July Crisis - Austro-Hungarian Attitude To War

Austro-Hungarian Attitude To War

Those in the “War Party” in Vienna saw the assassination as an excellent excuse to execute their 1912 plans for a war to destroy Serbia's ability to interfere in Bosnia. Berchtold used his memo of June 14th 1914 as the basis for the document that would be used to solicit German support. Count Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, Chief of the General Staff of the Austro-Hungarian Army, advised Berchtold that Austria-Hungary should “cut the knot” and declare war on Serbia as soon as possible. Counsels were badly divided in Vienna, with Berchtold and Conrad supporting war, Franz Joseph I of Austria—though receptive to the idea of a war—insisting upon German support as a prerequisite, and the Hungarian Prime Minister Count István Tisza opposing a war with Serbia, stating (correctly, as it turned out) that any war with the Serbs was bound to trigger a war with Russia and hence a general European war.

Austria-Hungary immediately undertook a criminal investigation. Ilić and five of the assassins were promptly arrested and interviewed by an investigating judge. The three assassins who had come from Serbia told almost all they knew: Serbian Major Vojislav Tankosić had directly and indirectly given them six bombs (produced at the Serbian Arsenal), four pistols, training, money, suicide pills, a special map with the location of gendarmes marked, knowledge of an infiltration channel from Serbia to Sarajevo, and a card authorizing the use of that channel.