It is a warm summer day in the Bosnian city of Sarajevo. The sun hangs high above the Jerusalem of Europe, sending its light drifting down among the domed mosques, the arches of the churches, the spires of the temples. People swarm through Sarajevo’s narrow streets, hemmed in by the rows of buildings. The river sweeps through the city, carrying boats under its many low bridges. The city seems to hold its breath in expectation for the day.
A motorcade approaches the city from the north. Archduke Franz Ferdinand is visiting the city with his wife Sophie, on orders from his father, Emperor Franz Joseph Austria-Hungary. He has come to the city to check on the army’s summer maneuvers. His wife is with him against the Emperor’s wishes, and it is …show more content…
He was turned away repeatedly for being too weak and returned to Sarajevo humiliated. He would return to Serbia and be recruited, along with other Young Bosnia members, into the premier pro-Greater Bosnia revolutionary group in Serbia, the Black Hand. In 1913, he again traveled back to Sarajevo for the last time. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the exact opposite of Princip. Born in 1864 to the younger brother of Emperor Franz Joseph, Franz Ferdinand had a privileged life. He became even wealthier when in 1875 his cousin died and left everything to the eleven-year-old. His life changed even more dramatically in 1889, when his cousin, Crown Prince Rudolph, committed suicide making Ferdinand’s father was the heir to the Austrian Empire, a position which would pass in 1896 to Ferdinand when Archduke Karl Ludwig died. Like all aristocratic males in the Austrian Empire, Ferdinand had an prestigious military career. He joined the military at a very young age and was a captain by 22 and a major general at 31. More importantly, since many aristocrats, especially Hapsburgs (the ruling family in Austria), were rapidly promoted, Ferdinand would become the Inspector-General of all the Austro-Hungarian