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The Assassination of Franz Ferdinand Essay

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While there is never just a single event that has led to the start of a world war, or any other serious war, there is often one thing that triggers long lived tensions and thus war ensues. Such was the case in WWI with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. There were many tensions that existed prior to his assassination, but it was his assassination which triggered the war, his assassination that served as an excuse, and perhaps the last straw, so to speak, which led to the First World War. The following paper examines the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and its relationship to the start of WWI.      Under the rule at the time of the assassination, the old Austrio-Hungarian Empire was built by conquest …show more content…

The European leaders and individuals were perhaps becoming very untrusting of one another, and the tensions were rising as no one would rely on the agreements made by anyone.            As a result of all this tension and distrust, in combination with the assassination of Ferdinand, many nations came together or attacked certain nations that were a threat. For example, the assassination led Austria to declare war on Serbia and Germany declared war on Russia, and then France and then Belgium (Cox). Great Britain then declared war on Germany and Japan on Germany (Cox). Clearly there were many tensions that were just waiting for the right moment, the breaking of the camel’s back, to push nations to truly act. And, since other nations were acting, each nation took that as a sign to go ahead with plans they had perhaps had for several years.            In relationship to these tensions were other forces as well. For example, much of the world was suffering from a depression and this led many to worry and blame others for their position. There were also those elements listed below:           Turmoil in the Ottoman empire,

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