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Comment by afterburner | Hacker News Reader

What? Bosnia was ceded to Austria-Hungary by the Ottoman Empire in 1878. Or is that what you're referring to?

"The Bosnian crisis of 1908–09, also known as the Annexation crisis or the First Balkan Crisis, erupted when on 6 October 1908, Austria-Hungary announced the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, territories formally within the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire. This unilateral action—timed to coincide with Bulgaria's declaration of independence (5 October) from the Ottoman Empire—sparked protestations from all the Great Powers and Austria-Hungary's Balkan neighbours, Serbia and Montenegro. In April 1909 the Treaty of Berlin was amended to reflect the fait accompli and bring the crisis to an end."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnian_crisis

There is no way you can honestly argue, after reviewing the facts, that Bosnia was NOT annexed by Austria. Btw I am from Austria and here we are taught the same thing in public schools. Austria unilaterally annexed Bosnia. Bosnian nationalists then assassinated crown prince Franz Ferdinand which then was followed by the first World War.

That is why Austrian Empire was torn into pieces after the first World War and why it was deemed the aggressor and had to pay crippling reparations.

The Austro-Hungarian empire was well on its merry way to disintegration before the war. I was recently reading a book about this, A Mad Catastrophe[1], that was very interesting. I hadn't really realized the extent to which the Hapsburgs were challenging the Ottomans for the title of sick man of Europe. Not a good era for polyglot states.

Coming from the United States, we tend to think of WW1 exclusively in terms of the war on the Western Front, with maybe TE Lawrence and Gallipoli thrown in. The Balkan wars of the preceding decades that primed the whole powder keg are almost completely unknown.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GL9TQ2C/ref=dp-kindle-re...

This is what you wrote:

"The country of these assassins was invaded (without provocation) by Austria just before the assassination"

I don't know what "just before" means to you, but I don't think "5 years earlier" when I read that. If you mean the troop maneuvers just before the Archduke's visit, it's odd to say Bosnia was "invaded" by simply moving troops in annexed territory, 5 years after it was annexed.

It's just an unnecessarily misleading sentence. Note that I'm not diminishing Princip's or the Black Hand or Serbian nationalists' motives.

Iraq was invaded 13 years ago and I'm willing to take any bet that today there are more Iraqis than ever that would be willing to assassinate a Western governments leader.

Just have a look at all the crazy extremist organisations in that region. (and what they do)

I'm not defending them but I understand why they still hate us after 13 years.

5 years is nothing in that context. When you are oppressed by a foreign power then people there will fight you indefinitely.

Certainly, people can site justifications from thousands of years ago. I was just confused by your use of "just before".

Thank you DominikR for trying to be a voice of reason, despite this being HN :)

It was not ceded. It was annexed by Austria-Hungary. Annexation was not covered by the Treaty of Berlin (1878).

The 1878 Treaty of Berlin only covered occupation and administration of the Ottoman Vilayet of Bosnia by Austria-Hungary.[0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Archduke_Fran...

Exactly.

Presumably, this is what he is referring to: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/austria-hungary-a...

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