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CAUSES

The primary cause of European War was the mismatching of political, geographic and ethnic boundaries which separated the ancient tribes of Europe into the more modern nation states. Political, ethnic, military and geographic points of tension included:

1. Alsace-Lorraine: These were two French provinces lost to Germany as a result of the Franco-Prussian War.

2. Schleswig-Holstein: These were two Danish provinces lost to Germany as part of the Austro-Prussian War.

3. Poland: This once powerful nation was repeatedly divided between the three royal houses of Austria, Prussia and Russia.

4. Bosnia-Herzogovinia: These two Balkan provinces were absorbed by the Austrian government as a result of a short series of Balkan Wars, between the Ottoman Turks and their former client states.

5. Austria-Hungary: This dual monarchy under the House of Hapsburg contained three alphabets, three religions and eleven or more language groups. The strains of ethnic nationalism challenged the ruling ability of the diets and autocrats of the Empire.

6. Russia: The House of Romanov ruled over seventy-some subject peoples inhabiting the vast stretches of East European and Asian geography.

The secondary and more general causes of the World War included several political, ethnic, economic and military trends which inflamed the primary causes over the last few decades of the nineteenth century.

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1. Nationalsim:

2. Economic and Industrian Imperialism:

3. Great Power Alliance System

4. Militarism and Naval Arms Races:

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The third and specific cause of the Great War involved the assassination of the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary on 28 June 1914 by a Serbian radical who hoped to pave the way for a greater Slavic state separate from the Dual Monarchy.

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1. The Black Hand:

2. Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijevic:

3. A plot of seven assassins:

4. Serbian counter-terrorist failings:

5. The tragic encounter at Sarajevo:

6. Gaurilo Princip: