Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand—the heir to the throne of the massive
Habsburg Empire, and therefore arguably the most important man in the world—and
his wife, Archduchess Sophie, visited Sarajevo on the anniversary of the Battle of
Kosovo Polje (the same 14th-century battle that, several decades later, Slobodan
Miloševi
ć
would exploit to whip up Serbian nationalism and ignite the wars of the
1990s). While they were in town, a local pan-Slavic movement to liberate Bosnia
from the Austro-Hungarian Empire (affiliated with a movement called the Black
Hand) plotted an assassination. Early in the day, one attempt failed when the bomb
intended for the archduke's car instead wounded other members of his party. Believ-
ing the plot to be foiled, the archduke continued on his way, visiting the City Hall a
few blocks up the river.
A 19-year-old Bosnian Serb named Gavrilo Princip, who was in on the plot, was
waiting for Ferdinand's car along the river by the Latin Bridge (across the street
from today's museum, by the bus stop). But when that area became too crowded, he
crossedtothecornernowmarkedbyaplaque,andsteppedintoanearbydelicatessen.
Meanwhile, after leaving the City Hall, Franz Ferdinand decided at the last moment
to change his schedule and visit the people who had been wounded by the bomb.
Confused by the last-minute change, the driver took a wrong turn up this street and
pausedinamomentofindecision,causingthecartostall...directlyinfrontofPrincip.
The assassin raised his gunand fired at Franz Ferdinand and General Oskar Potoriek;
heshotthearchdukeandmissedthegeneral,buthitArchduchessSophie—killingthe
imperial couple.
Princip and the other plotters were arrested. The Habsburgs wanted to send in-
vestigators into Serbia to root out the co-conspirators; Serbia's refusal to grant them
access kicked off a chain reaction that brought all of Europe to war. While historians
stress that Ferdinand's assassination was merely the event that ignited the tinderbox
of World War I—not the “cause” of the war—its significance is undeniable.
The epilogue: Because Princip was too young to be executed, he was given a
20-year sentence at Theresienstadt prison outside of Prague (which the Nazis later
converted into Terezín concentration camp). The terrible conditions at the camp led
to Princip's early death at age 24. Much of the world considered him a monster, but
by the end of World War I, the nascent nation of Yugoslavia—which emerged from
theashesofthatwarexactlyasPrincipandhisaccompliceshaddreamed—celebrated
him as a hero, even giving his name to the bridge near the place where he happened
to be standing when he stumbled into his opportunity to change history.
