Research Paper On Archduke Ferdinand

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Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s Assassination

World War I was a crucial point in history. Started by an assassination that shocked the world, it brought fear, chaos, and death to countries around the globe. But what about the assassination? Who was killed? Why is it important? If you ask most people, they’ll have no idea, and yet it was one of the most important parts of the war. The assassinated was no other than Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary, who was assassinated on June 28, 1914. The Archduke was murdered by a serbian nationalist in his motorcade as he was heading through the streets of Sarajevo because was not very well liked amongst his people and neighboring countries, especially the Serbians. He said and did many things that …show more content…

The Archduke was there to inspect the imperial armed forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The date scheduled for his visit, June 28, also happened to be the anniversary of the First Battle of Kosovo in 1389, in which Serbia was defeated by the Turks. June 28 was a day of great importance to Serbian nationalists, and fueled the assassins’ anger towards Franz Ferdinand and made their mission much easier. While the vehicle was headed towards the City Hall, one of the assassins threw a grenade at them. It ended up bouncing off of the car and exploding near another one. Noticing this, the royal couple sped up and escaped any other possible attempts to be …show more content…

When their driver found out that they were going the wrong way, they had to stop and push the car backwards since the car did not have reverse. This made them reroute back to where the assassins were located (different areas around the city) and gave them yet another chance to assassinate the royal motorcade. When they stopped in front of Gavrilo Princip, one of the assassins located in Sarajevo, he took his chance and shot both the Archduke and his wife (Sophia in the abdomen and Franz near his heart {Eyewitness, para. 10}). Sophia died instantly (she was an expectant mother) and Franz only uttered “Sofia-” before he, too, met his demise. (para. 10) Before he could escape, Princip was attacked by police who, according to EyeWitness.com, “knocked him down, they kicked him, scraped the skin from his neck with the edges of their swords, tortured him, all but killed him.” Count Franz von Harrach, who was an eyewitness to the assassination, wrote an account of the events that took place, saying that “"As the car quickly reversed, a thin stream of blood spurted from His Highness's mouth onto my right check. As I was pulling out my handkerchief to wipe the blood away from his mouth, the Duchess cried out to him, 'In Heaven's name, what has happened to you?' At that she slid off the seat and lay on the floor of the car, with her face between his

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