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Gavrillo Princip (Serbian nationalist), who was supported by the "Black Hand" (terrorist organisation that wanted to free the Slavs from the Habsburg Empire), killed the heir to the throne of Austria, a reformer who might have allowed a certain compromise and some autonomy for nations within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This, hiwever, would disrupt Serbia's goals of building a "Great Slavia". It was never proven that the assassination had a connection with the Serbian government.
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Most of the bad decisions that led the countries to WWI happened during this period of time.
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The Habsburg Empire thought that Serbia could not be left unpunished, so, they decided to sent a message to intimidate the nationalists
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Russia had decided to back down and not support Serbia in other Balkan crises before (like during the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908) because it didn't feel strong enough to enter i a war after losing to Japan. Now, however, they thought they couldn't back down again.
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Germany was extremely worried about Russia's military improvement and was afraid that if it went to war against France and Russia (for reasons other than the Austro-Serb conflict) it would not have Austria-Hungary's support. Germany, however, was counting on one of two things:
1) France would not support Russia, Central Powers would win a diplomatic victory and Germany & Russia could renew their alliance.
2) If they went to war, now was better than later. -
Vienna sent Serbia an ultimatum that was to allow the Austro-Hungarians to investigate the murder of Sarajevo within Serbia's borders. Vienna never expected the Serbs to accept the ultimatum, a detail that was explained by the diplomat that delivered the document and made preparation to leave Belgrade as soon as possible in case a war erupted.
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Serbia accepted the ultimatum but didn't want Austrian supervision. It then mobilizes its army. Kaiser Wilhelm II claimed to be "delighted" by this agreement and falsely assumed that "every cause for war has vanished". Some historians claim that the Kaiser had actually a "thirst for war" at this point and was just bluffing. However, there is not enough historical evidence to say that that was the case.
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From July 25 to July 28 1914, the British Foreign Minister, Sir Edward Grey, tried to find another solution that wasn't war. However, the Germans did not allow British interference.
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Austria-Hungary was stimulated/encouraged by the German Chancellor (Bethman-Hollweg) and the Austrian Chancellor (Berchtold) and declared war.
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The Austrian artillery began bombarding Belgrade.
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Russia starts partial mobilization and starts getting ready for war.
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Bethman-Hollweg resists the calls for mobilization of the German army and encourages Austria to localize the war through dialogue with Moscow (Willy-Nicky telegrams). Russia is now under pressure by military leaders and France is under pressure to mobilize and arm in case Russia is unprepared, as France ensured Russia of support somewhere between July 20 and 23.
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At this stage, Germany (under high command of von Moltke) was scared that mobilization was beginning in France and that the French must be defeated before Russia completed its mobilization.
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Russia then began full mobilization, which was, however, technically impossible. The French also started to fully mobilize under the military leadership of Joffre
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Germany declared war on Russia. The British, however, still refused to declare their support to France.
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Germany declared war on France and invaded the country through Belgium.
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Britain declared war on Germany after the invasion of Belgium, as it was breaking the "Treaty of London". The British were supposedly in defence of Belgian neutrality ("the slip of paper").
