The shot that turned the world upside down.Today is a special day, a day to remember history and the

The shot that turned the world upside down.Today is a special day, a day to remember history and the events that led to our lives in the modern era.  Most people don’t know it but on this day 98 years ago the Archduke of the Austro Hungarian Empire was assassinated by Serbian freedom fighter Givrilo Princip.  Why is this important to us today? Well it is quite possibly one of the most important events in world history, and would change the course of mankind in ways that few people could predict and fewer still can comprehend.In 1914 the Austro-Hungarian Empire was in quite a pickle.  A new wave of nationalism was spreading throughout the world and long time subjects were demanding their independence from ancient empires.  Much of this nationalistic fervor was centered in Serajevo, Capitol of Bosnia.  One of these Bosnian patriots was Gavrilo (or Gabrillo) Princip, a man who was slowly dying of tuberculosis and wanted to use what remained of his life to serve his homeland.With the help of the Serbian government, a nemesis of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Princip created a group of assassins called the black hand.  On June 28th 1914 Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and heir to the imperial throne was visiting Serajevo in a gesture of goodwill and to calm his subjects.  The Black Hand immediatly seized upon this opportunity to strike at the empire.Princip placed his men on the street that the Archduke’s motorcade planned to travel.  Its important to note that the men of the Black Hand were not crack assassins, and their incompetence would shine on this day.  The Archdukes car passed the first assassin, who failed to act in time.  The second assassin again failed to act.  The third assassin threw a bomb but completely missed the Archdukes car, injuring twenty but leaving Ferdinand unharmed.  The third assassin, Nedeljelko Čabrinović swallowed a spoiled cyanide pill that failed to kill him.  He also tried to drown himself in Miljacka river, which was less than a foot high at the time.Gavrillo Princip, sensing failure, beat a hasty retreat.  Archduke Ferdinand and his wife immediatly drove to a local hospital to visit the wounded in the attack.  After the visit security decided to hightail it out of Serajevo, using an unpredictable route through backstreets and alleys.  Princip went to a delicatessen and ordered a sandwich, mulling his incredible failure.  Upon exiting the restaurant he was greeted by Archduke Ferdinands car, stalled out right at Princips feet.  Princip immediatly drew his .380 FN Auto Pistol and shot the Archduke and his wife dead.The Austro-Hungarian Empire would blame Serbia for the assassination, and immediatly declare war.  Russia would come to the aid of Serbia and delcare war on Austria-Hungary.  Austria-Hungary would was allies with Germany, so Germany declared war on Russia.  Soon Britain, France, Italy, and the Ottoman Empire would enter the fray.  By the end of summer, World War I was on.World War I would cost the lives of over 15 million people.  A whole generation of young men would culled, decimated, wounded, and left traumatized.  Many people would be left disillusioned by the war seeing it as a bloody tiff between ancient European powers rather than a fight for freedom or glory.  Old nations would fall and new nations would rise.  Imperial Russia would become the Soviet Union, ushering in the era of communism and later the Cold War.  The Ottoman Empire would collapse forming modern day Arab states, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire would dissolve forming the modern day states of the Balkans and Eastern Europe.  The United States would enter the realm of world politics, sounding the beginning of American superpower status.Most importantly the German Empire, then one of the most powerful nations in the world, would be reduced to a pitiful and chaotic republic.  A corporal in the German Army, Adolf Hitler, would be inspired to gain revenge for Germany and restore it to its former glory.  This would created a whole new shitstorm that would be played out a generation later. Gavrillo Princip would die of Tuberculosis in 1918. -- source link
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