I'm not mistaken, there's like a difficulty level I
think where you can friendly fire is a thing you can't. Actually,
there are certain games where you can kill your own team.
Speaker 6 (09:31):
Yeah, you'll get banned from from team killing in some games.
And yeah, like it's a it's a thing, and like
you know.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
A bit of an own goal as they say, yeah, sport.
Speaker 6 (09:40):
Yes, And so when we are going to talk about
the Battle of karen Sevi's here. It's referred to as
a battle, but it's such a friendly fire incident that
sometimes it's referred to as just that, a friendly fire
incident and not a battle. But I always have seen
it written as the Battle of karen Sevies, and I
think it is the stupidest battle in history. So we're
(10:00):
going to talk about it and the battle here. We're
in a time period that can sometimes be a bit
of a of a black hole, even for like historians.
We are in the seventeen hundreds in Eastern Europe, which
is the time in which everything is fluid, and you
have this kind of the height of the Habsburg Empire,
(10:21):
the Holy Roman Empire, and there's a lot of weird
politics that.
Speaker 5 (10:25):
Happened at this time period.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
I'm gonna and the Ottomans are still in play, right.
Speaker 5 (10:29):
Yes, the Ottomans are still in play.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
And so before they thought they were thought of as.
Speaker 6 (10:34):
Furniture, right yes, yes, back when they were still the
Ottomans and they were not Trichia yet they were the
Ottoman Empire.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
They're around what's what's an Ottoman? That's the thing you
put your feet on, right, yes, that's not cool. You
don't want to be remembered for that bit of a
dormat kind of situation.
Speaker 5 (10:49):
They invented it. I think.
Speaker 6 (10:50):
I think it gets its name because it was a
thing that they were using, and I think it was like,
I think it was fancy, like when they first sat.
Speaker 5 (10:55):
Oh, this is exactly that they do. What the Ottoman
sultans do.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
It was like the.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Stool boom and Blaine, Indiana from waiting for Gufman. You know,
it's like a whole uh An industry that just sprang
up over this one esoteric piece of furniture.
Speaker 6 (11:08):
Yeah, the sultan started by making his servants get down
on all fours. We could put her feet on their backs.
And then they're like, what if it were built a
piece of.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Wood, we had a non human equivalent. Okay, okay, I'm listening.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
All right, So the Ottoman Empire very much in play.
Speaker 6 (11:28):
Yes, they're in place. So let's start in the Holy
Roman Empire in seventeen forty one with the birth of
the future Holy Roman Emperor Joseph the Second, so Holy
Roman Empire. This is the Austro Hungarian Empire. You'll see
it sometimes referred to we are in Austria. Joseph's mother
(11:49):
is the Empress Maria Theresa, and Maria Theresa's badass. We're
gonna have some badass women that make ancillary appearances in
this story. But Marie Theresa, I could talk about her
at length, I'm not going to, but she's pretty badass.
She takes over the throne of the Holy Roman Empire.
She's attacked by Frederick the Great and several other armies.
You have this European World War that one of these
(12:11):
one of the many European World Wars that were happening
around this time, and she is able to hang on
to power in the War of Austrian Succession. She builds
up Austria Hungary, makes it pretty dominant regional power, and
then when Frederick the Great comes back in the Seven
Years War, she fights them off much better. Seven Years
War is another big world war. France gets involved England.
(12:34):
In the US, we call it the War the French
and Indian War because we were in England and France
were at war and they're fighting over Louisiana the wars.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
And we're a little self centered.
Speaker 6 (12:43):
Sure, of course, yeah, Well, we were only fighting the
French and the Indians. We weren't fighting the Austrians and
the Russians, but they were fighting each other in Crimea
and in India and whatever. So anyway, though Maria Trece
is she's a tough lady and she has this son, Joseph.
He is born in seventeen forty one and he is
(13:04):
officially co ruler, but that just means that he he
just signs the documents that Maritsteresa puts in front of him.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Okay, okay, king of paperwork.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Yes, like the equivalent of the auto pen that's been
much to do has been made about in the news.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
I don't know the story.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
You don't know what the autopen.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
It's like a thing apparently it's been used for you know,
many many presidencies where it's like it's a literal mechanical
device that recreates.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
A signature on multiple documents at once. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
I didn't know about it either until it's been kind
of in the news, but it is something. Actually we
should probably do an episode on the history of the
autopen because it was very much like an invention that
was created to you know, serve a need.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Like I think back in Length of the sixties.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
I'm writing it down with a regular pen, with a
regular pen, yeah for sure. All right, so we got
this emperor of Emperor of paperwork in action, even though
a co ruler in sort of theory.
Speaker 6 (14:03):
Yes, So I'm seventeen sixty three, the Seven Years War ends,
he's twenty two years old. He is getting a little
bit more power, and then when his mother passes away
two years later, he becomes the ruler of the Holy
Roman Empire. Okay, So Joseph the Second he's an interesting guy.
He he referred to himself as an enlightened despot, which
(14:26):
sounds yes, okay, I remember.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Did he coin that?
Speaker 4 (14:30):
I feel like I've used I've heard that used to
describe other people in it.
Speaker 6 (14:33):
You know, I'm not sure whether he invented that or not.
Knowing what I know about this guy, probably not. He
probably heard the term and liked it and applied it
to himself.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
He said, also me, Yeah, that's what I definitely that
like someone reposting a meme on Reddit. All right, so
he's got this big Victor von Doom energy.
Speaker 6 (14:51):
Yeah, so he's an enlightened despot, which it sounds bad,
but it's okay. So basically, the enlightenment is cool. Freethinking
is cool. Human rights are cool. Except for all that
anti king talk. King is still we still have to
do the aristocracy thing. But freedom of expression, as long
as you like me, you can be you can have
freedom of expression as long as you dont say anything
(15:12):
against me. And he starts bringing in scholars, scientists, He
builds universities, hospitals. He reforms the civil law to make
it a little bit less repressive. He abolishes slavery and
serfdom in the Austro Hungarian Empire.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
The Holy Roman Empiers sound like great.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Also super forward thinking, yes, contrast of places like the
Ottoman Empire, which was super down.
Speaker 5 (15:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Yes.
Speaker 6 (15:40):
He passes religious equality law and even includes the Jews
and Muslims in it.
Speaker 5 (15:45):
They're allowed. You're allowed to be Jewish and Muslim in
the Holy Roman Empire.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Wow.
Speaker 6 (15:50):
He's a patron of the arts and music. Mozart and
Beethoven like come to his court. He actually had hires
Mozart to be his chamber composer, which had been like
a vacant spot for a long time. And he's like, oh, Mozart,
come on, you can be my chamber of courser I'll
pay you to make music for my parades, and so
Mozart hated this. He would have to make make these
like little marches for him to appear at the at
(16:10):
these events, but it was a paycheck and he had
to get paid, right, and so okay, all this is great,
except he is the Holy Roman Empire, and the Pope
doesn't like a lot of this stuff that's happening. Isn't
really down with all of this stuff in seventeen forty one,
and he's got a lot of Catholic subjects. So there's
a little bit of argument among his people as to
(16:31):
whether these reforms are good or bad. We see this
from time to time that countries can't agree on the
direction the country should be taking. Sure, okay, so all
that's going okay at home, but he's decided at some point,
like he's built up his kingdom, he's got this enlightened
(16:51):
despot thing going on, but he wants to kind of
get involved with foreign policy. And so his first attempt
at that is we were talking about funny wars is
the Kettle War of seventeen eighty four. And I'm mentioning
this only because it's weird.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
No, my imagination is already running wild what could the
Kettle War have been all about?
Speaker 6 (17:09):
So one of these Catholic groups in the Holy Roman
Empire that don't like his reforms are what's referred to
at the time as the Austrian Netherlands, but today it's
basically Belgium more or less equates to Belgium like the
Low Country. Yeah, yeah, the Austrian Netherlands sounds like somewhere
that Sauron would live though, you know what I mean. Oh,
(17:34):
he is from the Austrian Netherlands, the nether realm of Austria,
and so he anyway, so he.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Is another realm of Mortal Kombat thing I think it is.
It's the name of the company, the Menzels, so I
think maybe it's outworld, but they do refer to the
nether Realms.
Speaker 6 (17:51):
There are definitely nether Realms in various peaces of fantasy
and sids.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Fiction, dungeons and dragons, and also, you know, just for
all our lists from the Netherlands. It's a weird name
in English, just.
Speaker 6 (18:05):
Weird that it's the Netherlands, but it's also Holland and
you're the Dutch. That's weird, right. Also your national colors orange.
But it doesn't appear on your flag. That's weird too.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
That's also weird. Also while we're in that area of
the world, just going to walk down the street for
this one, Thank you Denmark for Legos. That was tight,
good move.
Speaker 5 (18:26):
No, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
Then you say something about like there's more Lego pieces
now in existence than some other things.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
There are a lot of There.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Are more Lego mini figures or minifigs for fellow nerds
than there are human beings alive.
Speaker 5 (18:42):
What is that true?
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Yeah, yes, that is true. It's like podcasts true, but
it is true. Sam Ben weird derailing you?
Speaker 5 (18:52):
No, No, I'm derailing myself.
Speaker 6 (18:53):
I'm talking about the seventeen eighty four Kettle War when
we're supposed to talking about the nineteen seventeen.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Let's let's spin it out though. What's the what's the
It helps.
Speaker 6 (19:03):
To know the background on Joseph the Second is going
to help to understand what happens at Karen Sevi's So okay,
So Joseph the Second he wants to at home, things
are going okay. All of the people in the cities
are down with his stuff. A lot of the people
who are a little bit less enlightened, affected by the Enlightenment.
They're not down with what he's doing. So there's there's
(19:24):
division within the Austro Hungarian Empire, and one of the
regions that is divided is this Austrian Netherlands, which, like
I said, is basically Belgium. The Austrian Netherlands borders actual Netherlands,
which is Protestant at the time, and they are they
get grumpy and they they blockade the Belgian ports to
(19:46):
deny Joseph and his ship's access to the North Sea.
So he says, okay, I'm gonna send I'm gonna declare
war if you don't release this blockade. So he sends
three warships to threaten the block and these three warships
go out, one Dutch warship approaches them. And you know,
(20:06):
one thing about the Dutch at this time is they're awesome.
Their navy's awesome, right, and the Austro Hungarian Empire is
not known for having an awesome navy. But the Dutch
navy is very experienced and they're very powerful at this
time period. And the Dutch navy and the sailors, you know,
they didn't have a lot of guys and a lot
of ships but what they had was a very high
quality anyway. So there's one Dutch ship sails out to
these three Austro Hungarian ships, and the Austro Hungarians are like,
(20:30):
if you don't release the blockade, will fire on you
and declare war, and the Dutch shoot at them. They
shoot one shot, one warning shot that flies over and
hits a tea kettle on one of the Austro Hungarian ships.
This is the story, is that they fire one shot
(20:52):
and it knocks the tea kettle off of the Austro
Hungarian ship. It's the flagship. It's carrying Joseph's flag, and
it immediately surrenders.
Speaker 5 (21:12):
A peace treaty is then signed. Shortly thereafter. The war
lasted for one gunshot.
Speaker 6 (21:20):
Wow, Postro Hungarian flagship says, stop the blockade, the shooting
this tea kettle, and I like to picture that like
they were aiming for it. You know, it might have
been an accident, but I was just like like some
sniper around, you know, the teakett accountants like, actually, never mind,
I surrender.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
That's amazing marchmanship, you know. At that point, I love
the idea too, in sort of the the badass ridiculous
history cinematic universe. I love the idea of you know,
an officer class type dude lifting up you know, the
kettle or something. Yeah, they getting the shot through it
(21:57):
and then say no, this is not cool. Other stuff
to do.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
I want to have my tea.
Speaker 6 (22:03):
Yeah, seeing some like fast cuts of like a like
a Kay Richie kind of thing of like.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Yeah, very looney tuns.
Speaker 6 (22:13):
Yes, And so they surrender. They sign a peace treaty
that doesn't work out too well. The Austrian Netherlands is
still upset because they don't like that the Pope is
disagreeing with the emperor, and so Joseph the second is
part of that peace treaty, is like, hey, how about this,
you guys. The Dutch are holding Bavaria, which is in
southern Germany and borders Austria, and I'm holding the Austrian Netherlands,
(22:34):
which is Belgium in borders. Like we have these disconnected empires, right,
And he's like, how about I trade you the Austrian
Netherlands for Bavaria.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Seems fair?
Speaker 5 (22:43):
Yeah, And the Dutch You're like, no, that's weird. Why
would we super odd?
Speaker 6 (22:48):
And everybody at the time writing about it is like,
it's it's super weird that he offered to just trade
regions with people with the dunge.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
They said, no, we have to be clear, just just
to get it out there been Uh, this is not
a period in history where in the public, the people
who lived in those areas would get a survey or
a poll. No, no, okay.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
No, these are this is the business of Kings.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
There we go. That's what Nola and I refer to
it as. Whenever we're making up reasons to hang outside
of work and we don't want to explain ourselves. You know,
my girlfriend's like, where are you guys going, I always say,
it's the business of Kings business strategized.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
We got to have a rap sessh to figure out
our plan for world domination.
Speaker 6 (23:37):
Yeah, like our king stuff business of Kings. Save the receipts,
write them off on your taxes.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
King moves, King moves hashtag. But so okay, So this
is not just a weird flex for the people the
common in the region. This is a weird flex for
all international observers.
Speaker 6 (23:57):
Yes, everybody thinks it's weird that he made this offer
because gets out or it gets out that he offered
this trade and it's weird. So okay, foreign policy is
not going well for him. He travels around, he goes
to he goes to Paris and Rome in Moscow and
he tries to make nice with the Pope. It doesn't
work out, Okay, So he's Holland doesn't like him. He
(24:20):
borders Prussia and they've just had these two big wars
with Prussia. Frederick the greats there. They had the War
of Uster in succession, they had the Seven Years War.
Prussia is powerful. Prussia is like basically like the heart
of present day Germany. They're tough guys, they're great, great soldiers,
and their share of border and they want to take
some land from Austria. So he's got that problem too. Okay,
(24:40):
So you know what he wants to Joseph the Second
wants to be remembered as this great ruler and yes,
I've made these great changes at home, but I need
to do some big foreign policy thing in order to
be remembered as this great military mind and diplomat and
the greatest king ever.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Okay, my legacy. Yes he's thinking about.
Speaker 6 (24:57):
Yes, he's he's inheriting from his mother, who was a
very powerful and very well respected woman in Europe, and
he wants he's got big shoes to fill, and he
wants to do some great things to be remembered. Okay,
so Holland and Pussa aren't working out, so he makes
it an alliance with Russia, who had been Austria's friend
(25:17):
during the Seven Years War. And Russia at the time
is ruled by Catherine the Great, who is the second
of the powerful, badass women that we were going to
talk about in the episode today. She is super tough
Lady Catherine the Great is extremely tough, and she was
born in Germany. She probably reminds him of his mom, honestly,
(25:38):
if I had to guess, But she is like she's
meeting allies because, like you said, the Ottoman Empire borders
him to the east and they border Russia, and Russia
wants those warm water ports in Crimea and the Mediterranean
and the Black Sea, and so they want to go
to war with the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire at
(25:59):
this time spans most of the Islamic world, huge amount
of land, huge number of people. But by this point
seventeen forties, you know, it's they've got the Sultans they've
got they've got money, they've got troops, but there's this
the feeling that things are maybe starting to crumble a
little bit and maybe there's some weakness there.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
They're getting some they're getting they're losing some technological progress.
Speaker 6 (26:24):
Yes, yes, the Enlightenment is coming and they there's yeah,
there's a lot of technological development happening in Europe that
isn't being shared, Like military technology is happening in Europe
that is not being shared with the Turks. And so
they're starting to feel like maybe we can take some
land from these guys. Catherine R Great has built up
Russia to this very powerful military, and she wants to
(26:48):
she wants to take lands from the Ottomans and so,
and this whole time period is all very like I
always think of like siev Tu or something, you know,
like we just make life.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
I gotta take just came up on our recent conversation.
Speaker 5 (27:01):
Yeah, just like I think it's one town because it's
it's worth a lot of money. I went to city.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
For the record. I still haven't cracked it yet, yeah,
but it's on my list.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
You're gonna have a great time, though. Are you playing
Civilization seven yet? Ben?
Speaker 5 (27:15):
No, I haven't had a lot of time for games recently.
Speaker 6 (27:18):
It's one of those ones where like I, uh, you know,
if I I got to finish this project I'm working
on and then I can start a new game.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
But like if I.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Started the door, if you open the door.
Speaker 5 (27:29):
I get sucked in. I like it too much, you.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Know, I love I think what we're saying here is
we we love the comparison because there is a great
deal of geopolitical calculation here, right. Russia then, as now
honestly is eternally searching for a warm water porch. So
it makes sense that these rulers would be pushing on
(27:55):
the Ottomans if they can't.
Speaker 6 (27:56):
Yes, so great, this all works out great for Joseph.
He signs the peace treaty. He goes and visits Catherine
in Moscow. A couple of times they sign a peace
treaty or an alliance, and as part of that alliance,
Catherine takes the Crimea for Russia cough cough, and they
partitioned Poland up between the between Russia and Austrian Hungary.
(28:18):
Because that's what happens to Poland for the next couple
hundred years. In this time of time, Okay, that's great,
except and you know, the Turks are even better. It's
even better to be fighting the Turks than it is
to be fighting the Prussians and the Dutch, because the
Turks are Muslims and their enemies, and we're not fighting
other Christian kingdoms and causing problems with the Pope and
all of this stuff. So it's totally cool. Austrians have
(28:41):
been fighting the Turks since like the fifteen hundreds. You know,
uh Suliman the Magnificent besieged Vienna at one point in
the sixteen eighties, you know, so they're they're they're great enemies,
and it'll be awesome to have a war with them.
Speaker 5 (28:55):
It'll really be how Emperor.
Speaker 6 (28:56):
Joseph the Second is going to make his name as
a military genie. He is going to march east from
uh He's made his plan with Catherine. She's going to
march south from Russia. He's going to march east. At
this time, the Turks control most of Romania and you know,
the former Yugoslavia. They can control a lot of the Balkans,
(29:17):
and there are elements from the Balkans that are like
you've got a Serbian regiment in the Austro Hungarian Empire.
Speaker 5 (29:24):
That's like, hey, we'll we'll fight.
Speaker 6 (29:25):
Let's go get Belgrade back because Serbian people are there
and the Turks rule it and they're making them all
be Muslim and they're doing bad stuff. So like let's
let's free our homelands, and so great, this big army
is assembled. This call goes out and it's Austrians and
it's Hungarians, which do not share language, but they are
part of the same empire. You've got Germans from the
(29:46):
various German principalities that are part of the Austro Hungarian Empire.
Speaker 5 (29:49):
At this time.
Speaker 6 (29:50):
You've got Italians, like Northern Italy, there's some Northern Italy
happening in the Austro Hungarian Empire. And then you've got
these guys that are looking to reclaim their lands.
Speaker 5 (29:59):
You've got Romanians, You've got.
Speaker 6 (30:01):
Croats, Bosnians, and Serbians all working together, and so everybody
is kind of united.
Speaker 5 (30:09):
Under like let's get the Turks.
Speaker 6 (30:12):
Great, this seems good, all right, So they also you
kind of have to keep up appearances at this time period.
So the plan is that Russia and Austria will just
f with the Turks until they get mad and attack,
and then they can say, look, we were attacked, so
they do that.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
What's there provoked. Our fancy word for that is what
bellis causi or something like that.
Speaker 6 (30:38):
Yes, yes, so you and see if it's the equivalent
of like you open a you open diplomatic relations with
a foreign king and then you like demand three of
his cities for nothing, and then he gets mad and
Claire's war on you.
Speaker 5 (30:49):
That's basically what happens here.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
And you're like, whoa, these guys came to us.
Speaker 5 (30:53):
Yeah, I didn't do anything.
Speaker 6 (30:54):
They marched into Mayorland first. So the Turks attack the Russians,
and then Austria Hungary's allies with the Russians, so they
got to attack.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
That's why we call it Department of Defense exactly.
Speaker 5 (31:03):
We're under attack.
Speaker 6 (31:04):
Okay, So seventeen eighty seven war is declared between Austria
Hungary and Russia on one side and then the Turks
on the other side. Now Joseph has this big army
and he's about to march them out into battle with
the Turks. And the Turks they have a lot of guys,
you know, they have a big army. They're extremely powerful. Still,
so when he assembles this big army and marches them
(31:26):
to the border with the Turks, Frederick the Great marches
a huge army to his border on the western side
of Austria Hungary, and all of these Catholic people from
his kingdom that don't agree with him, they start getting
a little bit more organized in a rebellion or a
revolt type of situation, and they say, oh, Frederick, come
(31:47):
help us.
Speaker 5 (31:49):
And so now he's got a problem.
Speaker 6 (31:50):
March is a huge army to his border, and he's
got to go back and march them back to these
cities to put down these rebellions, or to at least
discourage these rebellions and discourage Frederick. So he doesn't actually
get marching until a couple months after he wanted to,
because he's got to go back and deal with the
Austrian Netherlands and the unrest and the Prussians, and the
Prussians keep talking to the Turks and they're like, maybe
we should be allies because I actually don't want Austria
(32:11):
Hungary to take them take your lands either, I like
for everyone.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Because we're an audio podcast, I want to point out, then, uh,
you you stroke your chin in the perfect way people
would conspire and then you know maybe these so there,
so we see this, we see internal descent, yes, right,
we see internal chaos. We see again the problem of
(32:38):
logistics because every I almost a monster. Every army marches
on its stomach. Right, So, yes, we're losing, uh, the
equivalent of millions of dollars losing time.
Speaker 5 (32:51):
We're losing the morale. You're losing people.
Speaker 6 (32:54):
You're losing people are deserting, right, and you have this
is all the kind of paint the picture of you
have this huge.
Speaker 5 (33:03):
Army that is not homogeneous.
Speaker 6 (33:05):
It is made up of all different people with all
different beliefs, who have different languages everything. We've got this
huge army. It's ready to fight the Turks. They're united
in that we're gonna fight the Turks, but they don't
agree with each other. And so in the context of
a friendly fire incident, that's an important piece to set up.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
I feel like, oh good call.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
Yeah, for sure, although it's like there's nothing like a
common animey to bring folks together, but in this case
it was. There were additional complications for sure.
Speaker 6 (33:30):
Yes, okay, So Joseph the second marches out and he
declares like I am a military genius.
Speaker 5 (33:36):
I am in charge of the army.
Speaker 6 (33:37):
I'm gonna ride out by myself, the enlightened, desperate at
the front of the group.
Speaker 5 (33:41):
Mozart, you're coming with me? No, not really.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
I love it when they ride out in the battle
like that, thinking they're truly like invincible. Like just those
moments of Hubris just always give me a little bit
of shine freud. There's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 5 (33:56):
You know.
Speaker 6 (33:57):
I was reading one account of it, though, and I
feel kind of like I was reading it and I
was like, yeah, and he wasn't a military genius, and
he wasn't this, and he was like old and blah
blah blah, and I was like, looked it up and
he was like forty seven. And as we were recording
for the day, as we're recording, today is the day
of the recording. Today's my forty fifth birthday. No way, really, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (34:20):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
But now you have never strolled out onto a theatre
of combat and, in a burst of humility, declared yourself
a military genius.
Speaker 6 (34:31):
I suppose that's true. It is a little old to
start your military career. I feel like age are like
generals and colonels and stuff.
Speaker 5 (34:41):
Look man retired, ye twenty years right.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
We practice we practice positive aggressive validation on this show.
Speaker 5 (34:52):
So, however, it would be weird if I was like,
I'm in charge of the army, now follow me. I'm
a little after that.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
I think we would have to have Yeah, yeah, we be,
we be hanging out. We would We might not be
on the front lines with you, Ben, but Max, Nole
and I would be, you know, on the scene subscribing.
Speaker 4 (35:16):
I'm always on the lookover someone to blindly follow into battle.
You know, it's just a bucket list item of mine.
So maybe you can make that happen.
Speaker 5 (35:23):
Well, let's see how that turns out.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Before that, let's get a parable and a precedent. Hold
the phone, or rather hold the hussar. This turned out
to be a ongoing series, a two part series. Nol.
I'm just having a great time. It's not just because
Ben is named Ben.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
That guy.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
This guy's amazing.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Yeah, I really love the Bens on this series. The
guys are killing.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Oh no, no, no, we're killing it as a group effort.
We've got the We've got the Noles, We've got the Maxes.
Speaking of well, please killing it.
Speaker 3 (35:57):
The term with no friendly fire here, y'all.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, Oh, We're I like that.
That's something we referenced on Daily's Eeitgeist earlier. We're exploring
it together and we couldn't do it without the help
of our amazing team, starting with our super producer mister
Max Williams.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
Ooh, Max Williams. Max voised it on his own Petard Williams.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Max the Hussah Williams shout out also to his biological
brother who is back in town, our bespoke composer Alex.
Speaker 4 (36:33):
Williams Bespoke Indeed Us thanks to Chris Frasciotis and He's
Jeff Coates here and Spira, Jonathan Strickland, The quiz Or A. J. Bahamas,
Jacob's The Puzzler and Ben Big Thanks to.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
You, man. I love I love hanging out with AJ
Bahamas and I love that We're never gonna explain that nickname.
Check out The Puzzler. Also check out our Rude Dudes
of Ridiculous Crime and Noel. Thanks to you. I can't
wait to hear part two.
Speaker 4 (36:57):
Yeah, let's see next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome back to the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as
always so much for tuning in. Let's hear it for
the man, the myth, the legend of Friendly Fire. Our
super producer, mister Max Williams.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Hello, Max Williams.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yes, Max Williams. Now, who are those dulcet tones? We
may be asking ourselves. It's none other than Noel.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Brown and Ben Balen. That's you.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
You two have dulcet tones, and together we make we
should start a like a like a like a kind
of a do wop band called the Dulcet Tones.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
There we go, There we go. We could do boys
to men? Is that a name that's already a thing?
Speaker 4 (01:03):
ACBBD, BVD or BBD.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
I've never fully understood.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I love it, man, I would love it. We actually, uh,
in the past, have hung out outside of our our
daily remit.
Speaker 5 (01:17):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
No, we are, as you know, fans of Ridiculous History.
We are especially fans of bad asses. This is a
pretty blatant segue, because, oh, friends and neighbors, we are
(01:39):
joined with a guy. Now, I know I sound biased
because his name is also Bet, but you're you remember
a little while back we talked with the guy who
created the concept of a Badass of the week. That's right, folks,
we are joined today with none other than the creator
of Badass of the Week, an ongoing exploration of history
(02:05):
that is ridiculous in the most amazing way. Please join
us in welcoming the one and only Ben Thompson.
Speaker 6 (02:17):
Hello, thank you guys for having me on the show.
I regret to inform you that I do not have
dulcet tones and I am not appearing with a badass today.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
You're the only badass we need, and don't sell your
tones short, buddy, there are plenty dulls.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
No, you're in the band, for sure. You're you're in
the band.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
Okay, all right, I'll take it. I'm not gonna say no.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
You know, what's your voice? What's your vocal register? Are
you like a baritone tenor?
Speaker 5 (02:45):
I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 6 (02:46):
I have I'm at the level where I have a
list of songs on my telephone that I cannot stray
from if I put my name in for karaoke. Yeah,
I generally stick to like cake and the violent fems
and bands that don't involve singing just speak the words,
you know, that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I respect that, but yeah, yeah.
Speaker 6 (03:08):
I have this list and it's like, these are the
ones that I know, because you know, there's nothing worse
with karaoke than getting up there and the music starts
and you do the first line of the song. You're like, uh, oh,
not only do what? Can I not sing this? But
I don't know all the words to it? And it's
super long.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
You know.
Speaker 6 (03:26):
You get up there, like everybody will sing along and
you start and you're like, I can't do this.
Speaker 5 (03:30):
Nobody's singing along. You're like, I just want to die.
I just want to put the.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Mic a rookie mistake, Bohemian Rhapsody. Never It's almost as
bad as doing like Stairway to Heaven. But I do
have to say the most important thing when it comes
to karaoke and history is going the distance.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
Yes, yes, you can make up for a lot of
lack of talent with effort.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Oh my gosh, I'm feeling very cold out now. But
uh but speaking of talent, speaking of effort and acumen, Ben,
congratulations on one hundred episodes of.
Speaker 6 (04:03):
Badassk Yeah recently, So that's awesome, you know, the website
started in four so the website can drink.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
Now, that's how old that is.
Speaker 6 (04:15):
And now the podcast at one hundred episodes, so you
know that's you know, the good news is it's hard
to run out of badasses to talk about in history,
which I love really fun. You know, every time I
do an episode, every week, I do one episode, but
I get like five recommendations for somebody I haven't written
(04:35):
about before. So the list continues to get bigger.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
And yet you say, you come to us today, badass free.
What's that about? Explain yourself, sir.
Speaker 6 (04:44):
So Badass of the Week comes out on Tuesdays, and
I'm gonna, you know, double post this on my feed,
this episode on my feed. But for me, this episode
will be released on April Fool's Day, so I always,
you know, it's rare. I used to update the website
on Fridays. The podcast comes out on Tuesdays, but whenever,
like the exact day lands on April Fools, I like
to try to do something fun. So today, rather than
(05:06):
talk about a badass, I want to talk about the
dumbest battle in history as far as I'm.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Consuming, which is you know, that's a that's a that's
a competitive list.
Speaker 6 (05:19):
It's a competitive list, and you would think it would
be really difficult to pick the dumbest battle in history.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
You know, I'm in I'm in Washington State. We had
a pig war here where we.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Know what the pig war. We did the pig war,
didn't we, Ben? We did the pig war.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
We had to. There was a war uh entirely based
on a guy losing an ear.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
Uh yeah jenkins ear.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Yes, yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
They put it in the name, something about throwing potatoes
from a submarine. I seem to remember that one. I
do have to say, though, Ben, I hope that the
the ridiculousness of this battle really makes up for a
mega dry episode on the Russo Japanese War that we
did recently.
Speaker 5 (05:58):
Russo Japanese War is pretty bad ass. Like Admiral Telle Yes,
nuts like that. That Battle of Tsushima is insane.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
So Ben set the scene for us first off. Also,
clearly I'm biased because I love other people named Ben.
I'm sorry. I don't want to make it weird, but
I do want to be Trys.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
You're making it a little weird.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Honestly, I'm going for you guys collectively as the Benz.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
All right, the Benz. Yeah yeah, yeah, so sounds dangerous.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Baby's got the Benz.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
So let's cast our memories back to first off, start
this way, Ben Noel, Max Fellow, ridiculous historians have yet
ever traveled to Austria.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
When I was a young German boy, I most likely
set foot in Austria, but not since then, No, I
don't believe.
Speaker 5 (06:50):
So.
Speaker 6 (06:50):
I was in exchange student to Germany in nineteen ninety
six and we drove down to Bavaria. We crossed over
to Saltzburg and I went to the castle there. I
saw Mozart was born, and I climbed up to the
top of the castle there. That was pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Did you see where Arnold Schwarzenegger was born?
Speaker 5 (07:06):
I did it.
Speaker 6 (07:07):
But I learned something interesting about Arnold recently that made
me laugh. Apparently this is going to be one of
I'm sure many segues that I'm gonna are gonna I
learned about Arnold recently that he wanted to when the
Terminator came out. He wanted to do the German dub
of the Terminator because he speaks German and it's going
(07:28):
to be released in Germany. But apparently he is from
some mountain town in Austria, and he has some like
super rednecky German accent, And so they were like, no,
nobody will believe that the sophisticated cyborg killing machine from
the future talks like a hillbilly. So we're gonna with
somebody else with a much more like appropriate German accent.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Oh wow, all right, I love it. And it goes
to show that even the most modern badass has a
couple things that stay with them.
Speaker 5 (08:01):
Yes, you know, nothing's perfect, right, nobody's perfect.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Nothing's perfect right, And even the most sophisticated militaries can
sometimes step on their own.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Toes, foisted on their own petard.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
So take us, like, we're not just spinning our wheels here, right,
We're not just uh, we're not just flexing our leader
hosen or what have you. You do.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
They are a little tighter, Well, they have like suspender
esque Well, when you do those oompa dance moves, you
gotta have they gotta have a little give to it,
or you might, you know, rip the back out, you.
Speaker 6 (08:35):
Know, Yeah, yeah, that'd be dangerous. That's worse than trying
to do Bohemian rapsy to karaoke. Blowing out your leader.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
By the way, guys, uh umpa version of Bohemian Rhapsody,
just saying, just putting that out there.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
The world needs this, so sorry, carry on.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Please, let's call let's call weird al on this, Let's
get top men.
Speaker 5 (08:55):
I'm sure it might. Maybe it's been done. I don't know.
I feel like there's so many verse sets.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
A version of everything. Yeah, so that's sort of the
whole deal.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
I love that. I love that there's a new version
of everything. Uh Ben, tell us what friendly fire is?
Speaker 6 (09:09):
Okay, friendly fire is when you shoot your own guys
by accident. They call it friendly fire. It's not that friendly.
It's when you accidentally shoot your own guys on your
own on the same side as you go.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
It is, you know, and in like certain shooter games,
if I'm not mistaken, there's like a difficulty level I
think where you can friendly fire is a thing you can't. Actually,
there are certain games where you can kill your own team.
Speaker 6 (09:31):
Yeah, you'll get banned from from team killing in some games.
And yeah, like it's a it's a thing, and like
you know.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
A bit of an own goal as they say, yeah, sport.
Speaker 6 (09:40):
Yes, And so when we are going to talk about
the Battle of karen Sevi's here. It's referred to as
a battle, but it's such a friendly fire incident that
sometimes it's referred to as just that, a friendly fire
incident and not a battle. But I always have seen
it written as the Battle of karen Sevies, and I
think it is the stupidest battle in history. So we're
(10:00):
going to talk about it and the battle here. We're
in a time period that can sometimes be a bit
of a of a black hole, even for like historians.
We are in the seventeen hundreds in Eastern Europe, which
is the time in which everything is fluid, and you
have this kind of the height of the Habsburg Empire,
(10:21):
the Holy Roman Empire, and there's a lot of weird
politics that.
Speaker 5 (10:25):
Happened at this time period.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
I'm gonna and the Ottomans are still in play, right.
Speaker 5 (10:29):
Yes, the Ottomans are still in play.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
And so before they thought they were thought of as.
Speaker 6 (10:34):
Furniture, right yes, yes, back when they were still the
Ottomans and they were not Trichia yet they were the
Ottoman Empire.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
They're around what's what's an Ottoman? That's the thing you
put your feet on, right, yes, that's not cool. You
don't want to be remembered for that bit of a
dormat kind of situation.
Speaker 5 (10:49):
They invented it. I think.
Speaker 6 (10:50):
I think it gets its name because it was a
thing that they were using, and I think it was like,
I think it was fancy, like when they first sat.
Speaker 5 (10:55):
Oh, this is exactly that they do. What the Ottoman
sultans do.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
It was like the.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Stool boom and Blaine, Indiana from waiting for Gufman. You know,
it's like a whole uh An industry that just sprang
up over this one esoteric piece of furniture.
Speaker 6 (11:08):
Yeah, the sultan started by making his servants get down
on all fours. We could put her feet on their backs.
And then they're like, what if it were built a
piece of.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Wood, we had a non human equivalent. Okay, okay, I'm listening.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
All right, So the Ottoman Empire very much in play.
Speaker 6 (11:28):
Yes, they're in place. So let's start in the Holy
Roman Empire in seventeen forty one with the birth of
the future Holy Roman Emperor Joseph the Second, so Holy
Roman Empire. This is the Austro Hungarian Empire. You'll see
it sometimes referred to we are in Austria. Joseph's mother
(11:49):
is the Empress Maria Theresa, and Maria Theresa's badass. We're
gonna have some badass women that make ancillary appearances in
this story. But Marie Theresa, I could talk about her
at length, I'm not going to, but she's pretty badass.
She takes over the throne of the Holy Roman Empire.
She's attacked by Frederick the Great and several other armies.
You have this European World War that one of these
(12:11):
one of the many European World Wars that were happening
around this time, and she is able to hang on
to power in the War of Austrian Succession. She builds
up Austria Hungary, makes it pretty dominant regional power, and
then when Frederick the Great comes back in the Seven
Years War, she fights them off much better. Seven Years
War is another big world war. France gets involved England.
(12:34):
In the US, we call it the War the French
and Indian War because we were in England and France
were at war and they're fighting over Louisiana the wars.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
And we're a little self centered.
Speaker 6 (12:43):
Sure, of course, yeah, Well, we were only fighting the
French and the Indians. We weren't fighting the Austrians and
the Russians, but they were fighting each other in Crimea
and in India and whatever. So anyway, though Maria Trece
is she's a tough lady and she has this son, Joseph.
He is born in seventeen forty one and he is
(13:04):
officially co ruler, but that just means that he he
just signs the documents that Maritsteresa puts in front of him.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Okay, okay, king of paperwork.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Yes, like the equivalent of the auto pen that's been
much to do has been made about in the news.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
I don't know the story.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
You don't know what the autopen.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
It's like a thing apparently it's been used for you know,
many many presidencies where it's like it's a literal mechanical
device that recreates.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
A signature on multiple documents at once. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
I didn't know about it either until it's been kind
of in the news, but it is something. Actually we
should probably do an episode on the history of the
autopen because it was very much like an invention that
was created to you know, serve a need.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Like I think back in Length of the sixties.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
I'm writing it down with a regular pen, with a
regular pen, yeah for sure. All right, so we got
this emperor of Emperor of paperwork in action, even though
a co ruler in sort of theory.
Speaker 6 (14:03):
Yes, So I'm seventeen sixty three, the Seven Years War ends,
he's twenty two years old. He is getting a little
bit more power, and then when his mother passes away
two years later, he becomes the ruler of the Holy
Roman Empire. Okay, So Joseph the Second he's an interesting guy.
He he referred to himself as an enlightened despot, which
(14:26):
sounds yes, okay, I remember.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Did he coin that?
Speaker 4 (14:30):
I feel like I've used I've heard that used to
describe other people in it.
Speaker 6 (14:33):
You know, I'm not sure whether he invented that or not.
Knowing what I know about this guy, probably not. He
probably heard the term and liked it and applied it
to himself.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
He said, also me, Yeah, that's what I definitely that
like someone reposting a meme on Reddit. All right, so
he's got this big Victor von Doom energy.
Speaker 6 (14:51):
Yeah, so he's an enlightened despot, which it sounds bad,
but it's okay. So basically, the enlightenment is cool. Freethinking
is cool. Human rights are cool. Except for all that
anti king talk. King is still we still have to
do the aristocracy thing. But freedom of expression, as long
as you like me, you can be you can have
freedom of expression as long as you dont say anything
(15:12):
against me. And he starts bringing in scholars, scientists, He
builds universities, hospitals. He reforms the civil law to make
it a little bit less repressive. He abolishes slavery and
serfdom in the Austro Hungarian Empire.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
The Holy Roman Empiers sound like great.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Also super forward thinking, yes, contrast of places like the
Ottoman Empire, which was super down.
Speaker 5 (15:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Yes.
Speaker 6 (15:40):
He passes religious equality law and even includes the Jews
and Muslims in it.
Speaker 5 (15:45):
They're allowed. You're allowed to be Jewish and Muslim in
the Holy Roman Empire.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Wow.
Speaker 6 (15:50):
He's a patron of the arts and music. Mozart and
Beethoven like come to his court. He actually had hires
Mozart to be his chamber composer, which had been like
a vacant spot for a long time. And he's like, oh, Mozart,
come on, you can be my chamber of courser I'll
pay you to make music for my parades, and so
Mozart hated this. He would have to make make these
like little marches for him to appear at the at
(16:10):
these events, but it was a paycheck and he had
to get paid, right, and so okay, all this is great,
except he is the Holy Roman Empire, and the Pope
doesn't like a lot of this stuff that's happening. Isn't
really down with all of this stuff in seventeen forty one,
and he's got a lot of Catholic subjects. So there's
a little bit of argument among his people as to
(16:31):
whether these reforms are good or bad. We see this
from time to time that countries can't agree on the
direction the country should be taking. Sure, okay, so all
that's going okay at home, but he's decided at some point,
like he's built up his kingdom, he's got this enlightened
(16:51):
despot thing going on, but he wants to kind of
get involved with foreign policy. And so his first attempt
at that is we were talking about funny wars is
the Kettle War of seventeen eighty four. And I'm mentioning
this only because it's weird.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
No, my imagination is already running wild what could the
Kettle War have been all about?
Speaker 6 (17:09):
So one of these Catholic groups in the Holy Roman
Empire that don't like his reforms are what's referred to
at the time as the Austrian Netherlands, but today it's
basically Belgium more or less equates to Belgium like the
Low Country. Yeah, yeah, the Austrian Netherlands sounds like somewhere
that Sauron would live though, you know what I mean. Oh,
(17:34):
he is from the Austrian Netherlands, the nether realm of Austria,
and so he anyway, so he.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Is another realm of Mortal Kombat thing I think it is.
It's the name of the company, the Menzels, so I
think maybe it's outworld, but they do refer to the
nether Realms.
Speaker 6 (17:51):
There are definitely nether Realms in various peaces of fantasy
and sids.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Fiction, dungeons and dragons, and also, you know, just for
all our lists from the Netherlands. It's a weird name
in English, just.
Speaker 6 (18:05):
Weird that it's the Netherlands, but it's also Holland and
you're the Dutch. That's weird, right. Also your national colors orange.
But it doesn't appear on your flag. That's weird too.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
That's also weird. Also while we're in that area of
the world, just going to walk down the street for
this one, Thank you Denmark for Legos. That was tight,
good move.
Speaker 5 (18:26):
No, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
Then you say something about like there's more Lego pieces
now in existence than some other things.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
There are a lot of There.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Are more Lego mini figures or minifigs for fellow nerds
than there are human beings alive.
Speaker 5 (18:42):
What is that true?
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Yeah, yes, that is true. It's like podcasts true, but
it is true. Sam Ben weird derailing you?
Speaker 5 (18:52):
No, No, I'm derailing myself.
Speaker 6 (18:53):
I'm talking about the seventeen eighty four Kettle War when
we're supposed to talking about the nineteen seventeen.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Let's let's spin it out though. What's the what's the
It helps.
Speaker 6 (19:03):
To know the background on Joseph the Second is going
to help to understand what happens at Karen Sevi's So okay,
So Joseph the Second he wants to at home, things
are going okay. All of the people in the cities
are down with his stuff. A lot of the people
who are a little bit less enlightened, affected by the Enlightenment.
They're not down with what he's doing. So there's there's
(19:24):
division within the Austro Hungarian Empire, and one of the
regions that is divided is this Austrian Netherlands, which, like
I said, is basically Belgium. The Austrian Netherlands borders actual Netherlands,
which is Protestant at the time, and they are they
get grumpy and they they blockade the Belgian ports to
(19:46):
deny Joseph and his ship's access to the North Sea.
So he says, okay, I'm gonna send I'm gonna declare
war if you don't release this blockade. So he sends
three warships to threaten the block and these three warships
go out, one Dutch warship approaches them. And you know,
(20:06):
one thing about the Dutch at this time is they're awesome.
Their navy's awesome, right, and the Austro Hungarian Empire is
not known for having an awesome navy. But the Dutch
navy is very experienced and they're very powerful at this
time period. And the Dutch navy and the sailors, you know,
they didn't have a lot of guys and a lot
of ships but what they had was a very high
quality anyway. So there's one Dutch ship sails out to
these three Austro Hungarian ships, and the Austro Hungarians are like,
(20:30):
if you don't release the blockade, will fire on you
and declare war, and the Dutch shoot at them. They
shoot one shot, one warning shot that flies over and
hits a tea kettle on one of the Austro Hungarian ships.
This is the story, is that they fire one shot
(20:52):
and it knocks the tea kettle off of the Austro
Hungarian ship. It's the flagship. It's carrying Joseph's flag, and
it immediately surrenders.
Speaker 5 (21:12):
A peace treaty is then signed. Shortly thereafter. The war
lasted for one gunshot.
Speaker 6 (21:20):
Wow, Postro Hungarian flagship says, stop the blockade, the shooting
this tea kettle, and I like to picture that like
they were aiming for it. You know, it might have
been an accident, but I was just like like some
sniper around, you know, the teakett accountants like, actually, never mind,
I surrender.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
That's amazing marchmanship, you know. At that point, I love
the idea too, in sort of the the badass ridiculous
history cinematic universe. I love the idea of you know,
an officer class type dude lifting up you know, the
kettle or something. Yeah, they getting the shot through it
(21:57):
and then say no, this is not cool. Other stuff
to do.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
I want to have my tea.
Speaker 6 (22:03):
Yeah, seeing some like fast cuts of like a like
a Kay Richie kind of thing of like.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Yeah, very looney tuns.
Speaker 6 (22:13):
Yes, And so they surrender. They sign a peace treaty
that doesn't work out too well. The Austrian Netherlands is
still upset because they don't like that the Pope is
disagreeing with the emperor, and so Joseph the second is
part of that peace treaty, is like, hey, how about this,
you guys. The Dutch are holding Bavaria, which is in
southern Germany and borders Austria, and I'm holding the Austrian Netherlands,
(22:34):
which is Belgium in borders. Like we have these disconnected empires, right,
And he's like, how about I trade you the Austrian
Netherlands for Bavaria.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Seems fair?
Speaker 5 (22:43):
Yeah, And the Dutch You're like, no, that's weird. Why
would we super odd?
Speaker 6 (22:48):
And everybody at the time writing about it is like,
it's it's super weird that he offered to just trade
regions with people with the dunge.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
They said, no, we have to be clear, just just
to get it out there been Uh, this is not
a period in history where in the public, the people
who lived in those areas would get a survey or
a poll. No, no, okay.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
No, these are this is the business of Kings.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
There we go. That's what Nola and I refer to
it as. Whenever we're making up reasons to hang outside
of work and we don't want to explain ourselves. You know,
my girlfriend's like, where are you guys going, I always say,
it's the business of Kings business strategized.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
We got to have a rap sessh to figure out
our plan for world domination.
Speaker 6 (23:37):
Yeah, like our king stuff business of Kings. Save the receipts,
write them off on your taxes.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
King moves, King moves hashtag. But so okay, So this
is not just a weird flex for the people the
common in the region. This is a weird flex for
all international observers.
Speaker 6 (23:57):
Yes, everybody thinks it's weird that he made this offer
because gets out or it gets out that he offered
this trade and it's weird. So okay, foreign policy is
not going well for him. He travels around, he goes
to he goes to Paris and Rome in Moscow and
he tries to make nice with the Pope. It doesn't
work out, Okay, So he's Holland doesn't like him. He
(24:20):
borders Prussia and they've just had these two big wars
with Prussia. Frederick the greats there. They had the War
of Uster in succession, they had the Seven Years War.
Prussia is powerful. Prussia is like basically like the heart
of present day Germany. They're tough guys, they're great, great soldiers,
and their share of border and they want to take
some land from Austria. So he's got that problem too. Okay,
(24:40):
So you know what he wants to Joseph the Second
wants to be remembered as this great ruler and yes,
I've made these great changes at home, but I need
to do some big foreign policy thing in order to
be remembered as this great military mind and diplomat and
the greatest king ever.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Okay, my legacy. Yes he's thinking about.
Speaker 6 (24:57):
Yes, he's he's inheriting from his mother, who was a
very powerful and very well respected woman in Europe, and
he wants he's got big shoes to fill, and he
wants to do some great things to be remembered. Okay,
so Holland and Pussa aren't working out, so he makes
it an alliance with Russia, who had been Austria's friend
(25:17):
during the Seven Years War. And Russia at the time
is ruled by Catherine the Great, who is the second
of the powerful, badass women that we were going to
talk about in the episode today. She is super tough
Lady Catherine the Great is extremely tough, and she was
born in Germany. She probably reminds him of his mom, honestly,
(25:38):
if I had to guess, But she is like she's
meeting allies because, like you said, the Ottoman Empire borders
him to the east and they border Russia, and Russia
wants those warm water ports in Crimea and the Mediterranean
and the Black Sea, and so they want to go
to war with the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire at
(25:59):
this time spans most of the Islamic world, huge amount
of land, huge number of people. But by this point
seventeen forties, you know, it's they've got the Sultans they've
got they've got money, they've got troops, but there's this
the feeling that things are maybe starting to crumble a
little bit and maybe there's some weakness there.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
They're getting some they're getting they're losing some technological progress.
Speaker 6 (26:24):
Yes, yes, the Enlightenment is coming and they there's yeah,
there's a lot of technological development happening in Europe that
isn't being shared, Like military technology is happening in Europe
that is not being shared with the Turks. And so
they're starting to feel like maybe we can take some
land from these guys. Catherine R Great has built up
Russia to this very powerful military, and she wants to
(26:48):
she wants to take lands from the Ottomans and so,
and this whole time period is all very like I
always think of like siev Tu or something, you know,
like we just make life.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
I gotta take just came up on our recent conversation.
Speaker 5 (27:01):
Yeah, just like I think it's one town because it's
it's worth a lot of money. I went to city.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
For the record. I still haven't cracked it yet, yeah,
but it's on my list.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
You're gonna have a great time, though. Are you playing
Civilization seven yet? Ben?
Speaker 5 (27:15):
No, I haven't had a lot of time for games recently.
Speaker 6 (27:18):
It's one of those ones where like I, uh, you know,
if I I got to finish this project I'm working
on and then I can start a new game.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
But like if I.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Started the door, if you open the door.
Speaker 5 (27:29):
I get sucked in. I like it too much, you.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Know, I love I think what we're saying here is
we we love the comparison because there is a great
deal of geopolitical calculation here, right. Russia then, as now
honestly is eternally searching for a warm water porch. So
it makes sense that these rulers would be pushing on
(27:55):
the Ottomans if they can't.
Speaker 6 (27:56):
Yes, so great, this all works out great for Joseph.
He signs the peace treaty. He goes and visits Catherine
in Moscow. A couple of times they sign a peace
treaty or an alliance, and as part of that alliance,
Catherine takes the Crimea for Russia cough cough, and they
partitioned Poland up between the between Russia and Austrian Hungary.
(28:18):
Because that's what happens to Poland for the next couple
hundred years. In this time of time, Okay, that's great,
except and you know, the Turks are even better. It's
even better to be fighting the Turks than it is
to be fighting the Prussians and the Dutch, because the
Turks are Muslims and their enemies, and we're not fighting
other Christian kingdoms and causing problems with the Pope and
all of this stuff. So it's totally cool. Austrians have
(28:41):
been fighting the Turks since like the fifteen hundreds. You know,
uh Suliman the Magnificent besieged Vienna at one point in
the sixteen eighties, you know, so they're they're they're great enemies,
and it'll be awesome to have a war with them.
Speaker 5 (28:55):
It'll really be how Emperor.
Speaker 6 (28:56):
Joseph the Second is going to make his name as
a military genie. He is going to march east from
uh He's made his plan with Catherine. She's going to
march south from Russia. He's going to march east. At
this time, the Turks control most of Romania and you know,
the former Yugoslavia. They can control a lot of the Balkans,
(29:17):
and there are elements from the Balkans that are like
you've got a Serbian regiment in the Austro Hungarian Empire.
Speaker 5 (29:24):
That's like, hey, we'll we'll fight.
Speaker 6 (29:25):
Let's go get Belgrade back because Serbian people are there
and the Turks rule it and they're making them all
be Muslim and they're doing bad stuff. So like let's
let's free our homelands, and so great, this big army
is assembled. This call goes out and it's Austrians and
it's Hungarians, which do not share language, but they are
part of the same empire. You've got Germans from the
(29:46):
various German principalities that are part of the Austro Hungarian Empire.
Speaker 5 (29:49):
At this time.
Speaker 6 (29:50):
You've got Italians, like Northern Italy, there's some Northern Italy
happening in the Austro Hungarian Empire. And then you've got
these guys that are looking to reclaim their lands.
Speaker 5 (29:59):
You've got Romanians, You've got.
Speaker 6 (30:01):
Croats, Bosnians, and Serbians all working together, and so everybody
is kind of united.
Speaker 5 (30:09):
Under like let's get the Turks.
Speaker 6 (30:12):
Great, this seems good, all right, So they also you
kind of have to keep up appearances at this time period.
So the plan is that Russia and Austria will just
f with the Turks until they get mad and attack,
and then they can say, look, we were attacked, so
they do that.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
What's there provoked. Our fancy word for that is what
bellis causi or something like that.
Speaker 6 (30:38):
Yes, yes, so you and see if it's the equivalent
of like you open a you open diplomatic relations with
a foreign king and then you like demand three of
his cities for nothing, and then he gets mad and
Claire's war on you.
Speaker 5 (30:49):
That's basically what happens here.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
And you're like, whoa, these guys came to us.
Speaker 5 (30:53):
Yeah, I didn't do anything.
Speaker 6 (30:54):
They marched into Mayorland first. So the Turks attack the Russians,
and then Austria Hungary's allies with the Russians, so they
got to attack.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
That's why we call it Department of Defense exactly.
Speaker 5 (31:03):
We're under attack.
Speaker 6 (31:04):
Okay, So seventeen eighty seven war is declared between Austria
Hungary and Russia on one side and then the Turks
on the other side. Now Joseph has this big army
and he's about to march them out into battle with
the Turks. And the Turks they have a lot of guys,
you know, they have a big army. They're extremely powerful. Still,
so when he assembles this big army and marches them
(31:26):
to the border with the Turks, Frederick the Great marches
a huge army to his border on the western side
of Austria Hungary, and all of these Catholic people from
his kingdom that don't agree with him, they start getting
a little bit more organized in a rebellion or a
revolt type of situation, and they say, oh, Frederick, come
(31:47):
help us.
Speaker 5 (31:49):
And so now he's got a problem.
Speaker 6 (31:50):
March is a huge army to his border, and he's
got to go back and march them back to these
cities to put down these rebellions, or to at least
discourage these rebellions and discourage Frederick. So he doesn't actually
get marching until a couple months after he wanted to,
because he's got to go back and deal with the
Austrian Netherlands and the unrest and the Prussians, and the
Prussians keep talking to the Turks and they're like, maybe
we should be allies because I actually don't want Austria
(32:11):
Hungary to take them take your lands either, I like
for everyone.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Because we're an audio podcast, I want to point out, then, uh,
you you stroke your chin in the perfect way people
would conspire and then you know maybe these so there,
so we see this, we see internal descent, yes, right,
we see internal chaos. We see again the problem of
(32:38):
logistics because every I almost a monster. Every army marches
on its stomach. Right, So, yes, we're losing, uh, the
equivalent of millions of dollars losing time.
Speaker 5 (32:51):
We're losing the morale. You're losing people.
Speaker 6 (32:54):
You're losing people are deserting, right, and you have this
is all the kind of paint the picture of you
have this huge.
Speaker 5 (33:03):
Army that is not homogeneous.
Speaker 6 (33:05):
It is made up of all different people with all
different beliefs, who have different languages everything. We've got this
huge army. It's ready to fight the Turks. They're united
in that we're gonna fight the Turks, but they don't
agree with each other. And so in the context of
a friendly fire incident, that's an important piece to set up.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
I feel like, oh good call.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
Yeah, for sure, although it's like there's nothing like a
common animey to bring folks together, but in this case
it was. There were additional complications for sure.
Speaker 6 (33:30):
Yes, okay, So Joseph the second marches out and he
declares like I am a military genius.
Speaker 5 (33:36):
I am in charge of the army.
Speaker 6 (33:37):
I'm gonna ride out by myself, the enlightened, desperate at
the front of the group.
Speaker 5 (33:41):
Mozart, you're coming with me? No, not really.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
I love it when they ride out in the battle
like that, thinking they're truly like invincible. Like just those
moments of Hubris just always give me a little bit
of shine freud. There's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 5 (33:56):
You know.
Speaker 6 (33:57):
I was reading one account of it, though, and I
feel kind of like I was reading it and I
was like, yeah, and he wasn't a military genius, and
he wasn't this, and he was like old and blah
blah blah, and I was like, looked it up and
he was like forty seven. And as we were recording
for the day, as we're recording, today is the day
of the recording. Today's my forty fifth birthday. No way, really, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (34:20):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
But now you have never strolled out onto a theatre
of combat and, in a burst of humility, declared yourself
a military genius.
Speaker 6 (34:31):
I suppose that's true. It is a little old to
start your military career. I feel like age are like
generals and colonels and stuff.
Speaker 5 (34:41):
Look man retired, ye twenty years right.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
We practice we practice positive aggressive validation on this show.
Speaker 5 (34:52):
So, however, it would be weird if I was like,
I'm in charge of the army, now follow me. I'm
a little after that.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
I think we would have to have Yeah, yeah, we be,
we be hanging out. We would We might not be
on the front lines with you, Ben, but Max, Nole
and I would be, you know, on the scene subscribing.
Speaker 4 (35:16):
I'm always on the lookover someone to blindly follow into battle.
You know, it's just a bucket list item of mine.
So maybe you can make that happen.
Speaker 5 (35:23):
Well, let's see how that turns out.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Before that, let's get a parable and a precedent. Hold
the phone, or rather hold the hussar. This turned out
to be a ongoing series, a two part series. Nol.
I'm just having a great time. It's not just because
Ben is named Ben.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
That guy.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
This guy's amazing.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Yeah, I really love the Bens on this series. The
guys are killing.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Oh no, no, no, we're killing it as a group effort.
We've got the We've got the Noles, We've got the Maxes.
Speaking of well, please killing it.
Speaker 3 (35:57):
The term with no friendly fire here, y'all.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, Oh, We're I like that.
That's something we referenced on Daily's Eeitgeist earlier. We're exploring
it together and we couldn't do it without the help
of our amazing team, starting with our super producer mister
Max Williams.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
Ooh, Max Williams. Max voised it on his own Petard Williams.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Max the Hussah Williams shout out also to his biological
brother who is back in town, our bespoke composer Alex.
Speaker 4 (36:33):
Williams Bespoke Indeed Us thanks to Chris Frasciotis and He's
Jeff Coates here and Spira, Jonathan Strickland, The quiz Or A. J. Bahamas,
Jacob's The Puzzler and Ben Big Thanks to.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
You, man. I love I love hanging out with AJ
Bahamas and I love that We're never gonna explain that nickname.
Check out The Puzzler. Also check out our Rude Dudes
of Ridiculous Crime and Noel. Thanks to you. I can't
wait to hear part two.
Speaker 4 (36:57):
Yeah, let's see next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!