To Arms The First World War


To Arms

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Kosutnjak Park, outside the Serbian capital, Belgrade.

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In May 1914, a Bosnian student, Gavrilo Princip,

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came here with a Browning pistol for some target practice.

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Princip was 19 years old.

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According to his instructor, he was not a very good shot.

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Other students were more confident.

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When Princip missed the target, people would laugh at him.

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That would drive him to tears.

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In the forest he had a chance to get his eye in, shooting at trees.

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His ultimate goal was far more ambitious.

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I am an adherent of the radical anarchist idea,

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which aims at destroying the present system through terrorism.

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In 1914, Princip's wish was granted.

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The First World War began almost by accident. It ended just as strangely.

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In between, it was more destructive than any war had ever been.

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More British, French and Italian soldiers died in the First World War

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than died in the Second.

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It was the first genuinely global conflict,

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fought not just on the fields of France and Flanders,

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but up mountains, across deserts, at sea and in the air.

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The First World War shaped the 20th century,

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it sparked the Russian Revolution,

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it launched America as a world power.

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The fault lines from its failed peace settlement

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led the world to a second terrible war 20 years later,

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then to the Cold War.

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But the ideas the men of 1914 fought for still shape our world today -

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nationalism and democracy, the rule of international law

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and the rights of nations.

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Now, after the collapse of communism,

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the European map resembles the one redrawn by the First World War.

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We live with its unresolved, bitter consequences,

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in the Middle East and the Balkans.

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And it was in the Balkans that it all began nearly 100 years ago.

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At the start of the 20th century, as at its close,

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the Balkans were the most unstable part of Europe.

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Three great empires fought for power and influence -

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the Austro-Hungarian, the Russian and the Ottoman.

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For hundreds of years the Ottoman Turks had the upper hand.

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Serbia, Bosnia, Albania were under their control.

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They built over 80 mosques in Serbian Belgrade,

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but by the 1900s only this one was left.

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Serbia had thrown the Turks out

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and set herself up as an independent Slav kingdom.

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IMAM CHANTS

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But on Serbia's border was an even greater challenge

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to Slav nationalism - the Austro-Hungarian empire.

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The Turks of the South have gone, but new enemies come from the North,

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more fearsome and dangerous than the old.

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They want to take our freedom and our language from us and crush us.

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Gavrilo Princip was born in a poor, mountainous part of Bosnia.

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His house was destroyed in the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

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His initials, carved in 1909, are one of the few signs he ever lived here.

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The year before, control of Bosnia had been wrested from the Turks

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by the Austro-Hungarians - the enemy Princip wanted to destroy.

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His particular target was the heir to the throne, Franz Ferdinand,

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member of the ruling family, the Hapsburgs.

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That extraordinary empire known as the Austrian-Hungarian dual monarchy

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is less an empire or a kingdom or a state

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than the personal property of the Hapsburgs,

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whose hereditary talent for the acquisition of land

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is recorded on the map of Europe today.

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The empire was ruled by Franz Ferdinand's uncle, Franz Josef.

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He sat on two thrones - as Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary.

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By 1914, he'd been in charge for 66 years.

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He'd spent them trying to resist change of any kind.

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Hardly seen out of military uniform,

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he hated the idea of political reform.

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As he told US President Theodore Roosevelt,

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"You see in me the last European monarch of the old school."

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Austria-Hungary was a key part of European security,

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a multinational empire keeping the peace on the borders of the West.

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The capital, Vienna,

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was one of the great cosmopolitan centres of Europe.

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This was the empire that produced Freud and Mahler,

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Schiele, Kafka and Strauss.

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It contained at least ten different nationalities.

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Not just Austrians and Hungarians, but Czechs, Slovaks,

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Poles, Romanians, Italians, Croats and Bosnians.

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A British Foreign Office guide was prepared to work out who was who.

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Teutons - anti-Slav, vigorous...

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Very wooden and hard-headed, shy and suspicious, close-fisted...

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Very tall, big noses...

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Slovaks - ignorant but artistic...

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Ruthenes - savage and ignorant but musical...

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Czechs - energetic, forceful...

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But it was also an empire in a state of constant crisis.

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Poles - all for Polish independence.

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Bosnian Serbs - pro-Yugoslav.

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Italians - anti-Austrian.

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In the empire, only the Hungarians and Austrians had any power,

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and the Hungarians refused to share it with the rest.

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For countries like Serbia,

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Austria-Hungary was the prison of nations,

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a repressive, undemocratic state that ground small peoples under its heel.

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In 1905, there were nationalist demonstrations in Vienna.

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HUBBUB

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GLASS SHATTERS

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In 1912, there was rioting in Budapest.

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By 1914, there'd been ethnic unrest

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in nearly every part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

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Local parliaments were suspended, troops brought in to restore order.

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Austria-Hungary's domestic problems gave opportunities to her enemies.

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BIRDSONG

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Serbia wanted the break-up of the empire.

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She welcomed national unrest, particularly in Croatia and Bosnia.

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Backed by Slav Russia, Serbia saw herself as the only independent hope

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for Slavs living under foreign rule in the Balkans.

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She wanted to unite them into a single south-Slav state - Yugoslavia.

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Dragutin Dimitrijevic was an officer in the Serbian army.

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He opposed any kind of friendship with Austria.

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The blind surrender to Austria's embrace

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was a most shameful betrayal of Serbian traditions.

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I realise that Serbia must in full measure become the leader

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not only of Serbs, but of Yugoslavia.

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Dimitrijevic believed killing kings could bring political change -

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it had worked for him in the past.

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In 1903, he led a palace revolution, killing the old king of Serbia -

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who was too close to Austria for the army's liking

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and installing a new one.

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The crowds expressed enormous joy.

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They stuck flowers and leaves in their caps,

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windows were decorated with banners, flowers, garlands.

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Belgrade was celebrating.

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CHEERING

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The rest of the world was horrified at Serbia's bloody coup.

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Serbia was treated like a rogue state.

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"A nest of revolutionaries," one foreign minister complained.

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Only two countries sent ambassadors to King Peter's coronation -

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Russia, Serbia's greatest ally, and Austria, her greatest enemy.

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Dimitrijevic was also one of the founding members of the Black Hand,

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the secret military society that used terrorism and assassination

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to try and establish Yugoslavia.

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He is said to have sent men

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to murder Austro-Hungarian military leaders and ministers.

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He allegedly tried to kill Emperor Franz Josef.

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One saw him nowhere. Yet one knew he was doing everything.

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By the spring of 1914, Gavrilo Princip was also in Belgrade,

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talking revolution with his friends.

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VIOLIN PLAYS

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Then the young Bosnians heard that Archduke Franz Ferdinand

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would visit Sarajevo in June.

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Here was their chance to match deeds to words.

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Luckily for them,

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their plans reached the ears of Dimitrijevic and the Black Hand.

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Dimitrijevic worked in the Kalemegdan fortress in Belgrade

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as chief of Serbian military intelligence.

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In the spring of 1914, Major Voja Tankosic, also in the Black Hand,

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walked into his office with a question.

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I've got some Bosnian youths pestering me.

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They want to pull off some great deed at any cost.

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They've heard that Franz Ferdinand is coming to Bosnia

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and begged me to let them go there. What do YOU say?

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I've told them they cannot go but they give me no peace.

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Franz Ferdinand was going to Bosnia

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to observe the Austro-Hungarian army's manoeuvres

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in the hills outside Sarajevo.

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As intelligence chief, Dimitrijevic feared these manoeuvres

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were a smoke screen,

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that what Franz Ferdinand really planned was an invasion of Serbia.

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HOOVES RUMBLE

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As leader of the Black Hand,

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he believed anything that destabilised Austria-Hungary

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was good for his beloved Serbia.

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Princip's plan to murder Franz Ferdinand suited him perfectly.

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"Fine," he said. "Let him go."

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Unlike Gavrilo Princip,

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Archduke Franz Ferdinand was an excellent shot.

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One of his castles, Konopischt, in what is now the Czech Republic,

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is full of the evidence.

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By the age of 50, he'd shot 5,000 stags,

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as well as 200,000 other animals, all carefully numbered.

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Anyone who disturbed the Archduke's peace by trespassing on his land,

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as unsuspecting trippers sometimes did on Sundays,

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had to reckon with being shouted at

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by an irascible and almost apoplectic proprietor,

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who threatened to shoot anyone

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who dared set foot in his grounds a second time.

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By 1914, Franz Ferdinand was emperor-in-waiting.

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Everyone knew it couldn't be long before his uncle died.

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Even the official portrait was ready -

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Franz Ferdinand with the stars and sash only the emperor could wear.

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He had no time for the etiquette and convention

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that hemmed in the Vienna court.

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He defied his uncle by marrying Sophie Chotek,

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who was not of royal blood.

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The most intelligent thing I've ever done in my life

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has been the marriage to my Sophe.

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She is everything to me -

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my wife, my adviser, my doctor, my guardian angel.

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In a word, my entire happiness.

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Franz Ferdinand also had radical ideas for political reform.

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He recognised that the less power national minorities had,

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within the empire, the more they'd look to other countries for help.

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The old system allowed ethnic Germans and Hungarians

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to dominate the government.

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It was a system that couldn't last.

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I can't help being surprised

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that there is any loyalty left among the nationalities

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after their treatment for so many years.

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I must have them with me. This is the only salvation for the future.

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In 1914, the German emperor came to stay with Franz Ferdinand

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at Konopischt.

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The Kaiser had a solution for dealing with troublesome national minorities.

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The Slavs are born not to rule but to obey.

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This must be brought home to them.

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If they imagine they can look to Belgrade for their salvation,

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they must be cured of this belief.

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But Franz Ferdinand had a better idea.

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He thought political reform

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was the best way to keep the multinational Austrian Empire

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on its feet and protect his own future as emperor.

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He had this map drawn up,

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showing how the Hapsburg Empire could become

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the United States of Great Austria.

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Above all, Franz Ferdinand wanted to avoid war in the Balkans.

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One night he made a toast after dinner.

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To peace! What would we get out of war with Serbia?

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We'd lose the lives of young men and spend money better used elsewhere.

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What would we gain, for heaven's sake?

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A few plum trees, some pastures full of goat droppings

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and a bunch of rebellious killers.

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Gavrilo Princip crossed from Serbia into Austria-Hungary,

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here at the Drina River.

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He paddled out to Isakovic Island, where there was a Serbian guard post.

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The soldiers helped him wade ashore into Bosnia.

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From here he made his way to Sarajevo,

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where he met up with six others in on the plot.

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The Serbian major, Tankosic, had supplied them with four pistols,

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six bombs, and suicide pills in case of capture.

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They were already in Sarajevo

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when Franz Ferdinand arrived outside the capital on 25th June.

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They planned to attack him three days later

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as he drove from the railway station to the town hall.

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One would be stationed at the first bridge on this road,

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Princip and the others would cover the rest of the route.

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Franz Ferdinand chose the date of his visit badly.

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Sarajevo was decked in flags for the occasion,

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for the 28th June was Serbian National Day -

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a focus for hatred of the Hapsburgs,

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as the Serbian ambassador to Vienna warned.

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This will cause much discontent.

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Some young Serb might put a live round

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rather than a blank in his gun and fire it.

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It might be good if Archduke Franz Ferdinand

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were not to go to Sarajevo.

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But the Austrians laughed off the ambassador's fears.

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On the morning of 28th June,

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Franz Ferdinand and Sophie arrived by train in Sarajevo.

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Despite the warnings, security was light.

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No soldiers lined the streets, just a handful of policemen.

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The royal car was a Graf & Stift tourer.

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At Franz Ferdinand's request,

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it travelled with the top down, very slowly,

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so the crowds could see him and he could see the sights.

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As the procession passed the first bridge,

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the conspirator there threw his bomb.

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Sitting opposite the royal couple was Oskar Potiorek.

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The explosion came immediately after the Archduchess' cry

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to drive on quickly.

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I was sure no damage had been done to our car

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and the Archduke commented very calmly,

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"I've always thought something like this might happen."

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The bomb had bounced off the car,

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exploding behind it and wounding two officers and some onlookers.

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Franz Ferdinand stopped to ask after the casualties,

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before hurrying on to the town hall.

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There, the Mayor of Sarajevo began his welcome speech.

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The Archduke interrupted.

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"Lord Mayor, what is the good of speeches?

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"I come to Sarajevo on a friendly visit

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"and someone throws a bomb at me. This is outrageous!"

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So far the young Bosnians' plans had gone badly wrong -

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Franz Ferdinand was alive, official security was now on high alert.

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Gavrilo Princip turned to go home,

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stopping on the corner of Franz Josef Street to buy a sandwich.

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Then his luck changed.

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Franz Ferdinand had left the town hall.

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He should've been driven along the river,

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travelling too fast to give any other assassins a chance,

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but his driver took a wrong turn, at the corner of Franz Josef Street.

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As the royal car tried to reverse onto the main road,

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Princip came face to face with his target.

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I heard the crack of a pistol shot,

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followed swiftly by another,

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and saw in the same split second a man standing in front of me

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being thrown to the ground by the people around him

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and the shining sabre of a security guard descending on him.

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A stream of blood spurted from

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His Highness's mouth on to my right cheek.

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The Duchess cried out, "In heaven's name, what has happened to you?"

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Then she slid off the seat and lay on the floor of the car.

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I thought she had simply fainted.

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Then I heard His Imperial Highness say,

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"Sopher, Sopher! Don't die! Stay alive for the children!"

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I asked him if he was in great pain.

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He answered me quite distinctly, "It's nothing."

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Franz Ferdinand and Sophie died on the way to hospital.

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WINGS FLAP

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The people of Sarajevo didn't know

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Serbian army officers had secretly sponsored the assassination,

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but they made the same leap the world did -

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that Serbia had as good as pulled the trigger herself.

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The pro-Austrian element in the crowd went wild.

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The excitement of the moment turned into fury against

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everyone and everything Serbian.

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Serbian shops, schools and churches were smashed and looted,

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the streets choked with furniture, clothes, bicycles, books,

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even icons and crosses, twisted and befouled,

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lying in heaps in the gutters.

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Over 200 Serbs were arrested in Sarajevo alone.

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Local officials hanged some in the city prison.

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Many more died in pogroms across Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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The funeral of Franz Ferdinand and Sophie

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was held in Vienna on 4th July.

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Oskar Potiorek had written to the Foreign Ministry,

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calling for Austria-Hungary to take revenge against Serbia.

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We must take the first opportunity for a destructive blow

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against Serbia,

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to give the monarchy a few decades of calm internal development.

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Serbia must learn to fear us again.

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Austro-Hungarian Chief of Staff Conrad von Hotzendorf agreed.

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This is not the crime of a single fanatic,

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assassination represents

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Serbia's declaration of war on Austria-Hungary.

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If we miss this occasion,

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the monarchy will be exposed to new explosions of ethnic unrest.

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Austria-Hungary must wage war, for political reasons.

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In life, the crown prince had been a champion of

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peaceful coexistence with Serbia.

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In death, he was becoming a cause for war.

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The murder of Franz Ferdinand did not immediately set Europe alight,

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international tensions in early July remained low.

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But, in Vienna, Austria-Hungary's leaders were planning

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how to take revenge on Serbia

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without getting stamped on by Serbia's powerful friends.

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Even before the assassination, army Chief of Staff Conrad von Hotzendorf

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had pressed for war against Serbia no fewer than 20 times.

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Now he made his case again.

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I expressed to His Majesty my opinion

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that war with Serbia was unavoidable.

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"That is entirely correct..." said His Majesty,

0:26:160:26:19

"..but how are you going to wage war

0:26:190:26:21

"if everyone, in particular Russia, is going to attack us?"

0:26:210:26:26

"We have backing from Germany," I replied.

0:26:260:26:29

His Majesty gave me a searching look and said,

0:26:290:26:32

"Can you be certain of that?"

0:26:320:26:35

This was the moment when what could have been just another

0:26:350:26:37

war in the Balkans

0:26:370:26:39

began to turn into the First World War.

0:26:390:26:42

Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Josef

0:26:440:26:46

now asked the German Kaiser for support.

0:26:460:26:49

On 6th July, he got the answer he wanted.

0:26:490:26:52

The German government is of the opinion that WE must decide

0:26:520:26:56

what is to be done.

0:26:560:26:57

We may always be certain that we will find Germany at our side,

0:26:570:27:02

a faithful ally and friend of our monarchy.

0:27:020:27:05

Germany's decision to back Austria

0:27:120:27:14

was made with no care for the consequences.

0:27:140:27:17

Neither the Kaiser nor his political and military leaders

0:27:170:27:21

took any steps to find out what Austria-Hungary had in mind.

0:27:210:27:25

It was an extraordinary oversight,

0:27:250:27:28

because nothing in the Balkans happened in isolation.

0:27:280:27:31

Europe was divided into two camps.

0:27:350:27:38

On one side were Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy.

0:27:380:27:42

On the other were France and Russia.

0:27:420:27:45

War with one could mean war with the others.

0:27:470:27:51

No-one knew how Russia would respond

0:27:520:27:54

if one of the leading Balkan countries was attacked.

0:27:540:27:57

She might go to war with Austria to protect Serbia,

0:27:570:28:01

then Germany would have to fight to protect Austria.

0:28:010:28:05

DISPARATE VOICES

0:28:070:28:11

The Germans thought the Russians might stay out of it.

0:28:110:28:14

Germany's ambassador in St Petersburg

0:28:140:28:17

insisted Russia couldn't risk war for fear of internal revolution.

0:28:170:28:20

INDISTINCT CHATTER

0:28:200:28:23

The German foreign minister decided Austria would settle with Serbia.

0:28:230:28:26

INDISTINCT CHATTER

0:28:260:28:29

The German chancellor, Bethmann Hollweg, was almost as confident.

0:28:290:28:33

The crime of Sarajevo was reprehensible,

0:28:330:28:37

but politically it would have the positive results

0:28:370:28:40

of making Russia thoroughly disgusted with the Serbs.

0:28:400:28:43

THEY TALK IN THEIR OWN LANGUAGE

0:28:440:28:48

It was Germany's confident support that pushed Austria forward.

0:28:490:28:54

But far from plunging the world into war in 1914 out of aggression,

0:28:550:28:59

Germany was nudging it closer out of incompetence and wishful thinking.

0:28:590:29:04

The Kaiser was so sure no war was brewing that he went on holiday.

0:29:060:29:11

THEY TALK IN THEIR OWN LANGUAGE

0:29:110:29:14

In Sarajevo, the trial of Gavrilo Princip was under way.

0:29:150:29:19

The court heard evidence to prove Serbian army officers had helped him,

0:29:190:29:24

and with Germany's unconditional support, that was enough for Austria.

0:29:240:29:29

She sentenced Princip to 20 years in jail, where he died in 1918.

0:29:290:29:35

She sent Serbia an ultimatum.

0:29:350:29:37

This document was Austria's excuse for war.

0:29:420:29:46

Its demands were so extreme and insulting,

0:29:460:29:49

Serbia could never accept them.

0:29:490:29:51

But just in case they did, the Austrian ambassador in Belgrade

0:29:520:29:57

was ordered to reject any reply as unacceptable.

0:29:570:29:59

He delivered the ultimatum at 6pm on 23rd July 1914.

0:30:010:30:06

Slavka Mihajlovic was a Belgrade doctor.

0:30:100:30:13

The news of the ultimatum spread quickly

0:30:130:30:15

and soon there was a real alert.

0:30:150:30:18

Streets and bars were crowded with anxious people.

0:30:180:30:21

Everybody wondered what answer our government would give,

0:30:220:30:25

whether a new war would be avoided.

0:30:250:30:27

Austria's ultimatum caught the world's diplomats napping.

0:30:340:30:38

The French government, the French press and public opinion

0:30:380:30:42

have been inconceivably surprised. Paris is almost dead.

0:30:420:30:46

All the ambassadors but one are out of town.

0:30:470:30:50

The Italian ambassador is in Ireland.

0:30:500:30:54

The Kaiser was on his yacht in Norway

0:30:570:30:59

when the text of the Austrian ultimatum arrived.

0:30:590:31:02

DOG BARKS

0:31:040:31:06

The Kaiser arrived on deck as usual after breakfast

0:31:060:31:09

and said to me - I was still holding the wireless message -

0:31:090:31:13

"That's a pretty strong note, for once in a while."

0:31:130:31:16

"It certainly is," I replied, "but it means war."

0:31:160:31:20

Whereupon the Kaiser observed that Serbia would never risk a war.

0:31:200:31:24

She might not have risked it on her own

0:31:270:31:30

but on 24th July the Serbian regent, Prince Alexander,

0:31:300:31:34

telegrammed Russia for help.

0:31:340:31:36

In St Petersburg, the Russian foreign minister

0:31:390:31:41

spoke frankly to the British ambassador.

0:31:410:31:44

Austria would not have acted so aggressively

0:31:440:31:46

without the consent of Germany.

0:31:460:31:48

I hope the British Government

0:31:490:31:51

will declare itself on the side of France and Russia without delay.

0:31:510:31:55

Russia was convinced that Germany was warmongering.

0:31:580:32:01

On 26th July, she called up her reserves.

0:32:020:32:05

This was the second key stage of the crisis,

0:32:080:32:11

as Britain's foreign secretary, Edward Grey, warned on the 28th.

0:32:110:32:16

From the moment the dispute ceases to be one

0:32:160:32:18

between Austria-Hungary and Serbia

0:32:180:32:21

and becomes one in which another great power is involved,

0:32:210:32:24

it cannot but end in the greatest catastrophe

0:32:240:32:27

that has ever befallen the continent of Europe.

0:32:270:32:29

Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia that same day.

0:32:310:32:35

The first shots of the war were fired from here,

0:32:370:32:40

the Austrian fortress of Zemun, just across the river from Belgrade.

0:32:400:32:44

In the dead of night, Major Voya Tankosic

0:32:470:32:49

had the Black Hand blow up the only railway bridge.

0:32:490:32:52

Windows shattered to smithereens

0:32:540:32:56

and broken glass covered the floor.

0:32:560:32:59

Patients started screaming.

0:32:590:33:02

Then there was another explosion and another one.

0:33:020:33:05

SHELLS EXPLODE

0:33:050:33:09

So it was true. The war had begun.

0:33:090:33:13

EXPLOSIONS

0:33:160:33:20

How well our city deserved the name the Turks gave her -

0:33:250:33:28

the House of Wars.

0:33:280:33:30

Shells fired from all sides were crisscrossing above her.

0:33:300:33:33

The Austrians had peculiar weapons, so-called monitors -

0:33:350:33:38

little boats armed with heavy guns circling Belgrade like rabid dogs

0:33:380:33:44

and firing from every direction.

0:33:440:33:46

It was still only a war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia.

0:33:480:33:53

And on 29th July, as the shells fell on Belgrade,

0:33:530:33:57

there was a final attempt to keep it that way -

0:33:570:34:01

a series of last-minute telegrams flashed across Europe,

0:34:010:34:04

Tsar to Kaiser, cousin to cousin.

0:34:040:34:07

Dear Willie,

0:34:070:34:08

An ignoble war has been declared

0:34:080:34:10

on a weak country. The indignation in Russia is enormous...

0:34:100:34:14

Dear Nicky, I am exerting my utmost influence on the Austrians...

0:34:140:34:19

Dear Willie, My troops shall not take any provocative action.

0:34:190:34:23

But by now the crisis was beyond the control of monarchs or politicians.

0:34:240:34:28

It was in the hands of the military.

0:34:280:34:32

From the moment Russia mobilised her army,

0:34:320:34:34

German generals knew their own clock was ticking.

0:34:340:34:37

RHYTHMIC MARCHING

0:34:370:34:40

The French and Russian alliance meant Germany faced a war on two fronts.

0:34:440:34:48

Her only hope was to deal with France

0:34:490:34:52

before the main Russian armies could invade from the East.

0:34:520:34:56

That left no time to wait and see.

0:34:560:34:59

For Germany, Russian mobilisation meant war.

0:34:590:35:01

RHYTHMIC MARCHING

0:35:010:35:05

Germany hadn't looked for a fight.

0:35:080:35:12

Her generals knew a war would be long and devastating,

0:35:120:35:15

even for the victors.

0:35:150:35:17

But, if it was going to happen, they thought, "Better sooner than later."

0:35:170:35:21

RHYTHMIC MARCHING

0:35:210:35:23

According to more competent observation,

0:35:230:35:27

Russia will be prepared to fight in a few years.

0:35:270:35:31

Then she will crush us by the number of her soldiers,

0:35:310:35:34

then she will have built her Baltic sea fleet and strategic railways.

0:35:340:35:38

Our side, meanwhile, will have grown steadily weaker.

0:35:380:35:41

On 1st August, Germany declared war on Russia.

0:35:450:35:49

Two days later she declared war on Russia's ally, France.

0:35:490:35:52

Across Europe, ten million men headed off to fight.

0:35:590:36:03

For all the bands and flag-waving, many went unwillingly to war.

0:36:050:36:09

TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS

0:36:090:36:11

Where are we off to? France? Belgium? Or the East?

0:36:110:36:15

At the station people waved goodbye, some with handkerchiefs.

0:36:160:36:20

I thought of my wife and child, left alone at home.

0:36:200:36:23

Not so much a thought as a fearful shadow flitting over my soul.

0:36:250:36:29

STEAM ENGINE HISSES

0:36:330:36:37

God! How long is this town?

0:36:390:36:42

My bayonet's digging in, my collar's strangling me.

0:36:420:36:46

When I look up I see a pretty girl.

0:36:460:36:48

She is so full of admiration, so moved by it,

0:36:490:36:53

I realise we have to look handsome and walk tall.

0:36:530:36:56

Off we march to the sound of shrill brass,

0:36:560:36:59

although where we're going you die, you're defaced, hacked, torn apart.

0:36:590:37:05

All down the line my comrades straighten up at the sight of her.

0:37:060:37:10

There's great excitement among my comrades.

0:37:170:37:20

Bachelors are calm, even joking about it.

0:37:200:37:23

Family men are depressed. Some say we'll get nothing from this war,

0:37:230:37:27

we'll get beaten by the Germans.

0:37:270:37:29

What's in it for us peasant soldiers?

0:37:300:37:33

Why have we got to fight for some offended Serbs?

0:37:330:37:37

The leaders had little better idea why they were fighting.

0:37:380:37:42

They had no lists of war aims.

0:37:420:37:45

Germany and Austria, Serbia, Russia and France

0:37:450:37:48

were convinced they were fighting a defensive war,

0:37:480:37:50

forced on them by someone else.

0:37:500:37:52

The only great power in Europe still on the sidelines was Britain.

0:37:580:38:03

On 2nd August 1914, Britain was still at peace, but only just.

0:38:090:38:14

We've been in a state of excitement as reservists are called up,

0:38:170:38:22

all the railways guarded.

0:38:220:38:24

Everything points to the Great War, so long expected, being upon us.

0:38:240:38:28

Britain was the only power not to claim she was a victim of aggression.

0:38:310:38:36

Nobody had attacked her, so why should she fight?

0:38:360:38:40

It wasn't to defend the rights of small nations.

0:38:400:38:43

At least, not Serbia, according to The Manchester Guardian.

0:38:430:38:47

If it were possible for Serbia to be towed out to sea

0:38:480:38:51

and sunk there,

0:38:510:38:53

the air of Europe would at once seem cleaner.

0:38:530:38:56

Nor was Britain bound by treaties,

0:38:590:39:01

as the Foreign Secretary, Edward Grey, assured Parliament.

0:39:010:39:05

We are not parties to the Franco-Russian alliance.

0:39:060:39:09

We do not even know the terms of the alliance.

0:39:100:39:13

But in private, Grey and other leaders knew Britain had to fight.

0:39:160:39:21

If Britain stayed neutral,

0:39:220:39:24

the war would still threaten the country's vast empire,

0:39:240:39:28

its global trade and security.

0:39:280:39:30

Britain needed to stay on friendly terms with France and Russia.

0:39:300:39:34

Even in peacetime, she was not powerful enough

0:39:340:39:37

to defend her empire against everyone.

0:39:370:39:40

In Africa and India, the safety of Britain's colonies

0:39:410:39:44

depended on French and Russian goodwill.

0:39:440:39:46

In 1914, Britain feared her friends just as much as her enemies.

0:39:490:39:54

If we fail Russia, we cannot hope to maintain her cooperation in Asia

0:39:560:40:02

that is of such vital importance to us.

0:40:020:40:06

Britain could not afford Europe dominated by a triumphant Germany.

0:40:060:40:12

If Germany overran the Channel ports,

0:40:120:40:14

Britain's control of the seas would be under threat.

0:40:140:40:17

Prime Minister Herbert Asquith took a pragmatic view.

0:40:190:40:22

It is quite against British interests

0:40:220:40:25

that France should be wiped out.

0:40:250:40:28

At 11pm on 4th August, Britain declared war on Germany.

0:40:300:40:34

It was like the pulling of a lever,

0:40:340:40:37

hurling millions to their doom.

0:40:370:40:40

The deep notes of Big Ben rang out into the night -

0:40:400:40:42

the first strokes in Britain's most fateful hour

0:40:420:40:45

since she arose out of the deep.

0:40:450:40:48

Every face was suddenly contracted into a painful intensity.

0:40:480:40:52

BELL TOLLS

0:40:540:40:55

It's horrible to think of the suffering that follows mobilisation.

0:40:560:40:59

I suppose the less one thinks of it, the better.

0:41:000:41:05

We never talk of death and very seldom think about it.

0:41:060:41:09

It's when everyone is asleep and you are awake

0:41:090:41:12

that sometimes you look into the future and wonder.

0:41:120:41:15

The British Government's War Book

0:41:180:41:20

listed all that had to be done in an emergency.

0:41:200:41:24

The country's leaders knew war would be a long, painful struggle,

0:41:240:41:27

a slow, grinding process of blockade, of starving the enemy out.

0:41:270:41:32

But most civilians had no idea what they were getting into.

0:41:360:41:40

Across Europe, there was a run on the banks.

0:41:400:41:42

"The war couldn't last longer than a year..."

0:41:440:41:46

the French finance minister told a British general.

0:41:460:41:49

"..because the money to pay for it will run out."

0:41:490:41:52

HUBBUB

0:41:520:41:55

Most people expected Britain, with the largest navy in the world,

0:41:590:42:03

to fight a sea war.

0:42:030:42:05

The Foreign Secretary reassured the nation.

0:42:070:42:11

For us, with a fleet we believe able to protect our commerce,

0:42:120:42:16

to protect our shores and to protect our interests,

0:42:160:42:20

if we are engaged in war,

0:42:200:42:22

we shall suffer but little more than we shall suffer if we stand aside.

0:42:220:42:26

HUBBUB

0:42:260:42:30

Bert Fielder was a sergeant in the Royal Marines.

0:42:330:42:37

He reassured his wife.

0:42:370:42:39

My dear Nell,

0:42:390:42:41

I don't think this war is going to be half as bad

0:42:410:42:43

as people expect it to be.

0:42:430:42:45

You see, it's not a hard job for England

0:42:450:42:47

so there's no need to worry yourself.

0:42:470:42:49

As long as I can keep you informed as to where I am

0:42:490:42:52

it'll all be all right.

0:42:520:42:54

But the weapons with which the world went to war were so new

0:42:580:43:02

that few had ever been fired in anger.

0:43:020:43:05

Countries had battleships and submarines less then ten years old.

0:43:050:43:09

Nobody really knew how to use them.

0:43:090:43:12

All the European powers had stockpiled new artillery -

0:43:140:43:17

machine guns, explosive shells.

0:43:170:43:20

But none had fought a major war in Europe for over 40 years.

0:43:200:43:25

HORSE WHINNIES

0:43:250:43:28

The crisis had begun in the Balkans.

0:43:290:43:32

As the Austrians faced up to the Serbs,

0:43:320:43:35

the war started here as it would go on everywhere else -

0:43:350:43:39

a war in which old scores would be settled

0:43:390:43:42

and the rule book thrown away.

0:43:420:43:44

The war is taking us into a country inhabited by a population

0:43:490:43:53

inspired with fanatical hatred towards ourselves.

0:43:530:43:57

An attitude of extreme severity, extreme harshness and distrust

0:43:570:44:02

is to be observed towards everybody.

0:44:020:44:05

In some sectors, Serbian civilians did fight a guerrilla war,

0:44:070:44:11

not in uniform, not in the regular army.

0:44:110:44:15

It was hard for the Austrians to tell who was a real enemy, who was not.

0:44:150:44:21

But their reprisals against the Serbian people were vicious.

0:44:210:44:25

This was a war of nationalities and races.

0:44:300:44:34

Not just against an enemy army, but against whole peoples.

0:44:340:44:39

In the first month of the war,

0:44:410:44:44

4,000 civilians in western Serbia were killed or disappeared.

0:44:440:44:47

They burnt houses down, looted, raped, killed.

0:44:500:44:54

17 people, all women, girls, children tied with rope,

0:44:550:45:00

dead in a ditch by the road.

0:45:000:45:02

All of them slaughtered.

0:45:020:45:04

At 9am I went to Lezhnitsa to get some supplies for the battery.

0:45:090:45:12

In the town you could see the atrocities left by the enemy.

0:45:130:45:16

Ten people, some children among them,

0:45:230:45:25

had been hanged near the church.

0:45:250:45:27

About 100 people, their throats cut, at the railway station.

0:45:270:45:30

A terrible sight to cast your eyes on.

0:45:300:45:33

BIRDSONG

0:45:330:45:37

At the Serbian town of Prnjavor, this memorial commemorates

0:45:410:45:45

those who died.

0:45:450:45:47

The Serbian government commissioned a report into the massacres

0:45:500:45:54

by Swiss doctor, Rodolphe Reiss.

0:45:540:45:56

The massacres of the civil population

0:45:560:45:58

were systematically organised by the command of the invading army.

0:45:580:46:03

It's upon the command that all responsibility must rest,

0:46:030:46:07

and also the disgrace

0:46:070:46:08

with which this army has covered itself for all time.

0:46:080:46:12

Austria-Hungary was far less ruthless when fighting the Serbian army.

0:46:220:46:27

That, too, set a pattern for the war, a foretaste of the military weakness

0:46:270:46:33

which dogged Austria-Hungary's partnership with Germany.

0:46:330:46:37

This was a war in which events on one front

0:46:370:46:39

could have a critical effect on another.

0:46:390:46:42

RHYTHMIC MARCHING

0:46:420:46:46

Germany was relying on her ally, Austria-Hungary,

0:46:490:46:51

to hold the eastern front.

0:46:510:46:53

With Russia massing on her borders,

0:46:540:46:56

Germany was horrified to learn Austria had concentrated her reserves

0:46:560:47:01

down in the Balkans, to deal with Serbia.

0:47:010:47:04

Meanwhile, the main Serbian army had marched up from the south,

0:47:060:47:10

gathering numbers as it went.

0:47:100:47:13

On 12th August, it finally met the Austrians, at Cer mountain.

0:47:130:47:17

The Serbs had taken up defensive positions along the mountain range

0:47:210:47:26

and waited for the Austrians to walk into the trap.

0:47:260:47:30

The Serbs surrounded us.

0:47:300:47:32

The Serbian artillery had the range perfectly.

0:47:320:47:35

Unluckily, we were told by officers,

0:47:350:47:38

we had arrived at the Serbian artillery practice area.

0:47:380:47:42

Laughable!

0:47:420:47:44

SHELLS EXPLODE

0:47:440:47:47

The Serbs easily beat off the Austro-Hungarian attack.

0:47:470:47:51

We could see the enemy retreating along the river.

0:47:510:47:55

Their ammunition train left their carts in the valley

0:47:550:47:57

and ran away when they were hit by our artillery.

0:47:570:48:00

A beaten army? No.

0:48:010:48:05

An uncontrolled mob ran towards the border in senseless panic.

0:48:050:48:08

Drivers whipped their horses. Officers and soldiers

0:48:080:48:11

shoved and squeezed through between the columns of wagons.

0:48:110:48:14

Austro-Hungarian prisoners were captured in the first allied victory.

0:48:240:48:30

Austria had thought Serbia would be a pushover,

0:48:300:48:33

swift revenge for Franz Ferdinand's murder,

0:48:330:48:36

but Serbia had scattered the Austrian army.

0:48:360:48:39

The victories of 1914 cost Serbia 130,000 men.

0:48:440:48:48

"They did not die in vain" reads this inscription to Serbia's dead.

0:48:490:48:55

Every nation would learn that nothing in this war would be easy,

0:48:550:48:58

quick or clean.

0:48:580:48:59

On the western front, a French ambulance driver wrote to his son -

0:49:030:49:08

Do you ever think of your daddy,

0:49:080:49:10

walking day and night over ploughed fields

0:49:100:49:12

and getting very used to shells exploding all over the place?

0:49:120:49:16

I'd really like to hear from you.

0:49:160:49:18

How's school? Don't be too quick to learn the geography of Europe,

0:49:180:49:23

I think it's all about to change.

0:49:230:49:25

In the next episode of The First World War,

0:49:340:49:36

German armies roll into Belgium and France,

0:49:360:49:39

leaving a trail of atrocities.

0:49:390:49:41

And France, aided by Britain, fights for her life.

0:49:410:49:44

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