What event was the spark that ignited countries in Europe to go to war?

Riding in an open car on the morning of June 27, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated along with his wife by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Bosnia.

On July 28th, 1914, a month after 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip killed Ferdinand, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia and invaded, igniting a conflict that would last five years and kill an estimated 17 million people.

Historians still debate whether the European powers would have fought a continent-wide war if Ferdinand hadn't been assassinated. But the immediate causes of the war still stemmed from the consequences of the Archduke's killing.

In the days after Ferdinand's death, Austria-Hungary — shaken by the prospect that the assassination would empower nationalists in the empire's often-unstable Balkan holdings — issued an ultimatum to Serbia demanding that Austria be allowed to send agents into the country to investigate possible connections between the kille and the Serbian government.

Serbia stalled and then mobilized its military. That's when superpower dynamics kicked in: Serbia was allied with Russia, which had a military alliance with France. Meanwhile, Austria-Hungary had an alliance with Germany, which was in turn allied with the Ottoman Empire. By the end of July 1914, Europe's military powers were mobilizing and the the continent was at war.

What could have been a containable crisis stemming from the Austro-Hungarian empire's weakening control over its periphery rapidly morphed into a conflict that killed millions. The assassination, and the fearsome and unstoppable cascade of events it unleashed, is one of history's prime examples of how countries can go to war without consciously intending to — and how seemingly manageable events can explode in ways that the existing international order can't control.

The Archduke's last words to his wife, who was hit in the stomach by a stray second shot were, "Sophie! Sophie! Don't die! Live for our children!," PBS News Hour reports. 

She died in the car and Ferdinand passed away about 10 minutes later. The war would begin on July 28th, and end 4 years, 3 months, and 2 weeks later, on November 11th, 1918.

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Learn about some of the important factors that helped lead to World War I and the event that ignited the fighting.

Last Updated: April 9, 2018

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Frantic competition among European powers marked the late 1800s and early 1900s. The strength of a nation was measured by the scope of its wealth and resources, the amount of land it held, and the size of its army and navy. The leaders of many countries believed that a nation could only achieve its political and economic goals if it had a strong military, a belief known as militarism. Conscript armies grew in most countries, in which young men were required to undergo a year or two of military training and were then sent home as reserves to be mobilized or called to action when needed for fighting. Naval budgets increased every year, especially in Great Britain and Germany. No country wanted to be without allies if war broke out, so two major military alliances took hold. Germany, fearful of being hemmed in by enemies on its east and west, signed an agreement with Austria-Hungary to support each other in a European war. Russia and France reached a similar agreement.

Militarists increasingly viewed their nations’ armed forces as above criticism. And many greatly admired such military values as self-sacrifice, discipline, and obedience. War was increasingly seen as an adventure, an opportunity to fight and even die for one’s country. Karl Pearson, a British writer at the time, claimed that wars are necessary. He maintained that nations could establish their rightful position in the world “by contest, chiefly by way of war with inferior races, and with equal races by the struggle for trade routes and for the sources of raw materials and food supply.” 1

Others held similar views. Count Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, the chancellor of Germany at the turn of the twentieth century, claimed that “the old saying still holds good that the weak will be the prey of the strong. When a people will not or cannot continue to spend enough on armaments to be able to make its way in the world, then it falls back into the second rank.” 2

For Pearson, Hollweg, and other Europeans, a nation was more than a country. To them, the members of a nation not only shared a common history, culture, and language but also common ancestors, character traits, and physical characteristics. Many believed, therefore, that a nation was a biological community and that membership in it was passed on from one generation to the next. In other words, belief in a nation was similar to what many believed about race.

Some historians refer to Europe in the early 1910s as a powderkeg (a barrel of gunpowder). European nations were eager for war to prove their superiority over other nations. They had growing militaries. And they had joined together to form opposing military alliances, pledging to support their partner nations in case of war. Like a barrel of gunpowder, the smallest spark could make everything explode.

The spark that set off World War I came on June 28, 1914, when a young Serbian patriot shot and killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Austria), in the city of Sarajevo. The assassin was a supporter of the Kingdom of Serbia, and within a month the Austrian army invaded Serbia. As a result of the military alliances that had formed throughout Europe, the entire continent was soon engulfed in war. Because European nations had numerous colonies around the world, the war soon became a global conflict.

Facing History and Ourselves, "The Beginning of World War I," last updated April 9, 2018.

This reading contains text not authored by Facing History and Ourselves. See footnotes for source information.

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