The Long Road to War

First, the Balkan relations are complicated and I don't want to go into it since it's obviously a sensitive matter. I mention it though since the negative reviews are mostly about that but that's just not my knowledge in this review.

However.. I have read quite a lot about WW1 and what led up to it and watching this it's quite obvious that the "shots at Sarajevo" was pretty insignificant for the outbreak of WW1.

It would have happened anyway and I am actually quite surprised it didn't happen sooner.

I will forever be stunned though that so many leaders (who were quite aware of the terrible consequences) led their countries into a complete disaster and to a conflict that would set the tone for the whole 20th century. Different times but still..

WW2 is much easier to understand.. Germany wanted revenge and it was the perfect circumstances for a complete lunatic to seize power. Even more terrible but but some bizarre logic in there.

WW1 is just the stupidest war ever considering the reasons and the consequences.

It was good to see something not overwhelmingly focussed on Britain and the west but where the long tail of war actually happened.

A bit of Serbian propaganda which should be taken with A pinch of salt but otherwise very interesting and informative.

At school we have long been taught that it was the 'shots in Sarajevo' and assassination of arch duke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary was the start of The Great War.

But however, I suspect that some of the motives of this documentary is not only to enlighten, but at the same time promote this idea of the 'south slavs' of countries like Serbia and Bosnia is done by the movie creators to support an idea of unification of Serbia and Bosnia and several other countries (such as perhaps Monte Negro). The movie is funded by Serbia on different levels and we are told many times that Bosnia and Serbia consists of primarily the same people.

So it is a very well performed documentary going into depth into the decades before the war and thouroghly describes the advesaries and their different conflicts and interests.

At the same time, I am not sure which parts of the documentary is a documentary and which parts are more motivational talk by Serbia to try to argument for Serbia's reunification of Bosnia and perhaps Yugoslavian grandure.. I feel I have to be a historian to pick apart the documentary part from propaganda or 'wishful thinking' fra Beograd..

Well made with a lot of factual data, but one ofc can't expect a Serbian historian backed up by Brits and French assistance to put an objective view of what was happening prior to ww1 especially in the balkans and Bosnia in particular. The Austrians coming there after the Turks were like you if brought the EU to sub Saharan Africa today, the progress made, the investments in infrastructure, schooling, culture, industry, architecture were unprecedented and unseen ever before (or later) in Bosnia and Erzegovina history. If you go Sarajevo today the Basic architectural structure of the city, the logic, all the historical and most important roads and buildings, the villas hotels etc this was all made by the Austrian-Hungarian empire in those 30+ years of their rule there, the first tram in Europe was in Sarajevo, imagine the oppression! No objective person born in Bosnia or anywhere in the balkans would or could deny that the Austrian rule in that time was something positive and that brought progress after centuries of darkness. The Serbs freed themselves from the Turks in Serbia and their aspirations to expand west grow in size and incorporate all Serbs in one country were understandable, but it's a colossal lie that most of the people wanted to be "freed" by them from the "exploitations" from the austro-Hungarians that brought schools, theaters, roads, railways, cars, trams, factories, universities, courts, land registries, laws to a place that was basically living in the Middle Ages for more then a millennia. The Austrians were conquerers but they meant to stay long term and incorporate all the places they brought into the empire. They were the most democratic society of that time incorporating tens of different nations and ethnic groups and religions into a society that by the standards then was very progressive, modern and open. Let's speak the truth for once.

My face has never been glued to screen more than when watching this documentary. Some of the facts that are stated out in this documentary are often ignored by the mainstream historians.

It shows how this war was inevitable and evidently planned for years. I really don't want to destroy the experience, watch the movie for yourself.

11 Historians from all round the world. 4 from Great Britain, 2 from France, 1 Russian, 1 Serbian, 1 Austrian and 1 German. What a great way of telling a story involving all of these nations.