World War I, European Principals Bleeding Earth's World

European Principles of Gavrilo Princip  http://www.voltairenet.org/article180607.html

On June 28, 1914, a young Serbo-Croatian nationalist, Gavrilo Princip, assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire, in Sarajevo. In doing so, he was opposing the planned integration of the Yugoslavs into the Empire. In response to this crime, Austria-Hungary launched a preemptive war against Serbia, and by shifting alliances it sparked the outbreak of World War I. But in reality, Gavrilo Princip’s crime was not to be a Serb, but to wish for a political system akin to the European and U.S. models.

Voltaire Network | Belgrade (Serbia) | 13 November 2013

Many in the world and Serbia tell at length of how Serbia is not only the direct trigger of World War I but also the real cause for devastating human losses. We are taught that that bastard Gavrilo Princip, that terrorist and murderer, outlaw, damned Serb was our responsibility and solely Serbian fault. He murdered Franz Ferdinand and his perfectly innocent wife in Sarajevo, with no reason. If it hadn’t been for him, Europe would have avoided World War I, and many say even WWII, whereas European Union would soon celebrate a hundred years of existence.

Such ‘arguments’ lead to conclusion that Gavrilo Princip was the devil himself who ruined perfect Austro-Hungarian Empire which was governed by harmonious and perfect relations between royal crown and its numerous, and according to ethnic and national background, diverse subjects. Was it actually so? Were only the members of Young Bosnia (Serbs, Croatians, Muslim- the composition of the organization was not questioned, not even by Tito’s historiography) unsatisfied in this idyllic and flawless empire, which is nowadays considered to have been a forerunner of European Union and first actual multiethnic creation in Europe? Of course not.

Let’s go back for a while to those, in many respects strange, but also glorious times. It was a time of many assassinations, more or less successful, out of many impulses, causes and reasons. We are going to deal with those exact assassinations which somehow remained hidden in this ‘flawless’ history of Europe, which was violated by just that one damned Serb. But, let us see, how many skeletons and blood today’s Europe is trying to hide behind the stage where world and European history took place.

Habsburg assassinations

1. In 1853, Hungarian nationalist Janosh Libeni (Janoš Libenyi) attemped the assassination of Austro-Hungarian emperor Franz Joseph, during his visit in Budapest. The assassin tried to slaughter the emperor with a big knife, attacking him from behind and making an incision along the royal neck. Fortunately, emperor’s life was saved by the uniform he was wearing and contemporary style of sewing of military uniform for high military officers, which had very strong and thick collars, so, the strength of the cut was lost during the cut through that part of the uniform, so the knife didn’t make it to the major blood vessels of the royal neck.

2. In 1863, emperor Franz Joseph’s brother Maximilian Joseph took on the royal crown of Mexico, but, as soon as 1867, he was captured by the mutineers and was executed, after a short procedure, by firing squad. The love of a subject for one of the Habsburgs was once again fatal, it is known for whom.

3. Year 1879, Italian nationalist Donato Ragoza (otherwise a pharmacist from Istria) attempted an assassination of the same Franz Joseph during his visit in Udine, and that by throwing two bombs at him. The emperor remained uninjured, the assassin arrested and the court in Udine acquitted him on the grounds that he acted out of patriotism!

4. In 1882, there was an attempt of assassination of Franz Joseph and his wife Elisabeth, while they attended the ceremony of 500th anniversary of the annex of the city of Trieste to Austria. Italian nationalists saw this as a great provocation. Guglielmo Oberdan, an Italian of Slovenian origin (mother was a Slovenian from Gorizia) was a member of secret nationalistic organisation which fought for reclaiming and annexing Trieste to homeland Italy. It is interesting that the trigger for the following political activity of Oberdan was Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878, when he left the army of Austro-Hungary out of protest, thinking that it was beneath him to take part in military activities in the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, when his personal ideal was freedom for every nation including local Slavs. He threw a bomb on the emperor, but the assassination wasn’t successful, he was captured, convicted and hanged the same year. It is interesting that Donato Ragoza, the same participant of the previous assassination attempt from Udine, also took part in the organization of this one. In the course of execution, Oberdan shouted from the gallows: ‘Viva l’Italia” and in that manner became a glorious victim of the idea of the unification of Italy, in whose honour many monuments, which still stand today, were raised throughout Italy. Even today, main streets and squares carry his name (in Rome, Trieste, Cremona, Bari etc.) where he is considered to have been one of the greatest national heroes of Italy. At the memorial of the 100th anniversary of his death, in 1982, the president of Italy compared him to Jesus Christ. Slovenian author Boris Pahor is writing a novel by the name Oberdan Square, incorporating the events from his turbulent life.

There is a school in Trieste today which carries Oberdan’s name. It is a high school that pays a stress upon humanities and development of national critical awareness in students and prepares future students for excellent results in the fields of human rights and democracy.

5. In 1889, the heir to the throne of emperor Franz Joseph, his only son Rudolf Joseph was found dead, together with his mistress Mary Vetsera. The official investigation found that Rudolf killed Mary and then committed suicide. But, more than 1 hundred years later, in 1992, officials of the republic of Austria carried out exhumation and another autopsy of the remains of Mary Vetsera and findings confirmed century- old suspicions that she was murdered by blows to the head, and not by gun shot as official version claimed till that moment, whereas Rudolf was killed with six shots from a rifle, and, by that moment, it was said that it had been a suicide. The heir to the throne was against the union of Austria and Hungary, and also against the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was not excluded that Franz Ferdinand himself had taken part in the plot and murder, that is to say, military current whose leader was the next heir to the throne himself after Rudolf was eliminated, the more because Rudolf was popular in high officer and military circles of Austro-Hungarian Empire.

6. In 1898, in Switzerland, at the shores of Lake Geneva, Italian nationalist and anarchist Luigi Lucheni killed Austro-Hungarian empress Elisabeth Joseph, wife of Franz Joseph. He killed her in a very common, in those times, European way of assassination in despair, by inflicting a blow with a big knife into the heart. Franz Joseph became a widower, but not young enough to remarry and produce a blood descendant and heir to the throne.

To conclude, Franz Joseph had, before Princip killed heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand, lost his brother, wife and only son in previous assassinations. And yet surprisingly, not one Serb did participate in all those assassinations, but several Italians, Hungarians, and also Austrians. Italians are especially prominent. Certainly, this does not say much of great love and grace of the subjects towards royal family, the most renowned and long-standing in Europe then.

Situation in Europe then

All of the above happened under a great influence of ideas of anarchists, neo-nationalists, socialists, revolutionists of all kinds, who in that time mostly represented revolutionary forms of fight for their ideals and ideas. Reason for such method and approach of the batlle should perhaps be found in those days’ monarchist and strictly hierarchically organized and by nature very repressive state apparatus, which, those mostly very young people hoped, could be overthrown and changed most easily with assassinations of monarchs themselves as well as of high representatives and symbols of monarchist government. Thus, there was a whole trend of assassinations and murders of representatives of the highest authorities, and that mostly in states with monarchist organization which tried to violently maintain under their authority a great number of emerging nations. It was a broad European process, in both 19th and at the very beginning of 20th century. We shouldn’t forget that unification and formation of modern Italy in 1861 began in such a similar chaos. At that moment tyrannicide as an ideal emerges also because of current process of removing hereditary, centuries-lasting thrones in numerous city-states in Italy. It is a root of origin and justification of tyrannicide in processes of the birth of nations and national states. The circumstances weren’t better in German Confederation, which was created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna and consisted of 38 states and four free cities. In 1861, William II ascended the throne of Prussia, and Bismarck became Minister President and they decisively fought Austria for the supremacy over German Confederation, which culminated in 1866 with the triumph of Prussia which created North German Confederation that didn’t include southern German state, with Bavarska as the biggest of them. France tried to prevent unification and strengthening of Germany in 1870 in a war that France itself started and lost disastrously, which lead to establishment of the Republic of France. It is interesting that, in 1871, after the fall of Paris, Germany, at the Treaty of Versailles, proclaimed union of Germany into German Empire under the crown of Wilhelm II and Minister President Bismarck. Those were times marked by many bloody conflicts both in limits of young nations in the process of unification (all elements of civil wars), and in battles between newly-formed national states for the prestige and territories, which were left as seed of future great wars, sawn well and deep. There was something to learn from Europe of that time. And it is known that our nations always promptly accept all those great and human ideas of Europe.

All the assassinations named and great changes described in Europe then, inspire and decisively direct the fight of national and intellectual elite of all Sothern Slavs, Serbs too, for their unification and creating their national states.

South Slavic Assassinations

It is time to name the most important assassinations attempted by South Slavs at the rulers and representatives of authority of Habsburg monarchy.

1. 1910, Bogdan Zerajic followed the same emperor Franz Joseph from Sarajevo to Mostar, and from Mostar to Ilidza, but didn’t succeed to find the right moment to perform the assassination.
2. That same year, in June, Zerajic attempted the assassination of the Governor of Bosnia and Herzegovina, General Marijan Varesanin, a Croat, and that unsuccessfully. He shot the last bullet into his own head and became an inspiration for many young people of Bosnia and Herzegovina to join the organization Young Bosnia. Zerajic’s head was severed and used as an example that showed what an “anarchistic” head looked like, and his body was buried at a hidden location. However, the young discovered the location which became a pilgrimage and a place of oath for generations to come, that they would not rest until Bosnia and Herzegovina was free from Austro-Hungarian occupation.
3. Luka Jukic, a Croat from Bosnia and Herzegovina, attempted an assassination of Croatian viceroy Slavko Cuvaj, when he killed two men, but viceroy remained alive. Luka was sentenced to life imprisonment, whereas the second collaborator in the assassination, Croat August Cesarec, later famous writer, was sentenced to five year imprisonment. At the end of World War I, Luka was released.
4. In August 1913, after a solemn mass held in honour of emperor Franz Joseph’s birthday, and only because of the symbolism of the place and occasion, a Croat, Stjepan Dojcic attempted an assassination of new Croatian viceroy Ivan Skrlec upon his exiting the church and wounded his arm. He was sentenced to sixteen years in prison. But, it was perhaps more important to quote Dojcic’s words written and published in the USA, regarding unsuccessful assassination of viceroy Cuvaj by Luka Jukic, attempted the previous year. Quote: “we had to leave, with sorrow in our hearts, our sweet home and kindred in search of livelihood, which we would find at home if Croatia were free. We heard that spirited Croatian Luka Jukic shot a bullet at the bandit, who deserved it long ago, but, unfortunately, missed him. That spirited Jukic showed us what to do in future…so let us bear in mind …that freedom isn’t given on a silver plate as laurels from sinful Austria. Today, in America, protesting rallies aren’t organized only by large colonies whose number go to thousands of Croats and Serbs, but the smallest ones have raised their voices against rogues, tyrants of 20th century….down with barbarity, death and nothing more for the tyrant of 20th century, death for Cuvaj, down with absolutism…” We can see from these words that one Croat claimed that Habsburg politics was barbarity, and any kind of armed struggle against it a battle for freedom and rights of oppressed South Slavic peoples. The main paper of the Croats in America Croatian world wrote, regarding both assassination attempts: “Let them persecute us, oppress us, let them open prisons, but they don’t have enough of them to imprison all those who think the same as Luka and Stjepan, for we send them a message, that all decent Croatians in America are the same conspirators and criminals as Jukic and Dojcic are.”
5. In March 1914, only three months before the assassination in Sarajevo, a young Croat attempted a bomb assassination of Croatian viceroy Ivan Skrlec and Archduke Leopold Salvatore in Zagreb Opera.
It is clear, from this short list of assassinations, in which a few Croats participate, that they did it in battle for national liberation from Austro-Hungarian rule. Were they terrorists and criminals? Of course not. They too were inspired by great European principles of the time.

Assassinations in Europe and the World

As an illustration of overall situation in the world, created on the bases of stated circumstances, we will state only some of the most significant assassinations which happened in Europe and world at the end of 19th and beginning of 20th century:
1. 1865, John Booth assassinated American president Abraham Lincoln;
2. 1868, brothers Radovanovic murdered Mihajlo Obrenovic;
3. 1881, Ignacije Hrineviecki assassinated Russian emperor Alexandar The Second;
4. 1881, Charles Guiteau assassinated American president James Abram (the second American president assassinated in sixteen years’ time);
5. 1891, Tsuda Sanzo attempted assassination, unsuccessfully, of Russian czar Nikolas II;
6. 1894, anarchist Sante Geronimo assassinated French president Marie Francois Sadi Carnot;
7. 1895, unknown assassin murdered Bulgarian Prime Minister Petar Stambolov;
8. 1897, Michele Angiolillo assassinated Spanish Prime Minister Antonio del Castillo;
9. 1900, Gaetano Bresci assassinated Italian king Umberto The First;
10. 1901, Leon C. assassinated American president William Mckinley (third American president murdered in 36 years’ time);
11. 1905, Greek Prime Minister Theodoros Deligiannis was assassinated;
12. 1907, unknown attacker assassinated Bulgarian Prime Minister Dimitr Petkov;
13. 1909, unknown killer murdered Japanese Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi;
14. 1911, Dmitri Bogrov murdered Prime Minister of Russian Empire Pyotr Stolypin;
15. 1912, Spanish Prime Minister Hose Canalejas murdered by unknown assassin;
16. 1913, Turkish Prime Minister Mahmud Pasha murdered by unknown assassin;
17. 1913, a Greek Alexandros Schinas murdered Greek king George I;

And at the end, one more little known fact: according to Croatian sources, there were more than ten assassinations of Franz Ferdinand as an heir to the throne of Austro-Hungary organized in the period 1900-1914, which Austro-Hungarian police came to know of and prevented. Even three of them were attempted, and that: in 1902, 1906 and the most serious one in 1910, at military maneuvers near Moravska Ostrova, when a general was shot in a leg during the shooting at Franz Ferdinand. Conspirators were members of Young Bosnia, members of military division from the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

At the end, I hope it is clear for everyone that Gavrilo Princip, in his doing, was governed by already existing European principles of the time. Do European principles of Gavrilo Princip stand today?