Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: This is trojan media network.
On June 28, 1914, a 19 year old man stood on a street corner in Sarajevo. He was not a general, he was not a king. He was not powerful.
His name was Gavrilo, Principal.
And within minutes, the world would change.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: That morning, the heir to the Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, rode through the streets in an open top car. His wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hillenburg, sat beside him. They were visiting Bosnia, a region controlled by Austria, Hungary. Some people welcomed them, others were angry they were there.
[00:00:50] Speaker A: Many people in Bosnia were ethnic Serbs.
They believed Bosnia should belong to Serbia, not Austria Hungary.
This idea is called nationalism, the belief that people who share language and culture should rule themselves.
In 1914, nationalism was spreading across Europe and it was causing tension.
[00:01:11] Speaker B: Several young men were waiting along the Archdukes route. They were part of a Serbian nationalist group. Their goal was simple. Kill the future ruler of Austria, Hungary.
[00:01:22] Speaker A: The first attempt failed. A bomb was thrown at the Archduke's car. It bounced off and exploded behind them, injuring others, but not the royal couple. The attacker tried to poison himself. The poison failed. He was later arrested.
[00:01:36] Speaker B: The Archduke decided to continue his visit. Later. He chose to visit people injured in the bombing. But the driver took a wrong turn.
The car slowed down and by chance, it stopped right in front of Gabrielle Princip.
[00:01:50] Speaker A: Princip stepped forward. He fired two shots. One hit Sophie, one hit Franz Ferdinand. Both died within the hour.
[00:01:59] Speaker B: At first, it did not seem like the beginning of a world war. Europe had seen assassinations before, But Europe in 1914 was different.
It was tense, it was armed and it was divided into alliances.
[00:02:13] Speaker A: There were two main alliance groups. One included Britain, France and Russia. The other included Germany and Austria Hungary.
These alliances were meant to protect countries. But they also meant that if one country went to war, others would join Austria.
[00:02:30] Speaker B: Hungary blamed Serbia for the assassination.
Germany promised to support Austria Hungary no matter what.
Russia supported Serbia. France supported Russia. The system began to tighten.
[00:02:44] Speaker A: On July 23, 1914, Austria Hungary sent Serbia illicit demands.
Some were reasonable, others were harsh.
Serbia agreed to most of them, but not all.
[00:02:57] Speaker B: On July 28, Austria Hungary declared war on Serbia.
Within days, other countries joined in. Germany declared war on Russia, then on France.
German troops marched through Belgium.
[00:03:12] Speaker A: Belgium was neutral. Britain had promised to protect it. On August 4, Britain declared war on Germany. The conflict that began with two gunshots had turned into a European war.
Soon it would spread across the world.
[00:03:26] Speaker B: Many soldiers believed the war would be short.
They expected to be home by Christmas. Crowds cheered as troops marched off. No one knew what modern war would look like.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: Machine guns, heavy artillery. Trenches dug for miles and death on a scale never seen before.
[00:03:43] Speaker B: The war did not begin only because one man pulled a trigger.
It began because Europe had built a system ready to explode and one spark was enough.
[00:03:54] Speaker A: The First World War did not start in muddy trenches. It started on a street corner.
Next time, we will step into the trenches and see what this new kind of war really became.
