Gavrilo Princip: The Teenager Who Started World War I

this video is sponsored by war thunder play war thunder for free and get a premium aircraft tank or ship and a three-day account upgrade as a bonus available on pc ps4 and xbox one more on them in a bit he's likely the single most successful assassin in history when 19 year old gavrilo princip fired two shots in sarajevo on june 28 1914 killing the heir to the austrian throne he set in motion events that would change the course of history a south slavic nationalist princip's actions would not only result in the creation of a south slav state yugoslavia but in the fall of empires and the outbreak of world war one forget other assassins like john wilkes booth or lee harvey oswald compared to gavrilo princip those guys were amateurs yet how much do most of us actually know about the teenager who started world war one born to a poor peasant family in the desolate mountains of western bosnia princip seemed destined to leave no mark on history sickly small physically weak his life was a world away from that of the imposing wealthy powerful man that he killed yet it would be the unlikely meeting of these two figures that decided europe's destiny unknown in life obscure in death this is the tale of gavrilo princip the assassin who changed the world [Music] it was the summer of 1894 when gavrilo princip was born into a world of utter desolation his parents home village of obelia was little more than a hamlet clinging to the side of an unforgiving mountain this was remotest bosnia a place of stony ground wild rivers and bitter nighttime frosts a place so far from human civilization that locals knew it as vokoyabina which translates as the place where wolves go to it was also a place of biting poverty the princips lived in a small house with a dirt floor upon which maria princip gave birth to nine children but only three survived the boy's father peter was a part-time mailman and full-time peasant working back-breaking hours under a feudal system that forced him to give his crops away to remote landlords so scant were signs of civilization in this empty land that we don't even know gavrilo princip's date of birth the municipal authorities recorded it as june 13 1894 while the local authorities entered it as the month of july it's actually something of a miracle that they bothered to register it at all princip was born so weak that his father supposedly wrote him off it was only when a local orthodox priest suggested that they named the child after the archangel gabriel that the boy's survival became assured whether that's true or not it does lead us nicely to a core part of princip's background like their entire village the princips were from the orthodox faith in bosnia's kaleidoscope of ethnicities that meant they were bosnian serbs as opposed to catholic bosnian croats or muslim bosniaks and just to confuse you a little bit more prince it being bosnian serb was a whole different deal than him being purely serbian by 1894 the serbs already had their own independent kingdom the bosnian serbs or many of the bosnians for that matter they didn't it would be this fact more than any other that would turn young princip from a peasant son into a violent radical [Music] okay so now we've established gavrilo princip's background we need to wind back the clock a little bit just enough to understand the political tensions in play in bosnia the twisted path that led to an independent serbia and a very not independent bosnia began back in the 14th century on june 28 1389 the expansionist superpower of its day the ottoman empire defeated the medieval serbs at the battle of kosovo opening up the balkans for conquest and conquer they did the ottomans would eventually conquer all the way to vienna before running out of steam sadly for constantinople all that mega conquering sent them running smack into the other superpower of the day the habsburgs rulers of austria and long-time emperors of the holy roman empire the habsburgs were the ottomans worst nightmare hardcore catholics who loved a good old-fashioned war over the next few centuries southeast europe became an eternal battleground as the habsburgs slowly pushed the ottomans back for serbs still smarting over their 1389 defeat at kosovo this was all like well yay go austria but while the habsburgs spent centuries supporting anti-ottoman serbs it wasn't because they were good neighbors in the 19th century the ottoman empire became known as the sick man of europe a state so weak the serbs were able to gain de facto independence though bosnia continued to smart under turkish rule this change of fortunes hit its peak in 1877. that year serbia and imperial russia joined forces to give the ottomans a gigantic kick up the backside this effectively ended their grip on the balkans it was party time in belgrade with the turks out serbia could get started with its plan to build a pan-south slavic state one including bosnia it was at this point the habsburgs made their change from allies to well total dicks at the congress of berlin they took bosnia for themselves for the serbs this was a little like opening the front door expecting a good friend only for that friend to immediately seduce your mother belgrade was outraged they hadn't just fought a devastating war to see the austro-hungarians snatch bosnia but what could tiny serbia really do to stop them in august 1878 austrian troops marched into bosnia although the region remained a du jour part of the ottoman empire in reality it became an austrian colony on one hand this meant staff-like improved roads the first railways and trams and electric lighting for sarajevo on the other hand it meant merely swapping one distant overlord for another the smoldering resentment that this entailed would turn bosnia into a powder keg when it finally exploded it would bring the austro-hungarian empire crashing down back in the desolate mountains of wolf sex land young gavrilo princip was having an utterly average childhood he helped his parents work the barren land in his spare time he fished for trout in the cold mountain streams but there was one respect in which princip's early years were very far from average the boy utterly excelled at school in a time and place where illiteracy levels stood at a staggering 88 percent princip taught himself not just to read but to read books that would make war and peace look like clifford the big red dog in doing so he discovered a whole other world in the cities the early 20th century was a time of great and frantic change there was automation electricity the earliest twinklings of mass production a world of speed energy transformation as princip read about this boys from the nearby villages were already heading to sarajevo his older brother yovo among them it was inevitable that the younger boy would follow him in 1907 aged 13 princip and his father set out to walk the 200 odd kilometers to sarajevo peter hadn't wanted the boy to go insisting that the family couldn't afford it but then jovo by now a successful small-time timber merchant had offered to pay principal schooling fees and the deal had been sealed a few weeks later princip was amid the bustle and energy of sarajevo ready to start a new life it was sheer coincidence that he arrived just as the mother of all crises erupted while princip had been learning to read relations between austria-hungary and serbia had been worsening in 1903 a group of hardline nationalists had murdered serbia's king and brought peter karodyevich to power karadjevich had severed serbia's remaining ties with austria and started cozying up to vienna's rival russia but while this had strained things between the two states the big break came in 1908 that october the habsburgs straight up annexed bosnia although austria had de facto ruled bosnia for 30 years making it de jour nearly sent europe to war serbia was furious in belgrade the move was seen as the first step towards an austrian takeover in the end the crisis was resolved when germany gave austria its unconditional backing the only powers capable of taking on berlin france and britain didn't care enough about bosnia to start a war while the one power that did care russia was far too weak to tangle with germany so the crisis passed at least on the world stage but on the ground in serbia and bosnia it became a catalyst in the wake of the annexation the first shoots of bosnian nationalism began to emerge people who'd never considered the question before became champions of an independent bosnia as this wave of revolutionary anger swept through the coffeehouses and taverns through the bazaars and schools gavrilo princip found himself getting swept up too the boy began to devour anarchist literature a radical move at a time when anarchists were assassinating kings presidents and empresses he fell in love with two like-minded bosnian serbs nedeko cabrinovic and trifco grabez together the three joint protests daubed andy habsburg graffiti on walls finally in 1910 the new nationalist movement got its first martyr on june 15th bosnian serb bog dan zariach fired five shots at bosnia's military governor on a bridge near princip's home all five shots missed and zerich used the sixth bullet to commit suicide when princip rushed outside to see the commotion he saw the stone still stained with zariach's blood it was a gory sight but it was something else to the teenage princip too it was a major inspiration now just before we get into what he does with that inspiration you already know but we're gonna tell the story let me tell you about today's fantastic sponsor war thunder war thunder is a realistic free to play military vehicle combat game it's available on pc ps4 and xbox one but you only need one of those no need to purchase as well just download and you get to playing in this game there are over 1 500 historically accurate vehicles all the way from 1920 to the 1990s they're all carefully built incredibly detailed and you can see that all of the physics has really been sweated over it's really very good plus the sound is good too and look you can just jump in for a quick arcade game useful if you don't have much time or you can play realistic and go for the more challenging stuff or if you're a bit hardcore there's always simulator but you know no idea how that is because i don't like getting my ass whipped over and over again so join us on the battlefield today there is a link below doing that supports the show and it also gets you a free premium tank ship or aircraft and three days of premium time as a bonus for registering and let's get back to the video [Music] come 1911 the general feeling of revolution had started to coalesce into specific groups in serbia proper the black hand cropped up as a pet project of one of the 1903 regicides and current head of serbian intelligence a man known as apis over in bosnia the key group was mlada bosna or young bosnia possibly created with help from the black hand mlada bosnia's goal was to free bosnia from the habsburgs and join it in union with serbia naturally this appealed hugely to bosnian serbs like princip by now princip had almost given up on school his entire mind all his energies were devoted to mourning the plight of serbia and building his hatred towards austria in today's terms we'd say that it became radicalized princip finally broke from regular life in 1912. that year he was kicked out of school for attending an anti-habsburg rally and some versions after threatening pro-imperial classmates with knuckle dusters angry and directionless princip wanted to leave sarajevo behind to go to serbia and help fight the good fight he was about to get his chance in october 1912 the first balkan war erupted hitting the kingdoms of serbia bulgaria greece and montenegro against the decaying ottoman state it was the best chance yet to kick the turks out of the balkans for good like a radicalized teen going to syria princip dropped everything and walked the kilometers to serbia to volunteer supposedly the first thing he did upon crossing the border was to fall to his knees and kiss the serbian soil if that tale is true that it must have made what came next seem all the worse belgrade in the winter of 1912 was awash with officers trying to recruit more troops but when principe easily tried to join up his tiny frame and sickly complexion got him literally laughed out of recruitment centers and so it was that cavrillo princip missed his great chance to be a part of the story of serbia what happened next is hazy because not much documentation exists and historians have wildly different theories but it's generally agreed that princip stayed on in belgrade joined once again by his radicalized friends cabrinovic and grabbers in some versions princip was forced to sleep rough in doorways in others he was the one supporting the others via small stipends from his parents yet they still had enough money to submerge themselves in the radical coffeehouse scene a scene where bosnian serbs met to plot revolution there the three boys soon came to the attention of belgrade's ultra-nationalist groups how exactly this happened is up for debate of the two recent best english language books on the subject tim butchers the trigger and christopher clark's the sleepwalkers butcher's book claims princip self-radicalized while clark's book says that he was groomed by the black hand either way as 1913 went on princep's thoughts turned more and more towards violent action in no time at all those thoughts would stop being mere thoughts and become a terrifying reality [Music] by may the first balkan war was going so well for serbia that austria started to panic in bosnia the military governor declared a state of emergency closed serb institutions suspended the courts and shut the bosnian parliament up in austria proper the army chief of staff von hodsendorf started stomping around and demanding an invasion of serbia ironically the man who stopped this was princip's future victim archduke franz ferdinand ferdinand was the biggest dove at the viennese court the lone voice agitating against starting a major war in the balkans come summer 1913 the ottomans had been all but driven out of the balkans and serbian territory majorly expanded for princip and his mates this was all the evidence they needed that the impossible would soon happen that the peninsula would soon be free of imperial powers that winter princip stayed with his parents in chile oblie but when he returned to belgrade in march it was to news that hit him like a haymaker to the groin all over the serbian capital headlines blared from newspapers franz ferdinand was going to visit sarajevo that summer his chosen date june 28th as you may recall june 28th was the battle of kosovo a date so emotionally charged for serbs it's almost like combining july the 4th with 9 11. now imagine that you heard that 9 11 7 4 was going to be marked by a genetic cross breed of osama bin laden and king george iii stomping around new york declaring jihad and trying to tax people without representation there that's how bosnian serbs felt about franz ferdinand's visit to sarajevo all that spring rumors swirled that ferdinand's visit was meant to cover up a surprise austrian attack on serbia as the rumors intensified gavrilo princip made an important decision he decided to kill the archduke or did he in his magisterial book the sleepwalkers christopher clark suggests that the plot didn't originate with princip but with apis the shadowy head of serbian intelligence in this telling apis knew that dovish ferdinand wanted to make peace with his balkan subjects maybe even elevating them to co-equals in his empire since this would destroy belgrade's hopes of an independent bosnia apus directed the black hand to recruit an assassin and the black hands they chose princip that spring princip cabrinovich and grabez practiced target shooting in belgrade by now the serbian capital was frothing with outrage at the archduke newspapers called him a dog and his wife a filthy bohemian it was amid this climate of hatred that six small bombs and four revolvers went missing from the serbian state arsenal on may 27th they were past a guerrilla princip four nights later the black hands underground railway smuggled princip and his friends across the bosnian border a network of bosnian serbs helped all three conspirators reach sarajevo where they hooked up with a local cell from lada bosnia as june dawned in the capital princip spent his nights at the grave of bogdanzeriads meditating on what needed to be done only a few short kilometers away franz ferdinand and his wife sophie were staying at a bosnian retreat unaware of princip's plans in perhaps the creepiest moment of this entire tale they made a clandestine trip to sarajevo on june 25th to wander around the bazaar unknown to them princip just happened to be there the teenage boy trailed them like a shadow studying their every move it was the first time princip had ever seen the austrian air close up sadly for europe it was not going to be the last the morning of the assassination crowds thronged alongside sarajevo's miyaka river waiting for a glimpse of the royal couple princip and his co-conspirators spaced themselves out along the route each carried a weapon a bomb or a loaded revolver they also carried small packets of cyanide this was to be a one-way trip the chance to become martyrs like bodans iriads the day before had been rainy and cool with poor visibility but as princip took up his position that morning it was under a bright sun it's possible princip wondered where all the guards were state visits were usually accompanied by a show of military might but today there was no security finally in the distance the boy spotted his target despite being the assassin everyone remembers princip wasn't actually the first in line that honour fell to a young bosniak who froze unable to fire his revolver second came princip's radical friend cabrinibits unlike the bosniak cabrinovic primed his bomb and threw it in ferdinand's car but the driver saw it and sped up and the bomb exploded beneath the car behind them in a grimly humorous moment cabrinovic swallowed his cyanide and tried to hurl himself and miliaka but the poison was so weak that it only scorched his throat and the river was so low he simply went crashing into the bank at this stage the assassination was closer to mr bean than a terrorist attack by rights friends ferdinand should have fled the city instead ferdinand who'd stopped his car to tend to the wounded saw cabrinovets being arrested and uttered these fateful words that fellow is clearly insane let us proceed meanwhile carrilo prince it but heard the bomb go off heard the screams and assumed the assassination had succeeded he was running towards the commotion feeling of triumph already washing over him when he saw the archduke go sailing past in his car completely unharmed we can only imagine what princip thought in that moment but we're guessing it was the serbian equivalent of oh but it turned out that god was smiling on the teenager that day as princip loitered on the corner of friends joseph street and no the story about him stopping for a sandwich sadly isn't true archduke ferdinand was in sarajevo city hall demanding to be taken to see the wounded local officials tried to talk him out of it but ferdinand was adamant so it was decided that they would change the route just in case other assassins were lurking but no one thought to tell the driver and so it was that instead of carrying on along the river the car carrying ferdinand swung onto friends joseph street right next to cavrillo princip incredibly this wasn't the final thing they had to do wrong to seal ferdinand's fate princip was so astounded to see the car return that he wouldn't have had a chance in hell of getting a shot off if the driver just kept on driving but someone shouted hey you're going the wrong way so the driver stopped right there just meters from princip as princip later told it time seemed to slow down he tried to use his bomb but it got caught in his coat so instead he pulled out his revolver ran to the car and pointed it at the couple according to his testimony he locked eyes with the archduke security man who blinked stupidly then there was a crack followed by another sharp crack then the car was speeding away as a crowd fell on princip kicking him punching him trying to kill him in the middle of this melee princip tried to shoot himself only to feel the gun torn out of his hand he went for a cyanide but it was kicked away gavrilo princip was very nearly lynched that morning his life only saved when a policeman managed to arrest him at that moment princip still didn't know he'd been successful he still didn't know that one of his two bullets had passed through franz ferdinand's neck severing his artery he didn't know that the other had killed sophie leaving nothing of the royal couple shortly after 11am the heir to the austrian empire was pronounced dead as bells began ringing across sarajevo in mourning it's likely princip felt some satisfaction he'd done the deed the archduke was dead from now on nothing would ever be the same again [Music] whole books have been written about how this one assassination sparked one of the deadliest conflicts in human history the super basic version is that austria-hungary decided the serbian state had ordered the killing and invaded the balkan kingdom one by one this tripped the switch on a complex series of alliances each bringing some new ally into the fight until the entire continent was pulled into what should have been a minor war and well you know the rest the barbed wire the trenches the gas the millions upon millions dead by the time princip was put on trial on october the 17th the slaughter was already underway the trial of gavrilo princip is notable for two things one is that it gave him a chance to declare his motives unlike the popular image of princip as a serbian nationalist the young man said he was a south slavist dedicated to kicking the austrians out of the balkans so all south slavs could join into a single state the second is just how close princip came to getting the death penalty remember at the very start when we said no one knew if princip had been born on the 13th of june or the 13th of july 1894 well in austria the death penalty couldn't be applied to anyone under the age of 20 when they committed a crime if principal had been born on june 13th it hang if the real date was july 13th he'd only go to prison in the end the court accepted the later date princip had been 19 when he shot friends ferdinand executing him would have been against the law on october 28 1914 princip and his co-conspirators were found guilty while most of his compatriots would hang princip was given 20 years in terrazine fortress in modern day czech republic but don't go thinking he got off lightly the austrians wanted prince to suffer he was kept in isolation and ordered to go without food for one day every month by now princip was already showing signs of the tuberculosis eating awareness system no one doubted that the sickly young man would be dead before the end of his sentence but princip was dead even before the end of the war cavillo princip died on april 28 1918 aged just 23. less than seven months later in early november 1918 austria-hungary completely collapsed going the same way as both imperial russia and the ottoman empire by now around 20 million people had died as the war ended bosnia joined with serbia croatia slovenia and montenegro into a single state two years later princip's remains were returned to sarajevo where he was reburied as a hero but princip's reputation didn't stay settled for long during the post-war decades when princip's dream of a united south slav nation was an actual real thing called yugoslavia the teenage assassin was celebrated as an icon but then yugoslavia collapsed in the early 1990s and princip came to be seen as a dangerous serb nationalist a forerunner of monsters like ratcombe laddich in sarajevo the memorial to him was destroyed during the bosnian war by the time the dust settled on that gruesome conflict local views on princip mostly depended on ethnicity ironically for a pan-south slav nationalist today it's only the serbs who celebrate him the bosniaks and croats mostly regard him as a terrorist whatever your personal thoughts on princip though there's no doubting that he's a significant figure although we like to pretend otherwise there was nothing inevitable about world war one sure a european war was coming but it was where the continent's shifting alliances layered that precise moment that made it so big and so deadly pushed the trigger back a few years to when russia was weaker or forward a few years to when the dovish franz ferdinand would have been on the austrian throne and that war might have looked really really different sometimes history changes slowly sometimes it turns on great moments for gorilla princip the penniless teenage boy from a peasant background it was his destiny to stand at the heart of one of those great moments to be the axis around which the future briefly turned as he fired two shots that hot july day so many decades ago his moment in the spotlight of history may have only lasted a handful of seconds but it was more significant than the lives of kings and presidents who spend decades there for that reason if no other his short life deserves to be remembered so i do hope you found that video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below also please do consider supporting our fantastic sponsor war thunder there is a link to them below and thank you for watching

Channel: Biographics

Views: 720,931

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Keywords: biographics, biography, biographies, people, famous people, simon whistler

Id: w29TSiZ8uHA

Length: 25min 12sec (1512 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 11 2020