World War 1

CAUSE

The first world war began in August 1914. It

was directly triggered by the assassination of

the Austrian archduke, Franz Ferdinand and

his wife, on 28th June 1914 by Bosnian

revolutionary, Gavrilo Princip.

n 1908, Austria-Hungary took over the former Turkish province of Bosnia. This angered Serbians who felt the province should be theirs. Serbia threatened Austria-Hungary with war, Russia, allied to Serbia, mobilised its forces. Germany, allied to Austria-Hungary mobilised its forces and prepared to threaten Russia. War was avoided when Russia backed down. There was, however, war in the Balkans between 1911 and 1912 when the Balkan states drove Turkey out of the area. The states then fought each other over which area should belong to which state. Austria-Hungary then intervened and forced Serbia to give up some of its acquisitions. Tension between Serbia and Austria-Hungary was high.

The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I (1914–18), composed of Germany, Austria–Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria (hence also known as the Quadruple Alliance (German: Vierbund)). This alignment originated in the alliance of Germany and Austria-Hungary, and fought against the Allied Powers that had formed around the Triple Entente. The Central Powers regarded the assassination of Austro-Hungarian Archduke Francis Ferdinand by several militants as being an act supported by the Kingdom of Serbia, and given an unwillingness of Serbia to fully comply with Austro-Hungarian demands for a full investigation of Serbian complicity in the assassination, war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia was justified. This resulted in war with Russia, which opposed Austro-Hungarian intervention and supported Serbia, and ignited several alliance systems to bring the major European powers into a major war.

China during the new imperialism age when the industrialized European nations forced their way into China through the use of Opium. While there may be a formal alliance or other treaty obligations between the influenced and influencer, such formal arrangements are not necessary .In more extreme cases, a country within the "sphere of influence" of another may become a subsidiary of that state and serve in effect as a satellite state or de facto colony. The system of spheres of influence by which powerful nations intervene in the affairs of others continues to the present day. It is often analyzed in terms of superpowers, great powers, and/or middle powers.