The Sarajevo Murders and the Moroccan Crisis in 1905

The Sarajevo Murders and the Moroccan Crisis in 1905

In the years leading up to the Sarajevo murders and the outbreak of

World War 1 many events took place that led to the building of tension

between the 6 main powers of Europe, although, none of these events

caused a war. My aim is to investigate and understand why the Sarajevo

murders caused a war to begin, when previous events such as the

Moroccan Crisis did not. In order to fulfil my aim I will be

considering three main points: 1) Austria's worsening relationship

with Serbia

2) The build up of international problems

3) The way the alliance system worked

A Serbian nationalist named Princip was the assassin that shot the

Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife. For a long time before

that fatal day in June 1914, tension had grew between Serbia and

Austria. Their relationship had worsened from 1878 and onwards, when

Serbia had become an independent state. Many Serbs were left behind

and still lived inside of the Austrian Empire, they desired to become

part of a free Serbia. This is where the rivalry began. The Austrian

government blamed the Serbian government for causing this uproar to

break free of Austrian rule. The Austrians knew that the loss of 8

million Serbs to Serbia would begin the break-up of their empire.

Therefore when the Archduke was assassinated it provided the ideal

excuse for Austria to declare war on Serbia and crush them before it

was too late. The Bosnian Crisis of 1908 helps us to understand why

Austria was so confident about declaring war on Serbia. In 1908 when

the Slav State of Bosnia was annexed by Austria-Hungary, Serbia were

extremely ...

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...d a war have been engineered.

Before this time countries were not prepared for a war to take place

and did not know they could rely on other countries support. I think

that the alliances were an extremely important factor in causing the

war, as if countries were not so confident they could rely on others

support, they would not participate in a war in fear of defeat. The

Sarajevo murders were the icing on the cake, tensions had built in the

years leading up to them and countries such as Germany (who had

suffered defeats in the past) were determined not to be the loser this

time. The murders were merely an excuse to show that their country was

superior to the others and that they should be given what they want.

In my opinion most countries acted like spoilt children, none willing

to form a compromise without resentment.