HIST 405N Week 5 Case Study: World War I (Option 3) | TOP SCORE PAPER

2 WORLD WAR I World War I The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife ultimately set the wheels to the commencement of World War I. The Archduke was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip. It is believed that he was assassinated because he was next to inherit the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Archduke and his wife Sophie were traveling Sarajevo to inspect the imperial forces in the Ottoman territories that they acquired in 1908. Following the assassination, Austria-Hungary declared war, with German support, against Serbia. Gavrilo Princip was recruited by Major Tankosic with two others to execute the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Gavrilo Princip was the best shot out of the group of three due to his partisan training in Major Tankosic’s Black Hand partisan academy. The Black Hand partisan academy was ran by a secret Serbian society. In 1908, a few days after Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, ranking members of the “Serbian ministers, officials and generals, held a meeting at City Hall in Belgrade. They founded a semi-secret society -- Narodna Odbrana (National Defense) which gave Pan-Slavism a focus and an organization.” (Shackelford, ND). The main purpose of the group was to train and recruit supporters for war between Serbia and Austria.