What Happened After the Death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

**Sanitized Transcript:**

Have you ever wondered if Archduke Franz Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire would have survived the events of June 28, 1914? There is a possibility that the world might have never had to endure the Great War. However, Ferdinand’s assassination has a backstory that you may be less familiar with: the formation of Yugoslavia. It’s a story filled with intrigue, from secret military organizations to multiple assassination plots and heated disputes over national identity. This story is significant because the formation of this Balkan nation helped ignite and spread both world wars. It also serves as a cautionary tale.

Yugoslavia, this new unified Slavic state that emerged from the ashes of World War I, was a dream that quickly devolved into a bitter conflict. Viewer discretion is advised for this video, as some content may be sensitive or disturbing. We, the makers of this video, do not support or condone the actions of the subjects featured.

On June 28, 1914, at around 10:45 a.m., the car carrying Archduke Franz Ferdinand stalled outside a deli in Sarajevo. As his motorcade was moving through the city, Gavrilo Princip, a young Bosnian Serb, stepped up to the car and shot Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, at point-blank range. Chaos ensued. One month later, the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on Serbia, leading to one of the most destructive wars the world had ever known, involving 21 countries over four years.

In Serbia today, Gavrilo Princip is portrayed as a hero fighting to liberate Serbs from Austro-Hungarian imperialism, while in Croatia or Bosnia, he is seen as a radical revolutionary, with Serbia being blamed for instigating the war. These opposing interpretations of history highlight the divisions that still exist among the countries that once made up former Yugoslavia.

At the turn of the 20th century, radicals like Princip were fighting for a unified Slavic nation—a Yugoslavia. At his trial, Princip stated, “I am a Yugoslav nationalist aiming for the unification of all South Slavs free from Austria.” The plan was to unite all South Slavs, with Serbia seen as having the moral duty to help in this unification.

For centuries, the Balkans were controlled by the Ottoman Empire. In the 1800s, Ottoman control began to wane. After the Russo-Turkish War in 1878, the Kingdom of Serbia was declared an independent state. At that time, Austria-Hungary took control of Bosnia from the Ottomans, while Croatia and Slovenia were technically united as the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia but remained subjects of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. By the turn of the 20th century, Serbia was the only true independent state, while other South Slavic territories were still under foreign rule.

The idea of a Serbian nation can be traced back to medieval times when the Kingdom of Serbia existed from 1217 to 1346 and later as the Empire of Serbia until 1371 when it was conquered by the Ottomans. During its medieval period, Serbia flourished and became one of the most successful states in Europe. Many Serbs saw themselves as leaders in the quest for a unified Slavic state.

However, it can also be argued that many revolutionaries fought not for a unified Yugoslavia but for an expanded Serbia. This difference became significant in the aftermath of World War I when both empires fell, and Yugoslavia was formed.

Based on his statements at trial, Princip’s motive for assassinating Franz Ferdinand was the creation of a unified Yugoslavia. However, he was influenced by a Serbian nationalist legend known as the Kosovo Myth. This myth is about the Battle of Kosovo fought in 1389 between the invading Ottomans and the disintegrating Serbian Empire. According to the legend, the Serbian ruler Lazar martyred himself in a great battle, and a brave Serbian knight named Miloš Obilić assassinated Sultan Murad I.

By the mid-19th century, the Kosovo Myth became a uniting force behind the pan-Slavic movement for a unified Yugoslavia. In 1847, the poet Petar II Njegoš of Montenegro wrote an epic drama titled “The Mountain Wreath,” which Princip supposedly knew by heart. However, in the interwar period and beyond, it was repurposed by Serbian nationalists as a symbol of their victimization and used as a pretext for violent ethnic conflict.

When the Kingdom of Serbia was restored in 1878, it was initially friendly with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but relations soured after Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia in 1908. This angered the Serbs, and inspired by the noble assassin Miloš Obilić, secret Serbian military organizations began to emerge. The 1908 Bosnian crisis led to the formation of Narodna Odbrana, or the National Defense, which sought to protect the interests of Serbs everywhere.

During the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913, Narodna Odbrana committed war crimes, particularly in Macedonia, where the population was pressured to declare themselves as Serbs. After the wars, Narodna Odbrana turned its attention to Austria-Hungary and began a campaign of anti-Austrian propaganda and targeted assassinations.

Behind Narodna Odbrana was the more secretive group known as “Unification or Death,” founded by Dragutin Dimitrijević, who went by the pseudonym Apis. In 1901, he and a small group of officers decided that an assassination was necessary, leading to the killing of King Alexander and his wife, Queen Draga. This paved the way for Peter I, heir to the rival Serbian family, to take the throne.

As Serbia began to exert more control in the Balkans, the Unification or Death group merged with Narodna Odbrana, creating a decentralized network of spies and safe houses throughout Serbia and into Austro-Hungarian territory. It was through this network that Gavrilo Princip and his co-conspirators were able to move weapons into Sarajevo and assassinate Franz Ferdinand.

Croatian nationalism also played a role in the formation of Yugoslavia. Beginning in the 19th century, a movement for a greater Croatia emerged, seeking to unify the southern Slavs from a Croatian perspective. This became part of the Illyrian movement, which aimed to establish a Croatian state within Austria-Hungary.

However, the Illyrian movement ultimately failed as Croatian identity became a focal point rather than a pan-Slavic identity. Many Serbs considered regions now in Croatia, Bosnia, and Macedonia to be part of Greater Serbia, while many Croats viewed those same regions as distinctly Croatian.

To understand how Yugoslavia formed and the disagreements that arose, we must look at the broader context. The Balkans were caught between two empires—the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg monarchy. Both empires were autocratic and resistant to innovation, leading to a stagnated economy in the Balkans while Western Europe modernized.

By the turn of the 20th century, a significant portion of the population in Croatia, Slavonia, Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia worked in agriculture under a feudal system. As people began to move into cities, an intellectual class emerged, promoting the idea of a pan-Slavic movement to throw off centuries of oppression.

However, pan-Slavism was difficult to define, as centuries of colonial rule left people uninterested in political matters. Identity among groups in the region became increasingly dictated by religion, with the Muslim influence of the Ottoman Empire, the Catholic influence of the Habsburgs, and the Orthodox Christian influence creating a complex identity landscape.

All this history was swirling beneath Gavrilo Princip’s actions that took the life of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife. His act may have started the First World War, but much happened afterward that fueled the conflicts leading to the Second World War.

To understand this, we need to examine the newly formed Yugoslavia during World War I. The Yugoslav Committee was established based on the concept of Yugoslavism, which believed that all South Slavs—Bosniaks, Croats, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Serbs, and Slovenes—should unite as a single country. There were two main types of Yugoslavism: one supporting a single unitary Yugoslav nation and the other supporting a federal type of Yugoslavia.

Ultimately, the committee decided that the Kingdom of Serbia should merge with Croatia, Slavonia, Montenegro, Macedonia, and Bosnia to form a united Yugoslavia. However, this unification was fragile, and the borders of the newly formed state were hard to define, creating ongoing tension.

The Kingdom of Serbia was a Balkan powerhouse before World War I, and as a result, the formation of Yugoslavia was largely influenced by Serbia. The newly formed state was ruled by the same dynasty that had ruled Serbia since the overthrow of the old monarchy in 1901. Peter I became the first king of Yugoslavia, and his dynasty would rule for the next 25 years.

The Serbian-centric alignment of this new Yugoslavia caused discontent among some groups. Stephen Radić founded the Croatian People’s Peasant Party, opposing Serbian dominance. His party gained traction among the agricultural population seeking to rise above the poverty inflicted by the Ottoman and Habsburg empires.

Radić’s opposition to the new government led to his imprisonment, but this only strengthened his party. As tensions rose, King Alexander dissolved the parliament and established a dictatorship in 1929. The country, born from a series of disputes, faced internal turmoil that persisted long after its formation.

Stay tuned for our next video in this series on Yugoslavia, and don’t forget to like and subscribe for more historical insights.