The spark that set off World War I came on June 28, 1914, when a young Serbian patriot shot and killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The assassination took place in Sarajevo, a town in the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina on the Balkan Peninsula. Bosnia-Herzegovina had been taken over by Austria in 1908. The assassin and his co-conspirators belonged to a group that wanted Bosnia to break away from Austria and unite with the Kingdom of Serbia.
Austrian military leaders saw the assassination as an excuse for a quick war with Serbia, which would end with a victorious Austria taking over that country. After seeking and receiving a promise of full military support from Germany, with whom Austria-Hungary had an alliance, the Austrian government presented Serbia with a list of demands to which it must agree or face invasion.
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