The day has finally arrived. It was exactly 100 years ago that the Austrian Arch-Duke Ferdinand was paying an official state visit to Sarajevo, a city in the Balkans that had been forcibly added to the Hapsburg Empire, full of people who resented the Austrians. Serb nationalists, with the backing of the Serbian spy agency, sent a team of young radicals to Sarajevo, where they lay in wait for Ferdinand and Sophie, his devoted wife. They were slain on the way out of town, after being attacked on the drive into the city. Amazingly, despite the attempt to kill him on the drive into City Hall, security was not increased in any meaningful way. On the way out of town, the royal driver took a wrong turn and slowed to turn to make a correction, and 19-year old radical student (Serbian) Gavrilo Princip walked out to near the car and blasted both the Arch-Duke and his wife. This was to have consequences beyond belief as it led directly to World War 1.
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 15:33:02 +0000
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