The July Crisis Explained: How World War I Began

In July 1914, the assassination of the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, Franz Ferdinand, in Sarajevo, lit the fuse that burned down to the outbreak of the most destructive war in history up to that time. How did it happen? The story is a very complex web of politics, diplomacy, ethnic rivalry, psychology and technology. In this video, we'll trace exactly how the July Crisis developed, what was at stake, and how all the major powers of Europe got pulled into a war that seemed almost unthinkable a month earlier--at least, unthinkable to some.

This video is a companion piece to the larger and more in-depth video on the Fall of the Monarchies from 1905 to 1922: https://youtu.be/dmmH8C0PaFg

Text of the Austro-Hungarian Ultimatum: https://web.archive.org/web/20041030212115/http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/austrianultimatum.htm

Sources for this video include Edmond Taylor The Fall of the Dynasties: The Collapse of the Old Order, 1905-1922 (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1963); Clive Ponting, Thirteen Days: Diplomacy and Disaster, The Countdown to the Great War (London: Pimlico, 2003); Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August (New York: Ballantine Books, 1994 ed.); Robert K. Massie, Dreadnought: Britain, Germany and the Coming of the Great War (New York: Ballantine Books, 1991).

My website: https://www.seanmunger.com
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Chapters:
00:00-06:40: The Assassination of Franz Ferdinand & Aftermath
06:40-11:24: The Alliances
11:24-16:01: The Timetables
16:01-19:41: The Blank Check
19:41-26:18: The Ultimatum
26:18-32:43: Germany & Russia
32:43-37:31: The Schlieffen Plan
37:31-42:58: War
42:58-44:44: Conclusion