Austria Hungary And Serbia example essay topic

"War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed", William McKinley stated in his inaugural address. In retrospect the First World War failed to follow this advice of McKinley and was more or less stumbled upon as a result of several unresolved conflicts, underlying problems within seemingly virtually flawless systems, and impulsive, irrational, emotional reactions rather than political knowledge and experience. The assassination of Franz Ferdinand along with the nature of the alliance system, and the nature of the monarchical system all played pivotal roles as primary causes to World War One. Commonly regarded as the initial spark to the beginning of this Great War was the assassination of Austrian crown prince Franz Ferdinand by a member of an organization known as the Black Hand, a Serbian nationalist secret society.

The Prince Ferdinand along with his wife was murdered while in Sarajevo, Bosnia on June 28, 1914. The events that followed this spark of conflict resulted in a metaphorical wildfire of war, destruction and the death of more than 15 million people worldwide (Nye). Virtually every event that led to the abundance of war declarations and military warfare throughout the world can be traced back to this murder of Ferdinand and thus retaliation of his nation. This death, considered unjust by the leaders and overall public of numerous states, especially those with monarchical systems, was taken very seriously. Immediately upon deliverance of the solemn news of the couples' death, the German Kaiser Wilhelm II gave his support, both monetarily and expressively for retribution by Austria-Hungary on Serbia.

This decision by Kaiser Wilhelm is regarded by several as a severe lack of sound political judgment and simply a reaction of emotional distress. This personal bias should have been disregarded in respect to the politics of his nation. While this assassination was a final justification by Austria-Hungary for the use of military action against Serbia, this also was simply the beginning of a chain of events among several coalitions with numerous states. In theory the alliance system is made up of various informal and formal commitments to ensure mutual security among states. It fails to declare however that the same alliances that ensure security can also ensure direct and indirect hostilities. Problems resulted when one after another, government officials found themselves bound to numerous countries.

It has been argued that several countries' leaders disregarded common sense and respectable political judgment when agreeing to enter the war for their alliances. The war began between Austria-Hungary and Serbia and should have been a simple action and counteraction battle due to the assassination but instead turned into a full scale, world battle, many players of which not involved for any advantage to their own state. The numerous alliances became quite evident once Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914, one month after the death of Prince Ferdinand. The Kaiser of Germany, backed by public support for Austria to take action on Serbia for her initial actions, agreed to provide the country with her assistance. Austro-Hungarian government officials delivered an ultimatum to Serbia that would virtually never be agreed upon. Sir Edward Grey, the British Foreign Secretary even stated he had "never before seen one state address to another independent state a document of so formidable a character" (Herrmann).

The document was written primarily, possibly solely by Count Leopold Von Berchtold, Austria-Hungary's Chief of Staff. The ultimatum called for "the dissolution of Serbian nationalist groups, the dismissal of key military officers, the arrest of leading political figures, and the right for Austria-Hungary to implement these measures to her complete satisfaction" (Stoessinger). Arguably, with the strength of their ally Germany behind them, officials in Austria-Hungary wrote these demands knowing Serbia would refuse to comply, and thus resulting in military combat. Serbia, within the forty-eight hour time constraint requested within the ultimatum, decidedly refused to meet all of the requirements of the document and thus turned to their own rather powerful ally, Russia.

The Serbian prince regent Peter cabled a desperate appeal to the czar of Russia which in essence pleaded for their assistance. It stated, "We are unable to defend ourselves and beg your Majesty to come to our aid as soon as possible... ". (Stoessinger). Eventually Russia became the fourth country to enter the dispute.

Ultimately approximately thirty-five countries, mostly due to alliances with other states previously involved, entered the war in similar manners as well. The Monarchical system and the struggle to maintain influence over states within those systems also served as a critical cause to the outbreak of such an enormous, detrimental war. There were several instances in which top officials of countries decided to begin fighting simply to preserve the monarchy, not only in their countries, but among others as well. Even when the Austro-Hungarians began to write the ultimatum for Serbia to fulfill, Austrian Chief of Staff Conrad Von Hotzendorff made a clear statement that military action was needed not only to avenge the death of Archduke Ferdinand but also to preserve power within the monarchy. Kaiser Wilhelm also agreed upon this statement and assumed the Russian czar would not support the "assassins of royalty" (Stoessinger). It was also stated that Czar Nicholas II of Russia's "main conception of government was to preserve intact the absolute monarchy bequeathed to him by his father" (Stoessinger).

This misconception by Kaiser Wilhelm and of Czar Nicholas proved to be obvious flaws to this cause for world war one. Czar Nicholas also believed that Russia had been treated unjustly in numerous affairs throughout her history and along with his top officials Sergei Sazonov and Vladimir Sukhomlinov he willingly entered the war on behalf of their alliance with Serbia. The Kaiser of Germany even sent his cousin, Czar Nicholas II a telegram, as he had done prior to previous potential battles, hoping for a resolution before unrestrained combat broke out, but simply got a series of telegrams which conceivably bought the Russian military more time to mobilize their own troops and develop their own military strategies. It may also be argued that this was not the intention of Czar Nicholas and was simply the paranoia of Kaiser Wilhelm.

Due to the numerous flaws in the theory of the monarchical structure cause of the war, I do not believe it's a very strong source for the beginning of the war. Although nearly all events preceding the First World War can be traced back to the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, I also don't believe this argument is strong enough to stand as the most powerful argument for a prime cause of the war of this three I've included. Of these three causes I do consider the alliance system as one of the most sufficient causes of the outbreak and of the overall magnitude of World War One. What should have been a simple quarrel between two states turned into a multinational full-blown war because too many countries simply gave in to military advancements for their alliances rather than consider all the possible alternatives.

It can be argued that war, in this case became a self-fulfilling prophecy when multiple leaders of various states simply joined the war for the sole reason of an ally needing assistance. They believed their involvement to be inevitable and when the opportunity presented itself, simply joined the battle. Thomas Mann said, "One believes in the coming of war if one does not sufficiently abhor it". Most countries that became involved in the conflict can't argue that they, by all means necessary avoided the confrontation.

Most can merely blame their actions on alliances with other countries and their own domestic foreign policies toward these relations. In conclusion, all three causes which have been discussed throughout the paper are essential to the beginnings of the First World War. No single cause can be identified as the basis upon which the entire war began, nor can the three examples used in this paper stand together as the rationale behind the conflict. Copious arguments have been made and rely upon one another as justification or foundations for the First World War.

Due to the extreme magnitude and various grounds by which a number of countries involved themselves in the encounter, it would be illogical and impossible to identify one single explanation without another linked to it. The unexpected assassination of the Prince of Austria Franz Ferdinand, the inconsistency and troubles within the monarchical system and its power, and the problems with the system of alliances all held crucial responsibility to the beginning of World War One.

Bibliography

Her rman, David G. (1996).
The Arming of Europe and the Making of the First World War. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Nye, Joseph S. (2003).
Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History. Longman. Stoessinger, John G. (2001).