What was the immediate cause of world war 1?
On June 28, 1914 Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Serbia. As a result Austria then sent an ultimatum to Serbia on the 23rd July which caused Serbia to call for an international court of justice. With pressure coming on them from Germany, Austria-Hungary then declared war on the 28th July. Due to the system of alliances within Europe at the time (the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy and the Triple Entente of France, Britain and Russia) Russia then mobilised her army. On August 1st Germany declared war on Russia thus dragging all the major powers into war.
