Unraveling the Causes of World War One

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Who Was to Blame for the Outbreak of World War One in 1914? World War one started in June 1914 and ended in November 1918. There were two sides to the war, the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente. The Triple Alliance was made up of three countries, Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary. The other side was fought by Britain, France and Russia. Austria-Hungary and Serbia started it off with the shooting of Archduke Franz Ferdinand but this was just the metaphorical final straw in a history of tensions. The Archduke was shot by Gavrilo Princip, one of four conspirators. When Serbia refused to give up these criminals to Austria-Hungary to be punished, they declared war. Russia, not wanting fellow Slavic people be killed, joined to help defend Serbia. That is how the war began to escalate. Germany saw that Russia was mobilising its troops and became nervous, not wanting to be attacked unprepared, and went to help Austria-Hungary. …show more content…

It harassed Serbia with its constant demands of unreachable justice. They demanded the criminals responsible for Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s death to be brought to A-H and be sentenced by them. Serbia, understandably, wanted them charged by their own laws as the Black Hand members were Serbians. The criminals were in hiding too, there was no way Serbia could send them even if they wanted to. Austria-Hungary wouldn’t take this as an answer. They had already treated Serbia badly throughout previous years, it being what provoked the assassination to begin with, but Serbia was willing to settle down until A-H mobilized its forces and sent out messages that radiated attack. A-H was behaving violently and was just spoiling for a fight. If such harsh expectancies weren’t put to Serbia, they wouldn’t have asked for help from Russia. Austria-Hungary initiated the fight without hesitation and was only strengthened by Germany’s

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