Austria-Hungary Declares War on Serbia
On 28 July 1914 — exactly one month after the Sarajevo assassination — Austria-Hungary formally declared war on Serbia, the first declaration of war in a conflict that would engulf the world. The ultimatum delivered to Belgrade on 23 July had contained ten conditions; Serbia had accepted nine, rejecting only the clause demanding that Habsburg officials participate directly in Serbian judicial proceedings on Serbian soil. Vienna judged even this limited rejection sufficient pretext and declared war before Serbian mobilisation could be completed, immediately shelling Belgrade by river gunboat. The declaration triggered the chain of mobilisations that European statesmen had long feared. Russia, which regarded itself as the protector of Slavic peoples, ordered partial mobilisation on 29 July and general mobilisation on 30 July, unable to mobilise against Austria without simultaneously mobilising against Germany. Germany demanded Russia halt within twelve hours, and when Russia refused, declared war on 1 August. Germany's Schlieffen Plan required an immediate offensive against France; Germany declared war on France on 3 August and invaded Belgium, bringing Britain in on 4 August. What Austria's leadership had calculated as a swift, limited punitive war against a small Balkan state had activated the full machinery of European great-power confrontation within a week.
- Year: 1914 CE
- Category: Diplomatic
