Start Of WW1

Sunday 28th June, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie visit Sarajevo in Bosnia. Everyone was happy about the visit, except 6 teenage Bosnian Serbs terrorists, they hated him and Austria and swore to kill the Archduke. They were stationed along the streets and once the car came around the corner their plan was put into action. However the first two chickened out, and the bomb thrown by the third person was pushed off the car by the Archduke himself but injured the people in the car behind. The terrorist jumped into the river and swallowed his cyanide. However the river was shallow and the cyanide was old so his suicide failed and he was taken to prison. All the others thought the bomb had killed the Archduke and they left. But the Archduke was alive and went on his way to visit the injured in the hospital. The Archdukes driver was ordered to drive a new way to avoid the crowds but he took a wrong turning and ended up infront of the cafe in which Princip (the last of the terrorists) waited. He realised the Archduke was not dead and shot him in the neck and his pregnant wife in the belly. Princip was seized because his cyanide was old and eventually all the terrorists except the first chicken were caught but only the leader was old enough to be hanged. However later in 1918 Princip died in prison, he thought he did the right thing to kill a bad man but then agreed that if he knew what would follow he would not have fired the two fatal shots.

Austria - Angry with Serbia and blamed them for Archduke Franz Ferdinand's death.

Austria - Then they declared war on Serbia.

Russia - Began to get ready to help Serbia.

Germany - Warned Russia not to help.

Germany - Declared war on Russia.

Germany - Began to move its army towards Belgium and France.

France - Getting ready for war against Germany.

Germany - Declared war on France and invaded Belgium.

Britain - Told Germany to get out of Belgium.

Britain - They didnt so Britain declared war on Germany.

Austria - Declared war on Russia.

The Triple Entente:

Britain, France and Russia joined together in 1907.

Britain signed an agreement with France in 1904.

Britain signed another agreement with Russia in 1907.

The agreements were signed mostly for safety from Germany, Russia had been weakened by the war with Japan in 1904 and Britain and France had been cooperating lately.

The Central Powers or The Triple Alliance:

Germany, Austria - Hungary and Italy joined together in 1882

The agreements were set up because of Germanys fear of encirclement from France and Russia, and fear of attack from France because Germany stole Alsace - Lorraine. Austria - Hungary was scared of Russia and Serbia. Italy just wanted allies but was not trusted fully by Germany and Austria - Hungary.

Britain adopted a theory of Splendid Isolation, which meant they did not get involved in European politics and concentrated on their overseas empire.

Germany feared Encirclement, which meant they were surrounded by France on the West and Russia on the East and they were scared they would be threatened on both fronts and attacked.