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Fueled by a combination of highly charged, tense worldwide events, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on 28th June 1914 proved to be the spark that ignited that monstrous event of World War One, otherwise known as the Great War or as H.G.Wells called it at the time: "the war to end all wars".

It lasted for 4 years and wiped out the lives of 8 million men. It saw the ending of 3 empires, Germany, Austro-Hungary and Russia, and its victims came from every corner of the world and from all different backgrounds. It saw the development of many technological and scientific advances and was fought on and underneath the ground, on and underneath the water and in the air.

"What a miserable world," D. H Lawrence wrote on September 5th,1914, "what colossal idiocy this war".

And it was indeed difficult to fathom out just how this war had been sparked into such fury by the act of a single man, a 19-year-old Serbian student named Gavrilo Princip, who at the instigation of the secret nationalist group known as the "Black Hand" had killed Archduke Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne.

An attempt by Austria-Hungary to exploit this act by blaming Serbia produced a reaction from Europe which resulted in a mutual declaration of war from the major powers in July and August. To understand how this situation came about, it would be useful to look at the political climate that led up to this European stance.

The most important factor was the various alliances that had been set up between nations as a result of previous European skirmishes. Unfortunately this meant that in the event of any major political dispute it potentially involved more than one country in any conflict.

Britain and Germany began competing with each other in establishing a navy that was the best in the world; this resulted in a lot of unease from other European countries. By the start of the war Britain had 49 battleships and Germany 29.

The major countries were bickering over the colonies in Africa; this led to many skirmishes and thus a lot of unfriendliness among them.

There were still bad feelings between the French and the Germans as a result of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871, in which the Germans had been victorious.

People were very patriotic about their countries and were very easily called to fight to prove that their country was better than any other. There was a feeling of great independence, and as the countries were part of empires there was an overall

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