Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassinated - Jun 28, 1914 - HISTORY.com Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassinated Publisher A+E Networks In an event that is widely acknowledged to have sparked the outbreak of World War I, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, nephew of Emperor Franz Josef and heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, is shot to death along with his wife by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on this day in 1914. The great Prussian statesman Otto von Bismarck, the man most responsible for the unification of Germany in 1871, was quoted as saying at the end of his life that “One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans.” It went as he predicted. The archduke traveled to Sarajevo in June 1914 to inspect the imperial armed forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, former Ottoman territories in the turbulent Balkan region that were annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1908 to the indignation of Serbian nationalists, who believed they should become part of the newly independent and ambitious Serbian nation.

The date scheduled for his visit, June 28, coincided with the anniversary of the First Battle of Kosovo in 1389, in which medieval Serbia was defeated by the Turks. Despite the fact that Serbia did not truly lose its independence until the Second Battle of Kosovo in 1448, June 28 was a day of great significance to Serbian nationalists, and one on which they could be expected to take exception to a demonstration of Austrian imperial strength in Bosnia. June 28 was also Franz Ferdinand’s wedding anniversary. His beloved wife, Sophie, a former lady-in-waiting, was denied royal status in Austria due to her birth as a poor Czech aristocrat, as were the couple’s children. In Bosnia, however, due to its limbo status as an annexed territory, Sophie could appear beside him at official proceedings. On June 28, 1914, then, Franz Ferdinand and Sophie were touring Sarajevo in an open car, with surprisingly little security, when Serbian nationalist Nedjelko Cabrinovic threw a bomb at their car; it rolled off the back of the vehicle and wounded an officer and some bystanders.

Later that day, on the way to visit the injured officer, the archduke’s procession took a wrong turn at the junction of Appel quay and Franzjosefstrasse, where one of Cabrinovic’s cohorts, 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip, happened to be loitering. Seeing his opportunity, Princip fired into the car, shooting Franz Ferdinand and Sophie at point-blank range. Princip then turned the gun on himself, but was prevented from shooting it by a bystander who threw himself upon the young assassin. A mob of angry onlookers attacked Princip, who fought back and was subsequently wrestled away by the police. Meanwhile, Franz Ferdinand and Sophie lay fatally wounded in their limousine as it rushed to seek help; they both died within the hour. The assassination of Franz-Ferdinand and Sophie set off a rapid chain of events: Austria-Hungary, like many in countries around the world, blamed the Serbian government for the attack and hoped to use the incident as justification for settling the question of Slav nationalism once and for all.

As Russia supported Serbia, an Austro-Hungarian declaration of war was delayed until its leaders received assurances from German leader Kaiser Wilhelm that Germany would support their cause in the event of a Russian intervention–which would likely involve Russia’s ally, France, and possibly Britain as well. On July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and the tenuous peace between Europe’s great powers collapsed. Within a week, Russia, Belgium, France, Great Britain and Serbia had lined up against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and World War I had begun. Related Videos The assassination in Sarajevo Search for: Assassination in Sarajevo Franz Ferdinand and his young daughter Sophie, who was orphaned by the events of June 1914 In another time and another set of circumstances, the assassination in Sarajevo of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand would have caused outrage, but not a world war. But coming as it did after two decades of tension within Europe generally and the Balkans specifically, the murder of the Austrian royal proved a flashpoint in history.

It generated a wave of anti-Serbian sentiment within the Austro-Hungarian empire, providing Austrian military leaders – who had long fancied a war of suppression against the troublesome Serbs – with the perfect excuse for one. Backed by Germany and its strutting, cock-sure kaiser, Austria-Hungary’s aggression catapulted Europe into crisis, threats and war. Franz Ferdinand was the nephew of the Austro-Hungarian emperor Franz Josef, and had been the heir to the imperial throne since 1889. Educated in history and the classics, the archduke was intelligent, well-informed and more worldly than most (in the 1890s he had completed a ‘grand tour’ across three continents, which included a lengthy stay in Australia). Ferdinand could also be strong-willed to the point of stubbornness. An example of this was his determination to marry a non-royal, Sophie Chotek, against all advice from his family and political leaders; the marriage was approved but was morganatic, meaning that Ferdinand’s children could not succeed him as emperor.

Ferdinand’s politics were surprisingly liberal: he believed that rights, freedoms and concessions to the empire’s ethnic groups might need to be considered; he also expressed the view that the growth of revolutionary movements in the Balkans was, in part, the product of Austro-Hungarian heavy-handedness. These views put him at odds with his uncle, the emperor, and Vienna’s conservative political and military elite. It also made Ferdinand’s eventual fate more of a tragedy, since he was one of the few men broad-minded enough to save the ailing empire. “The assassination at Sarajevo was certainly the crucial precedent of the European war that its conspirators had sought, but was not the historical cause. Nearly sixty years later Vaso Cubrilovic, who as a historian had taught forty years at the University of Belgrade, insisted that the seven young men were not responsible. ‘The outbreak of the war had nothing to do with individuals. The war had deep roots, including the disruptive effects of rapid industrialisation in old feudal societies … The assassination acted as a lever, prying the various powers into predictable paths.” J.

Bowyer Bell, historian On June 28th 1914, Ferdinand and his wife were touring Sarajevo, then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, now the capital of Bosnia. They were targeted by a small band of Serbian nationalists, who had been inflamed by Austria’s takeover of Bosnia-Herzegovina. No strangers to political violence, a faction of this group plotted to assassinate the archduke in the streets of the city. At 10.10am they launched their first attempt. Cabrinovic, a Serbian youth, threw a small bomb towards the open-topped car carrying Ferdinand and his wife – however the bomb bounced harmlessly off the rear of the car, then detonated beneath the vehicle following, destroying it and wounding more than a dozen people. Cabrinovic fled, swallowing a suicide pill then jumping into a nearby river; he could not even get that right, vomiting up the pill and landing in water that was barely ankle-deep. He was soon captured, while his collaborators watched as the royal car sped away. They slunk away into Sarajevo’s backstreets, thinking their opportunity had passed and the plan had failed.

Gavrilo Princip, the Serbian assassin whose actions triggered a world war They would have been right if not for some fortuitous luck. Franz Ferdinand interrupted his schedule to call at the hospital, to check on those wounded in the earlier attack. After leaving the hospital his car drove down the wrong street and ended up outside a sandwich shop. One of the assassins, Gavrilo Princip, emerged from the shop, having just bought his lunch. Princip drew two pistols and fired at the royal car: his first shot struck the archduke’s wife Sophie in the stomach, the second hit Ferdinand’s throat. Again the car sped away to seek medical help, arriving at the governor’s residence minutes later. Sophie died before she could be removed from the car; Franz Ferdinand was hauled inside but died on a chaise lounge minutes later. The murder of this comparatively popular royal incited a flood of anti-Serb protests and violence in many Austro-Hungarian cities, including Sarajevo itself. Serbian stores and buildings were vandalised and some suspected Serb nationalists were beaten up. Across Europe there was widespread shock at the murder, along with messages of support for Vienna and encouragements for her to take tough action against the terrorists.

The bodies of Franz Ferdinand and his wife laying in state The immediate response of the Austro-Hungarian regime was to demand an inquiry into the assassination and those involved, to be conducted on Serbian soil by Austrian authorities. But the Serbian government rejected this, declaring that Serbian officials had no involvement whatsoever in the killings and that “the matter did not concern the Serbian government”. This precipitated the ‘July crisis’, a month of ultimatums, threats and bickering, during which the leaders of Europe advanced the case for both war and peace. Franz Ferdinand and Sophie were buried in a family castle in Austria, after a private funeral which no foreign royals or dignitaries were invited to (not even the German kaiser or Emperor Franz Josef himself attended). Gavrilo Princip and all but one of his associates were captured, interrogated by Austro-Hungarian authorities and placed on trial. Some were executed, however since contemporary laws prohibited the execution of anyone under 20, most of the conspirators were given 20-year prison sentences. Princip was spared because of his age but he suffered terribly in jail, contracting tuberculosis and later having an arm amputated.

He died in April 1918, six months before the end of the war he had helped instigate. 1. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was an Austrian royal, a nephew of Emperor Franz Josef and the heir to his throne. 2. The archduke was intelligent, worldly and liberal-minded, which set him at odds with his conservative family. 3. In June 1914 Ferdinand was touring Sarajevo, Bosnia, when he fell victim to a terrorist gang of Serbian nationalists. 4. The assassins were young, nervous and clumsy but one, Princip, stumbled across the duke’s car. 5. Both Ferdinand and his wife were shot in their open-topped car and died within an hour, while Princip and his collaborators were soon arrested. The murder caused outrage around the world. © Alpha History 2014. Content on this page may not be republished or distributed without permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use . This page was written by Jennifer Llewellyn, Jim Southey and Steve Thompson. To reference this page, use the following citation: J.

Llewellyn et al, “Assassination in Sarajevo” at Alpha History, 2014, accessed [date of last access]. Search this site Translate World War I live To mark the centenary of World War I, Alpha History authors live-tweet press reports on the war - as they appeared 100 years ago. The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand The Murder That Started World War I Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, 1914. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images) By Tarkan Rosenberg, Contributing Writer Updated July 30, 2016. On the morning of June 28, 1914, a 19-year-old Bosnian nationalist named Gavrilo Princip shot and killed Sophie and Franz Ferdinand, the future heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary (the second-largest empire in Europe) in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo.

Gavrilo Princip, a simple postman’s son, probably didn’t realize at the time that by firing those three fateful shots, he was starting a chain reaction that would lead directly to the start of World War I . A Multinational Empire In the summer of 1914, the by now 47-year-old Austro-Hungarian Empire stretched from the Austrian Alps in the west to the Russian border in the east and reached far into the Balkans to the south ( map ). It was the second-largest European nation next to Russia and boasted a multi-ethnic population made up of at least ten different nationalities. These included Austrian Germans, Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Romanians, Italians, Croats and Bosnians among others. continue reading below our video 4 Tips for Improving Test Performance But the empire was far from united. Its various ethnic groups and nationalities were constantly competing for control in a state that was predominantly ruled by the Austrian-German Habsburg family and the Hungarian nationals—both of whom resisted sharing the majority of their power and influence with the rest of the empire’s diverse population.

For many of those outside the German-Hungarian ruling class, the empire represented nothing more than an undemocratic, repressive regime occupying their traditional homelands. Nationalistic sentiments and struggles for autonomy often resulted in public riots and clashes with the ruling authorities such as in Vienna in 1905 and in Budapest in 1912. The Austro-Hungarians responded harshly to incidents of unrest, sending in troops to keep the peace and suspending local parliaments. Nevertheless, by 1914 unrest was a constant in almost every part of the realm. Franz Josef and Franz Ferdinand: A Tense Relationship By 1914, Emperor Franz Josef —a member of the long-standing royal House of Habsburg—had ruled Austria (called Austria-Hungary from 1867) for nearly 66 years. As a monarch, Franz Josef was a staunch traditionalist and remained so well into the later years of his reign, despite the many great changes that had led to the weakening of monarchical power in other parts of Europe. He resisted all notions of political reform and viewed himself as the last of the old-school European monarchs. Emperor Franz Josef fathered two children.

The first, however, died in infancy and the second committed suicide in 1889. By right of succession, the emperor’s nephew, Franz Ferdinand , became next in line to rule Austria-Hungary. The uncle and the nephew often clashed over differences in approach to ruling the vast empire. Franz Ferdinand had little patience for the ostentatious pomp of the ruling Habsburg class. Nor did he agree with his uncle’s harsh stance towards the rights and autonomy of the empire’s various national groups. He felt the old system, which allowed ethnic Germans and ethnic Hungarians to dominate, could not last. Franz Ferdinand believed the best way to regain the population’s loyalty was to make concessions towards the Slavs and other ethnicities by allowing them greater sovereignty and influence over the governance of the empire. He envisioned the eventual emergence of a type of “United States of Greater Austria,” with the empire’s many nationalities sharing equally in its administration. He believed strongly that this was the only way to keep the empire together and to secure his own future as its ruler. The result of these disagreements was that the emperor had little love for his nephew and bristled at the thought of Franz Ferdinand’s future ascension to the throne.

The tension between them grew even stronger when, in 1900, Franz Ferdinand took as his wife the Countess Sophie Chotek . Franz Josef did not consider Sophie to be an appropriate future empress as she was not directly descended from royal, imperial blood. Serbia: The "Great Hope" of the Slavs In 1914, Serbia was one of the few independent Slavic states in Europe, having gained its autonomy piecemeal throughout the previous century after hundreds of years of Ottoman rule. The majority of Serbs were staunch nationalists and the kingdom saw itself as the great hope for the sovereignty of Slavic peoples in the Balkans. The great dream of Serbian nationalists was the unification of Slavic peoples into a single sovereign state. The Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and Russian empires, however, were perpetually struggling for control and influence over the Balkans and Serbs felt under constant threat from their powerful neighbors. Austria-Hungary, in particular, posed a threat due to its close proximity to Serbia’s northern border.

The situation was exasperated by the fact that pro-Austrian monarchs—with close ties to the Habsburgs—had ruled Serbia since the late 19th century . The last of these monarchs, King Alexander I, was deposed and executed in 1903 by a clandestine society comprised of nationalistic Serbian army officers known as the Black Hand . It was this same group that would come to help plan and support the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand eleven years later. Dragutin Dimitrijević and the Black Hand The aim of the Black Hand was the unification of all southern Slavic peoples into the single Slavic nation-state of Yugoslavia—with Serbia as its leading member— and to protect those Slavs and Serbs still living under Austro-Hungarian rule by any means necessary. The group relished in the ethnic and nationalistic strife that had overtaken Austria-Hungary and sought to stoke the flames of its decline. Anything that was potentially bad for its powerful northern neighbor was seen as potentially good for Serbia. The high-ranking, Serbian, military positions of its founding members put the group in a unique position to carry out clandestine operations deep within Austria-Hungary itself.

This included army colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević, who would later become the head of Serbian military intelligence and leader of the Black Hand. The Black Hand frequently sent spies into Austria-Hungary to commit acts of sabotage or to foment discontent amongst Slavic peoples inside the empire. Their various anti-Austrian propaganda campaigns were designed, especially, to attract and recruit angry and restless Slavic youths with strong nationalistic sentiments. One of these youths—a Bosnian, and a member of the Black Hand-backed youth movement known as Young Bosnia—would personally carry out the murders of Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, and thus help to unleash the biggest crisis ever to face Europe and the world to that point. Gavrilo Princip and Young Bosnia Gavrilo Princip was born and raised in the countryside of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which had been annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1908 as a means to preempt Ottoman expansion into the region and to thwart Serbia’s aims for a greater Yugoslavia . Like many of the Slavic peoples living under Austro-Hungarian rule, Bosnians dreamed of the day when they would gain their independence and join a larger Slavic union alongside Serbia.

Princip, a young nationalist, left for Serbia in 1912 to continue the studies he had undertaken in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina. While there, he fell in with a group of fellow nationalist Bosnian youths calling themselves Young Bosnia. The young men in Young Bosnia would sit long hours together and discuss their ideas for bringing about change for Balkan Slavs. They agreed that violent, terroristic methods would help to bring about a speedy demise of the Habsburg rulers and ensure the eventual sovereignty of their native homeland. When, in the spring of 1914, they learned of Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s visit to Sarajevo that June, they decided he would be a perfect target for assassination. But they would need the help of a highly organized group like the Black Hand to pull off their plan. A Plan Is Hatched The Young Bosnians’ plan to do away with the archduke eventually reached the ears of Black Hand leader Dragutin Dimitrijević , the architect of the 1903 overthrow of Serbia’s king and by now chief of Serbian military intelligence.

Dimitrijević had been made aware of Princip and his friends by a subordinate officer and fellow Black Hand member who had complained of being pestered by a group of Bosnian youths bent on killing Franz Ferdinand. By all accounts, Dimitrijević very casually agreed to help the young men; although secretly, he may have received Princip and his friends as a blessing. The official reason given for the archduke’s visit was to observe Austro-Hungarian military exercises outside the city, as the emperor had appointed him inspector general of the armed forces the previous year. Dimitrijević, however, felt sure the visit was nothing more than a smokescreen for a coming Austro-Hungarian invasion of Serbia, though no evidence exists to suggest such an invasion was ever planned. Furthermore, Dimitrijević saw a golden opportunity to do away with a future ruler who could seriously undermine Slavic nationalistic interests, were he ever to be allowed to ascend to the throne.

The Serbian nationalists knew well of Franz Ferdinand’s ideas for political reform and feared that any concessions made by Austria-Hungary towards the empire’s Slavic population could potentially undermine Serbian attempts at fomenting discontent and inciting Slavic nationalists to rise up against their Habsburg rulers. A plan was devised to send Princip, along with Young Bosnian members Nedjelko Čabrinović and Trifko Grabež, to Sarajevo, where they were to meet up with six other conspirators and carry out the assassination of the archduke. Dimitrijević, fearing the assassins’ inevitable capture and questioning, instructed the men to swallow cyanide capsules and commit suicide immediately after the attack. No one was to be allowed to learn who had authorized the murders. Concerns Over Safety Initially, Franz Ferdinand never intended to visit Sarajevo itself; he was to keep himself outside the city for the task of observing military exercises. To this day it is unclear why he chose to visit the city, which was a hotbed of Bosnian nationalism and thus a very hostile environment for any visiting Habsburg.

One account suggests that Bosnia’s governor-general, Oskar Potiorek—who may have been seeking a political boost at Franz Ferdinand’s expense— urged the archduke to pay the city an official, all day visit. Many in the archduke’s entourage, however, protested out of fear for the archduke’s safety. What Bardolff and the rest of the archduke’s entourage did not know was that June 28 was a Serb national holiday— a day that represented Serbia’s historical struggle against foreign invaders. After much debate and negotiation, the archduke finally bent to Potiorek’s wishes and agreed to visit the city on June 28, 1914, but only in an unofficial capacity and for only a few hours in the morning. Getting Into Position Gavrilo Princip and his co-conspirators arrived in Bosnia sometime in early June. They had been ushered across the border from Serbia by a network of Black Hand operatives, who provided them with faked documents stating the three men were customs officials and thus entitled to free passage. Once inside Bosnia, they met up with six other conspirators and made their way toward Sarajevo, arriving in the city sometime around June 25.

There they stayed in various hostels and even lodged with family to await archduke’s visit three days later. Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, arrived in Sarajevo sometime before ten in the morning of June 28. After a short welcoming ceremony at the train station, the couple was ushered into a 1910 Gräf & Stift touring car and, along with a small procession of other cars carrying members of their entourage, made their way to the Town Hall for an official reception. It was a sunny day and the car’s canvas top had been taken down to allow for the crowds to better see the visitors. A map of the archduke’s route had been published in the newspapers prior to his visit, so spectators would know where to stand in order to catch a glimpse of the couple as they rode by. The procession was to move down the Appel Quay along the northern bank of the Miljacka River. Princip and his six co-conspirators had also obtained the route from the newspapers. That morning, after receiving their weapons and their instructions from a local Black Hand operative, they split up and positioned themselves at strategic points along the riverbank.

Muhamed Mehmedbašić and Nedeljko Čabrinović mingled with the crowds and positioned themselves near the Cumurja Bridge where they would be the first of the conspirators to see the procession going by. Vaso Čubrilović and Cvjetko Popović positioned themselves further up the Appel Quay. Gavrilo Princip and Trifko Grabež stood near the Lateiner Bridge toward the center of the route while Danilo Ilić moved about trying to find a good position. A Tossed Bomb Mehmedbašić would be the first to see the car appear; however, as it approached, he froze with fear and was unable to take action. Čabrinović, on the other hand, acted without hesitation. He pulled a bomb from his pocket, struck the detonator against a lamp post, and tossed it at the archduke’s car. The car’s driver, Leopold Loyka, noticed the object flying towards them and hit the accelerator. The bomb landed behind the car where it exploded, causing debris to fly and nearby shop windows to shatter. About 20 onlookers were injured.

The archduke and his wife were safe, however, save for a small scratch on Sophie’s neck caused by flying debris from the explosion. Immediately after throwing the bomb, Čabrinović swallowed his vial of cyanide and jumped over a railing down into the riverbed. The cyanide, however, failed to work and Čabrinović was caught by a group of policemen and dragged away. The Appel Quay had erupted into chaos by now and the archduke had ordered the driver to stop so that the injured parties could be attended to. Once satisfied that nobody was seriously injured, he ordered the procession to continue to the Town Hall. The other conspirators along the route had by now received news of Čabrinović’s failed attempt and most of them, probably out of fear, decided to leave the scene. Princip and Grabež, however, remained. The procession continued on to the Town Hall, where Sarajevo’s mayor launched into his welcoming speech as if nothing had happened. The archduke immediately interrupted and admonished him, outraged at the bombing attempt that had put him and his wife in such danger and questioned the apparent lapse in security.

The archduke’s wife, Sophie, gently urged her husband to calm down. The mayor was allowed to continue his speech in what was later described by witnesses as a bizarre and otherworldly spectacle. Despite reassurances from Potiorek that the danger had passed, the archduke insisted on abandoning the day’s remaining schedule; he wanted to visit the hospital to check on the wounded. Some discussion on the safest way to proceed to the hospital ensued and it was decided that quickest way would be to go by the same route. The Assassination Franz Ferdinand’s car sped down the Appel Quay, where the crowds had thinned out by now. The driver, Leopold Loyka, seemed to have been unaware of the change of plans. He turned left at the Lateiner Bridge toward Franz Josef Strasse as if to proceed to the National Museum, which the Archduke had planned to visit next prior to the assassination attempt. The car drove past a delicatessen where Gavrilo Princip had bought a sandwich. He had resigned himself to the fact that the plot was a failure and that the archduke’s return route would have been altered by now.

Somebody yelled out to the driver that he had made a mistake and should have kept going along the Appel Quay to the hospital. Loyka stopped the vehicle and attempted to reverse as Princip emerged from the delicatessen and noticed, to his great surprise, the archduke and his wife only a few feet from him. He pulled out his pistol and fired. Witnesses would later say they heard three shots. Princip was immediately seized and beaten by bystanders and the gun wrested from his hand. He managed to swallow his cyanide before being tackled to the ground but it, too, failed to work. Count Franz Harrach, the owner of the Gräf & Stift car that was carrying the royal couple, heard Sophie cry out to her husband, “What has happened to you?” before she appeared to faint and slump over in her seat.1 Harrach then noticed that blood was trickling from the archduke’s mouth and ordered the driver to drive to the Hotel Konak—where the royal couple was supposed to stay during their visit—as quickly as possible. The archduke was still alive but barely audible as he continually muttered, “It is nothing.” Sophie had completely lost consciousness.

The archduke, too, eventually fell silent. The Couple’s Wounds Upon arriving at the Konak, the Archduke and his wife were carried up to their suite and attended to by regimental surgeon Eduard Bayer. The archduke’s coat was removed to reveal a wound in his neck just above the collarbone. Blood was gurgling from his mouth. After a few moments it was determined that Franz Ferdinand had died from his wound. “His Highness’s suffering is over,” the surgeon announced.2 Sophie had been laid out on a bed in the next room. Everyone still assumed she had simply fainted but when her mistress removed her clothes she discovered blood and a bullet wound in her lower right abdomen. She had already been dead by the time they had reached the Konak. Aftermath The assassination sent shockwaves throughout Europe. Austro-Hungarian officials discovered the Serbian roots of the plot and declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914 -- exactly one month after the assassination. Fearing reprisals from Russia, which had been a strong ally of Serbia, Austria-Hungary now sought to activate its alliance with Germany in an attempt to scare the Russians out of taking action.

Germany, in turn, sent Russia an ultimatum to stop mobilizing, which Russia ignored. The two powers—Russia and Germany—declared war on each other on August 1, 1914. Britain and France would soon enter the conflict on the side of Russia. Old alliances, which had been dormant since the 19th century, had suddenly created a dangerous situation across the continent. The war that ensued, World War I , would last four years and claim the lives of millions. Gavrilo Princip never lived to see the end of the conflict he helped to unleash. After a lengthy trial, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison (he avoided the death penalty due to his young age). While in prison, he contracted tuberculosis and died there on April 28, 1918. 1 Greg King and Sue Woolmans, The Assassination of the Archduke (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2013), 207. 2 King and Woolmans, 208-209.

Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, 1914 | Highbrow Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, 1914 Episode #1 of the course “Most Important Historical Events of the 20th Century” The killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife is often called the spark that set off World War I. In fact, five years to the day after he was killed, Germany and the Allied Powers ended the war by signing the Treaty of Versailles. The archduke and his wife were visiting the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo on an official visit when they were both shot and killed by a Serb nationalist. The archduke was the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the purpose of his journey was to inspect the imperial armed forces in both Herzegovina and Bosnia. These areas were both annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1908. However, this annexation was against the wishes of Serbian nationalists, who believed that they should be part of Serbia instead.

Seven nationalists joined together to assassinate the archduke during his visit; in fact, they even failed once before the archduke and his wife were actually killed. One of the nationalists threw a bomb at the procession, but it bounced off of a car and exploded near a car behind it. Not letting that failure deter him, 19-year-old nationalist Gavrilo Princip shot the archduke and his wife as they traveled back from City Hall in their official procession (who used the same route as they had earlier, knowing that the bomb exploded there just hours before). Austria-Hungary blamed the Serbian government for the attacks immediately. However, Serbia was supported by Russia, and Austria-Hungary was afraid that if they started any kind of conflict, then Russia would step in and end it quickly. Russia was also allied with France and Great Britain. Austria-Hungary enlisted Germany for support against Serbia, Russia, France, and Great Britain. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia approximately one month after the archduke was killed. This declaration destroyed the already-unstable peace that was in place in Europe and marked the beginning of World War I (or the Great War).

Of course, it also triggered a chain of events that would lead to World War II and the Cold War. Expand your knowledge universe in just 5 minutes a day via bite-sized email courses. 28 June 1914: Archduke Ferdinand and wife assassinated - BBC News BBC News 28 June 1914: Archduke assassinated Play video 1914 Live: Archduke Franz Ferdinand from BBCVideo 1914 Live: Archduke Franz FerdinandBBC 1:26 28 Jun 2014 09:3028 Jun 2014 09:30 A special live report on the events that triggered World War One.

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from BBC RTL Play video 1914 Live: Archduke Franz Ferdinand from BBC Got a TV Licence? You need one to watch live TV on any channel or device, and BBC programmes on iPlayer. It’s the law. Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Duchess Sophie received fatal gunshot wounds, officials have confirmed Questions being asked about security arrangements on royal tour Archduke’s dying words imploring wife to “Stay alive for the children” Assassin named as Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb Earlier this morning the archduke’s motorcade was targeted in a bomb attack, but royal tour continued Archduke Ferdinand assassinated - Jun 28, 1914 - HISTORY.com Archduke Ferdinand assassinated Publisher A+E Networks On this day in 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie are shot to death by a Bosnian Serb nationalist during an official visit to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. The killings sparked a chain of events that led to the outbreak of World War I by early August.

On June 28, 1919, five years to the day after Franz Ferdinand’s death, Germany and the Allied Powers signed the Treaty of Versailles, officially marking the end of World War I. The archduke traveled to Sarajevo in June 1914 to inspect the imperial armed forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1908. The annexation had angered Serbian nationalists, who believed the territories should be part of Serbia. A group of young nationalists hatched a plot to kill the archduke during his visit to Sarajevo, and after some missteps, 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip was able to shoot the royal couple at point-blank range, while they traveled in their official procession, killing both almost instantly. The assassination set off a rapid chain of events, as Austria-Hungary immediately blamed the Serbian government for the attack. As large and powerful Russia supported Serbia, Austria asked for assurances that Germany would step in on its side against Russia and its allies, including France and possibly Great Britain.

On July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and the fragile peace between Europe’s great powers collapsed, beginning the devastating conflict now known as the First World War. After more than four years of bloodshed, the Great War ended on November 11, 1918, after Germany, the last of the Central Powers, surrendered to the Allies. At the peace conference in Paris in 1919, Allied leaders would state their desire to build a post-war world that was safe from future wars of such enormous scale. The Versailles Treaty, signed on June 28, 1919, tragically failed to achieve this objective. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson’s grand dreams of an international peace-keeping organization faltered when put into practice as the League of Nations. Even worse, the harsh terms imposed on Germany, the war’s biggest loser, led to widespread resentment of the treaty and its authors in that country–a resentment that would culminate in the outbreak of the Second World War two decades later.

Related Videos Sarajevo, June 28, 1914 Sarajevo, June 28, 1914 The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Micheal Shackelford Note on Slavic spelling: Due to the current limitations of HTML, certain Slavic characters can not be reproduced. I have chosen to use the same letters, but without the diacritical marks, rather than translitterating. Cabrinovic, for instance, will be spelled as is, and not rendered as Chabrinovitj, or Chabrinovitch. Accurate orthography accompanies the map shown below Background Events Leading Up to Murder Bosnia and Herzegovina were provinces just south of Austria which had, until 1878, been governed by the Turks. The Treaty of Berlin (1878) settled the disposition of lands lost by the Turks following their disastrous war with Russia. Austria was granted the power to administer the two provinces indefinitely. Bosnia was populated primarily by three groups -- Croats (Roman Catholic), ethnic Serbs (Serb-Orthodox) and Muslims (left from the days of Turkish rule). There is no ethnic group: Bosnians.

Many Bosnian-Serbs felt a strong nationalistic desire to have their province joined with that of their Serb brothers across the river in Serbia. Many in Serbia openly shared that desire. The Annexation On October 6, 1908, Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina directly into the Austro-Hungarian empire. The reasons were complex. Annexation would remove any hopes Turkey might have for reclaiming the provinces. Full inclusion into the empire would give Bosnians full rights and privileges. It may have been an act of will by the Austrians, just to show that they were still an active, sovereign power. For whatever reason, the annexation caused quite a stir in Europe. The move was not exactly legal. Russia, particularly, was upset, even though the Russians had earlier given their consent to the annexation. (Austria was supposed to help Russia in the Dardanelles first) After Austria payed Turkey a cash settlement, most of Europe calmed down. The Serbs, however, did not. They coveted the provinces for their own Serb empire.

The Black Hand A secret society called Ujedinjenje ili Smrt, ('Union or Death') was founded in Belgrade, an outgrowth of an older Serb nationalist group: Narodna Odbrana . The Black Hand took over the older group's work of anti-Austrian propaganda within Serbia, sabotage, espionage and political murders abroad -- especially in provinces Serbia wished to annex. The group included many government officials, professionals and army officers. When it was learned that the Heir-Apparent to the Austrian throne, Franz Ferdinand, was scheduled to visit Sarajevo in June of 1914, the Black Hand decided to assassinate him. Three young Bosnians were recruited, trained and equipped: Gavrilo Princip, Nedjelko Cabrinovic and Trifko Grabez. The Serbian Government Because of its many government and army members, the Black Hand's activities were fairly well known to the Serbian government. When Prime Minister Pasic learned of the assassination plot, he had a difficult problem on his hands. If he did nothing, and the plot succeeded the Black Hand's involvement would surely come to light. The tangled connections between the Black Hand and the Serbian government would put Serbia in a very bad position.

It could even bring on war with Austria. Should he warn the Austrians of the plot, he would be seen as a traitor by his countrymen. He would also be admitting to deeper knowledge of anti-Austrian actions in Serbia. A weak attempt was made to intercept the assassins at the border. When that failed, Pasic decided that he would try to warn the Austrians in carefully vague diplomatic ways that would not expose the Black Hand. The Warning The Serbian Minister to Vienna, Jovan Jovanovic, was given the task of warning the Austrians. Because of his extremist, pan-Serb views, Jovanovich was not well received in Austrian Foreign Ministry offices. He did, however, get along better with the Minister of Finance, Dr. Leon von Bilinski. On June 5, Jovanovic told Bilinski, that it might be good and reasonable if Franz Ferdinand were to not go to Sarajevo. "Some young Serb might put a live rather than a blank cartridge in his gun and fire it." Bilinski, unaccustomed to subtle diplomatic innuendo, completely missed the warning. "Let us hope nothing does happen" he responded good humoredly.

Jovanovic strongly suspected that Bilinski did not understand, but made no further effort to convey the warning. Preparations The three Black Hand trainees secretly made their way back to Sarajevo roughly a month before Franz Ferdinand. A fourth man, Danilo Ilic, had joined the group and on his own initiative, recruited three others. Vaso Cubrilovic and Cvijetko Popovic were 17 year old high school students. Muhamed Mehmedbasic, a Bosnian muslim, was added to give the group a less pan-Serb appearance. Four Serbian army pistols and six bombs were were supplied from Serbian army arsenals. The Visit Franz Ferdinand accepted the invitation of Bosnia's governor, General Oskar Potoirek, to inspect the army manoeuvres being held outside Sarajevo. The Archduke's role as Inspector General of the Army made the visit logical. It had also been four years since a prominent Hapsburg had made a goodwill visit to Bosnia. The visit would also roughly coincide with his 14th wedding anniversary.

While his wife Sophie, not being of royal blood, was not permitted to ride in the same car as her royal husband back in Vienna, such taboos did not apply to provincial cities like Sarajevo. During the visit, Sophie would be able to ride beside her husband -- a thoughtful anniversary gift. Security during the visit was not tight. Franz Ferdinand was a brave man and disliked the presence of secret service men. Nor did he like the idea of a cordon soldiers between the crowd and himself. For the most part, Franz Ferdinand was welcomed warmly by the Bosnians. Sarajevo was not seen as hostile territory. Arrangements were not based on the assumption that the streets were lined with assassins. As it was, only Sarajevo's hundred and twenty policemen were at work. June 28, 1914 At around 10:00 a.m., the archducal party left Philipovic army camp, where Franz Ferdinand had performed a brief review of the troops. The motorcade, consisting of six automobiles was headed for City Hall for a reception hosted by Sarajevo's mayor.

The chosen route was the wide avenue called Appel Quay, which followed the north bank of the River Miljacka. In the first automobile rode the Mayor, Fehim Effendi Curcic, and the city's Commissioner of Police, Dr. Gerde. In the second automobile, its top folded down and flying the Hapsburg pennant, rode Franz Ferdinand, Sophie and General Potoirek. The driver and the car's owner, Count Harrach, rode in front. The third automobile in the procession carried the head Franz Ferdinand's military chancellery; Sophie's lady in waiting; Potoirek's chief adjutant, Lieutenant Colonel Merizzi; the car's owner and his driver. The fourth and fifth automobiles carried other members of Franz Ferdinand's staff and assorted Bosnian officials. The sixth automobile was empty -- a spare should one of the others fail. The morning was sunny and warm. Many of the houses and buildings lining the route were decorated with flags and flowers. Crowds lined the Appel Quay to cheer the imperial couple. Amid the festive crowd mingled seven young assassins. They took up their assigned positions, all but one along the river side of the Appel Quay.

First in line was Mehmedbasic, to the west of the Cumurja Bridge. Near him was Cabrinovic. The others were strung out as far back as the Kaiser Bridge. The Bomb The motorcade approached and the crowds began to cheer. As Franz Ferdinand's car passed Mehmedbasic, he did nothing. The next man in line, Cabrinovic, had more resolve. He took the bomb from his coat pocket, struck the bomb's percussion cap against a lamp post, took aim and threw the bomb directly at Franz Ferdinand. In the short time it took the bomb to sail through the air, many small events took place. The car's owner, Count Harrach, hearing the bomb being struck against the lamp post, thought they had suffered a flat tire. "Bravo. Now we'll have to stop." The driver, who must have seen the black object flying, did just the opposite -- he stepped on the accelerator. As a result, the bomb would not land where intended. Franz Ferdinand, also catching a glimpse of the hurtling package, raised his arm to deflect it away from Sophie. She sat to his right, and so was between Franz Ferdinand and Cabrinovic.

The bomb glanced off Franz Ferdinand's arm, bounced off the folded car top and into the street behind them. The explosion injured about a dozen spectators. The third car was hit with fragments and stalled. Merizzi received a bad cut to the back of the head. Others in the party received minor cuts. The first and second cars continued on for a few moments then stopped while everyone assessed who was injured and who was not. After the Bomb Cabrinovic swallowed his cyanide and jumped into the river. The trouble was, the poison was old -- it only made him vomit -- and the river was only a few inches deep. He was quickly seized by the crowd and arrested. The motorcade continued on to City Hall, passing the other assassins. Either because they thought Cabrinovic had succeeded or from lack of resolve, they failed to act. At City Hall, a furious Franz Ferdinand confronted the Mayor. "Mr. Mayor, one comes here for a visit and is received by bombs! It is outrageous!" After a pause to calm himself, he regained his composure and let the Mayor speak. The Mayor, either completely unaware of what had happened, or personally ill equiped for crises, launched into his prepared speech.

"Your Royal and Imperial Highness!...Our hearts are full of happiness..." By the end of the Mayor's speech, Franz Ferdinand had regained his composure and thanked his host for his cordial welcome. Activities at City Hall were observed as planned. Changed Plans Discussions were held as to whether to change the rest of Franz Ferdinand's schedule. The Archduke did not wish to cancel his visit to the museum and lunch at the Governor's residence, but wished to alter his plans to include a visit to Merizzi in the hospital. The same motorcade set out along the Appel Quay, but neither the Mayor's driver, nor Franz Ferdinand's driver had been informed of the change in schedule. This would have been Merizzi's job. The young assassins had counted on succeeding on the first attempt. With no assurance that Franz Ferdinand would follow his original itinerary, the remaining assassins took up various other positions along the Appel Quay. Gavrilo Princip crossed the Appel Quay and strolled down Franz Joseph Street. He stepped into Moritz Schiller's food store to get a sandwich. As he emerged, he met a friend who inquired about a mutual friend.

The Wrong Turn The Mayor's car, followed by Franz Ferdinand's car turned off the Appel Quay and onto Franz Joseph Street, as originally planned, to travel to the museum. General Potoirek leaned forward. "What is this? This is the wrong way! We're supposed to take the Appel Quay!" The driver put on the brakes and began to back up. Franz Ferdinand's car stopped directly in front of Schiller's store -- five feet away from Princip. The Shots Princip was quick to recognize what had happened. He pulled the pistol from his pocket, took a step towards the car and fired twice. General Potoirek happened to look directly at Princip as he fired. He thought the gun's report unusually soft. Both Franz Ferdinand and Sophie were still sitting upright. Potoirek thought the shots had missed, but given the assult, ordered the driver to drive directly to the Governor's residence. Arrest Princip then turned the gun on himself, but was mobbed by the crowd. Police had to rescue Princip from the crowd before they could arrest him. Princip had swallowed his poison, but it was from the same batch as Cabrinovic's. He was violently ill, but did not die.

Mortal Wounds As the car sped across the Lateiner Bridge, a stream of blood shot from Franz Ferdinand's mouth. He had been shot in the neck. Sophie, seeing this, exclaimed: "For Heaven's sake! What happened to you?" She sank from her seat. Potoirek and Harrach thought whe had fainted and were trying to help her up. Franz Ferdinand, knowing his wife better, suspected the truth. Sophie had been shot in the abdomen and was bleeding internally. "Sopherl! Sopherl! " he pleaded. "Sterbe nicht! Bleibe am Leben für unsere Kinder! " (Sophie dear! Sophie dear! Don't die! Stay alive for our children!) The cars rushed to the Governor's residence. Sophie may have died before they arrived. Franz Ferdinand died shortly afterward. The July Crisis The murders of Franz Ferdinand and Sophie brought Austro-Serbian tensions to a head. Serbia had been fomenting trouble for Austria for many years. For many in Vienna, the double murders provided the 'last straw' for a get-tough showdown. The trail back to the Black Hand would not be unraveled for years to come.

Vienna felt she could not wait for conclusive proof and acted based on the mass of circumstantial evidence. As Vienna took a hard line against Serbia, the other powers in Europe took sides. The wheels of war gained speed. The stakes far outgrew the squabble between Austria and Serbia. The Crisis of July turned into world war, just over thirty days after Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were shot. MS Biography of Colonel Dimitrijvic , the mastermind. Biography of Franz Ferdinand , the slain Archduke. Biography of Sophie , Franz Ferdinand's wife. Biography of General Potoirek, Governor of Sarajevo. Biography of Princip , the gunman. Biography of Cabrinovic , the bomber. Biography of Grabez , the third Belgrade man. Biography of Ilic , the assassin who talked. Biography of Cubrilovic , a young assassin. Biography of Popovic , the other young assassin. Biography of Mehmedbasic , the Muslim who got away. Bibliography Sarajevo: the story of a political murder, by Joachim Remak, 1959.

Origins of World War I: 1871-1914, by Joachim Remak, 1967. American Heritage History of World War I, by S.L.A. Marshall, 1982. Black Hand Over Europe, by Henri Pozzi, 1935. Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria – Prague Blog By Tracy A. Burns Becoming heir to the Habsburg throne Born in Graz, Austria on December 18, 1863, Franz Ferdinand was the eldest son of Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria, the brother of Franz Joseph. In 1889 his cousin, the Emperor’s son, Crown Prince Rudolf killed himself and then in 1896 his father succumbed to typhoid. Franz Ferdinand found himself heir to the throne. Military career and hobbies The Archduke had a distinguished military career, gaining promotions to captain, major, colonel and general. In 1913 he was named Inspector General of Austria-Hungary’s Army. An avid supporter of the Empire’s Navy, Franz Ferdinand has been described as energetic, reckless, proud, mistrusting and moody.

Obsessed with hunting, he acquired approximately 300,000 hunting trophies. Some 5,000 of them came from deer. He had another hobby as well – collecting antiques. Now, some 100,000 of his trophies and many of his antiques are on display at Konopiště Chateau, near Benešov, not far from Prague. Franz Ferdinand’s political stance The Archduke’s relationship with Emperor Franz Josef was laden with friction. Often disagreeing with the Empire’s leaders, he was not very popular. Politically, Franz Ferdinand aligned himself with centralism and Catholic conservatism. Striving to give more freedom to ethnic groups in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he supported the Czechs as well as the Croatians and Bosnians. The Archduke also promoted federalism that would make the empire into 16 states and saw Hungarian nationalism as a serious threat. He also believed that if Serbia was treated harshly, Russia would react violently.

Smitten by Sophie A life-changing event occurred in 1894, when the heir to the throne met Countess Sophie Chotek, who served as a lady-in-waiting to Archduchess Isabella, at a ball in Prague. Smitten, the two lovebirds were forced to keep their relationship a secret for two years because Sophie’s family members were not descendants of the Habsburgs or of any other European ruling dynasties, making her ineligible to marry someone of the Archduke’s status. Stubborn and determined, Franz Ferdinand refused to marry anyone else. Supported by other rulers and the Pope, the Archduke finally got Emperor Franz Joseph’s permission to marry Sophie in 1899. Yet the Emperor set down some harsh conditions. The couple’s offspring would not be heirs to the throne. Sophie was also forbidden to sit in the royal carriage or royal box. Undeterred, the couple tied the knot July 1, 1900 at Zákupy Chateau in northern Bohemia near the German border. The Emperor, his brothers and families refused to attend the ceremony. Sophie was given the title of Princess of Hohenberg and Duchess of Hohenberg.

They had three children – Princess Sophie von Hohenberg (1901); Maximilian, Duke of Hohenberg (1902); and Prince Ernst von Hohenberg (1904). The fateful invitation to Sarajevo During the summer of 1914, as Inspector General of the Army, Franz Ferdinand accepted the invitation from General Oskar Potiorek to watch, along with his wife Sophie, military maneuvers in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. The couple was aware that it would be a dangerous undertaking. When Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908, it stirred an unsettling reaction from the West, and many Serbians wanted a pan-Slav state directed by Serbia, a province that had better relations with Russia than with Austro-Hungary. Clashes with the Habsburg Empire involved a dispute over customs in 1906 and stormy protests over Austro-Hungarian’s annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina during the troubled times of 1908 and 1909. The two Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913 added more friction as Serbia conquered Macedonia and Kosovo.

The six Bosnian Serbs assigned to assassinate Franz Ferdinand strove to liberate the south-Slav provinces from Habsburg rule in order to create a Greater Serbia or Yugoslavia. June 28, 1914: The first attempt On June 28, 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand ‘Este and his wife Duchess of Hohenberg arrived in Sarajevo by train shortly before 10 am. Going to City Hall for the official reception, the royal couple took seats with two others in the third car of a six-vehicle motorcade as six Bosnian Serb assassins, three of which were associated with the Black Hand terrorist group, readied themselves along the route that the Gräf & Stift open sports car was to take. A little after 10 am, as the car passed the central police station, assassin Vaso Čubrilović hurled a hand grenade at the car. While it missed its target, bouncing off the folded back of the convertible cover and rolling into the street, the bomb did a lot of damage, injuring 20 people as it exploded under the fourth car in the procession.

As the five cars continued toward the Town Hall, 19-year old Gavrilo Princip and two others did nothing when it was their turn to act because the car was moving too fast. It seemed as if the assassination attempt on Franz Ferdinand had been a failure. The assassination Then the Archduke and Duchess decided to change their plans and visit the injured at the hospital. Not informed that they were taking a different route, the driver of the third car took a wrong turn onto Franz Joseph Street and had to back up near the Latin Bridge. That is when fate intervened. Princip was just coming out of Schiller’s delicatessen when the Archduke’s vehicle stalled nearby. At 10:45 am, only one and a half meters away, Princip fired his Belgian semi-automatic pistol. The Archduke was hit in the jugular vein while Princip shot Sophie in the abdomen. Franz Ferdinand begged Sophie not to die, telling her to live for their children. Then Lieutenant Colonel Count Franz von Harrach, also seated in the Double Phaeton vehicle, asked the Archduke if he was badly hurt.

The heir to the throne repeated, “It’s nothing,” six or seven times before his plumed hat fell off and he crumpled in the car. Princip was soon arrested, while the vehicle sped to the Governor’s residence for first aid. The Archduke’s soul mate was dead on arrival, and the heir to the Habsburg throne succumbed 10 minutes later. World War I would begin less than two months after their deaths. Franz Ferdinand was buried in the chapel crypt of his Artstetten Castle in Lower Austria. Emperor Franz Joseph and the German Emperor Wilhelm II were notably absent from the funeral. The trials and the Terezín Fortress All the assassins were arrested and tried from October 12 to October 23, 1914. Three of the assassins, including Princip, could not be sentenced to death because they were less than 20 years of age. On October 28, 1914 Princip, who stated in the court room that he believed in unifying all south-Slav states and freeing them from Austro-Hungary’s grip, received a 20-year punishment, the maximum sentence for someone his age.

Princip, who died of tuberculosis in prison, would be incarcerated in central Bohemia’s Terezín fortress. World War I Austria-Hungary lashed out at Serbia, giving them an ultimatum and breaking diplomatic ties. Other nations soon joined sides in the furious fray, triggering World War I that initially put the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary against the Allies of Serbia – the United Kingdom, France and Russia. While many factors, such as nationalism and imperialism, contributed to the causes of The Great War, the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and his wife played a major role in instigating the sixth deadliest conflict in world history, a war that would take the lives of more than 9 million soldiers from July 28, 1914 to November 11, 1918. Konopiště Chateau and the museum artifacts from the assassination The bullet that killed Franz Ferdinand is on display at Konopiště Chateau near Prague. Princip’s pistol and the Double Phaeton in which the Archduke and Duchess had been riding can be seen at the Museum of Military History in Vienna, Austria.

Franz Ferdinand’s bloodstained light blue uniform and plumed hat along with the chaise longue on which he expired are there, too. Related Tours BBC - GCSE Bitesize: The assassination - the basics Next The assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife was critical in setting off the chain of events that led to the First World War. Not only was it a bad day for the Archduke and his family, but also a bad day for Europe. The assassination - the basics 1. Sarajevo was in Bosnia, the province that - to Serbia's anger - had been annexed [Annexed: To join with or take over, so the less powerful country becomes part of the more powerful. ] by Austria-Hungary in 1908. 2. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary. He was inspecting the army in Sarajevo with his wife Sophie. The royal couple arrived by train at 9.28am. 3. Seven young Bosnian Serbs planned to assassinate Franz Ferdinand as he drove along the main road in Sarajevo, the Appel Quay. 4.

The first conspirator who tried to kill Franz Ferdinand threw a bomb at his car. He missed and was arrested. 5. The Archduke escaped unhurt. He decided to abandon the visit and return home via a different route to the one planned. . 6. No one had told the driver the route had changed. On the way back, therefore, the driver turned into Franz Josef Street, following the published route and, when told of his error, stopped the car to turn around. 7. Unfortunately, the car stopped in front of Gavrilo Princip, one of the conspirators, who was on his way home thinking he had failed. 8. Princip pulled out a gun and shot at Franz Ferdinand, hitting him in the jugular vein. There was a tussle, during which Princip shot and killed Sophie. By 11.30am, Franz Ferdinand had bled to death. Page: Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, 1914 Printer Friendly Version >>> Two bullets fired on a Sarajevo street on a sunny June morning in 1914 set in motion a series of events that shaped the world we live in today.

World War One, World War Two, the Cold War and its conclusion all trace their origins to the gunshots that interrupted that summer day. Berliners cheer a regiment of Lancers headed for the Front. August 1914 The victims, Archduke Franz Ferdinand - heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife Sophie, were in the Bosnian city in conjunction with Austrian troop exercises nearby. The couple was returning from an official visit to City Hall. The assassin, 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip burned with the fire of Slavic nationalism. He envisioned the death of the Archduke as the key that would unlock the shackles binding his people to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. A third party, Serbia, figured prominently in the plot. Independent Serbia provided the guns, ammunition and training that made the assassination possible. The Balkan Region of Europe entered the twentieth century much as she left it: a caldron of seething political intrigue needing only the slightest increase of heat to boil over into open conflict. The shots that day in Sarajevo pushed the caldron to the boiling point and beyond.

ADVERTISMENT A Royal Murder Seven conspirators joined the crowd lining the Archduke's route to City Hall. Each took a different position, ready to attack the royal car if the opportunity presented itself. The six-car procession approached one conspirator, Gabrinovic (or Cabrinovic), who threw his bomb only to see it bounce off the Archduke's car and explode near the following car. Unhurt, the Archduke and his wife sped to the reception at City Hall. The ceremonies finished, the Royal procession amazingly retraced its steps bringing the Archduke into the range of the leader of the conspiracy, Gavrilo Princip. More amazingly, the royal car stopped right in front of Princip providing him the opportunity to fire two shots. Both bullets hit home. Borijove Jevtic, one of the conspirators gave this eyewitness account: "When Francis Ferdinand and his retinue drove from the station they were allowed to pass the first two conspirators. The motor cars were driving too fast to make an attempt feasible and in the crowd were many Serbians; throwing a grenade would have killed many innocent people. When the car passed Gabrinovic, the compositor, he threw his grenade.

It hit the side of the car, but Francis Ferdinand with presence of mind threw himself back and was uninjured. Several officers riding in his attendance were injured. The cars sped to the Town Hall and the rest of the conspirators did not interfere with them. After the reception in the Town Hall General Potiorek, the Austrian Commander, pleaded with Francis Ferdinand to leave the city, as it was seething with rebellion. The Archduke was persuaded to drive the shortest way out of the city and to go quickly. Members of the crowd try to attack Princip after his capture The road to the maneuvers was shaped like the letter V, making a sharp turn at the bridge over the River Nilgacka [Miljacka]. Francis Ferdinand's car could go fast enough until it reached this spot but here it was forced to slow down for the turn. Here Princip had taken his stand. As the car came abreast he stepped forward from the curb, drew his automatic pistol from his coat and fired two shots. The first struck the wife of the Archduke, the Archduchess Sofia, in the abdomen. She was an expectant mother. She died instantly. The second bullet struck the Archduke close to the heart.

He uttered only one word, 'Sofia' -- a call to his stricken wife. Then his head fell back and he collapsed. He died almost instantly. The officers seized Princip. They beat him over the head with the flat of their swords. They knocked him down, they kicked him, scraped the skin from his neck with the edges of their swords, tortured him, all but killed him." Another Perspective Count Franz von Harrach rode on the running board of the royal car serving as a bodyguard for the Archduke. His account begins immediately after Princip fires his two shots: The Archduke and his wife leave City Hall. Count Harrach rides the running board "As the car quickly reversed, a thin stream of blood spurted from His Highness's mouth onto my right check. As I was pulling out my handkerchief to wipe the blood away from his mouth, the Duchess cried out to him, 'In Heaven's name, what has happened to you?' At that she slid off the seat and lay on the floor of the car, with her face between his knees. I had no idea that she too was hit and thought she had simply fainted with fright.

Then I heard His Imperial Highness say, 'Sopherl, Sopherl, don't die. Stay alive for the children!' At that, I seized the Archduke by the collar of his uniform, to stop his head dropping forward and asked him if he was in great pain. He answered me quite distinctly, 'It's nothing!' His face began to twist somewhat but he went on repeating, six or seven times, ever more faintly as he gradually lost consciousness, 'It's nothing!' Then, after a short pause, there was a violent choking sound caused by the bleeding. It was stopped as we reached the Konak." References: Brook-Shepard, Gordon, Archduke of Sarajevo (1984); Dedijer, Vladimir, The Road To Sarajevo (1966); Morton, Frederick, Thunder At Twilight (1989). How To Cite This Article: "Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, 1914," EyeWitness to History, (1998). Gavrilo Princip (age 19) was sentenced to twenty years of hard labor. He escaped the death penalty because he was under the age of 21.

Three other conspirators were tried including Cabrinovic, the bomb-thrower. He and another under-aged conspirator received a sentence of 20 years hard labor. The 3rd conspirator, Danilo Ilic, was executed on Feb. 3, 1915. Princip died in prison of tuberculosis on April 28, 1918. His two fellow conspirators preceded him in death, also dying of tuberculosis.

Question: Who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 ?
Answer: GAVRILLO PRINCIP