The Origins of World War I

By the time the Austrian prince, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo by a Serbian nationalist, Gavrilo Princip, on 28th June 1914, parts of the Balkans had already been at war with Turkey and it’s Ottoman empire. The Austro-Hungarian Empire had taken advantage of the situation to annex the former Ottoman province of Bosnia-Herzegovina and nationalism had led to a volatile mix of states. The whole region was a powder-keg waiting to explode with a huge mixture of religion and languages.

After the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, Austria issued a list of demands against the Serbian government. Although Serbia did make wide concessions there seemed to be little to stop the Austrians wanting a war with Serbia. Serbia were not interested in another war having just been involved in the action with Turkey but In July 1914, Austria declared war on Serbia and the fuse had been ignited. German had already said it would stand by Austria while Russia had stated their army would be mobilised the moment Austrian soldiers moved into Serbia.

Britain and France were also allied to Russia and Germany saw this as an opportunity to move on their traditional enemy, France.

They chose to do this by marching straight through neutral Belgium so within weeks Europe and the World was at war.

Tours for 2010

The majority of our First World War Battlefield tours visit various sites along the Western Front in Belgium and Holland. However, we also offer tours to Gallipoli in Turkey.