Immediate Cause Of World War example essay topic

342 words
Although the immediate cause of World War I was the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand there were many other background causes to the war such as the massing of armies and alliances. Before World War One there was a competition between the powers of Europe to have bigger armies and navies. With this came great aggression between competing nations. Some examples of this are the competition between Britain and Germany for the largest navies and France and Germany for the largest armies. The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand was the immediate cause of World War I. When the Archduke and his wife were touring the Austria-Hungarian Empire which he would soon inherit, a Serbian terrorist attacked the royal couple with a bomb but was unsuccessful. Later that same day another Serbian shot and killed the two royals.

The Austro-Hungarians decided to attack Serbia to get revenge for the assassination. Russia, who had ties with Serbia, decided to back them if Austro-Hungary attacked. When Austria Hungary attacked Serbia and Russia mobilized for war, the alliance system that had been developing since the mid-19th century clicked into action and the war engulfed Europe. Alliances were a major cause of World War One. They made it so that if two powers in Europe went to war, all the powers would go to war. For example, when Russia mobilized to threaten the Austro-Hungarians into leaving Serbia alone.

This alerted the Germans who were Austria-Hungary's ally that war was likely. This would mean that Germany would have to fight Russia. An attack on Russia would drag France and Britain into the war. Germany would also then have to face war on two fronts (France and Russia). To them it made sense to attack France first and thus defeat that nation before having to turn to deal with Russia. Thus, Austro-Hungary's attempt to discipline her southern empire in Serbia could and did ignite a war that involved nearly all of Europe... get it?