Tuesday, July 29, 2014

July 29, 1914

One hundred years ago today the first shots of World War One were fired. A flotilla of Austro-Hungarian river warships shells Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.

Elsewhere in Europe the Russian Empire began a partial mobilization of its army against the Austro-Hungarian Empire to show its intent to defend Serbia if Austria-Hungary invaded. 

The Kaiser of Germany and the Czar of Russia (who were cousins and both grandchildren of Queen Victoria) began an exchange of telegrams that would continue into the next day. The Kaiser was trying to convince the Czar to demobilize the Russian army and the Czar insisting that he must come to the aid of tiny Serbia, a fellow Slavic nation, against the aggression of the much larger Austro-Hungarian Empire.       
 

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