Sea and the Grecian Archipelago.

We can see in all this a powerful motive for Austria to seek to
gain possession of Servia, as a step towards possible future
control of the whole Balkan peninsula. The commercial and
manufacturing interests of Austria-Hungary were growing, and
mastership of such a route to the Mediterranean would mean
immense advantage to this ambitious empire. Possession of
northern Italy once gave her the advantage of an important outlet
to the Mediterranean. This, through events that will be spoken of
in later chapters, was lost to her. She apparently then sought to
reach it by a more direct and open road, that leading through
Salonika.

Such seem the reasons most likely to have been active in the
Austrian assault upon Servia. The murder of an Austrian archduke
by an insignificant assassin gave no sufficient warrant for the
act. The whole movement of events indicates that Austria was not
seeking retribution for a crime but seizing upon a pretext for a
predetermined purpose and couching her demands upon Servia in
terms which no self-respecting nation could accept without
protest. Servia was to be put in a position from which she could
not escape and every door of retreat against the arbitrament of
war was closed against her.

But in this retrospect we are dealing with Austria and Servia
alone. What brought Germany, what brought France, what brought
practically the whole of Europe into the struggle? What caused it
to grow with startling suddenness from a minor into a major
conflict, from a contest between a bulldog and a terrier into a