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We're now ready to talk about

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one of the most famous events

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in all of world history

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that really was the trigger for World War 1

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or the Great War as it was called back then.

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So this is a little bit of backdrop.

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In 1908, the austro-hungarian empire

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formally annexes

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Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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It had already been occupying it

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since the late 1800s,

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since the Ottomans were being pushed out,

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but in1908 it formally annexes it.

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As a little bit more backdrop:


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as the Ottomans were being pushed out of the Balkans,

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it helped to bring about more hope

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of unifying the Yugoslavic people;

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the "Southern Slavic" people.

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When people talk about Yugoslav,

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They are literally talking about the Southern Slavs.

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That literally means 'Southern'.

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So you had these nationalistic hopes.

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But now in 1908 it was already being occupied;

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a significant state

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that would be part of a potential future Yugoslav,

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was now formally annexed by the Austro-Hungarians.

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Now you also had an independent Kingdom of Serbia

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-right here- and you can imagine


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that this was the home base of the nationalistic movement:

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if only they could add the other Southern Slavic States to this,

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it could one day turn into a Greater Yugoslavia.

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So in that context we get to 1914.

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So let me draw a line here.

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We are getting to 1914, June 28,

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which is one of the most famous dates

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in all of history.

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Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie

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are visiting Sarajevo, which is now

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in annexed Bosnia.

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And when they're there,

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there is a scheme to assassinate them

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from a group called 'the young Bosnians'

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who have ties to 'the black hand',

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which is a kind of nationalistic group

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that has ties to

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- these things are all very shady -

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but it has has ties to

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elements in the Kingdom of Serbia.

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They attempt to assassinate

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archduke Franz Ferdinand.

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It is actually a fascinating story, because

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the initial assassination attempt

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is completely botched.

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There is one case of a guy

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who tried to be an assassin;

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when it gets botched, he tries

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to bite on a cyanide capsule

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and then jump into a river,

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but the cyanide capsule had gone bad

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the river was only 10 inches deep,

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so they were able to get their hands on him.

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One of the conspirators, Gavrilo Princip,

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once the whole thing was botched

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he gives up on the whole assassination attempt

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and he is literally having a sandwich at
a cafe in sarajevo

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thinking about how botched their whole attempt was,

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and while that was happening,

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a mistake on the part of those planning

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archduke Franz Ferdinand's route

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as he was traveling within Sarajevo

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has them driving right near Gavrilo Princip.

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So he sees suddenly that they've taken the wrong route

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and they are driving right by him again.

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Remember: these people already knew

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that there was an assassination attempt on him

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earlier in the day

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so they should have been more careful.

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Gavrilo Princip gets up, puts his sandwich down,

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and starts walking over to where he sees


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archduke Franz Ferdinand and Sophie's car going.

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The drivers once they realized that they had made a mistake,

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that they had taken a less safe route,

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they try to back up

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which makes things even worse

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because then the car starts stalling.

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Gavrilo Princip just walks up to the car

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and is able to shoot

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archduke Franz Ferdinand and Sophie.

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Just to give you a sense of how important this is:

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archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria is the heir,

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he is the nephew of Franz Joseph,

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who was the ruler of Austria-Hungary,

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and so he is the heir to the empire.

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And he gets assassinated by Gavrilo Princip.

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so... Franz Ferdinand Assassinated

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by Gavrilo Princip.

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And we have right over here

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a picture of right after Gavrilo Princip...

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- I believe this is him over here -

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right after he was arrested.

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Just to get a little sense of how this was tied

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to this whole Yugoslavian

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nationalistic movement,

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this is what he said once he was arrested:

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"I am a Yugoslav nationalist..."

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"...aiming for the unification of all Yugoslavs, ..."

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"...and I do not care what form of state..."

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"...but it must be free of Austria."

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So this act, this assassination,

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motivated by a nationalistic movement,

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motivated by a desire to maybe merge

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Bosnia-Herzegovina with Serbia

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maybe eventually Croatia with Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia,

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this assassination as we will see in the next video

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is the trigger for all of World War 1.

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And the reason why it triggers it is because...

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-- well there's many things you can cite;

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you could argue that many of the empires in Europe

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are already militarizing, already had a desire for conflict.

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But then you also had all of these alliances

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that essentially allowed the dominoes to fall

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in all of Europe

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and because they had these empires

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essentially much of the world

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to be at war with each other