USA HISTORY

AMERICAN IMPERIALISM(1890 1919)

CAUSES OF WORLD WAR I

[SOURCES]
Whose assassination triggered the beginning of World War I?

(A) Czar Nicholas I

(B) The Prince of Serbia

(C) ** Archduke Franz Ferdinand

(D) President Woodrow Wilson

EXPLANATIONS BELOW

Concept note-1: -Two shots in Sarajevo ignited the fires of war and drew Europe toward World War I. Just hours after narrowly escaping an assassin’s bomb, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to Austro-Hungarian throne and his wife, the Duchess of Hohenberg, are killed by Gavrilo Princip .

Concept note-2: -The Evening Post called the killings a politically motivated crime. The Auckland Star claimed that a ‘disregarded warning’ had placed the Archduke and his wife in danger – ‘It is reported that, in view of the Pan-Servian agitation in Bosnia, efforts were made to persuade the Archduke to relinquish his visit’.

Concept note-3: -The political objective of the assassination was to free Bosnia and Herzegovina of Austria-Hungarian rule and establish a common South Slav ("Yugoslav") state. The assassination precipitated the July Crisis which led to Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia and the start of World War I.