World War I Term Papers and Research Papers

 

 

The scene for the World War I was already set but the incident of the murder of the crown prince of Austria acted as a catalyst. On June 28, 1914, the “Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, and his wife were shot dead by a young Serbian nationalist of the Black Hand at Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital.” The couple was on their way to an annual visit to the annexed provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A bomb that missed the target and were again shot with a revolver first attacked them. The killer was Gavrio Prinzipe, an eighth-grade student, a native of the annexed province of Herzegovina.
The main reason behind the assassination of the Archduke was his intentions to include Serbia in the Austro-Hungarian kingdom. This plan was against the wishes of the Serbian people and therefore, they reacted in such a way. The Austrians took the incident as an attack on monarchy. They also found an excuse to crush Serbia in order to get rid of its threat forever.
Germany and Britain were the main political powers of Europe in the early 20th century. The long-term economic and imperial rivalry between the two was on rise. Britain entered into an alliance with France and Russia while Germany joined hands with Italy and Austria-Hungary and the political scene of Europe was thus painted. Although the killing of the Archduke proved to be the immediate cause of the war but apple of discord was there since years. “The fundamental causes of the conflict, however, were rooted deeply in the European history of the previous century, particularly in the political and economic policies that prevailed in Europe after 1871, the year that Germany emerged as a major European power.”

The Bosnia aggression against the Francis Ferdinand provided an opportunity to Germany and Britain to settle scores with each other. Austria, after reconfirmation of support from Germany, sent a forty-eight hours ultimatum to Serbia. The terms and conditions dictated were extremely hard to be accepted by Serbia, and a pre-assumed refusal paved the way for an Austrian attack. The Austrian government declared war on July 28, 1914 and Belgrade was bombed on July 29. Russia came to the rescue of Serbia after assurance from France. Fearing the aggression of France and Russia, Germany entered the arena on August 1. The German alliance came to be known as the Central Powers and the British side was called the Allied Powers. Japan joined the Allieds and the Turkish Empire and Bulgaria united with the Central. The war though initially erupted in Europe but came to be a world affair because of the involvement of British, French and German colonies all around the world.
 

 

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