Gavrilo Princip was a Bosnian Serb student who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife Sophie, Duchess von Hohenberg, in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. The killing of the Archduke and his wife set off the July Crisis, a chain of events that within one month led to the outbreak of World War I.

The Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, often referred to as Bosnian Serbs or Herzegovinian Serbs, are native and one of the three constitutive nations of the country, predominantly residing in the political-territorial entity of Republika Srpska. Most declare themselves Orthodox Christians and speakers of the Serbian language.