The most important aims of Germany at that time were to take over English, French, Belgian and Dutch colonies and conquer Poland, Ukraine, Belarus and Pre Baltic countries which wre under Russian empire at that time .On tye other side the plans of Austro-Hungarian empire were to conquer Serbia and Montenegro which would give them full control over Balkan. Italy, on the third side intended to conquer particular territories in Africa and also in Dalmatia. Rivals of Germany-England, France and Russia were against these plans of Germany because they had their own imperialistic plans therefore these three countries signed the agreement known as Triple Entente agreement. They were also prepared for war but their most important objectives were:
- England wanted to preserve and expand its colonial empire and on the other side to destroy it’s main rival Germany;
- France wanted to take over rich Saar region from Germany and to participate in the division of German colonies in Africa
- Russia was aiming to break the Austro-Hungarian impact on Balkan and to establish it’s own, also to seize certain areas that belonged to Turkey as well as Asian landscape
At the beginning of the WW1 also influenced aspirations for freedom from the side of conquered nations: Poles, Czechs, Slovaks and Yugoslavian people as well as strong labor movements that wanted to address the social issues of working class people (issues of their difficult social conditions). To avoid these aspirations most aggressive imperialists, especially those in Germany rushed to start a war. They believed that war would be sustainable for choking revolutionary and national-liberation movements. The only social force that was able to stop the war was working class. Still, they didn’t succeed because the great parties of working class in the worlod parliaments of their countries voted for war credits.
All of the above mentioned facts and conditions had a great influence on the start of WW1. Still, as a most spontaneous and direct reason for the outbreak has been the Sarajevo assassination of Austro-Hungarian heir Franz Ferdinand on the 28.June 1914 who was murdered by Gavrilo Princip a member of Yugoslavian revolutionary party called “Young Bosnia”. Austro-Hungarian empire used this event to send a letter of ultimatum to the Government of Serbia. The Government of Serbia accepted all conditions of the ultimatum except one which considered that Austrian police comes to Serbia and carries out the investigation of the assassination. Austro-Hungarians were not satisfied by this response of Serbian government. Although in the dispute between Austro-Hungarian empire and Serbian government were involved great world forces the conflict wasn’t solved because Germans decided to use this conflict to start a war. That is how on the 28.June 1914 Austro-Hungarians declared a war to Serbia. Only three days after this declaration Germany declared a war to Russia on the 1.August 1914 and to France on the 3.August same year. The day after, on the 4.August 1914 England declared a war to Germany. Step by step, other countries declared the state of war .On the side of Central force penetrated Turkey and Bulgaria and on the side of ENTENTE were Japan, Italy, Romania etc. Thirty-three countries participated in the First World War with 1,5 billion inhabitants .
