World War I Begins: The Austro-Hungarian Ultimatum

Kaiser Wilhelm I

Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany was a long time friend and supporter of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, so it's probably not surprising he'd be shocked and angered at the assassination which took place in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. Nearly immediately he offered support to Austria-Hungary in the effort to destroy the Black Hand and those who aided in the plot against the Archduke, by which he meant Serbia. But, in this moment of angst, Wilhelm allowed himself to be persuaded to go on his annual cruse of the North Sea and he departed Berlin on July 6th. Once shipboard the Kaiser attempted to manage affairs by telegram, hurriedly returning to Berlin on the 28th of July when the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum was delivered.

The ultimatum that Austria-Hungary delivered to Serbia was intended to be untenable, a list of demands that the Serbian leadership never could stomach. The list of conditions went as follows:

1. Serbia would formally and publicly denounce the "dangerous propaganda" against Austria-Hungary and Belgrade should "suppress by every means this criminal and terrorist propaganda."
2. Suppress all publications which "incite hatred and contempt of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy" and are "directed against its territorial integrity", which essentially meant self-rule.
3. Dissolve the Serbian nationalist organization Narodna Odbrana (The People's Defense) and all other such societies in Serbia.
4. Immediately eliminate anything deemed  "propaganda against Austria-Hungary" from all school books and public documents.
5. Remove a list of officers and functionaries from the Serbian military and civil administration, the list to be provided by the Austro-Hungarian Government.
6. Install Austro-Hungarian agents within Serbia whose responsibility was the "suppression of subversive movements".
7. Try all accessories to the Archduke's assassination and allow "Austro-Hungarian delegates" to take part in the investigations.
8. Arrest Major Vojislav Tankosić and civil servant Milan Ciganović who had been named by the captured assassins as participants in the plot against the Archduke.
9. End the cooperation of Serbian authorities in the "traffic in arms and explosives across the frontier" and dismiss and punish officials in the Šabac and Loznica frontier service who Austria-Hungary deemed "guilty of having assisted the perpetrators of the Sarajevo crime".
10. Provide "explanations" to the Austro-Hungarian Government regarding "Serbian officials" who have expressed themselves in interviews "in terms of hostility to the Austro-Hungarian Government".
11. Notify the Austro-Hungarian Government "without delay" of the execution of the measures comprised in the ultimatum.

Wilhelm's reaction was enthusiastic:

"A brilliant solution—and in barely 48 hours! This is more than could have been expected. A great moral victory for Vienna; but with it every pretext for war falls to the ground, and Giesl had better have stayed quietly at Belgrade. On this document, I should never have given orders for mobilization."

What the Kaiser didn't know was that by the time he penned his endorsement of the ultimatum, the 84 year old Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary had already signed a declaration of war against Serbia and Russia had began mobilizing her troops to attack Austria in defense of the Serbians.

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.