Sarajevo

Sarajevo is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a nation which was formerly part of Yugoslavia.

Sarajevo was a city in Austria-Hungary in 1914. It was here that on 28 June that year, Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, setting off a chain of events which quickly developed into World War I.

Literary comment

The 1914 murders are referenced in numerous Harry Turtledove timelines with a Point of Divergence after that time. In Hitler's War, a similar murder begins an alternate version of World War II in 1938, and several characters draw this comparison.

Sarajevo in "Last Flight of the Swan of the East"

When Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Duchess Sophie were shot to death in Sarajevo in 1914, Austria-Hungary issued a number of ultimata against Serbia, which was supported by Russia. Austria-Hungary was in turn supported by the Empires of Germany and Japan. Russia invoked its alliance with France, who was in turn supported by the United States, and the Great War began.

Sarajevo in Southern Victory

It was in Sarajevo that the fuse which exploded into the Great War was lit in 1914. Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Duchess Sophie were killed by a bomb which was thrown into their automobile by a Serbian nationalist, leading Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia, thereby touching off a planet-spanning conflict between the Entente and the Central Powers.