The First World War: A Tragedy that Divided Europe and the World

In the summer of 1914, in Sarajevo, Serbian student Gavrilo Princip assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Franz Ferdinand. A local conflict in the Balkans escalated into a Great War that claimed millions of lives, destroyed empires, and led to political chaos that resulted in World War II. Chemical weapons, exhausting trench warfare, ethnic cleansings — all this was the First World War. It forever changed the world, with no one emerging from the war as a winner. Thus ended the “long 19th century” and began the “short 20th century” — an era of dictatorships, total wars, and genocides. British historian John Keegan creates a vast canvas in which military-political analysis intertwines with personal stories.