Wikimedia Commons One of Franz Ferdinand’s assassins is arrested on the streets of Sarajevo. Two other conspirators reportedly also had clean shots at Ferdinand, but lost their nerve and let the archduke pass unharmed. The failed assassin was apprehended despite jumping into the river and attempting to swallow one of the cyanide capsules. It bounced off of the car and consequently detonated under a different vehicle. Unfortunately, this information also gave Princip and his co-conspirators the exact locations of their victims.Īs the royal motorcade rolled down an avenue alongside the Miljacka River, one of the conspirators lobbed a grenade at the archduke’s vehicle. The route had been published in advance to inform cheering onlookers as to where they could view the visiting royals. On June 28, Franz and Sophie got into an open-topped car to take a drive through the city of Sarajevo on a pre-planned route. The royal couple prepared to return home after a few uneventful days on the road. Though he was warned multiple times to cancel his trip, on June 23, 1914, Franz Ferdinand set out anyway with his wife Sophie, the Duchess, on June 23, 1914. The Archduke was not ignorant of the danger of visiting a country hostile to the Austro-Hungarian empire. Wikimedia Commons Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Duchess Sophie get into the vehicle in which they would both be killed shortly after the taking of this photo. The assassins then obtained bombs, pistols, and cyanide capsules - in the event that they were captured - from the Black Hand. Together with five other conspirators, Princip plotted to assassinate Ferdinand during his visit. Gavrilo Princip read in a small newspaper clipping in Belgrade in early 1914 that Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, would be visiting Bosnia-Herzegonia.įor Princip, the Archduke was the symbol of everything he was fighting against. The Assassination Of Archduke Franz Ferdinand It was only a matter of time before his new skills would be put to use. Gavrilo Princip was initially dismissed by the Black Hand as being too small and too weak, but was eventually trained by them in terrorist tactics. They could also provide their members with critical information and weapons. They were, therefore, able to establish underground revolutionary networks in several countries, including Serbia and Bosnia. The members of Black Hand often held well-placed positions in the military and government.
WHO ASSASSINATED FRANZ FERDINAND AND WHERE FREE
Black Hand’s goals were to unite all ethnic Serbs and form a southern Slavic federation in Eastern Europe that would be free from Austrian rule entirely. The Serbian nationalists of Black Hand were angered by what they saw as an aggressive extension of Austrian power and an attempt to limit Serbia’s own influence in the Balkans. It was comprised of dissenters who deeply resented that the Serbian government had allowed Austria-Hungary to annex Bosnia-Herzegovina - and as a Bosnian Serb, Princip was incensed. The Black Hand was a secret society founded in March of 1911.
Wikimedia Commons The Black Hand assisted a group of conspirators including Gavrilo Princip, right, in assassinating Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
Shortly thereafter, the young Princip came into contact with a group that would turn his ideas into actions: the Black Hand. This nationalist sentiment garnered support throughout the Balkans. Princip fervently believed that Serbia, as the free part of the south Slavs, was obligated to help unify the southern Slavic peoples as an independent nation. The southern Slavic states yearned for independence from the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires, which had long dominated the region. It was a tumultuous time in southeastern Europe’s history as Gavrilo Princip grew up. Princip might have endured a similar fate as his laboring parents had he not been exposed to ideas of socialism and anarchism while at school in Sarajevo, where he mingled with like-minded young revolutionaries. As he himself recalled, “wherever I went people took me for a weakling… and I pretended I was a weak person, even though I was not.” His unimpressive stature is thought to have fueled his determination to prove himself through some noteworthy act. Though he was the only one of his parents’ children to survive to adulthood, Princip was a small and sickly boy. Wikimedia Commons Gavrilo Princip’s prison photo, taken after the 19-year old had killed the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne.
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