‘Mainstream’ historians implicitly (and often quite explicitly) state that the Great War (the First World War) was started by Germany. More precisely, by the German Empire (the ‘Second Reich’). Anti-German propaganda (sorry, the ‘mainstream’ history of the first half of the XX century) goes even further – by stating that Germany started both World Wars and thus was the arch-villain of the XX century (if not of the whole history of mankind).
In one of my previous posts I debunked beyond the reasonable doubt the common and persistent myth that Germany started the Second World War. In reality, Germany started only a brief German-Polish war (by invading Poland on September 1st, 1939).
World War 2 began two days later when both France and Britain declared war on Germany. Which automatically brought into the war numerous colonies of both nations (including such enormously populous nations as India which at that time included present-day Pakistan and Bangladesh) and the dominions of Great Britain (Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa).
Which no less automatically transformed a very much local conflict between two neighboring nations into a global armed conflict – the Second World War.
Now let’s debunk one more very common and very popular myth. The myth that Germany started the First World War. Let’s start with a sequence of key events that ended ‘the last summer of Europe’ and started the bloodiest and the most destructive conflict in human history (prior to the Second World War, of course).
On 28 June 1914 Bosnian terrorist Gavrilo Princip – member of a no less terrorist organization Mlada Bosna (‘Young Bosnia’) – assassinated in Sarajevo (the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina) Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (heir to the throne of Austro-Hungarian Empire) and his wife Sophie.
Not surprisingly, Austria-Hungary subsequently issued an ultimatum (considered quite reasonable even by today’s antiterrorism standards) to the Kingdom of Serbia (which at that time was essentially a terrorist state not much different from a present-day so-called Palestine National Authority – PNA).
Not that much different because PNA quite openly calls for the destruction of Israel and the Kingdom of Serbia also quite publicly advocated the destruction of Austro-Hungarian Empire (by annexing its Balkan provinces and their subsequent incorporation into a ‘Greater Serbia’ – or Yugoslavia).
This dream came true on 1 December 1918 in Belgrade, where the jubilant Serbian leaders proclaimed the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes which ten years later was officially renamed the “Kingdom of Yugoslavia”.
Not surprisingly, the Kingdom of Serbia rejected the Austrian ultimatum (PNA would have done the same with any Israeli ultimatum). Well, formally Serbia rejected certain parts of it, which according to international law meant rejection of the ultimatum in its entirety. Which left Austria-Hungary with no other choice but to declare war on the Kingdom of Serbia. Which it did on July 28th, 1914.
Why did Austro-Hungarian Empire issue the ultimatum in question to the Kingdom of Serbia in the first place? Because Mlada Bosnia was run by the Black Hand – a secret Serbian military society which was essentially a front for the Serbian Military Intelligence (SMI) run by a certain Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević who for all practical purposes was the ‘shadow ruler’ of Serbia.
Why so? Because it was Colonel Dimitrijević who in 1903 brought to power the then-king of Serbia Peter I by… storming the royal palace and assassinating the previous king (Alexander I) and his wife Queen Draga. Seems like Apis (“Bull”) had a thing for assassinating royal couples. Not surprisingly, after that coup d’etat no Serbian politician dared to oppose the bullish Colonel.
Unfortunately for the Colonel and for the whole Serbia (and quite probably for all Europe), his involvement in the Sarajevo assassination turned out to be not that secret. The Austrian Secret Police conducted a very swift and very efficient investigation of the assassination and promptly arrested not just one, but several members of the Black Hand (actually, Serbian intelligence officers) who took part in plotting and executing the assassination.
Under a thorough and skilled interrogation by the Austrian authorities, these officers stated that three men from Serbia (Dimitrijević, Milan Ciganović, and Major Voja Tankosić) were behind the plot. Apparently, captured officers produced enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it was the Serbian government who was behind the assassination attempt.
Hence the ultimatum – and the subsequent declaration of war. But, alas, the fun did not stop there. The fun has not even started yet.
The Essential Guide to Nazi Germany 