Reference no: EM133732708

The French Revolution

The place is France; the time is the 18th century. The kingdom is experiencing great changes. France itself is wealthy and has enjoyed a tradition of glory and splendor for those at the top of society. One sees numerous examples of magnificence, ranging from the marvelous palace at Versailles to the brilliance of the Enlightenment movement that found a home in France. The kings and their royal court lived well. Although Versailles' most glorious days were in the 17th century during the reign of Louis XIV, in the 18th century the palace remained a center of power rivaled by no other place in Europe. The good life wasn't confined to the royal palace as outside the grounds of Versailles, thousands of members of the First and Second Estates lived in comfort. Granted not everyone in these groups enjoyed great wealth; however, all members of the First Estate, which consisted of the clergy enjoyed great privileges, as did all members of the Second Estate or the aristocracy. Those living at the top of these two Estates resided on some of the richest land in France. Though neither First nor Second Estate controlled the monarchy, their many privileges included significant tax breaks. For them indeed the 18th century was the best of times.

Most people living in France at this time did not enjoy the blessings of privilege. They lived as part of the Third Estate, most of whom suffered through nasty, brutish and short lives. The overwhelming majority of members of this Estate lived as peasants, comprising approximately 80% of the kingdom. In some circumstances a peasant could conceivably own a sufficient amount of land and use it to survive and live relatively well. Unfortunately in most cases if you were a peasant, you owned little if any land and there were plenty of roadblocks between you and any sort of decent life. You had little land if any, and whatever you produced remained subject to the demands of the upper classes. Life in the cities wasn't much better. Even if you possessed the means to make some sort of living, e.g., you were a merchant in Paris and were able to bring in enough income each year to survive, the odds remained stacked against you in your quest for a good life. There were formidable challenges, the worst which were the stagnant economy and the ever-climbing price of bread. To make matters worse, you received no relief from your government. (A bread riot would inspire this famous march on Versailles.) Indeed those in charge of the government appear to have devoted much of the 1780s to fighting over whether the nobility should be taxed at all, while demonstrating little if any worry about the sufferings of the Third Estate.

The French government weakened considerably during the 18th century. The journey from the glories of Louis XIV to near disaster in the 1780s was a long one, and led the kingdom through several wars, most of which the French lost. Many people in the 1780s remember the disaster of 1763, when the French lost practically all their overseas territories to the English after seven long years of fighting. Choosing the winning side in the America Revolution, which would follow over a decade later wouldn't bring much relief to the kingdom. Indeed the American Revolution ended up weakening the government at this time of growing anger and revolution.

There were also new ideas in the air. France was the center of the Enlightenment, which made the kingdom an attractive place for the top intellectuals to gather. They came to Paris, where they found a receptive audience eager to learn and discuss new approaches to government and society. For the first time in history, many French began to view an enlightened government as the best means to lift people from poverty and create a more just and equitable kingdom.

An economic, social and political crisis developed in France during the 1780s. The kingdom's finances continued to spiral downward and all attempts to reform France's taxation system would fail. People lost their jobs; crops failed; famine spread. While the people of the kingdom suffered, their government did nothing to help them. A decade of suffering pushed the kingdom to the brink of disaster, which would compel the monarchy to give up all attempts to hold onto complete power and convene the National Assembly for the first time since 1614. Giving France's Three Estates the chance to come together as a National Assembly actually meant hope for France at the beginning of 1789.

The First World War

A. Introduction - background to this story

Sarajevo. Bosnia-Herzegovina. Austro-Hungarian Empire. This city, province and empire have experienced considerable change in the past four decades. Until 1878 Sarajevo and Bosnia-Herzegovina had been a part of the Ottoman Empire. Following the Treaty of Berlin, the Austrians were granted the right to administer these lands indefinitely. In 1908 for a variety of reasons, the Austrians formally annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina, incorporating it more fully into their empire. The Austrians did this for two likely reasons: first to demonstrate that the Turks would never reclaim their lost provinces, and that the Austro-Hungarian Empire remained a significant imperial power. The annexation sent another message to the region's Serbian population, one that viewed the province as part of the expanding kingdom of Serbia. This group had wanted the Serbian government to annex Bosnia-Herzegovina; they were furious when the Austrians grabbed this territory for themselves.

A secret society known as the Black Hand was founded in Belgrade, Serbia; they were an anti-Austrian nationalist group that at the very least enjoyed the sympathy of many within the Serbian government. When the Black Hand learned that Archduke Franz Ferdinand - the heir to the Austrian throne - was scheduled to visit Sarajevo near the end of June, 1914, they decided to assassinate him. None of the parties that would be involved in this upcoming event know that they had a date with history, one that would end up changing Europe and the world.

Franz Ferdinand was born in 1863; he was the eldest son of Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria, the younger brother of Emperor Franz Josef. Although he was not in the direct line to the throne, he was a powerful and influential noble within the empire and able to enjoy a wealth that few could match in the mid-late 19th century.1 His life changed in 1889, when his cousin Crown Prince Rudolf committed suicide at Mayerling, the family's hunting lodge.2 Rudolf was the only son of Franz Josef and his death would therefore leave the emperor without a male heir to the throne. Because Franz Ferdinand was the eldest son of the emperor's brother, he was the next male in line to the throne and was designated Crown Prince and heir in 1889.

The crown prince's death would change Franz Ferdinand's life and affect his marriage to Countess Sophie Chotek in 1900. Ferdinand's status as heir to the throne required a carefully arranged political union, given that he could only marry someone from one of the current or formerly reigning dynasties of Europe. Although Sophie Chotek was a member of the nobility, she was not high enough to be permitted to enter into a political union of this importance. Nonetheless Franz Ferdinand fell deeply in love with her after they met at a ball in Prague in 1894. They kept their relationship secret for a while. Because Ferdinand was deeply in love with Chotek, he refused to settle for any other marriage and insisted that he should be permitted to marry the woman he loved. The emperor conceded in 1899, but on the condition that the marriage would be morganatic, so that Chotek would enjoy none of her husband's privileges and that none of the succession rights to the Austrian throne would pass onto their children. These conditions were accepted and the marriage took place on July 1, 1900.3

The Austrian court was not a friendly place for Sophie Chotek, as she wasn't allowed to appear in public with her husband, ride in the royal carriage with him or sit in the royal box at the theatre in Vienna. While her titles and respect at the court gradually increased, she continued to occupy a much lower rung on the social ladder than the other archduchesses at the Hapsburg court. For example, whenever there was a royal line at an official courtly function, she was unable to stand up in front with her husband and had to remain separated from him, far down the line. Due to ongoing intrigue at the court, Chotek suffered humiliations throughout their marriage, and was often unable to visit other royal courts with her husband.

It was at least partially because of these incidents that her husband took her with him on his inspection tour of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1914. Because Franz Ferdinand was invited to the city by a general and not royal personage, there was no protocol preventing his wife from accompanying him. This visit would fall around the 14th anniversary of their wedding, and provide them a rare opportunity to celebrate together in public. While the Archduke was aware of the potential threats to his life from Serbian separatist groups, he determined that the risk was worth it and the two of them traveled to Sarajevo. They arrived in the city on June 28, 1914.

June 28, 1914 was a nice day in Sarajevo. The weather was sunny and warm. Along the route Franz Ferdinand and his party would take were many houses decorated with flags and flowers. While Sarajevo's security was light, the city itself was not seen as overly hostile territory, making it likely easier for seven young assassins influenced and trained by the Black Hand to spread out among the crowd that was lined along the Boulevard the Archduke's motorcade would use. The first assassin might have lost his nerve as he did nothing when the motorcade passed him. The second assassin in line had more nerve and launched a bomb directly at Franz Ferdinand. The Archduke and his wife were fortunate enough this time that the bomb missed them; it would actually bounce out of his car and explode on the street behind them, injuring some of spectators and other members of the imperial party.

This attack would not halt the rest of the planned activities of the day, as Ferdinand - although enraged by this attempt on his life - was determined to remain calm and carry on. After lunch and a visit to the hospital to check on the wounded, the Archduke's party proceeded to their planned visit to a museum. While the motorcade was supposed to travel a different route than had originally been planned, no one provided the new directions to the two men driving both the mayor's and Franz Ferdinand's cars. (The couple just before the assassination.) Both cars exited the main boulevard and drove down Franz Josef street, before realizing their mistake. The archduke's car slowed down not far from Gavrilo Princip who pulled out a gun and fired two shots directly at the Archduke and his wife, killing both. Thanks to the mob, he was unable to turn his gun on himself; thanks to misfortune, the cyanide he was carrying proved ineffective. He would live to see the unexpected results from the assassination and witness Europe and the world descend into war. (Princip under arrest.)

This tragic story had serious consequences, as it set in motion a series of events that would result in Europe's "sleepwalking" into war one month later. Diplomacy would fail and Austria would declare war on Serbia on July 28. Russia and France mobilized for war almost immediately thereafter, followed German by mobilization. Attempts across the continent to stop this descent into madness would fail, with Germany declaring war on Russia on August 1 and on France two days later. Britain, which had worked frantically to preserve the peace after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, felt compelled to declare war on Germany on August 4. The lights across Europe went off and war was on, one that would not end for four more years.

Obviously one lone event does not explain the causes of the First World War. There are numerous explanations for the outbreak of the First World War; indeed the roots of this disaster are many, they are deep and complex. Examples include the following: The long, dangerous imperial struggle in the years preceding 1914. The slow and painful death of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century, which opened up territories for imperial exploitation, including Bosnia-Herzegovina. The potential breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire - which was caused by among other reasons, the empire's inability to satisfy the desires of its numerous multi-national subjects - helped drive the Austrians towards annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The rise of Germany and its competition with the other major powers, specifically England, contributed to an atmosphere of general European mistrust on the eve of war. Add to this the sense that Europe was playing Russian Roulette in the years prior to 1914, in which major conflicts occurring in 1906, 1908, 1912 and 1913 also possessed the potential to explode into a European-wide and global war. Indeed had war between Austria and Serbia been contained to both these powers in 1914, Europe would have witnessed the third of three consecutive Balkan Wars, all of which had at least some connection to the decline of Ottoman power. In my opinion at least, had Franz Ferdinand's car not taken that fatal detour on June 28, there would have been another spark to set off the flames that would consume Europe during the First World War.

The Holocaust

What was the Holocaust? For the purpose of this exercise, we should define planned and systematic extermination of millions of people, especially Jews, by the Nazis and their supporters during the Second World War. While some may argue that the Holocaust originated with the rise of Hitler, the years 1933-39 should be defined as years of terror, because the persecution and killings were restricted to within Germany. These were awful years for those victimized by the regime; however, what we understand as the Holocaust occurred only because of the Second World War. The Jewish population in Germany in 1933 numbered approximately 500,000 out of a total popular of 67 million or less than one percent. Approximately half of this group would flee over the subsequent six year, leaving Germany with a Jewish population of approximately 200,000 at the end of 1939, with around 50,000 living in annexed Austria.

1 There were concentration camps established as early as 1933 with Dachau - located near Munich -leading the way by opening in March of that year.

2 While German Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps before 1939 - and some would perish during their imprisonment, the image we have of mass extermination of people would not become reality until 1942. Therefore the number of Jewish (and other victims) of National Socialism remained comparatively small until the outbreak of war. It was the start of the Second World War in 1939, along with thelaunch of Operation Barbarossa or the attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, that made the Holocaust happen. War and German victory brought millions of additional Jewish and non-Jewish victims under Germany's control, most of whom would be murdered between 1942-5. The horror which we understand as the Holocaust therefore happened at the end of this horrible period in European and human history.

1. What is your opinion of all three of your pathways?

2. What were some of the highlights of each pathway? Provide some details.