The first World war bought about a lot of surprise and went on for so much longer than people thought, but there were so many different reasons for the happening of this war, that it should have been foreseen earlier. Some were short-term affects and others were long term. Two alliances - The Triple Alliance (Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary) and The Triple Entente (Great Britain, Russia and France) fought, but why were these countries with and against each other? These points shall be covered and in this essay I shall also compare the long-term and short-term happenings.
I find that the trigger of World War|would be the event that occurred on the 28th June 1914. Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne and wife Sophie [who was expecting her fourth] were assassinated. He - shot in the neck and dead some tenminutes later and she in the stomach killing both foetus and mother almost immediately. It was the marriage anniversary for the Archduke and his spouse who were celebrating fourteen years of marital bliss. Gavrilo Princip, member of the anonymous terrorist group - The Black Hand and Bosnian Serb, took the plunge and shot twice at point blanc range from outside a sandwich bar while the archduke's driver took a wrong turn and got the gears jammed. Coincidence? We will never know, but for a long time, Austria-Hungary and Serbia had disliked each other because Serbia, like Bosnia, wanted to be free from the rule of the Austro-Hungarian empire, they wanted independence. It was because of this that Austria-Hungary was happy to have the chance and blamed Serbia for what had happened to the couple, this was the escalation, using what had happened on the 28th as an excuse, a month later (the 28th July) Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Belgrade [the capital] was attacked - the first fighting.
On the 29th July, the Russian army prepared to help defend Serbia against the Austro-Hungarian attack but on the 30th...