Gavrilo Princip's Assassination In World War One

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World War 1

At 11:15 AM on June 28, 1914, in the Bosnian Capital (2) Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian Nationalist, kills Archduke Franz Ferdinand (the next in line to the throne of the empire of Austria Hungary) as well as the Archdukes pregnant wife. This assassination had been planned by the black hand, an terrorist organization Gavrilo Princip belonged to. Gavrilo after shooting both the Archduke and the archduke's wife, turned the gun on himself but was apprehended by a mob of bystanders, who all helped hold him down and wait until the police arrived (1). All of this took place on a tour of military inspection in Sarajevo, Bosnia which could have been avoided completely if the Serbian Prime minister would have been more clear in his warning to the Archduke about the plotted assassination but his message was “too cautiously worded to be understood” (2). This assassination would strengthen tensions between the two countries which would start the quick descent towards military measures and eventually the start of World War I (1). The chief of Austro-Hungarian general Staff, Franz Graf Conrad Von Hötzendorf, …show more content…

Americans were not happy with the British blockade but were even less happy with the German’s response to the blockade. The germans used their military U-boats to sink any ships found in Britain’s water. On may 7,1915, a German U-boat sank a British liner killing over a thousand innocent passengers, 128 of those passengers were American (2). This happened a couple more times with America reaching out to Germany and telling them to not attack passenger ships. In January 1917 Germany declared that they would no longer regulate their U-boats sinking of ships and that any boat near Britain was free game. This statement forced president Wilson into a tough position of taking action or