What started world war I ?

Gabro Princip as he is arrested shortly after assassinating Prince Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

World War 1 was caused by a series of events triggered by Serbia’s response to Austria-Hungary’s demands, and the treaty alliance system that ensured that many other countries would be drawn into the conflict.

At the start of World War One, Europe was a powder keg waiting to be lit. As soon as Archduke Franz Ferdinand – the heir of Austria-Hungary’s throne – was assassinated on June 28, 1914, the fuse was lit. Ferdinand’s death happened under the care of the Black Hand, a Serbian nationalist secret society and it caused a series of events culminating into the world’s first ever global war.

Common knowledge suggests that the war started all because of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria but this notion isn’t 100% correct.

Austria-Hungary’s Reaction to the Assassination of Their Heir
Surprisingly, the people did not care about the assassination itself. Even the Austrian newspapers reported that it was a general consensus amongst political circles that the assassination was for the best. The emperor Franz Josef expressed his relief because he didn’t like Ferdinand at all.

Nobody cared about the assassination itself, but there had been thoughts of a ‘preventative war’ that they wanted to wage against Serbia. This war was meant to be short and sweet but due to the treaty alliance system that was in place, a small conflict turned into one of the bloodiest wars in human history with over 15 million deaths.

Austria-Hungary reacted to the death of their heir by taking the opportunity to come down strong on the Serbians to crush the nationalist movement residing in the country and thereby cementing their influence on the Balkans. They now had the support of the German’s who promised that they would aid in a war with Serbia, and possibly Russia if they chose to go into battle.

Austria-Hungary did not expect Russia to join in on the war as it was expected to be a small one that would be over fairly quickly.

After waiting three weeks, Austria-Hungary issued Serbia an ultimatum with demands that the assassins be brought to justice. Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia with severe terms hoping that Serbia would deny compliance and they would be able to go into a limited war to reclaim territory on the Balkans.

Serbia got the ultimatum and they responded in a positive manner, but changed a few clauses in their response. Austria-Hungary saw this as a reason to go to war.