DOCUMENT X : Narodna Odbrana

Background: A secret, nationalist society, the Narodna Odbrana (Peoples Defense) was founded in Serbia in 1908 because the Serbians were angry about Austria Hungry taking over territories with large Serbian populations. The society wanted to strengthen a spirit of nationalism, often using propaganda to do so. They wanted to use the military to unify and protect Serbian people (those in Serbia and in other countries). Gavrilo Princip (the Serbian that assassinated the Austrian arch duke, which sparked the war) was a member of this society. The following was a description of the society's purpose.

The unacceptable takeover of the land where Serbian people live must be met by a new Serbia; we need to train every man, from child to an old man, to be a fighter. Narodna Odbranacalls out to Serbian people everywhere, not only those in Serbia. We hope that our work inspires Serbians in all countries to unite the territories where Serbians live and create a powerful nation. TheNarodna Odbranaannounces to the people that Austria is our first and greatest enemy. Our society believes that it is necessary to fight Austrian to defend out national position and pride.

Source: An expert from a pamphlet, Narodna Odbrana Izdanje Stredisnog Odbora

Narodne Odbrane, published by the Central Committee of the Narodna Odbrana Society in Belgrade, 1911.

DOCUMENT Y: If I Were Kaiser

Background: Heinrich Class was the president of the Pan-German League, a group that believed that Germans were a superior race. Heinrich Class wrote this document a few years before WWI began. After World War I, Class would meet Hitler and support his ideas.

We believe that our goal should be to expel all nonGerman people (people who are inferior to our race) from our territory as fast as possible and under any conditions necessary. At the same time, we must take steps to improve our national pride, wealth and army even further. We must take over the eastern lands without which our state cannot exist. We must pursue an active foreign policy--in a word, an aggressive one. It is necessarily that we improve our nation so that we are so strong that no one will dare to attack us. If we experience that there is too much competition for economic growth with other countries, then we would have to acquire more territory. Obviously, any expansion in Europe will have to be achieved only through war....If we force other countries to give us their territories, we can get regions inhabited by Frenchmen or Russians.

Source: An excerpt from If I Were Kaiser by Heinrich Class, president of the PanGerman League, published in 1912.

DOCUMENT Z: Jaurs Speech

Background: Jean Jaurs (1859-1914) was a leader of the French and International
Socialist Party. Jean Jaurs thought that the French Revolution was a universal message of brotherhood. In 1914, Jaurs tried to rally the forces of international socialism against going to war, but events were moving too fast for him to do stop it. He was assassinated in a Paris caf days before war broke out by a crazed nationalist fearful of Jaurs' power to prevent France from going to war.

Jean Jaurs French Politician

Quote "Whatwillthefuturebelike, when the billions now thrown away in preparation forwarare spenton useful things to increase the well-being of people, on the construction of decent houses for workers, on improving transportation, on reclaiming the land? The fever of imperialism has become a sickness. It is the disease of a badly run society which does not know how to use its energies at home."

-Speech in summer 1914 to International Socialist Rally in Paris, France