The History Hub.

This is a story of national pride, the alliance system and the fight for land. Lets start at the end, Gavrilo Princip shot the Arch Duke of Austro-Hungary, and all the members of each alliance supported each other, leading to war. The question is what caused this and how did it happen? 

 

When the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz-Ferdinand, announced an official visit to Sarajevo in 1914, a Serbian terrorist organization called the Black Hand decided it was time to strike. It recruited and trained three Bosnian student activists and armed them with pistols, hand bombs and cyanide capsules. Their mission was to assassinate the Archduke and commit suicide so that it could never be linked to the Black Hand.

 

The Black Hand wanted to free all Slavic people living outside Serbia. Bosnia was an area next to Serbia that had been given to Austro-Hungary a few years before. The Serbians in Bosnia were not treated very well and the Black Hand wanted to reunite the two countries.

 

When Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie arrived in Sarajevo, they were driven to a reception with the governor of Bosnia. The streets were lined with well-wishers cheering the Archduke on as he waved from an open topped car. Hidden amongst the crowds were the three assassins, intent on murder. As the car passed, one of the assassins hurled his bomb, but it missed the Duke’s car and hit the one behind, injuring its passengers. The plot had failed and chaos spread throughout the crowd. The motorcade sped off to City Hall.

 

After the reception the Archduke decided to visit the driver of the second car in hospital. His driver took a wrong turn and had to reverse. Unfortunately the car stopped right in front of Gavrilo Princip, who was hiding on the streets, as he was too scared to go back to his place of residence. He seized his chance and fired his revolver at point blank range, killing the Archduke and his wife. He swallowed his cyanide pill but it did not work and he was arrested.