WSJ on WWI (III)

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(3) Adam Hochschild, An Empire Unraveling.Wall Street Journal, June 21, 2014.
online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB20001424052702304849304579608662612825026

Quote:

“The First World War helped to dethrone a superpower—paradoxically, one of the victors. In 1914, Britain sat atop the greatest empire history had ever seen. * * * London was the world's banker, and the Royal Navy dominated the seas.

“But after 4½ years of war, more than 700,000 Britons were dead, and hundreds of thousands were gravely wounded—many missing arms, legs, eyes, genitals. The country's elite was particularly devastated, for it had provided the young officers who led their troops out of the trenches and into machine-gun fire: Of men who graduated from Oxford in 1913, for example, 31% were killed. Britain was now deeply in debt—chiefly to the fast-rising US. During the war, the economy of the US boomed, its territory was unharmed, and because of its late entry into the war, its combat casualties were comparatively light.

Note:
(a) The German surnames Hochshild/ Hauschild: “nickname for a ferocious soldier: literally, ‘hack the shield,’ from Middle High German houw (imperative of houwen ‘to chop or hack’) + den (accusative form of the definite article) + schilt ‘shield’”

(b) “4½ years of war”
(i) World War I (July 28, 1914 (when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia) to Nov 11, 1918)
(ii) Assassination of of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, on June 28, 1914. “The political objective of the assassination was to break the Austro-Hungarian south-Slav [qv] provinces [naturally excluding Kingdom of Serbia, which was OUTSIDE the empire] off from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.”  Wikipedia
(iii)
(A) The assassin was a Serbian from Kingdom of Serbia (1882-1918), which had been Principality of Serbia (1815-1882; a semi-independent state [‘suzerain to the Porte’ Wikipedia], following Serbian revolution (1804-1817) to end Ottomans' centuries-old rule.
(B) Sublime Porte
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sublime_Porte

I do not know how the French pronounce the French noun “porte,” but the English pronunciation for porte in “Sublime Porte” is the same as the English noun port
(C) sublime (adj; Latin [adjective, both masculine and feminine; neuter form: sublīme] sublīmis, literally, high, elevated):
“1a :  lofty, grand, or exalted in thought, expression, or manner
* * *
c :  tending to inspire awe usually because of elevated quality (as of beauty, nobility, or grandeur) or transcendent excellence”
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sublime
(D) port (n; Middle English porte, from Anglo-French, gate, door, from Latin porta passage, gate; akin to Latin portus port [or harbor]):
“chiefly Scottish : GATE”
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/port
(iv) The assassination occurred at Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In 1918 Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, which had been part of Ottoman Empire. Ottomans said nothing. "This unilateral action * * * sparked protestations from all the Great Powers and Austria-Hungary's Balkan neighbours, Serbia and Montenegro.”  Wikipedia. This was Bosnian crisis.