USA HISTORY

AMERICAN IMPERIALISM(1890 1919)

CAUSES OF WORLD WAR I

[SOURCES]
Whose assassination triggered the World War 1?

(A) Gavrilo Princip

(B) ** Archduke Franz Ferdinand

(C) Kaiser Wilhem I

(D) General Schlieffen

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 assassination set off a rapid chain of events, as Austria-Hungary immediately blamed the Serbian government for the attack. As large and powerful Russia supported Serbia, Austria asked for assurances that Germany would step in on its side against Russia and its allies, including France and possibly Great Britain.

Concept note-3: -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-4: -The start of World War I, the so-called “Great War” of 1914 to 1918, was triggered when a teenage Serbian revolutionary shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the presumptive heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophie on their visit to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo.