Assassination at Sarajevo
Prelude to War
On a cold June morning in 1914, in the cobblestone streets of Sarajevo on Serbian Independence Day, a group of 7 young Serbian nationalists romanticized the idea of assassinating the heir to Austro-Hungarian empire, the Archduke Ferdinand and his wife. Each member of the group waited in a spot along the parade root at which the Archduke's motorcade was planning on following. All but two of these men came to their senses and decided against trying to kill the Archduke. The first assassin Nedeljko Cabrinovik through a grenade at the Archduke's open car. The grenade however slid off the rear of the car and exploded blowing the tire off the car behind the Archduke's. It wounded a few of the Archduke's aides, one soldier and several spectators. After a short delay the motorcade continued. The Archduke spoke at the town hall where he made a scathing speech denouncing the first assassin even while the paper his speech was written on was stained with the blood of one of his wounded attendants. Archduke went back into his car and the motorcade decided to take a different route back to the military camp. As the first of the three remaining cars in the motorcade turned onto a bridge the motorcade stopped. The Archduke had failed to inform his drivers that a different route was chosen back to the military camp. As the first car backed up the Archduke's car was stopped for a second. Using this opportunity, the second assassin Gavrilo Princip walked up to the car and stood on the running board, pulled out his revolver and coldly shot the Archduke in the head and his wife the Duchess of Hohenberg in the neck. Both victims were dead minutes later. Gavrilo Princip was apprehended and arrested before the crowd succeeded in lynching him. The incident could was not localized and all of Europe's great powers where to go to war over one incident in Sarajevo.
The Archduke and Duchess leave city hall for the last time.
Who was Francis Ferdinand?The Archduke of Austria Francis Ferdinand was the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was the nephew of Francis Joseph the leader of the nation. He had married a young middle-class bride (to the shock of the royal establishment) named Sophia who became The Duchess of Hohenberg. Ferdinand was known as a stuffy royal who was far less civilized in his politics than the English House of Windsor of whom he was closely related. A competent leader he was expected to start his reign within the next ten years.
Why was he assassinated and what were the repercussions?The Austro-Hungarian Empire was formed in 1867 when the area in which Austria and Hungary are today was thrown out of the German Empire. Francis Joseph ran this new country as a pawn of imperial Germany. With Germany's technology and industrialization Austria-Hungary took over its weak neighbors to the east. One of those countries was the small nation of Bosnia Herzegovina. The Slavs, which lived there, were opposed to the oppressors in Austria. They were aided by the small independent nation of Serbia. Serbia welcomed political dissidents and the nation's merchants did supply them weapons through the Turkish Ottoman Empire. This angered Francis Joseph and he looked for an excuse to annex the country. Joseph's excuse to take over Serbia turned out to be a personal tragedy when his son, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary was killed. He had planned a trip to Sarajevo in Bosnia a country part of the empire. A Serbian nationalist from the group "The Black Hand" Gavrilo Princip was growing paranoid with the Empire and he decided to assassinate the Archduke to try and shatter the country. After Princip shot and killed the Archduke, the Austro-Hungarian Empire blamed the assassination on the Serbian government, this proved to be their chance to smother the country. Thus, starting WWI.Assassin Princip and co-conspirator Grabez.
Who was responsible for this event?We believe the assassination of the Archduke was purely the fault of the terrorist group the Black Hand and its sponsor the independent state of Serbia. Serbia gave the terrorists money, weapons and training. This is not disputed. But did Serbia and the Black Hand have a valid reason to strike against Austria? Austria was annexing countries like Bosnia because they were defenceless against the industrialised empire and a small country like Serbia may had only be effective militarily against Austria with guerrilla warfare tactics. So Serbia may have been justified in striking against Austria.Bibliography
Great Events. Pasadena: Salem Press Inc., 1992
Taylor, A.J.P. The First World War. London: George Rainbird Ltd., 1963.
Remak, Joachin. The Origins of War World 1. United States: Holt, Reinhart, and Winston, Inc., 1967
"International Relations World War One." *Encyclopedia Britannica : Micropaedia. 1991 ed.
By: John, Robbie, Tara, Holly
A School Link Article. Courtesy of John Robinson, Robbie Galloway, Tara Dr.G.W.Williams, March 4/1999 .
