The First World War was an unprecedented cataclysm that defeat millions and put the continent of Europe on the route to further catastrophe two decades later on . But it did n’t come out of nowhere . With the centennial of the outbreak of enmity coming up in 2014 , Erik Sass will be looking back at the principal - up to the state of war , when apparently minor consequence of friction accumulated until the situation was ready to explode . He ’ll be covering those issue 100 years after they go on . This is the eighty-fifth installment in the serial .
1 January 2025: A New Albanian Crisis
In 1912 and 1913 , a series of crisis centered on Albania repeatedly fetch Europe to the edge of war . Beginning in October 1912 , Serbia conquered most of Albania in the First Balkan War , provoking an armedstandoffbetween Serbia ’s frequenter Russia and their partake opposition Austria - Hungary , which fear the ascent of Serbian ability and refused to allow the Slavonic kingdom access to the sea . Austria - Hungary and Russia eventually agreed on acompromiseand Europe ’s Great Powers , meeting at the Conference of London , created a new , independentAlbanian nation in ordering toresolvethe crisis .
In the second crisis , in May 1913 , Serbia ’s tiny sidekick , Montenegro , refusedto give up its call to the city of Scutari , even after the Great Powers granted the city to Albania . Austria - Hungary ’s alien rector , Count Berchtold ( top ) , threatened military action at law against Montenegro , once again conjure up the hypothesis of a much broader battle if Russia punt up Montenegro and Serbia . This crisis was peacefullyresolvedby a generous loanword ( read : bribe ) from Britain and France , which assist Montenegro ’s King Nikola see reason and withdraw from Scutari .
But this did n’t stand for the Albanian place was take root — far from it . Unsurprisingly , Serbia and Montenegro viewed Europe ’s Great Powers as tamper bullies who stood in the way of their interior aspirations , with Austria - Hungary , oppressor of their Slavic kinsman , in the lead . In brusk , the Slavic kingdoms were n’t going to give up their claim to Albanian territory so easily ( as establish by the secretpactagreed by Serbia and Greece in May 1913 , dividing Albania into Serbian and Grecian spheres of influence ) .
In fact , the Serbians never all withdrew from Albania , keep some regular and paramilitary forces send in the mountainous Department of the Interior on the pretext of controlling bad-tempered - border raids by Albanian bandits ( which were a real matter ) . In early September 1913 , Count Berchtold asked the other Great Powers to deliver another ultimatum to Serbia demand drug withdrawal of the troops — but this time Russian foreign minister Sergei Sazonov ( sensitive to criticism from pan - Slav ideologues who accused him of selling out their Slavic brethren in Serbia ) turn down to go along .
The tenseness mounted on September 16 , 1913 , when Serbia ’s acting Foreign Minister , Miroslav Spalajković , assure the Austrian charge d’affaires in Belgrade , Wilhelm Ritter von Storck , that the troops were being withdrawn from Albania . This was really a bold - faced Trygve Lie , as Serbian forces had only been place to withdraw as far as the River Drin , still well inside Albania territory . Storck ( who had his own intelligence operation source ) make love it , and duly alert Vienna to the illusion .
confront with evidence of Serbian double-dealing , and with any chance of concert Great Powers diplomacy blocked by Russia , Austria - Hungary once again found itself with no option besides the threat of unilateral military action . Indeed , in some way this was the most dangerous situation yet : By September 1913 , the hawks in Vienna , lead by chief of faculty Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf , had commute Count Berchtold — who was progressively foiled with Serbian intransigence — to the suit of state of war against Serbia .
But there was still one key figure standing in the way : the heir to the throne , Archduke Franz Ferdinand , who correctly foresaw that an approach on Serbia would in all probability lead to warfare with Russia . According to the archduke the existent enemy was Italy , a Great Power with its own claim on Austro - Hungarian territory , and Serbia was just a beguilement . In the long run Franz Ferdinand trust to solve the trouble of Slavonic nationalism by creating a third monarchy represent the Slavs — or even reform the Dual Monarchy as a Union state with Serbia as a member . Of course the archduke ’s programme for reform were bitterly opposed by the Hungarians , who stood to fall back their critical influence over royal policy , as well as by the Serbs themselves , who enviously guarded their independency .
Still , Franz Ferdinand , who ’d beenappointedinspector general of the armed force by Emperor Franz Josef in August 1913 , pressed ahead with his plans to attend the come year ’s military maneuvers in Bosnia , the conglomerate ’s main Slavic worry spot . Thus , on September 16 , 1913 , the archduke ( wide disliked by the imperial household for his brusque manner ) bluntly inform Conrad that he intended to head the maneuvers . This was bound to annoy Conrad , who always supervised the maneuvers himself and look at Franz Ferdinand as a dilettante . But that was probably the dot : The archduke , annoy by Conrad’sadvocacyof war with Serbia , was using the maneuver to pull rank and put the chief of staff in his place . This footling piece of political maneuvering would have unexpected , and deeply tragic , aftermath .
See theprevious installmentorall entries .
