"It is my personal belief that now is well past the time that the Austro-Hungarian Empire should put an end to this policy of patience and strike back against the Serbian aggressors."
- Count Leopold Berchtold, Imperial Foreign Minister of Austria-Hungary, addressing Emperor Franz Josef I in private
June 29, 1914
In our timeline, it took over a month after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand for the Austro-Hungarian Empire to declare war on the Kingdom of Serbia and ultimately begin the very devastating First World War.
But what if they hadn't waited to declare war?
What if the Austro-Hungarian Empire had started their war against Serbia merely a few days after Archduke Ferdinand's assassination?
This timeline will attempt to explore one possible scenario that could occur as a result of these changes to OTL.
Please note that I am not that well-versed in World War I/early 20th Century history as I can guess a lot of you AH.commers are, and I will most likely need help with verifying the plausibility of certain events, as well as setting up the timeline.
But hopefully, you'll still be able to like this timeline - I, for one, certainly believe so!