Chapter 20: An Accident Waiting to Happen

While the rest of the world might view Europe and Europeans as a monolithic force with global reach, the continent was beset with many rivalries. As part of the long-term legacy of the post-Roman era of unity, Europe was a chessboard of competing nation-states in the west and multi-ethnic empires in the east. These conflicts would dramatically threaten Europe’s overall power in the world.

This assassination set in motion a series of states going to war based upon alliances. These alliances were initially designed as a deterrent, but in the end they made the conflict in the Balkans a much larger war. Nationalism was also at the heart of the outbreak of the war. Throughout Europe, people identified with their larger nation-state and often cheered the declaration of war against perceived enemy states. This popular support for war made the First World War a unique moment in world history.

Assassination of Franz Ferdinand, June 28, 1914. The spark that set off the war was the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian heir to the throne by Serbian nationalists during his visit to Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovina. When he was killed, few could predict that within six weeks, a European-wide war would break out.

Revolutions of Industrialization

Industrialization offered new opportunities to people with important skills, such as carpentry, metallurgy, and machine operations. Some creative people became engineers or opened their own businesses, but for the majority of those who left their farming roots to find their fortunes in the cities, life was full of disappointments. Most industrial jobs were boring, repetitive, and poorly paid. Workdays were long with few breaks, and workers performed one simple task over and over with little sense of accomplishment. Unlike even the poorest farmer or craftsman, factory workers had no control over tools, jobs, or working hours. Factory workers could do very little about their difficulties until later part of the period, when labor unions formed and helped to provoke the moral conscience of some middle class people.