There is no doubting that the four M. However, on the 28th June , an incident took place in Sarajevo, which would ignite the powder keg that Europe had become and trigger a series of seemingly unstoppable events.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir apparent to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was visiting Sarajevo, amid rising tensions in the Balkans—especially in neighbouring Serbia. Surprisingly, the Archduke, who had been accompanied by his wife, Sophie, drove through the streets of the Bosnian capital in an open sports motorcar with its top folded down.
Security provided for the Archduke during his stay in Sarajevo was altogether rather lax, especially considering the failed assassination attempt on his uncle, Emperor Franz Joseph, a few years earlier, by the Serbian secret military society, Unification or Death —colloquially known as the Black Hand. And the Black Hand just so happened to be in town on that fateful day, in the summer of The motorcade then sped up, quickly making its way to the safety of the town hall, and foiling any other attempts the would-be assassins had planned.
As the driver attempted to reverse the car back onto the correct road, a second Bosnian Serb, called Gavrilo Princip, happened to be right next to the car and took advantage of this opportunity by firing his gun twice into the motorcar, killing both the Archduke and his wife, Sophie. However, although it is true that the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand created a major political situation in the Balkans, it is not known for certain whether this act on its own would have been enough to start a world war.
There were also a number of other immediate causes, which when taken together with the M. Following the assassination of the Archduke, events took place at a frightening rate.
What became known as the July Crisis of , began with an exchange of letters between Franz Joseph and Wilhelm, beginning on the 5th July. The Austrian Emperor wrote informing the German Kaiser that Austria-Hungary were considering taking military action against Serbia, following the assassination of his nephew. Although there was no actual proof at this point, the Emperor Franz Joseph and his top officials were convinced that it was neighbouring Serbia who was behind the assassination of his nephew, providing the assassins with intelligence and weapons.
The final two paragraphs, of what was a long reply to the Austrian Emperor, stated the following:. Rather than doing that immediately, however, Austria-Hungary instead sent an ultimatum to Serbia with a list of ten demands, which she believed that Serbia could not possibly accept. The Schlieffen Plan, on the other hand, was most definitely an act of war.
The bravado between the nations might have cooled down and diplomacy and common sense may have prevailed. Each of these topics played a significant role in the reasons why WWI would begin. The M-A-I-N acronym is often used to analyse the war — militarism, alliances, imperialism and nationalism.
These five causes include the four long-term causes militarism, alliances, imperialism and nationalism discussed in this reading and one short-term cause the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. The immediate cause of World War I that made the aforementioned items come into play alliances, imperialism, militarism, nationalism was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary.
In June , a Serbian-nationalist terrorist group called the Black Hand sent groups to assassinate the Archduke. The Allied Powers were largely formed as a defense against the aggression of Germany and the Central Powers. Germany lost its colonies in Africa and Asia. What was a direct result of World War I? Germany lost the most land as a result of World War I. Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. It has been suggested that Germany was motivated by imperial ambitions to invade Belgium and France.
Certainly the expansion of the British and French empires, fired by the rise of industrialism and the pursuit of new markets, caused some resentment in Germany, and the pursuit of a short, aborted imperial policy in the late nineteenth century.
However the suggestion that Germany wanted to create a European empire in is not supported by the pre-war rhetoric and strategy. Nationalism was also a new and powerful source of tension in Europe. It was tied to militarism, and clashed with the interests of the imperial powers in Europe.
Nationalism created new areas of interest over which nations could compete. For example, The Habsburg empire was tottering agglomeration of 11 different nationalities, with large slavic populations in Galicia and the Balkans whose nationalist aspirations ran counter to imperial cohesion.
Indeed, Serbian nationalism created the trigger cause of the conflict — the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The historical dialogue on this issue is vast and distorted by substantial biases. The notion that Germany was bursting with newfound strength, proud of her abilities and eager to showcase them, was overplayed. Blame has been directed at every single combatant at one point or another, and some have said that all the major governments considered a golden opportunity for increasing popularity at home.
The Schlieffen plan could be blamed for bringing Britain into the war, the scale of the war could be blamed on Russia as the first big country to mobilise, inherent rivalries between imperialism and capitalism could be blamed for polarising the combatants. Every point has some merit, but in the end what proved most devastating was the combination of an alliance network with the widespread, misguided belief that war is good for nations, and that the best way to fight a modern war was to attack.
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