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Albania, for which Austria and Italy were responsible, cut her off from the sea and robbed her, as she considered, of the choicest fruits of her victory over Turkey. Then, too, the national aspirations of the Serbians had been greatly increased, because their recent successes had encouraged a new hope that her further territorial ambitions might be realized. Bulgaria felt that the treaty of Bukarest was unfair to her and was hoping for an opportunity to revise it. Besides, the ill feeling of the Bulgars toward the Serbs and Greeks had been intensified.

PART II

THE IMMEDIATE CAUSES OF THE

EUROPEAN WAR

CHAPTER III

THE ASSASSINATION OF FRANCIS FERDINAND

THE year 1914, as has already been shown, found Austria-Hungary and Serbia living on terms that are unsafe for neighbors. Public sentiment was inflamed in both countries and there was a danger that some unusual occurrence would cause an outburst of feeling and bring on war. The event that fanned the smoldering hatred into a flame was the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heirapparent to the throne of Austria-Hungary. The crown prince and his wife were killed on June 28, 1914, at Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, by the explosion of a bomb thrown by two Serbian subjects of Austria-Hungary. "No crime," says the British White Paper, "has ever aroused deeper or more general horror throughout Europe; none has ever been less justified. Sympathy for Austria was universal."' 1

The crime owes its significance to the feeling aroused in Austria-Hungary and Serbia by it; 1 B. W. P., iii.

to the alleged complicity of the Serbian people and Government in the crime; and to Serbia's inability or refusal to satisfy Austria-Hungary as to reparation and guarantees for the future.

According to Austrian sources, public sentiment in Serbia approved the deed of the assassins. The people rejoiced over it as an act of "revenge for the annexation" and hoped that it would prove to be the initial step in a movement that would ultimately lead to "the detachment from the Dual Monarchy of all territories inhabited by South-Slavs and the eventual destruction of that monarchy as a great power. Manifestations of joy and exultation were reported from Belgrade,3 Nish, and Uskub, the populace at the last named place giving "itself up to a spontaneous outburst of passion." 5

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The press of Serbia was also charged with responsibility for "the outrage of Sarajevo," because the public mind had been inflamed by the propaganda conducted by it against Austria in the interest of the "Great Serbian" cause. This propaganda had not been confined to Serbia but had also been carried on, it is alleged, in the Serbian districts of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. The Austrian Red Book gives extracts from twenty-six Serbian newspapers commenting on the assassination to show the 2 A. R. B., 1, 6. 5 Ibid., 3. 3 A. R. B., 1.

4 Ibid., 5.

6 Ibid., 7.

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