IMMEDIATE CAUSES OF THE WAR- The july crisis
Following the turmoils of the Balkan crises where full war was temporarily assuaged, Archeduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia while on a trip by a Serbian nationalist in June of 1914. Outrage in Austria-Hungary coupled with the preexisting enmity between the nations quickly escalated drawing in Germany, Russia, and eventually all of Europe. This third Balkan war erupted into World War I.