This created overconfidence in military power and naivete about the outcome of a potential European war and bred nationalism. With the exception of the Crimean War (1853-56) and the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) and the subsequent defeat of France by the Prussians, Europeans had not experienced war or substantial military defeat for more than half a century making war a far off memory. In the century preceding World War I Europe had experienced mostly peace. Germany’s nationalist arrogance allowed them to overpower the Belgians, however, they did not take into account that the Belgians would put up a fight and France’s allies would send assistance and the toll that these facts would take on their troops and weapons.
With Britain’s assistance Belgium was not able to stop the advance but they were able to slow Germany’s advance toward Paris. Following Belgium’s refusal to allow Germany to pass freely through to France due to their desire to remain neutral Germany’s nationalist belief that they were superior led them to believe that they would quickly overrun the Belgians allowing them to flank the French armies and force them to surrender. These facts drove the Germans to plan their attack through neutral Belgium. Also, as a lesson learned, France built fortifications along their border with Germany. Though, due to the German dominance of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, France had lost money and land to Germany, fueling French nationalists to have a desire to enact revenge. Due to Russian-France alliances Germany sought to invade France. Within days of the declare of war on Serbia by Austria-Hungary, Germany declared war on Russia. Their willingness to carry out such a task shows that nationalist views and beliefs instigated the assassination which caused the outrage in Austria-Hungary leading to that first declaration of war against Serbia. One may say that Princip was merely acting on orders, however, he and his accomplices were given orders to kill themselves following their attempts on Ferdinand’s life. Despite orders from the prime minister of Serbia, a sympathizer of the Black Hand’s objectives – Bosnia-Herzegovina achieving independence from Austro-Hungary, to stand down the assassination plot for fear of war with Austria-Hungary should an assassination be successful, the severe nationalist views of Black Hand and Gavrillo Princip pushed them to move forward with the assassination. With Germany’s promise of support, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914.Īrchduke Ferdinand’s assassin, 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip, was a Serbian nationalist, a member of the secret Black Hand society, a nationalist movement favoring a union between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia. Knowing that a nation as powerful as Russia supported Serbia, Austria reached to Germany for guarantees that Germany would assist Austria-Hungary against Russia and their allies, including France and possibly Great Britain.
Following the Archduke’s assassination, Austria-Hungary was outraged and immediately blamed the Serbian government. This annexation had incensed Serbian nationalists because they believed the territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina should be part of Serbia leading to the plot to kill the archduke during his visit to Sarajevo. The Archduke’s visit to Sarajevo in June 1914 was to inspect the imperial armed forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which were annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1908. Nationalists overestimate the value of their country and puts the country’s interest above everything else. Nationalism defined is loyalty and devotion to a nation, especially a sense of national consciousness exalting one nation above all others and placing primary emphasis on promotion of its culture and interests as opposed to those of other nations or supranational groups. While the assassination of the Archduke prompted Austria to declare war on Serbia with Germany’s support in July 1914, causing a ripple effect of countries declaring war on each other, it could be argued that ultimately, it was nationalism and nationalist views that started the chain of events. Many argue that the cause of the first world war was the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Bosnia in June of 1914.
This essay will seek to persuade the reader that nationalism as a whole contributed a more direct cause to the break out of World War I than assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914.
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