As preparations for the funeral of Archduke Franz Ferdinand were being made in Vienna,

in Berlin the Austrian ambassador received a call from a German government envoy.

The Germans were afraid that the Austrians would go soft on Serbia,

so the envoy urged Vienna to move against them quickly.

The sooner Austria-Hungary goes to war the better, he told the ambassador.

Yesterday was better than today, and today is better than tomorrow.

German fears of Austrian dithering were well placed. In fact, it would take almost a month for Vienna to formulate its response to the assassinations.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

Episode 17th century. Episode 76. Today is better than tomorrow.

Two weeks ago, we wrapped up at the funeral of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, the Duchess Sophia.

By the time of the funeral, the highest-ranking officials in the Austrian government were already discussing the Austrian response to the assassination. The assassin, Gavrillo-Princip, had been

captured at the scene, so it was clear enough that he did the deed,

and it was clear that he was an ethnic Serb native to Bosnia who had recently returned from Belgrade.

It was also clear that Princep had gotten help from anti-Austrian officials in the Serbian government.

But whether the Serbian government itself

was ultimately behind the conspiracy, that was less clear. But everyone in the Austrian government

took it for granted that the Serbian state was ultimately culpable and immediately leapt into

the question of the Austrian response.

The view of the Austrian military chief of staff, France Conrad von Hitsendorf, was clear enough.

Krieg, Krieg, Krieg, was how the foreign minister, Leopold,

summarizes Conrad's advice, War, War, War, War.

Conrad had been arguing for years

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