First World War

Sarajevo’s Elusive Assassin

Numerous untruths have persisted about Gavrilo Princip, the man who killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand. One of them was used by Austria-Hungary as grounds for its declaration of war against Serbia in 1914.

Clemenceau: The Politician

Sometimes admired, even occasionally popular; John Roberts describes how Georges Clemenceau towered over French political life for nearly half a century.

Armistice: November 11th, 1918

The manner in which the Great War was fought after 1916, writes John Terraine, has decided the nature of the century we live in.

Victory on Lake Nyasa

The opening naval battle of the First World War took place not in the North Sea but in Central Africa in August 1914. It would change the course of the African conflict in Britain’s favour, says Janie Hampton.

The July Crisis

Why did the diplomatic deceits and deceptions that took place across Europe in the summer of 1914 lead to the First World War? Annika Mombauer seeks answers to one of history’s most complex and controversial questions.

The Curragh Incident

In March 1914, writes Robert Blake, it seemed that Ulster might have to he coerced into accepting the Irish Home Rule Bill. A crisis was provoked when a number of British Army officers resolved to he dismissed rather than obey the Government's orders.

Mutiny at Wilhelmshaven, 1918

David Woodward describes how the crews of the destroyer flotilla of the German High Sea Fleet mutinied at the end of the First World War.