In Shadow of Sarajevo

Today marks the centenary of the Assassination Archduke Franz Ferdinand in the city of Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip of the organization Unification or Death better known to history as the Black Hand Gang.

Most of us have heard this story many times before and how this incident spiraled in a war that Consumed Europe and it’s colonies. How millions of men marched to their deaths on the battlefields of France, Belgium, Russia the Eastern Alps etc.

Travel through almost any city, town, village in Europe and you find reminders of the First World War in the form of memorials listing the names those killed during the conflict. There were many more who came back and had to live with the mental and physical trauma.

But in many minds the real tragedy of the Great War. The cruellest thing  was not the millions dead or the millions crippled it is that the war didn’t solve anything it didn’t bring peace. How we failed a build better world from the ruins and ultimately lead ourselves to the Second World War.

But maybe in some ways we did learn, the war swept away many of the old monarchical and imperial governments who had ruled for hundreds of years. And in their place new ideas and states came into being. How well these worked varies and it’s a matter of debate if they created any lasting change.

Whatever the outcome we all live in the Shadow of Sarajevo.