An Empire's Unreasonable Demands guarantee World War One

Aleksandra's Note: What follows is the impossible ultimatum presented to the Serbian government by Austria-Hungary on July 23, 1914, just over 3 weeks after the June 28th assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Fair historians have assessed this ultimatum as being both unreasonable and, more importantly, clearly intended to set Serbia up to fail to meet the demands, thus giving the green light for the war against the Serbs the Empire had been planning all along. All dates indicated are according to the current [Gregorian] calendar. The "old calendar" [Julian] date would show as being 13 days earlier. For example, the current calendar date of July 26 would correspond to July 13 by the old calendar [Julian].

The Serbs were given 48 hours to comply. The deadline was July 25, 1914 at 6:00 p.m.

British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey was struck by the nature of the ultimatum, stating that he had "never before seen one State address to another independent State a document of so formidable a character."

By all fair accounts, the Serbian response was remarkably compliant. "Point 6" was the one point they could not submit to, and I challenge any self-respecting sovereign nation to comply to the extent that Serbia did. However, it was not good enough for the Empire, thus proving that the ultimatum of July 1914 was ultimately just a pretense.

Wladimir Giesl Freiherr von Gieslingen 1914 Austro-Hungarian Minister at Belgrade

Whatever actions were taken by specific individuals in Serbia, including military and intelligence officers, as related to the events of June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo were not sanctioned by the Serbian government. That is the key point.

Just as the United States Military, I’m confident, did not sanction the actions of U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning.

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Is not clear what the purpose of this article is. If the purpose is to assess war guilt against the Austro-Hungarian Empire we ought to have pause.

Most historians agree that the ultimatum served on the Serbians by the Austrians was indeed peremptory and frankly calculated to be unacceptable to the Serbians precipitating a war which the Austrians had long believed was unavoidable. Many historians also believe that the Serbs were complicit in the plot to murder the punitive successor to the Austro-Hungarian Imperial throne.

Imagine the consequences if there were irrefutable proof that the Cubans conspired to murder John F. Kennedy. War would have been inevitable.

I think there is a more important lesson to take from this tragic affair which destroyed the empires of four Imperial Royal families, Habsburg, Romanov, Hohenzollern, and Ottoman. The murder was surely one of the great dramatic turning point in history, marking the end of the old order which had been put together at the Congress of Vienna after the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, and the beginning of the new age of industrial warfare. The world has never been the same since the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand but he was assassinated for ethnic grievances, whether real or imagined.

One ought to consider the consequences to the world of the enforced admixing of the Austro-Hungarian Empire the next time some left-wing American politician proclaims, "diversity is our strength."

Typically, left-wing politicians, whose wet dream it is to engineer society as though it were contained in a Skinner box, believe against all historical evidence that their superior ideology will achieve the seamless integration of all disparate ethnic, religious and racial tribes. This cosmic arrogance is today causing the ruin and of what is left of the realm of the last surviving Imperial house of 1914, the house of Windsor.

If history can teach us anything, it should give us pause to fear that we cannot be far behind Windsor.

marking the end of the old order which had been put together at the Congress of Vienna after the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte

As we say farewell to the Greatest Generation WWII vets, no one alive has personal memories of WWI. But it had a profound impact on the world, arguably greater than the impact of WWII. If you want to understand European pacifism and fear of nationalism and misplaced faith in international institutions, study WWI and Europe during the interwar years.

Imagine the consequences if there were irrefutable proof that the Cubans conspired to murder John F. Kennedy.

A similar scenario might have taken place as follows: the US learns that Manuel Piñeiro Losada, head of Cuba's General Intelligence Directorate (DGI)--its version of the KGB--was, beyond a reasonable doubt, behind the Kennedy assassination. However, Fidel Castro did not sanction the deed and claims to know nothing about any DGI involvement. What would the US do?

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