CHAPTER ONE WORLD WAR BEGINS or many years leading up to World War I tensions between rival European nations had been escalating In anticipation of war nations had made treaties and alliances By 1914 Europe had been divided into two camps Germany Austria Hungary and Italy were members of the Triple Alliance Later after the withdrawal of Italy and the addition of the Ottoman Empire the Triple Alliance took a new name the Central Powers Russia France and Britain formed the rival Triple Entente Later they were called the Allies These alliances were brought into action following an incident in the Balkans in the summer of 1914 THE ON SET OF WAR On June 28 1914 Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria Hungary was assassinated He was murdered at Sarajevo the capital of the Austrian province of Bosnia The assassin was Gavrilo Princip a Serbian trained Bosnian terrorist 10
WORLD WAR BEGINS 11 Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife Sophie leave a reception in Sarajevo Bosnia shortly before their assassination by Gavrilo Princip Austria claimed that Serbian government officials had trained and equipped Princip s group which was known as the Black Hand For many years Serbia and Austria Hungary had been unfriendly because Serbian nationalists wanted to unite all Slavic peoples living in the Balkan
KEY FIGURES OF 12 WORLD WAR region into a single state Slavs living in Austria Hungary would be included and Austria Hungary strongly opposed this Austria Hungary decided to use the assassination as an excuse to settle its quarrel with Serbia Germany promised to back Austria Hungary On July 23 Austria Hungary presented a warlike ultimatum to Serbia allowing only 48 hours for an answer Serbia responded by July 25 but suggested that some of Austria Hungary s demands be referred to the other European powers Austria Hungary refused Serbia's suggestion and on July 28 it declared war on Serbia This declaration of war activated the European alliances and within a week all Europe was at war OTHER NATIONS INVOLVED On July 29 Russia mobilized its troops near the Austrian and German borders purportedly to keep Serbia from being crushed However Russia had plans in the Ottoman Empire that had been blocked by Austria Hungary and Germany Russia wanted to control Constantinople and the straits from the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea On July 31 Germany demanded that Russia stop its war mobilization measures and delivered an ultimatum to France to declare itself neutral in the event of war between Russia and Germany Both Russia and France ignored the German demands Fighting began on the German Russian frontier on August 1 Germany declared war on France on August 3
WORLD WAR BEGINS 13 BRITAIN DECLAR ES WAR Britain and Germany had been growing more and more unfriendly before 1914 Germany claimed that Britain was trying to keep it from becoming a world power With the start of the war Germany made clear that it planned to invade France through Belgium Britain along with Germany and France had signed a treaty in 1838 guaranteeing the independence and neutrality of Belgium On August 4 Britain declared war on Germany to protect Belgian neutrality The rest of the British Empire immediately prepared to send troops Japan entered the war on the side of the Allies on August 23 Italy decided to remain neutral for the time being despite its membership in the Triple Alliance THE WAR DURING 1914 All the major powers had war plans designed for quick victories but no plans for a long drawn out stalemate The German Schlieffen Plan named after Count Alfred von Schlieffen a noted military strategist was designed to avoid a long costly war on two fronts It called for the German left flank to hold the French army on the Rhine River The right flank was to sweep through Belgium and northern France toward Paris After defeating France the Germans then planned to quickly move these troops east by rail to defeat
