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
Serbian historiography a Macedonian nation was nonexistent and that local Slavs were either Serbian or Bulgarian. The assassin Gavrilo Princip who in Sarajevo (1914) killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand is viewed by Serbian historians as a Serbian hero. A majority of Serbian historians view Austria-Hungary and Germany (Central Powers) as instigating the First World War while the actions of "Mlada Bosna" are presented as being autonomous and not dependent on Serbian government circles. The role of the Russian Empire and the position it took on the eve of war is portrayed favorably within Serbian historiography. Some Serbian historians are of the view that