The Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand
The Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand
Francis Ferdinand was born in Graz, Austria in 1863. His father is Archduke Charles Louis. He received the title archduke of Austria-Este in 1875. Francis became heir to the thrown after two deaths in the family. The first was the death of his cousin, Crown Prince Rudolf, who killed himself and his sixteen year old mistress in 1889, and the second was the death of his father in 1896. Ferdinand was a reformist with his new political ideas. As stated in the website “The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand” by Michael Shackelford, “One of these ideas was "trialism" - the reorganization of the dual monarchy into a triple monarchy by giving the Slavs an equal voice in the empire.” This would put them on an equal footing with the Magyars and Germans living inside the Austro-Hungarian borders. These political views were against the beliefs of those people in the Serbian nationalists.
On June 28, 1914, the archduke’s fourteenth wedding anniversary, Ferdinand decided to take a special trip with his wife, Sophie, to Sarajevo. Usually Sophie was not allowed to ride in the same vehicle as her husband, but on their anniversary she would be given all the royal treatment, including being allowed to ride in the same car as her husband.
The members of the assassins group were all members of the Serbian nationalist movement Mlada Bosna. There were seven people in this group and their ages ranged from nineteen to twenty-seven. These assassins received their training and weapons from a Belgrade terrorist league. They returned to Sarajevo with pistols, bombs, and cyanide to wait for the arrival of the archduke. The archduke had received several warnings to stay away from Sarajevo, but Ferdinand ignored the threats and even told the Austrian army to stay out of the city for the day. By 10:00 a.m. the archduke and his wife were headed toward city hall. On their way they had to cross the Miljacka River at Cumuria Bridge. This is where first assassin was waiting to throw a bomb at the archduke, but he did not throw his bomb claiming the police were blocking his path. The second assassins view was not blocked and he threw his bomb at the archduke’s car. The bomb was headed straight...