Analysis Of The Assassination Of Franz Ferdinand

With the deepest and most profound regret we record today the tragic news of the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Heir-Presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian Throne, and of his wife, the Duchess of Hohenberg. The Archduke, in his capacity as Inspector-General of the Forces of the Empire, had been attending military manoeuvres in the province of Bosnia.

While he was passing yesterday, with the Duchess, through the streets of Sarajevo, a bomb was thrown at his motor-car by a printer from the town of Trebinje. It is said that the Archduke warded off the bomb with his arm. At any rate the attempt failed, though others were injured.

The Archduke held a reception at the Town Hall, and afterwards was continuing his progress through

Only yesterday morning Francis Joseph left Vienna for his summer holiday amid the acclamations of his adoring subjects. He reached surrounded by similar scenes of enthusiasm, but must have learned very soon afterwards that the hand of an assassin had left him desolate.

As a Monarch the Emperor Francis Joseph has been more than usually fortunate. He has safely brought his Empire through serious reverses, has triumphed over many internal difficulties, and in his declining years has enjoyed the unbounded affection of his people. Yet, his public successes have always been overshadowed by his private sadness. The death of his brother Maximilian in Mexico, the tragedy of the Crown Prince Rudolf, the crowning blow of the assassination of the Empress Elizabeth, and now this last dreadful occurrence, make a story of woe for which history furnishes few parallels. Ferdinand and Sophie leave the town hall with the intention of visiting victims of the bomb attack in hospital

The sympathy of the entire world will go forth to the bereaved

In more recent years he was chiefly conspicuous for his pronounced Clerical sympathies, which sometimes led him into statements and acts which did not strengthen the alliance with Italy. An illustration depicting the assassination which appeared in an Italian newspaper, La Domenica del Corriere, on July 5, 1914. It was drawn by Achille Beltrame

He was always hostile to the Magyars, and there was no secret about his association with the so-called policy of Trialism, which aims ostensibly at adding to the Dual Monarchy a third great Slav State. Yet there were limitations to the Archduke’s leanings towards the Southern. He had a good deal to do with the capture of Bosnia and the Herzegovina in 1908, and could he have had his way the change would have been made earlier. One of the assassins, thought to be Gavrilo Princip, right, is captured by police after shooting Ferdinand and Sophie in their car

From his meeting with the German Emperor at Eckartsau in 1909 dates the forward naval policy of which he was he chief promoter, with results which have already had their effect upon the navies of other Powers. Had he come to the Throne, it is thought that his general t tendencies would have been on the whole reactionary, and that he would have worked for some change in the Dual system which would have counterbalanced the influence of