The Sleepwalkers: The July Crisis Of 1914. On June 28Th,

Relations between the French and Germans were additionally beset, while France and Russia likewise had their disparities. The leaders of Austria-Hungary considered Serbia in charge of Archduke Francis Ferdinand 's demise in a terrorist assault in 1914. Leaders of Austria-Hungary wanted to rally the people of their vanishing empire going to war against the minuscule Serbia, trusting a

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).

Serbia was upset of Bosnia being placed under Austrian rule because of their devotion to Slavic nationalism, and Austria was aware of their disappointment and unhappiness. Austria suggested eliminating Pan-Slavism because they were worried about the idea of Serbian terrorists in their country because of Serbia's aggression towards them. Austria was aware that Bosnia favored Slavic nationalism just like Serbia. Austria-Hungary could have avoided intervening in the social and political ideas of getting rid of Slavic nationalism and being oppressive to the Serbian people. By sending an Austrian political figure to Serbia during the turmoil was an unintelligent action for Austria to make because it was a fact that the Archduke's life would be put in danger and that he would most likely be killed. The Austrian government even expressed how the atmosphere created by the malicious agitation in Serbia sprang up a series of murderous attacks on high functionaries of the Monarchy, which ended in the execrable crime against the exalted person of the heir to the throne, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which had been carefully prepared in Serbia(The Austro-Hungarian Red Book). Austria knew that Serbia

This leads to the conclusion that the European powers were ready for war in 1914. It is important to realize that since the European powers made alliances with each other, small arguments concerning one power might lead to a war involving all the powers. In the case of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, this situation created a serious misunderstanding between Austria-Hungary and Serbia and as a result, the other nations in Europe involved in alliances with either 2 countries were obligated to support them. Alliances were originally created strictly for defensive purposes but by 1910, many of the alliances had changed their character like the Austro-German alliance. Germany promised to give military aid to Austria-Hungary to invade Serbia and on the other hand, Russia provided Serbia with military assistance. As alliances had become instruments of national aggression, the chances of war doubled. The probability of Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia due to the death of their heir increased because Austria-Hungary could rely on the support of Germany to help achieve its goal. In addition, this fragile interlock of alliances relied on the leaders of the European countries to act reasonably however, this was not the case in the situation of World War 1. The Kaiser of Germany felt his country was being denied the chance to unleash its full potential by Britain so the power hungry ruler was determined to

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on June 28, 1914 (Brook-Shepherd 250), gave the Austro-Hungarians the justification needed to attack the Pan-Slavic threat. All that was known at the time was that the assassins were Slavs (Kohn 255) and that they had committed the crime in the hotbed of Pan-Slavic attention in Bosnia. It was later revealed that the murderer was associated with the afore-mentioned “Black Hand” group that advocated unification of all Slavs at whatever the cost (MacKenzie 61) The immediate significance of the murder was that it gave Austria-Hungary a pretext for suppressing the Pan-Slavic

Similarly, Austria Hungary made alliance with Serbia to stop Russia from gaining control of Serbia. While, in 1882 Germany and Austria-Hungary had an alliance with Italy to stop taking sides with Russia.

Austria-Hungary was not ready to let Serbia, under the protection of Russia, take over territories. Balkan was one of the most unstable areas at the time, due to its turbulent history and ethnic diversity. Along the increase of nationalism, arms race was creating growing tensions that eventually escalated into war. Germany was enlarging their military power, and France followed up with doubling their army. These actions could be taken as the preparation for what was about to happen.

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

While many nations were involved in alliances against Germany, few were involved in alliances with Germany. As a result of Italy’s lack of dedication to the Triple Alliance, Germany became paranoid of losing their vital alliance with the Austria-Hungary, causing them to go to any length to preserve Austria-Hungary, according to Document Nine. This assurance of support was a fatal error by Germany, giving Austria-Hungary the infamous ‘Blank Cheque’ that guaranteed full support to Austria-Hungary for any actions they would take in response to the assassination. Upon receiving the blank cheque, Austria-Hungary acted as stupidly and aggressively as possible without regard for diplomatic repercussions, as indicated by their unreasonable (if not impossible) requests in their ultimatum to Serbia demonstrated in Document Three, resulting in an Austro-Hungarian invasion of Serbia which prompted the domino effect leading to the outbreak of the Great War. As Germany was responsible for pushing the first domino, they were held responsible for the start of the war by the

A serbian terrorist group called the “Black Hand” killed Francis Ferdinand. After the assassination, Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum or a final set of demands (457). In the ultimatum Austria-Hungary accused Serbia for not having a strict enough government and restricting the press. Also for allowing crimes to happen against the monarchy. The ultimatum demanded Serbia to stop all propaganda against their government and allow the Austria-Hungarian government representatives to suppress the subversive movement (Document 3).

The Serbian nationalists were the main cause of Franz Ferdinand’s assassination and aided in the start of World War I. After the Austria-Hungary Empire annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina, the country of Serbia encouraged Serbians living there to rebel “against Austria-Hungarian rule in frequent protests and civil disturbances” (Pendergast 16). The Serbians began to fight for independence against rule of Austria-Hungary which led to the assassination of the Archduke of the Austria-Hungary Empire, Franz Ferdinand. The Black Hand was the terrorist group that murdered Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie. Not only was it “led by Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijevic, the head of Serbian military intelligence” but Austria’s Serbian ambassador is said to have known about the assassination beforehand (Pendergast 21). Serbian’s were sick of being ruled in an empire, so “militant groups like the Black Hand, wanted to untie the Slavic people in an independent pan-Slavic state” (Pendergast 45). They were determined to put all the Slavic people together as a separate nationality and destroyed people who got in their way, including Franz Ferdinand, the Archduke of the Austria-Hungary Empire. With Franz Ferdinand being the heir to the Austria-Hungarian throne, the Austria-Hungarian Empire began to call for a war against the Serbians but needed allies in order to have a chance of winning.

Ferdinand and his wife had arranged to tour Bosnia. As the couple rode through Sarajevo, the capital of Austro-Hungarian, on June 28, 1914, a man by the name of Gavrilo Princip jumped on their car and fired two shots, killing Ferdinand and his wife. Gavrilo Princip, was linked to a Serbian terrorist group called the Black hand("World War I History." ).

Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1896. He was a threat to the Black Hand Terrorist group, a group of radical Serbian nationalists. They pledged “to destabilize the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire in order to incorporate their Serb population into a greater Serbia” (CITE) However the Archduke’s goals were “strengthening the Austro-Hungarian Empire” (CITE) which was contrary to the Serbs' desires. They feared that if he came into power, he would continue to persecute the Serbs, henceforth the decision to assassinate him.

The alliance system, which at that time was used to prevent any war, has caused this huge war when Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on Serbia, and making it ineluctable. This proves that the blank cheque that was given to Austria was reasonable, for Austria was Germany’s ally, and as allies, they should support each other. The same was done with Russia with countries in the Balkans. As Austro-Hungarian Empire declares war on Serbia, Russia mobilizes her army and prepares her troops to help the Serbs to protect themselves from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Germany,

One of the reasons led to World War One was the assassination of Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary by a Serbian (Fromkin 121). Although multiple reasons have been affiliated to his assassination, most of those reasons revolve around upholding Serbia’s power. On the one hand, Austria-Hungary had planned to attack Serbia since it was at its weakest point due to the adverse effects of the Balkan War they had just undergone (Fromkin 122). On the other hand, Serbia was making an effort to regain control over Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was under the control of Austria-Hungary (Fromkin 122). Before the assassination of Franz, the Bosnia-Herzegovina crisis had heightened to a point where Austria intended to invade Serbia (Fromkin 74). It was evident that Serbia, through the assassination of Franz, was seeking to retain its independence and protect its regions from Austria-Hungary’s influence by intimidating