Gavrilo Princip - the teen who haunts the world

[jasons0660]

In my view, the most influential person in world history, next to Jesus Christ, is a 19 year old Bosnian Serb teenager called Gavrilo Princip. As a result of an unbelievable set of circumstances, Mr Princip managed to assassinate the heir to the Austrian-Hungarian empire, Francis Ferdinand, and his wife Sofie on June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo. Exactly 1 month after this date, and after what was considered an unsatisfactory response by Serbia to the killings, the Empire declared war on Serbia. World War I began.

Going back to the assassination, the heir and his wife were visiting Sarajevo as part of a public relations exercise to shore up support for the annexation of Serbia. Gavrilo and six other young men - all independence-seekers - lined the route of the cavalcade armed with grenades and pistols. One of the men -not Gavrilo - threw a grenade which missed the archduke but injured the occupants of a follow-up vehicle. The archduke, horrified by the turn of events, asked to be taken to the hospital to visit the injured. Thus, following a quick welcoming ceremony at the Sarajevo town hall, the archduke and his wife set off in their vehicle towards the hospital. However, due to a breakdown in communication between the security detail protecting the archduke and the driver of the vehicle, the driver took a wrong turn. Reversing slowly back towards the corner, the vehicle apparently stalled in front of Moritz Schiller's delicatessen right on the corner. By sheer coincidence, since he had already given up on killing the archduke, Princip happened to be on the corner amongst the crowd. Realizing this was an opportunity to not let pass by, Princip lunged towards the vehicle, shooting both the archduke and his wife with a Browning pistol.

In the mayhem that ensued, Princip attempted to kill himself, first with the same pistol and then by ingesting a pill of cyanide. He failed on both counts. On the first, he failed because a bystander in the crowd by the name of Ante Velic knocked the pistol out of Princip's hand. On the second, he failed because the cyanide was past its use-by date. Princip was promptly arrested and beaten by a swarm of police.

Thus, you have a simple Bosnian Serb teenager who lies at the apex of some of the most revolutionary events the world has known - WWI, WWII, the Russian Revolution, the rise of Communism, the Cold War. Nobody could have imagined that this young man would profoundly affect the world in the way he did.

[Mike1976]

In my opinion if he had done nothing that day WW1 still would have happened, as well as the November revolutions. Too many powerful nations supporting each other and struggling to dominate the others. If anything, the Triple Entente, Triple Alliance and Russia's continued rivalry with the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires caused the assassination (or any offense that would have been committed, territorial dispute etc) to lead to a world war rather than nothing more than a regional skirmish.

[enenen]

a 19 year old Bosnian Serb teenager

Interesting!

[tadeus]

This thread should be locked now. To understand the whole situation one should posses a pretty vast knowledge on the subject, history and relations of the time. Even then you would have the facts, but not the truth.

[themacedonian]

The story is well known. What happened after was a choice and the incident was an excuse. The choice was the ultimatum given to Serbia that contained unacceptable conditions. The choice was even blaming directly Serbia for it and not looking for Serbian nationalist within Bosnia.

The choice was made by Austro-Hungary to proceed with attack on Serbia.The the alliences kicked in.

[Connaught Ranger]

In my view, the most influential person in world history, next to Jesus Christ, is a 19 year old Bosnian Serb teenager called Gavrilo Princip. As a result of an unbelievable set of circumstances, Mr Princip managed to assassinate the heir to the Austrian-Hungarian empire, Francis Ferdinand, and his wife Sofie on June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo. Exactly 1 month after this date, and after what was considered an unsatisfactory response by Serbia to the killings, the Empire declared war on Serbia. World War I began.

Going back to the assassination, the heir and his wife were visiting Sarajevo as part of a public relations exercise to shore up support for the annexation of Serbia. Gavrilo and six other young men - all independence-seekers - lined the route of the cavalcade armed with grenades and pistols. One of the men -not Gavrilo - threw a grenade which missed the archduke but injured the occupants of a follow-up vehicle. The archduke, horrified by the turn of events, asked to be taken to the hospital to visit the injured. Thus, following a quick welcoming ceremony at the Sarajevo town hall, the archduke and his wife set off in their vehicle towards the hospital. However, due to a breakdown in communication between the security detail protecting the archduke and the driver of the vehicle, the driver took a wrong turn. Reversing slowly back towards the corner, the vehicle apparently stalled in front of Moritz Schiller's delicatessen right on the corner. By sheer coincidence, since he had already given up on killing the archduke, Princip happened to be on the corner amongst the crowd. Realizing this was an opportunity to not let pass by, Princip lunged towards the vehicle, shooting both the archduke and his wife with a Browning pistol.

In the mayhem that ensued, Princip attempted to kill himself, first with the same pistol and then by ingesting a pill of cyanide. He failed on both counts. On the first, he failed because a bystander in the crowd by the name of Ante Velic knocked the pistol out of Princip's hand. On the second, he failed because the cyanide was past its use-by date. Princip was promptly arrested and beaten by a swarm of police.

Thus, you have a simple Bosnian Serb teenager who lies at the apex of some of the most revolutionary events the world has known - WWI, WWII, the Russian Revolution, the rise of Communism, the Cold War. Nobody could have imagined that this young man would profoundly affect the world in the way he did.

In my opinion the comment "the most influential person in world history," would be for somebody whose actions achieved something of benefit for mankind, clearly this naive youth, had no idea what would be the long-term outcome of his actions. So I have to ask the purpose of posting this, as "Balkanic Threads" tend to in-flame and impassion many of our members connected to either one side or the other from that region.

And looking at the past history of such threads I see this one going nowhere fast.

With regards "you have a simple Bosnian Serb teenager who lies at the apex of some of the most revolutionary events the world has known - WWI, WWII, the Russian Revolution, the rise of Communism, the Cold War. "

in my honest opinion the seeds of the Russian Revolution and the eventual rise of Communism were sown, long before the actions of Gavrilo Princip, ever took place.

Connaught Ranger

[Roland_09]

Interesting!

Well, at least the Austrians regarded him as a teenager, which is why he didn't get a death sentence. Age of consent at that time was something like 21, or am I mistaken?