A.     The Balkan Powder Keg

1.     As the power of the Ottoman Empire receded, the Balkan Peninsula became a powder keg of competing interests.

2.     With the exception of the Greeks and the Romanians, most of the Balkan population spoke the same Slavic language. Many Slavs embraced Pan-Slavism, a nationalist movement to unite all Slavic peoples.

3.     Bismarck recognized the potential danger of nationalist aspirations in the Balkans. At the 1878 Congress of Berlin, he tried to reduce tensions by supporting Serbian independence and Austria-Hungary’s right to “occupy and administer” Bosnia and Herzegovina.

4.     The newly independent nation of Serbia quickly became the leader of the Pan-Slavic movement. Serbian leaders hoped to unite the Slavs in the same way Piedmont had united the Italians and Prussia the Germans.

5.     Austria felt threatened by the growth of Slavic nationalism within its borders and across the Balkans. In 1908, the Austrians enraged the Serbs by annexing Bosnia and Herzegovina.

6.     Serbian nationalism threatened Austria. At the same time, it offered Slavic Russia an opportunity to advance its interests in the Balkans.

7.     Russia and Austria-Hungary were thus on a collision course in the Balkans. As one Balkan crisis followed another, Europe tottered on the brink of war.

B.     The Outbreak of War

1.     On June 28, 1914, a 19-year old Slav nationalist, Gavrilo Princip, assassinated Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the heir to the Austrian throne.

2.     The assassination set in motion a sequence of events that plunged Europe into war. In August 1914, millions of soldiers marched off to battle, convinced that the war would be over in a few weeks.