How did world war I start?

Answer 1

The explosive that was World War One had been long in the stockpiling; the spark was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian-Hungarian throne, in sarajevo on 28th June 1914 by Gabrel Princip of the Black Hand - a Serbian Nationalist secret society involved in terrorist activities.

This set in motion a series of events that heightened tensions between Austria and Sarajevo, pulled other European countries into conflict, and culminated in the world's first global war.

Answer 2

A Bosnian terrorist group plotted to kill the Austrian heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand when he arrived on a state visit to Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovnia. The group was known as the Black Hand and consisted of several disgruntled young zealots, most of whom were dying of tuberculosis. Three attempted to kill the Archduke, one threw a bomb that bounced off the back of his car and blew up one following it. He took a cyanide pill and leapt into the nearby river. But the cyanide had long expired and just made him violently ill, and the water was only three inches deep as it was summer at the time. He was dragged out and nearly beaten to death by the crowd.

One of the Black Hand members was a young man by the name of Gavrilo Princip. He was outside a cafe when the Archduke's driver decided to turn around in the street. Princip took out a gun, leapt up onto the running board of the vehicle and shot both Ferdinand and his wife Sophie. Both later died and Princip was arrested. Too young for the death penalty, he was sentenced to life in prison and died just before the war ended in 1918 from tuberculosis.

Austria declared war on Serbia, and all the big nations swiftly took sides. Germany made the first move and marched into Belgium and parts of France. The British stopped them at a tremendous cost of life and a stalemate of trench warfare began. This would later become the Western Front. The Eastern Front where Germany and Austria fought Russia was more open, and cavalry were used to greater effect.

Answer 3

The trigger was the assasination by a Serb separatist (Gavrilo Prinzip) of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand.