There were labor troubles and strikes, also, in England, and threatened revolutions in India, where the English government was none too popular. Altogether, the German war lords felt sure that England had so many troubles of her own that she would never dare to enter a general European war.
Meanwhile, the Serbians, unhappy over the loss of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Austria, were busily stirring up the people of these provinces to revolt. The military leaders who really ruled Austria, were in favor of crushing these attempted uprisings with an iron hand.
One of the leaders of this party, a man who was greatly hated by the Bosnians, was the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, nephew of the emperor and heir to the throne. He finally announced that he was going in person to Sarajevo (sä rä yĕ′vō) in Bosnia to look into the situation himself. The people of the city warned him not to come, saying that his life would be in danger, as he was so hated. Being a headstrong man of violent temper, he refused to listen to this advice, but insisted on going. His devoted wife, after doing her best to dissuade him, finally refused to let him go without her.
When it was known that he was really coming, the Bosnian revolutionists laid their plans. They found out just where his carriage was to pass, and at almost every street corner, they had some assassin with bomb or pistol. One bomb was thrown at him, but it exploded too soon, and he escaped. Bursting with indignation, he was threatening the mayor for his lax policing, when a second assassin, a nineteen year old boy, stepped up with a pistol and shot to death the archduke and his wife.
Many people have referred to this incident as the cause of the great European war. As you have been shown, however, this was simply the spark that exploded the magazine. With the whole situation as highly charged as it was, any other little spark would have been enough to set the war a-going.
The Austrian government sent word to Serbia that the crime had been traced to Serbian plotters, some of them in the employ of the government. It demanded that Serbia apologize; also that she hunt out and punish the plotters at once. And because Austria did not trust the Serbians to hold an honest investigation, she demanded that her officers should sit in the Serbian courts as judges.
Imagine a Japanese killed in San Francisco, and think what the United States would say if the Tokio government insisted that a Japanese judge be sent to California to try the case because Japan could not trust America to give her justice! The Serbians, of course, were in no position to fight a great power like Austria-Hungary, and yet, weakened as they were, they could not submit to such a demand as this. They agreed to all the Austrian demands except the one concerning the Austrian judges in Serbian courts. They appealed to the other powers to see that justice was done them.
Russia growled ominously at Austria, whereupon Germany sent a sharp warning to Russia that this was none of her affair, and that Austria and Serbia must be left to fight it out. In the meantime, Serbia offered to lay the matter before the court of arbitration at the Hague. (In 1899, at the invitation of the czar of Russia, representatives of all the great powers of Europe met at the Hague to found a lasting court which should decide disputes between nations fairly, and try to do away with wars, to as great an extent as possible. The court has several times been successful in averting trouble.)
Great Britain proposed that the dispute between Austria and Serbia should be judged by a court composed of representatives of France, England, Italy, and Germany. Austria’s reply to the proposals of England and Serbia was a notice to the latter country that she had just forty-eight hours in which to give in completely to the Austrian demands. In the mean-time, Mr. Sazanoff, the Russian minister of foreign affairs, was vainly pleading with England to declare what she would do in case the Triple Alliance started a war with France and Russia.
Kings and ministers telegraphed frantically, trying to prevent the threatened conflict. The story was sent out by Germany that Russia was gathering her troops, mobilizing them, as it is called. As Russia has so much more territory to draw from than any other country, and as her railroads are not many and are poorly served, it was figured that it would be six weeks before the Russian army would be ready to fight anybody. Germany, on the other hand, with her wonderful system of government-owned railroads, and the machine-like organization of her army, could launch her forces across the frontier at two days’ notice. As soon as the Germans began to hear that the Russians were mobilizing their troops against Austria, Germany set in motion the rapid machinery for gathering her own army. She sent a sharp message to Russia, warning the latter that she must instantly stop mobilizing or Germany would declare war. Next the Germans asked France what she intended to do in case Germany and Austria declared war on Russia. France replied that she would act in accordance with what seemed to be her best interests. This answer did not seem very reassuring, and without any declaration of war, the German army rushed for the French frontier.