Who started WWI?
The saying, “History is written by the victors,” illustrates the vagaries of truth about the past. The story of Gavrilo Princip, the Serbian national who shot and killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, exemplifies the importance of perspective and how there’s rarely one truth. For many years, the inception of World War I was blamed upon a single lone assassin, Gavrilo Princip, who lit the powder keg by assassinating the Austrian Archduke. However, as is often the case, the truth of World War I’s genesis goes far beyond a single shooter and involves complicated geopolitics.
The fact that Serbia minted a coin with his face and the city of Belgrade raised a statue honoring Princip proves that at least one country sees history in a different light. So what’s the truth about Gravilo Princip, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and the beginning of World War I? Was he a terrorist assassin, or a proud nationalist fighting against oppression in his country?
A Good Student In Troubled Times
Gavrilo Princip and the Young Bosnia movement that accidentally started World War I. (reddit)
Gavrilo Princip, by all accounts, flourished in school, leaving his destitute and sickly family at an early age to earn an education. Tim Butcher, a longtime correspondent for The Daily Telegraph, wrote a book about Princip and delved into his past. “Gavrilo Princip was a clever boy, a talented child. You see these report cards, they're amazing: A, A, A, really superlative performance in the first year — and then they begin to dip ... truancy through the roof, an obedient boy to begin with, but he is a slow-burn revolutionary, you could see it in the school reports alone.”
Game Of Thrones In Central Europe
At his trial Princip declared "I am a Yugoslav nationalist, aiming for the unification of all Yugoslavs, and I do not care what form of state, but it must be freed from Austria."
In 1908, a flurry of geopolitical activity rocked the region, including the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria’s declaration of independence, and the Ottoman Empire’s protests over both actions. To further complicate matters, these maneuverings violated the Treaty of Berlin, inflaming tension between Russia, Austria-Hungary, the Balkan nations along with France and Italy. To put it succinctly, all the various factions making moves for regional influence laid the groundwork for World War I years before Gavrilo Princip found his animosity for the Austrian-Hungarian empire.
Perspective
Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife who also died in the assassination. (thoughtco)
Princip grew up poor on a farm where six of his nine brothers and sister died in infancy. Examining the textbooks of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia, all formerly Yugoslavia, highlight the importance of perspective regarding the assassination of Austria-Hungary’s Archduke and the initiation of World War I. Bosnian Serbs learned a different story compared to their Croatian and Serbian neighbors.
Zeljko Vujadinovic, a history professor from Bosnia and Herzegovina Banja, "The characterization of the Young Bosnia freedom fighters and Princip as terrorists is an attempt to place the blame for huge worldwide events on 'Serbian territorial expansion policies', which is evidently flawed." Prior to the fall of Yugoslavia, Princip was seen as a freedom fighter for the now-defunct country rather than a Serbian terrorist.
Freedom Fighter Or Terrorist
Franz Ferdinand was not the original heir of Austria.
Serbian textbooks paint Princip and the “Young Bosnia” fighters as heroes attempting to throw out Austro-Hungarian rule in Serbia. They state, "The Austrian army committed horrific war crimes against Serbian civilians, encompassing detention camps, civilian torture, and the banning of national symbols and lettering.
A differing viewpoint characterizes Bosnia as perpetrating “illegal terrorist actions" in Bosnia and Herzegovina in an effort to create a "Greater Serbia." However, even those acknowledge Austro-Hungary predations for territories formerly under the control of Ottoman rule. Although endorsing Princip as a hero remains a bridge too far.
The Fight for Serbian Independence
Gavrilo Princip's arrest following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife. (nationalpost)
The Serbian Orthodox church christened Princip as a national hero, declaring, “He assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who was the personification of the occupying forces of Austria-Hungary, and then Austria-Hungary and the German Empire invaded Serbia, and the brave Serbs struggled and suffered during the war but were on the right side." The Serbian President in 2015, during the ceremony to raise Gavrilo Princip’s statue echoed the church’s thoughts, "Today, we are not afraid of the truth," Nikolic said. "Gavrilo Princip was a hero, a symbol of the idea of freedom, the assassin of tyrants and the carrier of the European idea of liberation from slavery."
Unintended Consequences
Gavrilo Princip died of tuberculosis six months before the end of the war.
One fact we know for sure, Princip never intended to start a World War that would rage unlike any ever seen previously. He and the “terrorist” group Young Bosnia merely wanted the Austrian-Hungarian Empire to leave Serbia independent. Unfortunately, for them and millions affected by World War I, their plan to kill Archduke Franz Ferdinand became the straw that broke the camel’s back, inflaming a world war.
According to historian Christopher Clark, while Archduke Ferdinand “didn't like the Serbs, he was quite racist about all the Balkan peoples,” and he did “consistently argue against any kind of military adventures in the Balkans, in particular against Serbia.” Apparently, Ferdinand was about to fire Austrian General Conrad von Hoetzendorf who was considered “a pathologically aggressive and belligerent general, who had argued for a war with Serbia over 20 times.”
By assassinating Ferdinand, Young Bosnia and Princip unwittingly killed “the most lively and powerful voice for peace” and it elevated “the most dangerous and hawkish voice, Conrad von Hoetzendorf.” Princip died in prison from tuberculosis under abhorrent living conditions. He only learned of World War I through his guards.
The Root Of World War I
The scene after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. (wikicommons)
So did Princip and the Young Bosnia freedom fighters start World War I? As it often goes, the answer is not a simple yes or no. At the time Germany extended an offer to Austria of support in any conflict. Russia mobilized a massive 2.8 million men army along with a strategic railway system leading to the borders of Germany.
The Complications Of War
Differences over foreign policy between the major world powers was the underlying cause of the war.
In essence, the countries around the Balkans were long planning for some kind of conflict many years before Princip thought of killing anyone. However, killing Franz Ferdinand did light the fuse that led to these trigger happy countries devolving into out and out chaos. Was a war unavoidable thanks to tensions in Europe? Probably, but we’ll never know for sure.
