How did the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand lead to war?

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand triggered a chain of events that led to the outbreak of World War I.

On 28th June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb nationalist. This event is often considered the spark that ignited World War I. However, the path to war was not as straightforward as it might seem. The assassination was indeed a catalyst, but it was the underlying tensions and alliances between the major European powers that ultimately led to the conflict.

At the time of the assassination, Europe was a tinderbox of nationalistic fervour, militaristic ambitions, and complex alliances. Austria-Hungary, aggrieved by the assassination, issued an ultimatum to Serbia, which was seen as excessively harsh and designed to be rejected. Serbia's rejection of the ultimatum provided Austria-Hungary with a pretext to declare war.

However, the situation was complicated by the network of alliances that crisscrossed Europe. Serbia was under the protection of Russia, which mobilised its army in response to the Austrian declaration of war. This, in turn, triggered Germany's Schlieffen Plan, a pre-existing military strategy designed to deal with a potential war on two fronts: against France in the west and Russia in the east. Germany declared war on Russia and its ally France, and invaded neutral Belgium to outflank the French army. This violation of Belgian neutrality brought Britain into the war on the side of France and Russia.

In essence, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand set off a domino effect. It was the spark that ignited the powder keg of European tensions, but it was the complex web of alliances and mutual defence pacts that transformed a regional conflict into a global war. The assassination was the trigger, but the gun had been loaded by years of rising nationalism, militarism, and the formation of opposing military alliances. The war that followed was not inevitable, but the assassination made it considerably more likely by providing a flashpoint for these simmering tensions.