The Archdukes: The Cause Of World War I

Through the book ‘Europe’s Last Summer’ David Fromkin tackles the issues of pre WWI Europe, and the surrounding political, economic, social, debacles that led paranoid countries to go to arms after nearly a full century of relative peace within the European continent. While Fromkin certainly points his fingers to all the nations of Europe his primary focus lies with Germany and Austria-Hungary. Though he continues to stress throughout much of the book that Kaiser Wilhelm II and Archduke Ferdinand were fervent keepers of the peace within their nations, the fault of the war ultimately could be laid at the feet of their two nations and their constant attempts at war-mongering. He claims the war could have been avoided for the moment, had all the nations of Europe wanted peace, but the two bad eggs of Europe drew them all into an unavoidable general war.

On June Twenty Eighth Archduke was traveling with his wife, when the driver got lost and went down the wrong road. Gavrilo Princip was a Serbian assassin who shot and killed Archduke and his wife. The assassination was used to start a rebellion that would create a much larger Serbian nation. Austrian ambassador was very unsettled by that, so he decides to get a friendship with Germany. They become allies on July fifth. Austrian wanted an apology from Serbia. But did not receive one. Austria-Hungary then declared war on Serbia. Therefore caused a giant war to break out (DBQ Project Essay Background).

World War I, also known as the first World War, or the Great War, was a global war originating in Europe the began on the 28th of July 1914 and lasted until the 11th of November 1918. World War I was a war that was fought between two sides with a few of the World’s greatest Nations of that time. The two sides were Triple Entente which included Britain, France, and Russia, and the Triple Alliance which was consisted of the countries Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. World War I left a mark on history as we know it, what could have possibly led to that war?, What were the underlying causes of World War I?. The major causes of “The Great War” or WWI consist of four long-term causes and one short-term cause. The common acronym that’s used for the four long-term causes to help students remember the causes of WWI is M.A.I.N; the acronym stands for Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, and Nationalism,and the short-term cause The Assassination of the ArchDuke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo on the 28th of June 1914. To put all of this in a simpler way the five major causes of WWI was Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, Nationalism, and the assassination of the ArchDuke Franz Ferdinand. Each of topics played a significant role in the reasons why WWI would begin.

In this essay I will be outlining the key points in why the First World War broke out in 19 14. Many people tend to say "Because Archduke Ferdinand got shot." Still others have blamed it on the increased independence and Imperialism in Hungary to Russia’s growing military. If I had to answer the question myself, the answer would be all of the above, and more. The events from June of 1914 through August of 1914 can be described as one thing leading to another.

There was a lot of reasons World War 1 commenced imperialism, assassination, nationalism, alliances, and militarism are a few of WW1’s causes. On June 28th, 1914 archduke of Austria-Hungary and his wife were on their way home from an event when their driver took a wrong turn and Blackhand member Gavrilo Princip just happened to be in the alleyway where they stopped to turn around. Gavrilo Princip quickly pulled out his gun and shot both Archduke and his wife. This Assassination caused Serbia and Austria-Hungary to declare war which lead to WW1. Militarism is the belief or desire of a government of people that I country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests. Militarism denoted a rise in military expenditure, an increase in military and naval forces, more influence of the military men upon the policies of the civilian government, and a preference for force as a solution to problems. This caused the war because it built up nations armies and when you have a huge army that's good you use it. Imperialism is a policy of extending another country‘s power and influence through colonization, and use of military force to create empires they exploited weaker countries. This policy of one nation dominating other countries or regions caused the war because countries wanted to be huge empires like Great Britain. There were many causes of World War 1 but the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand,

On June 28, 1914, the Archduke of Austria-Hungary, Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated. That event marked the first phase of World War I (Grayzel 10). Soon afterward nations throughout Europe announced declarations of war. By the end of October countries as far away as Japan, China and Brazil had become involved (Grayzel 11).  Susan R. Grayzel in the “Introduction: The First World War and the Making of a Modern, Global Conflict” from The First World War: A Brief History with Documents”, explores a variety of contributing reasons for the Great War (Grayzel 9). The causes most

The huge national investment in military helped the countries to prepare for the war. In actuality, all the countries had known that the war was unavoidable. (Doc 9) French writer Emile Zola thinks that “The world can live only by eating and being eaten. And it is only the warlike nations that have prospered; a nation dies when it disarms.” (Doc 2) Countries made meticulous plan to defend themselves by increasing militarism. The expenditures of the great powers on armaments of the European countries increased dramatically. (Doc 10) However, the political leaders did not make efforts to prevent the war. Instead, they increased the mobilization of their armies for war. (Doc 11) Countries were aware of that the world war must bring out, the only thing was a trigger, the assassination of Ferdinand. The relationship between Austria-Hungary and Serbia was terrible before the assassination. In the ultimatum sent to Serbia on July 23, 1914, Austria-Hungary condemned the movement against the Monarchy and asked for collarboration against these subversions. (Doc 8) However, the tensions became uncontrollable when on July 28, Ferdinand was assassinated by a a nationalist Serbian young

Nationalism is a sense of pride one has towards their nation's achievements and the belief that the nation should be able to control the government, and each facet of manufacturing. After Napoleon’s exile to Elba, the Congress of Vienna tried to resolve the issues in Europe. Delegates from Austria, Britain, Prussia and Russia wanted a new Europe that left Germany and Italy as separate states. Strong nationalist groups led to the reuniting of Italy in 1861 and Germany in 1871. The resolution at the end of the Franco-Prussian war left France irritated at the loss of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany. France was destined to recover this lost territory. Large areas of both Austria-Hungary and Serbia were home to opposing nationalist groups, but all had the same vision to have freedom from the states in which they lived. (Crocker, 2017).

The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and the rise of Nationalism combined to spark WW1 because Austria- Hungary, where he was from, declared war with Serbia, which are the people who killed him. I thought this was expected from Austria-Hungary. Especially back then if someone important was killed they would start a huge war over it, just to get justice.

While there is never just a single event that has led to the start of a world war, or any other serious war, there is often one thing that triggers long lived tensions and thus war ensues. Such was the case in WWI with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. There were many tensions that existed prior to his assassination, but it was his assassination which triggered the war, his assassination that served as an excuse, and perhaps the last straw, so to speak, which led to the First World War. The following paper examines the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and its relationship to the start of WWI.

Although the preponderance of people in the world today believe that the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of the Austria-Hungary Empire caused the ensuing “Great War”, it was not the sole reason behind the Great War and the carnage that permeated all of Europe afterwards from 1914 to 1919. Many people wonder if the Great War and the millions of deaths of both soldiers and civilians could have been avoided if the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was not killed on June 28th, of 1914. Many theories have been formulated, however, according to Henry Kissinger, The well respected political scientist, “The war would happen one way or another.” Henry Kissinger was noted to have said in an interview with Business Insider that, “The Great War was an unavoidable catastrophe”. Although many people believe that the Great War, was solely caused by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the Great War and the resulting casualties of over 37 million, in all

It all started because of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, by a Serbian citizen of Austria-Hungary and Black Hand member. A month went by and Europe was in a war that would end all wars. The United States remained in a state of neutrality until the Germans torpedoed a British ship, the Lusitania, after hearing that it was carrying arms for their enemies. The United States didn’t choose until they had good reason to- the Germans killing innocent people for an unstable reason.

While there was a chain of events that directly led to the outbreak of World War One, the actual root causes are much deeper and part of continued debate and discussion. Decades before the beginning of the war even began, were the ideas that gave nationalism, militarism and imperialism a position of upmost importance. These beliefs gave each country a strong wish for gaining a powerful military position and that war was the way to obtain this. These three concepts got people excited imagining war as a glorious adventure of opportunity. All the countries who were looking forward to war, waiting for the right moment, assassination of Franz Ferdinand was a catalyst in the the beginning of the war. This prime opportunity drew Austria-Hungary, Germany

World War 1 was caused by multiple causes, but the main ones I will be speaking about in this paper are: The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and The Systems of Alliances in European Countries. The assassination of the Archduke was on the 28th of June 1914. He was not the only direct victim of this. His wife Sophie was also murder in this killing. The other topic of discussion in this essay (The Systems of Alliances in European countries) was a MASSIVE factor not only in the start of the world war, but the reason it was so widespread.