BALDRICK: Nah, there was definitely an ostrich involved, sir.ĬPT. BLACKADDER: …I think you mean it started when the Archduke of Austro-Hungary got shot.
I heard that it started when a bloke called Archie Duke shot an ostrich 'cause he was hungry.ĬPT. BLACKADDER: Do you mean, "How did the war start?" So, what I want to know is: how did we get from the one case of affairs to the other case of affairs?ĬPT. BALDRICK: The way I see it, these days there's a war on, right? and, ages ago, there wasn't a war on, right? So, there must have been a moment when there not being a war on went away, right? and there being a war on came along. BLACKADDER: In a dugout in northern France, sometime in 1916, three British soldiers try to make sense of one of the most complicated questions of modern history: So, what I want to know is: how did we get from the one case of affairs to the other case of affairs? CPT. In a dugout in northern France, sometime in 1916, three British soldiers try to make sense of one of the most complicated questions of modern history: PVT. Above all, it shows how the failure to understand the seriousness of the chaotic, near genocidal fighting in the Balkans would drag Europe into catastrophe.more In The Sleepwalkers Christopher Clark retells the story of the outbreak of the First World War and its causes. What made a seemingly prosperous and complacent Europe so vulnerable to the impact of this assassination? An act of terrorism of staggering efficiency, it fulfilled its every aim: it would liberate Bosnia from Habsburg rule and it created a powerful new Serbia, but it also brought down four great empires, killed millions of men and destroyed a civilization. An act of terrorism of staggering efficiency, it fulfilled its every aim: it would liberate Bosnia from Habsburg rule and it created a powerful new Serbia, but it also brought down four great empires, kille The moments that it took Gavrilo Princip to step forward to the stalled car and shoot dead Franz Ferdinand and his wife were perhaps the most fateful of the modern era. The moments that it took Gavrilo Princip to step forward to the stalled car and shoot dead Franz Ferdinand and his wife were perhaps the most fateful of the modern era.