The defense alliances that a number of european countries made with each other contributed to the outbreak of world war i.

true or false?

TRUE. While the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (heir to the Austro Hungarian Empire) by a Serbian was the short term cause of WWI, the conflict would have been contained to Austro-Hungary and Serbia (and thus never become a world war in the first place) had it not been for the  alliances established between a number of European countries some years before. These alliances were deadly, b/c they stated that if one country were to be attacked, all of its allies would be forced to join the conflict, which is exactly what happened, and boom, world war.