On June 28, 1914, a young Bosnian Serb named Gavrilo Princip stepped from a crowd in Sarajevo and fired two shots at the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie. Both died within the hour. Thirty-seven days later, all the major European powers were at war.
The free episode covers the essential arc: the powder keg of nationalism and military buildup that made 1914 Europe so volatile, the \"blank check\" Germany issued to Austria-Hungary that removed any remaining brake on escalation, and the cascade of mobilizations where each step seemed logical in isolation and catastrophic in aggregate. By the time anyone understood what was happening, the machinery was already moving. The war that was supposed to be over by Christmas lasted four years and killed between 15 and 20 million people.
The full sixty-minute premium episode tells the complete story — the political complexity, the military strategy, the decisions that shaped the century, and the consequences we're still living with today.
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