What started World War 1?

Question

Anyone have details> Thanks

Answer 1

Political, military, and commercial alliances were prevalent in pre-World War I Europe, so an event in one country affected others for better or worse. The trigger for the war was the assassination of Austria-Hungary Archduke Ferdinand by a Serbian nationalist. When the Serbs refused to extradite the assassin to stand trial in Austria-Hungary, the two countries began to rattle their sabers. Because of alliances, the other European countries began to take sides, and the continent soon stumbled into war.

The U.S. pursued an isolationist foreign policy, adhering to George Washington's admonition against "foreign entanglements". Woodrow Wilson won a second term as president in 1916 running on the theme "He kept us out of war". But in 1917, the U. S. intercepted a cable, the so-called "Zimmerman Letter" from the Germans to the Mexicans. In it, the Germans urged the Mexicans to provoke the U. S. into war with a promise of German assistance. Wilson asked for and received a declaration of war from Congress against Germany.

A year-and-a-half later, the U. S. and its allies were victorious. The Treaty of Versailles ending the war was signed on November 11, 1918. Originally called Armistice Day to commemorate the end of WW I, we now know it as Veteran's Day.

Answer 2

The assassination of Ferdinand was the trigger. The reason it escalated to a world war was that every nation in Europe had mutual defense treaties with other nations. So when the Austrians used the killing as an excuse to attack Serbia most of Europe was pulled into war by a chain reaction of treaty obligations.

Answer 3

The initial catalyst was in June 1914: the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Serbia. The Austro-Hungarian empire wanted to extradite the killer, but Serbia refused.

Once the spark of the Archduke's assassination had lit the fuse, war became virtually inevitable due to the alliance system that the major powers had set up ?- they literally tumbled into war.

Austria mobilized, Serbia mobilized, in response to Austrian mobilization against Serbia, Russia mobilized, in response to Russian mobilization against Austria, Germany mobilized and in response to German mobilization both Britain and France mobilized.

If you want a "conspiracy theory" "revisionist history" type answer, check out "www.threeworldwars.com/world-war-1/ww1.htm"

Answer 4

The assassination of the Austria-Hungarian Archduke was the spark that set it off but the causes were in place much before that.

Various European countries which were aggressively pursuing colonial power (most notably Britain and Germany) were already in fierce competition for overseas territories and competing in military build-up to back it up. (most notably in Naval spending)

Competing economic interests and competition for global supremacy were really the root causes. Europe mostly knew that it was on a crash course towards war and so there was a lot of jockeying for alliances which of course only further fueled the fire.

Answer 5

The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, 1914.
See Wikipedia for details.