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Study Unit 1: The First World War

Lesson 4: The Outbreak of War

On the 28th June, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Duchess Sophie von Chotkova were assassinated by Gavrilo Princip. Several members of the Black Hand group in Sarajevo were arrested and interrogated by the Austrian authorities. The Austro-Hungariangovernment soon discovered that three men in the Serbian Army living in Belgrade had organised the plot. Emperor Franz Josef of Austro-Hungarian and his ally, Kaiser Wilhem II, of Germany, decided that Serbia had to be punished for this crime.

In the summer of 1914, Sir Edward Grey was the man responsible for Britain's foreign policy. Some historians have suggested that if Grey had made different decisions to those that he took during the summer of 1914, he could have helped stop the outbreak of the First World War.


(1) Copy out Chart FW3. Fill in details of what Sir Edward Grey could have done to have avoided war. Use the hypertext links to find out more about these events.


(2) Historians believe that there were several reasons for the outbreak of war during the summer of 1914. From the following list select five factors that you think were the most important reasons for the war breaking out. Use the hypertext links to find out more about these events.

(a) The size of the British Empire;

(b) The desire by Germany to have a larger empire than Britain;

(c) The fear that Austro-Hungary had of Russia;

(d) The fear that Russia had of Austro-Hungary;

(e) The desire of France to regain the losses suffered during the war with Germany in 1870;

(f) The formation of the Triple Alliance;

(g) The formation of the Triple Entente;

(h) The increasing size of the German Army;

(i) The increasing size of the German Navy;

(j) The increasing size of the Royal Navy;

(k) The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand;

(l) The way that Austro-Hungary and Germany treated Serbia after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand;

(m) The way that Russia reacted to the way that Austro-Hungary and Germany treated Serbia after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand;

 

 

 

 

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