page no. 16
The assassination of the Duke and Duchess - World War I
The First World War was a total war, this is its greatest historical importance. All the warring parties sought to mobilize all their strength - both on the front and in the rear - which resulted in the mobilization of all national resources for the war effort and burdening the citizens.
It was the greatest turning point of the twentieth century, an act that ignited a chain reaction of calamities: two world wars, 80 million deaths, the Russian Revolution, the rise of Hitler, the atomic bomb, the rise of the United States as the "policeman of the world." However, it is possible that would never have happened - if Gavrilo Princip wasn't hungry.
The bullet fired from Gavrilo Princip's gun, sometimes called "the bullet that started the First World War" is on display in the museum at Konopiste Castle in the Czech Republic.
The gun, the car in which the Archduke traveled, the light blue uniform he wore, the feather hat he wore and the bunk he lay on while the doctors treated him are on display at the Museum of Military History in Vienna, Austria.
The Western Front was one of the main theatres of war during the First World War. Between 1915 and 1917 there were several offensives along this front. The attacks employed massive artillery bombardments and massed infantry advances. Entrenchments, machine gun emplacements, barbed wire and artillery repeatedly inflicted severe casualties during attacks and counter-attacks and no significant advances were made. Among the costliest of these offensives were the Battle of Verdun, in 1916, with a combined 700,000 casualties, the Battle of the Somme, also in 1916, with more than a million casualties, and the Battle of Passchendaele, in 1917, with 487,000 casualties
By 1914, the European great powers were divided between the Triple Entente, comprising France, Russia, and Britain, and the Triple Alliance, containing Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. Tensions in the Balkans came to a head on 28 June 1914 following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the Austro-Hungarian heir, by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb. Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia, which led to the July Crisis, an unsuccessful attempt to avoid conflict through diplomacy. Russia came to Serbia's defence following Austria-Hungary's declaration of war on the latter on 28 July, and by 4 August, the system of alliances drew in Germany, France, and Britain, along with their respective colonies, although Italy remained neutral. In November 1914 the Ottoman Empire, Germany, and Austria-Hungary formed the Central Powers, while in April 1915, Italy joined Britain, France, Russia and Serbia as the Allies of World War I.