boundaries
of a nation conform with the "natural boundaries" as they seemed to
be delimited by mountains, rivers, and coasts.

The kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro had shown symptoms of
Nationalism long before the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913; when they
emerged from those wars with their territories almost doubled the
idea took even greater hold on them. As Turkish sovereignty and
influence became less feared, Austrian dominance replaced them.

Austria did nothing to allay this fear; she stood as a Teutonic
bulwark between a growing Slavic menace (in Serbia and Montenegro)
on the south and the already formidable Slavic menace (Russia) on
the east. In her provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which were
transformed from protectorates to integral parts of the Austrian
Empire in 1908, there dwelt thousands of peasants who were of
Serbian nationality; in more concise terms they were of the same
racial stock as the Serbians. After Serbian prestige rose as a
result of the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913 these Serbian subjects of
Austria desired more than ever to be a part of the Slav kingdom;
this desire was shared by the leading factions in Serbia itself; the
doctrine of "Greater Serbia" demanded that the aims of the desire be
materialized. Besides, the "natural boundaries" of Serbia seemed to
take in the greater part, if not all, of Bosnia and Herzegovina, for
they stretched along the eastern shores of the Adriatic and shut
Serbia and Montenegro off from that sea.

Propaganda began to spread throughout Serbia and Bosnia and
Herzegovina, reminding the Serbs in all three places that they must
work to bring themselves under one government, and that government
their own; they were urged to keep up their efforts to standardize
their religion, their speech, their traditions; they were called
upon, by this same propaganda, to substitute Austria for Turkey as
the object of national Serbian hate.

But Austria, too, had the disease of Nationalism, and she had been
engaged since 1908 in "ironing out" the Serbs within her borders.
Thus great friction was engendered, and when, on June 28, 1914, the
Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the crown prince and his morganatic wife
visited the Bosnian city of Sarajevo, they and the officials of the
city and province knew that the lives of the pair were in danger
from Serbian intrigue.

The archduke had gone to Bosnia on his first visit to take charge of
military maneuvers there, and before he left