100 Years Ago: The Seeds of World War I

It's hard to imagine how a war begins. In our modern,  war against ism of your choice era, we tend to think in terms of presidential decree. There's a speech, debate that's squelched by accusations that those who question the cause lack morality and/or patriotism, and then the bombing by remote control and 24-hour news channel spin begins. We seldom understand the underlying currents, the whys of war are too shrouded in nationalism and our biases toward what our culture defines as right or good often make it impossible to comprehend the real causes for armed conflict.

Almost 100 years before the events which would culminate in the first world war, the European powers had established an agreement to balance power and international order at the Congress of Vienna. The peace that agreement fostered ushered in an era of tranquility and prosperity the likes of which had seldom been seen on the continent, however by 1914 the underpinnings of the Vienna agreement had began to erode.

The Ottoman Empire, weakened by economic and political setbacks, began withdrawing from continental Europe leaving peace and order in the region in the hands of two competing powers: Russia and Austria-Hungary. The Austro-Hungarian minority attempted to impose their will on a larger and restless population of Slavs and amid growing unrest Emperor Franz Joseph declared Bosnia-Herzegovina a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1908. This decision violated the Berlin Treaty of 1878 and served to further incite the Slavic peoples and the Russian czar.

In wars in 1912 and 1913, Serbia doubled its territory, increasing the threat to Austro-Hungarian regional supremacy. At the same time Russia entered into a treaty with France (over lands seized by Germany in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War (1870 - 71)) and Great Britain (which feared the growth of Germany's navy represented a threat to traditional British naval dominance). Germany allied herself with Austria-Hungary against the threats of Russia, France, and Britain and the fuse of the Great War had been strung, all that was required was a spark and there was no shortage of men with matches at the ready.

By 1913 Danilo Ilić,  a Bosnian Orthodox Serb school teacher and banker, had become the leader of the Sarajevo cell of the Serbian guerrilla movement known as the Black Hand.  In late 1913 the order came to end the Black Hand's phase of organization and move toward revolution against Austria-Hungary. In January of 1914, at a Black Hand meeting in Toulouse, France, a list of possible Austro-Hungarian assassination targets were discussed, including Arch-Duke Franz Ferdinand however the participants decided on the Governor of Bosnia, Oskar Potiorek as their target and dispatched carpenter and impoverished former Herzegovinian nobleman Muhamed Mehmedbašić to carry out the assassination.

En route to Bosnia-Herzegovina from France, however, Mehmedbašić's train was stopped by police. Thinking the police might have been alerted to his mission, he threw the dagger and bottle of poison he'd brought for the purpose of carrying out the killing out the train window. When Mehmedbašić arrived in Bosnia-Herzegovina he began looking for replacement weapons.