June 28, 2006

If only more political history started like this

On this day in 1914, a cap was popped in the ass of the Archduke Ferdinand.

Posted by binky at June 28, 2006 05:32 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Blogorama


Comments

Hey - what gives? No respect for Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg? She got capped too. And if you remotely by a "what if" that Henry K throws out in Diplomacy FF choosing to marry her and the fact that she died too could have had important implications regarding when WWI broke out.

The basic premise is that under usual circumstanes FF would have had a huge funeral at which the crowned heads of Europe would have gotten together, said 'hey cousin", "is my sister still pleasing?" and the like, and maybe have exchanged some key words that would have left later key words less open to misinterpretation. But no friendly international conference (I mean funeral) was held b/c laid out with the Austrian heir was that common street trash (uh, Duchess, formerly Princess and born a mere Countess - as if THAT counts for anything among Habsburgs) he'd demeaned himself and royalty everywhere by marrying.

[And no, for the record, I doubt a bigger funeral would have held off WWI for long - but it's interesting, the long-term effects of throwing protocol to the wind could have in 1914.]

Posted by: Armand at June 28, 2006 06:28 PM | PERMALINK

Hey man, the lead up to that war is what brought my people to the fair shores of the US. Or does Ellis Island not count as a fair shore?

Posted by: binky at June 28, 2006 06:29 PM | PERMALINK

It counts as fair shore now - though I have my doubts about it having been all that fair around World War I.

Posted by: Armand at June 28, 2006 06:35 PM | PERMALINK

I hadn't realized this was the day. By my reconing, the 20th Century started on this day in 1914 (The 20th Century ended December 25, 1991; the day the Soviet Flag was let down the flagpole at the Kremlin the final time).

Posted by: baltar at June 28, 2006 09:42 PM | PERMALINK
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