The assassination of arch duke Ferdinand
When arch Duke Ferdinand was assassinated by a Serbian Nationalist, Austria declared war on Serbia. However that alone would only cause a minor conflict right? Well it would have been minor if Austria had not asked for help from Germany who they had an alliance with. Serbia was an ally of Russia, so they called on Russia for help. Brittan and France were allies of Russia so they jumped in. The Ottoman Empire was an ally of Germany, so they helped Germany and Austria. Before too long countries as far away as Japan were involved.
Nationalism
It may seem silly to go to war just because one person of an other country assassinates one person of your country. The problem with this is that during the time period countries had strong nationalism. This put all of the countries on the brink of war. In truth the assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand was the spark that lit the powder keg.
the united states enters the war
the Lusitania incidentThe Lusitania incident is when a German U-Boat sunk a passenger ship that it believed had weapons being shipped to Brittan. Several Americans were killed on the boat, so America begins to seriously conceder going to war.
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the Zimmerman incidentAmerica was not completely sure that it wanted to go to war so Brittan decided to share a telegraph with the Americans. The telegraph was sent from Germany to Mexico asking them to attack the United States. This was the final straw for America.
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