Otto von Bismarck was a master strategist, playing the game of power like a grand chessboard.

He unified Germany through war, but his true genius lay in his ability to keep Europe at peace.

A 🧵 on the lessons from the Iron Chancellor himself for those aspiring to wield power. 1) Master the Art of Realpolitik

Politics is not about ideals, but about what is achievable.

Bismarck's "Realpolitik", was centered on pragmatic, goal-oriented policies rather than ideological purity.

Incentives, more often than not, are more important than ideologies.

The Germans were one of the most advanced civilizations before entering WWII.

They had great scientists, fantastic engineers, and brilliant philosophers.

However, as the war unfolded, the very qualities that made German engineering exceptional became a double-edged sword.

🧵 The meticulous nature of German engineering led to the creation of some of the most advanced weapons of the time.

Tanks like the Tiger and Panther were marvels of military technology, boasting superior firepower, armor, and precision.

"My god It works."

Those must’ve been the words running through Elon’s mind when his rockets took off.

Rewind a mere 120 years.

Two brothers standing in the cold December wind, watching their creation defy gravity for the first time.

Here’s how they made history. 🧵 The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, were two self-taught engineers from Dayton, Ohio. They weren’t scientists, and they didn’t have formal education beyond high school.

But they shared two key things: an obsession with flight and a knack for solving hard problems.

The field of Crécy lay shrouded in mist.

On one side, the vast army of 🇫🇷; on the other, a smaller but resolute🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿force.

At the center of it all, clad in dark armor, stood the Black Prince.

History would remember this—not as a boy's trial by fire, but as the making of a legend. The year is 1346 AD, the Hundred Years' War rages on, and the fields of northern France are about to witness one of the most pivotal battles in medieval history—the Battle of Crécy.

During WWI, a strange iron leviathan crawled onto the battlefield.

The world's first tank looked more like a mechanical monster than a weapon of war.

This is the story of the Mark I, and how it changed warfare forever, complete with rare footage.

🧵 The year is 1916 AD. Trench warfare dominates the battlefields of Europe.

Barbed wire stretches for miles, machine guns mow down soldiers by the thousands, and no-man’s-land is a graveyard of shattered hopes.

They moved like ghosts in the night, their footsteps muffled by the shifting sands of the Arabian desert.

They were shadows against the starlit expanse, with a mission far more profound than simple sabotage.

It wasn’t just a railway they sought to dismantle—it was an empire.🧵 In the twilight of the First World War, a distant front burned with the quiet ferocity of rebellion.

Here, in the vast and unyielding deserts of Arabia, the war was not fought with trenches or fleets but with whispers and fire.

As the Allies marched through the battle-scarred fields of Europe, they relied on a machine that became the backbone of their advance.

It wasn’t the biggest or the most powerful, but it was the tank that won the war.

A 🧵on the Sherman—the 🇺🇸 workhorse of WWII. When the German blitzkrieg rolled across Europe in the early years of the war, it revealed a grim reality:

The Allies were outgunned and outmaneuvered.

German tanks, with their speed and firepower, dominated the battlefield.

Tough times make tough people.

Brutal winters, scarce resources, and an unforgiving landscape forged a society who thrived where others might have faltered.

Who were the Vikings beyond the stereotypes?

To understand them is to understand how hardship breeds innovation.

🧵 The Viking saga begins in Scandinavia, a land of stunning natural beauty but harsh living conditions.

Long winters and rocky soils meant that survival required ingenuity and cooperation.

During WWII, the Germans unleashed a colossal behemoth onto the battlefield.

Capable of firing shells the weight of a car, it required a 2,000-person crew to operate and left craters the size of buildings in its wake.

A 🧵 on the Schwerer Gustav, complete with rare footage. In the annals of military history, few weapons stand out for their sheer audacity and size as the Schwerer Gustav, a massive German railway gun designed during World War II.

While it may seem straight out of a sci-fi movie, it was very much real.

From a hidden chamber at Delphi, she whispered the will of the Gods.

Her words shaped empires, toppled kings, and sealed the fate of nations.

A look at some of her most famous prophecies.

🧵 1) The Tragic Prophecy of King Croesus

One of the most famous—and tragic—prophecies delivered at Delphi was to King Croesus of Lydia, a ruler known for his immense wealth.

Croesus, eager to expand his empire, consulted the Oracle about going to war with Persia.

From the desolate ruins of Stalingrad a deadly phantom emerged.

Amid the shattered bones of a broken city, he carved a hunting ground of his own design.

This is the tale of a humble shepherd who became one of history's most fearsome snipers.

Lock and Load... 🧵 In the winter of 1942, as the German Sixth Army laid siege to Stalingrad, Vasily Zaitsev’s journey from obscurity to legend began.

Appearing on the front lines in 1942, this juggernaut seemed invincible.

Its armor too thick, its gun too devastating, its hull too impenetrable.

But as the war dragged on, whispers circulated—rumors of rare flaws inspired brave Allied souls to confront the beast. In 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa, the Wehrmacht quickly encountered the devastating effectiveness of the Soviet medium T-34 tanks.

In the 17th century, the Dutch ruled the waves, with floating fortresses that cut through seas from the North Atlantic to the Indian Ocean.

But how did the Dutch turned their small republic into a maritime empire? In the late 16th century, the Dutch Republic was just a patchwork of low-lying provinces, locked in a brutal rebellion against the mighty Spanish Empire.

While other nations turned inland, the Dutch looked to the sea, their only means of escape and survival.

In the summer of 1941, as Germany unleashed its blitzkrieg across Soviet territory, its panzer divisions met a surprise they weren’t prepared for.

In the fog of war they encountered a new Soviet weapon that changed armored warfare forever.

A 🧵on WWII’s game-changing tank. The primary objective of Barbarossa was to destroy the Soviet Union as a military and political entity, seize its vast territories, and eliminate the threat of the USSR.

3 different German army groups blitzed in and rapidly took over vast amount of territory.

Once, these men had knelt as humble servants, bound to healing & humility.

Now, they were agents of conquest, heavily armored knights, a brotherhood of steel.

Their mission?

Reclaim the sacred ground where faith and blood had mingled for centuries. Formed in the crucible of the Third Crusade, their early purpose was simple yet noble: to provide medical aid to wounded Christian soldiers and protect pilgrims braving the perilous journey to Jerusalem.

Today, as Americans 🇺🇸 cast their ballots, the world's eyes are on the heart of democracy.

It is no coincidence that the home to the world's most powerful leader is filled with ancient symbols.

So why does an Egyptian-style obelisk stand at the core of America’s capital? The year is 1799 AD.

After Washington’s death, there was a widespread desire to memorialize him.

The new nation mourned deeply, feeling the loss of the man who had led them through the Revolutionary War and set a precedent of honorable leadership as the first president.

They rode with ferocious speed to save Western civilization.

Would they arrive on time to save Europe when all seemed lost?

The ground shook as they thundered across the battlefield, lowering their lances and bracing for impact… The year is 1683 AD.

At this time, the Ottoman Empire had expanded deep into Europe, and Vienna, a critical stronghold, was under siege.

As the pestilence swept through the heart of Europe, ominous figures started appearing in its streets.

They became harbingers of both hope and terror in cities ravaged by the bubonic plague.

These men were tasked with the impossible: stemming the tide of death. Having recovered from the Black Death only a couple centuries earlier, the bubonic plague re-surged in Europe with a vengeance.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, it reappeared in waves that repeatedly devastated cities and towns.

The “fairy tale castle” still holds many mysteries, including the strange death of the “Mad King” who dwelled there.

This is the haunting story about a place where dreams meet tragedy and beauty meets madness...

🧵 Before we start, it is important to understand that the king who commissioned it was living in 1869 AD.

It was a time when castles were no longer necessary for defense or military purposes, but rather symbols of romanticized medieval ideals and personal ambition.

A man from humble beginnings dropped one of the hardest lines ever spoken:

"I found the crown of France lying in the gutter, and I picked it up with my sword."

This is the story about his epic rise to power and what it teaches those of us striving for greatness...🧵 In the quiet, sun-drenched hills of Corsica, the hero of our story was born on August 15, 1769.

The island, rich with a fierce spirit of independence and a history of conflict, would shape his character and ambitions.

Some ideas are so dangerous that they could bring about the downfall of civilization.

Thomas Malthus warned of the perils of overpopulation, but ironically, it is his ideas that have now sown the seeds of another crisis—underpopulation, which may lead to humanity’s demise. In 1798, Thomas Malthus, a British scholar and cleric, published his famous work An Essay on the Principle of Population.