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. Created on ... août 20, 2003
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.
By 1914 there were around 2,500 members of the Black Hand. The group
was mainly made up of junior army officers but also included lawyers,
journalists and university professors. About 30 of these lived and
worked in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Three senior members of the Black Hand group, Dragutin
Dimitrijevic, Milan Ciganovic,
and Major Voja Tankosic, decided that
Archduke Franz Ferdinand should be assassinated.
Dimitrijevic was concerned about the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Ferdinand's plans to grant concessions to the South Slavs.
Dimitrijevic feared that if this happened, an independent Serbian
state would be more difficult to achieve.
When Dragutin Dimitrijevic heard that Archduke
Franz Ferdinand was planning to visit Sarajevo in June 1914, he
sent three members of the Black Hand group, Gavrilo
Princip, Nedjelko Cabrinovic and Trifko Grabez from Serbia to assassinate him. Nikola Pasic, the prime
minister of Serbia, Pasic heard about
the plot and gave instructions for the three men to be arrested. However,
his orders were not implemented and Archduke
Franz Ferdinand was assassinated.
Several members of the Black Hand group
interrogated by the Austrian authorities claimed that three men from
Serbia, Dragutin Dimitrijevic, Milan
Ciganovic, and Major Voja Tankosic,
had organised the plot. On 25th July, 1914, the Austro-Hungarian
government demanded that the Serbian government arrest the men and send them to face trial in Vienna.
On 25th July, 1914, Nikola Pasic, the prime
minister of Serbia, told the Austro-Hungarian
government that he was unable to hand over these three men as it "would
be a violation of Serbia's Constitution and criminal in law.
Three days later Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.
During the first two years of the First World War
the Serbian Army suffered a series of military defeats. Nikola Pasic, who blamed the Black Hand for the war, and in December 1916 decided to disband
the organisation.