Early successes gave way to embarrassing defeats as Franz Joseph I was outsmarted by savvier leaders on the world stage. In 1914, when his successor was assassinated in Serbia, Franz declared war — and within weeks, the first World War had begun.
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Nov 2022
Thanksgiving Special: Just Add Arsenic
Over the ages, arsenic has had many lives — beauty fad, household product, medical prescription… and weapon of choice wielded by killers everywhere from Alabama to ancient Rome. Brine your turkey, knead your dough, and listen to our Thanksgiving Special on the regime-changing, as ... Show More
42m 41s
Jun 2024
465. The Murder of Franz Ferdinand: The Killer (Part 1)
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to one of the world’s greatest empires, in June 1914, set in motion a series of events that would culminate in the First World War, where more than 15 million people would lose their lives. Franz Ferdinand’s assassin, Gavrilo Pr ... Show More
1h 4m
Jul 2024
470. The Road to The Great War: The Kaiser’s Blank Cheque (Part 2)
In the wake of the cataclysmic assassination of Franz Ferdinand on the 28th of June 1914, in Austria, the long percolating question of what to do about Serbia, reached a climax. At last, they had been handed an opportunity to take decisive action. On Sunday 5th of July an emissar ... Show More
45m 8s
Jul 2024
473. The Road to The Great War: The Tsar Chooses War (Part 5)
“We have been forced to draw the sword”.
Following the expiry of Austria’s Ultimatum on Saturday 25th July 1914, the Kaiser and the Tsar - friends and cousins, long desirous of peace between their two nations - found themselves in a new and highly precarious situation. Even so, t ... Show More
55m 29s
Apr 2024
World War I | Preparedness | 1
In June 1914, a gunman assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir apparent to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This event set off a chain reaction that plunged Europe’s major powers, and the wider world, into all-out war. President Woodrow Wilson was determined to keep the Unite ... Show More
40m 33s
Mar 2023
Early Years: Hitler in the First World War
June 1914. Sarajevo. An assassination on the street disrupts the entire balance of power in Europe. World War One explodes into action. Adolf Hitler relocates to Munich. After dodging the draft, he later embraces life as a soldier. But then, serving in Flanders in 1918, a traumat ... Show More
42m 1s
Mar 2021
Adolf Hitler Part 2: Hitler in the First World War
June 1914, Sarajevo. An assassination on the street disrupts the entire balance of power in Europe. The First World War explodes into action. Adolf Hitler relocates to Munich. After dodging the draft, he later embraces life as a soldier. But then, serving in Flanders in 1918, a t ... Show More
44m 18s
Jul 2024
469. The Road to The Great War: Countdown to Armageddon (Part 1)
By the end of July 1914, the world hovered on the edge of a cataclysmic world war; Austria was at war with Serbia, Russia with Germany, and an ultimatum had been handed to Belgium. The July crisis had resolved itself in the most calamitous way possible. But how did this state of ... Show More
48m 40s
Jul 2024
467. The Murder of Franz Ferdinand: The Victim (Part 3)
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, as heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was one of the most important men in the world. But he was a lonely man, not helped by the fact that, in spite of custom and tradition, he had chosen for wife Sophie, an aristocrat who nonetheless was not noble eno ... Show More
58m 2s