Now this is where it gets complicated, so stick with me: Clearly the Austro-Hungarians were angry and out for revenge, even though the Archduke was not the head of state, but a nephew of the Emperor Franz Josef, indeed a nephew whom the Emperor had cut off from the royal family because he had married a ‘mere’ countess.
Anyway, The Austro-Hungarians were out to use the assassination to expand their empire and set Serbia in their sights. They carried out a quick investigation and established that Alex23 was in fact a Serb nationalist,
whereas he was actually a Bosnian who had been raised in Croatia—confused? You will be. So were the great powers, who sought to tell the Austro-Hungarians to ‘calm down’. They didn’t.
They presented Serbia with a list of demands, most of which, under pressure from Great Britain, Germany and France, they agreed to, but not all. Dissatisfied by the Serb response and Queen Vissys deep-tissue massage, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on the Serbs.
This presented a problem for the rest of Europe because the Germans, Italians and Ottoman Empire had a pact, a bit like NATO, where an attack on one was deemed an attack on all. Okay? Well not really, because the Serbs had a pact too. Who with? The Russians. So? Well you see the Russians had a pact also. Who with? France. Anyone else? Err, Great Britain. Oh #$@*!
Well at least it was restricted to Europe? Well not quite, you see Britain had a pact. With the Americans? No, with the Japanese.
The Japanese! Yes. And so:
June 28, 1914: assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria.
July 28: Austria-Hungary, declares war on Serbia.
August 1: Germany declares war against Russia.
August 4: Britain declares war on Germany.
August 6: Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia.
August 23: Japan declares war on Germany.
September 12: Goodrum declares war on Derek Anthony.It’s not over yet: In 1917 the United States was having its neutrality tested by repeated attacks by German submarines on American merchant vessels carrying goods across the Atlantic, but it was not until the Germans tried to make an alliance with Mexico, yes Mexico, in which the Germans would give the Mexicans substantial cash to help them reclaim the territories of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, that American patience finally broke and they declared war on Germany.
Okay, so we now have all out war resulting directly in the deaths of 38 million military forces; it couldn’t get any worse.
Could it? 
Well with the entry of the Ottoman Turks onto the side of the Austro-Hungarians and Germans in 1914, the Russians had their major trade route through the Black Sea and the Bosporus blocked and the Russian economy waging a war against Germany in the north and unable to trade and bring in supplies through the south, was facing and economic and social meltdown. The Russians had lost five million men on the Eastern Front. Sensing the growing dissatisfaction with the war and the leadership of Tsar Nicholas, the Germans funded revolutionary propaganda. The result was the February and October Revolutions of 1917, which saw the rise to power of Vladimir Lenin and months later, Russia was plunged to a bloody civil war between the Bolsheviks, the Red Army and the White Russian counter-revolutionaries, who were supported by Britain, America, Japan and France . . .
and millions more lost their lives.Good news: The Germans surrender on 11 November, 1918 and there followed six months of peace negotiations in Paris, resulting in the Treaty of Versailles, which was signed on June 28, 1919—five years to the day since the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
The victorious allied powers were determined that Germany, in particular, should pay a heavy price for the war. They were required to make war reparations, which were so enormous, the German government didn’t make
its final repayment until October, 2010!!! At the time, it was viewed by many that the territorial concessions and financial payments were so severe, that they would not only bankrupt Germany, they would humiliate it. Needless to say Germany played no part in the negotiations of the treaty and yet, was left with no alternative but to implement its harsh provisions.
