Monday, June 28, 2010
Vidovdan
Locally, I was surprised to note that the TV station KNDO actually made note of the assasination of Arch-Duke Franz-Ferdinand and his wife Sophie Chotek. This is commonly given as the reason for the begining of WWI.
I actually visited the museum in Sarajevo dedicated to this event. the museum costs a couple marks to visit. They have the cups from which the unfortunate Arch-Duke and his wife drank their last coffee, and other things of interest.
It was a normal part of daily life for me to walk in the area of Franz Ferdinand's ill fated motorcade, and probably even I drank coffee in a place where Gavrilo Princep drank his last coffee.
The real significance of the date June 28th though is the battle of Kosovo Polje.
I had ancestors in this battle, most notably Vuk Kosaca, who went on the orders of the king of Bosnia who led soldiers and knights who went to fight there.
The battle technically was a draw, with both the main leaders killed.
The Turkish leader was killed by a Serbian, pretending to be a defector, and Prince Lazar died in the battle.
Prince Lazar's bones went on the Great Migration of the Serbian people who left the area later. They left for territory then in the Austrian Empire, and it was not a good move for them. Many actually found it better to go into then Turkish occupied Serbia.
The Austrians in turn hung so many innocent people that it cannot have helped in winning hearts and minds of Serbian people living in Bosnia and Hercegovina. In fact it did not. Nor did accusing the Serbian government of that time of backing the assassins.
Most historians agree the Serbian government of the time was innocent in this matter. The conspiracy was an urban based one' of students who would be in American terms in the late stages of High School or perhaps the early stages of college.
All the conspirators were very young and afraid. Even Gavrilo Princep was afraid. The only people who were not afraid were the highly inept security people in the employ of the Austrian Empire.
To say the least, they failed to meet basic professional requirments. Having seen many times the narrow streets in that area, it takes no particular imagination to see how easy it was to carry out some sort of act of terror in that place at that time.
I got to see a very interesting documentary during my time in Bosnia, of the village of Gavrilo Princep, and film of his relatives.
Princep's living relatives eerily resemble him. To this day, Princep's home village is a sad and nearly ruined village of very poor people who have to work very hard to earn their bread.
The people in Laos have a saying I like. 'When the elephants dance, the ants have to run away'
The problem is there is next to no place to run some times.
There was no place to run from the consequences of the Battle of Kosovo Polje and for Europe no place to run from the consequences of WWI.
I actually visited the museum in Sarajevo dedicated to this event. the museum costs a couple marks to visit. They have the cups from which the unfortunate Arch-Duke and his wife drank their last coffee, and other things of interest.
It was a normal part of daily life for me to walk in the area of Franz Ferdinand's ill fated motorcade, and probably even I drank coffee in a place where Gavrilo Princep drank his last coffee.
The real significance of the date June 28th though is the battle of Kosovo Polje.
I had ancestors in this battle, most notably Vuk Kosaca, who went on the orders of the king of Bosnia who led soldiers and knights who went to fight there.
The battle technically was a draw, with both the main leaders killed.
The Turkish leader was killed by a Serbian, pretending to be a defector, and Prince Lazar died in the battle.
Prince Lazar's bones went on the Great Migration of the Serbian people who left the area later. They left for territory then in the Austrian Empire, and it was not a good move for them. Many actually found it better to go into then Turkish occupied Serbia.
The Austrians in turn hung so many innocent people that it cannot have helped in winning hearts and minds of Serbian people living in Bosnia and Hercegovina. In fact it did not. Nor did accusing the Serbian government of that time of backing the assassins.
Most historians agree the Serbian government of the time was innocent in this matter. The conspiracy was an urban based one' of students who would be in American terms in the late stages of High School or perhaps the early stages of college.
All the conspirators were very young and afraid. Even Gavrilo Princep was afraid. The only people who were not afraid were the highly inept security people in the employ of the Austrian Empire.
To say the least, they failed to meet basic professional requirments. Having seen many times the narrow streets in that area, it takes no particular imagination to see how easy it was to carry out some sort of act of terror in that place at that time.
I got to see a very interesting documentary during my time in Bosnia, of the village of Gavrilo Princep, and film of his relatives.
Princep's living relatives eerily resemble him. To this day, Princep's home village is a sad and nearly ruined village of very poor people who have to work very hard to earn their bread.
The people in Laos have a saying I like. 'When the elephants dance, the ants have to run away'
The problem is there is next to no place to run some times.
There was no place to run from the consequences of the Battle of Kosovo Polje and for Europe no place to run from the consequences of WWI.
# posted by Katja R. @ 5:52 AM 
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Well, I'm not sure that the Serbian government was all that innocent. The Black Hand in Belgrade who were supposed to have armed and sent Princip and his friends were organised by Col. Dimitrijevic of Serbian military intelligence and was even then inspired by a Greater Serbia ideology. The Black Hand were at arms length from the Government - bit like Blackwater, maybe. The govt. tried to mend the damage to avoid war but it was too late. But Princip wasn't executed, I think he died of TB in prison during the war.
# posted by 
: 1:34 PM
: 1:34 PM
Princip and the other conspirators were under 21 and therefore not executed.
Tyrannical as the Austro-Hungarian government was, they did not execute people who committed crimes as juveniles, and in those days under 21 was a juvenile for these purposes.
However hundreds of people were hung, in their villages because the Austro-Hungarian suspected them of involvement.
As far as the Black Hand goes, I am the LAST person to defend such an evil organization. However I really don't think the Serbian government at it's highest levels wanted to go there.
The Serbian government however did have a few weak spots. It is possible that the planning was without the full knowlege of the governmeent.
As far as the Black Hand being like Blackwater/Xi, I think it was more like the Contras, or the Hmong people in Vietnam. Aided and abetted by certain persons and organs of the Serbian government, but not neccesarily the higher reaches of the government.
As far as avoiding the war, the Austrians were pretty ready to go to war on several grounds. The assassination simply gave them too good an excuse to overlook. If it had not been Franz-Ferdinand, it would have been something else.
Tyrannical as the Austro-Hungarian government was, they did not execute people who committed crimes as juveniles, and in those days under 21 was a juvenile for these purposes.
However hundreds of people were hung, in their villages because the Austro-Hungarian suspected them of involvement.
As far as the Black Hand goes, I am the LAST person to defend such an evil organization. However I really don't think the Serbian government at it's highest levels wanted to go there.
The Serbian government however did have a few weak spots. It is possible that the planning was without the full knowlege of the governmeent.
As far as the Black Hand being like Blackwater/Xi, I think it was more like the Contras, or the Hmong people in Vietnam. Aided and abetted by certain persons and organs of the Serbian government, but not neccesarily the higher reaches of the government.
As far as avoiding the war, the Austrians were pretty ready to go to war on several grounds. The assassination simply gave them too good an excuse to overlook. If it had not been Franz-Ferdinand, it would have been something else.
I really envy you having been there. Right from the time of history at school the notion of the world changing as a result of that one brief moment of drama impressed me. Poor Franz-Ferdinand and Sophie seem to have been a decent and devoted couple. It was their misfortune that the Austro-Hungarian Empire's fate was ready to be decided at that little wrong turning.
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# posted by : 3:13 AM
: 3:13 AM << Home
