Welcome back to The Deep Dive. It is so great
to have you with us again today. Yeah, thanks
for joining us. Whether you are prepping for
a big meeting or you're just incredibly curious
about the underlying mechanics of history, you
are in the exact right place. Absolutely. Because
today we are pointing our lens at a single moment
in time that, well, literally rewrote the 20th
century. The assassination of Archduke Franz
Ferdinand. It's such a profound topic, and it's
one of those historical events where almost everyone
knows the one sentence summary, right? The gunshot
that started World War I. Exactly. But when you
look at the comprehensive historical article
we are using as our source material today, you
realize the actual details of June 28, 1914 are
vastly more complex. And frankly, more bizarre
than the simplified version we often hear. Right,
and our mission for this deep dive is to shortcut
your way to being well informed on the subject.
We are going to unpack not just the what of the
event, but the how. Because when you examine
the shocking series of coincidences, the systemic
mishaps and the deeply entrenched motivations
that all align to create this world -altering
moment, I mean the reality feels entirely like
a movie script. Okay, let's unpack this. What's
fascinating here is that while this assassination
is universally recognized as catalyst for the
Great War. The actual day played out with so
many unbelievable twists and turns that it defies
logic. It really does. It is a story rooted deeply
in human error, institutional arrogance, and
sheer luck. both good and bad. Yeah. And you
already know that Austria -Hungary was the dominant
power in the region. But to truly grasp the tension
of that specific day, we have to look at the
political friction leading up to it. Right. The
geopolitical context. Exactly. The source points
heavily to the 1908 annexation of the province
of Bosnia at Herzegovina by Austria -Hungary.
This move triggered a fierce reactive nationalism
in neighboring Serbia. Because Serbia was riding
high from recent military successes in the Balkan
Wars. Yeah, and their driving ambition was to
liberate Bosnia to help form a common South Slav
state, essentially a Yugoslav state. And that
intense nationalist sentiment did not just exist
in the abstract. It gave rise to local militant
revolutionary groups. Our source notes one aggregation
of local movements in particular, known as Young
Bosnia. These were primarily students. You know,
passionate, deeply driven and determined to end
colonial rule. But these local movements didn't
operate in a vacuum. No, not at all. They had
highly organized, shadowy backing. And the level
of that backing is staggering when you look at
the military intelligence ties. The assassins,
this group of mostly Bosnian Serb students, they
were secretly supported by the Black Hand. A
notorious group. Yeah, a Serbian nationalist
group embedded deeply within Serbian military
intelligence. The support came directly from
the chief of the military intelligence section
of the Serbian general staff and an operative
named Major Vojislav Tenkosic. The Black Hand's
involvement went far beyond ideology, too. They
provided the actual hardware required for a political
assassination. The guns and bombs. Exactly. The
source details that they supplied, four FN model
1910 semi -automatic pistols, multiple bombs,
and even suicide pills. I mean, consider the
psychological reality of that for a moment. These
operatives were training teenagers. Yeah, young
guys. Young men like Gavrilo Princip and Nadelko
Abernovich training them in a park near Belgrade.
They gave them a map detailing the locations
of the gendarmes, the heavily armed local police
forces. And then smuggled them across the border.
Right. Using a clandestine tunnel network of
safe houses, they were handing cyanide to students
who were fully prepared to die for their cause.
Which brings us to a crucial and quite counterintuitive
detail about their chosen target. This part blew
my mind. Right. because conventional wisdom might
suggest the assassins targeted Archduke Franz
Ferdinand because he was a hardline, oppressive
figure intent on crushing the Slavic people.
But the historical reality is the exact opposite.
Yes. Ferdinand was actually a leading advocate
for a policy called trialism. And under trialism,
the Austro -Hungarian Empire would be fundamentally
reorganized. It would combine the Slavic lands
into a third crown alongside Austria and Hungary.
meaning this reform would have given the Slavic
regions significantly more power and autonomy
within the empire's legal framework. And that
potential leniency is exactly what made him a
target. Exactly. A pacified, content Slavic kingdom
operating comfortably within the Austro -Hungarian
Empire would have been a massive bulwark against
Serbian expansionism. Because they wouldn't want
to rebel anymore. Right. Hardline separatists
viewed his proposed reforms as a direct threat
to their goals. If the local population was satisfied
with the economy provided by trialism, they would
be far less likely to support a violent, bloody
revolution for total independence. Wow. Princip
himself even stated at his trial later that preventing
Ferdinand's planned reforms was one of his primary
motivations. So he was killed not for his tyranny,
but because his potential for political compromise
threatened revolution. That is an incredible
historical irony. It really is. And it pairs
with another massive irony regarding why the
Archduke was even visiting Sarajevo in the first
place. The trip was heavily rooted in his personal
life, specifically his marriage to Sophie, Duchess
of Hohenberg. The source outlines the rigid legal
framework of their union. While Sophie was of
high aristocratic birth, she was not from a ruling
dynastic family. Right, so she wasn't quite royal
enough. Exactly. Because of this... Emperor Franz
Josef only consented to their marriage on the
strict condition that it be Morgan Attic. And
a Morgan Attic marriage meant that their descendants
would never be allowed to ascend to the throne.
But the immediate day to day consequences for
Sophie were deeply humiliating. She was constantly
denied royal privileges. Court protocol dictated
that she could never share his rank. She could
not share in his imperial splendors. And she
was forbidden from even sitting beside him in
public during official state functions. But there
was a single very specific loophole to this protocol.
So if he could enjoy the recognition of Ferdinand's
rank only when he was acting strictly in a military
capacity. So in 1914, Ferdinand decided to inspect
the army in Bosnia. The trip to the capital city
of Sarajevo was a rare excuse for the Archduke
and his wife to ride side by side in an open
carriage. For their 14th wedding anniversary,
no less? Yeah. The source phrases the underlying
tragedy of this decision beautifully, quote,
thus for love did the Archduke go to his death.
It adds a deeply poignant layer to the cold calculus
of the geopolitics. He brought her to a volatile
region just so they could be treated as equals
in public for a few days. So we arrive at Sunday,
June 28th, 1914, and the date itself is a powder
keg. Oh, absolutely. It is St. Vitus Dei, or
a Vit of Dawn, which commemorates the 1389 Battle
of Kosovo. This is a profoundly important day
in Serbian history and myth, marking their historical
struggle against foreign empires. So emotions
are already running incredibly high. Exactly.
The motorcade begins its journey, and the security
presence is shockingly inadequate. It is a classic
case of institutional arrogance. When an empire
believes its mere presence is enough to command
respect, it often stops preparing for actual...
Does it just assume no one would dare? Right.
The local military commander had proposed lining
the route with troops, but he was told that such
a display would offend the loyal citizenry. Unbelievable.
Consequently, protection was left entirely to
the Sarajevo police. On that specific Sunday,
in a city known to be a hotbed of revolutionary
activity, there were only about 60 police officers
on duty for the entire event. So the motorcade
is rolling down the Apple Quay, a main thoroughfare.
It is a procession of six cars. The Archduke
and Sophie are in the third car, which is a sports
car with the convertible top completely folded
down. A very clear target. Yeah. Waiting for
them along this route, coordinated by a conspirator
named Danello Illich, are six separate assassins.
As the motorcade passes the first two, they freeze
and fail to act. But then the cars approach the
third assassin, Nadelko Apernovich. And he doesn't
hesitate. He throws his bomb. But because the
top of the Arshuk's car was folded down, the
bomb actually bounced off the convertible cover
and rolled into the street. Just a lucky bounce.
Yeah. The device had a timed detonator, so it
exploded right underneath the following car in
the motorcade. The blast left a crater in the
road and wounded somewhere between 16 and 20
people. Ferdinand and Sophie, however, were unharmed.
Right. But Abernovich's escape plan immediately
falls apart in a way that is almost darkly comical.
Having failed his mission, he swallows his cyanide
pill and leaps off a nearby bridge into the Miljaka
River. But the cyanide he was provided was expired.
It doesn't kill him, it merely induces violent
vomiting. And as for the dramatic leap into the
river, Sarajevo was experiencing a hot, dry summer.
The river at that moment was exactly 13 centimeters
deep. That is roughly five inches of water. Five
inches? He is simply lying in a shallow puddle,
sick from expired poison, until the police drag
him out and the angry crowd severely beats him.
Just a complete disaster of an escape. Meanwhile,
the Archduke's motorcade speeds away from the
site of the explosion, driving right past the
remaining assassins. including Gavrilo Princip.
Exactly. Who do nothing as the cars fly past
them in the chaos? Think about the shock and
adrenaline pumping through the Archduke's veins
at this moment. The motorcade speeds to the town
hall for a scheduled reception. When they arrive,
the mayor, seemingly oblivious to the gravity
of what just occurred, simply begins reading
his prepared, joyful welcome speech. He just
sticks to the script. Yeah. And Ferdinand completely
loses his temper. He interrupts the mayor, shouting,
Mr. Mayor, I came here on a visit and I am greeted
with bombs. It is outrageous. Sofie had to lean
in and whisper in his ear to calm him down. Right.
After a tense pause, he allowed the mayor to
finish. The source notes that when they finally
brought Ferdinand his own prepared speech to
read, the paper was still visibly wet with blood
from the injured people in the damaged car. The
scheduled events of the day are completely thrown
out the window at this point. Fernand makes a
fateful decision. He decides he wants to visit
the hospital to check on the victims of the bombing.
And the Archduke's Chamberlain wisely suggests
bringing troops into the city to line the streets
for security. But the governor general, Oscar
Petorik, vetoes the idea. Displaying that same
fatal institutional arrogance, he aggressively
asks the Chamberlain, do you think that Sarajevo
is full of assassins? Famous last words. Seriously,
here's where it gets really interesting. Governor
Podiorek does decide that for safety, the motorcade
should not go back through the crowded city center
as originally planned. Right, they should drive
straight along the Appelquay, directly to the
hospital. It is a logical route change, but...
In the absolute chaos and adrenaline of the moment,
nobody communicates this route change to the
drivers. The driver of the Archduke's car, Leopold
Lojka, is operating entirely on the original
plan. He follows the two cars in front of him
and makes the originally scheduled right turn
onto a side street, right at the Latin Bridge.
Governor Potiorek realizes what is happening
and yells at the driver to stop, explicitly telling
him they are going the wrong way. Put yourself
in the driver's seat with Leopold Lojka for a
second. It would be terrifying. You're driving
a heavy, early 20th century manual transmission
carriage. You are suddenly being screamed at
by the Governor General. In your panic to hit
the brakes and throw the heavy car into reverse,
you accidentally stall the engine. The worst
possible time. The car comes to a dead stop and
it stalls right in front of a shop called Schiller's
Delicatessen. We should take a moment here to
correct a very persistent piece of the historical
record. Oh, the sandwich thing. Yes. If you ask
many people about this specific moment, they
will tell you that Guerrilla Princip was inside
Schiller's Delicatessen eating a sandwich because
he had given up on the plot, and the Archduke's
car just happened to magically stop outside.
But the source material addresses this famous
sandwich myth head -on. It points out that there
is absolutely no historical record of this sandwich
ever existing. None at all. The myth actually
originated from a fictionalized 2001 novel called
12 Fingers. The historical reality is that Princip,
after hearing the first bomb fail earlier in
the day, deliberately moved to a position near
the Letton Bridge, anticipating a potential return
journey by the motorcade. So Princip is standing
purposefully on the sidewalk. Suddenly, the man
he has sworn to kill stalls his car just a few
feet away from him. It is a sitting duck scenario.
Princep steps right up to the footboard of the
open car. He raises his FN Model 1910 pistol
and fires twice at point blank range. The result
is immediate and devastating. One bullet hits
the Archduke in the jugular vein. The second
bullet strikes Sophie in the abdomen. Princep
attempts to turn the gun on himself but is immediately
tackled by the crowd and arrested. The scene
inside the vehicle is heartbreaking. Sophie immediately
falls unconscious onto Ferdinand's legs. An officer
standing on the running board recorded the Archduke's
last words. Ferdinand pleaded, Sophie, Sophie,
don't die, live for our children. Awful. When
the officer asked if he was in pain, Ferdinand
just repeatedly whispered, it is nothing, it
is nothing. They were rushed to the governor's
residence, but they were both dead by 1130 that
morning. Two gunshots and the trajectory of the
modern world was permanently altered. But the
indignities for the Archduke certainly did not
end with his death. No, because even in death,
Ferdinand was subjected to the petty politics
of the imperial court. The funeral was organized
by Alfred, the second prince of Montenuovo, who
was a lifelong bitter enemy of Ferdinand. With
the emperor's tacit approval, Montenuovo essentially
turned the funeral into a massive snub. They
deliberately uninvited most foreign royalty.
They excluded the couple's three children from
the public ceremonies. And because of her non
-royal blood, Sophie's coffin was placed on a
slant, noticeably lower than Ferdinand's, to
constantly reassert her lower social status.
They even placed lady -in -waiting gloves on
top of her casket as a final, visible insult.
Ultimately, they were not even permitted to be
buried in the imperial crypt. It highlights the
rigid, unyielding nature of the empires that
were about to tear themselves apart. Meanwhile,
the legal aftermath was unfolding in Sarajevo.
The Austro -Hungarian authorities aggressively
rounded up the assassins and the broader network
of safehouse operators who had facilitated the
plot. The sentences handed down to the trials
varied wildly, largely based on a quirk of Austro
-Hungarian law. The law capped sentences at a
maximum of 20 years for anyone who was under
the age of 20 at the time of the crime. Princip,
Abernovich, and another key assassin were all
just under 20. Because of this, They avoided
the death penalty and received 20 year sentences.
However, the conditions in the military prisons
were brutal. Both Princip and Abernovich contracted
tuberculosis and died in prison before the First
World War even ended. The older conspirators
who facilitated the weapons and the border crossings
were sentenced to death by hanging. So the immediate
actors are dealt with, but finding a few teenagers
guilty doesn't satisfy an empire looking for
blood and a geopolitical advantage. No. The Ofta
Hungarian government needed a bigger target,
which leads us to the geopolitical blame game
and specifically what the Serbian government
actually knew beforehand. If we connect this
to the bigger picture, the controversy over Serbia's
prior knowledge is crucial to understanding how
this localized event became a global war. The
source indicates that Serbia's prime minister
actually had early information about the assassination
plot, but his loyalties were deeply divided and
the military factions within his own country
held a tremendous amount of power. So Serbia
did attempt to issue a warning to Austria -Hungary,
but it was intentionally incredibly vague. The
Serbian ambassador met with the Austro -Hungarian
finance minister and essentially just mused that
public opinion in Bosnia was inflamed and some
generic misadventure might occur during the military
inspection. The finance minister basically brushed
the comment off responding simply, let us hope
nothing does happen. It was a calculated political
hedge. By giving a vague warning without providing
specific names or concrete details, the Serbian
government could later claim they tried to stop
the tragedy without fully betraying the powerful
military intelligence figures who had orchestrated
the plot. But Austria -Hungary, sensing an opportunity
to crush Serbian nationalism once and for all,
was naturally not satisfied with this excuse.
Within weeks, Austria -Hungary issues what becomes
known as the July ultimatum to Serbia. This was
a list of extreme demands deliberately designed
to be rejected. For instance, they demanded that
Austro -Hungarian officials be allowed to operate
inside Serbian territory to suppress subversive
movements, which was a clear, unacceptable violation
of Serbian national sovereignty. Serbia accepts
most of the terms, but predictably rejects the
violations of their sovereignty. Austria -Hungary
uses this as the pretext to break diplomatic
relations and declare war. And that localized
declaration of war activates a massive tangled
web of secret treaties and alliances across the
continent. Russia mobilizes its army to protect
Serbia. Germany mobilizes to support Austria
-Hungary. France is pulled into the conflict
by its alliance with Russia and soon Britain
follows suit to protect Belgian neutrality. Millions
of men are mobilized to slaughter each other
over an event that at the time many ordinary
people across Europe barely paid attention to.
The legacy of that single event and specifically
the memory of Gavrilo Princip remains highly
complicated and fiercely debated even today.
We want to be very clear to you, the listener,
that we are simply reporting the historical reality
outlined in our source text here as the legacy
of this individual is deeply divided depending
on historical perspective. The source explains
that following the eventual breakup of Yugoslavia
decades later, Opinions on Princip in the successor
states split largely along ethnic lines. For
many Bosniaks and Croats, Princip is viewed primarily
as a terrorist and an ethnic Serb nationalist
who violently destroyed a functioning legal order.
Conversely, many Serbs consider Princip a national
hero and a freedom fighter who bravely sought
liberation from an oppressive occupying power.
For the 100th anniversary in 2014, while official
international commemorations took place, Serb
nationalists unveiled new statues of Princip
in East Sarajevo and later in Belgrade, openly
celebrating his actions. It demonstrates how
historical memory is completely dependent on
perspective. And speaking of the long shadow
of this event, the source mentions one bizarre
historical footnote about Princip's legacy that
truly illustrates the dark collision of history.
At the exact site of the assassination by the
Latin Bridge, there was a marble plaque commemorating
Principa. In 1941, invading German troops removed
that plaque from the wall. And they presented
it to Adolf Hitler as a 52nd birthday present.
The man who provided the spark for the First
World War was commemorated on a plaque given
as a trophy to the man who started the second.
The source notes the plaque later disappeared
from a Berlin museum in 1945. When you look back
at all the granular details of this event. What
really stands out is the sheer fragility of history.
Think about the chain of seemingly minor events
we just walk through. Right. Consider how often
you encounter minor inconveniences in your own
life. Now, project that onto the global stage.
A mix of expired poison, a river that was only
five inches deep because of a dry summer, a frustrated
archduke wanting to visit a hospital, an arrogant
governor who refused military security, Exactly.
A logical route change that simply wasn't communicated
to a driver, and a heavy car engine stalling
at the exact moment it was parked next to an
armed assassin. If any one of those mundane errors
doesn't happen, the entire trajectory of the
20th century looks completely different. It really
emphasizes how monumental outcomes often hinge
on the smallest of margins. And I want to leave
you, the listener, with a final thought to mull
over. Okay. Our source mentions a specific historical
study from 2021 regarding the outbreak of the
war. It notes that Archduke Franz Ferdinand's
absence in the weeks immediately following the
assassination was actually the key factor in
the breakdown of diplomacy. Right, really? Yes.
Because Ferdinand himself had actually been the
most powerful and effective proponent for peace
in Vienna. He was the one consistently pushing
back against the war hawks within the Austro
-Hungarian empire who wanted a conflict with
Serbia. So imagine this ultimate historical irony.
If that driver, Leopold Lojka, hadn't taken the
wrong turn at the Latin Bridge, the very man
whose death provided the spark to ignite World
War I might have been the exact and perhaps the
only person with enough power and desire to prevent
it. That is definitely something to think about.
Thank you for taking this deep dive with us today.
Keep questioning, keep learning, and we will
catch you next time.