Parallax Views: Gratitude Monday: Sarajevo

I’ve been in Sarajevo for two full days, and I hadn’t realized when I added it to this trip how much it would mean to me when I got here.

My focus as a New Military historian is mass conflicts of the first half of the 20^th Century, how they affected people, changed society, ended and created empires. And events in Sarajevo sparked the 1914-1918, when Bosnian Serb nationalists—mostly under the age of 21—were armed and trained by members of Serbian military intelligence and the Serb nationalist secret society called the Black Hand to assassinate the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

That sentence is a mouthful, and I need to give you context. Which I will, in a future post. Just know for now that Bosnia-Herzegovina was a province of Austria-Hungary since 1908, which was the same year Serbia was declared independent; both countries had previously been part of the Ottoman Turk Empire.

But on 28 June, 1914, in a tragic comedy of errors, six of the conspirators tried and tried unsuccessfully to pull it off, until Gavrilo Princip got a lucky break because the imperial chauffeur got lost. Princip shot Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg; both died within minutes.

A Gordian knot of alliances led to declarations of war between Austria-Hungary and Germany on the one side and Serbia, Russia, France and the United Kingdom on the other. It was called the Great War; back in the day they didn’t realize they’d have to start numbering them. It lasted more than four years and when it ended, the Russian, Austro-Hungarian and German empires were in tatters and the British one would follow in a few decades. The entire world was utterly exhausted and the winning powers created a nation called Yugoslavia (South Slavs), comprising Croatia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia and Macedonia.

Interestingly, Sarajevans seem to have moved on from this momentous event. Possibly because it’s a century on, but more probably because of the events of the 1990s, when those Serbs reappeared after the breakup of Yugoslavia—they attacked in turn all the constituent republics, but Bosnia-Herzegovina pretty much got the worst of it. UN “peacekeepers” were…either useless or helpless, and Sarajevo (which is in a valley surrounded by mountains and high ground) was besieged for 1425 days, starting on 5 April 1992. It was the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare.

Well, okay—I haven’t even scratched the surface of this city's recent history, and it’s Gratitude Monday. So all I’m going to say is that I am under information and emotional overload in this place, and I am deeply grateful that I decided to come here.

I have walked miles and miles (more than seven yesterday, without pain, so I'm also truly grateful for the knee replacements), eaten cake for breakfast, walked across the Latin Bridge (where Franz Ferdinand and Sophie were shot) and been to multiple museums. I've listened to the muezzin call the faithful to prayers and to multiple church bells. This city...

Here is the actual bridge, which is pedestrian only now, which of course because look how narrow it is. No wonder the chauffeur got stuck trying to turn the car around.