CRIME: The Murder That Started World War I: Franz Ferdinand

What you'll learn

• 1 (00:36) **The Assassination Scene in Sarajevo** - Gavrilo Princip, a 19-year-old nationalist, stands on a street corner feeling like a failure after an earlier assassination attempt failed, but his target's car makes a wrong turn and stalls right in front of him.
• 2 (05:15) **The Root Cause: The Annexation of Bosnia** - The episode explains the political backdrop, starting with Austria-Hungary's 1908 annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which enraged the Serb population living there.
• 3 (07:03) **The Rise of Young Bosnia and the Black Hand** - After Serbia grew stronger through the Balkan Wars, a movement of revolutionary students called Young Bosnia emerged, believing one dramatic act of violence could crack the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
• 4 (10:29) **Picking the Target: Franz Ferdinand** - The plotters learned that Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, would visit Sarajevo in June 1914, giving them a specific target, date, and location.
• 5 (12:24) **The Man and His Wife: Franz Ferdinand and Sophie** - The episode profiles Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, whose morganatic marriage was harshly treated by the Austrian court, forcing them to endure public humiliations.
• 6 (14:38) **The Plot Takes Shape: Arming the Assassins** - The Black Hand armed three of the plotters, including Princip, with semi-automatic pistols, hand grenades, and cyanide pills, training them to shoot in a park outside Belgrade.
• 7 (16:36) **The Final Seven and the Planned Route** - The local organizer in Sarajevo, Daniel Elich, recruited three more young men, bringing the group to seven conspirators: six who would take positions along the street and Elich who would move among them.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app