Posted on 05/17/2024 8:21:41 PM PDT by RandFan
I always remember from history class that WW1 started for some sad reason (the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand). I always thought how stupid / futile it was considering what it led to.
Yet here we are with the Slovak PM assassination attempt.
Gavrilo Princip (Serbian Cyrillic: Гаврило Принцип, pronounced [ɡǎʋrilo prǐntsip]; 25 July 1894 – 28 April 1918) was a Bosnian Serb student who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife Sophie, Duchess von Hohenberg, in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. The killing of the Archduke and his wife set off the July Crisis, a chain of events that within one month led to the outbreak of World War I.
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The Democrats controlled Congress in 1992. He could have proposed it. But more likely, it would have gone nowhere.
Plus Foggy Bottom wanted to rub the Russians noses in it.
It was the assassination of the hier to an important throne, nit the attempted assassination of the head of government of a minor state
For reference...just an odd part of this story...Crown-Prince Ferdinand was actually the 3rd Crown-Prince and was not supposed to be in line for the King’s job.
Crown-Prince number one...Rudoph was set to be the guy, and was actually married. Somewhere around 1887, he got tangled up in a sexed-up relationship with a 17-year-old Baroness and was overly consumed with her. About a year into this relationship...his handlers told him to drop it. He couldn’t. He ended up at some hunting lodge...with the lover...and both committed suicide.
Set to be next king was Karl Ludwig, but he ended up with Typhoid Fever, and died.
So Ferdinand was stuck with the job. Interesting thing about him....from his teens, he was consumed with passion for hunting. He probably averaged 300 days a year on hunts throughout Europe. I doubt if you could find anyone in Europe who was more capable with a rifle than this guy.
IMHO Austrian Intelligence knew about the assassination plot and (for reasons of their own) decided not to just ignore it, but to actively help, by printing the Archduke’s route in the paper and ensuring there was only a skeleton police force on duty.
Would this happen to be an Op-Ed by a world leader?
“That war was a fire looking for a spark. The assassination was an excuse, not the cause.”
Yep. The Austrians deliberately made the terms too onerous for Serbia to accept. They wanted war with Serbia. They didn’t expect Russia to act. That pulled in France and Germany and it was on.
Good point. Recall when Germany and others in the EU wanted their own military? They were having a fit because Trump, the Great, wanted everyone to pay up.
Then Germany discovered that they didn’t have any men...so then floated the concept of allowing non Europeans to join up. LOL
That bit of brilliance soon faded.
This
Bismarkian alliance juggling did not allow for the fragility of human ego reason and emotion being triggered by what should have been a minor diplomatic crisis into a deadly conflict between alliances
Yup, and WW2 started when a crazy leader said he wanted to protect his people in another country, regain historic lands and then using that pretext, invaded a neighboring country.
Imagine, that happening today.
The continent of Europe is in a constant state of war.
Better for us to stay out of it.
Thomas Jefferson
The continent of europe was at war when Jesus Christ was born. It will still be at war when our great grandchildren are old and grey.
Better for us to stay out of it
A squabble between the grand children of Queen Victoria. It caused a world war.
WW2 was a continuation of WW1, smoldering German historic ambition and resentment rekindled by the humiliation heaped on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles
The Kaiser even wrote a letter to Czar Nicky begging him to hold off on the Russian mobilization.
But too many German generals were of the mindset that Russia was modernizing the point, that it was a case of “Now or Never”, and forced the Kaiser’s hand.
This kicked off due to the Kaiser of Germany giving Austria a blank check to do what ever they wanted before heading out on a 4 month cruise.
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