THE EVENTS LEADING TO THE OUTBREAK OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR
This study investigates the events leading up to the initiation of the First World War in 1914. The objective of this study is to identify a factor or a combination of factors that may be cited as the cause of the conflict. This introductory chapter develops the problem that is investigated in this study, formulated the hypothesis that is tested in the study, and explains the methodology applied in the pursuit of this investigation. Following this introductory chapter, relevant literature in the fields of international relations and conflict resolution is reviewed in the chapter immediately following, and the findings of the research performed for this study are presented and discussed in the third chapter. The final chapter summarizes the study and presents the conclusions drawn from the study findings.
In very late 1915, military historian Willis J. Abbot wrote that in "a dismal little town of Bosnia, by name of Sarajevo and by repute hardly known to the civilized world, on the 28th of June 1914, the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the imperial crown of Austria Hungary, was shot dead by a boy who thought himself a Serbian patriot." In 1989, historian Dennis Cuddy wrote that is very likely that the First World War would not have occurred at all in the absence of the Sarajevo assassination; however, it is the reasons that underlie the assassination, rather than the assassination itself to which the cause of the conflict must be attributed. A similar statement had been made back in 1914 by Abbot; however, at that time Abbot added that perhaps an exact "cause may not be precisely defined." Cuddy, with the benefit of hindsight, however, identifies the causal factors, as (in descending order of importance) (1) the incompetence of the Serbian government, (2) an almost complete lack of understanding of the concepts and principles of international relations on the part...