Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination in 1914
Serbian student Gavrilo Princip, who was only 18 years old at the time, shot the archduke as he was passing by in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Ferdinand was supposed to inherit the entire Austro-Hungarian empire, so his death was definitely not taken lightly.
After the prince’s death, the empire declared war on Serbia. This was basically the reason why World War I ignited, as all the other international allegiances stepped into the conflict. The New York Times wrote in 1915: “what will be the face of the world when it is all over no one can know, but it will be greatly changed, and not just geographically.”
