Course description

The Killing of Franz Ferdinand and the Start of the First World War

In 1914, Europe was afraid. Everyone was waiting for war to begin. Germany was strong and wanted an empire, just the same as France and Britain had. Austria already had a huge one but it was starting to break up. The Turkish Ottoman Empire was many centuries old and was sick, maybe dying. But Germany was not going to build an empire without a war.

In Sarajevo, a town in south-eastern Europe, the next Emperor of Austria was visiting. He was with his pregnant wife. Both knew that their trip was risky because Sarajevo was the centre of a fight for the independence of Bosnia-Serbia from Austria. Terrorists had already tried to kill the old Emperor, Franz Josef, the year before. Now Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, were driving down a short street after someone threw a bomb at their car. They were not hurt but many other people were. Franz Ferdinand wanted to visit those people who were in hospital because of the attack.

A young man from Bosnia, Gavrilo Princip, was standing on the street. He was part of the Black Hand organisation, a group that was fighting for Bosnian-Serbian independence. One of its leaders, Dragutin Dimitrijevic, often called Apis, had already killed King Alexander of Serbia and his wife in 1903. He had organised training for Princip and helped to get him into Serbia. The Black Hand wanted freedom for Bosnia-Serbia and if it did not get that freedom, many young men 

were ready to die. Everyone knew that the group was dangerous, very dangerous.

When he saw Franz Ferdinand’s car, Gavrilo Princip could not believe it. He thought the couple were far away, after the first bomb. He could not know that Franz Ferdinand wanted to visit the hospital. He took his gun and shot Franz Ferdinand in the neck and Sophie in her stomach. They both died soon after.

Gavrilo Princip was not even twenty years old when he shot the next Emperor of Austria and his wife. The government could not kill him because he was too young. He went to prison but died in 1918 of tuberculosis.

But the murder of Franz Ferdinand was only the start. The Black Hand knew that the killing meant a European war. It was what they wanted. They believed that Bosnian-Serbian independence could come from that war. They were right. But nobody expected the most bloody war in the history of the world. Germany joined Austria and Hungary with the Turkish Empire and fought against Russia, Britain, France and Italy in a war that killed millions of soldiers from every country. Soldiers came from Africa and India too. America joined the war in 1917, the same year as Russia had a revolution. The Turkish and the Austrian Empires fell.

And Bosnia and Serbia got their independence. In Serbia, Gavrilo Princip gave his name to many schools and streets. You can still visit a museum with his name on it. He was a young man that started a world war.

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