Establishing just cause and responsibility for the Great War however, is not such a clear cut task. It cannot be denied that nearly every involved country in Europe was at least partially responsible for the War, though which country bears the greatest responsibility is a near impossibility to determine. World War 1 involved many countries, with little or no clear cut definition of good, bad, or evil, which only serves to complicate the matter further. The purpose of this essay is not to determine who is evil or good. That is a choice that one has to make on their own. All

For such a dignitary, being Archduke and heir to the Austrian throne, security at this event was very lax. Ferdinand did not like the prescence of secret service men, or a cordon of soldiers between the crowd and himself – an attitude which would cost him his life. Welcomed warmly by the Bosnians, and as Sarejevo was not seen as hostile territory, arrangements were not made based on assumptions there would be no assassins being in the crowd. As such, only Sarejevo’s one hundred and twenty police officers would be on duty on 28 June 1914. The chosen route was on the wide Apple Quay, on the bank of the river Miljacka. In the second car of the motorcade, with it’s top folded down and flying the Hapsburg pennant, rode Franz Ferdinand, his wife Sophie, and General Potoirek. Crowds lined the street just to get a glance at Archduke Ferdinand, while the seven assassins mingled in the crowd. Gavrilo Princip waited on Franz Joseph Street – unluckily, the exact street which Ferdinand’s car would make a wrong turn down. The car stopped five feet from Princip, and he saw the chance to complete the mission. Using the pistol he was issued, he fired twice. Sophie Ferdinand was hit in the abdomen and died quickly from internal bleeding while Ferdinand was struck in the neck, dying shortly after reaching the Governor’s residence. This event brought the Austro-Serbian tensions to a head. Serbia had been causing Austria problems for years as it’s proverbial thorn in the side. For those in Vienna, these two murders were the final act for a showdown, though the connections to the Black Hand would not be discovered for many years. Vienna did not believe it could wait for real proof, and acted based on the circumstantial evidence she had. Vienna took a hard line with Serbia, while the rest of Europe began taking sides in the inevitable conflict. The stakes had blown up to well outside the boundaries of the Austro-Serbian squabbles, and the Crisis of July turned into world war – thirty short days after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand.

"Some young Serb might put a live rather than a blank cartridge in his gun and fire it."

this look at the Causes of World War 1 is trying to do is present the facts in an unbiased manner, to provide an accurate base on which to make one’s judgements.

By 1914, Europe had come to be divided into two rival groups of heavily armed powers. With the frowth of military machines there developed in each country a general staff of experts, whose chief concern was the prevent the army of another power from surprise attacking them in the time of international crisis. These general staffs worked out carefully calculated ‘timetables’ of what must be done if war should break out. These timetables served very little purpose aside from to give a false sense of security to the leaders of the countries, and a false but unshakable sense of security. According to these mobilization plans, millions of reservists had to be called up from civilian life, issued equipment, and then be transported to the frontier as fast as available railway transport allowed. The irony of the situation was that the more carefully every last railway car had been put to use by the mobilization plan, the more costly any modification of the plan became. Everybody wanted to be prepared to strike first, and in every international crisis there was always the danger than some chief of staff, in an effort to maintain the schedule on his ‘timetable,’ might force an order of mobilization and this precipitate war. As the fears and suspicions increased, the proportion of national production devoted to make guns increased. Europe as a whole was never so well prepared to wage war as in the summer of 1914.

Some topics in this essay:
World War, Franz Ferdinand, Russians Dardanelle’s, Archduke Ferdinand, Black Hand, Dual Monarchy, German Kaiser, Britain France, Muhamed Mehmedbasic, Despite Serbia, world war, world war 1, war 1, black hand, franz ferdinand, dual monarchy, bosnia herzegovina, balance power, assassination archduke, power europe, june 1914, times wish impossible, humanities wish war, fought times wish, wish war fought,