The Serbs

It was never a surprise that trouble had broken out in the southeastern corner of Europe. And that the Serbs were right in the middle of it. The Balkan Peninsula was the most unstable region in Europe in 1914. A big mess of ill-defined small nations. It had violently shifting borders and a huge intermingled ethnic groups who hated each other and felt they had a right to expand.

The trouble in Europe ran deep. Two millennium ago there was a line that divided the Eastern and Western Roman Empires. This line runs right through Balkan and this line line divides the Catholic and the Orthodux to this day.

Now after the Turks' forced there way into Europe, the Balkans became the home of Europe's only Mulsim population. The point where European Christendon ends and Islam begins, but the Balkans was nothing more than a prize being fought over by Muslim Turkey, Catholic Austria, and Orthodux Russia.

Now the Serbs had been part of a wave of so called South Slav(Yugoslavs) that moved into the Balkan region during the 7th century. In the centuries that followed the Serbs built a miniature empire under their own Tsar. For a time it was uncertain wether all the Serbs would be Orthodux or some would be Roman Catholic. Eventually they settled into the Orthodux faith.

From the late middle ages in the aftermath of their defeat at Kosovo, the Serbs were trapped inside the empire of the Ottoman Turks. In 1829 a Russia victory over the increasingly incompetent and helpless Turks,made possible the emergence of a new principality that was, if almost invisibly tiny, the 1st Serbian state in almost half a millennium and a rallying point for Serbia nationlism.

In the 1870's another Russia-Turkish war broke out. This time with Serbia fighting on the side of Russia and gaining more territory. Now there was once again a kingdom of Serbia, a rugged mountainous, and a landlocked little country surrounded by the whole boiling ethnic stew of the Balkans.

Despite the inconvenient fact that the Serbs were only a minority of the Bosnia population, the incorporation of Bosnia into an Orthodux and Slav Greater Serbia became an integral part of the Serbs' national dream.

As the years passed, trouble erupted with increasing frequency, and sometimes with shocky brutality. At the start of the 20th century Serbia had a king and queen who were friendly to Hapsburg Vienna. In 1903 a group of disgruntled army officers staged a coop, they shot the royal pair to death and replaced them with a dynasty loyal to Russia.

In 1908 Austria-Hungary enraged Serbia by annexing Bosnia and the adjacent little district of Herzegovina permanently making them povinces of Hapburg Empire. Serbia turned to Russia for help, but because of the 1905 war with Japan, they where unable to do anything to support the Serbs.

In 1911 the same people who killed the royal family formed the group The Black Hand. In 1912 the 1st Balkan War broke out and of course Serbia joined with several of its neighbors to drive out the Turks. This helped double the kindoms size and raise its population.

In the 2nd Balkan war. Serbia defeated its neighbor and one time ally Bulgarier, and expanded the Serbia Kingdom once again. But had to withdrawal and give up the land when the Austrians threatened to invade. With no support from Russia, France seen an opportunity and started providing money, arms and training to the Serbs. France was hoping to make the Serb army strong enough to fight a war with Austro-Hungarian, so France, Russia and Britain could take on Germany by themselves.

Now to what extent did the government of Serbia know in advance of the plot to kill Franz Ferdinand? To what extent could Belgrade therefore be held responsible? That answer is neither clear or simple. Prime Minister Nikola Pasic did hear about the plots weeks before the shooting and disapproved. He put out the word that the plot should be called off. On the other hand, Serbian officialdom was not entirely innocent.

The leader of the Black Hand was country's chief of military intelligence, one Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijevic. He was the mastermind behind the strategy that led Serbias successes in the Balkan wars. Now in 1914 he was the mastermind behind the plot to kill Franz Ferdinand. There is no evidence that Prime Minister Pasic or his cabinet was involved.

But Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijevic, The Black Hand, and the military saw Pasic as an obstacle. The Colonel wanted war and the Minister didn't. So in June 1914 the generals forced Pasic out of office. He was immediately put back in office at the insistence of the Russians and French, who regarded him as sane and sensible. This of course was a defeat for Colonel Dimitrijevic, so he seen the assassination of Franz Ferdinand as a way of causing the fall of Prime Ministers Pasic's government. Hoping it would lead to war. Pasic new that Serbia was in no shape to go to war physically or financially. Russia was still in no shape to help or support.

Some ask why didn't Prime Minister Pasic stop the assassination? He did by putting himself  at risk, by sending an order that the 3 assassins needed to be stopped before they crossed the border into Bosnia. but he had been to late, they had already crossed into Bosnia. So he directed his abvassador in Vienna to deliver the warning, but the ambassador was a Serb nationalists, so he never went to great lengths to get the message to the right people. Pasic never knew that his message had been diluted, and there was nothing more he could do.

Serbia was in the midst of election and Pasic didn't want to muddy the waters for his re-election by becoming the enemy to any high officials. But by this point the assassins was the only ones who could stop the killing. The Black Hand committee wanted the assassination called off. The Colonel told the assassins not to kill Franz but it fell on deaf ear. The Colonel and Black Hand had lost control of the situation. So on June 28, 1914 Franz Ferdinand was assassinated.