The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand has triggered an emergency conference between the British Empire, the United States, Belgium, the Russian Empire, France, Italy, Greece, Romania, the Sublime Ottoman Empire, the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria. However, the first day of the meeting became a disaster when Germany mobilised troops across Austria-Hungary's borders after countries struggled to find common ground in resolving the Austria-Hungary - Serbia issue.

Despite continuous efforts from all participating countries in resolving the issue, the lack of progress in an investigation uncovering the organisation behind the culprit Gavrilo Princip and internal problems within Austria-Hungary’s society led to Germany’s distrust in the capabilities of carrying out the international duty of investigating the nationalist organisation behind the tragic event on June 28th. Thus, the German Empire sent an ultimatum, which ultimately turned into a ground invasion. 

At the end of the first day of the conference, the United States openly urged other nations to go against Austria-Hungary and demanded that this nation open its borders for foreign troops to continue the investigation. At the same time, the German Empire threatened Austria-Hungary by sending an ultimatum ordering the country to resolve the issue with Serbia quickly and on its own, which they could not fulfill since the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria had triggered nationwide riots as the civilians of the Austro-Hungarian Empire oppressed Serb communities using protests, violence, killing and vandalism of Serb infrastructure. Serbian society also has the same reaction towards Austro-Hungarians. The riots in Austria-Hungary escalated so rapidly that its government allowed foreign troops to help with riot control, resulting in the Ottoman Empire sending troops to aid the local police in stopping the destruction of Austria-Hungary's authority. 

At the beginning of the conference, each nation vowed not to escalate the assassination into an armed conflict, with Germany taking the lead. All participants worked together to resolve the issue, especially conducting investigations on the nationalist organisation that was later discovered to be a continent-wide issue. However, Serbia and Austria-Hungary, which are the main investigators, refuse to disclose information about the investigation, refuse almost any aid from foreign countries and eventually fall into rebellions, which caused the German Empire and the United States to eventually turn their backs on them, despite Germany being Austria-Hungary’s military ally in the Central Powers.

After the Balkan wars, Austria-Hungary and Serbia find themselves in an extremely tense situation, the Ottoman Empire losing lots of its territory in North Africa and unrest continuing to happen, as well as the Russian Empire suffering from the losses of the Russo-Japanese war, as well as its own crippling domestic affairs. Secret allies have been formed beforehand in case one gets invaded, while the rise of the German Empire poses a serious threat to the British Empire’s dominance. With the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and the sudden ground invasion of Austria-Hungary by the Germans, Europe is once again prone to a continental conflict whose scale far exceeds the Napoleonic Wars. With a Europe which has just got out of wars, this armed conflict will only bring more mayhem to the civilians. The Ottoman Empire has forcibly seized the HQ of the Ottoman Public Debt Administration and exploited European tax officials, therefore preventing foreign creditors from profiting at its expense, with the British and France threatening to clap back navally and economically to replenish its emptying military coffers.

Will the United States and the German Empire go against the mutual efforts of trying to return peace to Europe? The United States has a strategic geological position that naturally discourages it from being invaded, while Germany has been regarded as a new empire with ambitions as high as the British Empire. The United States is also an industrial power. By being a supplier of weapons for a conflict, America is able to turn in a huge amount of profit, while the users will obtain a large arsenal of state-of-the-art weapons. Therefore, a Germany-US alliance scenario will be extremely unfavourable to the rest of the European community. 

The situation in Europe remains as unpredictable as ever, but we still have a glimmer of hope, as there are still two more days of the conference to tackle the issue in Europe. The New York Times will continue to provide readers with the most up-to-date newsletters.