The Man Who Started Both World Wars

Written by Lauren Ko

We all know about World Wars I and II, but did you know that it was all caused by one guy? Our culprit is Gavrilo Princip; let’s start with how he started the First World War. 

(“Gavrilo Princip” -Breanna Miller)

Gavrilo Princip was born in Bosnia. As a teenager, he was trained in terrorism by the Black Hand, a secret Serbian society focused on terrorism. In 1914, Princip was 20 when he assassinated the Archduke of Austria-Hungary and his wife. By doing this, he wanted to free the countries of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This assassination itself was very ironic. When Princip and his associates first learned that Archduke Franz Ferdinand was coming to town, they planned to throw a bomb into his open-roof carriage. But they missed, and the bomb exploded under the carriage carrying the military officers. The bomb injured two army officials and some onlookers, but the Archduke and his wife were unharmed. Even though someone had just tried to kill him, the Archduke decided to keep going to his planned destination anyway. But the driver of this car made a wrong turn onto the street where Gavrilo Princip was standing. The cars attempted to escape, but Princip shot the Archduke and his wife with a shotgun. They both died within minutes. This inciting event is considered what caused World War I.

He died from tuberculosis in 1918, 21 years before World War II. Although he didn’t start World War II directly; many consider the cause of World War II to be World War I. After World War I ended the losing countries had been forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles. Germany had the most repercussions from the war. They were forced to pay a lot of money, reduce their military and they lost a lot of land. This caused Germany to fall into economic debt and so when Hitler planned to conquer new lands for more natural resources, Germany believed in him. So he didn’t purposefully cause World War II, but who knows what would’ve happened if never assassinated the Archduke. 

Bibliography:

• “Gavrilo Princip”, Wikipedia, Last Edited December 1st 2025. Accessed December 11th 2025.

• Greenspan, Jesse. “The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand”, History.com, Last Edited January 31st 2025. Accessed December 11th 2025.

• “Gavrilo Princip | Shooting Franz Ferdinand, Black Hand, & Nationality”, Britannica, Published August 28th 2025. Accessed December 11th 2025.