Question Par Pussycat Stella: why did the assassination of ach duke francis ferdinan in 1914 led to a global war?
WHY DID THE ASSASSINATION OF ACH DUKE FRANCIS FERDINAN IN 1914 LED TO A GLOBAL WAR.
Meilleure réponse:
Answer by Le_Zouave
On 28 June 1914, at approximately 1:15 pm, Franz Ferdinand and his wife were killed in Sarajevo, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia and Herzegovina, by Gavrilo Princip, a member of Young Bosnia and one of a group of assassins organized by The Black Hand. The event, known as the Assassination in Sarajevo, led to a chain of events that eventually triggered World War I. The assassinations, along with the arms race, nationalism, imperialism, militarism, and the alliance system all contributed to the beginning of World War I, which began less than two months after Franz Ferdinand’s death, with Austria-Hungary’s declaration of war against Serbia.
Vienna’s initial reaction to the assassination was muted. Franz Ferdinand was not popular either at court or among the populace, and his death posed no threat to the continuation of the Habsburg dynasty. After all, two other monarchs had already been assassinated by members of the Black Hand: Alexander I of Serbia in Belgrade in 1903, and King George I of Greece 1913, just the year before.
Russia and the other Great Powers agreed that Vienna would have to deal with this affront in some way, but Conrad chose to declare war on Serbia. A strong ultimatum, intended to be unacceptable, was delivered to Belgrade on 23 July. Serbia acceded to all demands but one: that Austro-Hungarian police be allowed to operate on Serbian territory to apprehend and interrogate conspirators. Vienna was not interested in compromise, and declared war on 28 July, just one month after the assassination.
This started the chain of events that led to the outbreak of World War I. The Kaiser and the Tsar initially made strenuous efforts to contain the crisis, but once it became clear mobilization could not be stopped, the Kaiser’s position hardened significantly. France and Germany mobilized simultaneously. Within a week all major powers had declared war. Fighting began on 4 August when German troops crossed the Belgian frontier.
From today’s perspective it would appear that in 1914 all European nations were developing into modern, progressive nations whose social and political problems could be resolved through compromise and legislation. Many, such as Karl Kraus, a Viennese political commentator, warned about the massive social upheavals the war would create. Others, such as the Kaiser and Emperor Franz Joseph, saw them as inevitable; and still others, such as Hitler, Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin, saw them as desirable.
Frederick Morton argues the assassination was the trigger for a sociological phenomenon that had been brewing for decades, perhaps since the French Revolution. Beneath Europe’s’ apparent prosperity lay a population seething with discontent. With rising productivity many European workers felt the fruits of their labors were unfairly going to new capitalists and old aristocracy. People whose families had lived off the land for generations felt their agrarian way of life being threatened by industrialization. Many seemed to share Hitler’s view that war would remove barriers between men and make them brothers in arms. According to Morton, once it became clear that war was imminent, many socialists and even pacifists abandoned their antiwar stance and joined the conflict with enthusiasm. It may be that the Great War was an event whose time had come whether Franz Ferdinand was assassinated or not.
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