The History of The Start of World War 1

Multiple countries became involved in the fighting of World War 1, though each became involved for vastly different reasons. The fighting originally began when Austria-Hungary began trying to regain their status as a world power and decided to start by taking over Serbia. Austria Hungary had sent in Archduke Franz Ferdinand to tour through Serbia, though during his time there he was assassinated on June 28, 1914. Austria-Hungary felt that Ferdinand was an acceptable loss in their attempted power gain and utilized his death as a way to punish Serbia, thus starting the first major world conflict.

Serbia went to Russia to seek protection from the oncoming violence coming from Austria-Hungary; Russia became the first of many countries to become involved in the fighting. With Russia now involved, Austria-Hungary looked to Germany to help in the fighting. Russia states that Serbia is a country that cannot be allowed to fall and be taken over to allow power to the now allied Austria-Hungary and Germany. Austria-Hungary officially declares war in Russia on July 28, 2914, almost immediately after Russia becomes involved in the conflict.

The movement of the war began almost immediately, with Russia beginning to mobilize their troops on July 30, resulting in Germany attempted to stop Russia with an ultimatum on July 31, as well as with France. Both Russia and France ignore these ultimatums and Germany officially declares war on the two countries. Germany begins moving through Belgium to get into France, resulting in Belgium becoming involved in the war, and Great Britain following shortly after, as the two countries are allied.

Japan later becomes involved in the war in late August against Germany with the promise of land by Russia at the end of the war if the Allied Powers (Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, and the United States) won the war. In 1915, Bulgaria would eventually join in on the side of the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey). Within the area of Europe where the war was waging, Romania, that was essentially stuck directly in the middle of the war, declared neutrality.

Due to the United States still following the Monroe Doctrine, the US stayed out of the area of Europe, though helping the war effort without officially stating that they were trying to help while Britain was detaining any ships and seizing whatever was on those ships- in this case it would be supplies needed to continue fighting. Germany eventually caught on to what was going on and began sinking any military vessels coming near Europe; the sister ship of the Lusitania had become a militarized vessel, so when the passenger ship Lusitania came into port, Germany sunk the ship and killed over 1,000 civilians, with at least 100 begin American.

It wasn’t until much later in the war that the United States became involved in the war when Germany sent the Zimmerman Telegram to Mexico in an attempt to get Mexico in on their side with the promise of land in America to later be returned to them. The US intercepted this message well before it reached Mexico, causing President Wilson to ask Congress to officially declare war on Germany.

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