![]() After practicing with their pistols in a Belgrade park, the three men journeyed back to Bosnia-Herzegovina, receiving help from Black Hand associates to smuggle their weapons across the border. In May, Gavrilo Princip, Trifko Grabez and Nedeljko Cabrinovic traveled to the Serbian capital of Belgrade, where they received six handheld bombs, four semi-automatic pistols and cyanide suicide capsules from members of the so-called Black Hand, a terrorist group with close ties to the Serbian army. Upon learning of Ferdinand’s upcoming visit, the Young Bosnians, a secret revolutionary society of peasant students, began plotting to assassinate him. Formerly controlled by the Ottoman Empire, Bosnia-Herzegovina’s population was roughly 40 percent Serb, 30 percent Muslim and 20 percent Croat, with various other ethnicities making up the remainder. Austria-Hungary had just annexed these provinces a few years earlier against the wishes of neighboring Serbia, which likewise coveted them.įerdinand believed the Serbs to be “pigs,” “thieves,” “murderers” and “scoundrels.” Yet he had opposed annexation for fear that it would make an already turbulent political situation even worse. In that capacity, he agreed to attend a series of June 1914 military exercises in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The vehicle in which they were assassinated is on exhibit, together with Ferdinand’s bloody uniform, at the Museum of Military History in Vienna, Austria.Ferdinand remained Franz Josef’s heir and inspector general of the army. In the Austrian royal residence Artstetten Castle, Ferdinand was interred next to his wife. Before reaching the hospital, they both died. However, their driver took a false turn and sped straight past Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Black Hand, who pulled out a gun as the automobile slowly reversed out of the roadway and fired several shots into the vehicle, striking Sophie in the stomach and Franz Ferdinand in the neck. Ferdinand and Sophie decided to visit those injured by the grenade at the hospital after meeting with Potiorek at City Hall. The grenade instead struck the car behind them, critically injuring two occupants, when the driver accelerated after spotting something speeding through the air. On June 28, 1914, a member of the organization threw a grenade at the couple as they were walking from the train station to the City Hall. Unbeknownst to them, Ferdinand’s assassination during that visit had been arranged by the Black Hand, a Serbian revolutionary organization. The governor of Bosnia-Herzegovina, on Austrian territory, General Oskar Potiorek, invited Ferdinand to Sarajevo in 1914 to examine the troops and on June 28, 1914, Ferdinand and his wife made the journey. The couple had four children, one of whom died due to a miscarriage. They wed on the condition that Sophie agreed that she and her children would not inherit any of her husband’s titles, privileges, or property. Countess Sophie Maria Josephine Albina Chotek von Chotkova und Wognin was the first woman Ferdinand fell in love with and in 1899, after much discussion, they were wed. Despite this responsibility, he found time for travel and other interests, including his 1892 to 1893 circumnavigation of the globe. ![]() As a result, Karl Ludwig, his father, who died from typhoid fever in 1896, became the first in line for the crown after which Ferdinand prepared to take the crown. He also opposed overtly nationalist movements that would represent a challenge to the empire.Ĭrown Prince Rudolf, Ferdinand’s cousin, killed himself in his hunting cabin in Mayerling in 1889. There were many different ethnic groups in the empire, and Ferdinand favored giving Serbia more autonomy because he was concerned that the suffering of the Slavs would trigger violence in the area. He led the Austro-Hungarian Empire and worked to keep the Habsburg dynasty in power. ![]() Until he was appointed a major general in 1896, he had five promotions. He was enlisted in the Austro-Hungarian army and advanced quickly. Ferdinand had private tutoring throughout his early education. He was the oldest child of Archduke Carl Ludwig and Princess Maria Annunciata of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Ludwig’s second wife. Franz Ferdinand Karl Ludwig Joseph was born on December 18, 1863, in Graz, Austria. ![]()
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