Wednesday, March 28, 2012

The trigger for war: the dead, the killer and the ultimatum


Archduke Franz Ferdinand and wife


Gavrilo Prinzip, the Serbian student who killed the Austro- Hungarian heirs to the throne. 

After the assassination of the heirs to the Austro- Hungarian throne in Sarajevo (Bosnia-Herzegovina), the killer, Gavrilo Prinzip, was arrested and Austria- Hungary sent a 48-hours ultimatum to Serbia. Here you have the text: 



The Royal Serbian Government [will] further undertake:


1. To suppress any publication which incites hatred and contempt of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and the general tendency of which is directed against territorial integrity;

2. To dissolve immediately the society styled “Narodna Odbrana,” to confiscate all its means of propaganda, and to proceed in the same manner against other societies and their branches in Serbia which engage in propaganda against the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The Royal government shall take the necessary measures to prevent the societies dissolved from continuing their activities under another name and form;

3. To eliminate without delay from public instruction in Serbia, both as regards the teaching body and also as regards the methods of instruction, everything that serves, or might serve, to foment the propaganda against Austria-Hungary;

4. To remove from military service, and from the administration in general, all officers and functionaries guilty of propaganda against the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy whose names and deeds the Austro-Hungarian government reserve to themselves the right of communicating to the royal government;

5. To accept the collaboration in Serbia of representatives of the Austro-Hungarian Government for the suppression of subversive movement directed against the territorial integrity of the monarchy;

6. To take judicial proceedings against accessories to the plot of 28th June who are on Serbian territory; delegates of the Austro-Hungarian government will take part in this investigation relating thereto;

7. To proceed with out delay to the arrest of Major Voija Tankositch and of the individual named Milan Ciganovitch, a Serbian State employee, who have been compromised by the results of the magisterial inquiry at Serajevo;

10. To notify the Imperial and Royal government without delay of the execution of the measures compromised under the preceding heads.

The Austro-Hungarian Government expect[s] the reply of the Royal Government by 6 o’clock on Saturday evening the 25th July.


Source of the text:

http://www.historyteacher.net/EuroProjects/DBQs2002/DBQ2002_WW2_DifferentChoices.htm

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