how the assassination of one person sparked the start of WW1
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Bare in mind it wasn’t some random person. It was the heir to the Austrian- Hungary empire. Also that in early 20th century, most people didn’t think of war as devastating but as a glorious endeavour. WW1 and especially WW2 squashed this idea
TLDR: dominao’s effect.
For the long version, I highly recommend [the extra history series about the events that leads to WW1](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjLK2cYtt-VAqq6ZhlaLy0BVcEm5IfgTb)
It didnt. Europe was absolutely primed for war and peace was ballanced on a knifes edge. Germany’s war plan was dialed in so tightly that a days delay would screw it all up. Sides were chosen and mutual defense pacts were made. It was sort of like if you piled up a bunch of leaky barrels of gasoline and piles of gun powder near a playground and blame the kid who threw a rock at it when it blows up.
If you’ve got a shit ton of time on your hands, i highly suggest [The Great War](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB2vhKMBjSxMK8YelHj6VS6w3KxuKsMvT&si=jXrnR7V_Frln8O9J)
The top answer already provides a nice summary, but maybe to add, my history teacher made sure to explain the difference between the causes of the war and the assassination as the trigger
the assassination of Austria-Hungary’s heir to the throne by a serbian nationalist caused Austria to declare war on Serbia. Russia was allied to Serbia so they entered the war, Germany was allied to Austria so they did the same thing, and so did France and Britain, who were allied to Russia
It didn’t. There was a big chain reaction of dominoes that were always ready to start a bunch of fights. The assassination just knocked some dominoes over.
Austria-Hungary doesn’t like Serbia. Serbia wants to push Austria (lets just call them Austria so I don’t have to type it out) out of “Slavic” areas (like Bosnia, Croatia, etc)
Serbia keeps doing things to try and mess with Austria. Austria wants an excuse to fight Serbia, to go put them in their place.
The assassination gives Austria an excuse to go attack Serbia.
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Serbia is protected by Russia. Austria knows if they attack Serbia, Russia might attack them.
Austria is protected by Germany. Austria asks Germany, “if we attack Serbia and Russia comes to help them, will you help US?”
Germany agrees (probably hoping Russia won’t actually show up.)
But Russia **HAS** to show up. The Russian Czar (ruler) knows that he is very unpopular at home, and he needs to look good for his own people. People already think he is weak and incompetent. If a Slavic ally (Serbia) calls Russia for help, and the Russian government fails to come help them, the Russian people are really going to think “boy our government sucks. We should kick them out and get a new one.”
So Serbia calls Russia for help, and Russia is like, “yeah we’ll help. We have no choice.”
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So now Germany and Russia are threatening to go to war over Austria’s beef with Serbia.
BUT Germany is on bad terms with France. So Germany knows if they fight Russia, France might attack them from the other side, and then Germany is screwed. They are very very worried about this.
So Germany’s only idea they can think of is to just attack France first. Germany thinks Russia will need a lot of time to get ready for war. If they THINK they’ll need to fight Russia, then they actually need to go attack France and beat them, as fast as they can, just to be sure France won’t hit them while they are busy with Russia. Get France out of the way.
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So, Austria fights Serbia, Russia threatens Austria to protect Serbia, Germany has to threaten Russia to protect Austria, Germany has to attack France just to get them out of the way so that they can fight Russia without worrying about France and Russia teaming up.
But they have to get past France FAST. That’s the whole point.
And they can’t invade France directly, because France has a strong defense on its border with Germany. Germany doesn’t have time to fight through France’s front door.
In order to beat them quickly enough for this all to work, they have to attack France from the side door. Where they are NOT well defended.
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France is not well defended from the side, because their side border isn’t on the border with their enemy Germany. Its on the border with neutral BELGIUM.
Yup. In order to get to France quickly enough for the German plan to work, Germany has to invade THROUGH Belgium.
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Belgium has a written, signed, fully enforceable guarantee of peace signed by many powers INCLUDING Prussia (now Germany) and BRITAIN.
So, when Germany says they’re going to send an army through Belgium, Britain says, “hey Germany, you can’t do that. You signed a promise that you wouldn’t. And we signed a promise that we’d go to war with anyone that did.”
Germany is all like, “oh come no bro. Can’t you just like… look the other way. Its just a piece of paper”
Britain is like, “No. WE keep our word. You go into Belgium, we’re at war.”
Actually Germany goes into Belgium, and THEN Britain is like, “dude WTF, get out of Belgium. Or we’re at war”
And of course Germany is like, “dude we’re already here now. We can’t turn around.”
So… THAT is how
Austria and Germany end up fighting Serbia, Russia, France, Belgium, and Britain…
and Britain brings in troops from a bunch of its colonies
Then German alliance also goes to attack anywhere Britain has colonies (India, Africa, ex) because they think forcing Britain to send its army there takes British attention away from fighting in Europe
Then a bunch of other countries like Italy, Japan, The Ottoman Empire (Turkey), etc all jump in, because the two sides already in the war start going around to every other country in desperation and saying
“hey join the fight on our side and when we win we’ll give you stuff!”
(You know how you learn about the Zimmerman telegram in middle school? Basically that, but instead of Germany talking to Mexico, its both sides talking to anyone who will listen)
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But speaking of the Zimmerman telegram…
America.
America was like, “man them’s European problems. Not my clowns. Not my Picadilly Circus.”
But America is all about selling “both” sides stuff to fight the war with. Of course they sell way way way more stuff to the British side than to the German side. (inevitable, when Britain has the world’s best navy at the time, and they are able to blockade ships from even getting to Germany, but Germany can’t do it to them).
So pretty soon “selling to everyone” is really selling the team Britain.
Until Germany starts sinking boats with submarines, including American ships and America is kinda like, “hey hey wtf bro?”
But… Britain keeps buying stuff. Like a ton of stuff. So much stuff that they have to buy on credit. They have to borrow money from the U.S. just to buy stuff from the U.S.
Also yes, they did try that shit with the Zimmerman telegraph, Mexico thing.
So, end state there, the U.S. is like
Germany invaded Belgium with was bad. And they did awful mean things in Belgium which kinda makes them the bad guy. And they sunk some of OUR boats, so we’re kinda pissed about that. And Britain is buying so much shit from us that they owe us like a bajillion dollars, so if Britain loses, how they gonna pay us back???
Oh and then they want Mexico to fight us?
Fuck it, we’re TeamBritain too!
Imagine a school playground where kids are grouped into different teams, and they each have their own special areas where they like to hang out.
**The Jungle Gyms** are Austria-Hungary, and they are pretty influential in one corner of the playground. One day, the leader of the Jungle Gyms visits the area where the **Sandcastle Builders** (Serbia) hang out. Unfortunately, one of the Sandcastle Builders doesn’t like the Jungle Gyms and hurts their leader during the visit.
The Jungle Gyms get really upset and demand that the Sandcastle Builders punish the kid responsible. They also have strong friends, the **Monkey Bar Masters** (Germany), who say they’ll help out if there’s a fight.
On the other side, the **Slide Riders** (Russia) are buddies with the Sandcastle Builders and promise to defend them if needed. Meanwhile, other groups like the **Swings** (France) and the **Dodgeball Team** (United Kingdom) don’t really get along with the Monkey Bar Masters and decide to support the Slide Riders and the Sandcastle Builders.
As tensions rise, nearly every group on the playground chooses a side, leading to a massive showdown that starts to disrupt everyday play. It becomes one of the biggest disputes the playground has ever seen.
Far across the playground, the **Hopscotch Players** (USA) have been watching everything but staying out of it. They’re busy playing their own games and don’t want to get involved unless absolutely necessary. However, when some of their friends start getting hurt and the dispute threatens their part of the playground, they decide it’s time to jump in and help the Swings and the Dodgeball Team.
With the Hopscotch Players joining in, the playground conflict escalates even further, but their involvement helps turn the tide, and eventually, the big showdown winds down, leaving many areas of the playground in need of a timeout and peace talks. This big playground fight mirrors how World War I unfolded and ended, with major groups and alliances pulling almost everyone into the conflict, and the late but critical involvement of the USA making a significant impact.
The one person just _happened_ to be the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne _and_ the primary anti-war voice among the Austro-Hungarian government.
When Franz Ferdinand died the hopes for any peaceful resolution between Austria-Hungary and Serbia died with him, which meant war between Austria-Hungary and Russia was largely inevitable (even aside from the nature of his death). War between Austria-Hungary and Russia meant Germany and France would get involved in their respective sides, and then into the abyss we go.
Well, there were still monarchies in the early 1900’s and by then they had gotten a little incestual, sometimes literally but for the most part all the royals were related in Germany and it’s surrounding areas. However there was a lot of strife as monarchies were failing their people in various different ways, leading to a lot of resentment growing between the common people and their monarchs, and between different monarchs, but because many of them were related and close nobody wanted to fight each other. Arguably, WWI was a matter of time, it was a war nobody wanted to fight but was basically inevitable given the political situation. The reason it became global was a result of centuries of colonization.
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