Hofburg Palace, in the heart of Vienna, Austria, had been home and headquarters of the Habsburg dynasty for 100’s of years. In the 19th century, a handful of rooms here served as Franz Joseph’s inner sanctum. We’re on a tour, walking through his private quarters. This is where he worked every day from dawn to dusk, trying to salvage his crumbling empire.
Given the stress he must have been under, one might think calming tones would be in order for these spaces. Not even close. The walls are boldly red. The decor is ostentatious enough, but not completely over the top like the rooms in Schönbrunn Palace.
Let’s Set the Scene…
In those days, Europe had revolution fever. Citizens in France, Italy, and Germany had established new, independent governments. Serbian people living just south of Austria-Hungary wanted to establish their own government, too.
As described last time, France, Britain, Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, for reasons of their own, jointly prevented it. Instead, they got together and divided the Balkans into an assortment of annexed lands and states.
The result caused so many problems, they had to regroup ten years later to try again. And guess what? No one was happy after their second attempt, either.
That’s not completely true. Franz Joseph was happy. Austria-Hungary managed to annex territory it wanted, roughly where Bosnia and Herzegovina are now.
Countries did a lot of “annexing” back then. “You’re being annexed” is a nice way of saying, “You might as well learn to like us, because we’re not going away, and little by little we’re going to swallow you up.”
No One Wants to be Annexed
No one wanted to be annexed. The Serbs hated it so much, a group of them decided to send Austria-Hungary a message.
In summer, 1914, Franz Joseph’s nephew, Franz Ferdinand, and his entourage visited the annexed town of Sarajevo. His route had been published for all to see. A group of Serbs planned to blow up his car with a bomb when it passed a particular point on the route.
When the car carrying Franz Ferdinand reached the spot planned for the bombing, nothing. No kaboom. The bomber had gotten cold feet. That was a close one. But Franz Ferdinand’s luck soon ran out.
Later that day, purely by chance, he ran into another member of the group of would-be assassins. This guy’s feet were plenty warm. He pulled out a gun, shot Franz Ferdinand, killing him on the spot.
Turbulent Times, Indeed
Life in Vienna went on as if nothing had happened. These were turbulent times. Things like this happen when you annex someone else’s homeland. By this time, Franz Joseph was semi-retired. He was out of town on vacation, and that’s where he stayed.
The guys who were running things in Vienna saw this as a fine excuse to take control of the annexed region once and for all. They would deliver the Serbs an impossible-to-accept ultimatum. When the Serbs refused, Austria-Hungary would attack. Franz Joseph OK’d the plan, but he warned his guys that Russia wouldn’t stand for it. He was right.
The Serbs had always been like Russia’s little brothers, so Russia said to Austria-Hungary, “If you attack the Serbs, we’ll attack you!”
But then Germany, which had close ties to Austria-Hungary, said to Russia, “Stay out of it, or you’ll be sorry!”
German leaders must have been all hot and bothered, because they also said to France, “Don’t you guys get any ideas, either!”
But French leaders took it as more than a threat. They started building up defenses against a potential German attack.
Now that they knew Germany had their back, Austria-Hungary replied to Russia, “Screw you!” Then they attacked the Serbs. So Russia attacked Austria-Hungary, just like they said they would.
So Germany attacked Russia, just like they said they would. And since France seemed to be preparing to do battle, they attacked France, too.
Britain didn’t like the idea of having Germany as a next-door neighbor, so Britain attacked Germany to back up France. The result, of course, was World War I.
To be continued…
