Austria-Hungary Declares War on Serbia
Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia by telegram on 28 July 1914, one month after the assassination at Sarajevo. The delay is the part that matters. Franz Ferdinand was shot on 28 June, and the Austrian leadership spent three weeks deciding what to do, obtaining a German assurance of support on 5 and 6 July — the blank cheque — and waiting for the French president to finish a state visit to Russia before delivering an ultimatum. The ultimatum of 23 July had a forty-eight-hour limit and ten points, of which the sixth required Austrian officials to take part in the judicial investigation on Serbian soil. It was designed to be refused, and the Austrian foreign minister said as much. Serbia accepted every point but that one, in a reply of considerable diplomatic skill, and mobilised while sending it. Austria broke off relations within half an hour and declared war five days later, before its own army could be ready, which the chief of staff had advised against. The telegram was sent in French to the Serbian foreign ministry, which suspected a hoax and asked for confirmation. Belgrade was shelled from across the Danube the following morning. Russia ordered general mobilisation on 30 July, Germany declared war on Russia on 1 August and on France on the 3rd, invaded Belgium the same day, and Britain declared war on the 4th. Six days separate a local war from a world war. The Serbian reply is worth reading for what diplomacy can do under pressure. It conceded almost everything in language of elaborate courtesy while giving away nothing that mattered, and the Kaiser, reading it on 28 July, wrote in the margin that every reason for war had disappeared.
- Year: 1914 CE
- Category: Diplomatic
