Archduke’s Assassination by a Bosnian Student
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Archduke Franz Ferdinand was born in Graz, Austria, on the 18th of December 1984. The son of archduke Carl Ludwig and a nephew to emperor Franz Josef he was a member of the royal Habsburg dynasty, which was the ruler to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He joined the military at the age of 12 and was privy to several promotions among them is the post of inspector general in 1931. Upon the deaths of his cousin and father, he became the heir to the throne. The Archduke was a well-educated and intelligent. He was the husband to Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, and the couple had three children. Although the marriage was morganatic where the wife and kids had no rights to inheriting either the title, privilege’s or the possession’s from their father; the union was of love.
At the beginning of the 1900s, the relations between Austria-Hungary and Serbia were straining. The strain was because Serbia wanted to extend their lands. The Serbian people intended to rule Bosnia-Herzegovina. However, in 1908 the emperor Franz Josef annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina to its multi-ethnic empire.
1914 the Archduke and his wife received an invitation for a visit to the capital of Bosnia, Sarajevo. The heir to the throne was there to inspect the royal armed forces of Bosnia-Herzegovina that were an Austrian province. There were rumors of a possible terrorist group under the national organization referred to as the Black Hand. However, the Archduke so no reason for alarm. On June 28th, the couple was traveling to the city hall in a motorcade from the train station. At 10.10 am a member of the group Young Bosnia Nedjelko threw a grenade at them; they, however, survived as the bomb bounced off the car and perched under a different vehicle in the motorcade (Openlearn, 2019). The Archduke was able to speed away and make it to safety in the town hall. That would have been another failed assassination had the duke adhered to plans. Still, he was an uncalculated man and decided to visit some of the casualties from the bombing before resuming with his tour. To accommodate the Archduke, a different route was established, but this proved futile as the car came to face Princip Gavrilo. The Serbian student shot both the Archduke and his wife, killing them. Although it is thought that Black Hand was responsible for the assassination records, confirm that was Young Bosnia’s responsibility. The investigations on how the assassins came about their weapons proved that Major Voija Tankositch of the Serbian army provided the arms to provoke war. The assassination was the catalyst, the spark that ignited that First World War. Austria-Hungary believed that the Serbian government helped Gavrilo and his companions on the attack, and they issued a list of demands to Serbia. The demands include that Austria-Hungary is permitted to conduct its own investigation of the Archduke’s assassination and to vanquish any publication inciting hatred to the monarchy. The Austrian empire broke diplomatic relations by declaring war against Serbia. The realm felt the need to fight back as it had acquired the support of its allies, the Germans. The events broke the shaky peace between the great European powers.
The Germans urged Austria-Hungarian monarchy to attack swiftly so that the war appears local and avoid retaliation from the Russians who were allied to Serbia. Russia was an economic giant, and their presence in the war would tip the war in Serbia’s favor. Eventually, German, Russia, Great Britain, and France, among other countries, joined the war. Reperes (2020) says that world war one caused the death of around nine million military personnel and over ten million civilians.
Other theories are surrounding the death of Archduke Fernandez. According to Dash (2013), one of the theories was that whoever hunts and kills a rare white stag as the Archduke himself did would bring out his death or the death of one of his family members within a year. The theory was believable as he had shot the stag in 1913 and died in 1914. The arguments are best on superstitions, but human beings tend to focus on superstitious acts to explain phenomenons.
Between the assassin and the Archduke, who is the hero and who is the villain? The answer to this depends on which side one supports as per the historical events that took place in the 19th century. In Garvilo’s view, he was fighting for his people to get freedom from the Habsburgs monarchy. The monarchy had illegally annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina; they used force in defending their territories, angering the Serbians inducing revolutions. The illegal annexation was a deprivation of the Bosnian people rights in this light Garvillo is a hero. His country, his home, was gone, and he felt the need to fight back against his oppressors. However, was it fair to assassinate the couple, especially the duchess who was rumored to have been pregnant at the time of the assassination (Policraticus, 2018)? The murder of a pregnant woman will always be a cause of the uproar. The couple also left behind three young kids. Garvillo left the kids orphan while also eliminating the heir to the grand Habsburg dynasty. Fernandez, although not a close friend of the Austrian-German he was in support of the triple alliance. His support only served to tarnish his image as people were tired of the harsh monarchial rule. People retaliated by organizing his assassination as his status and relation to the Austria-Hungarian empire meant that he was a villain.
References
Dash, M (2013). Curses! Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his astounding death car. Smithsonian magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/curses-archduke-franz-ferdinand-and-his-astounding-death-car-27381052/.
OpenLearn ( 2019). The assassination of Franz Ferdinand. The Open University. https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/world-history/the-assassination-franz-ferdinand.
Policraticus (2018). . Gavrilo Princip or Franz Ferdinand? heroes or villains? http://global-politics.eu/gavrilo-princip-franz-ferdinand-heroes-villains/.
Reperes (2020). World War I casualties. http://www.centre-robert-schuman.org/userfiles/files/REPERES%20%E2%80%93%20module%201-1-1%20-%20explanatory%20notes%20%E2%80%93%20World%20War%20I%20casualties%20%E2%80%93%20EN.pdf.