How World War 1 Started
In the year 1914, Europe looked like this on a map. There was an Austro Hungarian empire in the middle, the empire was much bigger than the present size of the countries Austria and Hungary. Germany’s empire was also much bigger than present-day Germany. Poland wasn’t a country. There was the Russian Empire in Russia. There was the Ottoman Empire in present-day Turkey. Apart from these, there was the United Kingdom and France.
It’s interesting to know friends, most of the European countries were monarchies at the time. There were rulers in those places. In fact, there were only 3 European countries that were Democracies rather than monarchies. France, Switzerland and San Marino.
There are some countries in Eastern Europe such as Serbia, Bosnia, Romania, and Bulgaria, collectively called the Balkan Countries. Don’t forget them, they’re very important for our story.
