A route-change failure at Sarajevo

After an earlier bombing attempt, the royal party planned a safer direct route to the hospital, but the drivers were not properly informed. The resulting wrong turn brought Franz Ferdinand and Sophie within point-blank range of an assassin. Links between the plotters, Serbian networks, and Balkan separatism then supplied the immediate spark for the July Crisis. Because the couple's marriage was morganatic and their children could not inherit, the murders also opened uncertainty over succession within the Dual Monarchy. The incident shows how a small communication failure could have enormous effects inside an already brittle international system.