The Great War

Episode 1

On the Idle Hill of Summer...

40 mins

The Premier episode starts with the idle summer of 1914 in the UK. The episode does a good job of showing the real state of affairs in the European countries that eventually were dragged into the great war. In Europe at that time, living conditions for the vast majority of the people were terrible by today's standards, with vast disparities of wealth and much agitation for change. The episode continues country by country in showing strengths and weaknesses: the United Kingdom with its worldwide empire and naval power and 30% of the population living below the poverty line, France and its people and great traditions, and the bitterly resented loss of Alsace-Lorraine in 1870 to Prussia, the industrial might of Germany and the hubris of the Kaiser Wilhelm II, Russia with its vast land empire and the constant labor unrest, and finally the Austro-Hungarian empire and its wars of expansion in 1912 and 1913 that helped fan the flames of resentment. The episode finishes with the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo in June of 1914.