Franz Ferdinand part 1

The events that lead to the outbreak of World War One are very complex.  Often it is over simplified that there were a lot of alliances between the countries of Europe and therefore when two countries went to war with each other then basically the rest of Europe would also be dragged into the war.  These alliances were forged over the decades prior to the outbreak of WWI due to other conflicts throughout Europe.  Two of the big things that lead to these alliances were imperialism and nationalism.  To keep things simple the Austria-Hungarian empire (led by archduke Franz Ferdinand) decided to annex Bosnia (Imperialism) in 1908.  Not all of the people in Bosnia wanted this.  Those who were Serbian either wanted and independent Bosnian state or to be a part of Serbia (nationalism).  Serbia supported Bosnia and threatened war and Russia agreed but then backed down so there was no war.  Then there were some other wars in the Balkan region and when it was over Austria-Hungry made Serbia give up some of its new land acquisitions.  So Serbians in Serbia and Bosnia did not like Austria-Hungry.

Then on June 28, 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife decided to visit the city of Sarajevo.  On their way to city hall an assassin tried to kill the archduke by throwing a bomb at his car but missed.  However, when the archduke and his wife left city hall there were more assassins waiting in the crowd.  As the archdukes car drove down the street to leave the city it stopped at one point, right in front of an awaiting assassin, 19 year old Gavrilo Princip.  Princip fired 2 shots killing the archduke and his wife (he said he wasn't trying to kill his wife).  He was captured and sentenced to 20 years in prison but died of TB a few years later in 1918.  Princip and the other conspirators were captured and gave some testimony that they were supported or received support from the Serbian Military (Princip belonged to a group known as Young Bosnians but there were other anti-Austrian groups/revolutionary groups such as The Black Hand that had been around for many years and had direct connections to the Serbian military.)  Anyway you can see how when the Austrians found out that the assassins received help from the Serbia how this could then lead the Austrians to be mad at Serbia and long story short would lead to war, but then Russia jumped in to support Serbia and then Germany jumps in to support Austria and then France jumps in against Germany so Germany attacks France and when France is attacked England jumps in and you have a world war.

Here are some pictures I pulled from the internet:

Princip      

Princip being arrested

archduke and his wife leaving city hall