Franz Ferdinand
- History Fix Podcast
- 6 hours ago
- 18 min read
Episode 160: How One Man's Death Sparked a Fire That Ignited Into World War I
Illustration of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914
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When thinking about wars, they tend to have a pretty obvious cause. The American Revolution - independence from Great Britain, the Civil War - slavery, World War II - Hitler trying to take over the world, Vietnam - the spread of communism. There’s a clear goal to all of these wars, something they are trying to achieve or prevent. The same cannot be said, however, about World War I. World War I, or the Great War, had, possibly, a larger impact than any other war ever. It changed the world in irreversible ways. It changed mankind forever. It was so far beyond any conflict, any violence, any brutality that we had experienced before. The scale was like nothing before, the shock, the horror, the trauma. World War I issued in a new era of warfare, a new era of what was possible, new fears, new worst nightmares of humanity. But why? For what purpose? What were we trying to achieve or prevent? For what goal did we sacrifice the lives of over 30 million people? It’s not so cut and dry with World War I. It can’t be summed up in a handful of words like the others. The only thing we have, the only thing we cling to as some sort of short and sweet answer is the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. That’s what caused World War I, right? The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. I’m sorry. Franz Ferdi-who? Who was this guy? And why did his death spark the first ever world war, an event so horrific, so unprecedented it would irrevocably change humankind? Let’s fix that.
Hello, I’m Shea LaFountaine and you’re listening to History Fix where I tell surprising true stories from history you won’t be able to stop thinking about. Today we’re talking about Franz Ferdinand, the Austro-Hungarian Archduke, not the Scottish indie rock band. This topic was suggested by Arcelia on Instagram and it is such a good one because I don’t think many people know the first thing about Franz Ferdinand and the start of World War I. And it’s actually, when you think about it, it’s actually critically important. You know, I’m always saying that it’s so important to learn history because it teaches us lessons. We learn from the mistakes of the past so that we hopefully don’t repeat them in the future. Well, World War I was one of the most horrible things ever, we certainly don’t want to repeat it. But how do we avoid that if almost no one knows how it started. So, we know it has to do with this Archduke, this Franz Ferdinand guy but that just doesn’t really make sense. That has never made sense to me. Why would all these countries, over 100 countries involved in some way. Why would these countries go to war or involve themselves in a war over this one random guy’s death?
So, let’s get this out of the way early. What you have to understand about the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, everyone forgets about her, is that it was the straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak, right? Another way to think about it, the world at that time was organized just so, it was layered and stacked into this perfect pyre: nice dry kindling, wood laid just so, stacked so as not to suffocate the future flames, plenty of air flow, plenty of oxygen. For decades this pyre had been laid, mostly due to European imperialism, we’ll come back to that. But for decades this pyre had been artfully stacked and no one had even realized it. And then, when shots rang out in Sarajevo on the morning of June 28, 1914 killing Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir presumptive to the Austo-Hungarian throne, a man who meant very little to the vast majority of countries that would involve themselves in World War I. Those shots, that one death. That was the spark. Now, if this spark had landed on a wet wood pile, if it had landed on the grass, in a bucket of water, moist soil, even a pyre that hadn’t been so artfully stack, a pyre that laid flat, a pyre lacking oxygen or kindling, it would have fizzled right out, a tiny trail of smoke wisping through the breeze, a spark extinguished, done. But that’s not where it landed. Because the world at the time of Franz Ferdinand’s assassination was, in fact, an artfully laid pyre just waiting for a spark. And when that spark drifted down and came to rest atop the pyre, it erupted into flames. And this bonfire that resulted, this was World War I.
So before we get into Franz Ferdinand and the events surrounding his assassination. Let’s talk about why the world had transformed itself into a pyre waiting for a spark. For this we can thank European imperialism, this unquenchable desire of European nations to take over the entire world. This, of course, started in the late 15th century, 1492 to be exact when Spain sent Christopher Columbus west to find Asia and he accidentally stumbled upon the Americas. The goal at that time was not imperialism. They weren’t going to take over Asia. They just wanted an easier way to trade for spices and whatnot. But then, when they finally realized that it was not Asia and when they mistakenly began to believe that they were superior to the people the quote “savages” already living in this quote “New World,” they started to think that they were somehow entitled to it, that it was theirs for the taking, that they could take chunks of the Americas and colonize them and make them part of Spain or England or France or whatever. That’s how it started. But that’s not even the heyday of imperialism. The heyday of imperialism, the peak, the “Age of Imperialism” happened between 1870 and 1914. Not at all a coincidence that the end of that age, 1914, coincides with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and the start of World War I.
So, during this Age of Imperialism, the biggest players, Spain has sort of faded away a bit, they are no longer the world power they once were in the 14, 15, 1600s. Great Britain and France are. They are running the Imperialism show now here during its peak. Germany, Belgium, Russia, the United States, Japan, Italy, and Portugal are also part of this. Spain’s like peace out y’all we did this centuries ago, where were y’all? So the Americas have already been thoroughly conquered… who are they conquering now during this age of Imperialism? Mostly Africa but also India, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia. Basically anywhere that there are people of color. They’re trying to take over all of the non-white people countries and make them white people countries. And it’s like a race, right? It’s a competition between these countries to try to snatch up as much territory as possible, to expand their empires as quickly as possible. It’s like kids at a birthday party scurrying to a fallen pinata to try to get at the candy before someone else does. That’s what these countries are doing except with other countries. Anyway, this causes a lot of tension between the countries in Europe, obviously. Also, they weren’t like conquering nicely, if there is such a thing. They were coercing and exploiting these territories. So there was just a lot of global dissatisfaction and resentment going on too.
So, during this age of Imperialism, 1870 to 1914, we have this fierce rivalry between different countries trying to snatch up as much land as they can and really being bullies about it, like a bunch of immature children really. Everyone’s sort of frenemies. And with frenemies, of course, come alliances. There’s all these different alliances forming, countries promising to have each other’s backs against other countries. You have Russia and Serbia in an alliance. But Russia also has an alliance with France. And then France is in another alliance with Great Britain and Belgium. So all of that sort of melds into this alliance between Russia, France, and Great Britain called the triple entente (on-tont). Then, on the other hand, Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary have their own alliance. They're like middle school girls, I swear, with all their various cliques.
And then there’s the Ottoman Empire, which like, what the heck even was that, right? Cause that’s not a thing anymore. The Ottoman Empire was basically Turkey. But it was an Islamic empire that was founded in 1299, so this thing had been around for a while. It included territory in southeastern Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa. So, you basically had to pass through the Ottoman Empire to travel from east to west, from Europe to Asia, to trade at all. It was this bridge between the east and the west, which is a big deal. But by 1914 it was in major decline. And this was, you know this thing had been around for over 600 years, it had been a major world power, and it’s sort of fizzling out and so this, there’s a bit of a power vacuum forming. And this leads to the rise of Serbian nationalism. Serbia had been part of the Ottoman Empire until it got its independence in 1878. And with dad obviously fizzling out, Serbia wants to rise up as its own sort of empire, if you will, and form this Yugoslav state. But, in 1908, Austria-Hungary, which today are two countries but back then were sort of one it was a dual monarchy. Austria-Hungary annexed or took over Bosnia Herzegovina (hurts-a-go-veena). Serbia was not happy about that. Bosnia was slavic, it was in their realm, not Austria’s not Hungary’s. 40% of the people living in Bosnia were Serbian.
So because of all the imperialism, we have a tender box of tension and animosity between European countries. We also have all these alliances in response to that, alliances on alliances on alliances. And, starting in 1908 with the acquisition of Bosnia, we have serious beef between Austria-Hungary and Serbia plus Bosnian Serbians. This is our pyre waiting for a spark. So let’s talk about that spark. Franz Ferdinand was the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. He was a Hapsburg which was a family, a very inbred family, a dynasty that ruled in Europe for 645 years. I will have an episode about the Hapsburgs at some point, it’s been on my list since the very beginning. Anyway, Franz Ferdinand was the nephew of the current emperor, Franz Josef. Now, Franz Josef had children. He had 4 children. So why is his nephew the heir to the throne? Welp, 3 of his 4 children were girls and, in the Hapsburg dynasty, even in the 1900s, females could not inherit the throne unless there was literally not one single male relative left living in the entire dynasty. So it was basically impossible for a female Hapsburg to rule because what were the chances that every single male relative would die. This is a massive family. Franz Josef did have one son, Crown Prince Rudolf, who was in line to inherit the throne. But then he died in 1889 at the age of 30 in an apparent murder suicide following a failed scandalous relationship. And I think I’ve found the topic of my next mini fix cause that story is juicy. Look for that one on Patreon next week. Anyway, the prince is dead. Franz Josef’s younger brother Archduke Karl Ludwig who would be in line after that also dies in 1896 and this leaves his son, Franz Josef’s nephew, Franz Ferdinand in line for the throne.
Franz, it feels weird to call him Franz, but Franz does something unusual for someone in his time and position, especially for a Hapsburg, he marries for love, much to the displeasure of his uncle, the emperor Franz Joseph. Because Franz Ferdinand marries a woman named Sophie Chotek who, I mean she wasn’t a commoner or anything like that, she came from a family of Czech nobles, but she was not royalty. She didn’t come from a reigning family, some great European dynasty as was expected for Franz. The Hapsburgs were serious about this whole royalty marries royalty thing. You don’t become the most inbred family ever without taking that seriously. But Franz marries Sophie because he’s deeply in love with her. Franz Josef is not pleased. He refuses to attend their wedding. He’s mostly upset because this means, Sophie not being royalty, means that their children cannot inherit the throne after Franz. And that’s inconvenient for a dynasty in its 627th year. But Franz is still the heir, his children just can’t be. Jesse Greenspan writes for History.com quote “Sophie also became the victim of countless petty slights. At imperial banquets, for example, she entered each room last, without an escort, and was then seated far away from her husband at the dinner table,” end quote. Yeah the Hapsburgs kind of sucked.
As the heir to the throne, and the inspector general of the army, Franz agreed to attend a series of military exercises in Bosnia in June of 1914. As I mentioned before, Austria-Hungary had annexed Bosnia not long before this in 1908. Franz had actually been against this. He thought it was a bad idea because he knew it would cause problems with Serbia. But, whatever, they did it anyway. And now he’s going there on this little tour of sorts. And, as Franz predicted, Serbia was not happy. Not really Serbia, more like extremist nationalist groups within Serbia and Bosnia, because remember roughly 40% of Bosnia was Serbian. They are not happy with Austria-Hungary taking Bosnia and when they find out that the heir to their throne, Franz Ferdinand is coming to Bosnia, they’re like “oh heck no.” The extremist nationalist group I’m talking about specifically here was called the Young Bosnians. This was a group of Bosnian Serbs, so Serbs living in Bosnia, who were students… they were peasant students… I know this is a very specific group. And they decide to assassinate Franz Ferdinand during his visit to Bosnia. Now that’s a tall order for peasant students. They didn’t do this without help. This group went to Belgrade, which is the capital city of Serbia, and they got help in the form of weapons, bombs and guns plus cyanide capsules, as well as training on how to use all of it from a terrorist group called the Black Hand. I know, Black Hand, what? Sound familiar? It should if you listened to episode 133 about the Ax Man of New Orleans because one theory there was that the murders were connected to an Italian Mafia group called the Black Hand Society. This is a totally different Black Hand terrorist group believe it or not. This is a Serbian one operating in Bosnia. That was an Italian one possibly operating in New Orleans. I don’t know who janked the name from the other or if it was a coincidence or what but totally different entities. But, the Serbian Black Hand that helped arm and train these Bosnian students, and helped them smuggle the weapons back over the border from Serbia to Bosnia, these guys had close ties to the Serbian army. So some suspect that the Serbian government was actually involved in this assassination attempt but that’s never been proven and is fairly unlikely. As far as we know, it was this group of rogue Bosnian-Serb peasant students, the Young Bosnians.
So they get back into Bosnia, to Sarajevo where Franz Ferdinand and Sophie are set to make their public appearance and they bide their time. Meanwhile, Franz and Sophie set out for Bosnia on June 23rd. They had already received multiple warnings to cancel the trip because tensions were so high and there was a strong possibility that they were going to encounter violence there. On the way, the axles on their car overheated, and Franz supposedly said quote “Our journey starts with an extremely promising omen. Here our car burns, and down there they will throw bombs at us,” end quote. I don’t know if that’s actually a direct quote. It’s a little too on the nose for me. But, Franz was obviously aware that they were going into a bad situation and they would potentially be in danger while in Bosnia. They go anyway. By the way, Franz was 50 years old. He’s not like a young man. He’s 50. Sophie was 46, they had 3 children, a daughter, Sophie, and two sons, Maximilian and Ernst. Their kids were ages 13, 12, and 10 at the time but they didn’t go with their parents to Bosnia, luckily.
Anyway, they arrive at a town just outside of Sarajevo. Franz attends military exercises for two days while Sophie visits schools and orphanages. Very wholesome. One of those nights, on a whim, they decide to drive into Sarajevo to check out the bazaars. They’re really pretty ballsy, these two. But they are treated with kindness by the crowd of onlookers that gathers that night. And, I don’t know if this gave them a false sense of security or what. Franz really didn’t seem to care about the danger that he apparently knew he and his wife were in just being in Bosnia. On the last day before they were set to go home, June 28th, they were supposed to sort of parade through Sarajevo in this motorcade to city hall.
Greenspan explains writing quote “That morning, June 28, the archduke sent a telegram to his eldest son congratulating him on his latest exam results. He and Sophie then boarded a train for the short ride into Sarajevo. For once, Sophie was permitted to walk alongside Ferdinand during a brief troop inspection, after which the couple got in an open-topped car for a motorcade ride to city hall. The car in front of them was supposed to carry six specially trained officers but instead had only one, plus three local policemen. In fact, throughout the trip, Austro-Hungarian officials allegedly focused more attention on dinner menus than security details,” end quote. Which is really a pity because 7 members of this Young Bosnians peasant student assassins group are lying in wait amongst the gathering crowds.
Greenspan goes on quote “When the motorcade passed by, its route having been published in advance, Cabrinovic [who was one of the seven Young Bosnian guys] asked which car carried the archduke. He then hurled his bomb at the car, only to watch it bounce off the folded-up roof and roll underneath the wrong vehicle. The subsequent explosion wounded two army officers and several bystanders but left Ferdinand and Sophie essentially unharmed. Cabrinovic jumped into the mostly dry riverbed and made a half-hearted attempt to kill himself before being apprehended. “I am a Serbian hero,” he purportedly shouted as the police led him away. At least two other Young Bosnians also had good looks at the archduke but apparently lost the nerve to attempt an assassination,” end quote.
So you would think, you know, close call. A crazy dude just hurled a bomb at the car and narrowly missed. You might think Franz Ferdinand and Sophie’s car would be hurried out of there at that point, guards would assemble, form a human shield of some kind, whatever. Get them out of there. That is not what happened though. Instead Franz decided to continue this little parade, he’s like “keep going, we’re good. He missed.” And they keep going towards City Hall as if nothing even happened. Which is crazy to me. They make it to this event at city hall, do there thing there. Then Franz decides he wants to visit some wounded officers in the hospital before they go. Dude is not bothered at all by almost getting bombed. He adds another stop. So they head for this hospital and they’re moving pretty fast now, they sort of zip down the street trying to avoid any more assassination attempts. But they make a wrong turn. Yeah, they make a wrong turn and they end up on a street sort of stalled out trying to reverse back out right in front of another Young Bosnian dude, a guy, a teenager named Gavrilo Princip. Princip pulls out his gun and fires two shots towards the open top car where Franz and Sophie are riding, very much on display. One bullet hits Franz in the neck, the second hits Sophie in the abdomen. They do not die immediately. Franz apparently uttered quote “Sophie, don’t die. Stay alive for our children.” Heartbreaking. Within minutes, however, they were both dead. Gavrilo Princip later confessed to being the gunman. He admitted that he was trying to kill Franz but he had not meant to kill Sophie. He was a 19 year old Serbian army reject, 3 weeks too young to receive the death penalty. Instead he was sentenced to 20 years in prison but he died of tuberculosis 4 years in at the age of 23.
Gavrilo Princip was kind of a nobody but he had taken down Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire out of some misplaced nationalist fervor, angry over Austria Hungary taking Bosnia which he believed belonged to Serbia, nevermind Franz Ferdinand had actually opposed that acquisition, whatever. What Princip most likely did not expect when he fired his pistol that day in Serejevo was that the bullet he lodged in the Archduke’s neck was also the spark, the tiny fluttering ember, that would ignite the first World War. Austria Hungary is furious of course with Serbia even though Princip was technically Bosnian and not at all affiliated with the Serbian government. They go to their ally, Germany. Austria Hungary and Germany team up against Serbia. And this is really the reason why Germany mostly gets blamed for World War I. Because they offered Austria-Hungary this sort of unconditional endless support. It’s often referred to as the “blank check assurance.” They were down to back Austria-Hungary no matter what, even when their actions didn’t really make sense. According to Norwich University quote “This “blank check,” via unconditional support, sought military and political triumph in securing the Balkans [for Germany]. It also gave Austro-Hungarian leaders the confidence needed to embark on war against Serbia. Today, historians regard it as one of the most controversial decisions in the history of modern warfare, particularly because Germany failed to withdraw the unconditional support when given the opportunity. It is also widely recognized as one of the main reasons Germany is seen as responsible for the escalation and continuation of World War I,” end quote. Because Serbia wants to negotiate. They want to figure this out, solve this dispute. They didn’t even kill the guy, right? Austria Hungary ain’t having it. And with Germany backing them they declare war on Serbia on July 28, 1914, exactly one month after the assassination. And at that point the whole thing goes up in flames, just gets completely out of control as fires tend to do. Within a week Russia, France, Belgium, Great Britain, and Montenegro had all joined the conflict. Why? What do they care about Franz Ferdinand. They don’t. But they have all these intertwining alliances already because of the imperialism tensions that had been brewing over the last 50 years, this competition, and when your ally, or even your ally’s ally goes to war, eventually you do too. More and more countries join the conflict like dominoes falling over one by one.
So, you know, I really wanted to tell this story because I think it’s one of the most, not even misunderstood, just like straight up not understood, unknown critical moments in history. How did we get here? What was World War I even about? The reason no one really knows the answer to that is because there isn’t a good answer. It was kind of about nothing. The only concrete thing we can trace it to is the assassination of Franz Ferdinand within the context of a world that was already poised to erupt into flames. So the real question is, was that preventable? That’s all that really matters going forward right? We can’t change the past. That happened. How do we keep it from happening again? Here’s the thing… it wasn’t Serbia that assassinated Franz Ferdinand. I mean, the black hand did have some ties to the Serbian army, but for the most part, it wasn’t Serbia. It was a group of peasant students, just some teenagers. Austria Hungary should never have declared war on Serbia over this assassination. But they had Germany’s support. They had Germany backing them, these alliances, so why not? In the end, the regrettable actions of some misguided punk kid resulted in the death of some 30 million people. Now this is a lesson I think we can apply today. We have had really incendiary assassinations and assassination attempts of late. And rather than learn from this mistake with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the start of World War I, we seem to be leaning right into it and almost trying to make the same mistake now, that we did then. Not to get political, I know you guys hate that, me too, but we saw this with the assassination of Charlie Kirk. We saw people try to take it here. Conclusions were made almost immediately as to the identity of the person who assassinated Kirk. And that’s not who that person was at all. It was just some random guy. Some punk kid again. Another Gavrilo Princip. Not a political group, not the left, not the liberals, not the right, not the conservatives. It wasn’t us. It wasn’t any of us. It was just some guy. But you can see how this sort of thing goes up in flames very quickly when people jump to conclusions instead of thinking rationally, when martyrs are made and stones are cast.
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was an unfortunate tragedy. But it should never have ignited all of Europe. It should never have spiraled out of control until it pitted everyone against everyone else. And that happened because of the environment in which that spark landed, that perfect pyre, that tender box. So I think really there’s two important lessons to be learned from the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and the start of World War I. Don’t create an environment, a world in which a fire can ignite this easily. Don’t behave like young children fighting over toys or middle school girls forming cliques and casting out frenemies. And don’t jump to conclusions. Don’t twist a random act of violence into something worth rallying behind, something worth laying down your life for, handing over your sons for. 30 million dead… and for what? For what? These are critically important historical mistakes to learn from because, as we know, despite President Woodrow Wilson’s claim that World War I was the quote “war to end all wars.” That wasn’t true. There was a World War II and we certainly don’t want a World War III. Because if World War I irrevocably changed the world just with its trenches and airplanes, imagine the potential devastation of a World War III with the technology we have now. I’ll leave you with the words of Albert Einstein who said in 1949 quote “I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones,” end quote. These horrors are preventable, but only if we know enough about our past to identify the next spark and swiftly snuff it out.
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