1914, the Black Week and the beginning of the Great War, Part 1.
''The actions of the French and the Germans saved Britain and the Empire from itself...''
- Jonathan Tyrell, British politician, 1978.
The murder of Franz Ferdinand on the 28th of June led to Austria-Hungary presenting an ultimatum to Serbia on the 23d of July.
In a few days, a local Balkan conflict would trigger off the alliance system, Serbia to Russia to France, and back to Austria-Hungaria and Germany, leading to Europe-wide warfare.[1]
The Italians, though wavering in their conviction, and on the brink of delcaring neutrality, were swayed back to the Central Powers with the offer of Gorizia and Istrian border areas.[2]
Germany mobilized, and prepared for fighting a war of defence in the West, and a war of offense in the East, the French prepared to strike against Elsass,[3] the British sought an elusive
casus belli to motivate the public, and Europe sled, inexorably, to war, a war that would change the face of Europe, and the world to a degree unexpected by anyone.
[1] All OTL stuff up to that point, as the butterflies of the change of plans for the Germans are not that big, yet.
[2] Here, on the other hand, they are, as in OTL, the Italians declined. Shamelessly stolen from a thread that never produced a TL!
[3] Would we call it Alsace if the Germans never lost it?