German Chancellor Otto Von Bismark called it. With all of Europe on edge of war in 1914, he said some damn foolish thing in the Balkans is going to set this off. The damned foolish thing happened 100 years ago today, when Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip shot and killed Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie during their visit to Sarajevo. Although a rather shoddy inquest concluded that Serbia had no hand in the assassinations, the Austrians attacked. All of the side deals between nations clicked into place and Europe exploded into World War I. Interesting to note that the three main belligerents, Englands King George V, Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany and Tsar Nicholas of Russia were all first cousins. It is said that if their grandma, Queen Victoria, had still been alive, she would have knocked their heads together and forbade them from going to war. The truth of the matter is that the cousins had little sway over the politicians and the military, as this story from the BBC notes:
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 16:52:06 +0000