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The assassination in Sarajevo, a pretext for Europe's suicide
The many causes and the many generators of the conflict by Julio Gil Pecharromán
Here it is an excerpt from Julio Gil Pecharromán's "The pretext. Assassination in Sarajevo", published in the Adventure of History (year 2004, nº 69). (Download the PDF). Next we propose some activities.
Tasks:
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The assassination attempt in Sarajevo. An ordinary or exceptional one? a. According to the text, were assassination attempts at that time something unusual or relatively frequent? What triggered such attempts in that time? What type of attempt was the one who killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand? b. According to the text, is the attempt in Sarajevo a sufficient reason for the beginning of a war in which so many countries were involved?
c. According to the text and what you have studied, why did the attempt actually unleash the war? |
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Deep causes leading to the war a. In what sense, do you think the political-military alliances contribute to feed the warmongering? b. According to the text, do you think the rulers in the different countries would like war? What influence do the so called "warmongering circles" have in the development of a war atmosphere? What were their interests? c. In what sense are the "self-defence reflexes" mentioned as another cause of the conflict in the text?
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Who has the responsibility for the unleashing of the war? a. After the war, the peace treaties, and particularly the Treaty of Versailles, attributes all the responsibility to Germany, Why? Did Germany start the conflict?
b. According to the text, is it justifiable to attribute to Germany all the responsibility in the origin of the conflict? Why? |
Tasks:
Next some tasks which could be done by the students in the classroom are suggested here.
Suggestions for their development are indicated in green. You can also use the activities suggested in the "student" version, adapting them conveniently.
If you have the whole text (article on PDF), you'll be able to work with more detail the question which is set out here.
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The assassination attempt in Sarajevo. An ordinary or exceptional one? a. Ask your students to surf the internet for information about anarchist and nationalist attempts at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. Revise with them the most important ones due to their historical repercussions.
b. Comment the text with your students and debate with them the importance of the attempt as a trigger for the origin of the conflict (suggestion: you can use the questions in task 1 of the "student" version) |
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Deep causes leading to the war a. Ask a group of students to develop a scheme of the alliances that take place before the outbreak of the war, with their member countries, and to indicate the main landmarks of the "Armed Peace" at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. What conclusions can be taken out from the way this type of alliances take place? Next, invite them to show their conclusions to their classmates. b. Ask other group of students to do a brief study on the nationalist movements in the 19th century and in the early 20th century in Europe. What effect do these movements have in the development of conflicts "inside" and "among" the powers of the time? Invite them to show their conclusions. c. Invite other group to search for information about the Balkan Wars, the disputes among the different territories and the influence of the surrounding powers, and to show their conclusions to their classmates. d. Finally, you can ask the students to make up a scheme about the causes of the conflict, starting from the textbook information and adding what they have learnt with the previous exercises and reading of the suggested text. |
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Who has the responsibility for the unleashing of the war? a. In a computer classroom, ask your students to go to http://geacron.com. Help them to create a timeline where World War I and the main countries in the conflict, the stages and landmarks of the war, the rulers of each country, etc. are represented. You can add the map below the timeline and compare the geopolitical panorama with the facts placed in a linear way. Ask them to notice the different battle fronts and take advantage of the opportunity to analyze with them the usefulness of this type of tools. b. The Treaty of Versailles attributes all the responsibility for the war to Germany. Revise with your students the role each of the participating countries and, ask them to try to explain one reason for their involvement in the conflict, according to everything they have studied. In the light of the result, is it possible to attribute Germany the whole responsibility for the conflict? Compare the result of the discussion with Julio Gil's opinion. |
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