Wednesday, March 26, 2014

100 Years Ago Today - the Seeds of World War I

If you remember from our last visit to the run up to World War I Mehmedbašić, the would-be assassin of Bosnian governor Oskar Potiorek, had been forced to throw his weapons from a Bosnia-Herzegovina-bound train window when police searched it for a thief. The search for replacements delayed Mehmedbašić's attempt on Potiorek and on March 26th, 1914, before he was ready to act, Mehmedbašić  was summoned to the city of Mostar. There separatist leader Danilo Ilić passed on the news that the Black Hand leaders in Belgrade had selected a new target. The new plan was to murder Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

The target would not change again, from this point forward the assassins had only one aim, to kill Ferdinand and it would be this mission that would ignite Europe.

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