WW1 - Oversimplified (Part 1)

The world of 1914. A time of modern technology, culture, and fashion.

Truly the height of civilization.

Let's have a war.

Everyone knew a big war was coming.

France wanted some stuff back that Germany had taken from it,

Germany wanted to take more of EVERYONE'S stuff,

and they're building a big sexy navy that was making the British uncomfortable.

These two empires thought they're really cool.

But lots of different people who live there didn't think it was so cool.

And some of them had even been declaring independence,

with help from Russia.

Everyone was talking about each other behind each other's backs.

Throw in the fact that military technology had come a long way since the last major war,

and suddenly everyone was pretty eager to beat each other up.

In this area of Austria-Hungary lived some Serbs and Bosnians who hated living in Austria-Hungary.

So the Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand goes there for a nice drive in an open-top car,

with his car's route published in advance.

And that went just about as well as you'd expect.

Some assassins were waiting for him along the way and threw bombs at his car,

but they missed and blew up some officers behind him, instead.

So, the Archduke goes into hiding, leaves Sarajevo and whole war never happens.

Except no. The Archduke doesn't leave,