On Christmas day 1914 all along the front lines in France, German and British soldiers

stopped fighting each other and instead met in no man’s land where they sang, ate, drank and

played soccer together. The reason these men were here was because Germany, France, Austria-

Hungary, Russia and Great Britain had been at war for five months in what would later become

known as the Great War or World War I. The causes of this war can be traced to the rise of

nationalism in both the German states as well as in the Balkans, and the misinformed perceptions

and fearful mindsets of the leaders of Europe at the time. The main event to kick off this war in

Europe was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28th, 1914. However, this

was not the only event to lead to this war beginning as many events had been going on for the

last 100 years.

The first event that can be traced to the start of the First World War is the Congress of

Vienna from 1814 to 1815. At this congress the great powers of the time got together and made a

structure for how Europe should be controlled to insure a long-term peace. The powers would

achieve this by getting together whenever there were disagreements between the powers of

Europe and settling the disputes between themselves.

The next major event to happen was the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. In the peace

treaty of this war Prussia was given the territory of Alsace-Lorraine, Kaiser Wilhelm I was

named the Kaiser of Germany unifying the German states under Prussia, and France was made to

pay 5 billion francs to Prussia in 5 years.

The next major event to happen was the Congress of Berlin in 1878 where the great

powers of Europe, the Ottoman Empire and four Balkan states attended and discussed the fate of

the Balkans. At this congress Russia, who at the time was allied to both Austria-Hungary and

Germany, was vying for Bulgaria to become independent of Ottoman rule. In the end Russia got
what it wanted with Bulgaria becoming fully independent as well as Serbia, Romania and

Montenegro being guaranteed independence. In this same treaty Austria-Hungary was given the

right to occupy the Ottoman owned territory of Bosnia with its military, but nothing more.

In 1888 Wilhelm II became Kaiser of Germany and the foreign policy of Germany

changed greatly from the previous policies as Otto von Bismarck was replaced, and Wilhelm II

refused to resign the agreement which had allied Germany to Russia.

In 1908 Austria-Hungary decided to annex the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina

which they had been occupying since the Congress of Berlin in 1878. This greatly angered not

only Serbia and all of the Balkans but also Russia who saw this as an aggressive act by Austria-

Hungary. In 1912 the Balkan states went to war with the Ottoman Empire and almost completely

removed it from Europe. In 1913 the Balkans again were at war but this time with Bulgaria who

felt it was getting the short end of the peace treaties and resulted in Bulgaria losing even more

land. These wars greatly increased the size of Serbia and was a boost to the Balkan Nationalism

which had been building up in the area for quite some time. This all culminated in the final

climactic point that would lead to war when Franz Ferdinand and his wife were killed in

Sarajevo in June of 1914.

The assassination of Franz Ferdinand was at the hands of a group of Serbian nationalists

known as the Black Hand. This movement and many others like it was devoted to seeing a united

Slavic nation free of Habsburg influence. At this same time there was also a strong German

nationalism which was continuing to grow. The German states of Germany and Austria were

both looking to unite all Germans and to create a massive empire spanning from the Baltic Sea to
the Persian Gulf. To Achieve these goals both groups would need control of the Balkan

Peninsula.1

The annexation of Bosnia brought these two competing nationalisms into a struggle

against each other in the Balkans. With the Slavs attempting to join all their people together

under one flag and the Germans attempting to take more land to the East, the annexation of

Bosnia set up the stage for the world war.2 Kaiser Wilhelm II even stated “the present case was a

powerful forward surge of the Slavs. War between East and West was in the long run inevitable.”

when speaking about the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913.3

Another German who at the time was sure of a war to come was Helmuth von Moltke the

German Chief of Staff for the armed forces saying, “a European war is bound to come sooner or

later, in which the issue will be one of a struggle between Germandom and Slavdom.”4 This

directly shows the tension in the Balkans between the Slavic nationalism growing in the Balkans

and the German nationalism. Another point to see the direct conflict between these two groups is

in the ultimatum sent to Serbia by Austria-Hungary. In this document it states, “Serbia

recognizes that her rights were not affected by the state of affairs of Bosnia” and “Serbia, in

accepting the advice of the Great Powers, binds herself to desist from the attitude of protest and

opposition which she has assumed with regard to the annexation”5 showing how Austro-

1
Edward Raymond Turner, “The Causes of the Great War,” The American Political Science Review 9, no. 1 (1915):
26.
2
Vernon Bogdanor, “The Shadows Lengthen,” History Today 64, no. 8 (2014).
3
David Fromkin, Europe’s Last Summer: Who Started the Great War in 1914, (New York: Vintage Books, 2004), 95.
4
Fromkin, Europe’s Last Summer, 103.
5
Leopold von Berchtold, “The Serbian Response to the Austro-Hungarian Ultimatum (English Translation),” The
World War I Document Archive, accessed September 25, 2017, https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/The_Austro-
Hungarian_Ultimatum_to_Serbia_(English_translation)
Hungarian officials were trying to undermine the nationalist movements growing in these

regions.

It was this rising sense of nationalism in Europe that cause the leaders of the Great

Powers to become arrogant and egotistical and to allow this into their decision making. Before

the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, he and Kaiser Wilhelm II were close friends and

allies. These two men saw eye to eye on many points that their advisors did not mainly, they

were very much against a war with Russia or Serbia. Had it not been for the death of the

Archduke the war may never had happened.6

Despite this agreement of peace with Russia and Serbia the nations of Europe had

for years been planning out minute by minute strategies to fight whoever they may come into

conflict with. This was detrimental to the peace of Europe because when the threat of armed

conflict started to appear the generals began to lay heavy pressure on the chiefs of staff to start

preparations for war, so they would not lose the upper hand.7

On July 5th, 1914 Kaiser Wilhelm II gave the Austro-Hungarian ambassador his

assurance of help in war if Russia were to attack them, this has become known as the “Blank

Check”. The ambassador reported back to Count Leopold von Berchtold saying, “The Kaiser

said that Russia’s stance would always be a hostile one, but he had been prepared for this for

many years, and even if war broke out between Austria-Hungary and Russia, we could rest

assured that Germany would take our side”.8 This assurance of German support in a war with

6
Fromkin, Europe’s Last Summer, 100-101.
7
John G. Stoessinger, Why Nations Go to War, (Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2004), 16-17.
8
Ladislaus Count von Szögyény-Marich, “The ‘Blank Check’: Ladislaus Count von Szögyény-Marich (Berlin) to
Leopold Count von Berchtold (July 5, 1914), German History in Documents and Images, accessed September 27,
2017, http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=800.
Russia gave Count Berchtold a confidence he would not otherwise of had to send his ultimatum

to Serbia. As John Stoessinger says, “It offered up the German nation, and it emboldened the

senile monarchy of Austria-Hungary to make a desperate gamble.”9 After the assassination the

Chief of Staff and leader of the Austrian militarist party, Conrad von Hotzendorff, believed that

Austria-Hungary must punish Serbia and her people or else the Empire would fall from its

position as a Great Power in Europe and began to push for mobilization of Austrian forces.

However, the aging Emperor, Franz Joseph refused to do so and instead was planning to take a

vacation to recover his health.

As the days went by and nations came closer to war, Germany began to prepare for war

with Russia and France. The Germans immediately began to try to secure the neutrality of Great

Britain so that they would not have to contend with the power of that Empire as well as France

and Russia if war were to break out. Kaiser Wilhelm II and many of the German leaders and

people were very paranoid that their nation was being surrounded by enemies who wanted to

crush them. To add to this paranoia the Kaiser, due to correspondence from Sir Edward Grey,

believed that Great Britain was the head of this plot to destroy Germany. This then was his

reasoning to demand Russia demobilize their forces and after they refused, to order the full

mobilization of the German Army.10 During this same time Sir Grey did tell the German

Ambassador the requirements for their neutrality saying, that they could not let France be

destroyed and to lose their status as a Great Power.11

With the news of British neutrality if France were left out of the war, coming after the

Schlieffen Plan had already been set in motion, Kaiser Wilhelm called his Chief of Staff

9
Stoessinger, Why Nations Go to War, 7.
10
Stoessinger, Why Nations Go to War, 15-16.
11
Vernon Bogdanor, “The Shadows Lengthen,” History Today 64, no. 8 (2014).
Helmuth von Moltke and told him they needed to reroute the men who were being sent to France

towards Russia. Moltke, who had difficulty changing plans, told the Kaiser that the task was

impossible and could not be done. In years after the war this was proven to be false and would

maybe have set their plans back by a few weeks.12

Moltke, as Germany’s chief of staff spoke with the voice of most of the armed forces and

politicians in Germany and was a believer that a war was unavoidable, and it could only be won

if it was fought sooner rather later.13 This caused him, like many other men during the time to

push for their leaders to quickly go to war so they could make the first blow against the enemy.

In Russia the leadership in charge of the military was made up of three men. The first

being, Sergei Sasonov, the Russian Foreign Minister who was focused on what he saw as

injustices Russia had suffered at the hands of other European countries. The next was the

Minister of war Vladimir Sukhomlinov, an ex-general who prided himself on not having read a

military manual in over 20 years and valued the sabre and bayonet over infantry firepower.

Sukhomlinov was also fired in 1915 for failing to provide the army with the proper munitions

and supplies for war. The last person with power over the military was Czar Nicholas II. The

Czar was at this time was under pressure from his people to help the Serbians defend themselves

as they were both Slavic people and believed they should stand together.

The Russian leadership upon receiving the news of the Austrian Ultimatum saw it as a

pretext for Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia. Sasonov was quoted after reading the

ultimatum as saying, “I do not hate Austria; I despise her.”14 The President of France, Raymond

12
Stoessinger, Why Nations Go to War, 20-21.
13
Fromkin, Europe’s Last Summer, 96.
14
Stoessinger, Why Nations Go to War, 13.
Poincaré, on July 30th sent a telegram to Russia telling them they had France’s support in

resisting any attempt Austria-Hungary made to end the independence of Serbia. This telegram is

viewed by many historians as a second “Blank Check” and encouraged Russia to risk a war with

Austria-Hungary and Germany.15

In Serbia the Austro-Hungarian aggression in their ultimatum was also seen as a pretext

for war. However, the Serbians did choose to agree to almost every term in the ultimatum. The

one thing they did not agree to was, the Austro-Hungarian appointed officials to oversee

investigations of Serbians who may have been involved in the assassination of Archduke Franz

Ferdinand. The government replied, “As for the cooperation in this investigation of specially

delegated officials of the I. and R. Government is concerned, this cannot be accepted, as this is a

violation of the constitution and criminal procedure.”16 Also at the bottom of their response they

included “The Royal Serbian Government believes it to be to the common interest not to rush the

solution of this affair and it is therefore, in case the I. and R. Government should not consider

itself satisfied with this answer, ready, as ever, to accept a peaceable solution, be it by referring

the decision of this question to the International Court at The Hague or by leaving it to the

decision of the Great Powers.”17 This shows that Serbia, while knowing they were not fully

accepting the ultimatum, was ready to negotiate and work out a peace deal with Austria-

Hungary. However, the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador had been given orders that if they did not

15
Frank McDonough, The Origins of the First and Second World Wars, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1997), 16.
16
Royal Serbian Government, “The Serbian Response to the Austro-Hungarian Ultimatum (English Translation),”
World War I Document Archive, accessed September 25, 2017,
https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/The_Serbian_Response_to_the_Austro-
Hungarian_Ultimatum_(English_translation).
17
Royal Serbian Government, “The Serbian Response,” World War I Document Archive.
accept every part of the ultimatum that he was supposed to immediately cut diplomatic ties with

Serbia.

Many historians have researched and written about the causes and events leading to

World War I and they have many ideas as to which was most important. For instance, one of the

most obvious answers to what or who in this case was the cause of the war is Germany. This is

backed up by Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles, known as the “War Guilt Clause” which

placed the entire blame of the war upon Germany. More points that historians use are the “Blank

Check” to Austria-Hungary and the fact that Germany attacked France first in 1914 which

caused the British to be pulled in as well.

Another cause of the war historians point to is the military buildup in Europe. In the years

leading up to the war Europe had gone through the industrial revolution and many had

population surges. Along with a desire to expand the European nations grew their armies to

never before seen sizes so that they could conquer new land and protect the land they held. Being

situated in the middle of Europe and surrounded by enemies Germany also began to build up

their navy to try to compete with the navy of Great Britain hoping they could insure British

neutrality in conflicts on the continent.

The last cause many historians might point to is the alliance system that was started in

1814 at the Congress of Vienna which set up large blocks of defensive alliances between the

great powers of Europe. This is seen as a main cause by historians due to how many countries

joined the war as a result of an ally being attacked.

These reasons may have played some part in the start of World War I however they were

not the main causes. The causes of this war can be traced back to the rise of nationalism in both
the Balkan and the German states, as well as the misinformed perceptions and fearful mindsets of

the leaders of the European powers at the time. Without the growth of nationalism, the leaders of

Europe would not have had their egos get in the way of keeping peace and this war to end all

wars would most likely never have taken place.