Archduke Franz Ferdinand Essay

One of the world’s most devastating and history-changing wars was caused by the assassination of Austria-Hungary’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand. He was next in line for the throne to govern over the Austria-Hungary empire in the beginning of the 20th century, and he was rising at a very dangerous and tense time. In the early 1900s, Austria-Hungary was in a stressful conflict with the country of Serbia. The Serbians wanted the land of Bosnia, in which the Austria-Hungarian empire had annexed into their country, and Serbia wanted to unite all of the Serb ethnic groups to form a country known as “Greater Serbia,” (Bodden 19). They wanted to send a message to Austria-Hungary, and they wanted to show that they meant business. So, the Serbian government decided to do an action that would change the history of the world: they were going to assassinate the Archduke. On June 28th, 1914, when Ferdinand and his …show more content…
The Archduke did not want war with Serbia, and he would have done anything to stop it from occurring (Preston). Although it was the spark of the war, there were other issues that helped lead up to the occurrence of World War I. This included the nationalism shown by Bosnia and Austria-Hungary’s signs of imperialism, and this might have sparked the war, but if Ferdinand was not assassinated, it might not have happened (Kelly). With other reasons as well, including how Ferdinand was not to blame for the empire’s actions, this assassination had been unjustified. Also, even when some counter-arguments were said, they were pinned down by other facts, making the assassination remain unjust. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand had shocked the world, and with the information that is present, it can be said that this huge event in history was majorly