In the dawn of the twentieth century, while political turmoil spurred tension amongst European nations, a single bullet incited one of the bloodiest, most gruesome wars to ever happen in human history. The assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the Austrian Archduke, by the hands of a Bosnian Serb propelled a conflict of gigantic proportions, pitting country against country and dividing the continent into two rival factions. However, the mayhem that ensued was for nothing. It is evident that the war was unnecessary, for its roots were pointlessly trivial, it could have been avoided, and yet it left a shattered world behind, damaging the world in a way that would take decades to repair.
First, the causes of the conflict were superficial and could have definitely been dealt with in a different way. The murder of an important government figure, regardless of the nationality of the victim or the murderer, is not an acceptable reason for war. Within all of the countries involved, there were entire judicial systems that had as their sole purpose dealing with major felonies. Moreover, after hearing about the incident, Austro-Hungarians openly took advantage of the situation and posed an ultimatum to the enemy with several demands in order to “stamp its authority upon the Serbians, crushing the nationalist movement there and cementing Austria-Hungary’s influence on the Balkans” (“The Cause of World War One”). After both sides went through much discussion and refused to comply, the war finally erupted. Evidently, there were other causes. One example is imperialism, with people waging battles due to European greed; however, most of these complications were between a nation and its colony, not two different countries. In addition, if nationali...
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...ined trail of chaos behind. In the end, the “war to end all wars” led to nothing but violence. European economy crumbled to pieces, empires fell, and nations took decades to fix what had been damaged. Yet, the worst outcome of the conflict was not economic or political, but social. The conflict brought upon a lot more violence in the century that followed. The confrontation aggravated German hatred, especially because of the Treaty of Versailles, and that bitterness would eventually prompt the rise of one of the world’s darkest ideologies: Nazism.
Works Cited
BBC. “International Relations- The Treaty of Versailles.” BBC News. BBC. Web. 19 May 2014.
Duffy, Michael. “The Cause of World War One.” First World War.com. 22 Aug. 2009. Web. 18 May 2014.
Mintz, Steven. “The Global Effect of World War I.” The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Web. 20 May 2014.
Imagine four years of justing trying to capture the other teams trench, how dreadfully boring. World war one a great war of powers, invoked first by serbia’s overwhelming feeling to be their own people separate from Austria-hungary which thus lead to the assassination of the archduke Ferdinand of the Austrian-hungarian empire, which then lead to all the countries allied with Austria-hungary to support Austria in it’s attack on serbia, then all the countries allied with serbia to bring up arms on Austria, and Austria’s allies. This in terms of alliances had come upon through imperialism that lead to germany already against Austria in terms of expansion.
details the causes of the first World war and describes the first month of the war. The book clearly illustrates how a local war became an entire European struggle by a call to war against Russia. Soon after the war became a world issue.
Storey, William Kelleher. First World War : A Concise Global History. Rowman & Littlefield Pub., Inc, 2010. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost (accessed March 11, 2012).
On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria visited the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo. A group of six assassins, supplied by a Bosnian based terrorist group the Black Hand, had gathered on the streets where the Archduke's motorcade would pass. Some attempted to kill the Archduke, including one who attempted to throw a grenade at the car but missed. Others failed to act as the car drove past them. Later on the route through the city, the motorcade took a wrong turn onto a previously designated street. Gavrilo Princip, a Black Hand assassin, stood waiting with a pistol. Princip shot and killed Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Sophie. However, the assassination received almost disregard back in Austria. Yet, the death of the Archduke and his wife would be the beginning of an all out war in Europe as Austria-Hungary would declare war on Serbia. This declaration would bring in Germany on the side of Austria-Hungarian empire and Russia aiding the Serbians. By joining sides this would convey in France, Great Britain and during the later part of the war, Italy, Japan and the United States. Official war began on July 28, 1914.
Bosnia and Herzegovina were provinces just south of Austria, which had, until 1878, been governed by the Turks. The Treaty of Berlin, in 1878, settled the disposition of lands lost by the Turks following their disastrous war with Russia. Austria was granted the power to administer the two provinces indefinitely. Many Bosnian-Serbs felt a strong nationalistic desire to have their province joined with that of their Serb brothers across the river in Serbia. Many in Serbia openly shared that desire.
"World War Two - Causes." History on the Net. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2013.
3. Lozada, Carlos. "The Economics of World War I." The National Bureau of Economic Research. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
Adolf Hitler and his regime had a devastating effect on the twentieth century. Hitler’s third Reich (1933-1934) was supposed to last for 1000 years but only lasted twelve. This evil man legalised the destruction of an entire race of people. He plunged “the world into one of the bloodiest and most destructive wars in history.” (Shirer, 1961)
In World War I France and Britain gained a lot of new land and resources when Germany suffered the most. The outcome in Eastern Europe led to communism and the United States joined World War I because of the sinking of the Lusitania in 1916 (Thompson). The sinking of the Lusitania killed 128 Americans (Ellis, Esler 468). The adults that have g...
... under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?” There was one mutual emotion that united every country in Europe by the end of the war: discontent. With a staggering 37 million casualties throughout the war, there was little to be optimistic about. Nevertheless, the creation of the League of Nations at the end of the war showed progression. In theory, the League of Nations gave an opportunity for nations to diplomatically express their emotions in order to prevent war, rather than holding them in just as Austria and Serbia did. Despite this aspiration, the league practically failed immediately by not giving Germany the ability to voice its emotions during the creation of the harsh Treaty of Versailles. Therefore, with such German anger and resentment looming large it is not surprising that another world war broke out in 1939.
Personally, I, feel like this scenario was invertible. But let’s say that Archduke Franz Ferdinand wasn’t assassinated. What would have happened to the events that we know, like the rulers of Vienna which threaten Serbia? The whole inflexible diplomatic alliances between Germany, France, England and Russia was able to create chain reactions, I think could had different borders. Countries similar to Russia wouldn’t need to defend Serbia. Followed by Germany providing support in Austria’s defense.
The Serbian nationalists yearned to break off to make an independent state. They felt intimidated by the plans to create a federal government of 16 states (Biography.com Editors 1). Historian and writer, Tim Butcher, said, “Their dream was to drive out the Habsburg occupier, so shooting the Archduke was seen as a ‘grand gesture’ to inspire others to rise up against the foreign power,” (Tim Butcher 1). Princip killed the Archduke to eliminate the enemy and end his rule. He was wrongly regarded as a national hero years later. There is always a more peaceful way. If the reforms were implemented, the nationalists could have tried to argue them without immediately resorting to violence. The Archduke was just trying to solve the problems that were bringing the empire to an end.
Europe has seen many wars over its vast and broad history, some of which being quite immense and destructive. One such war would undoubtedly be World War One. A war powered by the brainwashing ways of militarism and the stubborn pride of nationalism. Once engaged in a war a country’s militarism will produce fine soldier ready to drop like dominos on the battlefield, while the nationalism works as fuel providing the naive determination to fight the war. This naïve determination and soldier production is why World War One, like every other war, continued with such persistency. But what started World War One? Was it militarism that trained young men since they were kids to become soldiers, nationalism propelling a nations pride forward or was it neither? While both of those aspects could be potential reasons their still not the main pillars of cause. The true reason’s that made World War One inevitable were the intimidating alliances, avaricious imperialism, and tedious tensions.
In conclusion, the causes of World War One included many factors both long term and short term. Some factors go deeper and contributed to the tension and rivalry developing in the nineteenth century among the Great Powers stage. Such as things involving politics, cultures, economics and what I believe to be the most important, the alliance system; lots of other factors tie in with the complex web of alliances. There are many factors that lead on and link in with one another; this just explains a few of the well known factors. Most involve contributing to tension and rivalry. The Great War is considered to be one of the most significant events of the twentieth century.
After years of hostility and aggression between the European superpowers and large states, the balance of power began to be challenged. The Serbians in 1914 assassinated the Arch-duke, Franz Ferdinand, of Austria-Hungary. The country counteracted and “issued an ultimatum to Serbia, which would bring the assassins to justice. And with that action Serbia’s sovereignty was nullified” (Duffy Michael, 2009). Since Serbia did not succumb to the harsh demands of Austria-Hungary, “preventative” war was declared on Serbia on July 28,...