Босна и Херцеговина и Сарајевски атентат у британској штампи (29. јун – 2. јул 1914)

Abstract

The paper explores the way in which the British press perceived Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Sarajevo assassination in the several key days after this event. The leading British papers of different political affiliation considered the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite all religious differences and divisions, ethnic Serbs. Although they transmitted the accusations from Vienna and Pest, the British papers were attributing the Sarajevo assassination also to the political repression and material stagnation of Bosnia and Herzegovina under Austria-Hungary. The British public opinion had only the words of condemnation for the assassinators, but did not have much sympathy for Franz Ferdinand either. It devoted considerable attention to the anti-Serbian pogroms which, immediately after the assassination, engulfed Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. In continuation of the crisis, particularly after the ultimatum of 23 July, the attention of the British press shifted from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Serbia. The differences in the attitude of liberal and conservative papers to the Balkan crisis were becoming increasingly more pronounced. The liberals held their anti-Russian and anti-Serbian attitude, while, although the liberal government ruled the country, the conservatives’ assessment prevailed that Britain’s main enemy at the moment was after all Germany.