The final straw for the conflict between 1914 and 1918 was the assassination of Archduke Francisco Ferdinand. He was heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, an empire that encompassed present-day Austria and Hungary, as well as parts of Romania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, among other regions. The Archduke and his wife, Sofia, were killed in Sarajevo, in the province of Bosnia, on June 28, 1914 by a Serb activist. After the crime, the Austro-Hungarian Empire blamed Serbia for not having prevented the attack and declared war on the country on July 28. But of course, it wasn’t just this murder that put the world at war. The episode served more as a good excuse for several European powers to settle old feuds. “War actually matured over the course of transformations in European economies, which strengthened nations, stimulated their militarization, led to the intensification of disputes over markets and the formation of new political alliances”, says historian Denise de Moura, from the University Paulista State (Unesp), from Franca (SP). At that time, for example, Germany was fighting with France and England over colonial areas; Russia, in turn, encouraged the independence of provinces annexed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In this climate of general hostility, the Russians allied themselves with Serbia after the assassination of the archduke and entered a state of war against the Austro-Hungarians. The Germans paid back and declared their support for the empire that lost its heir. From then on, in a great domino effect, the French, English and Turks also took sides in the thing. On one side were the Allies: England, France, Italy, United States, Serbia and Russia; on the other the central empires: Germany, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Turkish-Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria. The conflict would only end in 1918, with the victory of the Allies, and after the death of at least 15 million people.
READ TOO:
– What would life be like if World War I hadn’t happened?
– What was trench fighting like in World War I?
– What was the Ottoman Empire?
– What was the first war in history?
1. When Archduke Francis Ferdinand’s visit to Sarajevo is announced, several students plan an attack. The city is in Bosnia, a province annexed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which has Ferdinand as heir to the throne. The conspirators are supported by the Black Hand, a secret society that advocated the unification of Serbia with other Balkan provinces
2. As soon as they arrive in the city, on June 28, 1914, the archduke’s entourage is overtaken by one of the conspirators. He has a pistol, but does not draw it, giving up the attack for unknown reasons. Shortly afterwards, a second conspirator approaches, but also withdraws, supposedly out of pity for hurting the Archduke’s wife, Sofia.
3. A third attacker, however, does not back down. Nedjelko Cabrinovic throws a bomb at the entourage. However, he misses the target, the bomb goes over the Archduke’s car and explodes under the vehicle behind. Ferdinando and his close companions are not hit, but a member of the entourage is injured and hospitalized.
4. After the bomb incident, the Archduke decides to cancel his remaining engagements in the city. But in the midst of the confusion, there is a misunderstanding about the new route to be followed. Ferdinando’s driver ends up getting lost in the streets of Sarajevo
5. In an incredible coincidence, while driving through the city, the car with the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne stops next to a fourth conspirator, the Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip, a 19-year-old student, full of nationalist ideals about the unification of a big serbia
6. Armed with a pistol, Princip jumps in front of the car and kills the Archduke and his wife – afterwards, the assassin would say that he did not intend to shoot her, but a Bosnian military governor who was accompanying the couple. Gavrilo Princip is arrested and sentenced to 20 years in prison, but dies from complications of tuberculosis on April 28, 1918, seven months before the end of the war he helped start.