Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, occurred on 28 June 1914 in Sarajevo when they were mortally wounded by Gavrilo Princip. Princip was 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 political objective of the assassination was to break off Austria-Hungary's South Slav provinces so they could be combined into a Yugoslavia. The assassins' motives were consistent with the
Hungary in World War I to defend. Hungary in World War I At the outbreak of World War I, Hungary was part of the dualist monarchy, Austria-Hungary. Although there are no significant battles specifically connected to Hungarian regiments, the troops suffered high losses throughout the war. In 1914, Austria-Hungary was one of the great powers of Europe, with an area of 676,443 km² and a population of 52 million, of which Hungary had 325,400 km² with population of 21 million. On June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. Before entering the war, only the prime minister Count István Tisza hesitated, unconvinced