| June 28 |  |
Editor says, what if the Franz Ferdinand had lived? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the July 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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It is June 28 1914, and the Austrian Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie are touring his imperial uncle's possessions in Bosnia. Suddenly a bomb is thrown into their carriage, forcing them to flee.
Close call in SarajevoFranz Ferdinand insists on going to the hospital, to visit the ambush victims .. but Sophie pleads with him to take refuge in the Sarajevo city hall, until the soldiers can arrive to guard them on their way back to the border. Giving in to her urging, he waits until the soldiers are surrounding them, thus forming a human shield all the way back to the border.
He is soon very glad that he listened to her, when reports come that four radical Bosnian and Serbian youths were planning to shoot them both, thus inciting a war between their own countries and the Austrian empire. With their plot foiled, both nations join in giving thanks that the couple's life was spared, thus bringing Bosnia closer to her imperial rulers.
Entry posted by
Jackie Rose
© Jackie Rose, 2011-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Franz Ferdinand, Sarajevo, World War 1, First World War, Austria. Editor says, what really happened: Franz Ferdinand and Sophie were both murdered on the way to the hospital, leading Austria and her ally Germany to declare war on Serbia. Russia soon entered on Serbia's side, and they were soon joined by England, France and eventually America too. World War I had begun.
~ Some say that Germany was looking for any excuse to start a war...but a failed assassination plot would have been a pretty poor one.
~ If only...
~ It is entirely untrue Imperial germany was looking for an excuseto start a war. It would be true to say Imperial Russia was, followed by the War parties in French and Britain.
"Curses Foiled Again" would be the cry in certain quarters in St.Petersburg.
it is unlikey there would be rejoicing in Serbia, but its government would be placed in a highly embarrassing situation as Serbian military intelligence were involved.
Russia now has no pretext for war. What will happen to its war preparations which have been going on since the previous November?
What will happen when the British battlecruiser squadron visit St.P. on 28thth June to 3rd July?
What will Poincare say at the Franco-Russian Military conference at St.P when he visits on 22-24th July?
Will he now go at all?
~ True, but they would have to find another pretext.
~ Should be Serbs and Bosnian Serbs. The Bosniaks were reasonably happy with Austrian rule as the alternates were Hungarian and Serbian.
~ A major breaking point in history. If Russia doesn't lose out so readily, there won't be uprisings to lead to soviet power; same with Germany and fascism.
~ And all those millions of soldiers' lives had been saved, Jeff. I'd call that a win-win situation all the way around.
~ It is a mega-turning point in history. The whole disasterous history of the Twentieth Century derives from WW1 and the Versailles peace - books on this have been written in the US.
Jackie be pleased to hear Hitler remains a bad artist in Vienna after discharge from the Bavarian army, Lenin remains in Georgia and so on.
Wison is a single term president.
Europe lacks the mass killing of the trenches and WW1 battles.
~ It's been said if in an Alternative Universe someone was to write an Alternative istory of the 20th century based on ours no-one would believe it to be credible.
Pity about the Roaring Twenties.
~ It could have happened, or just have Franz and Sophie's car not stop right in front of that little twerp Princip.
~
You could have had the '20's but no great depressin.
This came from wall Street withdrawing the german loans it had made, so that thye germans could pay the reparations so the Entente powers couldreay their war loans to the US>
It was like the present collapses in the EEC.
Alsothe US government had sold War Bonds on a mass basis to the population. After te war why should not Stock Brokers do this for ordinary companies, many of the Share sales beingon credit.
Then foolishly the stockbrokers sold the shares they were holding for private individuals, as they were on credit, to try to get some of the money back. The collapse became permanent.
There are good TV documentaries on this.
So there is a chain of events and Domino Effect from the war.
~ It's unlikely the Twenties would have been the same, even in America, without the "war to end all wars" to react against. As for the thirties and beyond, who knows? Certainly if the war could have been avoided things would have been different for Germany--and for Russia, where two million people starved to deathy during the war years BEFORE the revolution, which helped make the revolution possible.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
