Write an account explaining how events in July 1914 became an international crisis. 8 marks

For these write an account questions, the exam board at AQA are not looking for: “Dear Diary.” It is easy to fall into this trap. The examiner is looking for an answer that is clearly structured (not necessarily in chronological order but that makes sense) and has historical concepts.

CAUSE
CONSEQUENCE

CHANGE
CONTINUITY

SIGNIFICANCE

These bad boys come in pairs apart from significance, who is a badass loner, chilling in the corner and occasionally kicking the door down and ruling the show. Cause goes with consequence. Naw. And change with continuity, matches made in heaven. This question is wanting you to explain causes and consequences. It was two fully developed explained points. It wants significance to kick the door down and scream how this fits into the wider historical context. I do not once say: a consequence was… Instead there are certain phrases that shows the use of consequence in history. Watch out for them.

 

The July Crisis was a 6 week period in 1914, that is the direct cause of World War One. The assassination of Franz Ferdinand on 28th June 1914 triggered the events that spiralled out of control in July. The Black Hand Gang planned and carried out the murder of the Arch Duke of Austria-Hungary. As a result of this, Austria-Hungary sent an ultimatum to Serbia due to the fact that they believed Serbia had funded the Black Hand Gang, in order to spread their Pan-Slav ideals and unite all Serbs under a common flag. However, Germany had given a so called Blank Cheque to Austria-Hungary meaning that Germany promised to have their allies back in cases of conflict. This meant that Austria-Hungary was confident that if they had to declare war with Serbia, their powerful ally Germany would support them. On 23rd July 1914, A-H sent their ultimatum to Serbia, demanding a full investigation as well as anti- Austrian propaganda being halted. Serbia accepted all but one of these ultimatums. As a direct result on 28th July 1914 Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, which led to the start of World War One.

This resulted in the triggering of the chain of alliances, despite countries like Russia’s attempts to avoid war. As a result of the fact that A-H declared war with Serbia, Russia had to intervene. This is because of the fact that after the Bosnian Crisis in 1908, Russia vowed to never back down again and leave Serbia alone- Russia had since then militarised and prepared to have their allies back. The July Crisis is the catalyst to the outbreak of war, leading to mobilisation of the armed forces of Germany, A-H and Russia, which then sparks off the alliance systems. Even though the assassination is the spark of the war, the July Crisis effectively poured fuel to a small flame, resulting in four years of war that changed the way wars have been fought ever since.