The Lamps Go Out

The Great War. The European War. The Kaiser's War. The World War. The First World War. The War to End War.

Call it what you will, tomorrow marks a century since a young Bosnian Serb shot dead the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Sarajevo. Within a matter of weeks, the apparent calm of Europe had been shattered, as the continent, and eventually huge swathes of the planet, descended into war.

Ever since, historians have struggled to explain how the century of peace which had seemingly graced Europe since 1815 came crashing down so suddenly and so spectacularly. You can debate whether this peace was an illusion, or the reasons war came about so rapidly. But this analysis of the madness which gripped Europe cannot be beaten:

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