{"id":1028,"date":"2017-06-21T07:27:09","date_gmt":"2017-06-21T07:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/?p=1028"},"modified":"2026-04-23T09:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T09:16:13","slug":"gavrilo-princip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/gavrilo-princip\/","title":{"rendered":"Gavrilo Princip: A Detailed Biography"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Gavrilo Princip was the person who\u00a0assassinated Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand<\/a>\u00a0in June of 1914, which sparked the start of\u00a0World War I<\/a>.\u00a0 Princip was a member of the\u00a0Black Hand<\/a>, which was a secret society that carried out the plans for the assassination of Ferdinand<\/a>.\u00a0 The events of the assassination had a profound impact on Europe in the early 20th century and plunged the continent into war.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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GAVRILO PRINCIP’S EARLY LIFE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Gavrilo Princip was born on July 25th, 1904 in Bosnia and Herzegovina.  Gavrilo\u2019s family was Serb and Orthodox Christians.  In fact, Gavrilo was named after Archangel Gabriel at the suggestion of a local priest.  His parents, Petar and Marija, were poor farmers and struggled to make ends meet.  Regardless, Gavrilo was sent to school at the age of nine and performed well.  Further, when he was thirteen, Gavrilo went to the city of Sarajevo to live with his older brother Jovan.  While in Sarajevo, Gavrilo studied business.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His time in Sarajevo proved to be incredibly important to his political thought.\u00a0 For instance, while there Gavrilo began following prominent Serb nationalists.\u00a0 An example of this is when, in 1911, he joined a secret organization called Young Bosnia.\u00a0 As an organization it was focused on liberating Bosnia from Austria-Hungary.\u00a0 At the time Bosnia was under the control of the Austro-Hungarian Empire following the events of the\u00a0Bosnian Crisis of 1908.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In general, the Bosnian Crisis<\/a> involved the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary.\u00a0 This means that Austria took control over the two territories.\u00a0 Previously they had been controlled by the Ottoman Empire<\/a> but by this time the Ottoman Empire was in decline and losing its authority in the region.\u00a0Austria\u2019s annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina created a crisis not only with the leadership of the Ottoman Empire, but also with other surrounding European nations including Italy, Russia, and Serbia.\u00a0 In fact, Serbian nationalists resented the Austro-Hungarian takeover of Bosnia and Herzegovina.\u00a0 This created lingering anger people of the Balkans, who wanted to unify and liberate Slavic people in the Balkans.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bosnian
The Bosnian Crisis of 1908 set the stage for the events of the First Balkan War in 1912 and the outbreak of World War I in 1914.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Bosnia Crisis of 1908, along with other related issues in the Balkans caused Princip to eventually join the Black Hand. The\u00a0Black Hand<\/a>\u00a0(which was also known as \u2018Unification or Death\u2019) was a Serbian nationalist organization that existed in the early part of the 20th century. It was a secret society that worked to promote Serbian nationalism.\u00a0 One of the most significant events associated with the Black Hand (and Gavrilo Princip) was the 1914 assassination of Franz Ferdinand.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Black
Members of the Black Hand – a Serbian nationalist organization that existed in the early part of the 20th century. (Colorized by historycrunch.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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ASSASSINATION OF FRANZ FERDINAND<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Franz Ferdinand<\/a>\u00a0was the Archduke of Austria-Hungary and next in line to rule over the empire. Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were assassinated on June 28th, 1914 in Sarajevo, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia and Herzegovina while there on a visit to inspect the military forces.\u00a0 The assassin was Gavrilo Princip.\u00a0 Just nineteen years old at the time, Princip was a member of the Black Hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon first arriving in Sarajevo, Franz and Sophie made their way through the city in a motorcade.  Members of the Black Hand had pre-planned their assassination of the archduke in anticipation of his visit to Sarajevo.  As the archduke\u2019s motorcade made its trip a member of the Black Hand attempted to assassinate the couple with a bomb that was thrown at the couple\u2019s car.  The bomb missed Franz and Sophie and injured members of the car behind them when it exploded.  After a short rest at the Governor\u2019s house in Sarajevo, Franz decided to visit the people injured by the earlier bombing by going to the hospital.  The drivers of the motorcade were not made aware of the change in plans and as a result the drivers took the wrong route.  By the time the error had been discovered the drivers had to turn around and began to slowly back up down a street in the center of Sarajevo.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By coincidence, Gavrilo Princip was on the street at that time and noticing his opportunity he approached the cars and fatally shot both Franz and Sophie with his pistol.  Franz and Sophie were dead and the members of the Black Hand that carried out the attack were rounded up and arrested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Assassination
The assassination of Franz Ferdinand artwork by Achille Beltrame from an Italian newspaper. It shows Gavrilo Princip killing Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo. (1914)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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GAVRILO PRINCIP’S LATER LIFE AND DEATH<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While he was being arrested for the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, Princip tried to shoot himself, but ultimately failed.  Shortly after, he was quickly put on trial and sentenced to twenty years in prison.  His time in prison was difficult, and he suffered extremely poor treatment.  For instance, he struggled with malnutrition and tuberculosis while in prison.  He died on April 28th in 1918.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Princip left a considerable legacy following his death.\u00a0 His actions (along with those of the Black Hand) sparked the events of\u00a0World War I<\/a>, which lasted for four bloody years.\u00a0 Some Serbs today celebrate him as a hero for his people, while others consider him a terrorist who plunged Europe into a devastating conflict.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Gavrilo
The trial of Gavrilo Princip following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Princip is seated in the middle of the photo. (Colorized by historycrunch.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gavrilo Princip assassinated Franz Ferdinand in June of 1914. This act plunged the world into the events of World War I, which lasted from 1914 until 1918.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":30,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,100],"tags":[18,15,20],"class_list":["post-1028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-war-i","category-biography","tag-biography","tag-history","tag-world-war-i"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1028"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10352,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028\/revisions\/10352"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}