World War I
The first world war broke out when a Serbian
nationalist seeking to free
slaves from Austrian domination assassinated Archduke Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary at Sarajevo
in June 1914.1
Before the
assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, there were already conditions which could
cause war even with the slightest provocation. For instance, two hostile
alliances had been
entered
into by Austria- Hungary, Italy and Germany against France, Britain and Russia. The
functioning of triple alliance and triple entente portend danger as the
atmosphere was charged, though the triple alliance was a military pact in which
an attack on one means attack on all others, triple entente was not a military
alliance purposely against Germany’s bid to rule the world.
The efficacy of
the triple alliance as a military pact
was tested after the assassination,
the assassination led Austria to declare war on Serbia on July 28 russia mobilized its troops to defend Serbia from Austria.
This made Germany to declare war on Russia on
1st august on 3rd august,
Germany declared war on Russia’s
ally France.
The
German aggression on a neutral state, Belgium
brought Britain into the
war. Britain went to Belgiums defence
and declared war on Germany on 4th
august.
Historians
have not agreed on who were responsible
for the outbreak of war. The
allied forces who won the war insist
that war guilt belonged to Germany alone.