orth
Sea, had been opened in 1895 and was of great naval importance. The new
German battleships, however, were so large that the canal was not large
enough to admit them. The work of widening and deepening the passage was
undertaken by the government, and was finally completed on July 1, 1914.
Preparations for the Great War were complete at last, both on land and
sea. The gunpowder was ready. All that was needed was a spark to bring
about the explosion.

THE AUSTRO-SERBIAN QUESTION.--For years before the war the Serbs and
other Jugo-Slavs in the southern provinces of Austria-Hungary had been
dissatisfied with Austrian rule. The Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina
(h[)e]r-ts[)e]-go-vee'nah) were especially aroused when those provinces, after
a long temporary government by Austria-Hungary, were formally annexed by
that power in 1908. Their wish was for union with the adjoining Serbian
kingdom. Their aspirations did not cause very much trouble while Serbia
was small and weak; but when, as a result of the Balkan wars, Serbia was
revealed to the world as a warlike nation with extended boundaries and
growing national ambitions, the Austrian Serbs grew restless. There is
little doubt that Serbs of Serbia had much to do with the anti-Austrian
activities that rapidly spread among their brothers within the Austrian
Empire. The Austrian government, much disturbed by a movement that
threatened to spread among her other subject populations, began to seek
a pretext for crushing her southern neighbor and so settling the
troublesome Serbian question once for all.

In 1913, at the close of the second Balkan war, Austria-Hungary informed
her allies, Italy and Germany, of her intention to make war upon Serbia,
and asked for the support of those countries. Italy refused to have any
part in the matter. Germany, realizing that Russia would probably come
to the assistance of Serbia and that a general European war might
follow, no doubt prevailed upon Austria to stay her hand. Germany's
preparations at that time were not quite complete.

THE ASSASSINATION OF FRANCIS FERDINAND.--In the early summer of 1914
occurred the event that was destined to plunge the world into war.
Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, made
a visit to the southern provinces of the monarchy. On June 28, while he
and his wife were driving through the streets of Serajevo (s[)e]r'a-y[=a]-vo),
in Bosnia, three pistol shots were fired into the carria