I’m not a history buff, and all I know is that his death set off a Rube Goldberg machine of Politics that led to everyone fighting everyone else. Can someone simplify it for me?
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Germany were allied with Austria-Hungary. When the Archduke was shot, Austria-Hungary (and Germany) declared war on Serbia over the assassination.
Russia was an ally of Serbia and declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary. As France was allied to Russia, they also declared war.
Britain was friendly to Russia and France (more accurately, Britain was trying to stop the German navy from becoming powerful enough to rival its own) but was recently emerging from “Splendid Isolation” i.e. looking after its empire and leaving the rest of Europe to its own devices. Again, this emergence was due to an increasingly powerful German navy. So Britain really wanted to sit this one out, but had promised to support Belgian neutrality. Germany invaded Belgium in order to create an extra passageway into France, so Britain declared war on Germany, bringing in its empire (countries such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Indian Subcontinent).
The United States was staying well out of it, in part due to its population’s historic links to both Britain and Germany. Britain, however, intercepted German communiques to Mexico that were encouraging Mexico to attack the US; the Americans responded by declaring war on Germany and getting involved.
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