Page 7 - 21st Century Defense 100th Anniversary WW1

participants’ colonies and territories outside Europe led to The United States was not a party to any of the alliances.
widespread fighting across the globe, in Europe, the Middle East, Oddly enough, Japan was. It was difficult to keep track of
Africa, and the Pacific islands. It truly was the First World War. the countries participating in the war and to which alliance
they belonged.
The catalyst was the June 28, 1914 assassination of Archduke
Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary by Serbian nationalist The assassination resulted from a growing sense of nationalism
Gavrilo Princip. That initiated a series of events involving in Europe that explained in part Princip’s action, specifically
diverse countries, most of them European, that were tied the Slavs’ desire for ethnic solidarity. The Serbians were Slavic,
together in a complex number of mutual defense alliances. as were the people of nearby Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1914

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