What Started The First World War?

The main causes of world war one were pretty small but carried a lot of meaning at that time. There was a lot of tension between the countries in Europe. Britain was currently very stressed, because Germany was becoming stronger and more powerful by the second. They were practically spitting out more and more ships, and this scared the British empire, who at the time was the king of the seas. Also, the Austrian-Hungarian Empire was looking to expand and was hungry for war against Serbia. Then came along a great opportunity. While visiting Serbia, the Austrian-Hungarian Archduke, Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. Looking for a reason for war, they automatically blamed the Serbian government, which had nothing to do with the assassination. They then asked for completely unreasonable demands to provoke war even further, and when Serbia couldn’t meet them, war was declared. It was the straw that broke the camel's back. Once war was declared on Serbia, so many of the other countries had alliances made and deals struck which in the end led to there being the allies and the Central Powers.

-Ellen