Many people today have rather spotty knowledge pertaining to the reason for the first world war. This is because there was no clear single reason for the war, but rather many smaller, somewhat convoluted causes. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson's trusted advisor, Edward House, was sent to Europe to investigate the tension between European powers. What he learned is that Europe was quite clearly on the brink of war, and it needed "only a spark to set the whole thing off". Historians referred to Europe during that day as a "powder keg", or a barrel of gunpowder, prone to explode at any second.
On June 28, 1914, the spark that House had referred to arrived. On that morning, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife visited the capital of Bosnia, which was a province of Austria-Hungary at the time. While driving through the city, a terrorist suddenly threw a bomb on to the car which Ferdinand and his wife, Sophia, were driving. Fortunately, the bomb missed the car, so the archduke and his wife continued their tour of the city. However, a second terrorist by the name of Gavrilo Princip open fired on the car later that day, killing both Ferdinand and Sophia.
At this time in the early 20th century, Europe had an intricate system of alliances between nations, many of these said alliances promising to back other nations in war, should one arise. Due to this complicated system, when Serbia and Austria-Hungary went to war, several nations took sides and joined in on the conflicts to stick to their treaties. Among those who sided with Serbia were the Russians, the French, and the British. The German decided to side with the Austrio-Hungarians. These superpowers going to war caused a quick escalation due to factors such as nationalism (a sense of pride for one's own country) and militarism (a desire to have the strongest military) and led to what is today known as World War I.
Not only was there a very complicated and delicate diplomatic balance, but there was also a lot of new technology. The Wright brothers had created airplane; new, more efficient weapons. Things like T.N.T. were made to blow up holes in mountains for train tracks in the U.S. and new things were constantly being created. There was a certain amount of human curiosity and the nations in Europe wanted to test each other's power and wanted to prove they were the best. This led to a lot of tension that just kept building until the balance was finally tipped and everyone began fighting with one another.
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