World War 1 Begins

Roots of World War 1 go back to 1864 when the German kingdom of Prussia had its first wars to unite German states into on big nation. By 1871 Prussia had all the states united and established the birth of the German Empire, it quickly became one of the most powerful nations in the world. They attacked and defeated France and made France give up a territory along the German border called Alsace-Lorraine, this caused France and Germany to become enemies. Germany wanted to protect itself and they signed alliances with Austria-Hungary and Italy which became known as the Triple Alliance. This alarmed the Russians because Austria-Hungary was competing with them to influence in southeastern Europe. Russia and France then signed an alliance called the Franco-Russian Alliance.

June 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne visited the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. While Franz Ferdinand and his wife rode through the city a member of a Serbian nationalist group, Gavrillo Princip, rushed to their car, opened it and shot both Ferdinand and his wife to death. Serbian officials knew of the assassination and hoped to start a war that would bring down the Austro-Hungarian Empire. On the 28^th of July Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Russia being their ally immediately mobilized its army. Then on the 1^st of August Germany declared war on Russia, two days after that they declared war on France and World War one had begun.