The First World War was an unprecedented catastrophe that killed millions and set the continent of Europe on the path to further cataclysm two decades after . But it did n’t come out of nowhere . With the centenary of the outbreak of hostilities come up in August , Erik Sass will be looking back at the booster cable - up to the war , when seemingly venial moments of detrition accumulate until the office was quick to explode . He ’ll be shroud those events 100 years after they go on . This is the 116th instalment in the series .
May 7 - 8, 1914: Assassins Prepare Amid Rumors of Serbian Coup
The Serbian army ’s show ofdefianceagainst its supposed civilian headmaster in April 1914 was the catalyst for a coup effort organized by the head of military intelligence agency , Dragutin Dimitrijević ( codenameApis , also the point of Crna Ruka , “ Unity or Death , ” otherwise known as the Black Hand — top row , left ) against the regime of Nikola Pašić . In May , the conspiracy gathered momentum , as the mutinous mood diffuse and the Black Hand newspaperPijemontwarned “ crashing clashes between the regular army and police can be expect any minute . ”
The growing tension did n’t escape the card of foreign beholder . On May 7 , 1914 , the French ambassador to Serbia , Léon Descos , reported signs of protest as well as the government ’s endeavor to sick Dimitrijević ’s supporters through forced retirement , which only made the officers angrier : “ The officers are in a ferment and hold meeting ; the police force keep them under observation and this irritates them . There are declaration of several resignations and placings on the sack out list among the high-pitched commands in the army . The army newspaper Pijemont … reckon fresh turmoil . ”
Austria - Hungary was understandably alarmed by the prospect of ultranationalist army military officer seizing power in Serbia ; while no great fans of Pašić , Foreign Minister Berchtold and chief of the cosmopolitan faculty Conrad at least recognized that he was temperate compare to certain elements in the Serbian war machine . On May 8 , 1914 , the Austrian ambassador to Belgrade , Baron von Giesl , account :
In fact , that is more or less what happened : Ultimately , Dimitrijević ’s coup attempt failed because King Peter move to assuage the officers by storm Pašić and his cabinet to resign in early June 1914 . This trip new election , leaving Serbia without an prescribed authorities in the disastrous calendar month of July 1914 .
Of course , even before the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand the fall of the Serbian administration was nothing for Vienna to celebrate , as Giesl warn that no matter what happened , “ the influence element in Serbia , the United States Army , is filled with Yugoslavian ultranationalism and detest for Austria - Hungary and will ram a nationalist - chauvinistic and anti - Austrian preconception upon the policy of whatever Government there may be . ” In short , Serbia would rest a thorn in the side of the Dual Monarchy no matter who was in charge .
Plotters Train in Belgrade
In May 1914 , three conspiratorsrecruitedby the Black Hand — Gavrilo Princip ( bottom words , left ) , Nedeljko Čabrinović ( bottom row , substance ) , and Trifun Grabež ( bottom row , right)—started preparing for the assassination of the Archduke , who was scheduled to shoot the breeze Sarajevo , the provincial cap of Bosnia , after observing Austria - Hungary ’s annual military maneuvers in previous June .
The aspire assassins , all then rest in the Serbian majuscule Belgrade , were provided with arm and breeding by Milan Ciganović ( top course , veracious ) , an employee of the Serbian province railways , and companion of Major Vojislav Tankosić ( top row , center ) , who in turn was Dimitrijević ’s right - hand man in the Black Hand . At Tankosić ’s order Ciganović , a stager of the Balkan Wars , take the plotter to Topčider Park , a quiet , wooded area in Belgrade , for target practice , where Princip soon identify himself as the full shot .
finally Tankosić and Ciganović supply the assassins with six grenade , four pistol , a single-valued function of Bosnia , nitril pills ( to pull suicide if they were about to be caught ) , and some money . They also arranged for them to be smuggled across the border into Bosnia by Black Hand extremity who were dish as officer of the frontier sentry duty ; the assassin would start the journey to Sarajevo in late May .
Meanwhile , the Archduke was evidently cause second opinion about the sojourn to Bosnia : Around this sentence , his personal writing table recalled that Franz Ferdinand gnarl that he “ would have much preferred it if the Emperor had entrusted the commission to someone else . ” In fact the Archduke repeatedly tried to get his uncle , the Emperor Franz Josef to invalidate the visit , but to no help — and then he began having forewarning .
In early May , he told his nephew Karl ( who would become the last emperor of Austria - Hungary in 1916 ): “ I recognize I shall before long be murdered . In this desk are paper that concern you . When that happens , take them , they are for you . ” Not long after , his dear wife Sophie , also distressed about the visit to Bosnia , told her Quaker and fellow outcast from royal club , the Countess Larisch : “ It is a dangerous task , and I will not leave the Archduke to face it alone . ”
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