The Causes of World War I.

Essay by bigjohnsonatorHigh School, 12th gradeA+, October 2003

download word file, 10 pages 4.1 1 reviews

Downloaded 150 times

The First World War had many causes; the historians probably have not

yet discovered and discussed all of them so there might be more causes

than what we know now. The spark of the Great War was the

assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the throne of

Austria-Hungary, and his wife by a Serbian nationalist on the morning

of June 28, 1914, while traveling in a motorcade through Sarajevo, the

capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Archduke was chosen as a

target because Serbians feared that after his ascension to the throne,

he would continue the persecution of Serbs living within the

Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Serbian terrorist organization, the Black

Hand, had trained a small group of teenage operatives to infiltrate

Bosnia and carry out the assassination of the Archduke. It is unclear

how officially active the Serbian government was in the plot. However,

it was uncovered years later that the leader of the Black Hand was

also the head of Serbian military intelligence.

In order to underezd

the complexity of the causes of the war, it is very helpful to know

what was the opinion of the contemporaries about the causes of the

Great War. In the reprint of the article "What Started the War", from

August 17, 1915 issue of The Clock magazine published on the Internet

the author writes: "It is thought that this war that is been ongoing

for over a year, began with the assassination of the Archduke Francis

Ferdinand. However, many other reasons led to this war, some occurring

as far back the late 1800's. Nationalism, militarism, imperialism, and

the system of alliances were four main factors that pressed the great

powers towards this explosive war."

According to the article above, the author stresses that the

nationalism was one...