Black Hand, associates by name of Ujedinjenje Ili Smrt (Serbo-Croation: Union or Death), was a secret military society which formed terrorist methods to promote the liberation of Serbs, outside Serbia from Hapsburg or Ottoman rule and was instrumental in planning the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Franz .
In Serbia , The Black Hand was formed by officers in the Army of the Kingdom of Serbia, led by Captain Dragutin Dimitrijević known as “Apis” ( after the Egyptian Bull god)
The aim :
uniting territories with a South Slavic majority not ruled by either Serbia or Montenegro.
The constitution was modeled after similar German secret nationalist associations, and “La Mano Nera” ( Italian :The Black Hand ) and the Italian Carbonari (Italian for “charcoal makers”) an informal network of secret revolutionary societies active in Italy 1800 to 1831 which may have influenced other revolutionary groups in France, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Brazil and Uruguay.
The Black Hand inspiration was primarily the unification of Italy in 1859–70, but also Germany in 1871, although the roots of the Black Hand can be traced to the Kingdom of Naples as early as the 1750s.
The English language term specifically refers to the organization established by Italian immigrants in the United States during the 1880s.
It was a minority of the immigrants which formed criminal syndicates.
By 1900, Black Hand operations were firmly established in the Italian-American communities of major cities including New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Detroit.
In 1907, a Black Hand headquarters was discovered in Hillsville, Pennsylvania which established a school designed to train members in the use of the stiletto. (an Italian dagger )Although more successful immigrants were usually targeted, it is believed 90% of Italian immigrants and workmen in New York along with other communities were threatened with extortion.Typical Black Hand tactics involved sending a letter to a victim threatening bodily harm, kidnapping, arson, or murder.
The first sign of serious instability occurred in Serbia.
The general impression: the senate was packed with men devoted to the royal couple and the government obtained a large majority at the general elections, but was it was thought King Alexander would no longer hesitate to proclaim Queen Draga’s brother as the heir presumptive to the throne.
In spite of this, it was agreed with gthe Serbian Government that Prince Mirko of Montenegro, who was married to Natalija Konstantinovic, the granddaughter of an aunt of King Milan, would be proclaimed heir-presumptive in the event that the marriage of King Alexander and Queen Draga was childless.
Apparently, to prevent this and replace Obrenović with Peter Karađorđević, a conspiracy was organized by a group of Army officers headed by Captain Dragutin Dimitrijević and Norman Perović, a young Greek Orthodox militant who was in the pay of the Russians, as well as the leader of the Black Hand Secret Society, which would assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914.
Several politicians were also part of the conspiracy, and allegedly former Prime Minister, Nikola Pašić was included.
” Apis “personally led the group of Army officers who invaded the Old Palace in Belgrade .
King Alexander and Queen Draga were hidden in a secret panic room hidden behind the mirror in a common bedroom.
The room contained an entrance to a secret passage leading out of the palace, but the entrance was inaccessible due to the placement of the queen’s wardrobe over it after the wedding.
The conspirators discovered the royal couple and shot them in the early morning of June 11, 1903.
Their bodies mutilated and disemboweled and, according to eyewitness accounts, thrown from a second floor onto piles of garden manure.
The King was only 26 , he and Queen Draga were buried in the crypt of St. Mark’s Church, Belgrade.
The coup, abetted by the army, brought the Karadjordjevic dynasty to the throne and was enthusiastically welcomed by most of the Serbianpublic.
The international community, which at first withdrew diplomatic representatives from Belgrade , ultimately recognised the new regime despite the bloody regicide that precipitated its accession.
In 1911, Dimitrijević organised an attempt to assassinate the octogenarian Austrian Emperor Franz Josef.
When this failed, Dimitrijević turned his attention to the heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
Dimitrijević was concerned about Ferdinand’s plans to grant concessions to the South Slavs, fearing that, if this happened, a unified Serbian state would be more difficult to achieve.
When Dimitrijević heard that Archduke Franz Ferdinand was planning to visit Sarajevo in June 1914, he allowed three members of the Young Bosnia group, Gavrilo Princip, Nedeljko Čabrinović, Trifko Grabež and four others from Serbia to travel to Bosnia to attempt an assassination.
At this time, Dimitrijević was Chief of Serbian Military Intelligence.
Unknown to Dimitrijević, Major Vojislav Tankosić was informing Nikola Pašić, the prime minister of Serbia about the plot.
Although Pašić supported the main objectives of the Black Hand group, he did not want the assassination to take place, as he feared it would lead to a war with Austria-Hungary, *and Pašić was right.
He therefore gave instructions for the three young would-be-assassins to be arrested when they attempted to leave the country.
However, his orders were not implemented, and the three men arrived in what was then known as the Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where they joined forces with fellow conspirators, Veljko and Vaso Čubrilović, Muhamed Mehmedbašić, Danilo Ilić, Cvjetko Popović and Miško Jovanović.
Through it’s connections to the June 1914 assassination of of the Archduke of Austria , committed by the youth movement Young Serbia, the Black Hand is often viewed as a major contributor , if not cause of WWI and The July Crises of 1914, which eventually led to Austria-Hungary’s invasion of the Kingdom of Serbia.
On 23 July 1914, the Austro-Hungarian government sent its July Ultimatum to the Serbian government with a lengthy list of ten different demands.
- Suppress all publications which “incite hatred and contempt of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy” and are “directed against its territorial integrity”.
- Dissolve the Serbian nationalist organisation Narodna Odbrana (“The People’s Defense”) and all other such societies in Serbia.
- Eliminate without delay from schoolbooks and public documents all “propaganda against Austria-Hungary”.
- Remove from the Serbian military and civil administration all officers and functionaries whose names the Austro-Hungarian Government will provide.
- Accept in Serbia “representatives of the Austro-Hungarian Government” for the “suppression of subversive movements”.
- Bring to trial all accessories to the Archduke’s assassination and allow “Austro-Hungarian delegates” (law enforcement officers) to take part in the investigations.
- Arrest Major Vojislav Tankosić and civil servant Milan Ciganović who were named as participants in the assassination plot.
- Cease the cooperation of the Serbian authorities in the “traffic in arms and explosives across the frontier”; dismiss and punish the officials of Šabac and Loznicafrontier service, “guilty of having assisted the perpetrators of the Sarajevo crime”.
- Provide “explanations” to the Austro-Hungarian Government regarding “Serbian officials” who have expressed themselves in interviews “in terms of hostility to the Austro-Hungarian Government”.
- Notify the Austro-Hungarian Government “without delay” of the execution of the measures comprised in the ultimatum.
The Austro-Hungarian Government, concluding the document, was expecting the reply of the Serbian Government ,at the latest by 5 o’clock on Saturday evening, 25 July 1914.
An Appendix to the main text listed various details from “the crime investigation undertaken at court in Sarajevo against Gavrilo Princip and his comrades on account of the assassination”, which allegedly demonstrated the culpability and assistance provided to the conspirators by various Serbian officials.
Instructions were given to the Austrian Minister in Belgrade, Baron von Gieslingen, whereby if “no unconditionally positive answer” is received by the Serbian government within “the 48-hour deadline” of the ultimatum (“as measured from the day and hour of your announcing it”), the Minister should proceed to leave the Austro-Hungarian Embassy of Belgrade together with all its personnel.
On the night of 23 July, Serbian Regent Crown Prince Alexander visited the Russian legation to “express his despair over the Austrian ultimatum, compliance with which he regards as an absolute impossibility for a state which had the slightest regard for its dignity”.
Both the Regent and Pašić asked for Russian support, which was refused.
Sazonov offered the Serbs only moral support while Nicholas told the Serbs to “simply accept“the ultimatum, and hope that international opinion would force the Austrians to change their minds.
Both Russia and France, because of their military weaknesses, were most disinclined to risk a war with Germany in 1914, and hence the pressure on Serbia to accede to the terms of the Austrianultimatum.
Because the Austrians had repeatedly promised the Russians that nothing was planned against Serbia that summer, their harsh ultimatum did not do much to antagonize Sazonov.Confronted with the ultimatum and the lack of support from other European powers, the Serbian Cabinet worked out a compromise.
Others, notably Clark, argue the Serbs drafted their reply to the ultimatum in such a way as to give the impression of making significant concessions but: “In reality, then, this was a highly perfumed rejection on most points”.
The German shipping tycoon Albert Ballin recalled that when the German government heard a misleading report that Serbia had accepted the ultimatum, there was “disappointment”, but “tremendous joy” when it learned that the Serbs had not accepted all of the Austrian terms.
When Ballin suggested Wilhelm end his North Sea cruise to deal with the crisis, the German Foreign Ministry flatly stated the Emperor should continue his cruise because “everything must be done to ensure that he [Wilhelm] does not interfere in things with his pacifist ideas.”
At the same time, a message was sent to Berchtold from his ambassador in Berlin reminding him “Here every delay in the beginning of war operations is regarded as signifying the danger that foreign powers might interfere. We are urgently advised to proceed without delay.”In a letter to his close friend, Venetia Stanley, the British Prime Minister H. H. Asquith wrote:
“… the situation is just about as bad as it can possibly be. Austria has sent a bullying and humiliating ultimatum to Serbia, who cannot possibly comply with it, and demanded an answer within forty-eight hours-failing which she will march. This means, almost inevitably, that Russia will come to the scene in defence of Serbia and in defiance of Austria, and if so, it is difficult for Germany and France to refrain from lending a hand to one side or the other. So that we are in measurable, or imaginable, distance of a real Armageddon. Happily, there seems to be no reason why we should be anything more than spectators.”The First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, wrote, “Europe is trembling on the verge of a general war. The Austrianultimatum to Serbia being the most insolent document of its kind ever devised”, but he believed Britain would stay neutral in the coming war.Grey suggested to the Austrian ambassador that the deadline for the ultimatum be extended as the best way of saving the peace.When Grey told his friend Lichnowsky that “Any nation that accepted conditions like that would really cease to count as an independent nation”, Wilhelm wrote on the margin of Lichnowsky’s report “That would be very desirable. It [Serbia] is not a nation in the European sense, but a band of robbers!”
The Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Sazonov sent a message to all of the great powers asking them to pressure Austria to extend the deadline of the ultimatum.
Sazonov asked the Austrian government to back its claims of Serbian complicity in the killing of Franz Ferdinand by releasing the results of its official inquiry, which the Austrians refused to do as they lacked any conclusive evidence.
Several times, the Austrians refused Russian requests to extend the deadline, despite warnings that an Austro-Serbian war could easily cause a world war.Sazonov told the Austrian ambassador “I know what it is. You mean to make war on Serbia …? You are setting fire to Europe … Why was Serbia given no chance to speak and why the form of an ultimatum? The fact is you mean war and you have burnt your bridges … One sees how peace-loving you are.”On 24 July, the Russian Council of Ministers met to decide their response to the crisis.
The Russian Agriculture Minister Alexander Krivoshein, who was especially trusted by Nicholas, noted that:
In his response on 25 July 1914, Serbian prime minister Nikola Pašić, accepted all the points of the ultimatum except point #6, demanding Serbia to allow an Austrian delegation to participate in a criminal investigation against those participants in the conspiracy that were present in Serbia.
Three days later the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on Serbia.
Nikola Pašić decided to get rid of the most prominent members of the Black Hand movement, by then officially disbanded.
Dimitrijević and several of his military colleagues were arrested in December 1916, and tried on charges blaming them with attempted assassination of regent Aleksandar I Karađorđević .
On 23 May 1917, following the Salonika Trial, Dimitrijević was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. A month later, on 24 June 1917, he was executed by firing squad.
In 1953, Dimitrijević and his co-defendants were all posthumously retried by the Supreme Court of Serbia and found not guilty, because there was no proof for their alleged participation in the assassination plot.