World War 1

World War I has a cause of multiple events. The most major was the assassination of Arch-Duke Franz Ferdinand and his wife on June 28, 1914. What happened is that there were 7 assassins the day that Franz Ferdinand and his wife -the Duchess of Hohenburg of the Austio-Hungarian- Empire were driving through the town for an official visit to the city hall. The seven of them setup up in six different locations with a variety of tactics to kill the Arch Duke. All of them failed at this and the assassination was unsuccessfully. It was not until later when assassin Gavrilo Princip spotted the car as it turned down the wrong street and shot at it, killing both the Arch-Duke and his wife instantly! The ultimate reason for the assassination was to create an independent Serbia. What is incredible about this is how just 1 single person changed the world.

On August 4th, 1914, Germany invaded Belgium. Britain declared war on Germany. France and Russia supported Britain. Austria supported Germany. Only Italy did not get involved - yet.

Every country concerned was convinced that the war would last only from August to Christmas 1914. No-one envisaged the horrors of (History Learning Site).

Kegley, W. Charles. Wittkopf, Eugene R.. World Politics: Trend and Transformation. Thomson Wadsworth. 2005.

Shepherd, Gordon-Brook. Archduke of Sarajevo: The Romance and Tragedy of Franz Ferdinand of Austria. Little Brown & Co. 1984. (No preview available through Google.)