(or if only the driver knew how to drive)
Lots of people don't know about World War I, the Great War. It was truly the beginning of our modern world. It all happened in a little unsuspecting part of Europe most people can't even point out on a map -- Sarajevo, Bosnia.
When people hear of Bosnia, chances are they think of the Bosnian war of the early 1990s, the ethnic cleansing and the travesty of Slobodan Milošević. Most people don't even know what a Balkan is. The middle of eastern Europe sure knew. This area had been left to the feudal world for centuries. The rolling mountains, the desolation, the tribal people all essentially left to fend for themselves, be overtaxed while the rich landlords made the rules. It went through wars over the territory but had not been independent since Medieval times. The floundering Ottoman Empire (Turkey and the far East) had ruled for hundreds of years, but was slowly falling apart. All empires were, they just didn't know it yet.
So the Ottomans gave their "problem child" to the Austrian Hungarian empire -- the direct remains of the old Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne dating back to the 900s. This expansive empire was also in its decay. The emperor who lived thousands of miles away from his subjects had no idea, nor care, what was happening to the bottom of the caste system. This would haunt them and they would pay.
The Balkans were a powder-keg waiting to ignite. On June 28, 1914, a young educated poor 19 year old had had enough. He had attended school away from the rolling hills of his family's home during a very radical period. Some were anarchists, others communists, and so on. His opportunity knocked when the heir to the Austrian-Hungarian empire came for a little visit.
The king of the empire was Franz Joseph,
On a goodwill tour to its "protectorate" Serbia, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife went to visit Sarajevo. Gavrilo Princip knew the motorcade was coming and he was ready.
There had already been some backlash on the route including bomb detonations, so the route was altered slightly to accommodate the Archduke. The old car, a modern marvel but also still a new machine to understand and control, travelled across the Latin Bridge. As the car continued on its course, it overshot a turn and lurched a bit into the crowd standing by. The inexperienced driver stopped and began to back up. Princip had just stepped out of a café, approached the stopped vehicle, stepped onto the sideboard and fired his pistol at the Archduke's wife Sophie into her abdomen. Then he shot Ferdinand in the neck.
He was seized almost immediately, but a dying Ferdinand cried out to his wife "Don't die darling! Live for our children!". They both died.
Ferdinand's shirt
Lying in state
The car today
The gun that started World War I
The assassin
A furious Joseph essentially stepped forward, backed by a military pact with the Germans and their king (Kaiser) Wilhelm issued an ultimatum. Hand over Princip and surrender any co-conspirators in Serbia and the issue would be addressed. Serbia had its own military agreement with Russia, whom it felt was the lesser of two evils. Backed by the Tsar, Nicholas II, Serbia said, no thanks, we'll take care of this. The standoff lasted 30 days. Then the war began.
This was a fall of empires. By the time the war would be done, a new type of modern warfare had been created, wreaking havoc not only on the soldiers but the citizens too. Mustard gas, tanks, trenches, airplanes, machine guns, naval battles, it had it all.
Kaiser Wilhelm (right) was a distant cousin of Tsar Nicholas (left). Their genetics were not enough to stop this. Their mutual cousin, King George (middle) in England couldn't stop it and had to defend Russia and France (the Triple Alliance). The war was a stalemate after the first year.
No one knew how to end it.
However, the people knew how to end it. Russia finally collapsed. The Tsar was ousted in March 1917, and he abdicated in favor of his brother. His brother followed suit the next day. Now the vacuum began and the "Reds" led by Vladimir Lenin seized the moment of the unstable provincial government that had been established. By 1918, Lenin was in power and told the Allies they were not interested in a war, and pulled out. America had joined in on the side of it's British friends in 1917, essentially replacing Russia. Nicholas, his family, some servants, a doctor and even their dog were brutally assassinated in exile in 1918.
Their bodies would be mutilated and dumped in a mine, found once in secret in the '20s, would not find a final resting place until 1997. Yeah, that's Boris Yeltsin, Putin's successor.
The Germans weren't far behind, and in November 1918, Wilhelm was out as the monarchy was abolished. This finally weakened the country and the war ultimately collapsed on itself as the empires imploded. Joseph was already dead in 1916 so the country was ripe for the picking. At least Wilhelm got to live in exile until 1941.
To the victors go the spoils, and they did. France, America, Britain and to some degree a lesser ally, Italy, went to Versailles in Paris in 1919 and began to spilt up the world. It was here that the colonies of Germany were seized and reallocated, leading to the collapse of many governments in Africa, which still suffer from lawlessness today.
Arabia was created to buffer the Turks and Muslims while making sure parts of modern day Iran and Iraq would be accessible to the European powers for their oil-rich fields.
Poland reappeared after being absorbed by the Russians. This wasn't done as a favor to the Polish, but rather to create a buffer between Europe and the curious new nation, the Soviet Union. And you know, that Poland place was in the way for the Nazi's in 1939 when they invaded and started WWII.
Germany was completely dissolved. There was no military allowed. Land west of the Rhine River was taken over as a non-militarized zone maintained by the Allies. How was this so impactful? Many viewed the Treaty of Versailles, signed on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month (Armistice Day, now Veteran's Day) as a 20 year cease fire.
Armistice Day in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
Many disenfranchised, like Princip, had their hatred grow of the outsiders. This would simmer under the surface until a certain, angry man from Austria inspired the people to reunite Germany -- Adolph Hitler.
The American President, Woodrow Wilson, was a strong intellectual (albeit a racist one) who believed things could be resolved by talking. He pushed for and helped create the League of Nations. This was the forefather of the United Nations. The problem was, they had no actual power to legislate or execute any directives. They would ultimately fail and America wasn't even able to join as the bickering between political parties (Wilson, a Democrat, and the newly Republican controlled Congress) would not ratify the agreement to join. It also is argued to have cost Wilson his chance at re-election.
The Ottoman Empire had it's own Arab Revolt in 1916 that tore away at itself leaving a much smaller remnant, Turkey.
The Austrian-Hungarian empire was broken apart with newly formed nations that included Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Ukrane. Do many of these countries sound familiar? They should, as the Nazis and the Soviets would seize these countries for their own purposes over the next several decades, the "Third Reich" and the "Iron Curtain". Many of these countries still suffer from inept governments and are in the news daily.
And that's just the start of it. Nations that weren't even involved in the war were reaching out to the leaders of the victorious countries trying to have their sway of influence; this included the Japanese, the Koreans and even a dishwasher from far away Vietnam, who was concerned about the future of his homeland; Wilson should have probably listened to future Vietcong leader Ho Chi Minh. Do you see the pattern? Japan (WWII), Korea (still a problem), Vietnam? It was all laid out in Paris in 1919.
The action that was taken by Gavrilo Princip one hundred years ago was nothing less than throwing a rock into a still pond and watching the rings echo across. We are still feeling those waves today. People know about Hitler and WWII, Vietnam, and even more recently the Iraq war, but it was June 28, 1914 that set our world as we know it in motion. Learn about the Great War and appreciate it for the men and women (women were on the warfront too, just not in battle) that helped us pass from "the past" into our current era.
And now, today, June 28, 2014, a statue was unveiled of Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo. Villain or hero?
It depends on your perception of history.
