![]() ![]() Still, war wasn’t necessarily inevitable. The Germans, for example, were especially worried about the Russians modernizing their forces. The timing of mobilization was very important-you wanted to start your mobilization in time to forestall the opposing army. ![]() The arms race was sort of like the nuclear competition between the United States and Soviet Union in the 1950s and ’60s in that you wanted to know if the other side was about to attack you so you could attack first. Q: What role did alliances play in setting the table for war throughout Europe?Ī: The alliance system and the military preparations of world powers in the years before Ferdinand’s assassination played a large role in setting the stage for escalation. The French and British newspapers, even for several weeks after the assassination, referred to it as “the Balkan crisis.” They didn’t think this would be a worldwide conflict. It didn’t seem, in the summer of 1914, that there was much worry about a global war. Of course, there were certain structural causes present, including the rise of nationalism in the Balkans, the alliance systems and the long-term arms race in naval and land weapons. The Moroccan Crisis had been settled, the French and Germans had concluded an agreement about the Rhine River, and at the time of the assassination the German Navy was hosting the British Navy at Kiel Week, which is a huge bash with yacht and boat races. Q: What was the mood in Europe in the summer of 1914, right around the time of the assassination?Ī: At the time, things actually seemed to be getting better. Spector to discuss the assassination, the path to war and the new Europe it created. George Washington Today sat down with Dr. World War I, however, didn’t officially begin until a month after Ferdinand’s assassination, and though tensions were high, the fight wasn’t inevitable, according to Ronald Spector, professor of history and international affairs. And for the past 100 years, Gavrilo Princip has been a more potent symbol in death than he ever was in his life.The assassination of Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip in late June 1914 had one of the strongest ripple effects in modern history, setting off a series of war declarations across Europe and plunging the world into one of its deadliest conflicts. But politicians know a powerful tool when they see one. "The Sarajevo assassination wasn't ever the big deal in Sarajevo." "My grandfather mentioned that once to me in passing," says Pasovic. His grandfather was a teenager working in the family shop on June 28, 1914, and actually heard the gunshots that killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Haaris Pasovic is a theatrical director in Sarajevo. To people with firsthand experience of the assassination, this all seems very odd. The real Princip was a scrawny, malnourished guy.īut in the 1975 movie The Day That Shook the World, he's a smoldering heartthrob who murmurs to a gorgeous woman, "Try to understand. The meaning of the symbol changes depending on who's talking.Įven Hollywood got in on the act. In every era, people with power have tried to use this assassin as a symbol. History A Century Ago In Sarajevo: A Plot, A Farce And A Fateful Shot There was a plaque in the 1930s that said Princip fired shots expressing the longing of people to be free. Lyon runs through about a half-dozen monuments that have been erected on this site, built up and torn down with each change in power. "Was Gavrilo Princip a terrorist, or was he a national hero? There have been tug-of-war interpretations, and they have changed over time." "The question you're faced with is very stark," says historian James Lyon, an expert in Balkan history. That was the first in a long string of short-lived memorials to the assassination. And it was destroyed in 1918," says Nazerovic. It was a monument with a very short life. In the one-room museum on the corner where the assassination took place, tour guide Mirsad Nazerovic points to a black-and-white photo of a pillar that used to stand outside this building. Today, the legacy of the Bosnian Serb nationalist remains the subject of intense debate - nowhere more than in Sarajevo itself. That event triggered World War I, charting the course for the 20th century. Depending on whom you ask, he's either a hero or a terrorist.Ī hundred years ago Saturday, Gavrilo Princip shot the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. Nineteen-year-old Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip fired the shots that killed the heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife, Sophie, during a visit to Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. ![]()
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