The year is 1914, and the world is about to go to war due to a sandwich…….
But in all seriousness, there were many factors that caused World War I to happen. Europe was changing, and with that many countries were either trying to prove themselves because they were young such as Germany, or dying off such as the Ottoman Empire. The slowly dying empires in mainland Europe were having to give up land because the people within those empires wanted to form their own independent empires. Austria-Hungary was one such empire and specifically, the people of Serbia wanted freedom. Serbian Nationalists were extremely angry with the Austria-Hungary Empire and viewed those in charge as oppressors. Now, with some of these pieces together, you get a little better understanding of the current state of Europe.
Arch-Duke Ferdinand was next in line of succession of the Austria-Hungary Empire and he and his wife went to visit Sarajevo, Serbia on June 28th,1914. You can probably see the issue with that, right? The successor to the Austria-Hungary Empire was to visit Serbia, a place currently really not liking the empire that was filled with nationalist. Not only that, but June 28th was the anniversary of a famous battle the Serbs fought in that was a symbol of pride for the Serbians. So many nationalists viewed the visit as insulting and even fewer wanted to do something about it.
A small group of extremists known as the Black Hand, after hearing about the visit, made a plan to assassinate the Arch-Duke while he parading around Sarajevo. They gathered small arms and bombs and planned that at multiple points within the parade an assassin would attempt to kill the Arch-Duke.
On June 28th, 1914, Arch-Duke Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, took part in a parade in an open-top cab surrounded by guards and other officials. There was a big gathering for the parade and for the most part, was pretty happy. But as the couple made their way through the parade, one by one an assassin would either misfire or get cold feet. Until finally, at the very end of the parade, one of the assassins threw a bomb at the cab. He missed and ended up injuring almost 20 people. This would cause the rest of the parade to flew with the Arch-Duke relatively ok. One of the assassins, Serb Gavrilo Princip, who never got his chance saw the plan fail and lost hope, and decided to get a sandwich for comfort food(very important).
The Arch-Duke and his wife decided that they would visit the people injured by the attack in the hospital, even though they were advised not to. This led to them going into their cab and go to the hospital. Their driver, not being from the area, took a wrong turn and accidentally stalled out the car in front of a sandwich shop, the same sandwich shop Serb Gavrilo Princip decided to get his sandwich from. When he saw his opportunity, Princip took two shots and killed both the Arch-Duke and his wife, Sophie.
The assassination of Arch-Duke Ferdinand was the catalyst of World War I and without it, there would have been no World War II a Cold War. So the decision of one assassin, to get a sandwich as comfort food, led to the deaths of millions and the destruction of Europe.