Assassination of Franz Ferdinand

April 6, 2009
On March 26, the class received an article on the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. It gave some information of Ferdinand and how his wife was treated during their marriage. For example, Sophie Von Chotkovato (his wife) was not allowed to join her husband when he sat in the royal box or carriage.

Many people did not like Ferdinand because they didn't want him in Austro-Hungarian Empire and the fact that Ferdinand would become their Emperor. The only way, some people saw, out was to assassinate Franz Ferdinand at his next visit. The group who planned the assassination were called 'Black Hand' and their opportunity came in June 1914, when Ferdinand visited Bosnia. In the morning of June, Gavrilo Princip, who was only 19 years old, fired two shots at Ferdinand and his wife Sophie but killed three people. Sophie was pregnent the day she died and died instantly after being hit with the bullet. Following her death was her husband's, saying his last words 'Sofia' at his wife right before he too died. Princip was sentenced to twenty years and since he was under 21, he missed the death sentence but died in prision due to tuberculosis on April 28, 1918.

Leaders are assassinated many times through out history because of what they believe in or their posistion in government. Gavrilo Princip was only a year older than I am when he assassinated a family because he felt that he was saving his people from Ferdinand's future for their country. Would the future have been different if this family was not assassinated? I think it would, but whether or not it would be for the better of the people Princip was trying to protect is hard to say. It would be like writing what happened if the Romanov family was not murdered and how Russia changed. No one knows for sure what would have happened to Russia then, we can only assume. Knowing that Princip was only a year older than I am now, it makes me wonder if any of my friends who are 19 could assassinate an entire family if they truly believed in something. Not that many people could, but there are always those few who could if they felt it needed to be done.