defense.gov remembers WWI 100 years ago

25: news.pol/purges/wwIII/
defense.gov remembers WWI 100 years ago:
"One day the great European War will come out of
some damned foolish thing in the Balkans."
This prophecy came in 1888,
from German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck,
and On June 28, 1914, the excuse for WWI happened
with the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne,
while visiting Sarajevo, the capital of the
Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia-Herzegovina
and a center of unrest against foreign rule.
. it lead to the downfall of the Ottoman Empire
which sowed the seeds of the current troubles
in the Middle East .
Austria-Hungary was a multinational empire:
The Dual Monarchy, as it was also known,
covers land now occupied by 13 countries.
The empire's citizens came from multiple ethnic groups
and spoke scores of languages;
therefore the empire often was pulled in different directions.
The Russian Empire supported the protests of
the Slav minorities inside Austria-Hungary
and saw itself as a protector of
Orthodox Christians inside Austria-Hungary.

[ the assassination was either quite lucky
or the driver was part of a conspiracy: ]
when one assassination failed,
the driver took a wrong turn right into
[ "Serbian nationalist" Gavrilo Princip:
his motivation?

if there was one thing he did not care about,
it was protecting Serbia's independence:
he was actually defending Bosnia,
occupied by the empire since 1878;
he was a member of the "Young Bosnia" students group,
and hoped to complete the work of his grandfather
(executed as a rebel by Austrians in 1881),
and his revolutionary hero Bogdan Zerajic,
(killed trying to assassinate an Austrian governor).]

Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914.
Russia responded July 29 by ordering mobilization,
and Germany followed by mobilizing on July 30.
France was Russia's ally,
and Germany's path to France involved invading Belgium,
which was allied with Great Britain .
The United States declared war on Germany
later, in April 1917.

The war led to the downfall of the German and Russian Empires
and from their ashes rose the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.
. it also lead to the downfall of the Ottoman Empire
which sowed the seeds of the current troubles
in the Middle East .