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How a Wrong Turn Started WW1
Today, if we don’t know how to go somewhere, just pull up Waze or Maps right? People back then didn’t have this convenience. 107 years ago, a wrong turn led to 40 million deaths, here’s the story:
The Background:
In 1908, the Austria-Hungary Empire annexed Bosnia. Bosnia-Serbian nationalists were angry. They wanted Bosnia to be united with other Southern Slavic countries instead ie. with Serbia. But there was little they could do.
The Archduke:
28th June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary visited Sarajevo, Bosnia’s capital, to inspect the military exercises there. During the visit, the Archduke and his wife held a parade through the Sarajevo main streets in their open-top car to greet the Bosnian public. It was all smiles and waves until a bomb was thrown at them. The driver, Leopold Lojka skilfully sped up and escaped the explosion. The explosion injured 20 civilians.
The Black Hand:
Remember the angry nationalists? They formed a secret society called the Black Hand to try and assassinate the Archduke. It was their plan to bomb the Archduke, but they missed and failed. Some of them were arrested immediately. One of the assassins, Gavrilo Princip, fled the scene through the crowds into a small alley.
The Wrong Turn:
Later that day, the Archduke felt that he needed to visit the wounded civilians in the hospital. The hospital visit wasn’t on the planned route, so the driver didn’t really know the directions. Along the way, the driver took a wrong turn into a small street. Realising this, he stopped wanting to reverse out of the turning. Remember Gavrilo Princip? He fled and ended up on that street, to his luck, right place right time. Gavrilo pulled out his gun, two shots, and both the Archduke and his wife were dead.
WW1:
Austria-Hungary is enraged and declares war on Serbia with Germany’s support. Russia aids Serbia, so Germany declares war on Russia. France and Great Britain then joined the war against Germany and Austria-Hungary. This further cascades and more nations are roped into the war, starting the First World War.
To pin the start of WW1 on the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand is kinda convenient. Tensions were already high among the European countries back then and they were all looking for an excuse to fight. With the territorial competitions, militarism, imperialism and nationalism, the trajectory of the region was bound to violence.
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