The causes of the Great war were many, both political and regional. One of the political causes were the different alliances of the nations. There was a triple alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy that soon became known as the Central Powers. These powers made an agreement to defend each other while the rest of Europe was mostly against these powers. Another reason the great war started was because of the Assassination in Sarajevo. Francis Ferdinand and his wife were both shot and killed by a conspirator in Austria. The conspirator was from Serbia. Finally, Austria saw the incident as an excuse to crush Serbia and send them an ultimatum. When Serbia refused to accept the ultimatum, Austria declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914.