A look back at history

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, 100 years ago Saturday, is often cited as the event that sparked World War I.

In a guest column June 21, Joe Sheller of Mount Mercy University wrote that he wondered what it was like in the summer of 1914 in Cedar Rapids.

The Gazette archives give us a clue.

'Bohemians not surprised over Austrian crime,” read the headline in the June 30, 1914 edition of the Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette. The article goes on to explain that Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was not popular among many of his future subjects, unlike the ruling monarch, Franz Joseph. Although they weren't happy to hear he had been killed, Bohemians then living in Cedar Rapids were happy that the next person in line for the throne, Karl, had been elevated.

'The Bohemians hope that he (Karl) will be crowned king of Bohemia, which will mean that that over-taxed country will be given self government, something it has desired during all the centuries it has been under the protection of the government at Vienna,” the Gazette article says.

J.M.B. Letovsky, editor of Slovan Americky, in the same article said he believed 'the death of the heir presumptive will upset Franz Joseph and hasten his death, but I do not look for a political uprising either in Bohemia or in any other country under Austria,”

Others in Cedar Rapids said they did not expect a 'revolt” in Bohemia because of the death of Franz Ferdinand, although they thought some places elsewhere in the empire might attempt an uprising.

'In my opinion Serbia is the country most likely to start an uprising,” Joseph Makota told The Evening Gazette. 'She feels that she has not been treated right by Austria ... There is a peculiar situation in southern Europe just now and there is no telling how it will end.”

As the end of July 1914 neared, it seemed more likely that war was about to break out in Europe. The Bohemians of Cedar Rapids, the Evening Gazette said, 'are taking as much interest in the threatened war between Serbia and Austria as they would were they on the firing line.”

The article went on to say many local Bohemians were sympathizing with the Serbians, and did not want to fight on the side of the Austrian empire if called. Thus, many Austrian and German subjects in Cedar Rapids began to clamor for U.S. naturalization papers.

It's interesting how informed and connected the Bohemians of Cedar Rapids were in 1914 about the goings-on in Europe even though, as a later article mentioned, it normally took about two weeks for written correspondence to reach Cedar Rapids from Bohemia. Of course, these were the days before smartphones.

Striking, too, how united people seemed in their views toward the impending conflict. Views today seem much more nuanced and split along partisan lines.

Luckily, assassinations with global consequences are few and far between these days. Hopefully, in 2014 we won't see such a seismic event as that experienced in 1914.

' Francie Williamson is the Regional Coordinator for The Gazette and helps coordinate Sunday's Time Machine pages. Contact: (319) 368-8502 or francie.williamson@sourcemedia.net