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On a warm June day in 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife Sophie were visiting the Bosnian city of Sarajevo. After narrowly avoiding an assassination attempt, they headed to the Town Hall for a reception. On their return journey they were forced to slow down and virtually stop while making a sharp turn onto the Latin Bridge. Seizing his opportunity, nineteen-year-old Gavrilo Princip rushed out from a coffee shop and fired two shots at close range to his targets. The royal couple were hit and both died within minutes. Historians consider the shootings to be a major trigger for the beginning of the First World War. Retrace the final moments of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and then read two eyewitness accounts of the murders. |
 Assassination illustrated in the Italian newspaper Domenica del Corriere, 12 July 1914. Public domain, Achille Beltrame. |
While the Sarajevo assassination might have triggered the First World War, there were other causes for tension in Europe. In the years before 1914 the great powers had gradually split into two blocs. As a result, each country was obliged to help an ally if that ally was threatened.
European power blocs before the First World War. Public domain.
Read about the underlying causes of the outbreak of the war: militarism, alliances, imperialism, nationalism, the Moroccan Crises of 1905 and 1911, and the Balkans Wars.
As you saw in the animated map ‘Europe plunges into war’, Austria’s bombing of Serbia was the first event in a sequence that led to war.
The key country in this progression was Germany because of her central location in Europe. Germany’s actions were determined by a strategy known as the Schlieffen Plan. But the plan had its flaws.
So we know the order in which events occurred. But why did Russia mobilise and why did Britain declare war on Germany?
Account for the events that led to the outbreak (.pdf 161kB) of the First World War.