Which incident was the main cause for World War 1?
Although the assisination of the Archduke was a cause, it cannot be seen as THE main reason. Too much had happened before that resulted in the war in Europe. For example, the Balklans Crises and Wars provided much of the anger and tension between Austrio Hungary and Russia – Serbia in particular. The incidents involving Germanys foriegn policy of ‘Weltpolitik’ against the French and the British in incidents such as the morrocan crises, the daily telegraph affair and the extensive naval race were all extremely big factors. All this brought great rivalry between the major powers and were the main reasons for war. All out European War was close at many other times – the assasination was merely a small incident by Serbian terrorists – war was always on cards at that time.
Mobilisation of Russian troops was the biggest cause. Russia was set to achieve 2,000,000 in its standing army by 1917. This threatened Germany and Austria-Hungary’s existence and so they were in a race against time to achieve war to have any chance of surviving as great powers. However this only created a world war (including Britain and France) because of the the Triple Alliance set up by Bismark and the Triple Entente set up to counter the Triple Alliance. A combination of the two i believe. Franz Ferdinand is widely accepted, even by the German General of Staff Moltke, as an excuse to provoke a war as soon as possible. Unfortunately for the Central Powers, by this time it was too late.
The assassination of Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand was merely the lighting of the fuse on a powderkeg that had been growing for years. Each of the parties in the war were trying to maintain their position with regard to colonies throughout the world, their role as maritime powers, and trying to make themselves the dominant power in that part of the world. You need to look at the Franco-Prussian War as a part of the buildup, along with the rise in power of Bismarck in Germany, the overall problems in Russia (including the Russo-Japanese War after the turn of the century), the Balkans, and other parts of Europe and Asia. Keep in mind that this was largely a family fight, as the leaders of Germany, Russia and England were direct relatives, and the Grand Duke of Austria-Hungary was a relative by marriage. Take a look at Barbara Tuchman’s book “The Guns of August” for an explanation of how the powderkeg was lit, and go to Robert Massie’s “Dreadnought” for a pretty good explanation of a portion
