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History-related rambles
May. 17th, 2011 10:22 amI was rereading Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan and thinking about the historical accuracy of the series so far. Actually, most of the technical details seem right; it's just some of the things Westerfeld takes liberty with that I'm wondering about.
Westerfeld changed the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie Chotek, to happen at night rather than during the day, and the couple dies of poisoning rather than gunshot wounds. Okay, but then why did Sophie Chotek get poisoned as well? After all, her death in real life was an accident--she was sitting next to her husband and a bullet hit her in the abdomen (in an artery, I believe). There's also little political sense in killing her anyway; only Franz Ferdinand could have become the emperor of Austria-Hungary, and their children weren't allowed to inherit the throne.
WWI in real life happened at a snail's pace, relatively speaking; it took about a month after the archduke's assassination for Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia. The Austro-Hungarian Emperor, Franz Joseph, was not all that concerned about Franz Ferdinand's death (there was the issue with his marriage, and Franz Ferdinand was apparently somewhat progressive). In Leviathan, Germany is the main antagonist and is ultimately responsible for the war. There's no doubt that Kaiser Wilhelm I was very eager for a fight, but he was...not a very normal person, shall we say (I skimmed part of his biography).
I read Behemoth before I studied the Ottoman Empire this past semester, so I'm looking forward to reading it again from a new perspective. I do know that Westerfeld changed events so that the Ottoman Empire would survive WWI, though I was wondering how possible that would have been. In reality, the Ottoman Empire had been gradually declining ever since the end of Süleyman the Magnificent's reign; by the twentieth century, Europe had eclipsed the Ottoman Empire in terms of power. What characterized the Ottoman Empire (among other things) was its diversity and heterogeneity; what happens during the modern era is the emergence of nationalistic sentiment. My impression that WWI was just the final straw for the end of the Ottoman Empire.
Westerfeld changed the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie Chotek, to happen at night rather than during the day, and the couple dies of poisoning rather than gunshot wounds. Okay, but then why did Sophie Chotek get poisoned as well? After all, her death in real life was an accident--she was sitting next to her husband and a bullet hit her in the abdomen (in an artery, I believe). There's also little political sense in killing her anyway; only Franz Ferdinand could have become the emperor of Austria-Hungary, and their children weren't allowed to inherit the throne.
WWI in real life happened at a snail's pace, relatively speaking; it took about a month after the archduke's assassination for Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia. The Austro-Hungarian Emperor, Franz Joseph, was not all that concerned about Franz Ferdinand's death (there was the issue with his marriage, and Franz Ferdinand was apparently somewhat progressive). In Leviathan, Germany is the main antagonist and is ultimately responsible for the war. There's no doubt that Kaiser Wilhelm I was very eager for a fight, but he was...not a very normal person, shall we say (I skimmed part of his biography).
I read Behemoth before I studied the Ottoman Empire this past semester, so I'm looking forward to reading it again from a new perspective. I do know that Westerfeld changed events so that the Ottoman Empire would survive WWI, though I was wondering how possible that would have been. In reality, the Ottoman Empire had been gradually declining ever since the end of Süleyman the Magnificent's reign; by the twentieth century, Europe had eclipsed the Ottoman Empire in terms of power. What characterized the Ottoman Empire (among other things) was its diversity and heterogeneity; what happens during the modern era is the emergence of nationalistic sentiment. My impression that WWI was just the final straw for the end of the Ottoman Empire.
