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| Archduke Franz Ferdinand |
I've always known that Franz Ferdinand's death triggered World War One, but didn't know much more about it. I'm currently planning some reading resources on the war for my class in September, and have been intrigued by the story.
In
1914, Europe was a cauldron of tension and fear as the dark clouds of war
loomed on the horizon. The cauldron reached boiling point when Archduke Franz
Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, was assasinated in Bosnia.
Historians often focus on the complex set of events that followed, as various countries
became involved in a war. The assassination itself, however, was a daring and
bold mission that often gets overlooked.In spring 1914, Danilo Ilic carefully co-ordinated an assassination that would change the course of history. The Serbian recruited six others to kill Franz Ferdinand because they didn’t want Bosnia to be part of Austria-Hungary. Instead, they wanted Bosnia to be with Serbia in a new country called Yugoslavia. Using intelligence from a number of sources, Ilic learned that Ferdinand would visit Sarajevo in Bosnia at the end of June along with his wife, Duchess Sophie. He smuggled his team into Bosnia and provided them with false identities. As well as his fellow assassins, Ilic received a stash of weapons. These had been hidden in a large crate of sugar which was taken to Sarajevo. In the box were six hand grenades and four Browning automatic pistols and ammunition. There was also money, suicide pills and a map with showing the location of sentry points and a secret escape tunnnel.
On 28th June 1914, Ilic positioned the six assassins along the route of a motorcade that Franz Ferdinand was due to travel along later that day. Amongst that team was a Serb called Gavrilo Princip.
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| Gavrilo Princip |
Despite the importance of the visit, security was limited in Sarajevo that day. Only sixty police officers were tasked with protecting the Archduke’s motorcade. This made it ideal for Ilic to carry out his plan. The vehicles passed the first assassin, who was armed with a bomb. He failed to carry out his duty. The second assassin had a pistol and a bomb. He too failed to act. At 10:10am, the car carrying Franz Ferdinand and Sophie approached assassin number three: Nedeljko Cabrinovic. This time, the assassin threw the bomb, but it bounced off the canopy of the car and blew up the car behind instead, wounding more than a dozen people.
The remainder of the motorcade sped away quickly to the Town Hall. The cars travelled so fast that the final three assassins, including Gavrilo Princip, were not able to carry out the plan. At the Town Hall, Franz Ferdinand was greatly distressed. “Mr Mayor, I came here on a visit, and I get bombs thrown at me. It is outrageous!” That said, Ferdinand and Sophie wished to visit the injured in hospital. This would prove to be a fatal decision.
Gavrilo Princip knew that the planned assassination had been unsuccessful so took a chance on the Archduke’s next move, waiting beside a nearby delicatessen. Sure enough, the motorcade travelled towards him. The driver of the car stopped right in front of the shop. Princip knew this was his one and only chance. Stepping forward, he fired two shots from a distance of about 1.5 metres. The first hit the Archduke in his jugular vein; the second inflicted an adominal wound on the Duchess. Both remained seated upright, but died on the way to receiving medical treatment. His last words were “Sophie, Sophie! Don’t die! Live for our children!” followed by several utterances of “It is nothing.”
So what happened to the assassins? A trial was swiftly set up in Sarajevo in October 1914. Danilo Ilic was sentenced to death and executed by hanging, along with one of his conspirators. The other six, including Gavrilo Princip, received prison sentences ranging from 10 to 20 years. Their sentences were so lenient because they were seen as unwilling participants in the killing, and were forced into it by Ilic. Princip died of tuberculosis in prison.
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| The trial. Princip is seated in the centre of the first row. |
