His assassination provided the spark that ignited the Great War

June 28, 1914

Sir Earl Grey “The Lights are going out all over Europe, and we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.” 1914

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand sparked the Great War (1914-1918). The destabilizing impact of the Great War created such a chaotic legacy that World War II and the Cold War were natural consequences.  A small group of Serbian nationalists (The Black Hand), anxious to assert Serbian aspirations for a Pan-Serbian state, and visibly protest Austro-Hungary annexation of the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, decided to assassinate an important member of the Austrian government. In history, we witness the significance of the Law of Unintended Results. The unfortunately long- term consequences of the death of Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the imperial throne of Austro-Hungarian Empire, led to a series of diplomatic moves where tensions ultimately escalated into a global war.

Ironically, Franz Ferdinand was sympathetic to Serbian aspirations. Against the advise that surrounded the Hapsburg court, he sympathized with the ethnic aspirations of the empire, and proposed to replace the Austro-Hungarian dualism with ‘Trialism”,  ‘a triple monarchy in which the empire’s Slavs would have an equal voice in government with the Germans and Magyars. 

On June 28th, 1914, while riding in a motorcade through the streets of Sarajevo, Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were shot and killed by Gavrilo Princip—one of seven young Bosnians and Black recruits. The assassination provided ‘justification’ for Austria to take hard action against Serbia. In a wonderful book Guns of August; the author Barbara Tuchman discussed the interlocking alliances that spread the virus of hatred quickly throughout the European Continent.

Let me try to summarize, Germany allied with Austria, promised Austrian military support to take a most aggressive diplomatic action against Serbia. While Serbia offered many concessions, they could not possible acquiesce to all the Austrian demands without losing their national independence. Instead, Serbia successfully sought guarantees by Russia to protect their territorial integrity. Russia for over a century had been the titular leader of the Slavs, and encouraged Slav insurrection against Austria and Turkey, empires that had significant subjugated Slavic populations. France under her treaty obligations had committed military support to Russia in case either nation was involved in belligerency. The subsequent German violation of Belgium territorial integrity led England to join the Allies.

The European populace throughout the adversarial nations enthusiastically supported the martial pronouncements of their respective populations. Joyous tumultuous celebrations deafened pacifists and/or international socialist workers alliances; instead, jingoism abounded. Each combatant felt that they could attain military victory quickly, and gain subsequent territorial advantage.

By the end of World War I, Europe lay prostrate suffering draconian material and population losses. The Versailles Treaty, 1919, left a patchwork of nations out of the dismantled empires of Austro-Hungary and Turkey. The Versailles Treaty placed principle responsibility for the hostilities on Germany. The major terms of the Versailles treaty required significant German financial reparations to the Allied nations, territorial concessions, and ‘permanent” restrictions on the size of their army and their military budget. Communists not only had taken political control of Russia, but threatened regimes in most of Eastern Europe—Hungary, Germany, Ukraine, Bulgaria, etc. 

After World War I, most European nations experienced high unemployment, political instability, and unresolved antagonisms toward their Continental neighbors. The lack of manpower and destruction of financial resources wiped out the wealth of Europe, leaving distraught populations vulnerable to Communist, totalitarian, and Fascist platforms in order to gain some economic security. Unfortunately, Adolph Hitler leveraging on the economic despair and political instability of Germany ultimately gained totalitarian control. Some six years after becoming Chancellor of Germany Hitler ruthlessly launched World War II to “redress the inequities of the Versailles Treaty.” The subsequent German defeat left a political and military void filled in Eastern Europe by the Soviet Union. Their communist leaders harboring both xenophobic fears of the remaining capitalist states and genuine belief in the inevitable communist world conquest initiated a cold war on a global scale. From 1945-1990, pro and anti-communist forces vied for global dominance.