THE BALKANS: the Spark That Lit the Bonfire
THE BALKANS: The Spark that Lit the Bonfire
The Balkans were a very unstable area:
- People of different nationalities were mixed together.
- Turkey had ruled the area for hundreds of years, but Turkish power was now crumbling.
- The new governments that had been set up in place of Turkish rule were constantly disagreeing with each other.
- Russia and Austria bordered the countries in this region, and both wanted to control the Balkans area because it gave them access to the Mediterranean Sea.
In 1908, Austria took over Bosnia and Herzegovina. Russia and Serbia protested against this, but they backed down when Germany made it clear that it supported Austria. Russiaand Serbia did not want to start a war with Germany.
However, there were some serious consequences. Austria now felt confident that Germany would support it with all future problems. Some historians think that this made Austria too confident, and encouraged it to make trouble with Serbia and Russia.
From 1912 to 1913 there was a number of local Balkan wars. Serbia came out of these as the most powerful country in the Balkans. This wasa very serious threat for Austria, because Serbia had a strong army and it was a close ally (partner) of Russia. Austria decided that Serbia would have to be dealt with. By 1914 Austria was looking for a good excuse to crush Serbia.
MURDER in SARAJEVO
Austria's opportunity came with the murder of Archduke (son of the Emperor of Austria) and his wife in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on June 28, 1914. Although there was no hard evidence that the murderer Princip was acting under orders from the Serbian government, Austria blamed Serbia. Germany decided to support Austria, and with this support Austria now felt safe enough to deal with the Serbian problem once and for all.
Austria gave Serbia an ultimatum (a set of demands or terms) that would have made Serbia part of the Austrian Empire. The Serbs could not accept it. When the Serbs asked for time to consider the ultimatum, Austria refused anddeclared war on 28 July 1914. The slide to all-out war had begun.
Sunday 28 June 1914 was a bright and sunny day in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Everyone was preparing for a royal visit from Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria.Crowds lined the streets and waited for the parade of cars to appear.
Hidden among the crowds, however, were six teenage [Bosnian Serb] terrorists who had sworn to kill the Archduke. They hated him and they hated Austria. The terrorists were waiting at different points along the riverside road that the cars would follow. They all had bombs and pistols in their pockets, and bottles of poison which they had promised to swallow if they were caught(so that they would not give the others away).
\\’Finally, the parade of four large cars appeared. The Archduke was in a green
open-topped car. His wife Sophie sat next to him, waving politely at the crowd.
At 10.15am the cars passed Mehmedbasic, the firstof the waiting killers. He got scared, did nothing, and escaped. As the cars passed the Cumurja Bridge, the next assassin, Cabrinovic, threw his bomb, swallowed his poison and jumped into the river. The Archduke saw the bomb coming and threw it off his car, but it exploded under the car behind theirs, injuring several people. The parade of carssped away, scared of more bombs. Meanwhile the police dragged Cabrinovic out of the river. His poison was old and had not worked.
The Archduke was driven to the Town Hall, where he demanded to visit the bomb victims in hospital. Afraid of more terrorists, the officials decided to take a new route to avoid the crowds, but this was not explained to the driver of the Archduke's car. Also, no police guard went with the procession.
Meanwhile,after hearing the bomb explode,the other assassinsguessed that the Archduke was dead and left — all except Princip, who wandered across the street towards Schillers' delicatessen and café.
Princip was standing outside the café when, at 10.45am, the Archduke's car suddenly appeared beside him and turned into Franz Josef Street. This was a mistake, because according to the new plan the cars should have continued straight along another road. The driver realised he had taken a wrong turn, so he stopped and started to reverse. Princip could hardly believe his luck. Pulling apistol from his coat, he fired two shots at a range of just 3 or 4 metres. He could not miss. One bullet pierced the Archduke's neck and the other bounced off the car into Sophie's stomach. They both died soon after.
Princip was grabbed immediately. He managed to swallow his poison, but it did not work and he was taken off to prison. All the terrorists except Mehmedbasic were eventually caught, but only the organiser, Ilic, was hanged, because the others were too young for the death penalty. Princip died in an Austrian jail, in April 1918, aged twenty-three.
Adapted from Britain at War by Craig Mair, 1982.
Within six weeks of the Archduke's assassination, almost all of Europe had been dragged into the bloodiest war in history.
On 23 July:
Austria blamed Serbia for the death of Franz Ferdinand and sent it an ultimatum.
On 28 July:
Austria declared war on Serbia and shelled its capital, Belgrade.
On 29 July:
The Russian army got ready to help Serbia defend itself against the Austrian attack.
Germany warned Russia not to help the Serbs.
On 1 August:
Germany declared war on Russia. It also began to move its army towards France and Belgium.
On 2 August:
The French army was put on a war footing ready to fight any German invasion.
On 3 August:
Germany declared war on France and invaded Belgium. Britain orderedGermany to withdraw from Belgium.
On 4 August:
With the Germans still in Belgium, Britain declared war on Germany.
On 6 August:
Austria declared war on Russia.