World War I July Crisis Summary

World War I often gets overshadowed by the more recent World War II, but part of understanding how the second World War even got started is understanding the origins of the first World War. The second World War likely wouldn't have occurred had it not been for the first World War and the end result sending Germany into a downhill spiral.

Like most wars, how the first World War got started was a confusing and intricate series of events. The series of events all fell together and in the perfect order causing multiple nations to square off. Had one event not transpired or if one side had a different set of plans, we might not have seen the war even take place.

The events that kicked things off in the first World War is labeled the July Crisis. Here the assassination of one political leader might have engulfed the world in its first total war.

The beginning of World War I started with a series of events that took place in July of 1914. It started with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the Archduke of Austria-Hungary. Austria-Hungary used this act as a reason to attack Serbia, and mobilized their military, which as a result caused Serbia to mobilize as well.

Russia in the mean time began mobilization in order to protect their Serbian allies. Germany saw that Russia had began mobilization, and as an ally to Austria-Hungary and seeing the Russians as a threat, mobilized too.

However, due to an incredible amount of poor planning, (Germany’s only plan was that if they came under attack, they would attack France) Germany declared war on Russia and France. In order to carry out their plan to attack France, the plan called for a surrounding maneuver which required the German troops to advance through neutral Belgium. This act brought Great Britain into the fray as they made sure that neutral Belgium stayed that way, and they too entered the war.

As you can see, a war of this scale doesn't just "happen", nor does it just escalate due to one single event. 

Had Franz Ferdinand's driver chosen a different route and avoided the protesters entirely that fateful day, Ferdinand might have lived on and Austria-Hungary would have had no need to mobilize their military. 

However, even if that event still transpired as it did in history, had Germany put a solid plan in place well before any of this occurred, the war might have never gotten as widespread as it did. Germany's lone plan of attacking France regardless of circumstance is quite the puzzler, and seems to be one event that easily could have been avoided.

The July Crisis was quick series of events that happened so quickly and with such little thought that it spun the world into the first major war of our time.