construction maison moderne alsace

my dear friends, welcome. throughout history, many countries have been ruled by monarchs. it is still the case for some of them. when several monarchs from the same family succeed - whether they are dukes, counts, kings or even emperors - it is called a dynasty. the world has known many of them and i want to evoke with you 4 terrible dynasties that made history. brace yourselves, and prepare your brain. the origin of the house of habsburg is related to the habsburg castle, which is originally a simple military outpost, nowadays located in switzerland, in the canton

of aargau. this castle was founded around 1020 by werner of strasbourg, an alsacian warrior and bishop. he is most known because he founded the 3rd cathedral of strasbourg in 1015, which would burn in 1176. it is complicated to date back further than werner's grandfather, guntram the rich, count in alsace, since its origin is uncertain. some sources attribute him a merovingian ancestry, while others relate him to the dukes of upper lorraine. anyway, werner ii, a nephew of werner of strasbourg, takes the title of count of habsburg. starting from his reign, the dynasty begins to reinforce his power in the region, because thanks to effective political marriages and

purchases, the habsburgs extend their domain on a big part of the current swiss territory. the 13th century is determining in the rise in power of the family : rudolph of habsburg who was born in 1218, is usualy considered as the one who succeeded in establishing the austrian house amongst the greatest houses of his time. indeed, rudolph is clever : while the holy empire is going through a serious political crisis, he is elected king of germany and king of the romans in 1273. he renounces to the imperial crown, since he needs to meet the pope in rome, which is considered as a loss of time to him. instead, he consecrates this time to more productive things like the war against his rival ottokar ii of bohemia, or the conquest

of carinthia, styria, carniola and of the duchy of austria. that's all. a long reign upon austria starts for the habsburgs, and it will end in the 20th century only. after a quite peaceful period, during which many habsburg monarchs are elected emperors of the holy empire, several inheritance strenghten the power of the family. in the 15th century, under the reign of maximilian i, the habsburgs gain burgundy, spain and hungary. a long period of domination by the austrian house over europe begins : for the 3 next centuries (15th to 18th century), the habsburgs, not content with reigning on the duchies

of austria and burgundy, or the kingdoms of spain, naples and sicily, will be renewed on the throne of the holy empire at every election. they wil frequently be on the thrones of hungary, bohemia and croatia, and they will momentarily be at the head of the kingdom of portugal and of the kingdom of jerusalem. charles v's personal empire is probably the most known, as it extended on all continents. it's important to notice that when charles v dies, the habsburgs are divided into 2 branches : the spanish habsburgs and the austrian habsburgs, the first ones inheriting the western part of the empire and the second ones the eastern part. in the early 18th century, the situation changes, as the house of habsburg in spain

disappears in 1700, leaving the throne to the house of bourbon, and as the austrian house does not have any male heir. maria theresa of austria - a woman - accede to the throne in 1740. she is married to the duke of lorraine, therefore from their union appears the house of habsburg-lorraine maria theresa with the duke of lorraine gives birth to no less than 16 children, that will be cleverly placed in every european courts thanks to the magic of political marriages, so well that nowadays most of the european royal families have her blood in their veins. 16 kids... yeah ... i think i've got respect for this lady ... the house of habsburg-lorraine, unlike their name, will never rule

the duchy of lorraine. their history as a reigning family ends with the first world war, which leads to the dismantling of the austro-hungarian empire and to the exile of the emperor, an exile still effective for his descendants that didn't renounce to their titles and that did'nt pledge allegiance to the republic. you've probably never heard of the wittelsbachs. yet, it used to be one of the most powerful families in central europe, from the beginning to the end of the holy roman empire. the house of wittelsbach is originally a branch of the house of babenberg which is very old as it dates back to the first frank king of neustria.

it ruled the margraviate of austria from its creation in the 10th century to the 13th century, when the habsburg family takes the title. the house of wittelsbach really appears in the 11th century, when otto of scheyern acquires the castle of wittelsbach. his grandson, named otto too, receives in 1180 from the emperor frederick barbarossa himself the duchy of bavaria. from this day and until the wwi, the wittelsbachs will never leave the bavarian throne. a century later, they receive the county palatinate of the rhine, that they will keep until the wwi too.

clarification : the holy empire was at this time an elective monarchy ; 7 electors decided who should be emperor, and 2 of these electors were the monarchs of the palatinate and of bavaria, both held by the wittelsbachs. during the history of this dynasty, several territories provided with this right to vote will pass under his domination, like the archbishop of cologne, under the heel of the wittelsbachs, from 1583 to 1761, or the brandenburg in the 14th century. they will even succeed in seating one of them on the imperial throne several times. if the wittlesbachs have an uncontested power in the holy empire ; since their family

will give princes of liã¨ge and counts of tyrol, holland, zeeland or even dukes of bremen ; their influence goes beyond this : indeed they succeed in rising at top-level of some major european states. even if they never stay for a long time in place, we count one king of hungary (1305), two kings of sweden (1441 - 1448 / 1654 - 1720), one king of denmark-norway (1440), one king of greece (1832 - 1862), two anti-kings of bohemia who are related to the house of wittelsbach. even if this dynasty is less powerful than the habsburgs or the bourbons, it remains a dynasty that stayed durably at the

head of 2 key states of the holy empire - palatinate and bavaria - from the middle ages to the modern history. we owe them many castles, as the neuschwanstein which is probably the most famous castle of germany, and some major figures as elizabeth of wittelsbach, better known as "sisi". the history of the ottomans begins when a turkish tribe coming from the central asian steppes migrates towards anatolia and settles on the ruins of the sultanate of rã»m in 1281. the head of this warlike tribe, osman i, gives his name to the ottoman dynasty : in fact, it's his name in arab "utman" that has been anglicised in "ottoman". in less than 2 centuries, the ottomans turn their nomadic tribe into a redoubtable empire : they

reduce till nothing the rests of the byzantine empire, and under the reign of mehmed ii a.ka. "the conqueror" they establish their capital in constantinople renamed istanbul. they enslave serbia, greece and bulgaria, then hungary, albania and vassalize crimea and wallachia. in the 15th century, the ottomans seem unstoppable, reigning on an empire astride europe and asia and whose borders can recall the eastern roman empire. selim i, grandson of mehmed ii, will considerably extend the ottoman empire since he conquers the near-east, egypt, algeria and a great part of arabia. when he dies, as is son suleiman the magnificent accedes to the throne and becomes

sultan, the ottoman empire extends from belgrade to mecca on the north-south axis, and from algiers to jerusalem on the east-west axis. suleiman the magnificent enlarges the empire too, taking possession of hungary, lybia and iraq. nonetheles, he fails conquering austria under the domination of the house of habsburg. when he dies, the empire starts its decline. yet, the ottoman dynasty remains at the head of turkey, of which it is inseparable until the end of wwi. in 1924, the last ottoman caliph is overthrown by the nationalist revolution led by mustafa kemal (atatã¼rk). one and all members of the ottoman

dynasty are sentenced to exile. nowadays, we still count 77 descendants of the dynasty, including 25 princes, 16 sultans et 3 sultanas. they live in america, england, egypt or jordan. those members, isolated from each other during decades had the possibilty to gather thanks to ... facebook. indeed, thanks to the social network on which they created a group, they could reconnect. technology is beautiful, isn't it ? anyway, the reign of ottomans is singular and for several reasons. beyond the fact that they succeeded to change a warrior tribe into an empire in a record time, an empire they ruled for almost 8 centuries,

the ottoman dynasty is not really comparable to the other european dynasties we talked about previously. firstly, the ottoman empire is muslim, but it is populated by a lot of peoples practising a lot of religions : thus, the religious policy is very tolerant, a large autonomy is given to the conquered populations, and rather than ignoring the past, the ottomans take inspiration from the byzantine empire. some should take inspiration of that ... afterwards, this dynasty doesn't extend his territory by the political marriages but more by conquests.by the way, starting from the 14th century, the ottomans sultans object to

marrying ladies of high-lineage, and even stopped marriages. they were satisfied with the slaves from their harem, women that could be muslim or christian, war prisoners or war spoils. their own daughters weren't used to conclude alliances by marriage with others empires or kingdoms, they were often married to other slaves to avoid the appearance of rivals who might have their sights set on the throne. if the ladies seem to have a special position in the history of the ottoman dynasty, we can notice that during the century following the death of suleiman the magnificent, the harem (that gather up to 600 women), played a considerable politic role,

to such an extent that some talk about the "sultanate of ladies" to refer to this period. now, let's talk about the land of the rising sun, japan, to meet quite a special dynasty ... according to the legends, the japanese imperial family begins when jimmu builts the first palace in japan in 660 bc, and jimmu himself would be a descendant of the goddess of the sun, amaterasu. however, the first emperor whose existence is proved is åœjin, who reigned during the 4th century and is traditionally considered as the 15th emperor. the role of the emperor of japan is historically quite different from the role that have

a king or emperor in europe. many times in history, the emperor hasn't any power over the archipelago, this power being passed down to the shogun, who also administers the palace in the name of the imperial family. nonetheless, the shogun must be approved by the emperor. in japan, traditionally, the emperor is mostly a symbolic or religious leader - as he is the head of the shinto religion - then his role is comparable to the papacy for the catholics. however, in 1867, the emperor meiji, barely aged of 15, puts an end to the shogunate, establishes the shinto religion as the state religion (whose he is the religious leader) to the detriment

of buddhism which came from china, and he appropriates all powers. he moves the capital city to edo, which takes the name of tokyo and he opens japan to the western countries. the meiji period marks a big change in the japanese society, since he turns the regim into an absolute monarchy, which evolves into a constitutional monarchy in 1889. he modernises the empire ending some ancestral traditions. the samurai are replaced by a german inspired army, the katanas step aside for the rifles and the traditional outfits disappear for french inspired uniforms. some samurais will try to resist, but wiil be defeated in the battle of shiroyama.

the emperor becomes the main figure in the country. during the meiji era, japan moves from a medieval society to a modern society. a japan able to defeat russia in 1905 in tsushima during the russo-japanese war, an absolute humiliation for the tsar and for all europeans. from this moment, japan dreams of a colonial power, and emperor meiji will annex corea in 1910. his successors, taishå and then shåwa - most known as hirohito - will continue this way. the family reinforces his authority, keeping an opening policy : japan liberalises and universal suffrage is introduced in

1925. shåwa travels in europe, being the first emperor leaving the japanese land. his reign is deeply marked by the rise of nationalism and of the military power. a lot of "coup d'etat" are tried, until 1937 when the militaries seize power. starting from there, japan invades china, signs a pact with nazi germany and enters in the wwii, ended by the americans who destroy the japanese cities of hiroshima and nagasaki. however, shåwa keeps the throne until his death in 1989, renouncing to his powers. japan adopts a new constitution in 1947,

it defines the position of the emperor as purely honorary. yet, the emperor remains a popular figure, a popularity that is still relevant nowadays. the yamato dynasty is exceptional : its reign is continuous since the appearance of japan until now. as such, it is the oldest dynasty in the wolrld with at least 1600 years old, or according to the tradition, maybe 2600 years old. traditionally, akihito - the current emperor - is considered as the 125th emperor of this incredible dynasty. these 4 dynasties with fascinating history are not isolated cases. we also could have talk about the tudors, with a short but interesting reign, or the romanov

of russia, the carolingian in france or the ming in china. thumbs up if you liked this video and you think that dynasties are a huge mess. share the episode like fools and leave a comment. i wanna say a big thank you to those who give me tips (on tipee), if you want to support the programmme you can just click and i'll be grateful ! see you soon for another episode !