Episode Details

The Habsburgs–Romanovs and Hitler: Nazi WWII's Generalplan Ost ("General Plan for the East") targeted the exact same Eastern European territory once ruled by the Romanovs before 1918.

Published 4 months ago

"History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes." — Mark Twain

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How Evil Were the Habsburgs? 1. Expansion by Force & Brutality

Spanish Habsburgs (Charles V, Philip II) oversaw some of the bloodiest imperial expansions in history:

Conquest of the Americas: genocide of Indigenous peoples, forced conversions, Inquisition trials.
Establishment of the transatlantic slave trade under royal charters.
Austrian Habsburgs fought endless wars with Ottomans, Protestants, and rebels — often brutal, scorched-earth campaigns.
Moral character: ruthless, expansionist, willing to depopulate regions to enforce rule.

2. Religious Terror: The Catholic Inquisition

The Habsburgs were the enforcers of Catholic supremacy:

Spanish Inquisition (1478–1834): torture, executions, forced conversions of Jews and Muslims.
Thirty Years' War (1618–1648): the Habsburg fight for Catholic supremacy devastated central Europe, killing up to 8 million people.
Mask: religion presented as holy duty, but in practice it was about dynastic survival and control.
Moral character: systemic use of terror, torture, and forced conversion — religion as weapon.

3. Dynastic Greed & Manipulation

The Habsburg motto could have been "Let others wage war; you, happy Austria, marry" — but those marriages were power-grabs:

Accumulating crowns across Europe (Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Bohemia, Burgundy).
Treating people as pawns in dynastic chess.
Cousin marriages led to inbreeding, most famously the "Habsburg jaw" deformity — showing how obsessed they were with bloodline continuity over health.