On 28^th June 1914, an Austro-Hungarian was assassinated by a Serbian. But was this enough to cause a world war involving more than 30 countries and the death of 10 million soldiers?

Long-term Causes of World War One

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand may have been the spark that lit the fuse to the world war, but the explosions between countries had bigger factors contributing to them. These were (Sentences in this colour are only examples):

• Military Rivalry is competition over the size of your country's army. This would lead to one country getting scared of the growth rate of another country's army. E.g. if Germany started building its navy, Britain would get scared and attack Germany while it is still weak. In the World War, Germany had fears of Russia army growing.

• Colonial Rivalry is competition for more to create a bigger empire. This caused war because if two rival countries want to conquer the same country, they will have a battle. E.g. If Germany wanted to conquer Belgium, and so did France, France would attack Germany and vice-versa. This might result in France’s allies and colonies being dragged into the war and the same might happen to Germany which might result in a world war. It would also give an excuse E.g. for Britain to attack Germany’s army because of its growth. In which case Britain’s allies and colonies would get involved.

• Nationalism is when members of one country consider their country to be superior to other countries. To prove their superiority they might invade or attack another country. This can then result in a world war if the allies of the invaded country get involved and then their colonies get involved. The feel of superiority may also result in the country building its army to show off its wealth and end up in the consequences of both military rivalry and economical rivalry.

• Economical Rivalry is competition over economic power. It can lead to countries building weapons to show off their wealth. If another country is rich then they might want to stop that country getting richer so that country is attacked. Also to get richer they might find that a weaker country has good resources and try to conquer it leading to the consequences colonial rivalry. They might also develop their military, which in turn leads to the consequences of military rivalry. For example Germany might want to show off its wealth to France so it would line up some heavy artillery towards France scaring the French and France might attack Germany.

• Alliances played a big part in the formation of a world war as it meant that if two countries got into war, the whole alliance would have to back them up. For example if Britain and Germany had a war, the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance would have to get involved. In the world war Austria-Hungary had a war with Serbia and for that reason Russia helped Serbia and Germany helped Austria-Hungary.

Balkan Wars

The Balkan wars were two short wars fought on the Balkan Peninsula during 1912-1913, and Serbia was the most successful country of those involved. It doubled the size of its land and this filled the Serbs with Nationalistic Pride. There were also Serbs living in Bosnia-Herzegovina and they wanted more and more to become part of Serbia.

But this meant that the Austro-Hungarian rulers were fear of a mutiny. Serbs in Serbia also had the same wishes to have Bosnia-Herzegovina as part of Serbia.Although compared to Austro-Hungaria, Serbia was relatively small, Serbia and Russia had culturistic and linguistic ties and this meant Russia was a substantial friend.

Plans for War

General Schlieffen’s plans for war meant that if France is attacked via Belgium, England will be ready to Germany, but Schlieffen assumes that Britain will not keep up its treaty with Belgium. Although England doesn’t have much care about Belgium, England will want to keep the Coastline

The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

On 28^th June 1914, Arch duke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, while visiting Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovina, members of a secret Serbian nationalist group called The Black Hand. The members involved were Gavrillo Princip, Nedjelko Cabrinovic, Muhamed Mehmedbasic, Trifko Grabez, Danilo Ilic, Vaso Cubrilovic, Cvijetko Popovic, Misko Jovanovic and Veljko Cubrilovic, who were instructed by Dragutin Dimitrijevic (Head of Serbian Military Intelligence) to perform the assassination.

Which Factor Played the Biggest Part?

I think that Alliances, is the biggest factor to cause a world war because it was reason that if any of Military Rivalry, Colonial Rivalry, Nationalism or Economical Rivalry were to cause a war between two countries, without Alliances, there would have been no other countries getting involved.

Sources

· Primary Source- http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/ir1/

· http://www.historyonthenet.com/WW1/causes.htm