About WAR 1870–1949: How Empires Rise and Fall

This is a story about why war happens when nobody truly wants it—until suddenly, everyone does.

If you grew up with the usual explanation, you were told the First World War begins with a gunshot in Sarajevo. A young man steps forward, fires two rounds, and the world falls apart. It’s neat. It’s cinematic. It has a villain, a victim, a turning point, and a date you can underline. It also has the comforting illusion that history is a line of dominoes and that one pushed the rest.

But the truth is crueler and more human.

Sarajevo was not the beginning. Sarajevo was a match. The question is why the room was full of powder.

This season is about the powder.