One man's death changes the world

Franz Ferdinand

While there are those individuals and cultures who may not value a single life, in the course of history one person's contributions can make a real difference, just as the death of an individual man or woman can change the world.


The death of one person can bring about war, move  multitudes and change the course of history. The value of life, some say, must be measured in the course of events and the contributions that are made to those events that impact many other individuals. Some of those people whose death created a legacy of lasting memory were prophets, others were rulers of great nations. They have been young, old and from many nations also.

Nearly one hundred years ago Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who was nephew of Emperor Franz Josef and the heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire was killed with his wife in Sarajevo, Bosnia in June 1914. It is widely observed by history that this significant event initiated the outbreak of World War I. A Serbian nationalist, chafing with other citizens of the region against the domination of Austro-Hungarian empire, killed the Archduke, sparking a conflagration that swept through Europe, brought the Americans into a world conflict and killed millions.



Many people blamed the government of Serbia for the attack, looking to put down those struggling for independence with the incident of the killing of a prominent European leader. Russia supported Serbia, along with its allies Belgium, France, and Great Britain while Kaiser Wilhelm's Germany lined up with Austria-Hungary, and in the process World War I was initiated. While the Archduke had not yet gained the throne, the representation of the empire's power in the region brought the flame of independence to ignite, while the fires fanned throughout the European continent. The death of one man had changed the course of history.



When a zealot becomes a martyr, often the effect is to facilitate the gathering of many people, not just for an immediate event but to foster a belief that is made stronger by the death of a single individual. That is especially true if that individual makes the sacrifice of life for a cause. The sacrifice is the blood of the martyrs that can fuel rage, cement philosophies and make men fight each other to avenge that sacrifice or the beliefs that brought the martyr to die for a cause.



As the Second World War was ending, Palestine was caught up in conflicts between Jews and Arabs. A man by the name of Avraham Stern was an angry man with a hatred for the Arabs. He gathered followers to fight the police in Palestine who were trying to intervene and prevent the Zionists from killing innocent Arabs. Stern was killed by Geoffrey Morton, Assistant Superintendent of Police of the Tel Aviv District, following an episode in which three senior policemen, two Jews and one Briton, were killed. Morton shot Stern, according to his claims, as Stern tried to climb out a window and escape, although many people have considered since that Morton manufactured the story and had actually killed Stern in cold blood. Stern was the martyr, appealing to the desperate refugee factions who had fled the Holocaust only to be faced with Arabs who did not want these strangers to take over their lands. He is said to be the hero of modern Israel's right-wing Likudnik mainstream, with two of his admirers who eventually became prime ministers. These were Yitzhak Shamir and Menachem Begin. 



The Zionist movement had needed a hero, and Stern's legacy has been to continue to foster the notion of refugees continuing to settle in Arab lands, creating an ongoing tension in the region that consistently threatens to engulf the rest of the world. 







The death of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, brought the religion that had flourished to splinter into two main sects, the Shiah that believes that Muhammad wanted his nephew, Ali to secede him and Sunni, the sect of Islam that follows the line of succession beginning with the Prophet's uncle and through that lineage. These two sects are often literally at war with one another, and the consistent tension between the two has prevented the unification of the Muslim world in modern times, following the independence of the Middle Eastern countries.







There are others whose lives have made a difference, including Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jesus Christ, Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, John F. Kennedy and a host of others, but often it is that individual who seems to have a minor role in the events of a time that instead becomes a major player upon death in a way that lasts for generations. As Stalin himself once said, “One man's death is a tragedy,” for it focuses on the intimacy all people have with one another, that can change the course of history.