Connections 2
Historians love to investigate causes and effects\u2026it\u2019s possible for a teeny-tiny seemingly inconsequential thing to set off a cascading series of events\u2026and before you know it, the universe has changed forever\u2026\nLet me give you an example\u2026a bunch of inept anarchists in Sarajevo were out to make a statement about the liberation of Bosnia and Herzegovina under occupation of the Austro-Hungarian empire\u2026\nWhen the Archduke Franz Ferdinand visited Sarajevo on June 28, 1914\u2026two guys were set to toss a bomb at his six-vehicle motorcade, but they chickened out\u2026then a guy named Nedeljko Cabrinovic threw a second bomb, but it bounced off the back of one of the cars\u2026\nThe archduke, his wife, and the governor of Bosnia sped off\u2014although the governor suggested that they take a slightly different route\u2026the driver\u2014Leopold Lojka\u2014got confused and turned right instead of left into a very narrow street\u2026\xa0\nWhen he tried to back up, the car stalled\u2014and it stalled right in front of another member of the anarchist group named Gavril Princip\u2026up until that second, he\u2019d been discouraged that the assassination plot had failed and had allegedly slinked off to schiller\u2019s delicatessen to get a sandwich and sulk about the afternoon\u2019s failures\u2026\n(that\u2019s not true, by the way\u2026it just makes for a better story)\u2026\nAnyway, Princip\u2019s target sitting directly in front of him, trapped\u2026he pulled out his pistol and fired two shots\u2026one hit the Archduke\u2019s wife, killing her instantly\u2026the other hit Ferdinand in the jugular\u2026he died within half an hour\u2026\nThis created a series of crises involving a web of alliances across Europe and within a few months, the great war had begun, resulting in the deaths of 20 million people and injured 21 million more\u2026it led to the Treaty of Versailles , the humiliation of Germany, the rise of Adolf Hitler, the carnage of World War Two, the spread of Communism, the arms race, the cold war, and the world order as we know it\u2026\nIf Leopold hadn\u2019t hung a right instead of a left\u2014or if you like the myth of Princip going for a sandwich\u2014how would the 20th century have been different?...\nWhy am I recounting this?...because there are ways we can make connections like this in the world of rock\u2026.here\u2026let me show you\u2026\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices