HIST 1115 Lecture : History Sept 25
Origins of World War One
Archduke Franz Ferdinand
He is in Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina
June 28, 1914
The people of Sarajevo are Serbian
He is in a parade type thing in a car with no roof
A group of young rebels tries to throw a bomb into his car, the driver sees this and
speeds up and it bounces off his car into another
They go to the hospital to visit the injured and take a different route, on the way a
rebel sees him and shoots the Archduke and his wife Sophie
oGavrilo Princip
oHe is Serbian but lived in Bosnia
oHe was trained by the Back Hand and they decided to kill Franz Ferdinand
because he was a reformer
Austria-Hungary decides that it cannot look weak in this situation, they choose to
take action
The Black Hand were beat up and their cyanide pills did not work, there were willing
to die for their cause
A-H were operating that Serbia had something to do with this, they were already
planning to rid themselves of the Serbian problem
Hungarians kind of tolerate the Austrians, the Austrians want a war
oHungarian PM Tisza does not want war because it is very de-stabilizing
oAfter 2 weeks, they get him to agree
oThey asked the Germans that if they should go to war with Serbia, the Kaiser
said yes (they needed to get rid of them)
oThey got him to agree by saying that if he agreed to help with their Serbian
problem if they could help with Hungary’s Romanian problem
They made up an Ultimatum for Serbia
oSeries of demands that they really can’t meet, if they do not accept fully they’ll
declare war
oIt took them a long time to get this package together
oPresent it July 23, give them 24 hours to respond
oSerbians respond very timidly
oThe Austrians wanted to arrest the Black Hand and they wanted the Austrian
Police to help with the investigation
oThe Serbians say NO because the Austrians coming in would take away their
Autonomy
oThe British are trying to get them to negotiate
Franz Joseph agrees to declare war
oHe knows it might escalate to a general war
oHe knows his empire may crumble from the war
oHe wants to divide Serbian territory between the other Balkan states so the
Balkan problem will ‘go away’
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Balkan Crisis
In 1908 A-H thinks they should keep the Balkans because it looks like Turkey is
getting power again
Bosnia is annexed in 1908
Russia cannot back up its ally in Serbia
First Balkan War
oItaly decides to attack the Ottoman Empire 1911
oThey wanted to drive Turkey out of Europe altogether (Greeks,
Montenegrans etc.)
oAustrians back Bulgaria if they back them up on the formation of the new
country of Albania so Serbia could not get access to the sea
oBulgaria attacks Serbia for small piece of land
Second Balkan War 1913 (summer)
oEveryone around them fights Bulgaria so they don’t get too much land
oThis makes all the hostility against Austria-Hungarians
General History of WW1
Blame for the war was placed on Germany
Some countries start to feel bad for Germans and they start to appease them
There was an assassination crisis, almost 10,000 lives lost, 20,000 ppl were
injured
Causes of WW1
Economic Rivalry
oCapitalist rivalry?
oLenin believes that rivalry between capitalist nations will cause a war
oGermany was a dynamic economy, they did not have enough raw
materials
They were having a series of crisis because they could not get their
raw materials from the Balkans if there is a war
They wanted to revive the Ottoman Empire
They wanted a Berlin to Bagdad railway so they would control a lot
of Eurasia
They want a new kind of control: AUTARKY
State control of markets
They want certainty and control
They want self-sufficiency
They want control of all of Europe and Asia
This is what German Intellectuals want
oThe Dream of “Mittleleuropa”
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