The Causes of the First War World

The causes of the First War World

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The Causes of the First World War

Murder in Sarajevo

The 28 June of 1914, Sarajevo, Bosnia was preparing for a royal visit from Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria. Hidden among the crowds there were six teenage terrorist with the plan of killing the Archduke. They were stationed at intervals along the riverside route, they all had bombs and pistols in their pockets and pills of poison which they had promised to swallow if they were caught, so that they would not give the others away.

The first one in the line of killers got afraid and did nothing, the next one, Cabrionovic threw his bomb and swallowed his poison and jumped into the river. The Archduke saw the bomb coming and threw it off his car, but it exploded under the car behind, injuring several people. The police dragged Cabrionovic out of the river and his cyanide had not worked as it was too old.

The Archduke was driven to the Town Hall, where he demanded to be taken to visit the bomb victims in the hospital. Fearing terrorists, the officials decided to take a new route to avoid the crowds and no police was sent with the procession.

The other assassins, on hearing the bomb explode, assumed the Archduke was dead and left, except for Princip who knew the truth. Princip was standing outside a café when the Archduke´s car suddenly appeared beside him. As the driver realised he had taken the wrong turn he stopped and started reverse. Princip fired two shots and one bullet pierced the Archduke´s neck and the other ricochet off the car and into Sophie´s stomach. Princip swallowed the poison but it didn’t work and was taken to prison where he died at the age of 23.

Germany

Before 1870 Germany was a collection of small states of which Prussia was the most powerful. In 1870 Bismark won a war against France which united German states into the German Empire. Germany took from France the area of Alsace-Lorraine and to guard against a revenge attack from France allied with Austria-Hungary and Italy.

Germany had several concerns:

* The Kaiser wanted overseas colonies, it already had 2 in Africa but it was not enough.

* In 1890´s the Kaiser ordered the building of a large navy which became the second most powerful one after Britain´s one.

* Encirclement: Friendship between France and Russia was seen as an attempt to surround and threaten Germany.

* Concerned by the huge build-up of arms, especially in Russia, and was itself building a vast army.

Italy

Italy