How Did Archduke Franz Ferdinand Cause Ww1

Known as the “spark” in the “Powder Keg of Europe”, the tensions that have already been growing between Austria-Hungary and Serbia before the start of WWI, eventually led to the start of a war between many major powers of the world. This “spark” is commonly known as the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Ferdinand was the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne and was murdered by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb citizen of Austria-Hungary and member of the Black Hand movement, a group considered by many as terrorists that were responsible for the start of the war. The reason why it was so dangerous in the years before WWI was because of the fact that there was already a large amount of tension that had been growing between Austria-Hungary …show more content…
As a way of preventing this from happening, Austria-Hungary quickly annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina. The announcement of their annexation in October 1908 damaged the already fragile balance of power in the Balkans, enraging Serbia and Pan-Slavic nationalists throughout Europe. Infuriated by these events, the Serbian-Nationalist group the “Black Hand” sends in a group of assassins to kill Archduke Ferdinand as he visited Sarajevo with his wife. Though the assassination was covered as a minor news story, we now know that it will have unimaginable consequences.

In an attempt to ‘solve’ the conflict between the 2 powers, Austria-Hungary invaded Serbia in 1914, which resulted in the formation of an even larger problem. The retaliation by Austria-Hungary against Serbia triggered the formation of many different alliances throughout Europe which then led to a chain reaction of war declarations. As a result, these war declarations and alliances that were made will conclusively form what we know today as the “First World