The Storyline of World War One (1914-1918): The Great War: The Causes Of the World War 1 : The Great War

The first that causes the Great War was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. In June 1914, a Serbian-nationalist terrorist group called the Black Hand sent groups to assassinate the Archduke in some meeting in Bosnia-Herzegovina check on imperial inspection. Their first attempt failed when a driver avoided a grenade thrown at their car. However, later that day a Serbian nationalist named Gavrilo Princip assassinated him and his wife while they were in Sarajevo, Bosnia which was part of Austria-Hungary. This was in protest to Austria-Hungary having control of this region. Serbia wanted ruled the Bosnia and Herzegovina as the state is one of their culture group and to expand their territory. This assassination led to Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia. When Russia began to mobilize due to its alliance with Serbia, Germany declared war on Russia. Thus began the expansion of the war to include all those involved in the mutual defence alliances. The story began of the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, an ally and great friend of Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, met with him in mid-June 1914 to discuss the situation in the Balkan state. Two weeks after the meeting, on June 28, Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, were in Sarajevo to inspect the imperial armed forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina as the state its under Austria-Hungary territory. When 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip and his fellow members of the nationalist Young Bosnia movement learned of the archduke’s planned visit, they plan and took an action. Supplied with weapons by a Serbian terrorist organization called the Black Hand, Princip and his cohorts travelled to Sarajevo in time for the archduke’s visit. The royal couple was touring the city in an open car, with surprisingly little security; one of the nationalists threw a bomb at their car, but it rolled off the back of the vehicle, wounding an army officer and some bystanders. Later that day, the imperial car took a wrong turn near where Princip happened to be standing. Seeing his chance, Princip fired into the car, shooting Franz Ferdinand and Sophie at point-blank range. He then turned the gun on himself, but was tackled by a mob of bystanders who restrained him until the police arrived. The archduke and his wife were rushed away to seek medical attention, but both died within the hour. The second main cause is the race on military power in the brink of war. In all of the Great powers, military spending increased greatly in the years prior to the war. The military men in France is 970,000 men, The German Empire consists of 760,000 men, The Austria-Hungary is 480,000 men, The British Empire is 430,000 men, The Russian Empire is 1,500,000. In contrast of this many men become military personnel, the war is within sight and cannot be prevented as the France, German Empire and Russia shows a huge amount of military being conscripted.