The Path to War Part II: Serbia’s Economic Independence

We continue our look at Serbia’s path to war in 1914. In our previous podcast we discussed the military coup of 1903 which ushered in a period of foreign and economic independence. Serbia had previously maintained a fragile yet long standing understanding with Austria-Hungary. With the Serbian monarchy weakened by the coup however, the new Serbian government was free to explore new opportunities with France. These political and economic entanglements with the French government led to a new and eventually dangerous alliance.