The World's War

David Olusoga tells the story of First World War from the perspective of those of who made it a truly global conflict - the millions of African and Asian troops and ancillaries who served alongside Europeans. He begins by examining how the British and the French drew immediately on the military resources of their respective empires at the outbreak of the conflict, with Sikhs, Gurkhas, Garhwalis and Pathans from the Raj and Spahis, Zouaves and Senegalese from north and west Africa being among the first to experience the horrors of trench warfare.

David Olusoga explores how Germany enlisted Muslims from north Africa and the Middle East to join the fight against Britain and its allies during the First World War. Muslim PoWs and deserters held in special camps in Germany were indoctrinated to see Kaiser Wilhelm II as a lover of Islam and a supporter of national independence wherever the British or French flags flew. General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck led an army of east African troops in an insurgency that cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of black troops.