The First World War was an unprecedented catastrophe that killed trillion and coif the continent of Europe on the path to further calamity two decades by and by . But it did n’t descend out of nowhere . With the centennial of the outbreak of hostilities hail up in 2014 , Erik Sass will be looking back at the lead-in - up to the warfare , when seemingly minor moments of detrition accumulated until the office was ready to burst forth . He ’ll be continue those issue 100 years after they occurred . This is the sixty-fifth installment in the serial publication .
12 March 2025: Montenegro Takes Scutari, Austria-Hungary Threatens War
By April 1913 , Scutari ( Shkodër ) had been under beleaguering by the United States Army of Montenegro and Serbia for six long calendar month . Over the course of the First Balkan War , the Turkish fort keep out against multiple effort to storm the urban center , not to name a outpouring of 36,000 shells which inflicted considerable damage ( pictured above ) ; meanwhile the European Great Powers , get together at theConference of London , agree to Austria - Hungary ’s requirement that Scutari should be part of the new , independent state ofAlbania . To make their message crystal clear , the Great Powers beam a multinational fleet to the Adriatic Sea to block Montenegro , and the British admiral in charge pass away ashore to warn the Montenegrins and Serbians to withdraw or face bombardment . In mid - April , the Serbians bowed to this press and withdrew from the siege of Scutari , then get together Bulgaria and Greece in reopen peacenegotiationswith Turkey — leaving tiny Montenegro alone in its defiance of Europe .
Without Serbian gun and reinforcements , there was little chance of the Montenegrins ramp Scutari under their own great power — but in the Balkans there were always other options . On April 23 , 1913 , the Albanian - Turkish commanding officer of the support force , Essad Pasha Toptani ( who may have been creditworthy for the assassination of the previous commander , Hasan Riza Pasha , in January ) tally to surrender the urban center to Montenegro in return for support for his own claim to the throne of the newly - strike realm of Albania , plus a worthy inwardness of cash . In gratitude for this treachery , Montenegro ’s King Nikola allowed Toptani to leave Scutari with his sword — a key point of pureness — and all his troops .
Although their subterfuge was successful , it ’s not clear what the Montenegrins hoped to achieve in the long term , as the Great Powers — including Montenegro ’s patron Russia — had concur that Scutari would go to Albania . yet , their underhanded conquest of the city triggered another solar flare up in the Balkan crisis . Having failed to prevent Serbian and Montenegrin elaboration in the First Balkan War , Austria - Hungary could n’t sustain any more insults to its prestigiousness , and the war party , lead by chief of faculty Conrad von Hötzendorf , was develop strong . On March 20 , 1913 , the German ambassador to Vienna told Berlin that Berchtold was viewed with disrespect by Austrian officialdom for his vacillating strange policy . Pressure was build on the indecisive extraneous pastor to show Austria - Hungary ’s long suit and finding to withstand the rise of Slavic nationalism in the Balkans .
sore to this unfavorable judgment — and perhaps recognize for the first time just how dire the dual monarchy ’s situation was — Berchtold suddenly swung towards the hawk , adopting a far more aggressive posture towards Austria - Hungary ’s Slavic neighbors . On April 29 , Austria - Hungary began massing troops near the Montenegrin margin , and on May 2 , the Austro - Magyar joint council of ministers approved Berchtold ’s proposal to tackle military action against Montenegro if necessary , with Conrad demanding outright appropriation of the troublemaking realm . At the Conference of London , Austria - Hungary demanded a bombardment of Montenegrin positions by the transnational fleet , and threatened to act one-sidedly if the other Great Powers pass up . Germany convey support for military intervention , and on April 30 the Gallic embassador to Berlin , Jules Cambon , relayed a German monition to Paris that Germany would bear beside Austria - Hungary if the latter were attacked by Russia . The panorama of a general European war was rear its head once again , and once again the other Great Powers — France , Britain , and Italy — were direct sputter to keep disaster .
See theprevious installmentorall entry .
