The poisonous legacy of the First World War—which officially ended on November 11, 1918—continues to be felt on the French-Belgian border to this very day, where a 38 square mile (100 square kilometer) stretch of land is still officially an uninhabitable no-man’s-land, to which human access is legally barred. The cordoned-off area, little known outside…
Just over 100 years ago, in July and August 1914, events unfolded which are known at least in outline by anyone the least bit familiar with world history. But before the first shot was fired of what soon would be called the Great War, and later the First World War, there was the death of a family man and his wife. This family man, though, was heir to an empire, and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Este set in motion a series of events which would lead to the first truly worldwide war and bring about the near collapse of white civilization.