In five minutes
On Sunday, 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a 19-year-old Bosnian Serb student, shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, in the streets of Sarajevo. Franz Ferdinand was heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne. Both were dead by about 11:30 a.m.
The shooting did not start World War I on its own. Austria-Hungary used it as a reason to confront Serbia, and the alliances that linked the great powers pulled them into the conflict one after another. By 4 August 1914 Germany had attacked Belgium and Britain had declared war on Germany. The shots were the spark. The fuel was rival alliances, an arms race and the long dispute over Bosnia.
- A small group of young conspirators, armed with weapons supplied by Serbian army officers, waited along the Archduke's route.
- A bomb exploded under the car behind the Archduke's. Later his car followed the wrong turn, the engine stalled and it stopped close to Princip.
- Austria-Hungary's ultimatum of 23 July set off a chain of declarations that turned a regional crisis into a general war within twelve days.
Why Bosnia was a flashpoint
Austria-Hungary had run Bosnia and Herzegovina since 1878 and formally annexed it in 1908. Many of its people were South Slavs. Serbian nationalists hoped the province would one day join a wider South Slav state, so the annexation was a blow to those hopes. Bosnia became the most sensitive point of friction between Vienna and Belgrade.
Students and young radicals in Bosnia and Belgrade formed secret groups. One of the networks was tied to the Black Hand, a secret society founded in 1911 by Serbian army officers under the name Unification or Death. Its most powerful figure was Dragutin Dimitrijević, known as Apis, who had been chief of intelligence in the Serbian General Staff since 1913. The Black Hand's links to military intelligence gave Vienna a reason to hold Belgrade responsible for the plot.
The Archduke was a natural symbol for the nationalists. As heir presumptive he stood for Habsburg rule, and his official visit to Sarajevo put him in an open car on public streets, where a small group could reach him. The wider background is in our World War I overview.
Who planned the attack and how the weapons arrived
The plot was organised in Sarajevo by Danilo Ilić, who recruited the young men and armed them. Six assassins were involved. Five were under twenty. The exception, Mehmedbašić, was 26 or 27. Ilić placed bombs with three of them along the route the motorcade would take.
In the weeks before the visit, Major Vojislav Tankosić, a Serbian army officer, supplied six hand grenades and four new Browning FN Model 1910 pistols. The weapons were smuggled across the border into Bosnia by the route shown below.
28 June 1914, hour by hour
On the morning of Sunday, 28 June, the couple travelled into Sarajevo for an official visit. Governor Oskar Potiorek had turned down a plan to line the streets with troops. The open car ran with its top folded down, and the police on duty that day numbered only about 60.
About 10:10 a.m.: the first bomb
As the car approached, Nedeljko Čabrinović threw a bomb at it. The bomb hit the folded-back top, bounced off and exploded under the car behind. Between 16 and 20 people were wounded. Čabrinović swallowed a cyanide capsule and jumped into the Miljacka river, but the water was only about 13 cm deep after a hot, dry summer, and he was pulled out and arrested.
Between about 10:15 and 10:45 a.m.: the town hall and the change of plan
The couple went to the Sarajevo town hall for a reception. Franz Ferdinand then decided to visit officers hurt in the blast at the hospital. Potiorek had chosen a different route for that visit, but the drivers of the first two cars had not been told. At about 10:45 a.m. the couple got back into the motorcade, once again in the third car.
Shortly before 11:00 a.m.: the wrong turn
The first two cars turned right into a side street, as the original plan required, and the Archduke's car followed them. When the driver tried to reverse out, the engine stalled, and the car stopped close to where Princip was standing.
About 11:00 a.m.: the shots
Princip, standing beside a delicatessen at the corner of the quay and the side street, stepped up to the car and fired at close range with an FN Model 1910 pistol. One bullet hit the Archduke in the neck, and the other hit Sophie in the abdomen. Princip was seized and arrested on the spot. The Latin Bridge, an Ottoman-era stone bridge over the Miljacka, is a short distance away.
By about 11:30 a.m.: both dead
The couple were taken to the governor's residence. Sophie was dead on arrival. The Archduke died about ten minutes later, and both deaths had been recorded by about 11:30 a.m.
From the shots to war: the July Crisis
Vienna wanted to act against Serbia but first needed to know whether Berlin would stand by it. On 5 July 1914 Kaiser Wilhelm II assured Austria-Hungary's ambassador in Berlin of full German support. A formal commitment followed on 6 July. Historians call this promise the “blank cheque”, meaning Berlin would back whatever Vienna chose to do.
On 23 July Austria-Hungary's minister in Belgrade delivered an ultimatum. It demanded that Serbia stop anti-Austrian propaganda, dissolve the nationalist society Narodna Odbrana, arrest people involved in the plot, stop arms smuggling and let Austro-Hungarian officials take part in the inquiry. Serbia had 48 hours to reply, and the deadline was 6 p.m. on 25 July.
Serbia replied on 25 July. It accepted most of the demands, some in full and some in part, but it rejected the clause that let Austro-Hungarian officials join the inquiry on Serbian soil. Austria-Hungary judged the reply inadequate and broke off diplomatic relations that evening.
On 28 July Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Russia saw itself as Serbia's protector. It began partial mobilisation in late July and ordered general mobilisation on 30 July.
Between 1 and 4 August the war spread. Germany declared war on Russia on 1 August and on France on 3 August, and it attacked Belgium on 4 August. Britain, bound by its guarantee of Belgian neutrality, declared war on Germany that same day. A crisis that had begun with a shooting in a Sarajevo street had become a general European war.
Why one shooting became a world war
Alliances were the multiplier. Germany and Austria-Hungary were bound together, and Italy was part of the Triple Alliance with them, although Italy did not join the war on that side in 1914. France, Russia and Britain were linked in the Triple Entente. A quarrel between two countries could therefore pull in the partners on each side. For the details, see Triple Alliance vs Triple Entente.
Militarism also set the pace. Armies had detailed mobilisation plans, and once mobilisation began, leaders found it hard to stop without losing ground. For the wider story, see What Is Militarism? How It Led to WWI.
Vienna saw Serbian nationalism as a threat to an empire with many South Slav subjects. Russia saw itself as Serbia's protector, and Germany backed its ally. Each side read the other's moves as threats.
Would the war have happened without the shots?
No one can rerun 1914, so there is no proof either way. The rivalries and alliances were already strong, and some leaders in Vienna wanted to crush Serbia. But the shooting gave Austria-Hungary a reason to act at that moment, and the timing made a large difference. That is why historians usually describe it as the trigger rather than the only cause.
How the press showed the shooting
Illustrated papers carried the story across Europe. Italy's weekly Domenica del Corriere printed a cover by Achille Beltrame in issue 27 of 1914. France's Le Petit Journal published an illustrated supplement dated 12 July 1914 that showed the shooting. Pictures like these brought the shock to readers far from Sarajevo.
What happened to the people involved
Twenty-five people were indicted in the Sarajevo trial, which ran from 12 to 23 October 1914. The verdicts and sentences were announced on 28 October.
- Gavrilo Princip was 27 days short of 20, the minimum age for execution under the law, so he was sentenced to twenty years in prison. He died of tuberculosis at the Theresienstadt fortress prison on 28 April 1918.
- Nedeljko Čabrinović also received twenty years and died of tuberculosis in prison in January 1916.
- Danilo Ilić was hanged on 3 February 1915.
- Dragutin Dimitrijević (Apis) was tried at Salonika in 1917 and executed by firing squad on 26 June 1917.
- Oskar Potiorek was in the car that day and died in Klagenfurt in 1933.
The open car, a 1911 Gräf & Stift double phaeton, is displayed at the Museum of Military History in Vienna.
What exam questions ask
- Separate the trigger from the causes. The shooting was the trigger. The deeper causes were alliances, militarism, nationalism and imperial rivalry in the Balkans.
- Know the sequence. Keep the order straight: the shooting, the blank cheque, the ultimatum, the declarations of war, then mobilisation.
- Argue both sides. A common essay question asks whether the war was inevitable. Strong answers use the alliance system and the July decisions as evidence for both views.
Read next
- World War I (1914–1918): Causes, Course and Consequences: the full picture of the war this event started.
- Triple Alliance vs Triple Entente: who was bound to whom in 1914.
- Who Was Archduke Franz Ferdinand?: the man at the centre of the plot.
- What Is Militarism? How It Led to WWI: why mobilisation made the crisis so dangerous.
