The Assassination Of Archduke Franz Ferdinand Was A Farce
Wikimedia CommonsFranz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie leave the Sarajevo Guildhall on the day of the assassination.
While deep-seated forces like unbridled nationalism may have been the stronger factors that caused World War I, the spark that ignited the unimaginably violent and destructive conflict was the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
On June 28, 1914, six Serbian assassins set out to kill Ferdinand in Sarajevo. While they did accomplish their goal, the way in which they did it was fraught with small errors that changed the course of history.
The assassins stationed themselves in different locations along Ferdinand’s parade route. The first two assassins failed to act. The third threw his bomb at Ferdinand’s car, but it bounced off and failed to harm him. The next two assassins were too scared by this mishap to act. The sixth assassin re-positioned himself and hoped for another opportunity.
As luck would have it for this assassin (Gavrilo Princip), Ferdinand’s driver took a wrong turn, unexpectedly bringing the car onto the street where the assassin now found himself. The driver, intending to reverse and correct his mistake, stopped the car directly in front of the assassin, who fired into the car, killing Ferdinand and his wife.
Wikimedia CommonsAssassin Gavrilo Princip is arrested just after the shooting.
