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What Caused WWI
Everybody usually learns sometime in his or her life about the start of World War I, but not everyone learns the same thing. Some people learn that the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand caused the war to start. Other people learn that other factors such as nationalism, militarism, and diplomacy started World War I. “The causes of great wars are never simple. Many causes may work quietly under the surface for years before they are recognized” (Snyder 9). The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was a factor that led to World War I. Nevertheless, even if the assassination had never occurred, the war would have still started due to other factors such as nationalism, and militarism.
“On the morning of June 28, 1914, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife paid an official visit to Sarajevo, capital of the province of Bosnia in the Balkans” (Pimlott 6). The Archduke was planning to direct army maneuvers in the neighboring mountains. June 28, 1914, just happened to be the 525th anniversary of Serbia’s freedom from Turkish rule. A group of men were well aware of that fact, and they highly detested the Archduke’s arrival. The men were terrorists from a secret society who pledged themselves to work for freedom. The group of men was known as the Black Hand. (Shackelford 2). They had met one night to discuss what to do about the coming display of armed might in their conquered land. They had made the decision to kill the Archduke. The Archduke was chosen as a target because Serbians feared that after his ascension to the throne, he would continue the persecution of Serbs living within the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The plan was quite simple. Eight members of the society were selected. Each person was placed five hundred yards apart along the route that the Archduke had to travel while he was going from the railroad station to the Town Hall. With the people so strategically placed, one of them was bound to succeed in killing Franz Ferdinand. As the Archduke was going to the Town Hall, one of the members of the Black Hand threw a bomb at Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s car. The Archduke moved out of the way and so no one was injured. He and his wife made it to the Town Hall alive.
After Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s meeting at Town Hall was over, he requested to leave the city by taking the shortest route. As he was leaving the city, the chauffeur took an incorrect turn onto a bridge. Only one of the members of the Black Hand had decided to keep waiting to kill the Archduke, coincidentally, he was right by the bridge. As the car stopped to turn around, the nineteen-year-old assassin pulled out his pistol and fired three shots. He killed the [next page]