Several factors led to the start of World War 1. The killing of Austria–Hungary’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and Imperialism were among the many factors resulting in WW1. However, the war’s impacts were felt across the world as it resulted in developing countries fighting for their independence and also created new nations.
In 1914, the Archduke and his wife were killed in Sarajevo, Bosnia's capital city, by Gavrilo Princip. Ferdinand was heir to Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was assassinated because Bosnia wanted to be independent of the Austria-Hungary rule (Myers, 2020). After the death of the Archduke, Austria was angry, resulting in them declaring war against Serbia. In Serbia’s defense, Russia came in declaring war on Austria-Hungary. In Austria-Hungary’s defense, Germany came in. This led to France and Britain joining the war. They declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary for fighting Russia and Serbia, hence, resulting in World War 1.
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On the other hand, imperialism is a system where powerful nations invade, control, and exploit the small and less powerful nations. The majority of European countries were considered superior in the world, and they were considered the Imperial powers before World War 1. Britain was an imperial power since the 17th century when it sought to expand its colonies to have a bigger importation platform on the raw materials (Cain, 2016). Other nations such as Germany, France, and Russia emerged as the Imperial powers later on. With this, power rivalry mounted. These nations started exploring overseas in search of colonies. Hence, competition for possession of new territories contributing to the outbreak of World War 1.
References
Myers, G. (2020). The Perfect Political Murder: The Historiography of the Assassination of Franz Ferdinand.
Cain, P. J., & Hopkins, A. G. (2016). British Imperialism: 1688-2015 . Routledge.
