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The Assination of Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand of Austria
While on an official visit to Bosnia, heir to the Austrian throne Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Duchess Sophie were assassinated. Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were killed by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb whose motive for killing Franz Ferdinand was that he wanted to see Bosnia united with Serbia in a South Slav Kingdom as at the time Bosnia was ruled by the Austro-Hungary Empire. -
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The Events the lead to the Great War
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Austria sends a list of demands to Serbia
In light of the assassination of Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand one month prior, Austria sent an ultimatum with a list of 10 demands in which Austria wanted Serbia to comply with. If Serbia didn’t comply with the demands, Austria threatened Serbia with war. Although sending the ultimatum, Austria believed that Serbia would not accept all of the demands presented to them. -
Serbia does not accept the list of demands
Of the list of 10 demands that were sent to Serbia, only 9 were accepted. The 6th demand was the Serbian government would have to accept an Austro-Hungarian inquiry into the assassination and try to get rid of or eliminate terrorist organizations like the Black Hand, who Austria believed to supply weapons to help Gavrilo Princip, and his accomplices kill Franz Ferdinand. Serbia could not accept this as the Serbian government believed that it was a breach of the Serbian constitution. -
Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia
With Serbia not accepting all the reqirements in Austria-Hungary’s ultimatum, Austria- Hungary had backing by it's ally Germany and had an excuse in order to invade Serbia; therefore they declare war on them. -
Russia help its ally Serbia
Russia did not want to be involved in war as many Russians believed that a war would destroy their country. Although Nicholas II (emperor of Russia) called up his troops in support of its ally Serbia, to fight against Austria-Hungary. -
Germany declares war on Russia
After Nicholas II mobilised his army to support their ally Serbia to fight Austria-Hungary, his Generals told him that a general mobilisation had to occur against both Germany and Austria Hungary. Germany was now faced with danger, and needed to act so they Germany army mobilised and Germany declared war on Russia. -
Germany invades Belgium and declares war on France
The German army had planned to attack France and when they attacked them, they planed to go through Belgium. After declaring war on Russia, the Germans asked permission for their army to pass through Belgium to get to France. The Belgians refused, so the next day (August the 4th), Germany invaded Belgium. -
Britain join the war
When Germany invaded Belgium, Britain was obliged (by the Treaty of London, 1839) to help Belgium in the event of an invasion. Britain sent Germany an ultimatum backed up by a threat of war demanding, by midnight, the Germans withdraw from Belgium. By midnight the Germans didn’t withdraw from Belgium and Britain declared war on Germany .Australia, New Zealand and Canada enter the war in support of Britain -
Serbia Declares war Germany and Austria- Hungary declare war on Russia
Austria- Hungary declares war on Serbia’s main ally Russia. Russia had a strong army with 12,000,000 mobilised forces from 1914- 1918 but they were slow in deployment as Russia's poor roads and railways made it difficult. Serbia also declared war on Austria-Hungary's ally Germany. Germany also had a strong army with 11,000,000 mobilised forces from 1914-1918 while Serbia had 707,000 mobilised forces from 1914-1918 -
Britain and France declare war on Austria-Hungary
Due to Britain being a part of the Triple Entente (France, Britain and Russia) Britain and France declare war on Austria- Hungary. Another reason that they declare war on Austria-Hungary was that Austria-Hungary’s ally Germany invaded Belgium.
