Dominoes of Blood: Perhaps, the most senseless and unnecessary of the many self-inflicted catastrophes of mankind was ignited on this day (June 28th) in 1914 when 19 year-old Gavrilo Princip, a misguided Serbian nationalist, succeeded in assassinating Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophie while they were on an official visit to Sarajevo, a part of the Austro-Hungarian empire that was annexed into it just six years before in 1908. It is doubtful that the young Princip, nor anyone else at the time, could have imagined the tragic chain-reaction of events that would rapidly spiral out of control as a result of this singular act of violence. The far-reaching consequences of the assassination included, among other things: 1) the great and bloody conflagration that grew into what we call WWI – also known as the “Great War” or the “war to end all wars;” 2) the ultimate collapse of four “empires” (German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian and Ottoman); 3) the deaths of an estimated 16 million civilian and military personnel, most as a result of combat rather than disease; 4) an estimated 20 million wounded; 5) the rise of Bolshevist Russia and a prolonged communist dictatorship there; and 6) a “reordered” European map with harsh penalties imposed upon Germany that helped create the political and economic climate in which Hitler and the Nazi party rose to power. Following the assassination, which the government of Austria-Hungary essentially blamed on Serbian provocations and political ambitions in the Balkans, the Austrian-Hungarian government made certain “demands” of the Serbs, which they refused to fully meet. As a result they moved to invade Serbia on July 28th. Serbia, however, was allied with Russia, which in response to the aggressive moves of the Austrians, began to “mobilize” their forces along the Galician border. Because of preexisting diplomatic alliances and existing political realities (as they were understood at the time) all of the European powers grasped that a “war” between Russia and Austria would, defacto, also mean a war that would include Germany, as both Austria and Germany were closely allied. Also, as a counter to German influence, France was allied with Russia prior to the commencement of WWI. It is important to note, that at the time of WWI, the formal “mobilization” of one nation’s forces was essentially viewed as being equal to an “act of war” against that nation’s enemies. Accordingly, the Germans demanded that Russia cease the “mobilization” of its forces, which the Russians refused to do. Hence, Germany declared war on Russia on August 1st. That same day, France ordered the “mobilization” of its forces and on August 3rd both Germany and France declared war on each other. Belgium remained “neutral” but would not allow Germany to send troops and arms over its border in order to “outflank” the French, and in an effort to do just that, the Germans invaded Belgium on August 4th. The German invasion of Belgium was the final straw that prompted Britain to honor its treaty to preserve the neutrality of Belgium, and Britain declared war on Germany on that same date. On August 6th the Austrians formally declared war on the Russians. In November of 1914 Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire, followed by similar declarations by France and Great Britain on November 5th. The United States, which technically remained “neutral” during the first years of the conflict ultimately entered the war on the side of the allies after U.S. public opinion had turned against Germany. Many people here in the U.S., with an imprecise knowledge of the timetable of the war, mistakenly believe the U.S. entered the war shortly after a German U-boat sank the RMS Lusitania. However, that event took place in 1915. The event that finally pushed the U.S. into declaring war on Germany was the discovery of the “Zimmerman Telegram” – a secret message from the German government to that of Mexico, which sought to involve that nation in a military conflict with the U.S. in the event the U.S. entered into the war on the side of the “Allied” powers. Among other things, it was suggested to Mexico that this would be an opportunity to reclaim Texas and other territories that had been lost to the U.S. The Zimmerman Telegram combined with a stepped up U-boat campaign against U.S. shipping (essentially concurrent with the discovery of the telegram) led President Wilson to reluctantly seek a declaration of war against Germany, which was granted on April 6, 1917. After years of fighting on multiple fronts, on the “11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month” in 1919 the war finally ended in defeat for the “central” powers (Austria-Hungary, Germany and the Ottoman Empire). Why did the senseless slaughter of WWI occur? A complex brew of hubris, national ambition, a pent-up militaristic enthusiasm for settling matters by force of arms, combined with regional rivalries and a long-standing mistrust between competing powers -- the fates of which, were linked together in a complex series of diplomatic agreements and treaties -- all congealed into a toxic mix of human stupidity and the most grotesque of leadership failures. And thus, a war that should never have been fought in the first place -- and one with no great or useful purpose, cruelly descended upon the world. Pictured below: 1) Archduke Ferdinand and Sophie; 2) Gavrilo Princip; 3) The coded Zimmerman telegram; 4) “Gassed” a painting by John Singer Sargeant; 5) The Douaumont Ossuary in France containing the bones of thousands upon thousands of WWI dead.
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 00:54:43 +0000
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