Who started World War 1?

Answer 1

Like all wars, that's a hard question to answer. Austria-Hungary was a monarchy that roughly covered Austria and the Balkans in Europe. The Balkans include parts of counties that once made up Yugoslavia. Some of Serbia was part of Austria-Hungary. You will note that in the last 20 years there has been a lot of ethnic cleansing in the Former Yugoslavia as well as civil war. That World War I stated there is not a coincidence. Prior to World War I, there had been a lot of ethnic tensions in the area as well as a lot of Nationalism. This is what caused the tensions in the area in the 1990s. It hadn't been solved. Specifically, in 1914, Serbs within Austria-Hungary wanted independence. On June 28, 1914, a Serb Nationalist assassinated Arch-Duke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austria-Hungarian thrown.

This assassination caused Austria-Hungary to issue an ultimatum to Serbia, which Austria-Hungary felt was behind the assassination, at least, in supporting the Nationalistic terrorism within Austria-Hungary. Serbia acceded to most of the demands including a pledge not to support Serb Nationalists within Austria-Hungary. However, Serbia refused to accept an Austria-Hungarian investigation within Serbia. Austria-Hungary then mobilized its army and began the war.

Austria-Hungary's ally, Germany, had pledged support in the war. Russia had, prior to this, pledged to support Serbia. The reason is that Austria-Hungary's rulers were ethnic Germans and Russia and the Serbs were ethnic "Slavs." As such, the support of each other made sense. Additionally, Russia had close ties to France and France had a historic distrust of Germany. As such, France mobilized against Germany.

To make matters worse, Germany decided to invade France through Belgium and did so on August 4, 1914. Unfortunately, Britain was obligated by treaty to protect Belgium's sovereignty if invaded and declared war on Germany. The Ottoman Empire entered the war for Germany later in 1914 because of a treaty.

America entered the war in 1917, because of attacks on related shipping and an exposed plot to have Mexico enter the war against the United States. Additionally, there was a lot of desire in the US to enter the war and President Wilson was finally pressured to do so in 1917.

Some say that the war would have been provoked by something other than the assassination of Arch-Duke Ferdinand, but that is what sparked it. There were many underlying causes. As you see, the ethnic mixing in Austria-Hungary as well as the religious tensions (there are a a lot of Muslims as well as Christians in the same small area) had something to do with it. Additionally, much of this area had been controlled for centuries by the Ottoman Empire, but the Empire's power was on the wane, which, to some extent, left a vacuum, which caused Nationalist hopes to rise. The same thing occurred when the Soviet Union disintegrated and it's sphere of influence, Eastern Europe, fell to its own devices. When this occurred, the Nationalist hopes in Yugoslavia rose once again causing genocide and civil war. One should also take note of the complicated web of treaties between various nations, which ensured that, if one country tried to invade another, numerous treaties would ensure that many other countries entered the conflict. There had also been many wars in Europe over the centuries causing distrust among the nations. Plus, there were many powers who wanted to ensure their dominance, so when something occurred, these countries desiring dominance had to enter the fray.

Answer 2

There were many reason, among them the assassination of the Arch Duke Ferdinand in Serbia. But when you come down to basics that was more of an excuse to start the war than the reason. A large part was that Britain was rapidly loosing it's economic lead to Germany and thought to cut them down to size. More proof were the totally atrocious peace conditions forced on Germany after they surrendered which lead directly and inevitable to Hitler and WW 2.

Answer 3

Would appear to be a student named Gavrilo Princip....

The first world war began in August 1914. It was directly triggered by the assassination of the Austrian archduke, Franz Ferdinand and his wife, on 28th June 1914 by Bosnian revolutionary, Gavrilo Princip.

This event was, however, simply the trigger that set off declarations of war. The actual causes of the war are more complicated and are still debated by historians today.

28 July 1914 -The Austrian government blamed the Serbian government for the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and his wife and declared war on Serbia. Although Russia was allied with Serbia, Germany did not believe that she would mobilise and offered to support Austria if necessary. However, Russia did mobilise and, through their alliance with France, called on the French to mobilise.
1 Aug 1914 Germany declared war on Russia

Answer 4

WWI was started by a Bosnian Nationalist,Gavrilo Princip,killing the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne.Austria declared war to Bosnia,Germany and France (who were just waiting the occasion to get their hands on Alsacia and Lorraine regions),signed alliances with Austria and Bosnia (respectively) and declared war to each other and to their allies...

Answer 5

Gavrilo Princip (a Serb) when he assasinated the Arch Duke Ferdinand (heir to the Austrian throne)

He is sometimes nicknamed "The Man Who Started World War I".

Answer 6

Thats a good question. The archduke got hit OK, so all of these countires declared war. Who actually started shooting at who? Wonder if anyone remembers.

Answer 7

Kaiser William II

Answer 8

Tsarist Russia.


Additional details because some obviously did not understand my answer:
Serbia was part of Austria-Hungary. The Hapsburgs should have been allowed to punished Serbia any way they would have liked, and in their demands were actually quite reasonable.

Russia stuck her nose in and in essence started the war.

Answer 9

The US got into WW1 when, the lusitania, a BRITISH vessel, was sunk by a GERMAN submarine

There were lots of reasons, but it was bickering politicians and incompetent generals.

Answer 10

The Germans hit the Arch Duke, and the British sunk our vessel.