SM64 And Austria-Hungary

The connections between Super Mario 64 and Austria-Hungary are mostly based within the level of the Bob-omb Battlefield. There are quite a few links between the game and the former country.

Mario is Gavrilo Princip
A comparison between Mario and Gavrilo Princip shows us some similarities. For example, they both have a moustache. Their countries at some point were fighting against Austria-Hungary in some way. Italy, which is where Mario comes from, fought the Austro-Hungarian empire during World War 1. The Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is where Gavrilo Princip came from, was fighting for independence against Austria-Hungary and succeeded. They were both able to achieve some sort of united nation. Italy’s was unified, and Bosnia and other countries formed into Yugoslavia. However, arguably the most important part is that they both killed a monarch in some way. Mario, during the boss part of BBB where he has to defeat King Bob-omb, is similar to that of Gavrilo Princip assassinating Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The scenarios are awfully similar, and with that, we can safely say that Mario is supposed to be a caricature of Gavrilo Princip.

BBB is Based Off of World War I
The level of BBB itself is very war-torn. The Goombas and the Koopas, which are like Austro-Hungarian soldiers, are very aggressive towards Mario. Additionally, the chain chomp could be potentially seen as an allegory of Germany helping Austria-Hungary to invade Serbia, which had been blamed by the Austro-Hungarian empire for causing the assassination with the blame being used as war justification to invade Serbia. This is an allegory of the warzone that took place within the country as the Russian Empire and the allies invaded the Austro-Hungarian empire.