The Moment of Collapse, 1914

Abstract

The assassination of Francis Ferdinand on 28 June 1914 was not at first thought likely to develop into a major crisis, at least by the standards of the preceding years. Some perhaps uncharitable relief was generally expressed that the manifold embarrassments caused by the late Archduke would cease,¹ and it was widely supposed that there would have to be some retributive action taken against Serbia. At an early stage, and without the possibility of the proof that was later to be so searched for, there was a general assumption that Serbia was partly, if not wholly, responsible for the assassinations. Even in Germany there was no initial recognition that a final crisis was beginning, though this may have been in part because some of the principal actors in the German government were away, or just about to go away, on their summer holidays.