The immediate cause of World War I was the assassination of the Archduke of Austria-Hungary, Franz Ferdinand. This one event led to the war by the coming together of the mutual alliances and the amount of influence it had over the build up of imperialism, nationalism, and militarism. His death set off chain reactions that led up to the war itself. Austria-Hungary was very angered by this Serbian attack and tried to use this to overcome Slavic nationalism. To try and reinstate their influence in the Balkans, Austria-Hungary decided they wanted to try and stop the nationalist movement that was going on in Serbia at the time. Concurrently, Serbian nationalists wanted Bosnia and Herzegovina under them so they could have a direct path to the Adriatic Sea. But since these two provinces were under Austro-Hungarian rule, Serbia was infuriated. Their activities increased when Bosnia and Herzegovina were annexed by Austria-Hungary. Serbian goals were supported by Russia and this created Pan-Slavism which is the unity of Slavs under Russian rule.
But at the time of Franz Ferdinand’s assassination, he was in Sarajevo, Bosnia to visit a friend and discuss the dire situation in the Balkans. The man who murdered the Archduke of Austria-Hungary along with his wife was a man by the name of Gavrilo Princip. He was a Serbian nationalist and belonged
…show more content…
This movement directly ties in with the immediate cause of the war being the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. It ties in because Slavic people in Bosnia and Herzegovina did not want to be a part of Austria-Hungary, instead they wanted to be included in Serbia. Publicly, nationalism was basically all over the place at this time in the world. Things such as propaganda and jingoism showed the more aggressive part of a nation's patriotism. These things portrayed information that was either true or false to get people to back their nations efforts for