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Main article: World War I

On June 28, 1914, Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb student. Though World War I was triggered by this assassination, the war's origins lie much farther back, in the complex web of alliances and counterbalances that developed between the various European powers over the course of the nineteenth century, following the final 1815 defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo. Napoleon's rise to power was, in turn, a direct consequence of the 1789 French Revolution, which overthrew the French monarchy.

Napoleon Bonaparte and the Rise of Nationalist Sentiment

By the late eighteenth century, French society was on the verge of collapse. The old monarchy was ruling France by birthright and absolute authority. The structure of the French political system/society consisted of: a king on the top, the people on the bottom, with church and nobles somewhere at the upper-end. Over time friction occurred as the new social/economic class, the bourgeoisie rose in prominence. In time this new middle class began to push for reforms within the French political system and to demand political/social representation. In time, France's political/social systems became ripe for political change as the economy began to hit a reef. This was in no small measure due to two factors. The first being Louis XIV and his successors' lavish expenditures, such as the Palace of Versailles. It is estimated that by itself Versailles accounted for as much as a quarter of France's annual national income. Louis XIV and his successors also engaged France in a series of expensive wars such as the American Revolution, which drained the remaining financial reserves, and in turn rampant inflation. Many of the middle class were outraged when taxes were raised and their purchasing power was diminished by inflation. What began as a movement to fix France's broken economy and society became the Napoleonic Wars, a continent-wide struggle for power.

The French Revolution resulted in chaos and the ascent of Napoleon to power. Napoleon's armies marched all over Europe, bringing not only French control, but French ideas. The rise of ideas of nationalism, devotion and love for one's common people and ethnicity, increased in popularity during the Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon encouraged the spread of nationalism, which he saw in his troops, to better the French war machine. The French people began to feel pride in their culture and ethnicity. The world watched nationalism for the first time and saw the power the French gained from it. Following the Napoleonic Wars, all of Europe was sharing these ideas.

The Congress of Vienna

After Napoleon's final defeat at The Battle of Waterloo, the Congress of Vienna followed in 1815. The congress was organized by the main victors of the Napoleonic Wars: Britain, Prussia, Russia and Austria. The key figure of the congress was Austria's representative, Klemens von Metternich. Metternich advocated restoring Europe to the way it was before the French Revolution. He urged Europe to create a balance of power, where no European nation was stronger than another. He also created the concert of Europe, a system where nations would help each other to keep the old aristocracy in power. By preventing the single monarchy in a country from falling to nationalism it would prevent the entire continent from going up in flames under social revolution. If that were to ever happen, according to Metternich, Europe would be thrown into another continental war, as Napoleon and French Nationalism had shown. Metternich feared nationalism as a force that could tear apart multi-ethnic nations like Russia and the Austrian Empire.

Unification

In the years that followed the Congress of Vienna, conflicts began springing up all over Europe between those who cried out for change, and those who resisted it. By the mid-1800s, nationalism had become an evident force. A wave of unrest could be seen across the continent in the Revolution of 1848. The 1860s and early 1870s saw two great changes to the map: the unification of Italy and the unification of Germany. These two nations were formed on the basis of nationalism. German Unification was brought about by Prussia's "Iron Chancellor", Otto von Bismarck, through a series of wars from 1864–1871. As minister of Prussia, Bismarck gave a famous speech in 1862, including:

"Germany is not looking to Prussia's liberalism, but to her power. The great questions of the day will not be decided by speeches and majority decisions, this was the mistake of 1848, but by iron and blood."

The Franco-Prussian War (1870-1)

Many of the origins of World War I can clearly be seen in the results and consequences of the The Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. This conflict brought the establishment of a powerful and dynamic German Empire, causing what was inevitably seen as a displacement or unbalancing of power: a new and proseperous nation had been formed, with the industrial and military potential to threaten Europe, and particularly those other powers already established. Germany had both the national fervour and economic resource to gain power, represented in the Anglo-German rivalry to come and the growth of it's navy.

A legacy of animosity grew between France and Germany following the German annexation of parts of the formerly French territory of Alsace-Lorraine. This caused widespread resentment in France, which gave rise to the concept of Revanchism, feelings of revenge among the French for the losses inflicted by the Franco-Prussian War, not only the losing of territory, but the damage done within the country, the death of French soldiers, and the upsetting of government and the revolution that followed, culminating in the formation of the French Third Republic. It was the violence and bloodshed caused by the War which fuelled this revenge. Bismarck was wary of this during his later years, and tried to placate the French by encouraging their overseas expansion. However, anti-German sentiment remained. A Franco-German colonial entente that was made in 1884 in protest of an Anglo-Portuguese agreement in West Africa also proved shortlived after after a pro-imperialist government under Jules Ferry in France fell in 1885.

Ascension of Kaiser Wilhelm II

Under the political direction of her first Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, Germany secured her new position in Europe by an alliance with Austria-Hungary and a diplomatic understanding with Russia. Bismarck began pursuing alliances and peace treaties. He made peace with almost every nation in Europe except France. He feared greatly that a war might destroy the newborn nation he had created in the 1860s. By the time of Wilhelm I's death, a system of alliances kept a tight peace in Europe.

The ascension (1888) of Kaiser Wilhelm II brought to the German throne a young ruler determined to direct policy himself, despite his rash diplomatic judgement. After the 1890 elections, in which the centre and left parties made major gains, and due in part to his disaffection at inheriting the Chancellor who had guided his grandfather for most of his career, Wilhelm engineered Bismarck's resignation.

Much of the fallen Chancellor's work was undone in the following decades, as Wilhelm failed to renew the 1887 Reinsurance Treaty with Russia, presenting republican France with the opportunity to conclude (1891–94) a full alliance with the Russian Empire. Worse was to follow, as Wilhelm undertook (1897–1900) the creation of a German navy capable of threatening Britain's century-old naval mastery, prompting the Anglo-French Entente Cordiale of 1904 and its expansion (1907) to include Russia in the Triple Entente.

Colonial Expansion

Rivalry among the powers was exacerbated from the 1880s by the scramble for colonies which brought much of Africa and Asia under European rule in the following quarter-century. Under pressure from certain groups, even the anti-imperialistic Bismarck agreed to the chase for overseas Empire, adding to Anglo-German tension as German acquisitions in Africa and the Pacific threatened to impinge upon British strategic and commercial interests. Wilhelm's support for Moroccan independence from France, Britain's new strategic partner, provoked the Tangier Crisis of 1905. During the Second Moroccan or Agadir Crisis (1911), a German naval presence in Morocco tested the Anglo-French coalition once again.

Anglo-German Naval Race

Another contributing factor to the war was the build-up of tension between Britain and Germany as a result of Germany's desire to become a naval power. The British believed that the only thing holding their vast empire together was their naval power, and consequentially felt threatened by Germany's aggressive naval policy.

Tension in the Balkans

A key ingredient in the emerging diplomatic powder-keg was the growth of powerful nationalist aspirations among the Balkan states, which each looked to Austria-Hungary or Russia for support. The rise of anti-Austrian circles in Serbia following a 1903 palace coup contributed to a further crisis in 1908 over Austria's unilateral annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, German pressure forcing a humiliating climbdown on the part of a Russia weakened (1905) by defeat at the hands of Japan and subsequent revolutionary disorder.

Alarm at Russia's unexpectedly rapid recovery after 1909 fueled sentiment among German ruling circles in favour of a pre-emptive war to break alleged Entente "encirclement" before Russian rearmament could tip the strategic balance decisively against Germany and Austria-Hungary. By 1913 both France and Germany were planning to extend military service, while Britain had entered into a naval convention and military discussions with France during the previous year.

• World War I