Did Austria start World War 1?

Answer 1

The Austo-Hungarian Empire responded to the "shot heard 'round the world", when a Serbian nationalist, Gavrilo Princip, assassinated the Archduke Ferdinand (of Austria). This precipitated WW I, with Austria-Hungary, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire on one side, and the British, French and Russians on the other (joined later in the war by the U.S. in 1917, after the sinking of the ocean liner, the Lusitania, by the Germans - as the Germans surmised that weapons were being smuggled aboard this passenger ship, which did turn out to be true!).

Ultimately, conditions were ripening for such a conflict, and war would most likely have ensued, even without the assassination which "officially" triggered it, many historians now believe.

Answer 2

No, Austria-Hungary did not start World War I. The war was sparked by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary in 1914, but the complex web of alliances and rivalries among European countries ultimately led to the outbreak of the war.