The Long Road to War

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..

Being born in a land that was itself surrounded and oppressed by larger empires throughout history, this documentary hit especially hard.

It does not only make you realize that man will never learn from mistakes, but also that history has repeated itself and will sadly continue to repeat itself going forward.

What impressed me the most was that they brought input of historians from different countries (that succeeded the beligerents of this war).

What was fascinating, on the other side, was that the plan/idea for the war was actually in place long before I would have thought.

Absolutely worth the watch to understand why that is the case, 10/10.

At first, I've dismissed the recommendation by Netflix to watch this movie. I've had my share of disappointment with algorithms and documentaries. What changed my mind is the fact that the making of The Long Road to War was almost a one-man-show.

In terms of delivery, The Long Road to War had some similarities with the works of Adam Curtis, my favorite author in the genre for almost two decades. Archive footage and interviews with the experts on the subject matter were expertly mixed.

In terms of content, it was neither provocative nor burdened by conspiracy theories. It is a well known fact that the superpowers of the era eagerly went to war, not only the leaders and the elites but also those who were to die in the conflict.

And if you believe the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo was the cause of the First World War, than I doubt the quality of the history class you've attended. It might have been the reason at best. The causes are well described in this documentary.

In terms of iMDb start The Long Road to War is on the top of the scale.

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.