July Crisis reason for armed conflict, the dispute between Serbia and Austria-Hungary over the murdered heir, had already become a sidenote to a general European war. Austria-Hungary had annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908. Sarajevo was the provincial capital. Oskar Potiorek was the military commander and governor of the province. Emperor Franz Joseph ordered Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, to attend military exercises due to be held in Bosnia. After the exercises, on 28 June 1914, Ferdinand toured Sarajevo with his wife, Sophie. Six armed irredentists, five Serbs and one Bosnian Muslim, coordinated by Danilo Ilić, lay in
Canada in the World Wars and Interwar Years Canada in the World Wars and Interwar Years During the World wars and Interwar Years Canada experienced economic gain, more freedom for women and new technological advancements. On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary was assassinated, setting off a chain of events leading to World War I. At the time, Canadians were more concerned with events within their own country than European affairs, specifically in the Balkans where crises and wars had been brutal perennials for generations. The summer of 1914 brought a second year of drought turning wheat fields into parched deserts while the two new transcontinental