HOW A SANDWICH TRIGGERED WORLD WAR I

If the flap of a butterfly’s wings can have a momentous effect in simpler, more peaceful circumstances, what might be the outcome when the world already resembles a powder keg? In that case, it might take no more than a wrong turn and a sandwich to trigger a world war. And that’s precisely the case in Europe in the early 20th century. The European nations are already at one another’s throats, and all of them are armed to the teeth. This time the butterfly is perched atop Moritz Schiller’s delicatessen in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. There around noon on Sunday, June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip is ordering a cheese sandwich. Princip is a Serbian anarchist who has come to Sarajevo to assassinate the heir to the throne of the Austro-hungarian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Together with his two accomplices, Princip already tried to kill the archduke with a bomb that same morning, but the device bounced off the archduke’s car and exploded beneath the next vehicle. Princip escaped undetected—and now he’s hungry. At the same time, the heir to the throne and his wife are on their way to the hospital to visit an officer wounded in the earlier attack. Princip is waiting for his sandwich when their car makes a wrong turn, as no one informed the driver that the route had changed—another flap of the wings. He’s about to take his first bite as the vehicle enters the street where the deli is located. “You’re going the wrong way!” yells a government official to the driver. “What do you want me to do?” asks the chauffeur. “Back up!” The driver starts to comply— and Princip almost chokes on his sandwich as the car comes to a stop directly in front of the deli. While the driver puts the car into reverse, the assassin runs from the shop and pulls a revolver. He’s standing right in front of the imperial couple as he fires two shots, and Ferdinand and his wife are mortally wounded. This butterfly effect will be felt around the globe: The Austro-hungarian government holds Serbia responsible and gives an ultimatum that can’t be met. A month later Austria declares war on Serbia, and World War I begins. As allied nations across Europe are drawn into the conflict, their friction touches off a storm the likes of which the world has never seen.

THE ASSASSINATION OF FRANZ FERDINAND NOT ONLY SPARKED THE FIRST WORLD WAR, IT ALSO DETERMINED THE FURTHER COURSE OF WORLD HISTORY. WITHOUT THE ASSASSINATION, THE WAR WOULD HAVE STARTED LATER AND COULD HAVE PROCEEDED DIFFERENTLY— IF IT BROKE OUT AT ALL…