The question that I am looking to research is, “Should the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in 1914 be viewed as a cause of World War I or an event that merely expedited the inevitable.”

To start, I searched ProQuest Historical Newspapers to find background information and sources on the actual assassination and outbreak of war written during that period. The article I selected is from the Washington Post entitled, “General War Impending,” written July 29, 1914.

The article features language from the onset that leads one to question whether the assassination caused the Austro-Hungarian Empire to seek vengeance against Serbia or if the assassination was an “opportunity for [Austria to] formulating demands” from the Serbs. Both the Serbians and Austrian Empire sought to control the Bosnian territory. Did the assassination simply serve as validation for the Austrian to attack Serbia to remove them as a threat from the Balkans or did the empire truly want justice for Franz Ferdinand?

The article then continues to speculate on what would occur if Austria proceeded to attack. An overpowering of Serbia would place the Austrians closer to Constantinople, which the Russians did not want to allow. The author places most of the power in German hands – if Germany commits to the Austrian cause, the rest of the great powers will fight back.

I did not understand how to use the Archive Finder. I typed “Franz Ferdinand” into the search bar, and it returned 53 results. I clicked on one of the collections titled, “Heinzen, Karl Peter” and found information that he was a refugee from Germany. I’m not sure how these collections relate to the search of Franz Ferdinand.

Here is an image of Franz Ferdinand from Flickr.