Ten men met on May 9, 1911 to form Ujedinjenje ili Smrt (Union or Death), also known as The Black Hand. The seal of their group is reproduced above. By 1914, there were several hundred members, perhaps as many as 2500. Many members were Serbian army officers.
There were 7 members of the Black Hand involved in the assassination plot of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. They were Muhamed Mehmedbašić, Vaso Čubrilović, Nedeljko Čabrinović, Cvjetko Popović, Trifko Grabež, and Gavrilo Princip, who succeeded in shooting the Archduke and his wife.
The Black Hand took over the older group's work of anti-Austrian propaganda within Serbia, which included sabotage, espionage and political murders abroad — especially in provinces Austria-Hungary wished to annex. The group included many radicals, government officials, professionals and army officers.
Black Hand, byname of Ujedinjenje Ili Smrt (Serbo-Croation: Union or Death), secret Serbian society of the early 20th century that used terrorist methods to promote the liberation of Serbs outside Serbia from Habsburg or Ottoman rule and was instrumental in planning the assassination of the Austrian archduke Franz ...
Officially known as Unification or Death, the Black Hand was founded by Serbian officers in 1911, with the aim of unifying South Slavs — including Bosnians, Slovenes and Croats in Austria-Hungary — into a Greater Serb or south Slavic (Yugoslav) state.
By this point, standing up and saying 'no' to the Black Hand was a dangerous act. Political murder was one of their well known tools. It was also in 1914 that Apis decided that Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir-apparent of Austria, should be assassinated.
The Black Hand (Unification or Death) was formed by a ring of influential officers of the Serbian army, headed by Dragutin Dimitrijević (1876-1917), known as “Apis”, in May 1911.
Black Hand members were arrested and tried before a Serbian court in Salonika in 1917 on fabricated charges of high treason; the Black Hand was disbanded and three of its leaders were executed. Much of what is known about the assassinations comes from these two trials and related records.
Black Hand was a method of extortion practiced by gangsters of the Camorra and the Mafia. American newspapers in the first half of the twentieth century sometimes made reference to an organized "Black Hand Society", a criminal enterprise composed of Italians, mainly Sicilian immigrants.
Black Hand, Italian Mano Nera, any of several extortion rackets run by immigrant Sicilian and Italian gangsters in the Italian communities of New York City, Chicago, New Orleans, Kansas City, and other U.S. cities from about 1890 to 1920.
A TRADITIONALLY SPANISH, AND LATER ITALIAN, MANIFESTATION OF GANG-LIKE CRIMINALITY IS EXAMINED IN LIGHT OF ITS RESURGENCE IN NEW YORK CITY AT THE TURN OF THE 19TH CENTURY.
A month after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie on July 28, 1914, the Austro-Hungarian government declares war on Serbia. Immediately, and within a period of six days, European countries declare war upon one another.
The Black Hand was a precursor of organized crime, although it is still a tactic practiced by the Mafia and used in organized crime to this day.
Promoted Stories. Typical Black Hand tactics involved sending a letter to a victim threatening bodily harm, kidnapping, arson, or murder. The letter demanded a specified amount of money to be delivered to a specific place.
Even if Russia were to act in defence of Serbia, Wilhelm promised that Germany would do everything in its power, including war, to support Austria-Hungary.
Two shots in Sarajevo ignited the fires of war and drew Europe toward World War I. Just hours after narrowly escaping an assassin's bomb, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to Austro-Hungarian throne and his wife, the Duchess of Hohenberg, are killed by Gavrilo Princip.
On 28 June 1914, a Bosnian-Serb terrorist shot and killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne. The assassin was 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip, one of several would-be young assassins who were intent on using violence to destroy Austria-Hungarian rule.
Princip stated that he regretted the killing of the Duchess and meant to kill Potiorek, but was nonetheless proud of what he had done.
The Black Hand dissolved in 1917 when Dimitrijević was executed after having been found guilty of treason in the Salonica trial.
Princip's act gave Austria-Hungary the excuse that it had sought for opening hostilities against Serbia and thus precipitated World War I. In Yugoslavia—the South Slav state that he had envisioned—Princip came to be regarded as a national hero.
Historians who believe Germany was primarily responsible for the war base their conclusion on the aggressive attitude of Germany's leaders, their desire to extend Germany's influence throughout Europe, and on the militaristic nature of the German people.
The archduke traveled to Sarajevo in June 1914 to inspect the imperial armed forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1908. The annexation had angered Serbian nationalists, who believed the territories should be part of Serbia.
The total number of deaths includes 9.7 million military personnel and about 10 million civilians. The Entente Powers (also known as the Allies) lost about 5.7 million soldiers while the Central Powers lost about 4 million.