Hapsburg Archduke Franz Ferdinand

[wpe3bql]

..... was assassinated on this day (June 28) in 1914.

This was the "spark" that ignited what eventually became World War I (a/k/a "The War to End All Wars" :smilewinkgrin

He was killed by a "Bosnian nationalist" who wanted to have a "free and independent" Bosnia and/or Bosia-Hertzegovia.

The assassination took place in Sarajavo as the archduke & his wife were riding in a motorcade in what some considered to be an "inspection tour" of one of the main provinces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Europe was bound to erupt in war. On one side you had the British, French, and czarist Russia.

The other side consisted of the German Empire under Kaiser Wilhem II, the Hapsburg controlled Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Ottoman Turkish empire.

Other smaller nations pledged loyalty to one or the other major world powers. Loyalties sometimes changed as the war lingered on for some four years.

President Wilson didn't want the US to be directly involved in this conflict at first. In his 1916 re-election campaign, one of his major slogans was "He [Wilson] Kept US Out of the War."

Naturally, that changed especially after the sinking of the Lusitania on which were many Americans who lost their lives.

Many notable world "celebrities" had roles in WWI. Adolph Hitler & Hermann Goering fought in it. George Patton was in it. Winston Churchill was 1st Lord of the Admiralty & was the "master mind" of the failed "Gallipoli" landing. (This was the western peninsula that forms part of the Dardenelles inlet between the Mediterranean & Black Seas.)

Due to the fact that British Queen Victoria wanted her sons to have a "say" in the early part of the 20th Century, King George V and Russian Czar Nicholas II were First Cousins.

This "War to End All Wars" wasn't very successful. Most scholars claim that it set the stage for World War II.

For one thing, defeated Germany was forced to take the blame for the war, and thus was forced to pay huge amounts of money as "war reparations." Some of you may recall the photos of German people carrying wheelbarrow loads of German currency to pay for one loaf of bread.

Idealist Woodrow Wilson pushed a "14-Point Program" at the Versailles Conference. One political pundit was known to remark that, "God only gave us 10 Commandments, and we've broken every one of them. Now Wilson's got 14 points. Let's see how successful he'll be!"

Some of his points probably made some sense at that time. For one, nations ought to basically be created according to the principal nationality of a given area in Europe. This "re-created" Poland and what came to be known as Yugoslavia.

Czarist Russia was overthrown. Eventually this led to the Bolshevik Revolution in which the communists finally succeeded in conquering what became the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics with Joseph Stalin as its head.

The Versailles Treaty also called for a League of Nations. This League was an utter failure, mainly because it had no real way to enforce any of its "recommendations." This allowed Hitler to "re-occupy" Germany's Rhineland in spite of the League's "warning" him not to do so.

The US never signed the Versailles Treaty due to major opposition in the US Senate. What the US did was have a series of individual treaties with each nation with which we had declared war.

Yep, WWI certainly wasn't "The War to End All Wars" that folks hoped it would be! :thumbsup:

 

[Crabtownboy]

Indeed in many ways we are still fighting WW I and trying to solve the problems created by mistakes made by politicians back then ... especially problems in the Mid-East.

 

[rsr]

He was killed by a "Bosnian nationalist" who wanted to have a "free and independent" Bosnia and/or Bosia-Hertzegovia.

Gavrilo Princip, the assassin, was a Serbian Bosnian and his aim was to forge a South Slave state much larger than Bosnia (which, of course, would be dominated by Serbia). That dream came true with the creation of Yugoslavia.

(One of the ironies in the assassination of the archduke was that he wanted to devolve power on the empires minorities and end the traditional domination by the Germans and Magyars. Had he lived he might well have created some type of federation with autonomous nationalities. Whether that would have been sufficient is a question we can't answer.)

Many notable world "celebrities" had roles in WWI. Adolph Hitler & Hermann Goering fought in it. George Patton was in it. Winston Churchill was 1st Lord of the Admiralty & was the "master mind" of the failed "Gallipoli" landing. (This was the western peninsula that forms part of the Dardenelles inlet between the Mediterranean & Black Seas.)

While Churchill is rightly blamed for his part in the disaster, his initial goal was to force the Dardanelles by naval power alone (a fool's errand, given the minefields and the range of the Krupp guns the Ottomans possessed); the landings were under the direction of Kitchener and Hamilton.

Due to the fact that British Queen Victoria wanted her sons to have a "say" in the early part of the 20th Century, King George V and Russian Czar Nicholas II were First Cousins.

It wasn't quite that she wanted them to have their "say." Victoria had many children and grandchildren, and they populated the royal houses of Europe.

George, of course, was Victoria's grandson; so was Wilhelm II. Nicholas II was married to Victoria's granddaughter, Alexandra. Nicholas was also Victoria's great nephew by marriage (his aunt was the wife of Edward VII) Thus, George and Wilhelm were first cousins, George and Nicholas were first cousins, and Nicholas and Wilhelm were more distant cousins, although Wilhelm and Alexandra were first cousins.

This "War to End All Wars" wasn't very successful. Most scholars claim that it set the stage for World War II.

Undoubtedly.

For one thing, defeated Germany was forced to take the blame for the war, and thus was forced to pay huge amounts of money as "war reparations." Some of you may recall the photos of German people carrying wheelbarrow loads of German currency to pay for one loaf of bread.

As John J. Pershing predicted, the Allies' decision not to invade the Reich proper and sign the armistice allowed the Germans to believe that they had in fact not lost the war, although the country was on the verge of collapse owing to the strains of war and the Allied naval blockade. Thus future German leaders could argue that the army was undefeated and that the Reich had been stabbed in the back -- by Jews and liberals.

You can argue that the reparations were too penal, yet they were not out of line with payments that the Germans had demanded after the Franco-Prussian War (reparations that Bismarck had opposed because he believed, correctly, that they would engender bitterness and revanchism).

Some of his points probably made some sense at that time. For one, nations ought to basically be created according to the principal nationality of a given area in Europe. This "re-created" Poland and what came to be known as Yugoslavia.

And sewed the seeds of future conflict. The Danzig corridor was a flash point for years. Hitler could appeal to the principle to annex the Sudetenland, which made Czechoslovakia an untenable state; creation of Poland undid the partitions between Prussia and Russia, neither of which accepted the creation of the new state; and Yugoslavia finally unraveled in the 1990s, having been propped up only by the communist authoritarian regime.

Czarist Russia was overthrown. Eventually this led to the Bolshevik Revolution in which the communists finally succeeded in conquering what became the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics with Joseph Stalin as its head.

It is possible (though no one knows how likely, given the Russian tradition of autocracy) that, without World War I when it occurred, the Russian state might have evolved into something like a constitutional monarchy. Its economy was rapidly improving after the debacle of the war with Japan, and Lenin worried that if the trend continued the conditions needed for revolution might evaporate.

It was Russia's insistence on honoring its treaty responsibilities with France that made the collapse of the monarchy possible. (And the fact that the Russian army could in no way go toe to toe with the Germans, although they handled the Austrians pretty well.)

The Versailles Treaty also called for a League of Nations. This League was an utter failure, mainly because it had no real way to enforce any of its "recommendations." This allowed Hitler to "re-occupy" Germany's Rhineland in spite of the League's "warning" him not to do so.

The League was indeed impotent, but the reoccupation of the Rhineland was the result of a lack of will on the part of the French. Hitler knew that the French occupying forces could easily block reoccupation by the Germans; he counted on the fact that the French were weary of occupation, just as the North was after Reconstruction, and would not support another military confrontation.

 

[InTheLight]

Most people forget (or don't know) about the initial assassination attempt on the archduke on the same day. An assassin threw a bomb toward the convertible the archduke was traveling in, attempting to get the bomb to land inside the car. Instead it hit the outside of the car, bounced off and landed underneath the car trailing Ferdinand's car, exploding and wounding several people.

It was only when Ferdinand decided to visit the wounded in the hospital hours later that Princip shot and killed him, and only because the driver took a wrong turn down the wrong street.

 

[rsr]

Yes. And if Princip hadn't stop to get a sandwich, he might not have been there.