The Causes Of Serbia During World War I

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In 1914 a conflict brewed between the Serbian Slavs and the Austrian Slavs. The Serbians feared that the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, soon to be emperor of the Austrian-Hungarian empire, “would make changes in the Austrian government that would please the Bosnians and, … make them unwilling to break away and join Serbia” (Dolan, 16). To retaliate against the threat Archduke Ferdinand posed a Serbian terrorist group called the Black Hand plotted to assassinate the Archduke. On June 28, 1914 six people were sent by the Black Hand to kill Archduke Ferdinand. All except Gavrilo Princip cowered from the task (Dolan, 15). The Archduke and his wife Sophia were scheduled to appear in a parade in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Riding in an open car Gavrilo Princip was able to shoot to death both the future emperor of Austria-Hungary and his wife. In response to the murders the Austrian government sent Serbia an ultimatum of ten demands. “The most important were the final two: that Austrian officials be allowed to enter Serbia and quash the propaganda campaign and that Austria take part in investigating the killings and punishing the participants” (Dolan, 16). Serbia refused to accept the final two demands which resulted in Austria declaring war. …show more content…
Serbia had a treaty with Russia while Austria had a treaty with Germany. Also, in previous years Russia created treaties with other European countries. Russia and France created a treaty to fight together if attacked by Germany. Great Britain made a similar promise with France and Russia. These countries became known as the Allied Powers and Germany and Austria-Hungary were recognized as the Central Powers (Dolan,