30 June 1914

100 years ago today: there are further details concerning the assassination of the Archduke and his wife and the funeral plans.  The Telegraph speculates on the motives behind the murders and the “various intrigues which at present are convulsing the Balkans” and states that “to forecast the possible international consequences is a delicate, and perhaps superfluous, task”. There is concern that the death of the Archduke may “attain a yet wider influence in Central Europe and on the direction of the Triple Alliance.”  Martial law has been proclaimed in Sarajevo following violent anti-Servian demonstrations and several arrests have been made.

29 June 1914

100 years ago today: the Telegraph reports the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie by “some fanatic at Sarajevo” describing it as a “real disaster, of which it is difficult to over-estimate the importance” The death of the Archduke is felt to be a “serious loss to Europe at large” and his “cowardly murder” has “shocked the conscience of the whole world.” Another article states that the “political consequences are likely to be grave”.  The Telegraph correspondent in Berlin states that “the Austrian problem elevates itself ever more menacingly to a danger for the peace of Europe”

100 years on: a social history project

Driving through Flanders recently, it dawned on me that 100 years ago, the people in the villages we were driving through would have been going about their daily lives with no inkling of the horrors about to be unleashed on them. The approaching centenary made me think about what it would have been like for those at home living through the war, reading the news reports. I decided to start a social history project, to follow the Telegraph archive each day through the war (therefore being a bit behind on the news) starting from the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.