The Great War, also known as World War I was the first war ever fought on a global
scale. It was intended to be a war between the accused and accuser. At the time it began
European rulers did not conceive the scale that the war they were approaching would be
fought on. Though World War I occurred nearly a hundred years ago, its devestation and
aftermath leaves historians with possibly the single and most important question, what were
the causes of World War I? The most immediate factor that lead Austria-Hungary to declare
war upon Serbia was the assasination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. However, this incident
alone did not cause a global war. Based upon great debate and extensive research it seems that
most historians can agree that amongt several underlying causes the most important factors of
causality are nationalism, quest for political gain, and most inportantly tangled alliances. It
wasn’t until the assasination of the heir to Austria-Hungary’s throne that historians were forced
to acknowledge the underlying causes that had lead up to this point.
Franz Ferdinand and his wife were shot at point blank range while making a formal visit
to Sarajevo on June 28th 1914. Nineteen year old Gavrilio Princip was responsible for both
deaths. Princip was a member of Young Bosnia, a revolutionary organization composed of
students and apprentices. Although the group was supplied with arms by the Serb military they
were incompetent and amateurish”. In their first attempt to kill the heir one of the members
threw a bomb at the archdukes car, and it simply rolled off injuring a few bystanders. Therefore
in an attempt to redeem their mission, when Princip saw the atchduke’s car in front of him he
took advantage of his position and assasinated Ferdinand.
The automatic reaction amongst capitals across the world was that Serbia was
responsible for the assasination. Although the plot for assasination did not come from Serbia’s
Prime Minister it is tied to the head of the Serb military intelligence, Colonel Dragutin
Dimitrijevic. Dimitrijevic, promoter for a greater serbia was a secret member of the terrorist
organization the black hand. Despite the position and response held toward the events in
Sarajevo the accusations held against Serbia became truth in Vienna and other european
capitals, which would soon become inovolved in the escalating conflict.
Serbia had long standing slavic ties with Russia. Russia was the largest slavic country and
had a moral obligation to potect smaller slavic nations, like Serbia. However, it was not
expected by all officials in Austria-Hungary that Russia would enter the war. In a meeting
between the kaiser and Austrias ambassador, Szogyeny, the kaiser stated “Russia…is no way
ready for war and would certainly ponder very seriously before appealing to arms (St 14)”.
Russia was predicted to avoid a war between austria-hungary and serbia because it had not yet
recovered from the evernts of 1904-1905 and it could not risk another revolution (st 14).
However, in the event that Russia did support Serbia, Austria-Hungary could not stand alone. It
therefore sought support from Germany.
On July 6th, 1914 Germany pledged its support fAustria Hungary. AccordIng to the kaiser,
what Austria- Hungary did with Serbia was its own affair. However, should russia at any point interviene,
Austria hungary would have full support from germany. Germany’s support for Austria Hungary became
known as the blank cheque. The blank cheque took an imperative step in the direction of a Thd Balkan
war, and eventually the first World War. However, the Kaisers crown councill did not conceive of how
the blank cheque would escalate into a european crisis at the time dueto tied ith alliances.(13).
The Triple Entente included Russia, France and Britain. In 1892France had allied with Russia. Britain also
agreed to alliances to alliances with France in 1904 and Russia in 1907. The depth to which the triple
entente would become entangled would depend on the actions of russia. Gfor russia to defend serbia.a
reason q cheque provided ermany’s bla