2. The assassination of Archduke, Franz Ferdinand, heir to the
throne of Austria-Hungary occurred on the 28 June, 1914. The assassination was carried out by Bosnian youths of Serb background. This would have aggravated the Austria-Hungarians and therefore Austria-Hungary was given the opportunity to move against Serbia and resolve its Balkan problems. Germany agreed to support Austria-Hungary against the Serbs, giving them unconditional support in the form of a blank cheque. The Russians had decided to support the Serbians. Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to the Serbians containing impossible demands which were to provoke war with Serbia. Germany advised Austria-Hungary to
Asha Samrai
negotiate but instead they declared war on Serbia, Russia then mobilized her troops and then was given an ultimatum from Germany to ‘Suspend all warlike measures within 12 hours.’ Russia ignored this ultimatum and Germany declared war on Russia. Germany also sent an ultimatum to France, demanding that it stays neutral, but the French mobilized which then led to the Germans putting the Schlieffen plan into action. By the third of August Germany had declared war on Russia and now on France, and now had invaded Belgium. Under the 1839 Treaty of London, Britain had promised to ‘guarantee Belgium’s neutrality.’ On 4th August Britain declared war on Germany. Two days later Austria declared war on Russia and then Britain and France declared war on Austria on the 16th of August.
The reason that war broke loose was due to the alliances (the Triple alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy, and the triple Entente alliance of Britain, France and Russia). When Austria-Hungary and Serbia had fallen out, both Germany and Russia were pulled in, shortly followed by Britain and France. So when two countries from the alliances fell out, all of the other countries were involved and so by August 1914 all major European powers except Italy had become involved.
3. The tension in the Balkans and the arms race were both significant factors which led to the outbreak of World War One. The Balkans consisted of Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, Romania, and Serbia. Each of these newly formed countries was strong in nationalism and they all wanted to extend their borders. The Russians encouraged the Slavs, the main nationality of the Balkans, in hope of gaining a port on the Mediterranean Sea. In 1908 Austria took over Bosnia and Herzegovina. This angered the Serbs because they were planning to take over these countries themselves. They wanted to go to war but Russia had not mobilized yet. In the following years crisis after crisis broke out in the Balkans but peace was maintained. However, each time peace was restored one nation or another was humiliated. After 1913, no one was willing to be humiliated again. This produced a lot of tension between these countries especially with Russia and Austria Hungary as Austria-Hungary tried to stop Russia encouraging Balkan Nationalism. The Russians hated the German support to Austria-Hungary in the Balkans and again tension was building between the two alliances, like a powder-keg about to blow up.
Asha Samrai
The arms race was significant, and in my opinion, more significant to the outbreak of war than the tension in the Balkans as the pressure to out produce the other country was very high. There was a lot of jealousy between Britain and Germany as each tried to produce the better ‘Dreadnought’. I think that this is more significant than the Balkan crisis as it looked like the countries were preparing for a war that would be soon to approach. There was a lot of mistrust between the alliances as when Germany was re-arming the surrounding counties felt threatened by this and so they began to re-arm producing more tension and more of a probability of a world war.
Another significant cause of the war is the July crisis as this was when trust between the alliances fell apart due to Germany’s desire of greater power and international influence. Everybody had declared war on everybody else as nobody trusted anyone (except their allies), yet this is not as important as the Balkans because this was a short term affect and if it wasn’t for all the other factors that contributed to the outbreak of war, then there would have been at least some trust between the alliances and peace may have been achieved.
Therefore it wasn’t just one factor that contributed to the outbreak of war but a number of them put together that broke down the relationships between the countries and separated them into alliances that would eventually fall out and lead to a world war.
