Trivia / History Matters

• Anonymous Author: Unlike many YouTube history channels, fairly little is known about the creator of History Matters, and he has never revealed his name or face. However, he has shared some limited details about himself in his Q&A videos and on Twitter; he is in his early thirties, was born in Peterborough and now resides in Leeds, and holds a Masters degree in history from Cambridge. He also loves Warhammer and cooking.
• Meaningful Release Date:
  • "Why, How and When did Britain Join the EU?" was uploaded on 31 January 2020, the same day that Brexit officially took effect.
  • "Why did communist Grenada keep the Queen?" was released on 7 February 2022, Grenada's independence day.
• Missing Episode:
  • "Why Does Lichtenstein Exist?" was abruptly deleted from the channel with no explanation (it's thought to have something to do with the original video getting age restricted), but fan reuploads have appeared on YouTube.
  • Similarly, "Why Did Britain Abolish Slavery?" was also removed with no explanation but has been rehosted elsewhere. It's thought to have also been a victim of YouTube's updated age-restriction policy.
  • "How did Europe React to a second Emperor Napoleon?" was also removed likely due to the video ending abruptly due to an error by the creator. Unlike the previous two, it has not been resurfaced by fan-uploads.
• Screwed by the Network: According to a Q&A video, the actual reason why the channel abandoned its 10-minute long format was Youtube began demonetizing its videos, forcing the creator to reduce their runtime to under 5 minutes in order to get by. As a result, he has no plans to revive the old format anytime soon unless the policy changes again.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: The Spinning Paper's Freeze-Frame Bonus in "Why did the Soviet Calendar fail?" includes a humorous explanation of the origins of the series' basic art style and why everybody communicates with signs:
  I once tried animating moving mouths on some characters when reading out quotes and it was the creepiest thing. Not as creepy as the time I drew individual fingers and teeth on Joseph Stalin. Nightmare fuel that was.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The English and British History series was intended to go up to at least the 2015 election across a span of around 42 episodes, but uneven viewership resulted in the series ending at the English Civil War after 20 episodes.
  • A full 30-minute video covering the entirety of World War II was planned to be released in August of 2019, but it was scrapped alongside all the planned 10-minute videos.
  • A video about the battleship Bismarck was planned at some point but quickly scrapped as the creator felt there were already enough videos on the topic.

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