Transcript Assassination at Sarajevo June 28, 1914

Assassination at Sarajevo
June 28, 1914
Oakmont Sunday Symposium
May 4, 2014
Bob Kirk, Ph.D., Presenter
Topics this morning . . .
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The Archduke and the Hapsburg Dynasty
The assassination
Underlying tensions that led to war
How the war started
Why the war lasted four years
Why the results of the war were worse than
the war itself
Ferdinand and
Sophie
Married 1900. She
was created
Duchess of
Hohenburg but
was forbidden to
stand or sit beside
her husband in
public ceremonies.
House of
Habsburg
In 1276 Rudolf, Count
of Habsburg, became
Duke of Austria.
The Habsburgs gained
lands through marriage
rather than war.
By 1867, Hapsburg
rulers were Emperors
of Austria and Kings of
Hungary.
.
The Hofburg, Vienna
Emperor of AustriaHungary Franz Josef
(1848-1916) was age
84 at the time of the
assassination.
He was a
conscientious
monarch, but was
extremely
conservative.
He had already
suffered several family
tragedies.
Empress Elizabeth,
1837-1898
Born a Bavarian
princess, she married
Franz Josef at 16.
She was obsessed
with her own beauty
and had to be sewn
into corsets.
“Children are the
curse of a woman!”
1898: Geneva
An Italian anarchist
assassinated
Empress Elizabeth.
She was Austria’s
longest-reigning
empress –- 44
years, but she was
often off traveling.
1867: A firing
squad ended the
short reign of
Franz Josef’s
d
younger brother,
Maximilian,
Emperor of
Mexico
1889: Rudolf and his teen lover Maria Vetsera killed
themselves at Mayerling
Archduke Franz
Ferdinand, heir to
the throne of the
Austro-Hungarian
Empire.
He was Emperor
Franz Josef’s
nephew.
When Crown
Prince Rudolf died,
he was next in line.
Konopiste Castle,
Bohemia
Franz Ferdinand
recorded an
estimated 300,000
game kills,
including 5,000
deer. He even
went to Australia
to shoot
kangaroos.
100,000 trophies
are here at
Konopiste Castle.
June 28, 1914
99 years, 10 months, and 10 days ago
Bosnia had been part of
the crumbling Ottoman Empire
View of Sarajevo c. 2000
In Sarajevo, Franz Ferdinand greets a
well wisher. Duchess Sophie smiles.
Serb Black Hand formed in 1911 to
unify all South Slavs under Serbia
Director “Apis” of
Serbian Secret Service
Serbian Intelligence
supplied
• 6 hand grenades
* 4 Browning
automatic pistols and
• ammo
Money
• Suicide pills
(ineffective)
• Training
3rd car in a 6-car caravan. The
governor was in the front
6 conspirators lined
the route. Nedeljko
Cabrinovic threw a
grenade and wounded
two in the fourth car.
They were rushed to
the hospital.
Cabrinovic swallowed
an expired cyanide
tablet and merely got
sick. He then jumped
into the Miljacka River,
but it was only fourinches deep.
A scheduled visit to city hall
minutes after the bomb explosion
The archduke
demanded to go to
the hospital to visit
the wounded men.
But Governor Oskar
Potiorek forgot to tell
the driver about the
change of route.
The driver turned right
on Franz Josef Street –
- and there was
Gavrilo Princip in front
of Schiller’s Café.
The assassination took place just
across this bridge
Bosnian terrorist Gavrilo Princip shot
Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie
19-year old
Gavrilo Princip
Who says kids
can’t change
the world?
The assassin apprehended
June 28, 1914: Three questions the
average Santa Rosan may have asked:
• What’s an archduke?
• Where the heck is Sarajevo?
• Who won the ball game?
Yet, within a little
more than a month,
this event would
change the world
So what
underlying
tensions
among the
great
European
powers led to
this?
1871: The German Empire is born
France lost Alsace-Lorraine in 1871
Germany was the leading member of
the Triple Alliance, 1882
Kaiser Wilhelm loved to bully other nations
Wilhelm scared Czar Nicholas by not
renewing the Reinsurance Treaty
The Kaiser frightens the British by
building dreadnoughts
Triple Alliance v. Triple Entente
A small war or a gigantic war?
• Most observers thought Austria-Hungary
would exact some retribution from Serbia and
the problem would be contained.
• Diplomacy was highly refined and had
prevented several crises in the last decade.
• Almost nobody expected a 4-year world war.
Germany planned to knock out France
in six weeks, then turn on Russia
It all happened so fast . . .
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July 23 – Austria-Hungary ultimatum to Serbia
July 28 – Austria-Hungary attacks Serbia
July 29 – Russia mobilizes against A/H & Germany
August 1 – Germany mobilizes in east and west
and invades Luxembourg and Belgium
• August 3 – Germany at war with France & Russia
• August 3 – Italy declares neutrality
• August 4 – Britain declares war on Germany
Four years of trench warfare
Let’s not forget the Armenian massacres
Vladimir Lenin proclaims Bolshevism
Wilson
proposed
Fourteen
Points to end
the war. None
of the powers
accepted them
immediately.
April 1917: US
enters the war
When U.S.
troops arrived,
Russia left the
war. Back to
stalemate . . .
1917 Sedition
Act
Americans were
tried and jailed
for speaking out
against the war.
Some were still
in jail in the
1930’s.
November 11, 1918
• The Germans were starving
• Revolution broke out in Berlin and
Munich
• Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated
• Germany asked for an “armistice” on the
basis of Wilson’s Fourteen Points
November 11, 1918
About 10 million died in the war
• But Woodrow Wilson thought if the victors
could design a perfect peace, including the
League of Nations, it would have been the
“war to end all wars.”
• It turned out to be the war to end all peace.
As hard as is to believe,
the consequences were
far worse than the war
itself . . .
An unintended consequence: 50-100
million died from influenza
Hall of Mirrors: Treaty of Versailles
Germany lost 13% of land, 10% of population.
World War II seems inevitable
The Treaty of
Versailles did not
acknowledge that
the Allies had not
actually won the
war. At least one
German wanted
another go at it.
30 million were left as minorities
What the Allies promised the Arabs
What the Allies promised each other
Balfour Declaration, 1917: “a national home for
the Jewish people in Palestine”
This jihadist wants revenge against the West
Yugoslavia was a nation
1918 to 1991.
In 1991 Slovenia,
Croatia, Bosnia,
Macedonia,
Montenegro
tried to separate
from Serbia.
This caused a
ruinous civil war.
Want the full story?
‘THE GREAT WAR
AND ITS LEGACY’
Osher Life Long Learning
-- this fall in Oakmont
Bob Kirk, Instructor
If only June 28, 1914 had been a
‘Spare the Heir’ Day
Thanks for listening
Bob Kirk