The Beginning of World War I

World War I, was essentially started by a group of Serbian conspirators, the Black Hand, who planned the assassination of a political leader. This secret society had about 10 members to start with. The idea of the Black Hand was to unite all the serbs in an attempt to create Greater Serbia.

On the 28^th July 1914, Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated. It was committed by a Black Hand member who was later discovered to be a teenager, Gavrilo Princip. This murder started multiple arguments, causing fights between the many countries in the Europe and the world.  This resulted in the world dividing into two sides. The reason behind the war was because of the many different countries forming allies and defences such as the Triple Entente and Triple Alliance.

Triple Entente included France, Russia and Britain while the Triple Alliance included Austria-Hungary, Germany and Italy (who later deferred to the Triple Entente).

This started a domino effect, causing one of the greatest wars of our time. Russia gave an ultimatum to Austria-Hungary not to invade, in turn the German Empire (who had a treaty with Austria-Hungary) threatened Russia, Britain and France threatened Germany as Britain and France had a treaty with Russia. Australia became involved because of it's ties with Britain.

http://www.firstworldwar.com/origins/index.htm

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