When Diplomacy Fails presents the July Crisis Anniversary Project, a day-by-day account of the events that occurred 100 years ago.

Death of a statesman.

Today is the 10th of July 2014, and around this time in history 100

years ago, occurred the following events. The Austro-Hungarian military chief of staff,

Conrad von Hotsendorf, would surely have been horrified to note how the situation had changed.

Before meeting with Teesa and his colleagues on the afternoon of Tuesday, the 7th of July

1914, war seemed certain, buoyed by the certainty of German support and the support of

the Habsburg Emperor that went with it.

Yet the situation rapidly changed once the Hungarian Minister-president Stefantiza had taken the floor.

He had altered fundamentally the style of the Habsburg response to Serbia.

Whereas it had once been an undeclared war, now it would be a two-step diplomatic process of a list of demands followed by an ultimatum.

This would mean that, for Conrad's military mind, the truth was he could not put any mobilization plans he had into action before

the ultimatum was clearly denied by the Serbs. Conrad no longer had the authority to plan the preemptive

sneak attack against Serbia that would overcome

the troublesome Balkan enclave and reestablish Habsburg prestige once and for all.

Conrad could bemoan the fact that a civilian had ruined yet again the monarchy's chance

to show its worth, but he would have known that Teases' moves only played 50% of the role in committing Austria-Hungary

to a less straightforward policy. Earlier in the day, he'd been dealt similarly devastating news.

When Conrad phoned the new commander-in-chief, the Habsburg Archduke Friedrich, early on the 7th of July,

to inform him that war was effectively the state's destination, he had perhaps acted prematurely.

However, where Conrad had really been stumped was the fact that many portions of the Austro-Hungarian

armed forces were not at that very moment in time in technical existence.

...