World War One Aims, Goals, Objectives...

[Yakman]

Actually: Franz Ferdinand`s sentiments about Serbia was "good-riddance-to bad-rubbish" (simplistic), and he had no wish for it ever again to become a part of AH. When he was shot, however, things changed a bit...

If the Black Hand wanted to create a major incident, they couldn`t have picked a better target. Not even the Emperor himself.

That's certainly true. Franz Ferdinand was a genuinely decent human being by all accounts. He was widely respected in Europe and the world for his character and his humanity. It's truly a shame that he was assassinated along with his wife--another genuinely decent person--in their prime. He was killed, after all, on his way to the hospital--against all advice--to visit policemen who had been wounded in the morning assassination attempt.

 

[unmerged(34070)]

Poor FF. He was certainly the type of person that makes you wonder if aristocracy actually is a good thing.

To the topic of war aims. Norways was: Stop bothering us! We have neither money or people enough to form an effective army outside our borders anyway, so why do you keep trying to drag us into this!

I think Sweden`s was mainly the same

 

[StephenT]

Franz Ferdinand was a genuinely decent human being by all accounts. He was widely respected in Europe and the world for his character and his humanity.

Not really.

Emperor Franz Josef had no respect for him at all, and didn't mourn his death one bit. He also enjoyed little popularity among the Austro-Hungarian people, and was often ridiculed in newspaper cartoons (due to his supposed appalling temper). He already had an official portrait of himself painted wearing the Imperial regalia, despite the fact that Emperor Franz Josef wasn't even dead. He was generally believed to be the leader of the 'war party' calling for Habsburg military adventurism and militarism. (Conrad was a close ally of his).

As for the Archduke's 'character and humanity', here are some examples:

Franz Ferdinand on the proper role of the army: as a weapon against the 'internal enemy' , which comprised 'Jews, Freemasons, Socialists and Hungarians'.

More of his feelings on his loyal Hungarian subjects: "Every Hungarian, be he minister, prince, cardinal, citizen, farmer, hussar or a servant, is a revolutionary and a whore. Alright, the cardinal is no whore, but he' a republican nonetheless."

Franz Ferdinand on the people of Bosnia after the 1908 annexation: "Now, however, the main thing is to keep the peace in Bosnia with an iron rod. Any attempt at a putsch or an infiltration by the [Serbs] from across the border must be met with execution by shooting, hanging, etc. We have to keep a particularly tight rein in the Serbs in Bosnia, keep them frightened."

Finally, an illustrative anecdote. In 1906, the Serbian army was in the market for artillery. Franz Ferdinand forced the Austrian government to issue threats to Serbia, up to and including economic sanctions and a trade blockade, if they didn't buy Skoda guns. The fact that the Archduke would personally make a huge profit from this contract may have had something to do with this... Unfortunately, the Serbs defied the threats and bought French guns instead: and this crisis permanently damaged relations between Austria-Hungary and Serbia.

In short, he undoubtably loved his wife, but he was certainly no saint...

 

[Yakman]

Franz Josef didn't like his son because FF had broken with the family by marrying Sophie. She wasn't of the upper-crust and he married her against his father's wishes. I think his mother never spoke to him again.

And the quote about the Hungarians was arguably justified.

 

[Allenby]

Not really.

Emperor Franz Josef had no respect for him at all, and didn't mourn his death one bit. He also enjoyed little popularity among the Austro-Hungarian people, and was often ridiculed in newspaper cartoons (due to his supposed appalling temper). He already had an official portrait of himself painted wearing the Imperial regalia, despite the fact that Emperor Franz Josef wasn't even dead. He was generally believed to be the leader of the 'war party' calling for Habsburg military adventurism and militarism. (Conrad was a close ally of his).

I agree that Franz Ferdinand had quite a repulsive character, although I would put doubt on any claim that he was part of the 'war party'. Agreed, he was fiercely anti-Italian, but Austria-Hungary's increasing preoccupation with Serbia made this less important in the years before 1914 than it might be supposed.

Politically, he aimed for detente with Russia, and ordering Eastern Europe of monarchical principles. The most forceful voice for care and restraint during the Balkan Wars had been Franz Ferdinand's. The majority of the Austro-Hungarian empire's population was Slav, and Franz Ferdinand theorised that war against Serbia would not promote the cause of making those Slavs within the empire loyal. He thought that a war would make his aspiration of trialism impossible, and would also most likely bring Russia into the conflict, thereby destroying his hopes of a renewed Dreikaiserbund.

Although Franz Ferdinand and Conrad had been allies in the past, their close relationship collapsed in 1913. Whilst Conrad was increasingly looking for war, Franz Ferdinand was hoping for the opposite. David Fromkin points out how 'Berchtold, Austria's foreign minister, said to Conrad "The Heir Apparent is all on the side of peace". Reportedly Franz Ferdinand told dinner guests that Austria had nothing to gain from conquering Serbia; going to war would be "a bit of nonsense."'

Hungary was his real target, and I think it would be fair to say that Franz Ferdinand wanted to use the Serbs and the Romanians to undermine the Hungarian part of the empire. For this, Franz Ferdinand would have required a peaceful relationship between Austria-Hungary and Serbia.

 

[Yakman]

If that's the case, then I wonder what he was thinking. The Hungarians were, so far as I know, content with the dual empire system. It was the emerging slavic irredentism that was the up and coming threat to the Hapsburg rule--and the slavs were too diverse to add a third crown to the Hapsburg brow...