Latest / Ridiculous History / The War of the Stray Dog: How Far Would You Go For Your Pet?

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The War of the Stray Dog: How Far Would You Go For Your Pet? · Ridiculous History

• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, let's open today's show with some statistics. It's often
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: said that people could be either dog people or cat people,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: meaning they prefer one pet over another. According to a
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: fairly arbitrary pull reported by today dot com, seventy of
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: us listening today find ourselves being dog people, and a
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: way to get into today's episode is to ask how
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: far would you go for a dog? Welcome to the show.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: My name is Ben. My name is no Ben. When
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: you say dog people, do you mean some sort of
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: hybrid Island of Dr Moreau type monstrosity or are talking
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: about dog efficient fans of dogs? Yeah, as mentioned people
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: who prefer dogs or people who prefer cats. We have
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: yet to ask our super producer, Casey Pegram this question.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: So I'd like to ask both you guys. Noel, you
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: strike me as more of um maybe a cat person.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: I am a fan of the movie Cat People and
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: the accompanying Georgio Moroder soundtrack, and I do like cats.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: I don't know why that is. They're a little less needy,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: they're less work. They're they're less work, they're self sufficient. Dogs.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: While they do give you unconditional love, sometimes I feel
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: like they just vomit love on you to the point
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: where you're like, can we turn off the love hose please?
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: I feel like sometimes I get the sense, and I'm
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: not gonna profile you, but I've gotten the sense before
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: when we hang out that you don't like dogs. Well
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: that's the thing. I'm dating a girl and have been
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: for a while who has a lovely little dog who
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: I enjoy. He does some cute things, like he gets
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: into the covers at night and kind of spoons with
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: my leg, which I enjoy um. But he also does
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: things we're in the middle of the night. He'll get
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: on top of my head and start flipping his body
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: around in circles. Uh, like he can't get comfortable, and
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: he's a humper and he's he just does something. He
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: does some things that rubbed me the wrong way. I'm
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: not gonna lie, But he also does something that I enjoy.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: So you're you're maybe on the fence about dogs in general.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: I'm cat people, Yeah, what about you? Casey oh man,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: this is this is tough. I'm I'm real on this.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: I love dogs and cats. I've had more dogs than cats,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: but the one cat I did have lived to be
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: about eighteen or nineteen years old. And was a great cat.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: So I'd say, I'd say both. That's awesome, you know,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: and that seems like that seems like the kind of
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: answer I would expect from Casey, you know Casey on
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: the Cat and Dog case. And today's episode, Well you
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: haven't said yours. Yeah, no, I haven't. Today's episode brings
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: us to now you do, no, sir, No, sir, my friends, Um, well,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: being a decent human being, I love dogs and cats. Wow.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: That was very that was very pointed, very pointed. Now
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: I'm messing with you. I don't, um, I I love
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: I love animals in general. And it's not to be
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: um to bleak about it. But it's true that in
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: several generations a lot of the wild animals that we
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: can see today are going to be gone. So I'm
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: a little bit bitter sweet about it. You know. Um,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: we created dogs in a very real sense, right they
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: are if you think about it, dogs are genetically modified
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: organisms or GMOs. Yeah, And I mean the pure bred
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: ones are kind of those islands of Dr Moreau monstrosities
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: in some ways that we're talking about some Uh I
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: believe now I'm not a um, you know, a dog doctor.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: I'm not a veterinarian, but I believe that there are
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: a couple of breeds that require human assistance to reproduce.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: That's right, what I mean, even like, just the features
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: that humans consider cute or desirable sometimes are not good
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: for the health of the dogs. Absolutely bread them to
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: be something that we like, but not necessarily with their
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: best interest in mind, whereas cats self domesticated, which I
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: think is fascinating. But but yeah, so I I am
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: a lover of all animals, including serpents and insects. There
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: are a couple of animals I wouldn't necessarily want to
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: have in my house all the time, like a snake,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: like snakes. Um snakes are very happy outside and that's
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: where I will leave them. But well, you know, listeners
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: right in, am I a monster? I don't think you're
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: inquiring minds want to mine my mind, Winston. You want
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: to know if you're a monster. I want to know
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: if others think I'm a monster. Not everybody, not everybody
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: cares for dogs, and there's nothing wrong with that. I did.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Let me backtrack a little bit. I did not say
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: I didn't like dogs. I said there are some qualities
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: they have that annoy me. A little bit, but I do,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: I do see the good in them. Okay, I believe
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: specifically the face was vomit love. But turn off the
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: love hoses when I said, yes, yes, but we can
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: agree that overall, in general, people love dogs and will
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: often put themselves in harm's way to protect them. There
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: we go, nineteen twenty five. We got there, we did.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: So to explore this story, we have to look at
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire ruled an area of
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: the world that included a lot of different people, nations, languages, religions,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: and ethnicities. And two of the peoples that they ruled,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: or two of the nations that were under the rule
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: of the Ottoman Empire were the Greeks and the Bulgarians.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: In eighteen thirty two, Greece becomes independent and then in
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: nineteen o eight Bulgaria becomes independent. And this is a
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: very big deal to them because while they were under
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: the thumb of the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Empire was
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: Islamic and the Greeks and Bulgarians were Christians of the
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Eastern Orthodox Church. And Bulgaria is uh considered a Balkan
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: nation and it um is along the coastline of the
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Black Sea. It has a very vast and varying terrain,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: including mountains, concludes the Danube River, famous Blue Danube of
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: classical music fame. Um. And it also to some of
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: what you said, Ben has a very culturally diverse population. Um.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: And this plays into our story in terms of dividing
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: up some of these areas post war, right exactly so,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: the Ottoman Empire falls, the Balkan League begins to carve
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: up the European side of this empire, forming Albania, which
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: many of us will recognize from its multiple references and
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: films like Taken and they left Macedonia and Western Thrace.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Bulgar Area and Greece ostensibly had a lot of reasons
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: to get along. They shared a religion, they both were
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: independent from a former empire. Uh. They both also wanted
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Macedonia and this led to tension. This resulted in a
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: number of conflicts between the two sides along the border,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: leading to the Second Balkan War of nineteen thirteen. And
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: as we know just from hearing that date, n Uh,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: there's a much bigger war on the horizon. World War
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: One breaks out. Bulgaria sides with Germany, Austria and Hungary
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: and launches an attack against Serbia and then they lose.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: The Allies win and Greece has sided with the Allies,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: and so they they are rewarded for participating with the
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: good guys, a job well done, for a job well done,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: winners write the history books. And Bulgaria is forced to
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: give up Western Thrace. And this is a big deal
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: because giving up this specific area means that they lose
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: their access to the A, G, and C. That's right, um,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: And so here's the thing. By the tension between Greece
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: and Bulgaria were kind of reaching a boiling point. This
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: region is no stranger to these kinds of tensions that
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: have continued on throughout history, but this is one in
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: particular we've been talking about. The two countries had been
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: um at each other's throats for many, many years, and
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: there were these, I don't know what should call them,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: kind of little splinter factions um peasant groups that would
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: cross the border between the countries because they shared a border,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: and they would do all kinds of damage, property damage, mischief,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: plundering livestock, uh and often there would be little skirmishes
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: that would result from these seemingly innocuous enough kind of
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: acts of anarchy, but you know, there's a powder keg
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: kind of situation and one little spark can ignite, you know,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: a forest fire, right right, And it's still sort of
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: you know, technically it's terrorism to not to drop the
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: T word to arbitrarily, but yeah, you're right. And all
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: these were groups like the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization IMRO
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: and the Internal Thracian Revolutionary Organization it true IMRO and ITTRO,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: and these organizations had some control, you know what I mean,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: over specific areas. There was a town called Petrick in
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: southwestern Bulgaria border in Greece, and it was run by EMRO.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: It was almost an autonomous area. They ran the town,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Like you've ever heard those
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: stories about areas in a city where even the police
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: won't go watch out, kid, you know what I mean,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: because they only they like, you know, it's sort of
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: like a Gangs of New York kind of situation where
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: they literally have everyone in their pocket, they own the streets.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: They it's sort of like a mafia kind of situation almost. Yeah,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: kind of similar, just in terms of control. We're not
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: we're not equating doesn't mean in terms of like the
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: ubiquity of a territory being owned by sort of a
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: shadowy organization. Yeah, I think your examples better. The reason
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: i'm i'm uh doing a little bit of prologue with
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: mine is because this is how the Islamic stayed at operated.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: But these these groups, we would imagine, we're not as
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: as violent and did not commit as many reprehensible acts,
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: but they were there. They were challenging rule of law.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: They were also greatly contributing to these growing tensions. And
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: in nine there's a prime minister of Bulgaria's name is
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: Alexander Stamboliski. He tries to he tries to get everyone
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: to chill out just a little bit, you know what
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: I mean. He says, let's Greece, let's get along. Can't
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: we all just get along? And then for the rest
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: of European continent, Hey, Bulgary is not that bad, you
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: know what I mean. We're We're not crazy. And then
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: the people of Bulgaria responded by ousting him in a coup.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: Oh absolutely, I want to point out one little detail.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: I don think we've gotten to yet. UM. After World
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: War One, UM, and after the Balkan War. Bulgaria and
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Greece were for the first time independent nations, and they
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: weren't used to this. Right, that this border was a
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: super fuzzy prospect, the idea that now we're two different
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: things where exactly as this border. That was a big
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: part of why these tensions were there, because it was
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: sort of like, no, you don't get to say where
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: the border is. And it just feels like they maybe
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: didn't do the legwork of properly defining the border in
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: the immediate aftermath of being free of the Ottoman Empire. Right, Well,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: they that's the thing about borders, man, that's right. They
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: both felt like they defined it very well. Yes, they
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: just didn't agree on what the good definition was, That's
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: absolutely right. So during one of these uh what would
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: have been a scrimace, yeah, exactly, um up to seventh dance,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: up to the numbers, a little fuzzy Bulgarians were killed. Um.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: And this was really starting to contribute to uh suspicions
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: by the Greeks that Bulgaria was actually supporting this Macedonian
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: movement for independence, that was um going to lay claim
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: to this territory within the Hellenic border. Can we talk
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: a little bit about this notion of the Hellenic border.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Been sure. Yeah, As as we mentioned earlier, the thing
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: about this region is that this separation, this independence, created
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: a conflict because of these areas that the folks just
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: couldn't agree on it. And those areas where what we
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: call Western Thrace and Macedonia. Right, So Greece believed the
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Bulgaria was encouraging a Macedonian separatist movement, you know, because
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: they were, Yeah, and most likely for completely selfish reasons,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: in order to kind of upset the apple cart and
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: maybe get some allies with the with the Macedonian separatists,
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: get some of that sweet sweet land, you know what
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: I mean. So everyone is itching for a reason to
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: have a genuine fight, for this border tension to spark
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: an out and out conflict. And they have guards at
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: the border as you do, right, And there's a border
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: guard on the Greek side, and this guy, like many people,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: owns a dog, and he's so used to being on
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: the border, or so used to these border tensions at
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: least that he brings his dog along with him. But he,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: grease at the time, doesn't have a leash law. That's
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: the problem. Yeah, and I guess that's kind of why
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: maybe this is dubbed the War of the Stray Dog,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: which I would argue as a missnowhere, because this dog
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: was not a stray. This dog belonged to this man
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: who was a very loving gentle master. But the dog
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: did stray from see that. This is a semantic. Yeah,
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: so the dog strays, The dog makes a run for it.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: I don't know, you probably saw a squirrel or something,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: you know, one of those famous Bulgarian squirrels. Yeah, we know,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: so well, they're great. They're top Nutch squirrels, big, big,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: big squirrels, very huge, very large physically. Um. So the
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: dog bolts for the Bulgarian side, right, And uh, the
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: way I've read it was the gentleman gives chase to
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: the dog, um and then ends up in Greek territory.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: And this is on October eighth five at a place
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: called the demer Couple Pass. And naturally, as you said,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: the guy goes after his dog. It's like, oh, no, Sparky,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: you can't be here, or Mr Pickles, what are you doing?
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: Or whatever whatever. The most popular Greek name for a
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: dog is Casey. Will you make one up? Just to
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: make up a dog name, Mr sprinkles. Mr Sprinkles on
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: the case, I would argue, uh, god names would be
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: good for dogs, um Greek gods. So you got like
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: zeusta dog or Apollo. You know, Artemis would be a
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: good dog. You call out Artie for short? What about muses?
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: You know, I've always been partial to the name Calliope.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: And we don't know the gender of the dog. But
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: but anyway, this guy is yelling for his dog, like, ah,
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: you can't be here, come back, come back, and he
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: chases after his dog because he's a responsible pet owner,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: as he said. But in the Bulgarian side of the border,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: there are also centuries and they're also guards, and so
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: a century shoots the soldier dead, and the guy the
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: guy never reconciles with his pooch, and this proves to
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: be the first shot of what we now know as
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: the War of the Stray Dog. As soon as one
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: shot goes off both sides of the border, guards on
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: both sides start firing their rifles. There's a lull we
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: can imagine people are reloading. A Greek captain goes into
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: the the no man's land under a white flag and
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: he's you know, he's waving his flags like everybody calmed down.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Maybe he said where's the dog, maybe saying just stop shooting.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: This is a misunderstanding. The Bulgarians see the flag and
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: they shoot him too, along with his private who came
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: along as a sidekick. Cam. Yeah, I know. Not cool.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: There's a real hot headed triggerman going on over there
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: on the on the Bulgarian side. This was, of course,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: also near the border town of Petricks, which gives a
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: subtitle to this conflict, the incident at Patrick Slash, the
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: War of the straight Talk and things. Things may have
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: ended there. Some would say, I don't think so, because
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: at this point the Bulgarian side has killed three people. Yeah,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: but they've killed the seventeen had died before, right, and
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: that didn't start the war. So what happens we have
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: It takes not just the killings. It takes sort of
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: a wily, crafty military um mastermind to kind of set
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: things in motion, right right right, forty seven year old
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: Lieutenant General Theodora's Pongolos, who is a dictator of Greece.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: He's the military dictator. He learns about these killings. He,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: as we can only imagine, slams his fist on the
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: table and says, the Bulgarians these treacherous dogs, which would
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: be a poor choice of words on his end, but
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: you know, who knows if he knew about the dog.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: At this point, this guy, being a military dictator, was
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: very much authoritarian, ruling with an iron fist. He said,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: we are going to show these Bulgarians what's what. And
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: this is again, just weeks after this guy installed himself
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: as the leader of the country. He orders an entire
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: army corps to the area, and he sends a forty
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: eight hour ultimatum to Sophia, the capital of Bulgaria, where
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: he says, I demand the following First, apologize for the shootings. Second,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: prosecute any soldier who fired a shot, and third, compensate
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: the families of the fallen soldiers. Compensate them six million
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: Greek drachmas. And that's within forty eight hours. If not,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: there will be a war. I will invade. But here's
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: the thing, Neill, After he issued that forty eight hour ultimatum,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: he went ahead and invade it before the forty eight hours,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: just to really show them that he meant business. And
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: I don't know that seems like a weird flex. You know,
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: it's sort of like, uh, what why make the ultimatum
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: if you're just gonna break it before the other side
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: has a chance to act. Yeah, it feels like was
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: just pr thing maybe because his domestic side he wanted war.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: So they go through Bulgaria, this Greek army corps. They're
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: doing horrible things. They're burning villages, they're looting, their pillaging.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: They also start striking out at anything they consider a
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: Macedonian enclave, like you're not so separate now, are you?
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: Pop pop pop? And this is all for let's from
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: the Greek perspective, like if he's looking at to use
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: us to his advantage, it's to what claim more sweet
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: sweet land, claim more territory, Just move that border further
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: and further away from them. Yeah, it's complex because it's
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: it's partially that ultimately that that's going to be one
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: of their goals to increase their geographic perfect but also
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: it's a hardsome minds thing on the dictator's end because
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: he wants the people to see him as a competent
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: and powerful leader, you know what I mean. He's still
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: got that new car smell on him dictator wise, So
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: he wants to prove that he's he looked. The easiest
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: time for a dictator to be conquered in a coup
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: is shortly after they have been installed in a coup
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: that they create. So he needs to get as popular
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: as he can before the next angry, hotheaded lieutenant general
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: takes his head. This isn't exactly apply, but I think
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: it's just a great line. There's a line in Red
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Dead Redemption too, where a general is trying to start
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: a conflict with the Native Americans because they keep breaking
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: the basically, the Americans keep breaking treaties with the Native Americans,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: and they're a line where one of his lieutenants is
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: kind of like he understands the plight of the Native Americans.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: He says of his boss. Last war didn't go so
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: well for him, so he figured he'd start a new one. Maybe. Yeah,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: you know what, that's a good line. So how do
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: they do? How did these belligerent Greek soldiers fair with
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: their looting and pillaging? Well, you know, initially a pretty
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: well they had the element of surprise. I guess maybe
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: that's why it was the element of surprise to say, say,
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: we're going to give you a clock on this and
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: when they just go ahead and do it, Yeah that
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: it doesn't really Yeah, it's not not very um sportsmanlike,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: shall we say? Right? So yeah, So initially, um, they
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: blast in their um knocked down the enemy's defenses and
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: drill into Bulgaria. Of course, raping and Ludi and I'm
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: adding raping. You gotta assume it's a little raping going
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: along with I and burning all these I mean really
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: really scorched earth kind of warfare. Not nice, right. Their
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: ideas that they're going to occupy that town I mentioned
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: top Patrick because they wanted to incentivize the Bulgarian government,
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: I guess, but but more more was an excuse to invade.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: And as you said in the beginning, they are they're
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: doing okay primarily because they have this element of surprise.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: So once that element of surprise wears off, the Greek
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: army finds itself in a bit of a quagmire. It's
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: still recovering from getting walloped, getting its can I say
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: this on air, getting into as kicked h from the
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: nineteen nineteen to nineteen two war with Turkey, and so
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: it didn't have all the infrastructure it needed to sustain
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: an army and operate in Bulgaria. So Pangalos decides that
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: Greece needs allies, and Athens ask Serbia to help them
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: punish Bulgaria. And then they say, look, if you help us,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: if you help us fight these dirty Bulgarians, then we're
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: going to give you a railroad corridor to a port
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: city as well as his zone and control in the region.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: This is so funny to me because this sort of
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: like making counting your chickens before they hatch kind of logic. Right,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: It's like saying, hey, here's what I'm gonna give you
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: if we reign supreme here once we control all that
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: sweet sweet borderland. Right. But that's I mean, that's how
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: the game. That's how the game is played. It's very
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: much making the T shirts. Before you make you're placing
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: bets on who the winner will be. And if you win,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: you win big. If you lose, you look like a
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: real Vegas baby. I don't know why, I just like
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: that phrase. So the Bulgarian side does the same thing.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: In their difference everything like you said, every wet step wet,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: that's what what is, It's what is done. It's what
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: is done. But they don't go to just a single nation.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: They go to the brand spanking new League of Nations. Now,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: if you're asking me, I would add a caveat like
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: a bunch of babies. Why why would you add that?
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: I just feel like that's sort of like crying, going
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: to your mommy and saying, like, you know, little Stevies
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: picking on me, come home, come, you know, give him
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: a spanking. But that's literally what the League of Nations
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: was supposed to be for. It was to prevent I
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: don't know, man, I just figured store it out your
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: own stuff. We've we've, we go out of it. It
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: was all right, I'm I'm being a little hard. It
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: was meant though, you know it was. It was meant to,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: at least on paper, exercise diplomacy between nations to prevent
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: um multi national wars, you know what I mean. So
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: this should be exactly what the League of Nations is
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: good at doing. They intervene in the war through diplomacy,
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: and they go to the dictator of Greece and they say, hey, hey, buckaroo,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: you know, I know you're a big deal and you
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: gotta you know, rule your people with an iron fist
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: and all that slow jazz. But stop invading folks, and
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: whatever they say persuades the general now and he says,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: all right, guys, rule that I can't I can't keep invading.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: Uh so I'm gonna pull my troops back. But by
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: the time he finally comes to heal, I feel like
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: I'm using so many doctors. But well, it's important. But
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: the time you pun, game is strong. That's is that
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: even a pun? You know? It's sort of like Alanis
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: Morrissett's song Ironic. Is anything in that song actually ironically?
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Well, we will doggedly chase upon it
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: if we can find one, fifty Bulgarians are dead. By
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: the time the guy finally says okay, League of Nations,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: l O win. I'm out. I comply with your ruling. Okay,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: And I you know, I'm gonna walk back what I
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: said about the Bulgarians being babies for one of the
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: League of Nations. You're right, man, it is what it's for.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: Because Greece was super overstepping right they were well, I mean,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: you know, war, war is uh what is it? War
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: never changes? You know from the fallout games, doesn't matter.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: I feel like Pangalos was being super opportunistic and overstepping
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: and really jumping the shark, shall we say, in his
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: h in his invasion efforts, and also not to mention
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: the non sportsmanlike way, he totally gave them a clock
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: on the offer of reparations and then completely went back
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: on that very dirty. So here's the thing. The League
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: of Nations side with the Bulgarians and they give them
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: a little help. They send them some some troops from
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: some member nations. Correct, yeah, and then they say, look,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: we don't want this to get ugly. I don't know why.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: In my head, these guys are all calling, calling this
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: dictator these weird names like Buckaroo, Bucky Partner. They do ask,
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: they do ask for the dictator to pay some kind
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: of financial compensation to Bulgaria. Well he did burn down
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: like villages. I mean it's gonna be you know, some
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: rebuilding costs associated with this. Did you see how much
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: they asked them to pay. It wasn't an insignificant amount.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: It was forty five thousand pounds, forty thousand British pounds.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: That's it. That's it. That's not much. That's not much
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: at all. That's not gonna that's token. I think this
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: is recent enough ben that we could we could inflation
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: calculate that, bad boy, or correct casey, could I get
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: the queue for a handy handy inflation calculator? Perfect? All right,
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: forty five thousand pounds in nineteen twenty two is equal
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: to dramatic pause two point four nine or so million pounds.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: And we didn't really see a figure for how much
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: damage the Greek invasion costs. But uh, I've seen many
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: sources indicating that there was much burning and pillaging and
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: looting and sacking going on, So this seems like a
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: pretty insignificant sum. Pangalos was still very unhappy with it.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: He felt that the League of Nations had given him
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: a raw deal because they had um they had sided
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: against him before as well, hadn't they been well? He
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: already felt that they were incredibly imbalanced and hypocritical, because
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: he said, he said, look, we all know that the
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: League of Nations has two sets of rules, one for
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: nations that are powerful like Italy, and one for us,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: the little guys like Greece, and you guys are unfairly uh,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: punishing us for things that you would be absolutely fine
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: with another nation doing. Oh, we're just trying to make
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: our make our nut. You know. Yeah, we're just trying
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: to flex a little bit of what you know, Why
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: why can't we be conquerors? Right? Everyone else gets to conquer?
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: Why is everybody so pro Bulgarians? That's that's we're we're
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: taking some poetic license here. But yeah, he is. He
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: is not happy with it, and he feels that he
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: has been humiliated in front of his nation and on
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: Sable stage. He feels that Greece as a nation has
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: been humiliated with his name on the marquee. And uhcause,
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: here's the thing, man, when you're a dictator, I mean,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: your source of power comes from your ability to like
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: flex and be a strong man and like saying, you know,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: I am beyond reproach and I have an iron fist
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: and no one can mess with me. It's like the
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: same as being like a I don't like I'm using
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: this example again, but like being a mob boss. As
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: soon as someone sees weakness in you, or you are
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: messed with and not paid or whatever it is, you
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: are open to being overthrown, my friend. And yeah, as
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: I had mentioned earlier, when is the most likely time
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: for a military dictator to be overthrown? It's right after
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: he overthrows someone, or you know, it's right after they
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: overthrow somewhere. He attempts it anyway, Yeah, and so we
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: can only imagine that at this time Pangalos General Peglos
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: is privately worried that this may affect his ability to
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: rule or the people's trust in him. And it turns
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: out that he is absolutely right. He has been seen
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: as weak on the domestic and international stage. So the
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: very same people, the very same cadre of officers that
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: helped him become dictator, by that summer, they overthrow him
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: and they replace him with the old guy, the earlier
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: president of Greece. I mean, oftentimes, these powerful men are
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: representative of something going on beneath the surface, and when
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: the shadowy cabals that run things for real beneath the service.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: Even under a dictatorship, the dictator has to answer to
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: somebody a lot of the time, right, right, like um,
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: like even in Democra sees like the US, the president
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: has to answer to Cheryl Crow at some point. She
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: is such a monster. I had no idea we had
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: fixed such a powerful enemy. But yeah, you're absolutely right, No,
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: you're absolutely right. He is overthrown he vanishes from the
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: public eye. We know a little bit about what happens
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: to him next, and it's it's not especially pretty, nor
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: is it noble or glorious. He's implicated in a corruption scandal.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: H he resurfaces to endorse the pro Nazi collaborationist regime
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: in Greece during the you know, the rise of the
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: Nazi Party. He passes away in nineteen fifty two. But
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: get this, his grandson, who shared the name, Theodoros Pangalos,
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: became Deputy Prime Minister of Greece. So they kept in
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: the family. Yeah, they really did. Um and O G.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: Pangalos withdrew from public life and wasn't really hurt from again.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: And you know, because he kind of retired in in shame.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: And this this whole all because of a straight dog,
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: All because of a dog. We don't even know the
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: dog's name. But I think Casey made an excellent choice
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: with Mr Sprinkles. I like it too. I'm gonna go
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: with Zeus the dog. Here we go a Zeus and
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: we we we. I guess we could speculate and say
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: the guy the the guy probably named his dog something Greek, right, Hey,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: maybe it was pangalos. Maybe that's why the dictator got
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: so mad, but we sadly don't know what happened to
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: the dog afterward. And for playing a very small part
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: in in this story, Uh, this unknown dog has one
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: that has won the name in history. It's called the
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: Incident at Patrick, but a lot of people nowadays call
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: it the War of the Straight Dog. We hope that
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: you have enjoyed this episode, this brief look into one
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: of the many were aiculous causes for war throughout human history.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: Let us know some of your favorite stories about ridiculous
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: causes for war. And hey, if you have any cool
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: pet pictures, you can send them. I don't I don't
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: want to volunteer both of you, guys. I just love
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: seeing other people's pets. You can send them to us
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter. You can also find
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: our favorite part of the show your fellow listeners on
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: our Facebook page. Ridiculous Historians can also check us out
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: on Instagram or we are Ridiculous History. You can check
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: me out independently if you want to see pictures of
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: me walking around eating croissans with my kid. Uh. That
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: is at Embryonic Insider. And if you want to see
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: my various misadventures here and abroad uh, as well as
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: disguises and costumes. You can follow me at Ben Bolan
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: on Instagram. Thanks to our superproducer Casey Pegram, thanks to
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: Alex Williams who composed our track, Thanks to our research
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: assistant Gay and No thank you man. You know, I
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: don't think you're a monster. I think you're a pretty
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: cool dude. You sure, yeah. You kind of hurt my
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: feelings at the top of the show. Why because you
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: said you're a normal, nice human being who likes all
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: animals and then imply that I am some sort of
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: subhuman monster. No, not at all. I'm just kidding. I
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: am if I'm nothing, if nothing else, I am melodramatic.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: We all need a bit of drama in our lives.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: And I'll tell you what. I can confidently say that
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: none of the three of us would start a war
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: over it. Up, Okay, I can with certainty. Even as
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: I was saying that, I was thinking, well, I don't know.
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: It depends on the dog and depends on the board.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: Really well, back about it. You know, if you see
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: you see opportunity, I say, go for us. We'll see
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: you next time. Folks,