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Show IHOW GERMANY I THRUST WAR UPON - ALLIED NATIONS j j Events Leading LTp to Break Be-j Be-j tween Huns and the Powers j of Europe. i 1 ! King George Sent Appeals for Peace, but Kaiser Decided That Sword Had Been Forced Into His Hand, and Hostilities Began. On June 2S. 1 It 1 -I. Archduke Frank Ferdinand, heir apparent to Anstria-llnngary, Anstria-llnngary, was assassinated, with his consort, the 1 tuchess of Hohcnberg, by Bosnian conspirators at Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, where Pan-Slavic feeling ran high. On July 2,'! the Austro-I liingarian minister at Belgrade presented to th. Serbian government a drastic ultimatum, ulti-matum, demanding punishment of 1 1 1 o-allcged o-allcged Serbian instigators of tlie tragedy trag-edy ami imposing, along Willi laanv other humiliating demands, the condition con-dition that Serbia "accept the collaboration collab-oration of Austrian officials in the suppression sup-pression of the Pan-Serbian movement," move-ment," anil -giving her weaker neighbor neigh-bor forty-eight hours in which to ciiiii-I'l.v- It was openly the aim of Austria, "in accord with Germany,'' not only-to only-to deprive Serbia of its political Independence, In-dependence, but also to Inflict a check, to Russia. From Ihen on events moved rapidly. Serbia, on July 2;"i, gave way to all the Austrian demands.. but denied the right of Austria to exercise ex-ercise judicial authority in Serbia. Italy, before the expiration of the ultimatum, made it known Hint she was not in sympathy with the Austro-Iluugarian Austro-Iluugarian note to Serbia. At once diplomatic exchanges began be-gan between the various powers to. avert the war that was impending; lint, on July 27. Austria issued a note to the powers stating that Serbia's acquiescence ac-quiescence to her demands was unsatisfactory un-satisfactory and "filled with the spirit of dishonesty." and on the following day, July 28, Austria declared war on Serbia. Rus: ' t at once began to mobilize, and notified the powers that she would not permit the invasion of Serbia. The-next The-next day Sir Kdward Grey, British secretary for foreign affairs, sent peace proposals for a council of Europe Eu-rope lo both the kaiser and the czar.. His action was supported by France-and France-and Italy. The kaiser's reply was a general order or-der of mobilization and an ultimatum with a twelve-hour limit, to Russia to-stop to-stop mobilizing. Of France, Germany demanded to be informed of her attitude atti-tude in case of a Russo-Gennan war: This was on July 30, and on tlie same day Austria invaded Serhja. On July 31 military law was proclaimed pro-claimed throughout Germany, and Russia Rus-sia ordered a general mobilization. Personal messages were exchanged between the czar and the kaiser, t both of whom King George sent appeals ap-peals for peace, but on August 1 Germany Ger-many suddenly decided that "the sword had been forced into her hand"" and declared war on Russia, while-Austria while-Austria was still actually negotiating with the czar. France at once ordered a general mobilization and Italy formally declared de-clared her neutrality. It was plain that, a general war was inevitable. The kaiser sent an ultimatum in. German to King Albert of Belgium oa August 2, demanding free passage folios fol-ios armies. The same day German forces crossed the frontiers of Luxemburg Luxem-burg and France, and 'on August 3 Germany declared war on France. On the morning of August 4 the German army invaded Belgium, which had already appealed to England to. preserve her neutrality, and the British Brit-ish ambassador in Berlin demanded the immediate withdrawal of the kaiser's forces from Belgium, and. unable un-able to obtain satisfaction, England de- . flared war on Germany the same evening, even-ing, to the unaffected dismay of the German chancellor, who could not believe be-lieve that "just for a scrap of paper England was going to make war." |