Princip was one of a group of six assassins (five Serbs and one Bosniak) coordinated by Danilo Ilić, a Bosnian Serb and a member of the Black Hand secret society. The political objective of the assassination was to break off Austria-Hungary's South Slav provinces so they could be combined into a Yugoslavia. The assassins' motives were consistent with the movement that later became known as Young Bosnia. The assassination led directly to the First World War when Austria-Hungary subsequently issued an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia, which was partially rejected. Austria-Hungary then declared war, triggering actions leading to war between most European states.
Moreover, Franz Ferdinand was a moderate figure in Austro-Hungarian politics. He repeatedly served as the counterweight to more brash officials who wanted war with Serbia sooner. He also wanted to create a Tripartite empire consisting of Austria, Hungary and the Slavs, thus giving the Slavs more autonomy and self governance.
The assassins, the key members of the clandestine network, and the key Serbian military conspirators who were still alive were arrested, tried, convicted and punished. Those who were arrested in Bosnia were tried in Sarajevo in October 1914. The other conspirators were arrested and tried before a Serbian court on the French-controlled Salonika Front in 1916–1917 on unrelated false charges; Serbia executed three of the top military conspirators. Much of what is known about the assassinations comes from these two trials and related records.
Assassination of Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Probably the main cause and the most known cause of World War I was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914 by a Serb Gavrilo Princip.
Ferdinand's death came at the hands of the Black Hand, a Serbian nationalist secret society, set in train a mindlessly mechanical series of events that culminated in WW1.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Gavrilo Princip
