Part 8/9:
Perhaps the most astonishing aspect of this assassination was that it achieved the opposite of Princip and his co-conspirators' intentions. Unknown to them, Franz Ferdinand possessed a vision that could have prevented the conflict that would soon engulf Europe. He opposed war with Russia and had proposed reforms that might have included ethnic representation for Slavic peoples within the empire.
By killing Ferdinand, Princip ultimately contributed to the very war that he intended to prevent. The Austro-Hungarian government used the assassination as a pretext to invade Serbia, igniting a conflict that involved numerous global powers and set the stage for a devastating war.