The World War: 1914-1945
An original and dramatic series that views the most violent and significant episodes in modern history from a fresh perspective – not as two world wars, but as a continuous narrative of error, ambition, revolution and courage. An expert re-examination of history forms links and conclusions that tie the entire war period together and, with the benefit of hindsight, pieces together how the world went and stayed at war for so much of the 20th century.
Episodes
In 1914, Archduke François-Ferdinand, of the House of Habsburg, was assassinated by a Slavic nationalist. The game of alliances makes war inevitable.
During WWI, men had to endure combat and extreme conditions; civilians dealt with food shortages and raids. The insidiousness of ethnic cleansing raised its head, and a young Adolf Hitler took note.
Stalin rises as the leader of the Bolsheviks, and in Munich, the German Workers Party takes a new name: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter, or 'Nazi' as it would come to be called.
Hitler and Stalin begin to shape the course of history. President Roosevelt attempts to raise his country out of the Depression, and the world teeters on the brink of yet another World War.
Hitler's invasion of the Rhineland was a gamble that paid off as his push west remained unchecked; while the leaders of Europe attempt 'peace', Kristallnacht signalled the horrors yet to come to many.
After a snub in Munich, the Soviets make a pact with the Germans; with the invasion of Poland, the pretence of peace is gone as France and the UK declare war on Germany.
Operation Barbarossa's endgame does not come to fruition; with the world distracted, Japan launch their attack on Pearl Harbor, forcing American isolationists to join the war in earnest.
War in Europe ends with Soviet and American troops surrounding the German army; in the Pacific, it takes the devastating nuclear bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to force the Japanese surrender.
