The analyses I've read on the Franz Ferdinand assassination were that he was a minor official and parties on both sides were itching for the match to light the fuse. Had Ferdinand been killed in some other circumstances it would have been a footnote in history.
But, I could be wrong.
He was the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Emperor, his uncle Franz-Joseph, was in his dotage. Franz Ferdinand was so close to being Emperor that he had already sat for his official coronation portrait. The coronation portrait had been completed, and they were just waiting for his uncle to expire, so that he could be crowned, and the portrait shown to the public.