| Unification or Death | |
|---|---|
| Ujedinjenje ili smrt Уједињење или смрт | |
&sq=Google&lang=en&file=File:Black_Hand,_logo.png){kind=logo} Unification or Death's logo | |
| Also known as | Black Hand |
| Leader | Dragutin Dimitrijević |
| Foundation | May 1911 (as Unification or Death)[1][2] |
| Active regions | Balkan Peninsula |
| Ideology | Yugoslavism Greater Serbia Serbian nationalism |
| Notable attacks | Killing of Alexander I Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand |
Unification or Death (Serbian: Ujedinjenje ili smrt, Serbian Cyrillic: Уједињење или смрт), popularly known as the Black Hand (Serbian: Crna ruka, Serbian Cyrillic: Црна рука), 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").[3]
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.[4][5] 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.[6]
- ^ Martel, Gordon (2014). The Month that Changed the World: July 1914 and WWI. Oxford University Press. pp. 58–60. ISBN 978-0191643279.
- ^ Newman, John Paul (2015). Yugoslavia in the Shadow of War. Cambridge University Press. p. 29. ISBN 978-1107070769.
- ^ "Black Hand | secret Serbian society". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
- ^ Gavrilo Princip and the Black Hand organization. Bookrags.
- ^ Alan Cassels (1996). Ideology and international relations in the modern world. Psychology Press. pp. 122–. ISBN 978-0415119269.
- ^ David Stevenson (2012). 1914–1918: The History of the First World War. Penguin. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-141-90434-4.