1. Assassination at Sarajevo June 28, 1914
Oakmont Sunday Symposium
May 4, 2014
Bob Kirk, Ph.D., Presenter

2. Topics this morning . . . The Archduke and the Hapsburg Dynasty
The assassination
Underlying tensions that led to war
How the war started
Why the war lasted four years
Why the results of the war were worse than the war itself

4. Ferdinand and Sophie
Married She was created Duchess of Hohenburg but was forbidden to stand or sit beside her husband in public ceremonies.

5. House of Habsburg
In 1276 Rudolf, Count of Habsburg, became Duke of Austria.
The Habsburgs gained lands through marriage rather than war.
By 1867, Hapsburg rulers were Emperors of Austria and Kings of Hungary. .

7. The Hofburg, Vienna

8. Emperor of Austria-Hungary Franz Josef (1848-1916) was age 84 at the time of the assassination.
He was a conscientious monarch, but was extremely conservative.
He had already suffered several family tragedies.

9. Empress Elizabeth,
Born a Bavarian princess, she married Franz Josef at 16.
She was obsessed with her own beauty and had to be sewn into corsets.
“Children are the curse of a woman!”

10. 1898: Geneva An Italian anarchist assassinated Empress Elizabeth.
She was Austria’s longest-reigning empress –- 44 years, but she was often off traveling.

11. 1867: A firing squad ended the short reign of Franz Josef’s younger brother, Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico d

12. 1889: Rudolf and his teen lover Maria Vetsera killed themselves at Mayerling

13. Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
He was Emperor Franz Josef’s nephew.
When Crown Prince Rudolf died, he was next in line.

14. Konopiste Castle, Bohemia
Franz Ferdinand recorded an estimated 300,000 game kills, including 5,000 deer. He even went to Australia to shoot kangaroos.
100,000 trophies are here at Konopiste Castle.

15. 99 years, 10 months, and 10 days ago
June 28, 1914
99 years, 10 months, and 10 days ago

17. Bosnia had been part of the crumbling Ottoman Empire

18. View of Sarajevo c. 2000

19. In Sarajevo, Franz Ferdinand greets a well wisher
In Sarajevo, Franz Ferdinand greets a well wisher. Duchess Sophie smiles.

21. Serb Black Hand formed in 1911 to unify all South Slavs under Serbia

22. Director “Apis” of Serbian Secret Service Serbian Intelligence supplied
• 6 hand grenades
* 4 Browning automatic pistols and • ammo
Money
• Suicide pills (ineffective)
• Training

23. 3rd car in a 6-car caravan. The governor was in the front

24. 6 conspirators lined the route
6 conspirators lined the route. Nedeljko Cabrinovic threw a grenade and wounded two in the fourth car. They were rushed to the hospital.
Cabrinovic swallowed an expired cyanide tablet and merely got sick. He then jumped into the Miljacka River, but it was only four-inches deep.

25. A scheduled visit to city hall minutes after the bomb explosion

26. The archduke demanded to go to the hospital to visit the wounded men
The archduke demanded to go to the hospital to visit the wounded men. But Governor Oskar Potiorek forgot to tell the driver about the change of route.
The driver turned right on Franz Josef Street – - and there was Gavrilo Princip in front of Schiller’s Café.

27. The assassination took place just across this bridge

28. Bosnian terrorist Gavrilo Princip shot Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie

29. 19-year old Gavrilo Princip
Who says kids can’t change the world?

30. The assassin apprehended

32. June 28, 1914: Three questions the average Santa Rosan may have asked:
What’s an archduke?
Where the heck is Sarajevo?
Who won the ball game?

33. Yet, within a little more than a month, this event would change the world

35. So what underlying tensions among the great European powers led to this?

36. 1871: The German Empire is born

37. France lost Alsace-Lorraine in 1871

38. Germany was the leading member of the Triple Alliance, 1882

39. Kaiser Wilhelm loved to bully other nations

40. Wilhelm scared Czar Nicholas by not renewing the Reinsurance Treaty

41. The Kaiser frightens the British by building dreadnoughts

42. Triple Alliance v. Triple Entente

43. A small war or a gigantic war?
Most observers thought Austria-Hungary would exact some retribution from Serbia and the problem would be contained.
Diplomacy was highly refined and had prevented several crises in the last decade.
Almost nobody expected a 4-year world war.

44. Germany planned to knock out France in six weeks, then turn on Russia

45. It all happened so fast . . .
July 23 – Austria-Hungary ultimatum to Serbia
July 28 – Austria-Hungary attacks Serbia
July 29 – Russia mobilizes against A/H & Germany
August 1 – Germany mobilizes in east and west and invades Luxembourg and Belgium
August 3 – Germany at war with France & Russia
August 3 – Italy declares neutrality
August 4 – Britain declares war on Germany

48. Four years of trench warfare

49. Let’s not forget the Armenian massacres

50. Vladimir Lenin proclaims Bolshevism

51. Wilson proposed Fourteen Points to end the war
Wilson proposed Fourteen Points to end the war. None of the powers accepted them immediately.

52. April 1917: US enters the war
When U.S. troops arrived, Russia left the war. Back to stalemate . . .

53. 1917 Sedition Act
Americans were tried and jailed for speaking out against the war. Some were still in jail in the 1930’s.

54. November 11, 1918 The Germans were starving
Revolution broke out in Berlin and Munich
Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated
Germany asked for an “armistice” on the basis of Wilson’s Fourteen Points

55. November 11, 1918

56. About 10 million died in the war
But Woodrow Wilson thought if the victors could design a perfect peace, including the League of Nations, it would have been the “war to end all wars.”
It turned out to be the war to end all peace.

57. As hard as is to believe, the consequences were far worse than the war itself . . .

58. An unintended consequence: 50-100 million died from influenza

59. Hall of Mirrors: Treaty of Versailles

60. Germany lost 13% of land, 10% of population
Germany lost 13% of land, 10% of population. World War II seems inevitable

61. The Treaty of Versailles did not acknowledge that the Allies had not actually won the war. At least one German wanted another go at it.

62. 30 million were left as minorities

65. What the Allies promised the Arabs

66. What the Allies promised each other

67. Balfour Declaration, 1917: “a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine”

68. This jihadist wants revenge against the West

69. Yugoslavia was a nation 1918 to 1991.
In 1991 Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro tried to separate from Serbia. This caused a ruinous civil war.

70. Want the full story? ‘THE GREAT WAR AND ITS LEGACY’ Osher Life Long Learning -- this fall in Oakmont Bob Kirk, Instructor

71. If only June 28, 1914 had been a ‘Spare the Heir’ Day

72. Thanks for listening
Bob Kirk