The Great War: How it All Began

The assassination in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 of François Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire and his wife, by a Serb, was the trigger for a dramatic spiral. Through the play of alliances, what should have remained a Balkan conflict extended to the entire planet, becoming the first global conflict in modern history. It was also the first war to be filmed, thus projecting the viewer into the heart of the fighting.