The alliances were also a major factor. Before 1914 all of the major European nations were suspicious and envious of each other. Because of this many of the countries would want to form alliances. The saying “Your enemies enemy is your friend sums up the alliances during this time. The first Alliance was the Dual Alliance in 1879, between Germany and Austria-Hungary. This then became the Triple Alliance in 1882, with Italy, Austria-Hungary and Germany. This alliance dominated the whole of central Europe, creating more tension between the powers in Europe. France began to feel isolated and vulnerable. In 1894 France and Russia started the Franco-Russian alliance. This worried Germany because in the event of a war they might have to fight on two fronts. Britain began to feel threatened by Germany so signed the Entente Cordial (Friendly Understanding) with France in 1904. Britain realised that it needed further help to stop Germany dominating the whole world, so in 1907 the Triple Entente started, with France, Russia and Britain. This alliance intensified the suspicion and mistrust between the different countries. The alliances felt threatened by each other, the triple alliance dominated central Europe, however France and Russia surrounded Germany.
There were other episodes of confrontations that could have led to war. First was the Bosnian crisis in 1908. A group of Turkish army officers overthrew the rule of the Sultan and promised to form a democratic country. Austria took advantage of the uprising by annexing Bosnia-Herzegovina. This angered the Serbs, most of the population of Bosnia were Serbs, and also Russia, who resented any increase in Austrian power in the Balkans. Russia was too weak after the Russo-Japanese war to face another conflict, so Germany and Austria triumphed over Russia and Serbia. This incident created more tension between the major powers. There was a lot of rivalry between Britain and Germany. Britain had the strongest navy in the world, however this was being threatened by Germany. The two countries began a naval race to see who could build the most ships. They began to build Dreadnaughts, battle ships that were armed with heavy guns, this lead to increased resentment between the two countries. The second episode of confrontation was the Moroccan crisis in 1911. There was an uprising against the Sultan of Morocco. The German Kaiser sent a gunboat, the Panther, to the port of Agadir pretending to be defending German traders, although there were none there. Britain saw this as a naval threat to her power and put her navy on war alert. At a conference Germany was made to back down and France was given a freer hand on Morocco. This led to an Anglo-French naval agreement where France agreed to guard both the countries interests in Morocco whilst England agreed to guard both the countries interests in the Channel. This tightened the friendships between the two countries and would have put more pressure on Germany and the Triple Alliance.
Although there are many events that led to the outbreak of World War One, the spark was the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. He was the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary and was visiting Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. Although Bosnia was controlled by Austria, Serbia wanted it. Like Serbia, Bosnia was a Slav state and Serbia wanted to include the Slavs of Bosnia within it. Austria and Serbia hated each other, and Austria would take any chance it could to go to war with Serbia. On the 28th June 1914the Archduke was killed. A group of Serbian Terrorists (the Black Hand Organisation) planned to kill Franz Ferdinand to publicise their opposition to Bosnia being part of Austria. They had two attempts. The first was a bomb, thrown at the Archduke, but he deflected it so it fell behind the car, exploded and injured several people in the following car, but not the Archduke. He continued his visit, but insisted on visiting the injured. When leaving the hospital, his driver took a wrong turn. As the driver tried to reverse one of the assassins (Gavrilo Princep) shot the Archduke and his wife. Both died. Usually this murder would have involved Austria-Hungary and Serbia only, however relations between the major European powers were so tense that this lead to the outbreak of World War One. Austria blamed the Serbian government for the death of the Archduke, even though they had nothing to do with it. On 23rd July Austria sent Serbia an ultimatum to comply with ten conditions. Serbia accepted nine out of the ten, however Austria was not happy. On the 29th July Austria declared war on Serbia and shelled its capital Belgrade. On the 30th July the Russians mobilised troops, ready to help defend Serbia from an Austrian attack. Germany supported its ally Austria-Hungary by declaring war on Russia on 1st August and on 3rd August they went to war with France. On the same day Germany launched the Schlieffen plan. This was an attack on France through Belgium. At this point Britain had not joined the war, however this invasion brought them into the war. Britain, and other European nations, had guaranteed Belgium neutrality by the Treaty of London in 1839. Britain stood by this agreement and joined the war. On 4th August Britain declared war on Germany. By 6th August all members of the rival alliances, except Italy, had declared war on each other.
Although the Assassination of the Archduke was the spark to the war it was not the most important reason, if it had not set off the war another incident would have because of how tense relations between the major powers were. Tension had been building up for ages, and it was only a matter of time until a war began. All of the countries could be blamed for the war. The Serbs could be blamed because it was a Serbian terrorised group who shot Franz Ferdinand and this was the spark to the war. Austria could be blamed because it was Austria who declared war first, although this could be down to support from Germany. There are many reasons to blame Germany. It was Germany who started of the building of Alliances. These alliances were a major cause to the war. They led to tension between all of the countries. In my opinion Germany took more blame than it should have although all the countries have some responsibility to the outbreak of World War One, in my opinion it is Britain as well as Germany who is most to blame. Germany did create a lot of tension between the major powers as it gained more power and began to dominate Europe. Britain also created a lot of tension between countries as Britain tried to protect her empire and tried to stay the most powerful nation in the world. Also, it surprised Germany when Britain came into the war to help defend Belgium. Germany was surprised Britain had joined the war over a “scrap of paper”, it is possible that if Britain had made it clear that she would go to war and support Belgium, Germany may not have gone to war so quickly. In my opinion Britain should have shouldered more blame for the war than it did at the time, Germany suffered more repercussions than all of the other countries, when it was not the only country that deserved the blame.