I was recently reading about the causes of WW1 and started wondering if a different A-H monarch could have staved off the war.
Franz Ferdinad wanted to extend the same rights held by Hungary to the slavic portion of the empire and to the czechs. He was fautor, besides, of a more cautious politic toward Serbia, something that marked him like a "dove".
OTL his murder in Sarajevo started WW1 (and WW2 too, some would argue), but if Franz-Joseph had died in 1910, for example, could Franz Ferdinand become emperor and begin a new course in Austrian politic? Could this have avoided a world war or, at least, stabilized the Balkans and made the Austrian empire survive?
Discuss.