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Article: The end of the old world. (seventieth anniversary of the beginning of World War I)
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- August 24, 1984
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1984 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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EUROPE HAS just commemorated the seventieth anniversary of the beginning of World War I. On June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist, assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne. Princip's bullets sparked World War I, and thereby also signaled the beginning of the end of the Old World. No other war had ever changed the map of Europe so drastically. When the war began, four ancient dynasties bestrode Europe--Habsburg, Romanov, Hohenzollern, and Ottoman; by the war's end these dynasties had crumbled, and Russia was in the hands of the Bolsheviks. Sir Edward Grey's words were prophetic: "The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall ...