Duties await
Franz Ferdinand was heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and had left Sarajevo to inspect his army.
After two days of celebrations earlier, the Duke and Duchess had one more day’s duties to perform. He sent off a telegram congratulating his eldest son on his exam results, before the couple arrived in Sarajevo by train at 9.28 a.m.
The Duke was in the full blue and gold uniform of a cavalry general. The Duchess was in a white silk dress with red and white fabric roses. Although aware of warnings that the trip could be dangerous, neither of them knew that seven terrorists — members of the Young Bosnians, a revolutionary student group — were waiting for them.
As their open-topped car passed down the grand Appel Quay, the first terrorist was too frightened to deploy his bomb. The second, Nedeljko ?abrinovi?, was not, but his aim was poor, and the bomb bounced off the royal vehicle and exploded under another, injuring two soldiers and a number of bystanders.
“The fellow is clearly insane,” the Duke muttered, and indicated that the trip should continue. After an event at city hall, the couple decided to visit those wounded by the earlier bomb. The driver became confused about the route, and turned down Franz Josef street. On realising his error, he stopped outside Moritz Schiller’s café so the car could be manually pushed backwards.
One of the conspirators, the 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip, was then on his way home, believing the day’s plans to have failed. By a fateful coincidence, he was on Franz Josef street outside Schiller’s café when the royal car stopped directly in front of him.
Seizing his moment, he pulled out his handgun and fired twice. The first round passed through the car door and hit Sophie in the abdomen. The second struck Franz Ferdinand in the jugular vein. “Sophie, Sophie,” Franz Ferdinand implored, “don’t die. Stay alive for our children.” They were both taken to the Konak Palace and were dead shortly after 11.00 a.m. It was their 14th wedding anniversary.
“I am a Yugoslav nationalist, aiming for the unification of all Yugoslavs, and I do not care what form of state, but it must be free from Austria.”
Gavrilo Princip, at his trial
Princip was too young to face the death penalty for the double murder. He admitted assassinating Franz Ferdinand, but said he had not meant to kill Sophie. He was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment, and died of tuberculosis in April 1918, the year the war he started finally ended after an estimated 17 million soldiers and civilians had died and 20 million had been wounded.
This was all just a disagreement.
cool history, think something like this could happen today?
Anything is possible... I certainly hope that we have learned from such an occurrence.
Anything is possible. Even in the modern world @squatee!
This is a great backgrounder on WW1.
Thank you for sharing this. @mindhunter
Thanks for passing by as always Nigel.
nice post
nice comment :)
Wrong place, wrong time...
Yup. And the consequences afterwards were so deadly too!
And so I learned something new this day!
I love this place!
Happy Wednesday :)
#til tag - Today I Learned - I love this tag!
That is so good!
We should start using it!
:)
Great post on history :) Thanks for sharing
100%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% :)
:) always 100%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% hhaha ttysoon in my bikini ready for beach :)
I mean.........tpiwwp?
A+ for effort though lol
@i-am-zol Reputation 25 ; Steem Power 0.5 :(
Well jeez, I only signed up yesterday :|
;P
Already working on my next article :) #bikiniready @road2wisdom :)
@haha and nice try @i-am-zol lmao 1 video in one week is more than enough. Its not even 3 days old hahaha @mindhunter too funny ;)
Article now complete :) I hope your back is feeling better :)
yeah I told you in chat very nice I cant wait to up vote it :) good job
Thanks for asking its a little better but still in too much pain
History: It happened...probably.
Cool comment.
Haha, thanks! My father is a historian and always going on about the causes of WW1 and WW2. My uncle is was a history professor at Harvard and is always saying that 'studying history is a process of UN-learning.' So, I guess the books might not be accurate always.
I agree with you @i-am-zol - Were six millions Jews gassed at Auschwitz? No. Only 1.5 million were. The rest died of hunger and disease.
I'm heckin not touching THAT subject =^1
:D
Love the WWI background history. Thanks for posting!
Hi Natasha, thanks for passing by. I promise to pass by one of your yummy recipes later. You have such a yummy timeline :)
Thanks for the lovely feedback @mindhunter!
Interesting post.
Were the students terrorists or was the Duke a terrorist?
Terrorist is a very subjective label.
Apparently the Duke, "radiated an aura of strangeness and cast a shadow of violence and recklessness".
He also thought he was a Duke.
That's bound to have caused problems: Inventing a social class of 'superior people', dressing them in gold stuff and costumes, and then placing them above another group. And then claiming that the angriest man with the most gold stuff pinned to him leads that group.
It's amazing that people once thought this single event was the cause of a World War, rather than what the event symbolised.
When a world is unequal, the oppressed tend to get angry.
I kinda have to agree with that @matrjoschka - I'm wondering when China will finally wake up??
I don't really know anything about the Chinese situation. Is there somewhere to get a perspective on that outside of the Western media-narrative?
I know they still have a monarchy in the UK where I grew up. And that was an extremely repressive and odd place to live.
What's news from China these days?
John Pilger is the man for China these days:
http://johnpilger.com/articles/australia-beckons-a-war-with-china
There's always a waging war for freedom or control on this planet, no matter what year it is. Just look at your work place.
Not much has changed in a 100 years when it comes to freedom @cfh :)