Lesson 8 - How did World War I begin?

1914
On 28 June 1900 the Archduke Franz Ferdinand married Countess Sophie Chotek. It was a subdued, sad ceremony. The Archduke was heir to the Monarchy of the Habsburgs: he stood next in succession as Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and much beside. Sophie Chotek was a mere countess; she did not come within the permitted degrees for an imperial Habsburg marriage, Franz Ferdinand had to sign away the rights of any children born of the marriage. His wife did not become an archduchess or an imperial highness, Many devout monarchists felt that this augured ill for the Habsburg dynasty. None foresaw that Franz Ferdinand, on this wedding day, had fixed the date of his death, still less that this would lead to the deaths of many million others. For this wedding day ultimately set the fuse to the First World War.
Franz Ferdinand was a brutal and obstinate man, impatient with opposition, unsuited to a democratic age. He had one redeeming feature though: he loved his wiie. It irked him that she could never share his splendours, could never even sit by his side on any public occasion. There was one loophole. The Archduke was a field marshal and Inspector General of the Austro-Hungarian army. His wife could enjoy the recognition of his rank when he was acting in a military capacity, Hence he decided, in 1914, to inspect the Army in Bosnia. There at its capital Sarajevo, the Archduke and his wife could ride in an open carriage side by side on 28 June - the anniversary of their wedding day. Thus, for love, the Archduke went to his death.

He was assassinated by a Serb nationalist. It was a pretext used by Austria to declare war against Serbia. Soon the conflict spread ali over Europe.

AJP Taylor. The First World War. Penguin Books. 1991. p.13.

Vocabulary
subdued - reserved; repressed
mere - simple
sígn away (v.) - transfer; abdicate
augur (v.) - indicate; predict
foresee (v.) (foresaw; foreseen) - predict
weddíng - matrimony
ultimately - decisively, definitively
set (v.) (set; set) - determine, establish
fuse - detonator
unsuited - incompetent; inefficient
redeeming - compensating
feature - characteristic, attribute
irk (v.) - irritate
share (v.) - divide
loophole - escape
marshal - commander in chief
rank - position
hence - consequently
thus - consequently
spread (v.) (spread; spread) - expand

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