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The immediate cause of the war was the June 28, 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb citizen of Austria-Hungary and member of the Black Hand. The retaliation by Austria-Hungary against the Kingdom of Serbia activated a series of alliances that set off a chain reaction of war declarations. Within a month, much of Europe was in a state of open warfare. The context which helps explain the war was increasing economic and military competition between Britain and Germany. Germany's industrial economy was fast overtaking Britain's, but the German economy lacked a major empire to back up its home economy. The economic race between the two powers led to military competition, in particular the building of numerous "Dreadnoughts" -powerful military ships.

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17y ago

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