Franz Ferdinand’s Assassination and the Roaring Twenties
The Assassination of Franz Ferdinand
The murder of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo is the immediate cause of World War One.
On June 28th 1914, the heir to the Austrian Empire, Franz Ferdinand, was visiting Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia.
Bosnia was in the very south-east corner of the Austrian empire and some people there wanted to be independent from Austria and set up their own state which could run itself.
Franz Ferdinand had been warned that his visit could provoke trouble but he ignored this advice and visited Sarajevo regardless. As was common at the time, he travelled in an open topped car.
There had been trouble at the start of his royal tour of Sarajevo when another car in his entourage was hit by a grenade and an Austrian officer had been injured. Clearly, Sarajevo was a dangerous place to be.
However, Franz Ferdinand wanted to demonstrate that his family was in control of Sarajevo and to have stopped the tour would have been seen as a sign of weakness by those who did not want Bosnia and Sarajevo ruled by the Austrians.
Franz ordered that his route through Sarajevo be changed at the last minute as he wanted to see the injured officer in hospital. Unfortunately, his driver did not fully understand his instructions and got lost.
Stopping to check where he was, the driver attempted to reverse out on to the main street. By bad luck, he stopped right by a man called Gavrilo Princip. He was a member of the Black Hand Gang which wanted to rid Bosnia of Austrian rule. He had also been behind the grenade throwing and was now trying to disguise himself among the many people who lined the streets fearing the police might arrest him. Not believing his luck, Princip pulled out the revolver he had on him and shot Franz and his wife. Both died as a result.
A country called Serbia was blamed by Austria for this murder. Serbia was near to Bosnia and it had encouraged the Black Hand Gang and given the gang weapons.
Austria decided that Serbia must be punished and planned to invade her. Serbia called on her old friend Russia to help her. Now the alliance/entente came in to play. One country from each was involved on opposite sides. The situation could only get worse.
Serbia would have been easy for Austria to crush. Russia was a different issue. She had a huge army and Austria would not have coped with an Austro-Russian war. Austria called on Germany for help. The German government agreed to this and their response provoked the French government.
Propaganda in World War One
Propaganda was used in World War One as in any war – and the truth suffered. Propaganda ensured that the people only got to know what their governments wanted them to know. In World War One, the lengths to which governments would go to in an effort to blacken the enemy’s name reached a new level.
To ensure that everybody thought in the way the government wanted, all forms of information were controlled. Newspapers were expected to print what the government wanted the reader to read. In fact, though this would appear to be a form of censorship, the newspapers of Britain, effectively controlled by the media barons of the time, were happy. They printed headlines that were designed to stir up emotions regardless of whether they were accurate or not.
These were designed to develop and strengthen the current of hatred that was already engendered in Britain. The same thing was done in Germany – untrue headlines were tolerated and even encouraged by the German authorities.
The Roaring Twenties
The 1920s were an age of dramatic social and political change. For the first time, more Americans lived in cities than on farms. The United States was also more wealthy than it had ever been, and became a ‘consumer society’. Many Americans were uncomfortable with this new culture, in fact, for many -even most- people in the United States, the 1920s brought more conflict than celebration.
Prohibition and Gangsters
Prohibition occurred between 1920 and 1933. In rural areas of the USA there was a very strong “temperance” movement. Members of that movements agreed not to drink alcohol. They were Christians who saw what damaged alcohol did to family life. They wanted to stop that damaged. This period of time was when the alcoholic beverages could not legally be manufactured, transported or sold in the United States. Prohibition gave criminals a way to illegally make money. Gangsters, men who worked in criminal gangs, began selling alcohol on the black market. They were also involved in many other criminal activities. The most notorious gangster in American history was Al Capone in Chicago. The prohibition ended because it had made the police corrupt and the gangsters rich and powerful. Another problem was when the Wall Street Crash in the early 1930s, so legalising alcohol would create jobs.
Women’s Suffrage
In 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gave women the right to vote, and declared that they deserved full citizenship.
The End of an Era
The 1920’s came roaring in with energy, but ended in horror with the crash of the stock market in 1929. Many people lost all the money they had and were unemployed. This time marked the beginning of the Great Depression.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Roaring Twenties may have been a fun time to be alive, but the excesses of that period of the USA, made it one of the worst times in American history for some people.