This event is widely regarded as the spark which started World War One, a conflict that lasted four years, engulfed all of Europe and cost at least 15 million lives.
The archduke travelled to Sarajevo in June, 1914, to inspect the imperial armed forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, former Ottoman territories in the Balkan region that were annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1908.
This caused quite a stir among Serbian nationalists in Bosnia, who believed they should become part of the newly independent and ambitious Serbian nation.
Franz Ferdinand and Sophie were touring Sarajevo in an open car, with surprisingly little security, when Serbian nationalist Nedjelko Cabrinovic threw a bomb at the vehicle.
The bomb rolled off the back of the vehicle and wounded an officer and some bystanders.
Later that day, on the way to visit the injured officer, the archduke’s procession took a wrong turn at the junction of Appel Quay and Franz-Josef-Strasse, where one of Cabrinovic’s cohorts, 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip, happened to be loitering.
Seeing his opportunity, Princip fired into the car, shooting Franz Ferdinand and Sophie at point-blank range.
Princip then turned the gun on himself, but was prevented from firing it by a bystander, who threw himself upon the young assassin.
A mob of angry onlookers attacked Princip, who fought back and was subsequently wrestled away by the police.
Meanwhile, Franz Ferdinand and Sophie lay fatally wounded in their limousine as it rushed to seek help; they both died within the hour.
The assassination of Franz-Ferdinand and Sophie set off a rapid chain of events.
Austria-Hungary, like many countries around the world, blamed the Serbian government for the attack and hoped to use the incident as justification for settling the question of Slav nationalism once and for all.
As Russia supported Serbia, an Austro-Hungarian declaration of war was delayed until its leaders received assurances from German leader Kaiser Wilhelm that Germany would support their cause in the event of a Russian intervention, which would likely involve Russia’s ally, France, and possibly Britain as well.
On July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and the tenuous peace between Europe’s great powers collapsed.
Within a week, Russia, Belgium, France, Great Britain and Serbia had lined up against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and World War I had begun.
Although the assassination had sparked the conflict of 1914, it certainly wasn’t the cause.
The war had been a long time coming, with tension between Europe’s major powers building in a time when mass armies and and the arms race were reaching their peak.
By the 1910s, the stage had been set for Europe’s “superpowers” to engage in a head-on battle; all they needed was a catalyst, which Princip provided on June 28, 1914.
