The First World War

Episode 1

To Arms

Mon, Sep 22, 200350 mins

The First World War shaped the twentieth century. It sparked the Russian Revolution, and it launched America as a world power. The fault lines from its failed peace settlement led to a second terrible world war barely twenty years later. We live with its unresolved consequences; in the Middle East, the Balkans and Ireland. It began as a clash in the Balkans, which grew to engulf Europe and the world. Britain joined in, more to protect her great empire than for the defence of small nations. The merciless pattern of the war was set early on, but Austro-Hungarian atrocities against Serbian civilians.