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
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