A hundred years ago today, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot dead

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Intelligent Life @intlifemag

A hundred years ago today, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot dead on this spot http://bit.ly/1lvztW5

World War One anniversary: what if Archduke Franz Ferdinand had lived?

Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated 100 years ago on Saturday - an event that triggered the First World War. But would conflict have occurred if he had lived, asks Tim Stanley


It was like something from a film - what started as a farce ended as a tragedy. When Archduke Franz Ferdinand arrived in Sarajevo on June 28 1914, someone threw a bomb at him but it missed.

Gavrilo Princip was meant to shoot him there and then but couldn’t get a clear shot. So he went to sulk in a café instead.

It was only when Ferdinand’s car later went down the same street by the same café and got stuck in the road - that Princip took his chance and shot the Archduke dead.

But what if Princip had missed? Would 16 million people have survived instead of perishing in the trenches in the Great War? Historian and columnist Dr Tim Stanley explores some of the possibilities.

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Video: World War One anniversary: what if Archduke Franz Ferdinand had lived? - Telegraph

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/28/opinion/if-franz-ferdinand-had-lived.html

 

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I imagine a war would have happened eventually one way or another. Europe was primed for it. If not this it would have been something else but it could have been a very different war. Killing Franz Ferdinand was a strange move. He was as close as it came to a friend or a progressive in the monarchy for Serbia. Given what happened I wonder if Princip regretted doing it. He lived another two years so he saw what it did but didn't live to see the final outcome.

 

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Sarajevo marks 100 years since Archduke Franz Ferdinand shooting, an event which led to Germany starting WWI

BBC News - Sarajevo marks 100 years since Archduke Franz Ferdinand shooting