World War I - How Did It Start?

The assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was simply the straw that broke the camel's back. Though his death in 1914 is credited with sparking the First World War, the climate in Europe and throughout the world leading up to his murder made this battle inevitable. What was meant to simply be a limited skirmish between two countries ended up impacting the entire world. A tangled web of alliances and colonies would ultimately decide the two sides of the war, with the Allies fighting the Central Powers. In Part 1 of our series on WWI, http://www.WatchMojo.com explores how and why the First World War began. read more...