Outbreak of WWI

Before

Because of the mixed ethnic groups in Europe's Great Powers, that area was nicknamed the Powder Keg of Europe The Balkan Peninsula, and known as the Power Keg of Europe, was full of clashing ethnic groups and European powers. Balkan Peninsula was nicknamed the Powder Keg of Europe due to its clashing ethnic groups and European Powers. This name was given because people thought it the region was going to explode into war sooner or later It gained its nickname since the region was extremely unstable and it was sure to blow up into a large scale conflict at any minute. To avoid war, some countries like Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, and Bulgaria, wanted to create a unified Slavic state, but before being able to accomplish it, Austria-Hungry was already marching troops to take over Bosnia. In October of 1908, Austria-Hungary had taken over Bosnia and the Slavic people weren't happy about this. However, they weren't able to create the unified Slavic state because Austria-Hungary was occupying Bosnia. that they couldn't do when Austria-Hungry was in Bosnia.

The Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand

Austria-Hungary was aware of this the conflict and decided to send their prince the heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, to Bosnia to help calm the citizens. Word got out about the Archduke's parade and the Black Hand group heard about it. The "Black Hand" group was a group of terrorist Serbian nationalists with the goal of an independent Slavic nation people of higher power. Their leader, Dragutin Dimitrijevic, sent his three best men, including Gavrilo Princip, to kill the Archduke. On June 28th 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his pregnant wife, Sophie, the Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated by Princip. died by two of Princip's bullets.

The Aftermath

Once Austria-Hungary heard about the assassination of their prince, they declared war on Serbia, where the assassin's were from. the assassin's homeland, Serbia. But Serbia had an alliance with Russia(Wasn't an offical alliance, it was slavic relations and allegiances to other slavs), forcing forced them to get involved into the conflict. Once Austria-Hungary deduced that Russia was behind the attacks, the other two major powers in their alliance, Germany and Italy, soon followed suit with declarations of war. Russia was able to convince Britain and France to join their side. The Ottoman Empire also joined in on the side of Austria-Hungary. All the countries then went to war which would be known as "The Great War", or World War I.