Black Hand (Serbia) in the context of "Young Bosnia"

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⭐ Core Definition: Black Hand (Serbia)

Unification or Death (Serbian: Уједињење или смрт, romanizedUjedinjenje ili smrt), popularly known as the Black Hand (Црна рука, Crna ruka), was a secret military society formed in May 1911 by officers in the Army of the Kingdom of Serbia. It gained a reputation for its alleged involvement in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914 and for the earlier assassination of the Serbian royal couple in 1903, under the aegis of Captain Dragutin Dimitrijević (a.k.a. "Apis").

The society formed to unite all of the territories with a South Slavic majority that were not then ruled by either Serbia or Montenegro. It took inspiration primarily from the unification of Italy in 1859–1870, but also from the unification of Germany in 1871. Through its connections to the June 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, carried out by the members of the youth movement Young Bosnia, the Black Hand was instrumental in starting World War I (1914–1918) by precipitating the July Crisis of 1914, which eventually led to Austria-Hungary's invasion of the Kingdom of Serbia in August 1914.

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Black Hand (Serbia) in the context of Dragutin Dimitrijević

Dragutin Dimitrijević (Serbian Cyrillic: Драгутин Димитријевић; 17 August 1876 – 26 June 1917), better known by his nickname Apis (Апис), was a Serbian army officer and chief of the military intelligence section of the Royal Serbian Army general staff in 1913. He is best known as the main leader of the Black Hand, a paramilitary secret society devoted to South Slav irredentism that organised the 1903 overthrow of the Serbian government and assassination of King Alexander I of Serbia and Queen Draga. Many scholars believe that he also sanctioned and helped organize the conspiracy behind the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on 28 June 1914. This led directly to the July Crisis and the outbreak of World War I.

In 1916, the government in exile of Serbian Prime Minister Nikola Pašić, who considered Dimitrijević's refusal to compromise on South Slav irredentism to represent a serious threat to the secret peace negotiations taking place with Vienna during the Sixtus Affair, filed charges of high treason against the leadership of Unification or Death. Dimitrijević was tried in Thessaloniki before a Serbian Army court martial arraigned by his opponents within the Serbian government. He was found guilty of conspiring to assassinate both the Archduke and Prince Regent Alexander Karađorđević and executed by firing squad, along with two senior associates on 26 June 1917.

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Black Hand (Serbia) in the context of Trifko Grabež

Trifun "Trifko" Grabež (Serbian Cyrillic: Трифун Трифко Грабеж; 28 June [O.S. 16 June] 1895 – 21 October 1916) was a Bosnian Serb member of the Black Hand organization which was involved in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

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