The Rise Of ISIS, Explained In 6 Minutes

If you want to get a quick, general education on the extremely complex history of ISIS, then this 6-minute video by Vox is a fairly decent start.

The origins of Islamic State date all the way back to 1979 with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The video explains how the 9/11 attack by Al Qaeda, the Iraq War and the Syrian Civil War have all had a hand in creating the deadly terrorist organization. The video takes you to present day with the immense and rapid expansion of ISIL where they control large swaths of land in Iraq and Syria, and they have the abilities to attack large cities in Europe.

Now this isn’t a 2-hour documentary, it’s an easily digestible 6-minute YouTube video, so not every single catalyst is going to be represented in this short video. The emergence of Islamic State is too complicated of an issue to sum up in one YouTube video, but this is a fantastic video if you want to delve into investigating how ISIS became so powerful, so fast.

Conspiracy theorists will have a field day with this video, and ask where the funneling of U.S. money and weapons to ISIS is. Let’s go down the rabbit hole shall we?