 the beginning of ww1 is universally recognized as the declaration of war, via ultimatum, upon the independent nation of serbia, by austria-hungary, nearly one month after the assassination of franz ferdinand, the heir to the austrian throne, by gavrilo princip, a bosnian serb nationalist. this ignited the powderkeg that was the european continent.
but looking at the europe at 1914 at merely face value does us nothing - in all, the assassination of ferdinand could've resulted in a battle between the serbs and austrians. the winner would be the winner and all would be settled. however, that isn't how history played out.
in 1909, russia pledged to defend serbia's independence. there were many diplomatic reasons to do this - serbia could, with proper backing, become a strong slavic ally in the balkans, situated between both the ottoman empire and austria-hungary, two of russia's immenent enemies. also, by becoming the "savior of the slavs", russia could expect backing from the slavic populace throughout southern austria-hungary, through which, given time, a massive revolution could be planned. it was important for russia to prove to the slavic populace of southeastern europe that it could defend them in a war.
after the creation of austria-hungary, following austria's loss to prussia in 1867, prussia, and later bismark's germany, treated the hapsburg nation as a puppet, granting protection in return for subordination. thus, with russia's immediate entry into war following the expiration of the austro-hungarian ultimatum to serbia, germany followed suit, declaring war on russia after a crucial telegraphical breakdown between tsar nicholas II and kaiser willhelm.
france, despite popular belief, did not drop the olive branch. instead, it was germany who declared war on france first, hoping to knock out what could quickly become an enemy, forcing germany into a two-front war. enacting the schlieffen plan, germany intended to knock france out of the war by invading through belgium and straight across the north coast of france. the germans would then drive south, cutting off the majority of the french army, which was located near alasce-lorraine, where the majority of the conflict was expected - by the french, at least - to happen.
france and great britain were not necessarily diplomatically tied to one another. even if france capitulated to germany, the british felt that the costs to the germans would be so high that they would be long forestalled to attack britain. and even if the germans won a sweeping victory, great britain still had what was by far the strongest navy in the world, with the best sailors and naval tacticians in the world. indeed, the british, almost to a fault, believed the german navy was not a threat. so then, it was not france that caused the british to enter the war, but instead, the belgians, whose independence britain had fostered after the dutch-flemish civil war in the 1830s. after the london accord was signed, the netherlands was cut in half, much where the borders lie today, with belgium protected by the british. when the germans invaded, great britain came to belgium's defense.
the war was on.
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