POP QUIZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Where and why did World War I start?

Here is a hint:



Anyone who guessed Sarajevo gets 10 points!


OK.... so what was the event that set in motion the events of WWI?


Here is another hint:



So here is what they say happened, here in Sarajevo, the center of the universe......


The area that is now Bosnia was once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and there was a dude called Franz Ferdinand, who was the arch-duke and heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary.

So he was standing on this bridge (which at the time was called "The Latin Bridge") with his pregnant wife Sofia.

Here is me with them (OK, OK, it is not really them... but you can willingly suspend your disbelief... this is in the City Museum of Sarajevo).

A Bosnian Serb named Gavrilo Princip who was unimpressed with the occupation of Bosnia by Austria-Hungary (as many Bosnians were) stood by the bank of the river and shot them, killing them both. Now shortly after this, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia (because Princip was a Serb) and then everyone else gradually got in the game... WWI had begun.

Some interesting things about the myopic and malliable nature of history... The bridge was called the Latin Bridge when the assasination happened. After that Princip was considered to be a hero and the bridge was renamed "Princip Bridge" through the times of the former Yugoslavia.

But remember, Princip was a Serb by nationality... so after the most recent war perpetrated by Serbs in Bosnia, Princip was renamed a traitor and terrorist, and the bridge was renamed too. Now it is again called "the Latin Bridge." And they are thinking about putting a bust of the slain arch-duke Ferdinand on the bridge because now he is the hero of the story.

So today I stood on the bridge in the spot where Franz Ferdinand was shot.

I also stood in the spot where Princip shot him.







Here are Princips footsteps.


Here is me literally staiding in Princips footsteps. They used to have this on display on the street in the "place of assasination," but it was removed to inside the museum when Princip became a traitorous villian (by virtue of nothing but his ethnicity and some bad acts by other Serbs in the intervening years). The footsteps are not even on display in the museum. They are under a desk behind the reception area. the only reason I even got to see them was because I asked if it could really be true that they had these foosteps made and then took them away later (it seemed so patently absurd to me). The museum dude brightened up and said, "footsteps, look here!" and moved some junk off of them, beckoned me behind the desk and allowed me to take these photos.

This is the only way to understand history. To stand in the place of each man (and woman) whom we think we cannot relate to or understand. Standing in each of these spots has its own perspective and neither one of them is right or true or wrong or false. They are simply points of view. no more. no less.