Archduke Franz Ferdinand Research Paper

There are many parts to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand: the Archduke himself, his assassins, why they did it, and how they did it. All of these are equally important to the overall event, which in turn is important to, not only the world, but the United States as well. First up is the Archduke, one Franz Ferdinand. He was born on December 18, 1863, in Graz, Austria to Archduke Karl Ludwig. He was also the nephew of the Austro-Hungarian emperor of the time, Franz Joseph. The Archduke became the heir to that throne after the death of the current heir apparent, Archduke Rudolf, in 1889, and the death of his father in 1896. However, neither Franz or his children would ever claim that throne because, due to his poor health, his younger brother, Otto, was thought
to be more likely to succeed, and in order to marry the countess of Choteck, Sophie, he had to deny his children the right to the throne. While he may have been unsuccessful when it came to politics, Ferdinand quickly rose through the military ranks and became the inspector general of the entire army in 1913, the year before his death. Next to be discussed are his assassins, members of the revolutionary movement called the Young Bosnia, some of which were also a part of the secret military society known as the Black Hand.
The Young Bosnian group was made up of mainly Serbs and the most notable Serbian member is of course, Gavrilo Princip, nevertheless, he was not the mastermind behind the operation. The man who coordinated the plan and recruited the other members was Danilo Illic. Those other members were Nedeljko Cabrinovic, Trifko Grabez, Vaso Cubrilovic, Cvjetko Popovic, and Muhamed Mehmedbasic. All of them were either in their late teens or somewhere in their twenties when the assassination occurred. These men chose Archduke Ferdinand to kill for many reasons. One of the many reasons being his involvement in the Bosnian crisis, which was the time of chaos when Serbia was protesting the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovia into Austria-Hungary. Another issue was the Archduke’s hand in both of the Balkan wars. A third motivation was the stopping of Franz Ferdinand’s ideas for reform, stated by Princip himself. Though these are not all of their reasons, it sums up the overall mindset of the group and their opinion of the
Archduke. The assassination occurred on June 28, 1914, and it all started with a motorcade.