Serbs' Breakaway: Austria's Loss And Serbia's Independence

The Kingdom of Serbia, bordered by Austria-Hungary to the north, became an independent nation-state in 1878. However, Serbian nationalists' desire to reclaim Serbian territory from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and their alignment with Russia, Western liberal ideas, and intense Serbian nationalism caused tensions with Austria-Hungary. These tensions, along with the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a young Bosnian Serb, led to Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia in 1914, marking the beginning of World War I. During the war, Serbia was conquered and placed under a harsh Austro-Hungarian occupation regime until its liberation by Allied forces in 1918.

The Austro-Hungarian invasion of Serbia

The Lead-up to the Invasion

On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife were assassinated by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo. This incident sparked tensions and led to a diplomatic crisis between Austria-Hungary and Serbia. Austria-Hungary, feeling threatened by Serbian ambition in the Balkans, sought the support of its powerful ally, Germany, in preparing for a possible military invasion of Serbia.

The Ultimatum and Declaration of War

On July 23, 1914, Austria-Hungary presented Serbia with an ultimatum, demanding the suppression of anti-Austrian propaganda and the right to conduct an investigation into the archduke's killing. Serbia accepted all demands except one, but Austria-Hungary was not satisfied. On July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, marking the beginning of World War I.

The First Invasion Attempts

The first invasion of Serbia, dubbed a "punitive expedition" by the Austro-Hungarian leadership, was commanded by General Oskar Potiorek. However, the Austro-Hungarian forces faced three unsuccessful invasion attempts as the Serbian army and their Montenegrin allies successfully repelled them. The victory of the Royal Serbian Army at the Battle of Cer is considered the first Allied victory of World War I.

The Second Invasion and Occupation

Almost a year later, on October 6, 1915, a joint invasion was launched by Bulgarian, Austro-Hungarian, and German forces led by Field Marshal August von Mackensen. This time, Serbia was invaded from three sides, and the Central Powers successfully occupied the country. Serbia was then divided into an Austro-Hungarian occupation zone and a Bulgarian occupation zone, with both areas governed under a military administration. The occupation lasted until 1918 and was marked by harsh measures, including deportations, forced labour, and economic exploitation.

The Liberation of Serbia

In September 1918, Allied forces, including the Serbian Second Army and the Yugoslav Volunteer Division, broke through the Macedonian front, leading to the surrender of Bulgaria. This was followed by the liberation of Serbia, with Serbian forces entering Belgrade on November 1, 1918. By November, all of pre-war Serbia had been liberated, bringing an end to the Austro-Hungarian occupation.

The Pig War

Serbia was economically dependent on Austria-Hungary, which purchased most of its pork exports. However, Serbia wanted to reduce this reliance and began to forge economic ties with other countries, including Bulgaria, Germany, and France. Serbia's diversification efforts included importing munitions from France instead of Austria-Hungary, establishing a customs union with Bulgaria, and investing in new packing plants to facilitate international trade.

In response to Serbia's attempts to evade its economic control, Austria-Hungary imposed a customs blockade on Serbian pork in April 1906, marking the start of the "Pig War." This blockade, however, proved ineffective as Serbia successfully found alternative markets for its pork and continued to reduce its economic dependence on Austria-Hungary. By March 1908, Austria-Hungary was forced to concede, ending the conflict.

The Balkan Wars

The First Balkan War

The First Balkan War was fought between the members of the Balkan League and the Ottoman Empire. The Balkan League was formed under Russian auspices in the spring of 1912 to take Macedonia away from Turkey, which was already involved in a war with Italy. The Balkan allies were soon victorious. In Thrace, the Bulgarians defeated the main Ottoman forces, advancing to the outskirts of Constantinople and laying siege to Adrianople (Edirne). The Serbian army achieved a great victory at Kumanovo that enabled it to capture Bitola and to join forces with the Montenegrins and enter Skopje. The Greeks, meanwhile, occupied Salonika (Thessaloníki) and advanced on Ioánnina. In Albania, the Montenegrins besieged Shkodër and the Serbs entered Durrës.

The Ottoman collapse was so complete that all parties were willing to conclude an armistice on December 3, 1912. A peace conference was begun in London, but, after a coup d’état by the Young Turks in Constantinople in January 1913, war with the Ottomans was resumed. Again, the allies were victorious: Ioánnina fell to the Greeks and Adrianople to the Bulgarians. Under a peace treaty signed in London on May 30, 1913, the Ottoman Empire lost almost all of its remaining European territory, including all of Macedonia and Albania.

The Second Balkan War

The Second Balkan War began when Serbia, Greece, and Romania quarreled with Bulgaria over the division of their joint conquests in Macedonia. On June 1, 1913, Serbia and Greece formed an alliance against Bulgaria, and the war began on the night of June 29–30, 1913, when King Ferdinand of Bulgaria ordered his troops to attack Serbian and Greek forces in Macedonia. The Bulgarian offensive, benefiting from surprise, was initially successful, but Greek and Serbian defenders retired in good order.

The Serbian army counterattacked on July 2 and drove a wedge into the Bulgarian line. Greek reserves advanced to the front on July 3, and a series of attacks over the following days threatened to turn the left flank of an entire Bulgarian army. In an effort to save their force from being cut off entirely, the Bulgarians launched a desperate attack on the Serbian lines. Once again, the Bulgarians achieved momentary success, but by July 10 the offensive had completely stalled. On July 11 the Romanian army crossed the Bulgarian frontier and began an unopposed march on Sofia, the Bulgarian capital. The following day, the Turks violated their armistice with Bulgaria and entered Thrace. The Greeks and the Serbs launched a general offensive on July 15, and the Turks reoccupied Adrianople on July 22. With enemy columns converging on Sofia, the Bulgarians bowed to the inevitable. On July 30 they concluded an armistice to end hostilities, and a peace treaty was signed between the combatants on August 10, 1913. Under the terms of the treaty, Greece and Serbia divided most of Macedonia between themselves, leaving Bulgaria with only a small part of the region.

Results of the Balkan Wars

As a result of the Balkan Wars, Greece gained southern Macedonia as well as the island of Crete. Serbia gained the Kosovo region and extended into northern and central Macedonia. Albania was made an independent state under a German prince. The political consequences of the wars were considerable. Apart from Turkey, the real loser was Austria-Hungary. The partitioning of the sanjak of Novi Pazar between Serbia and Montenegro made it impossible in the subsequent crisis of June–July 1914 for Austria-Hungary to intervene in the Balkans. The Austro-Hungarian ultimatum to Serbia on July 23, 1914, was thus made to appear as naked aggression. The wars also altered the structure of alliances in the Balkans. Dissatisfied Bulgaria henceforth looked to Austria-Hungary for support, whereas Romania tended to move out of the influence of the Triple Alliance and toward the Triple Entente.

Serbian nationalism and pan-Slavism

Serbian Nationalism

Nationalism was a driving force in Serbian politics and society during this period. Serbian nationalists sought to establish and expand an independent Serbian state that united all Serbs, who were spread across various empires, including the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This ambition brought Serbia into conflict with Austria-Hungary, particularly following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian nationalist in 1914, which led directly to the outbreak of World War I.

Pan-Slavism

Pan-Slavism, on the other hand, was a broader political movement that sought to unite all Slavic peoples across eastern and east-central Europe. It emerged in the mid-19th century, alongside other Romantic nationalist movements, as a reaction to the Napoleonic Wars against traditional European monarchies. The movement was particularly active among intellectuals, scholars, and poets who emphasised the shared identity and ancestry of Slavic peoples. The first Pan-Slav Congress was held in Prague in 1848, bringing together delegates from various Slavic backgrounds.

While pan-Slavism had followers among all Slavic groups, it found particular resonance among Southern Slavs, including Serbs, who sought independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and other non-Slavic empires. They advocated for the creation of a "Southern-Slavic nation of three faiths", uniting Catholic Croats and Slovenes, Muslim Bosniaks and Pomaks, and Orthodox Serbs, Macedonians, and Bulgarians.

The pan-Slavic movement had a complex relationship with Russia. While many pan-Slavists looked to Russia for leadership and protection from Austro-Hungarian and Turkish rule, Russian Pan-Slavists altered the movement's focus. They argued that Russia's mission to rejuvenate spiritually bankrupt Western Europe could not be achieved without the liberation and unification of all Slav peoples into a Russian-dominated confederation. This ideology provided justification for Russia's aggressive moves in the Balkans against the Ottoman Empire, leading to the liberation of the region from Ottoman rule.

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated in Sarajevo, the provincial capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The assassination was carried out by Bosnian Serb student Gavrilo Princip, who was part of a group of six Bosnian assassins, five of whom were Bosnian Serbs and all of whom were citizens of Austria-Hungary. The assassins were aided by the Black Hand, a Serbian secret nationalist group, and their political objective was to free Bosnia and Herzegovina of Austria-Hungarian rule and establish a common South Slav ("Yugoslav") state.

The day of the assassination, 28 June, is Vidovdan, a Serbian feast day that commemorates the 1389 Battle of Kosovo against the Ottomans, in which Sultan Murad I was assassinated in his tent by a Serb. Princip and his fellow assassins were inspired by the heroism of Miloš Obilić, reenacting the Kosovo Myth.

The events of the assassination

Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, arrived in Sarajevo by train on the morning of 28 June 1914. They were met at the station by Governor Oskar Potiorek and six automobiles were waiting for them. However, due to a mix-up, three local police officers got into the first car, while the special security officers who were supposed to accompany them were left behind.

The motorcade's first stop was a brief inspection of a military barracks. At 10:00 am, the motorcade was to leave the barracks for the town hall via the Appel Quay. One of the assassins, Nedeljko Čabrinović, stood on the opposite side of the street near the Miljacka River, armed with a bomb. As the motorcade passed by, Čabrinović threw his bomb, but it bounced off the folded-back convertible cover and rolled under the next car, wounding several people but leaving the Archduke and his wife unharmed. Čabrinović swallowed a cyanide pill and jumped into the river in an attempt to kill himself, but failed.

The motorcade then sped towards the Town Hall, leaving the disabled car behind. Arriving at the Town Hall, Franz Ferdinand gave a speech in which he protested the assassination attempt. After the speech, the Archduke and his wife decided to visit the wounded from the bombing at the hospital. To get to the hospital, the motorcade was supposed to travel straight along the Appel Quay, but due to a miscommunication, the Archduke's driver turned onto a side street, where Princip was standing. Princip stepped up to the car and shot Franz Ferdinand and Sophie at point-blank range. The Archduke's last words were: "Sophie, Sophie! Don't die! Live for our children!" Both the Archduke and his wife were dead by 11:30 am.

The aftermath of the assassination

Anti-Serb rioting broke out in Sarajevo and various other places within Austria-Hungary in the hours and days following the assassination. On the night of the assassination, country-wide anti-Serb pogroms and demonstrations were organized in other parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, particularly in modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia.

The assassins and key members of the clandestine network were tried in Sarajevo in October 1914. Twenty-five people were indicted, and five of the older prisoners were sentenced to be hanged. Princip, who was under 20 at the time of the assassination and therefore too young to be executed, was sentenced to 20 years in jail. He died of tuberculosis in prison in April 1918.

Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia, demanding the suppression of anti-Austrian propaganda, the removal of certain individuals from the Serbian military, the dissolution of the Serbian nationalist organization Narodna Odbrana, the arrest of those involved in the assassination plot, and the prevention of the clandestine shipment of arms and explosives from Serbia to Austria-Hungary. Serbia's response to the ultimatum was deemed insufficient, and on 28 July 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.

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