Archduke Ferdinand

The Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand No other political murder in modern history has had such momentous consequences as the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. He was the heir to the Habsburg empire, and the first to fall victim to political homicide. Unlike some constitutional monarchies in Western Europe, the Habsburgs had failed to modernize their multinational state. They used force to defend their institutions, and they were faced with a mass of revolutionary movements …

…the Serbian government. The horrible murder was the work of a Serbian society with branches all over the country. Serbia’s guilt or innocence was not the real issue raised by the Sarajevo incident. Almost any incident could have sparked off Austria-Hungary’s aggressive intentions towards Serbia. Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s death was to be avenged with more of Europe’s blood than even he, the leader of Austria’s war party, could have wished.