Pointing to /civicrm breaks Wordpress site, 404 HTTP response
Can we verify a few things?

What are your WordPress permalinks set to?

They should be Post Name (%postname%)   That setting is here:  example.com/wp-admin/options-permalink.php

This will add to your .htaccess file the following:

# BEGIN WordPress
&lt;IfModule mod_rewrite.c&gt;
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
&lt;/IfModule&gt;

# END WordPress


Now can you go to example.com/wp-admin/admin.php?page=CiviCRM&amp;q=civicrm/admin/setting/uf&amp;reset=1

This is the menu option Adminsiter -> System Settings -> CMS Database Integration.

You should see 'civicrm' in the WordPress Base Page setting.   If not, add it there.

Confirm that there is a WordPress page titled 'CiviCRM' in the list of WordPress Pages: example.com/wp-admin/edit.php?post_type=page

This page should have a permalink of example.com/civicrm

Once all these settings are in place, you should be good.