Causes of World War I corrective." British Diplomat Arthur Nicolson wrote in May 1914, “Since I have been at the Foreign Office I have not seen such calm waters.” On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were shot dead, by two gun shots in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, one of a group of six assassins (five Serbs and one Bosniak) coordinated by Danilo Ilić, a Bosnian Serb and a member of the Black Hand secret society. The assassination is significant because it was perceived by Austria-Hungary as an existential challenge
Yugoslavism this we all become members of one united Jugo-slav nation. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by Yugoslavist revolutionary Gavrilo Princip, a Serb associated with Young Bosnia, a group composed of mainly Serbs, but also Bosnian Muslims and Croats, marked the beginning of a militant nationalist activity by South Slavs against Austro-Hungarian rule. At his trial in 1914, Princip stated: "I am a Yugoslav nationalist, aiming for the unification of all Yugoslavs, and I do not care what form of state, but it must be free from Austria." The assassination of Franz Ferdinand however triggered resentment amongst those