The World War I Memorial Project
On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were shot dead in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, one of a group of six assassins (five Serbs and one Bosniak) coordinated by Danilo Ilić, a Bosnian Serb and a member of the Black Hand secret society. The political objective of the assassination was to break off Austria-Hungary's South Slav provinces so they could be combined into a Yugoslavia. The assassins' motives were consistent with the movement that later became known as Young Bosnia. The assassination led directly to the First World War when Austria-Hungary subsequently issued an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia, which was partially rejected. Austria-Hungary then declared war.
Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.
Germany mobilizes her armed forces and declares war on Russia.
Paul and Marguerite Cret were at Beauvois in the summer of 1914, when World War I began. Cret, as a reservist, reported for duty and was assigned as a private soldier to the Chasseurs alpins. Marguerite contributed to the war effort as a volunteer hospital worker and carried on a voluminous correspondence with her husband. During the war Cret remained in active correspondence with his colleagues, kept his mind focused on the reading matter Marguerite regularly sent him, and poured out his thoughts in his letters to her. His architectural practice in the United States continued even in his absence. His associated firm, Zantzinger, Borie & Medary, completed construction of the Indianapolis Public Library, and John Harbeson managed other commissions left incomplete at the beginning of the war. After the United States entered the war, Cret, now a lieutenant, was assigned as interpreter first to the American First Division and then, after that division entered Germany, to the 92nd Division. For his wartime service to his country, he was awarded the Croix de guerre, and in 1925 he was made a member of the Légion d'honneur.
The invasion of Belgium was considered an essential element of the German war plan, a very speedy defeat of all resistance in the first days seemed to be imperative.
The Lusitania is another example of the way in which the character of the war changed in 1915.
