The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002.
Sarajevo
(sar-uh-YAY-voh, sahr-uh-YAY-voh) The city in Bosnia and Herzegovina where the assassination that brought on World War I took place. Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of the Austrian Empire, had come to Sarajevo on a state visit; Sarajevo was then in one of the South Slavic provinces of the Austrian Empire. A young student who favored South Slavic independence shot and killed the archduke. Austria held the assassin’s home country, Serbia, responsible for the incident and declared war; complex European alliances then brought other countries into the fight.
‡ In 1992 the city came under prolonged and bloody siege by Bosnian Serbs seeking to drive Bosnian Muslims from their homes. In 1995 leaders of the rival Balkan states of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia met in the United States and settled on a peace accord to end the fighting.
