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Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by a Bosnian Serb nationalist named Gavrilo Princip because of rising Slavic nationalism and a desire to free Bosnia and Herzegovina from Austro-Hungarian rule. Princip and other Serbian nationalists viewed the Archduke, as the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, as a symbol of their oppression and saw his assassination as a way to ignite a movement for a united South Slav state