On 28 June 1914 in Sarajevo, a Bosnian Serb student shot the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The assassination plunged the world into a global conflict that was to scar human history and redefine the meaning of the word war. Although centred on Europe, the First World War was a global war that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. More than nine million combatants were killed; a casualty rate exacerbated by the billigerents’ tactical stalemate. Author Pat Morgan explains how the conflict became one of the deadliest in history, paving the way for major political changes yet sowing the seeds of an even greater conflict come 20 years later.