The July Crisis

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, initially seemed another Balkan crisis that diplomacy would resolve. Paris newspapers gave it modest coverage. The President and Prime Minister departed for Russia on scheduled state visit. July began normally—reports of the Tour de France dominated newspapers.

But the diplomatic machinery ground toward catastrophe with mechanical inevitability. Austria's ultimatum to Serbia, Germany's support for Austria, Russia's mobilization to protect Serbia, France's treaty obligations to Russia—each step followed logically from premises no one questioned until too late. The alliance system worked exactly as designed, which proved the problem.

Jaurès desperately tried organizing international socialist opposition to war. His meetings with German socialists sought coordinated general strikes. His editorials in L'Humanité argued that workers had no interest in killing fellow workers for capitalist competition. His assassination removed the last significant voice for peace.

The final days passed in strange suspension between normal life and approaching catastrophe. Parisians sat at café terraces discussing mobilization orders. Theaters performed comedies to audiences checking watches nervously. The Bourse swung wildly as investors calculated war's profits and losses. Everyone waited for someone else to stop the unstoppable.