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In the eyes of many statesmen and diplomats, the greatest danger spot was in the [[Balkans]], where the deterioration of the [[Ottoman Empire]] in the late 19th and early 20th centuries had led to heated competition between Russia and Austria-Hungary to dominate the region. Further complicating matters was the emergence of several small nations from Ottoman control, such as [[Bulgaria]], [[Montenegro]], and above all [[Serbia]], all eager to establish their own position in southeastern Europe. Despite being client states of Russia from time to time, these nations fought a series of conflicts between themselves, known as the Balkan Wars, to gain territory and resources at each other's expense; these had only concluded in autumn 1913. Relations were also severely strained between Serbia and Austria-Hungary, due to the latter's annexation in 1908 of Bosnia, which was multiethnic but included a heavy contingent of Serbs. This complex political situation, and its readiness to break into open conflict at any moment, led some observers to warn that peace on the continent was very precarious, and that it would likely be a Balkan incident which dragged everyone into war. Still, as the summer of 1914 began, a general European war did not seem any more likely than it had in the preceding few years.
In the eyes of many statesmen and diplomats, the greatest danger spot was in the [[Balkans]], where the deterioration of the [[Ottoman Empire]] in the late 19th and early 20th centuries had led to heated competition between Russia and Austria-Hungary to dominate the region. Further complicating matters was the emergence of several small nations from Ottoman control, such as [[Bulgaria]], [[Montenegro]], and above all [[Serbia]], all eager to establish their own position in southeastern Europe. Despite being client states of Russia from time to time, these nations fought a series of conflicts between themselves, known as the Balkan Wars, to gain territory and resources at each other's expense; these had only concluded in autumn 1913. Relations were also severely strained between Serbia and Austria-Hungary, due to the latter's annexation in 1908 of Bosnia, which was multiethnic but included a heavy contingent of Serbs. This complex political situation, and its readiness to break into open conflict at any moment, led some observers to warn that peace on the continent was very precarious, and that it would likely be a Balkan incident which dragged everyone into war. Still, as the summer of 1914 began, a general European war did not seem any more likely than it had in the preceding few years.
==Assassination of Franz Ferdinand==
In June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, nephew and designated successor of Emperor Franz Josef I, visited Bosnia to attend military maneuvers and represent the monarchy to its relatively new subjects there. The trip was advertised well in advance, leading members of a quasi-terrorist Serbian nationalist group known as the Black Hand, which advocated Serbian annexation of Bosnia and its heavily Serb population, to plot the archduke's assassination. (Ironically, Franz Ferdinand had opposed Austrian takeover of Bosnia, seeing the region as more trouble than it was worth.)<ref>Sean McMeekin, ''July 1914: Countdown to War''. New York: Basic Books, 2013, p. 5.</ref> Supported by radical elements within the Serbian armed forces, several members of the Black Hand, armed with bombs and pistols, placed themselves in the streets of Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, as the archduke's motorcade proceeded through the city on the morning of Sunday, June 28.<ref>Sidney Fay, ''The Origins of the World War,'' vol. 2. New York: Macmillan, 1935, p. 89, 117.</ref> An initial attack on the archduke's car with a bomb was unsuccessful, the projectile exploding in the road behind it; a short time later, however, one of the Black Hand conspirators, [[Gavrilo Princip]], finding himself within close range of the vehicle, fired several shots that fatally wounded both Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie. Both would die minutes later.
==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:World War I]]
[[Category:World War I]]