ABSTRACT
On a summer’s morning late in June 1914, the heir to the throne of the Habsburg monarchy arrived at the Bosnian town of Sarajevo for an offi - cial visit. While the Archduke Franz Ferdinand , his wife and his entourage proceeded through the crowded main street of the city in open motorcars, a young man stepped out of the crowd and hurled something at the archduke. A bomb exploded, narrowly missing the archduke but grazing his wife on the cheek, wounding a military member of the entourage and injuring several spectators. The would-be assassin was seized immediately. Franz Ferdinand, against the advice of his aides, insisted that they continue their journey to the town hall, as planned. Here the Austrians endured a fulsome speech by the mayor, saturated with unintentionally ironic references to the loyalty of the Bosnian people and the esteem in which the distinguished visitor was held in the province. The archduke replied by reading from his prepared speech, which was now splattered in blood. When this agony fi nally ended, Franz Ferdinand insisted that he be permitted to visit the hospital to see one of his aides who had been injured by the exploding bomb. As the party retraced its route along the main street, some confusion occurred which resulted in the archduke’s chauffeur being forced to stop and reverse direction in the middle of the street. Seizing this unexpected opportunity, a second assassin emerged, this time wielding a pistol rather than a bomb; quickly taking aim, he shot Franz Ferdinand in the throat, striking him near the jugular vein; a second shot hit the duchess in the stomach. Within minutes, both the archduke and his wife lay dead. Before the summer was over, this dramatic event would lead to the greatest war Europe had ever known.
