On Saint Vitus Day, 1389, an army led by two Serbian nobleman met with invading Ottoman forces on the fields of Kosovo. Both armies were almost completely destroyed but in the end the Ottomans overtook the Serbs and the Kingdom of Serbia fell into Ottoman hands. Serbian nationalism is the belief that all serbs are part of a nation, regardless of religious beliefs or geographic location. Many Serbs point to the Battle of Kosovo on Saint Vitus Day as the birthing ground of serbian nationalists. However it wasn’t till the early 1800’s with a general rise of nationalism in the Balkans that serbian nationalism was really able to come to fruition. Vuk Stefanović Karadžićwas a Serbian linguist that set the linguistic definitions for a unifying Serbian language, because of this he is often considered as the father Serbian nationalism. In 1804 the Serbs started a backlash against the ottoman empire that eventually led to the creation of the independent state of Serbia in 1878. After this both Serbian nationalists and government believed that they still had people in Habsburg being occupied by The Austro-Hungarian Empire. This led to rising Tensions between the two states toward the end of the 19th century. On June 28th, 1914, a young Serbian nationalist named Gavrilo Princip attempted the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the next heir to the Austrian throne. Princip and his co-conspirators were awaiting the Archduke and his wife when they arrived in Sarajevo. The plan was to throw a hand grenade into Ferdinand’s vehicle. The attempt was unsuccessful and only ended up injuring passengers in the car behind the Archduke’s. The young Serbs scattered, some were picked up by the authorities but Gavrilo Princip made it out unscathed. The archduke was not intimidated by the attempt on his life and decided to continue to the event he had planned in the city later that day. First he insisted on going to see the men who were injured in the bombing. His driver however, made a wrong turn and drove directly past Gavrilo who was standing on the street near a café. On realizing his mistake the driver started to reverse down the street and, seizing his opportunity, Princip fired to rounds from his pistol into the car at point blank range. The shots killed both Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wifeDuchess Sophie Chotek. As tensions were already high these murders were the final push of the domino that lead rapidly into the assent of World War 1.
Gavrilo Princip, the young Serb responsible for the death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand