The Schlieffen Plan and the Outbreak of War

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on 28 June 1914 triggered a chain of events that plunged Europe into war. This lesson covers the assassination, the July Crisis, the Schlieffen Plan, and the first months of the war, including the Battle of the Marne and the "Race to the Sea."

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The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand — heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne — and his wife Sophie were shot and killed in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb nationalist and member of the Black Hand terrorist group.