World War I

Underlying Cause
Background for the War

    One reason was a growing feeling of nationalism on the part of subject peoples like the Bosnians.  They were a Slavic people who wanted to set up their own nation from the Austrian rules.  Another reason that led to war was the sharp rivalry between the major European powers.  They competed for colonies, wealth, and power.  Great Britain and France had large colonial empires. While the Germany and Italy had small holders.  Alsace-Lorraine was a former French territory that the Germans had seized.  The Russians looked longingly at ports on the Baltic and Black seas.  All these rivalries led the European powers to build up their armies and navies.

Immediate Cause
Archduke Franz Ferdinand

    He was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip in 1914.  Archduke was a nephew of Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph and heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary; in 1914 his uncle was over eighty years old.  Several members of his family had met with unnatural deaths, while he had been spared.  The Emperor's brother Maximilian was executed in Mexico; his son Rudolf romantically committed suicide in Mayerling; and his wife, Elizabeth, had been assassinated by and anarchist in Geneva.  Such precaution was not taken at the time of the Archduke's ill-timed visit in 1914.
     Not only had the Archduke elected to come to Sarajevo on the day of the St. Vitus Festival, commemorating the Battle of Kosovo, but he also brought his wife along.  June 28 happened to be their fourteenth wedding anniversary.
     The Emperor regarded the marriage as unfortunate; Countess Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, was not of royal blood and was thus beneath his nephew's station.  It took a year of argument to persuade Franz Joseph to accept the marriage-but at the cost of denying any children of the marriage the right of succession to the throne.  Sophie could not even ride beside her husband in the royal coach on state occasions; she was snubbed in court.
     Archduke was invited to a viewing of the maneuvers of the Austrian Army in the vicinity of Sarajevo.  On this occasion Sophie could ride beside her husband.  Theirs was the second in a four-car motorcade that passed through the hostile, meagerly guarded streets.  Warnings had come, literally, from embassies all over the world that had heard trouble was expected.  The first indication that the warnings had substance occurred when a hand grenade arched out of the crowed and hurtled at the motorcade.  Archduke in protectively placing his arm around his wife, deflected the grenade from their car and into the street.  Twenty people were injured by the blast, including three from the royal party.  Sophie was slightly injured in the neck by a flying splinter.
     Although the speed of the motorcade was increased, the original plan of the visit was not abandoned.  The Military Governor, General Oskar Potiorek, assured the shaken, angry Archduke:  "Your Imperial Highness, you can travel quite happily.  I take the responsibility."
     As the cars raced toward the City Hall, the motorcade slipped past three potential assassins, unable to act because of the speed of the vehicles and because they were caught off guard.