79 | History’s Deadliest Gunshot: Gavrilo Princip and the Sarajevo Assassination That Sparked WW1

In Sarajevo on 28 June 1914, a young Bosnian student named Gavrilo Princip fired a shot which would become the deadliest in history. With the help of co-conspirators from underground nationalist group Young Bosnia, he assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie during their imperial visit to the capital. Their deaths set off a domino effect of ultimatums, alliances, and mobilisations across Europe, and within weeks, the continent was engulfed in World War I (The Great War), a conflict that ultimately claimed millions of lives. Was Princip a terrorist, a freedom fighter, or simply a desperate youth caught in history’s tide? This episode explores the life, motives, and legacy of the 19-year-old whose pistol transformed Bosnia’s struggle into a global war. Few individuals have altered the course of history so suddenly, or so tragically. Subscribe to my YouTube channel for video versions of the podcast:📺 youtube.com/@prashsmurdermap💡 Support me on Patreon to get ad-free audio episodeshttps://www.patreon.com/prashsmurdermap💰 One-off contributions☕ Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/prashsmurdermap💵 PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/prashsmurdermap🎧 Listen to my new podcast Curious BritainExplore the mysteries, folklore, and forgotten stories of Britain. Listen now: https://linktr.ee/curiousbritainpodcast🙏 Thank You!Your support means the world to me and helps keep Prash’s Murder Map alive. I truly appreciate it!Sources:Dedijer, Vladimir. The Road to Sarajevo. London: MacGibbon & Kee, 1966.Butcher, Tim. The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War. London: Chatto & Windus, 2014.Feuerlicht, Roberta Strauss. The Desperate Act: The Assassination of Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo. London: McGraw-Hill, 1968.Additional references:Aichelburg, Wladimir. Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand und Artstetten. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Staatsdruckerei, 1986.Woolf, Alex. Assassination in Sarajevo. Oxford: Heinemann, 2002.Ullman, Harlan. A Handful of Bullets: How the Murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand Still Menaces the Peace. New York: Potomac Books, 2014.Liulevicius, Vejas Gabriel. World War I: The “Great War”Culpin, Christopher. Making History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996