The First World War

Chapter 3, “The Crisis of 1914,” recounts the events that ultimately led to the outbreak of war. Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, traveled to Bosnia to attend military maneuvers. Ferdinand ignored warnings that his presence would anger Serbian nationalists seeking to free their ethnic brethren from Austrian rule, and when his driver took a wrong turn, they were ambushed by a young Bosnian Serb named Gavrilo Princip, who shot and killed the archduke and his wife. Princip and his comrades had operated across the Serbian border, feeding suspicions the Serbian government was complicit in the plot. The Austro-Hungarian empire was profoundly concerned with unrest in its Slav provinces, and Serbia had long sought to promote that unrest for its own benefit. Austrian diplomats informed their ally Germany that Vienna would issue an ultimatum to Serbia with the threat of force, and they wanted German support. Had Austria acted alone, it may not have precipitated a continental war, but Austria feared acting alone would leave it vulnerable to Russian pressure. By bringing in Germany against Russia, France was then compelled to act against Germany.

The Austrian emperor and Hungarian prime minister were reluctant to go to war, as even success could further destabilize their fragile multinational empire.