The Archduke had announced the date of his visit well in advance. The assassination was a coordinated plan. He and his wife arrived in Sarajevo on that day after concluding a royal visit to Germany and a meeting with Kaiser Wilhelm II. Nonetheless, Franz Ferdinand chose that day to inspect Austrian troop maneuvers in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo. June 28 was a day of nationalist pride in Serbia, marking a Serbian military victory dating back to the 14th Century. (Along about this time, the Black Hand came under the umbrella of Serbia's chief of military intelligence, a man named Apis, who helped pave the way for the assassination to succeed.) Soon, the organizers expanded the plan to include the heir to the imperial throne, Franz Ferdinand. The annexation of Bosnia fuelled the Black Hand's anger, and a subgroup led by Danilo Ilic embarked on a plan to kill the governor of Bosnia, Oskar Potiorek. A group of Serbian secret military operatives calling themselves the Black Hand had formed just after the turn of the century, with the goal of promoting a united Slavic nation (perhaps called Greater Serbia), along the lines of a united Italy (formed in 1870) and a united Germany (formed in 1871). Tensions were fierce with neighboring Serbia, which had ambitions of its own (resulting in part in the Balkan Wars of 19). The Austro-Hungarian Empire had grown throughout the latter part of the 19th Century and early 20th Century, annexing Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908 and further dividing the larger area's Slavic population. These shootings touched off a series of events that led to World War I. On June 28, 1914, a Bosnian nationalist assassinated Austria-Hungary's Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, in Sarajevo. The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
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