7/28/2019 World War One Causes

1/2

NotesAcademy| History | World War One | Causes (Sarajevo)

Page 1 of 2

World War One Causes (Sarajevo)

Sarajevo

The assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife was critical insetting off the chain of events that led to the First World War. Not only was it abad day for the Archduke and his family, but also a bad day for Europe.

1. Sarajevo was in Bosnia, the province that - to Serbia's anger - had beenannexed [Annexed: To join with or take over, so the less powerfulcountry becomes part of the more powerful.] by Austria-Hungary in1908.

2. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary.He was inspecting the army in Sarajevo with his wife Sophie. The royalcouple arrived by train at 9.28am.

3. Seven young Bosnian Serbs planned to assassinate Franz Ferdinand ashe drove along the main road in Sarajevo, the Appel Quay.

4. The first conspirator who tried to kill Franz Ferdinand threw a bomb athis car. He missed and was arrested.

5. The Archduke escaped unhurt. He decided to abandon the visit andreturn home via a different route to the one planned.

6. No one had told the driver the route had changed. On the way back,therefore, the driver turned into Franz Josef Street, following thepublished route and, when told of his error, stopped the car to turnaround.

7. Unfortunately, the car stopped in front of Gavrilo Princip, one of theconspirators, who was on his way home thinking he had failed.

8. Princip pulled out a gun and shot at Franz Ferdinand, hitting him in the jugular vein. There was a tussle, during which Princip shot and killedSophie. By 11.30am, Franz Ferdinand had bled to death.

7/28/2019 World War One Causes

2/2

NotesAcademy| History | World War One | Causes (Sarajevo)

Page 2 of 2

The Schlieffen Plan

Germany had been preparing for war long before 1914. In fact, Germanyhad started drawing up a plan for war - the Schlieffen Plan - in 1897. It took nine years to finalise, but it was based on the theory that Germany would beat war with France and Russia at the same time. It did not prepare for manyof the events that occured in July and August 1914. It was based on thebelief that, if the country went to war, Germany would be faced with a war on two fronts with France and Russia.

The plan assumed that France was weak and could be beaten quickly, andthat Russia was much stronger, but would take longer to mobilise its army.

The plan began to go wrong on 30 July 1914, when Russia mobilised its army,but France did not. Germany was forced to invent a pretext to declare war on France (3 August 1914).

Things got worse when Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914because, in a Treaty of 1839, Britain had promised to defend Belgium.

Was Germany to blame?

Immediately after the war, the Treaty of Versailles blamed Germany for 'allthe loss and damage' of the war. During the 1920s, however, Germansvigorously denied this, and - during the period of appeasement[Appeasement: The policy of pacifying an aggressor through giving in to their demands, thus maintaining peace.] in the 1930s - many people wereprepared to blame other factors:

Sydney Bradshaw Fay laid the emphasis on the underlying tensions ofnationalism, imperialism, militarism and alliances.

The British Prime Minister Lloyd George blamed the war on the failure of thepoliticians who, he said, lacked the ability to negotiate their way out of war.

After the Second World War, historians were less prepared to excuseGermany. In the 1960s, the German historian Fritz Fischer argued that theGerman leaders had a 'will to war', that they wanted to expand Germanpower, and they wanted the situation in Europe to deteriorate into war. This isthe view still held by many historians today.