79 | History’s Deadliest Gunshot: Gavrilo Princip and the Sarajevo Assassination That Sparked WW1

In Sarajevo on 28 June 1914, a young Bosnian student named Gavrilo Princip fired a shot which would become the deadliest in history. With the help of co-conspirators from underground nationalist group Young Bosnia, he assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie during their imperial visit to the capital. Their deaths set off a domino effect of ultimatums, alliances, and mobilisations across Europe, and within weeks, the continent was engulfed in World War I (The Great War), a conflict that ultimately claimed millions of lives. Was Princip a terrorist, a freedom fighter, or simply a desperate youth caught in history’s tide? This episode explores the life, motives, and legacy of the 19-year-old whose pistol transformed Bosnia’s struggle into a global war. Few individuals have altered the course of history so suddenly, or so tragically.

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Sources:
Dedijer, Vladimir. The Road to Sarajevo. London: MacGibbon & Kee, 1966.

Butcher, Tim. The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War. London: Chatto & Windus, 2014.

Feuerlicht, Roberta Strauss. The Desperate Act: The Assassination of Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo. London: McGraw-Hill, 1968.

Additional references:
Aichelburg, Wladimir. Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand und Artstetten. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Staatsdruckerei, 1986.

Woolf, Alex. Assassination in Sarajevo. Oxford: Heinemann, 2002.

Ullman, Harlan. A Handful of Bullets: How the Murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand Still Menaces the Peace. New York: Potomac Books, 2014.

Liulevicius, Vejas Gabriel. World War I: The “Great War”

Culpin, Christopher. Making History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In Sarajevo on Sunday twenty eighth of June nineteen fourteen,
the city was alive with celebration. Marching bands filled the
air with music, and the black and yellow banners of
the Habsburg Empire fluttered alongside Bosnia's red and gold. Police
patrolled the bridges as a regal motorcade rolled past. Crowds

(00:25):
jostling for a glimpse of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his
wife Sophie. But not every Bosnian was there to cheer.
Among the onlookers, a gaunt nineteen year old student waited,
his fingers curled around a browning pistol concealed in his pocket,

(00:47):
like a deadly game of dominoes. His next action would
trigger series of consequences that were topple empires and ignite
the bloodiest war Europe had ever seen. Decades later, historian A. J. P.
Taylor would call him the man who changed the course
of history with a single act. Some see him as

(01:10):
a hero, others as a villain, but the truth is
more complex and is rarely told in full outside the Balkans.
In the West, he's often reduced to a paragraph in
school textbooks as a young kill who stumbled into history
by inadvertently starting a war. His name was Gavrilla Princip.

(01:55):
Govrilla Princip's humble beginnings gave no hint that he would
one day become one of the most divisive figures in
the Austro Hungarian Empire. He was born on thirteenth of
July eighteen ninety four, on the earth and floor of
his family's one room cottage. His mother Maria, gave birth

(02:15):
beside the open half their use for cooking, and with
no doctors or midwives. Many children in rural Bosnia were
not expected to survive, but Gavrillo did. The family would
have celebrated his arrival inside that dim, smoke filled room,
gathered on rough stone benches, the only light trickling in

(02:37):
through a hole above the fire. They lived in the
tiny village of Oblie in the green and rocky Grahovo Valley,
surrounded by the Dinara Mountains, on Bosnia's remote western edge.
To the north and west Lake Croatia, and to the
east the independent state of Serbia, whose people and ideals

(02:59):
were shaped Guvrillos path. His father, Peter, was a farmer
who grew corn oats and barley on just four acres
of land, keeping a few cows, sheep, chickens, and a
single horse and cart. He and Maria had raised nine children,
though many had died young, and to support his large family,

(03:21):
Peter worked as a postman in the winter, navigating mountain
roads in his wagon to deliver mail between villagers. Peter
was a devout, soft spoken man who never drank or swore,
and found joy in planting trees to line the road
from Obliei to Grahovo with saplings he had raised himself.

(03:43):
The province into which Gorilla Princesip was born had a
complex political history. The Balkans were rich in natural resources
like timber, gold and silver, but Bosnia and Herzegovina, two
neighboring provinces governed as a single region, remained poor. Its

(04:03):
population was divided into three main groups. Roughly forty percent
were Bosnian Serb like the Princip family, around twenty percent
were Croats originally from Croatia, and thirty five percent were
Bosnian Muslims known as Bosniaks. All were ethnically Southern Slavs,

(04:24):
but centuries of foreign rule had created religious divides, inequalities,
and resentment. In fourteen sixty three, the Ottoman Empire had
conquered Bosnia, killing or enslaving a third of the population.
Over time, many Bosnians converted to Islam in exchange for

(04:46):
lower taxes and better job opportunities under Ottoman rule. Old
photos and postcards from Bosnia often show people wearing the
traditional dress and red fairs that identified them as Muslim.
Though they were not the majority, Foreign photographers often focused

(05:06):
on them because they were seen as exotic and unfamiliar
by European standards. Bosnias also tended to live in cities
where they occupied more prestigious roles. In contrast, Serbs, who
were Orthodox Christians, lived mainly as rural peasants and were
rarely captured on film. By the mid eighteen hundreds, the

(05:32):
Ottoman Empire was in decline. In eighteen seventy eight, administrative
control of Bosnia and Herzegovina was handed over to the
Austro Hungarian Empire, a recently formed dual monarchy ruled by
the centuries old Habsburg dynasty, which was expanding its influence
across Europe. The Empire promised to modernize Bosnia and Herzegovina

(05:57):
with schools, roads and railways, but the new rulers brought
in three hundred thousand troops to maintain order, tax the
population heavily and preserve the social hierarchy by continuing to
favor the Muslim Bosniacs, who had largely supported Ottoman rule
and now welcomed the Austrians as their new overlords. The

(06:21):
promised infrastructure was built, but primarily for Habsburg troops to
move quickly around the region rather than for the benefit
of the locals. Gorilla Prinsip was a reserved boy with dark,
bushy hair, a pointed chin, blue eyes, and a slight build.

(06:42):
He was known for his determination, sense of humor, and
love of books, preferring to help his parents tend their
calves and go outside and play. Years later, he would
tell Austrian psychiatrist Dr Martin Pappenheim, I was always a quiet,
sent mental child, always earnest with books. His mother Maria

(07:06):
said he read much and kept silent most of the time.
Maria was determined that her son would be educated, so
he walked two miles each day to the primary school
in Grahovo. His father, Peter would have preferred him to
stay at home and look after the sheep, but Gavrillo

(07:26):
excelled in the classroom, and it quickly became clear that
he belonged in an academic environment. In nineteen oh eight,
thirteen year old Gavrilo left his village to attend a
merchant's school in Sarajevo, one hundred and fifty miles east.
The school trained students for careers in business and taught

(07:47):
German the language of the Habsburg authorities. His older brother
Yovo traveled with him, helping to arrange cheap lodgings with
a widow named stoye Ilich who lived with her son Danilo.
Danillo was four years older than Gavrillo and a former
merchant school pupil himself, and they quickly became friends, spending

(08:10):
their free time together playing billiards and chess. Danillo had
lost his father, a cobbler, at the age of five,
and had worked in various jobs, including as a newsboy,
theatre usher, proofreader, and volunteer nurse with the Serbian Army.

(08:30):
By nineteen twelve, he had graduated from Sarajova Teachers College
and the following year began working as a writer for
a Serbian newspaper. Bosnir was slowly industrializing, but for workers,
life under Austro Hungarian rule was harsh. Strikes against low wages,

(08:53):
lack of payment, and exhausting hours were met with force,
and it was not uncommon for police to open demonstrators,
killing and injuring many. A request for a modest nine
hour working day was rejected outright by the authorities, and
as the number of uprisings grew, the government imposed repressive measures,

(09:15):
including censorship, bans on political gatherings, and arrests without trial.
This disproportionately affected Bosnian Serbs, who formed the largest and
often poorer segment of the rule population and who were
among the most disillusioned with Habsburg rule. In nineteen oh eight,

(09:38):
Austria Hungary formerly annexed to provinces and established special Bosnian
Herzegovinian Army regiments, conscripting men over twenty one from all backgrounds,
including Croats, Bosniaks and Serbs. The move alarmed neighbouring Serbia,
which feared the Austro Hungarians would try to expand their

(09:59):
territory further. It was against this backcrop that Garrillo princip
entered his teenage years. Each summer he returned home to
OBLII to help in the fields. Seeing firsthand the daily
struggle of his parents, especially as a third of their

(10:19):
harvest was taken in taxes, he also knew that resistance
ran deep in his blood. His family had lived in
the village since the eighteenth century, originally with the surname Yovichvich.
They earned the nickname Cheka, meaning to lie in wait,

(10:39):
for their fierce resistance against the Ottoman raiders and bandits
who plagued the remote region, stealing from the already impoverished farmers.
One ancestor, a proud man named Toda, was known for
riding through the hills on a white horse, dressed head
to toe in white to strike fear into enemies. For

(11:02):
his courage, he was known as Prinsip, meaning Prince, which
eventually became the family surname. Perhaps it was these stories
and the injustices he witnessed daily that shaped Garrillo's growing
nationalist ideals and hatred for the Austro Hungarian Empire, which
ruled Bosnir with an iron fist, even if often disguised

(11:25):
by a velvet glove. The empire promoted a facade of
benevolence or clamping down on dissent. At the end of
his third year at the Merchant's School, Garrillo passed the
entrance exams for Sarajevo High School, eager to broaden his education.

(11:46):
He was intellectually curious, socially progressive, and quietly rebellious. Though
he had a casual attitude to religion, he was accepting
of all faiths, believed in equality for women, and neither
smoked nor drank. He devoured novels by Alexander Dumas, Oscar Wilde,

(12:07):
and Walter Scott, but his favorites were Arthur Conan Doyle
Sherlock Holmes stories. These were likely German translations, as they
would not have been available in South Slavic languages. He
also studied Greek and Latin, wrote poetry, and once said
books for me signify life. As his knowledge grew, so

(12:33):
did his disillusionment. He wrote how could one sleep in
this empire of brooding illusions, expressing a refusal to remain
passive under a regime he believed was built on deception,
in justice and a holo facade of imperial order. His friends,

(12:53):
who recognized his values and intensity, affectionately nicknamed him Gavroche.
After to Hugo's Streethurchin from Lei Israb, who gave voice
to the poor. By nineteen eleven, Principer joined the underground
movement Young Bosnia, a secret multi ethnic nationalist society formed

(13:17):
by schoolboys and students, mostly from humble backgrounds, which also
counted a small number of women among its members. They
were forced to operate underground because such groups were banned,
and its goals were radical, to overthrow the Habsburg Empire
and secure Bosnia's sovereignty to build a fairer society. They

(13:41):
were inspired by Bogdan Zariach, who in nineteen ten had
fired five shots at the provincial governor before turning the
gun on himself. The governor had survived, but even so
Zariach's death made him a martyr for the cause, and
Gavrillo admired his commitment to fighting for his country's freedom.

(14:05):
Around this time, Garvrillo met Nadelko Kabrinovitch, who was a
year younger and as outgoing and emotional as Gavrilla was. Reserved,
though less formally educated that Delko was equally passionate about
revolution and frequently clashed with his father, who was a
police informant. His sister Ugusava shared their views and soon

(14:29):
became friends with Gavrillo, exchanging poems and discussing literature. Both
men were frustrated by the older generation's passivity, feeling they
had accepted the annexation of Bosnia too meekly. They believed
Austro Hungarian rule was corrupting Bosnian society, citing the establishment

(14:50):
of brothels after the occupation as a symbol of moral decay.
In February nineteen twelve, g was expelled from Sarajeva High
School along with twenty others for participating in demonstrations against
Austro Hungarian rule. The protest was violently disbanded by police

(15:12):
charging on horseback, which sabers drawn injuring many students. One
boy was jailed for setting fire to the imperial flag,
and another named Juro Sarak was imprisoned for announcing his
belief during a lesson that annexation was theft. Gavrillo's defiance

(15:32):
extended beyond the classroom. Though not officially documented, contemporaries and
later biographers recount an incident where a teenage Guvrillo defended
a local girl being harassed by an Austrian officer. Gavrillau
was five foot four and weighed just one hundred and
ten pounds, but he fearlessly confronted the armed man and

(15:55):
was badly beaten for his chivalry. After his expulsion, Govrillo
turned his sights to Belgrade, drawn by its reputation as
a city of freethinkers, political conspirators, and revolutionaries. Possibly encouraged
by his friend Danilo Ilich. With a newly prepared passport

(16:18):
and little more than a bundle of books tied with
a leather strap, he crossed the border to start a
new chapter in the sovereign Serbian capital. When he arrived,
he found that Belgrade was in the midst of preparing
to drive the Turks from Europe in what would become
the Balkan Wars. Gavrillo tried to enlist, but was rejected

(16:40):
by the Serbian army due to his small stature. In
the city, he reunited with his school friend Kabrinovitch, who
worked at a printing press producing anarchist literature. Gavrillo spent
his day's debating ideas with like minded nonconformists and cafe
and libraries. Occasionally, friends back home sent him small amounts

(17:05):
of money, but he spent many nights in monasteries that
offered shelter to the poor, or, in the worst times,
slept in dog kennels. Sometime during this period of hardship,
he contracted tuberculosis, though he may have carried the illness
unknowingly since childhood. By nineteen thirteen, the Balkan Wars had ended,

(17:30):
with Serbia's decisive victory over the Ottomans, gaining new territory
and inspiring many young Bosnians, including Gavrilo. The quiet member
of Young Bosnia, grew even more convinced that only direct
action could bring about lasting change. Kabrinovitch's radicalism also intensified,

(17:52):
shaped by anarchist circles that both continued their studies and
took exams at a Belgrade high school. Meanwhile, plans were
underway for a high profile imperial visit to Bosnia. In
June nineteen fourteen, Emperor Franz Joseph, now elderly and in

(18:14):
poor health, sent his heir presumptive, his fifty year old nephew,
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, to Sarajevo on his behalf. Officially, a
visit was to inspect the army and oversee military maneuvers,
but it was also a show of political and military
strength to reinforce loyalty, particularly among their Croat and Bosniac supporters.

(18:40):
Franz Ferdinand, an inspector general in the Austro Hungarian army,
was known for his bad temper, stubbornness, impetuous nature, and
a reluctance to read anything that contradicted his own views.
Though some hoped he would be more liberal than his
uncle when he inherited the throne, the evidence suggested otherwise.

(19:03):
He planned to build more Catholic churches and suppressed to
Serbian Orthodox faith and declared, or we must end the
Serb's obstruction and pacify the country in two months. He
also vowed, when I am commander in chief, I shall
do as I please. If anyone does otherwise, I will

(19:24):
have them all shot. He was rumoured to suffer from
syphilis and had a notorious obsession with hunting. Kept a
personal logbook that recorded nearly two hundred and seventy five
thousand kills over his lifetime, filling his Bohemian castle with
the heads of his trophies stuffed by his personal taxidermist,

(19:45):
who traveled with him at all times. In one day alone,
he shot more than two thousand animals and game birds.
News of the Archduke's planned visit to Sarajevo reached Belgrade
for a young Bosnian contact named Psara. When Gavrilo Princip

(20:07):
saw the newspaper clipping, a decisive plan took shape in
his mind that would seal his fate and change history.
He turned to Kabrinovitch and asked if he would join
an assassination attempt on the Archduke. Kabrinovitch agreed, and they
recruited eighteen year old Trifgo Grabez as a third conspirator,

(20:30):
who shared a room with them. The three men received
weapons and training from the secret ultra nationalist society Unification
or Death, sometimes nicknamed the Black Hand. Its leader, Colonel
Dragutim Dmotreyevitch, known by the pseudonym APIs, endorsed the plan,

(20:54):
while the weapons were provided by a Bosnian who had
joined the Serbian army during the Balkan Wars. Four browning pistols,
six hand grenades, and doses of cyanide wrapped in paper
to be swallowed if captured. The grenades were shaped like
rectangular bars of soap, with detonators capped at one end.

(21:16):
Once the cat was unscrewed and struck firmly against a
solid object, there was a twelve second fuse before explosion. Prinsip,
the acknowledged leader of the plot, sent coded letters to
danilo Ilich and Sarajevo asking him to recruit more men
for the cause. On twenty eighth of May nineteen fourteen, Prinsip,

(21:44):
Kabrinovitch and Grabez set out from Belgrade under false names.
Their eight day journey by a riverboat, on foot and
aided by a school teacher and peasants, was arduous. They
trudged through buddy fields, waded across rivers with their grenades
strapped to their bodies and pistols in their pockets, and

(22:06):
navigated dense forests while avoiding detection. They arrived in Sarajevo
on fourth of June, meeting their organizer, Danilo Ilich. By
then a Muslim carpenter named Mohammad Mehmed Bassich had also
joined the conspiracy. Among the young Bosnians, excitement was bubbling

(22:29):
as word of the plot spread. Danilo Ilich studied the
imperial party's exact route printed in the newspaper and carefully
planned where each assassin should be positioned along a three
hundred yard stretch of the Appeal Quay. The busy riverside

(22:51):
street was lined on one side by grand buildings in
muted yellows and creams, their tall windows, iron balconies and
intricate st histone work reflecting Sarajevo's blend of European and
Ottoman heritage. On the other side, a low embankment bordered
the Miyachika River, crossed by elegant stone bridges. Nearby streets

(23:16):
buzzedward shops, cafes and government officers, while the hills rose behind,
dotted with red roofed houses and minarets. Narrow alleys branched
off towards bazaars, tea houses, and vibrant carpet cellars. The
night before the assassination, Gavrilo Prinsip d Nilo Ilich and

(23:41):
Adelko Kobrinovich made a solemn pilgrimage to the cemetery where
nationalist Marta Bogdan Zaraich was buried, who had attempted to
kill the provincial governor four years earlier to the determined
idealistic trio. He was a hero and an inspiration. Grillo

(24:02):
laid flowers on the grave and repeated Zariachu's own words.
He who wants to live has to die. He who
is ready to die will live forever, he added, quietly,
rest in peace, making a silent promise to follow the
path Zariach had begun and succeed where he had not.

(24:28):
Each conspirator knew this would be their last night of freedom,
yet each was convinced that it was a kind of
freedom not worth settling for until their homeland could be
truly free, ruled by its own people, with all Slavs
equaled beneath their red and gold banner. Yet the Austro

(24:51):
Hungarian regime had plenty of supporters in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
On Sunday twenty eighth of June nineteen fourteen, the streets
were decked out for celebration. Bands played stirring marches. The
black and yellow Habsburg double eagle flag flew from buildings,
and portraits of the arched duke hunging windows. That morning,

(25:17):
Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Duchess Sophie attended mass
in a makeshift chapel at their hotel outside Sarajevo. The
Hotel Bosner had been closed to all other guests and
redecorated for their exclusive use. After Mass, the couple bordered
a special train to Sarajevo and transferred to a motorcade

(25:40):
of six chauffeur driven cars for the final approach the
Archduke and Duchess road. In the third car a green
graf and stiffed limousine trimmed in gold, the Austrian eagle
flag flying proudly on the hood. Franz Ferdinand wore the
unifor form of an Austrian cavalry general, a blue tunic

(26:03):
with a high collar adorned with three stars, black trousers
with red stripes, and a gold braider tasseled sash at
his waist. His head was crowned with a hat trimmed
with green feathers perched above his signature upturned mustache. Beside him,
Sophie wore a white silk dress and a wide brimmed

(26:26):
white hat with a veil. In the car with them
sat General Oscar Pottiek, Governor of Bosnia, and Lieutenant Colonel
Franz von Harrick was seated beside the driver. The car
arrived in Sarajevo just after nine thirty am. The sun

(26:48):
shone on the Appel Quay and the roof of the
green limousine had been folded back, leaving Franz, Ferdinand and
Sophie fully visible to the cheering crowds. As the procession
moved towards the town hall, they were accompanied by jubilant
music and a thundering twenty four guns salute from the

(27:08):
surrounding hilltop fortresses startled. Flocks of Sariova's feral pigeons scattered
into the sky, settling atop buildings with a bird's eye
view of the scene that was to unfold. As the
cars passed. Some spectators shouted zivio, meaning how long may

(27:29):
he live? But hidden among the crowds were several assassins
who were not there to celebrate the Archduke's arrival. The
seven main conspirators were Danilo Ilich, Trifgo Grabez, the Delko Kobrinovitch,
Mohammered Mehmered Bassich, Vaso Kubrilovich, Setko Popovich and Gorilla Prin

(27:54):
Sip spread out along the planned route, while other young
Bosnians dotted the crowd, ready to offer help. Membered Bassett
spotted the convoy first, but the sight of a nearby
policeman made him hesitate and he quietly slipped away. Another

(28:14):
conspirator held his fire, unwilling to risk hitting the Duchess.
A third Popovich struggled to identify the correct car as
he was near sighted, so he remained hidden within the
crowd and let the moment pass. At ten ten am,
as a cavalcade passed the Tu Maria Bridge, n Delko

(28:38):
Kabrinovitch calmly approached a policeman and asked which car carried
the Archduke. The officer, distractedly pointed to the third car.
Kabrinovitch removed the cap from his grenade, struck the detonator
against the lamppost to ignite the fuse, and hurled it
towards the vehicle. The driver saw it at the last

(29:01):
second and accelerated. The grenade struck the folded roof, bounced
off and exploded beneath the car behind, sending shrapnel flying
in all directions and seriously injuring several officers. The car
carrying Franz Ferdinand sped away to safety. Without hesitation, Gabrinovitch

(29:25):
swallowed his cyanide and plunged over the embankment wall into
the Miachka River, a twenty six foot drop, but the
poison was too weak or degraded to kill him, and
only made him vomit within minutes. As he floundered in
the river that was too shallow to drown him, he
was surrounded by police officers and a hail of blows

(29:47):
from fists and saber hilts. As they cuffed him and
hauled him away. Gabrinovitch shouted defiantly, I am a Serbian hero.
I'd streamed down his face as he was pushed across
the bridge towards the Sarreova State Police station for interrogation.

(30:09):
Chaos erupted on the pavement behind the fleeing motorcade. Twenty
bystanders were wounded in the blast, and people were shouting
and crying in a melee of confusion. A woman watching
the parade from her bedroom balcony had been struck in
the face by shrapnel and her ear drum was shattered
by the explosion. Detectives swept the scene in a state

(30:34):
of panic, arresting anyone who looked vaguely suspicious, with guilt
presumed by appearance not evidence. Immediately after the attack, Franz
Ferdinand turned to Governor Puttierek and said, this fellow must
be insane, gentlemen, let us proceed with our program. Dismissing

(30:58):
the attack as the work of an agitator, he refused
to cancel the visit, unaware that other conspirators still waited
in the crowd with the purpose of killing him at
any cost. The remaining cars proceeded to the town hall,
where the Archduke was scheduled to give a speech. On arrival,

(31:20):
he was barely able to conceal his anger, snapping at
the waiting officials. I came to Sarajevo for a friendly visit,
and someone froze a bomb at me. This is outrageous.
When Gavrilo Prinsip heard the grenade explode, he hurried towards

(31:40):
the commotion, only to learn that the attempt had failed.
Disappointed but unnoticed, he drifted back towards his assigned position
outside Schiller's Delicatessen on the corner of appel Quy and
Franz Joseph Street, near the Latin bridgeknown to Garrillo. The

(32:01):
Archduke had decided to change the plan after the speech
at the town hall. He wanted to visit the hospital
to see the officer who had been wounded, rather than
continuing on the original route towards the museum he was
due to open. In theory, this decision might have saved
the Archduke from the assassins, as Garrillo would have been

(32:23):
waiting in the wrong place, but the mysterious hand of
fate nudged both men towards their destiny, as the lead
driver was not told of the change of plan. As
Franz Ferdinand and his entourage climbed back into the motor
cars after the town hall visit, Lieutenant Colonel Harrack stood

(32:45):
on the running board of the Archduke's car on the
side nearest the river, to shield him in the event
of another attack. As the procession reached the corner of
Appel Quay and Franz Joseph Street, the first US car
turned right according to the original plan. The second car,

(33:06):
carrying the Chief of Police and the Lord Mayor, followed
closely behind it. The driver of the Archduke's car was
about to make the same turn when General Petirek suddenly shouted, stop,
you're going the wrong way. The show first stepped hard
on the break, bringing the cart an abrupt halt directly

(33:30):
outside Schiller's delicatessen, where he slowly began to reverse. Gavrilla Prinsip,
waiting on the corner, realized his moment had come. The
crowd was pressing so tightly around him that he wouldn't
be able to swing his arm to throw a grenade,
so instead he reached for his browning pistol. A policeman

(33:54):
noticed his sudden movement and lunged towards him, but at
that moment, the conspirator Passara kicked the officer in the leg,
distracting him just long enough for guerrilla to fire two
shots into the open car. The first struck the Archduke
in the neck, severing his jugular vein. The second hit

(34:16):
counter sophin the abdomen as she rose to help her husband.
Seeing blood trickling from Franz Ferdinand's mouth, General Pottierek ordered
the chauffeur to drive at top speed to his own
official residence. A lieutenant leaped from one of the cars
and charged at the assassin with his saber. But once

(34:39):
again Passara intervened, rushing to Prince Seep's defense and charging
at the man. Someone else in the crowd punched a
policeman in the stomach, while Princesip was wrestled to the
ground by several officers who began beating him into submission.
In the scuffle, he managed to hit one detective on

(34:59):
the head with his revolver. Then one witness saw him
raised the weapon to his own temple, but someone knocked
it out of his hand before he could pull the trigger.
Even while the officer's blows rained down on him, Garrillo
managed to pull the fold of paper from his pocket
which contained cyanide, and swallowed its contents, but his dose, too,

(35:22):
was ineffective and only burnt his mouth. He was eventually
subdued and dragged at the police station for questioning. A
man named Ferdinand Bhaer was among those who tried to
help Garrillo during the chaos and was arrested at the scene.
A photographer captured his image in the moment, and due

(35:44):
to his resemblance to Prinsip, the photo was widely published
in newspapers and books, mistakenly identified as Princip himself. A
myth that persists to this day. Bassara was also arrested
soon after. Meanwhile, the Archduke's car raced towards the safety

(36:07):
of the Governor's residence as blood gushed from his neck.
Franz Ferdinand was heard to say, Sophie, dear, stay alive
for our children. Lieutenant von Harrack asked if he was
in pain, to which the Archduke replied faintly, it is nothing.

(36:29):
He repeated the word six or seven times as he
slipped in and out of consciousness. Both Franz Ferdinand and
Sophie were dead within minutes. Within hours, news of the
assassination swept across Europe, triggering the chain of events that

(36:51):
led to the First World War. Grilla Priensip's bullets were
the spark, but the continent had long been a tin,
waiting for a single flash to ignite. The powder keg
of militarism, nationalism, imperial rivalry, and a web of tangled alliances.

(37:12):
For decades. Tensions had been mounting, with the naval arms
race between Germany and Britain, the rise of militant nationalism
Kaiser Wilhelm, the Seconds Aggression, and Austria Hungary's obsession with
crushing Serbia, which it viewed as a threat to its stability.
The assassination gave Vienna its opportunity. It issued an ultimatum

(37:37):
to Serbia so harsh no independent nation could accept it,
blaming Belgrade to shift attention from Bosnia and justify war
against the neighbor whose rising bulk and influence threatened the Empire.
Germany backed Austria Hungary with what became known as the
Blank Check, pledging full support for ours any action. Vienna

(38:01):
chose to take, confident in its war plans and eager
to strike before Russia grew stronger. Germany pushed forward. When
Russia mobilized to defend Serbia, France stood by its ally.
On fourth of August, Germany invaded Belgium as a shortcut

(38:22):
to attack. France, and Britain, bound by a treaty to
protect belgium neutrality, declared war. The same day. The Balkan
Crisis exploded into a global war, and Princehip's name would
forever be bound to the conflict that claimed over fifteen
million lives and reshaped the world. In the immediate aftermath

(38:49):
of the shooting, however, nobody could yet foresee the global
catastrophe to come. Only the Austria Hungary's beloved heir to
the throne had been assassinated. At the police station, Gavrilo
Princeship was formally charged with murder. He did not deny it,

(39:09):
saying I acknowledge it, but I'm sorry that I killed
the Duchess. I had no intention of killing her. The
police quickly rounded up his fellow conspirators. Nadelko Kabrinovitch was
charged with attempted murder and for being an accomplice. Drifgo

(39:29):
Grabez and Danillo Ilich were arrested soon after, and all
were transferred to a military prison. Only membered bassettch escaped,
slipping across the border into Montenegro. He reportedly spoke openly
about his role in the plot, but went unpunished. Since
his involvement did not fit the official narrative and the

(39:52):
authorities preferred to present Muslims as law subjects of the
Austro Hungarian Empire. Violence erupted on the streets of Sarajevo.
Supporters of the empire looted and burned Serbian owned shops
and homes in revenge. The authority stood by in some

(40:13):
cases actively encouraging the riots. Two Bosnian Serbs were killed
in the unrest, and several more injured or dozens of
innocent civilians were arrested, beaten, and left to stand in
the scorching sun for hours without water. According to one
later account, gallows were even erected in the prison courtyard,

(40:36):
where several peasants were hanged within full view of the
conspirator's windows, a brutal, bloody message to the young men
who had dared to fight for their country's freedom. At first,
grabez Kabrinevitch and Prince SIPs steadfastly refused to name anyone
who had aided their plot, even under torture. But when

(41:00):
Princeship learnt that innocent people were being executed for their actions,
he told the judge, I will tell you everything, provided
I can speak to the others first. If not, I
will confess nothing at all, even if you beat me
to death. Once granted the chance to confer with his comrades,

(41:22):
Princeship urged them to reveal how they had acquired their
weapons and to identify the young Bosnians involved, rather than
let innocent people continue to suffer. By then, twenty five
rebels had been arrested and assigned lawyers, but Princeship instructed
his own counsel to concentrate their efforts on the defense

(41:43):
of the others, saying, try to save their next and
study their cases thoroughly. You could help them because they
are innocent, while I, in any case, am ready to
face the worst. The defense lawyers were appointed you need
to preserve the illusion of justice, and were warned not

(42:03):
to exert too much effort on their client's behalf. Those
deemed too enthusiastic in their defense were threatened with imprisonment
or exile. The trial opened in October nineteen fourteen, held
behind closed doors in Sarriova's military prison. Three judges presided,

(42:26):
with a state attorney prosecuting each defendant. The youngest of
whom was sixteen, was given the opportunity to make a statement,
and god Rido, Prince Sip declared with unwavering conviction, I
do not feel like a criminal because I put away

(42:47):
the one who was doing evil. Austria represents evil for
our people as it is, it should not exist. He
spoke from the heart of a peasant's son, painfully aware
of how in his eyes his people were treated like cattle.
Under foreign rule. His dream was of a united Slavic

(43:10):
state called Yugoslavia, free from imperial oppression. His friends echoed
similar sentiments, with Kabrinovitch more fiery and confrontational clashing with
the judges. While Grebez emphasized his belief that the people
of Bosnia and Herzegovina deserved equal rights. The state attorney

(43:34):
sought to shift blame onto Serbian propaganda, arguing that the
conspirators had been manipulated by Belgrade. Princehip vehemently denied any
outside influence, insisting the assassination had been conceived entirely within
their own student circle. Towards the end of the trial,

(43:55):
Kabrinovitch issued a public apology to the children of Franz Ferdinand.
Outside the courtroom, the atmosphere remained tense, and students who
scrawled slogans such as deaf to tyrants and long lived
Yugoslavia on their deaths were sentenced up to six years
in prison, while four teachers were arrested for failing to

(44:16):
report them. The trial concluded on twenty third of October
nineteen fourteen, with the sentences pronounced. Five days later, the
judges entered the courtroom dressed entirely in black, a somber
and unmistakable sign that death sentences would be delivered. Danilo

(44:40):
Ilich was condemned to hang, while Preensip, Grabez and Kabrinovitch,
all underage at the time of the assassination, was sentenced
to twenty years imprisonment. The prosecution had argued that Prinsip
was over twenty and therefore legible for the death penalty,
but his lawyer successfully proved that he it was only

(45:00):
nineteen at the time. Several others received shorter sentences, while
nine peasants who had helped them were acquitted, the court
accepting the defense's claim that they had been coerced into involvement.
On third of February nineteen fifteen, chief organizer danilo Ilitch

(45:22):
and two of the older conspirators, Mishko Yovanovitch and school
teacher Velko Kubrilovich, were hanged for their roles in facilitating
the assassination. According to the executioner's later account, the men
faced the gallows calmly, showing a composure he claimed was
unlike anything he had witnessed before. Following the verdict, Priensip,

(45:49):
Grabez and Kribrinovitch were transported by train under heavy guard,
while other conspirators were in prison throughout Bosnia. In December
ninth teen fourteen, Guerrilla was transferred to a military prison
when in the ancient Habsburg fortress at turesian Stad in
the far north of the Empire. Surrounded by moats and marshes,

(46:13):
with outer walls four feet thick, the fortress was obleak
place and the last that Princip would ever know. Inside
he endured bitter cold, malnutrition and crushing isolation. Shackled day
and night in irons. Weighing twenty two pounds, he was

(46:33):
allowed only thirty minutes daily in the courtyard, but could
have no contact with fellow inmates. In the depths of winter,
the water in his jugfro solid, But for Prinsip the
cruelest deprivation was the denial of any reading material, leaving
his mind starved as well as his body. Occasional news

(46:56):
of the war filtered into the prison, including the invasion
of Serbia by Austro Hungarian troops and the death and
suffering of the South Slavs he had sought to liberate,
which princeship. Psychiatrist Dr Martin Pappenheim observed caused him great distress.
Between nineteen fifteen and nineteen sixteen, doctor Pappenheim interviewed Guerrillo

(47:21):
several times and noted, it is very hard in solitary
confinement without books, suffering most from having absolutely nothing to read.
Sleeps only four hours in the night, dreams a great deal, beautiful,
dreams about life, about love, not uneasy. Grilla thought often

(47:45):
of his parents and the home where he had grown up.
He still hoped that one day South Slavs would be
united in some form of republic, though he wouldn't live
to see it. Tuberculosis had rabb his body, causing excruciating
ulcers and wasting his already fragile frame. He was treated

(48:08):
by local surgeon, doctor Heinrich Levitt, who occasionally brought him chocolate,
feeling compassion for the young man who by now resembled
a walking skeleton. The last known photograph of Prince Sip,
taken in nineteen fifteen outside his prison cell, captures his
bony fingers uneasily fiddling with the hem of his tattered,

(48:30):
oversized jacket, his deep set eyes haunted by the ghosts
of those who died in reprisals of war. As a
consequence of his actions, Gabrinovitch and Grabez both succumbed in
nineteen sixteen to malnutrition and tuberculosis in the brutal conditions.

(48:51):
The following year, Prince Seep's disease worsened and the surgeon
amputated his right arm, but the infections spread to his
left and his elbow joint was fused with wire. The
operations failed to save him, and he continued to grow weaker.

(49:12):
On twenty eighth of April nineteen eighteen, at six thirty pm,
twenty three year old Garrillo Prince Sip died of advanced
bone tuberculosis, worn away by years of illness and suffering,
just months before the collapse of the Habsburg Empire. When
night fell, a burial party of five Austro Hungarian soldiers

(49:37):
interred his body in an unmarked grave, hoping his memory
would fade into obscurity after the war. One soldier had
a change of heart and came forward, enabling Princeep's remains
to be exhumed in nineteen twenty. The bones were returned
to Sarajevo for a ceremonial funeral and were buried in

(50:00):
nineteen thirty nine in the Vidovdan Heroes Chapel, alongside comrades
Trifgo Grabez, Daniloilich and other conspirators. Close to the grave
of Bogdan Zarach there would be assassin of nineteen ten,
who had so deeply inspired the members of Young Bosnia.

(50:22):
The Armistice that ended the fighting of the First World
War came into effect at eleven o'clock on length of
November nineteen eighteen, bringing to a closer conflict that had
claimed millions of lives and if countless more injured or displaced. Remarkably,
the number plate of the Archduke's car read AII one

(50:45):
one eight, closely resembling the date and time of the armistice.
Was this a sheer coincidence or a sign that the
war and its beginning and end were inevitable, even foretold,
and that Princip was destined to pull the trigger that
fateful day. After the war ended, two lines of verse

(51:11):
were discovered inscribed on the wall of Princip's prison cell,
a final small act of defiance. It read, our ghosts
will walk through Vienna and roam through the palace, frightening
the Lord's little of Princip's writing survives today, much having

(51:32):
been destroyed by him and his friend Vukasava Kabrinovich's sister.
Before the assassination in nineteen eighteen, Yugoslavia was created in theory,
fulfilling Princip's dream of uniting South Slavs, but the reality
was very different. Instead of the free, equal republic Prinsipp

(51:58):
had dreamed of, the new kingdom was a centralized monarchy
dominated from Belgrade, and for many South Slavs unity quickly
turned into disappointment. Even so, in Yugoslavia, Princip was celebrated
as a herald of freedom, and a plaque marking the
assassination was mounted in Sarajevo. On the other hand, the

(52:23):
Austra Hungarians condemned Princip as a murderer and a terrorist,
a view shared by many in the Western world. When
Nazi troops invaded Sarajevo in nineteen forty one, they tore
down the plaque and presented it to add Off Hitler
as a birthday gift. School textbooks often simplify the assassination,

(52:46):
omitting the complex web of injustices and aspirations that field
Princip's anger born of life under occupation. Even today, public
opinion in the Balkans is divided. Nationalists revere him as
a hero, or others acknowledge that he was an individual
within a circle of passionate people driven by conviction, who

(53:10):
nonetheless cost the region dearly. With the debate reigniting after
the bitter divisions in Bosnia during the nineteen nineties, some
sources still label Gabrillo Princip of Black Hand assassin. In truth,
he was part of the student led society called Young Bosnia,

(53:31):
and the Black Hands leaders only gave him support, not orders.
The Serbian government itself was wary, keeping at arm's length
to avoid provoking the Austro Hungarian authorities. Perhaps it is
easier to believe in a secret society or shadowy government
pulling the strings, rather than face the harder truth that

(53:55):
a young man, driven by the passions and turmoil of
his age, set off a chain of events that changed
the world. In reality, Gavrillo Princip was both a product
of his time and a symbol of it. A nationalist,
a freedom fighter to some, a terrorist to others. He

(54:16):
is forever remembered as a schoolboy turned radical who pulled
the trigger in Sarajevo, Motivated by his vision of South
slav unity and independence. Convinced that diplomacy was futile, he
sought swift change and was willing to die for it.

(54:37):
The Latin Bridge in Sarajevo was renamed Prinsip Bridge, but
reverted to its original name in the nineteen nineties. The
shockwaves from the war Princip helped set in motion continued
to ripple across the world, indirectly leading to social and
political change, some positive, some negative, and many unexpected. Thanks

(55:03):
to the war, women entered the workforce in large numbers,
leading to voting rights in many countries, and the rigid
social class structure began to break down as men from
diverse backgrounds fought side by side in the trenches. Colonized
people were inspired to challenge imperial rule, and socialist and

(55:24):
communist movements gained ground. The Austro, Hungarian, Ottoman, Russian and
German empires fell withdrawing the global political map, and the
US emerged as a growing influential power. Wartime medicine advanced rapidly,
improving surgery, psychiatry and hygiene. Even literature and culture were

(55:49):
touched as Belgian refugees arriving in Britain inspired author Agatha
Christi to create Hercule Poirot, the famous Belgian detective who
remains a star of book, stage and screen today. The
irony might even have earned a ry smile from Gavrillo himself,
with his love of Sherlock Holmes stories. As with all history,

(56:16):
there are more than two sides to the story, and
the truth often lies somewhere in between. Whether he was
nothing more than a terrorist or a young man fighting
for his ideals and his country's sovereignty, it is indisputable
that few famous figures, and fewer still at so young
an age, have borne consequences as immense as Gabrillo. Princip

(56:48):
you've been listening to Prassua's Murder Map. Thank you so
much for supporting the show. Whether you've been here from
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Make sure to rate and follow the show wherever you
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(57:08):
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