The First World War had many causes. The spark of the Great War, was the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife by a Serbian nationalist on the morning of June 28, 1914, while traveling in a motorcade through Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Archduke was chosen as a target because Serbians feared that after his ascension to the throne, he would continue the persecution of Serbs living within the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
This was the first war in the human history where the weapons of defense were superior to offensive. The First World War was the first war to use poison gas as a military weapon. The two biggest and horrifying battles of this war, are the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme. Over million soldiers were killed on both sides only in a single battle of Somme during 1916. The human kind had never sees such battles throughout the whole history, with so many losses, which was quite shockfull experience for the soldiers who fought the First World War. This war resulted shortages in practically everything, and rising prices. By the end of 1916 America was still not involved in the war.
