USA HISTORY

AMERICAN IMPERIALISM(1890 1919)

THE UNITED STATES IN WORLD WAR I

[SOURCES]
What started the fighting in the Balkans between Austria-Hungary and Serbia?

(A) The Serbian military invaded and attacked the entire Ferdinand family

(B) The Serbian military invaded and attacked the entire Ferdinand family

(C) Franz Ferdinand placed an embargo on the Austria-Hungary Empire

(D) ** A terrorist trained by a Serbian group killed Franz and Sophie Ferdinand

EXPLANATIONS BELOW

Concept note-1: -Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated on 28 June 1914 by Bosnian Serb student Gavrilo Princip .

Concept note-2: -The plotters hoped that by killing Franz Ferdinand, they would provoke the Austro-Hungarian Empire to declare war on Serbia. That is when their supportive friend Russia, they hoped, would leap to the defense of Serbia, defeat the Habsburg armies, and help the Bosnian Serbs win their independence.

Concept note-3: -The Austro-Hungarian military leadership was determined to quash Serbia’s independence, which it viewed as an unacceptable threat to the future of the empire given its sizeable South Slavic population. On 28 July 1914, exactly one month after Franz Ferdinand’s assassination, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.

Concept note-4: -What were the reasons for the hostility between Austria-Hungary and Serbia? Austria-Hungary feared that Serbia’s growth would incite Slavic peoples in its territories to revolt; Serbia resented Austria-Hungary annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina after the Ottoman Turks left because Serbia wanted the territory.

Concept note-5: -A distant crisis Relations between Austria-Hungary and neighbouring Serbia had been tense in the years before the murder of the Archduke. Austria had long seen Serbia as a threat to the stability of its multi-ethnic empire.