Why Did the Assassination of Franz Ferdinand Lead to a World War?

There were many reasons for why the war started: however, the main trigger was the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. The First World War originally broke out in the Balkans region in the south east of Europe, but shortly managed to spread through to whole of Europe and then eventually into a world war.

In 1908, Austria- Hungry took over the previous Turkish province, (territory) of Bosnia. This angered the Serbians who felt that Bosnia should be there's. Serbia began to threaten Austria- Hungary with war. Russia, was allied with Serbia and started to assemble its forces. Germany: on the other hand, was allied with Austria- Hungary and they too began to mobilise their forces. When they threatened Russia to war, Russia backed out and the war was avoided but never forgotten. However, there was war in the Balkans between 1912 and 1913, when the Balkan states drove Turkey out of the area. The states then battled each other over to which area should the state belong to. At this point, Austria-Hungary interfered and forced Serbia to give up some acquisitions (possessions or achievement). This raised the tension between Serbia and Austria-Hungary very high.

On The 28th of June 1914, a member of the Black Hand (Gavrilo Princip) in Sarajevo successfully assassinated the heir to the Austrian throne, Franz Ferdinand. This assassination was done because Bosnia wanted to be free from Austria-Hungary and also because of the Serbian nationalism. Austria- Hungary blamed the Serbian government and demanded the Serbs to give into a series of tough demands which consisted of 21 different orders. Serbia agreed to all but one. Since Russia was allied with Serbia it protected it: nevertheless, Germany protected Austria-Hungary. Russia was also allied with France in 1894 and then Britain in 1904. This was known as the Triple Entente. Germany and Austria-Hungary were allied together and were known as the Dual alliance. This meant that there were ongoing quarrels. On July 5th the Germans approached the Austrian-Hungarians and they received a promise (known as the black cheque) now they were certain that they had the support of Germany.

On the 1st of August Germany declared war on Russia. France supported Russia (since they're allied) and put on a war footing, ready to fight any German invasion. Shortly after this, on the 3/4 of August Germany declared war on France too. France seemed to be more threat to Germany due to having a larger army and navy. Germany used their plan, which had been drawn up in 1905 by the Chief of the German General Staff, Alfred von Schlieffen. He estimated the route of how they would fight war effectively and efficiently against Russia and France. The Schlieffen plan, intended for the German forces to pass through Belgium, as it was a neutral country, and then round to France and whilst circling Paris, they would attack the French forces from behind. Nonetheless, the theory is far from the