Dragutin Dimitrijević in the context of "Government in exile"

The May Coup (Serbian: Мајски преврат, romanized: Majski prevrat) was a coup d'état in the Kingdom of Serbia which resulted in the assassination of King Alexander I and his consort, Queen Draga, inside the Stari Dvor in Belgrade on the night of 10–11 June [O.S. 28–29 May] 1903. This act resulted in the extinction of the Obrenović dynasty that had ruled Serbia since the middle of the 19th century. A group of army officers led by Captain Dragutin Dimitrijević (Apis) organized the assassination. After the May Coup, the throne passed to King Peter I of the Karađorđević dynasty.

Along with the royal couple, the conspirators killed prime minister Dimitrije Cincar-Marković, minister of the army Milovan Pavlović [sr], and general-adjutant Lazar Petrović. The coup had a significant influence on Serbia's relations with other European powers; the Obrenović dynasty had mostly allied with Austria-Hungary, while the Karađorđević dynasty had close ties both with Russia and with France. Each dynasty received ongoing financial support from their powerful foreign sponsors.

Alexander I (Serbian: Александар I Обреновић, romanized: Aleksandar I Obrenović; 14 August 1876 – 11 June 1903) was King of Serbia from 1889 until his death in 1903, when he and his wife, Draga Mašin, were assassinated by a group of army officers, led by Captain Dragutin Dimitrijević.

Unification or Death (Serbian: Уједињење или смрт, romanized: Ujedinjenje 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.