BBC - The First World War (2003) Part 3 Global War

Ten-part series based on the book by Hew Strachan, Professor of the History of War at Oxford which tells the story as never before, dispelling the myths and offering new and provocative answers to core questions about the war's causes, conduct and legacy. It features hundreds of eyewitness accounts from frontline soldiers, generals, statesmen, children and women from all sides in the conflict. The First World War shaped the twentieth century. It sparked the Russian Revolution and launched America as a world power. The fault-line from its failed peace settlement led to a second terrible world war barely twenty years later. We live with its unresolved consequences; in the Middle East, the Balkans and Ireland.

Part 3: Global War

War for Europe meant war for the world. Germany gambled that Britain might risk everything to protect her empire, even victory on the Western Front. So, to divert British resources, maverick German commanders led the British a dance across the Pacific, Africa and the Middle East. They became legends in Germany and Britain - men like Admiral Graf von Spee, who inflicted Britain's greatest naval defeat for 250 years. The global war sucked in Africans, Chinese and Indians to serve in France. Meanwhile, the war in Africa exploited its people and left behind a wasteland, but sowed the seeds of self-determination.

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