== == Yes and no. Gavrilo Princip was connected to a secret
organization in Serbia called the Black Hand (or "Unification or
Death") which wanted all the lands populated by South Slavs to be
under one government. Most of these places, aside from Serbia, were
part of Austria-Hungary before World War I. The Black Hand
apparently recruited a number of Bosnian students, including
Gavrilo Princip, to assassinate Franz Ferdinand, and provided them
with weapons and support. The Archduke was the heir to the Austrian
throne and also an important reformer in the Habsburg government
who wanted to reorganize the empire to give its Slav subjects more
say. Serbia absolutely did not want this to happen, because that
would mean that it would be less of an influence on Slavic
nationalists in Austria-Hungary.
Franz Ferdinand was inspecting the Austrian army in Sarajevo on
an important Serbian holiday, Vidovdan, when he was assassinated.
Princip's group had five chances to kill him along his route (they
were spread out along it) and they screwed up all five times,
although one of them wounded a bunch of people with a bomb. Franz
Ferdinand continued to the town hall where there was going to be a
reception, but afterwards decided to visit some of the victims of
the bombing in a hospital instead of leaving the city as he had
planned. Princip was in a shop getting a sandwich when he saw the
Archduke's car coming by (it had taken a wrong turn). So he shot
him and attempted to shoot the governor of Bosnia but got the
Archduke's wife instead.
So yes, there was a conspiracy, but it was a nationalist
conspiracy supported by Serbia and didn't involve anyone in
Austria-Hungary. The driver was definitely not involved (in fact,
he was rewarded by the last emperor Charles I). He was a Czech
named Leopold Lojka and he had no reason to want Franz Ferdinand
dead (he certainly didn't seem to be a nationalist, but even if he
had been, Czech nationalists rather liked Franz Ferdinand at that
point), and it's reasonable to think that he just took a wrong turn
because he hadn't gotten the change in plans. The Black Hand and
other Serbian nationalists wanted to kill Franz Ferdinand purely
because of his political beliefs and his status as the heir
apparent -- nobody had any idea it would start World War I.
