Conquered
by the Turks in 1389, Serbia did not regain
independence until 1878, and established a monarchy in 1882. Geographically
a land-locked state, Serbia had the Austro-Hungarian
Empire on its borders in the north, and Romania
and Bulgaria in the east. To the south
lay Macedonia and the northern shores of Greece,
including the major port of Salonika.
Serbia was an overwhelmingly rural society. It had few mineral or
industrial resources and had less than 10,000 people employed in manufacturing.
The economy relied heavily on the exports of food to Germany,
Turkey and Austria-Hungary.
In 1903 Dragutin
Dimitrijevic, Voja Tankosic and
a group of junior officers planned the assassination of the the autocratic
and unpopular King Alexander of Serbia.
The group stormed the royal palace and killed both the king and his
wife, Queen Draga. Soon afterwards, Karadjordjevic
was elected king of Serbia by
the Serbian parliament and Nikola Pasic
became prime minister. The new National Assembly was elected by all
civilian male tax payers.
Serbian encouragement of Slav separatist movements in Bosnia-Herzegovina
and Croatia angered the government of Austria-Hungary.
Serbia received support from Russia
in this policy but the two countries were unable to prevent the Austro-Hungarian
Army from seizing Bosnia in 1908.
In May 1911, ten men in Serbia
formed the Black Hand Secret Society.
Early members included Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijevic,
the chief of the Intelligence Department of the Serbian General Staff,
Major Voja Tankosic and Milan
Ciganovic. The main objective of the Black Hand was the creation,
by means of violence, of a Greater Serbia. Its stated aim was: "To
realize the national ideal, the unification of all Serbs. This organisation
prefers terrorist action to cultural activities; it will therefore
remain secret."
Dragutin Dimitrijevic, who used the codename,
Apis, established himself as the leader of the Black Hand. In 1911
he sent a member to assassinate Emperor Franz
Josef. When this failed, Dimitrijevic turned his attention to
General Oskar Potiorek, Governor of
the Austrian provinces of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Dimitrijevic recruited Muhamed Mehmedbasic
to kill Potiorek with a poisoned dagger. However, Mehmedbasic returned
to Belgrade after failing to carry out the task.
Created on ... août 20, 2003