It counted upon America's neutrality with a
leaning toward Germany. It believed that German colonization in South
Africa and South America would incline these vast domains toward
friendship for the Central empires. How mistaken the propagandists and
psychologists were events have demonstrated.

It was this dream of world-domination by Teutonic kultur that supplied
the motive leading to the world's greatest war. Bosnia, an unwilling
province of Austria-Hungary, at one time a province of Serbia and
overwhelmingly Slavic in its population, had been seething for years
with an anti-Teutonic ferment. The Teutonic court at Vienna, leading the
minority Germanic party in Austria-Hungary, had been endeavoring to
allay the agitation among the Bosnian Slavs. In pursuance of that
policy, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir-presumptive to the thrones of
Austria and Hungary, and his morganatic wife, Sophia Chotek, Duchess of
Hohenberg, on June 28, 1914, visited Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. On
the morning of that day, while they were being driven through the narrow
streets of the ancient town, a bomb was thrown at them, but they were
uninjured. They were driven through the streets again in the afternoon,
for purpose of public display. A student, just out of his 'teens, one
Gavrilo Prinzep, attacked the royal party with a magazine pistol and
killed both the Archduke and his wife.

Here was the excuse for which Germany had waited. Here was the dawn of
"The Day." The Germanic court of Austria asserted that the crime was the
result of a conspiracy, leading directly to the Slavic court of Serbia.
The Serbians in their turn declared that they knew nothing of the
assassination. They pointed out the fact that Sophia Chotek was a Slav,
and that Francis Ferdinand was more liberal than any other member of the
Austrian royal household, and finally, that he, more than any other
member of the Austrian court, understood and respected the Slavic
character and aspirations.

At six o'clock on the evening of July 23d, Austria sent an ultimatum to
Serbia, presenting eleven demands and stipulating that categorical
replies must be delivered before six o'clock on the evening of July
25th. Although the language in which the ultimatum was couched was
humiliating to Serbia, the answer was duly delivered within the
stipulated time.

The demands of the Austrian note in brief were as follows:

1. The Serbian Government to give formal assurance of its condem