What was the Serbian Black Hand?

Answer 1

The Black Hand Society (or Black Hand Gang) was a Serbian secret society. It was believed to have been formed by ten individuals in 1911 with the stated single aim of creating a unified and greater Serbia through the means of violence. The Black Hand rejected all peaceful methods of achieving their aims. The Black Hand were involved in many bombings, political murders and several attempted assissinations of major figures. By 1914 there was thought to be well over two thousand members many of whom were from the military, senior civil service, teachers or lawyers. In June 1914 the Black Hand set out on their most spectacular mission - the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. Although the Serbian Prime Minister, Nikola Pasic, became aware of the plot and tried to stop it, the police and security forces failed to respond to his instructions so the Archduke was murdered and within a few weeks of the assassination the great powers of Europe had stumbled into the First World War. Nikola Pasic held the Black Hand responsible not only for causing the war but also for a series of military disasters that had crippled Serbia, and so in 1916 he began a purge on the organisation that resulted in the execution of many of its members over the next year or so. How many of the Black Hand survived the purge and to what degree they may have influenced the country in later times is not known . This was a Serbian terrorist organization that was willing to further the cause of creating a 'Greater Serbia' by resorting to terrorism, assassinations and kidnapping. The Black Hand was established in 1911 with the support of elements from the Serbian secret service and some other branches of the Serbian government and military. The group is best known for its assassination of Archduke Franz Ferninand and his wife in Sarajevo in 1914. Some historians believe that a forerunner of the Black Hand was responsible for the savage murder of the Serbian King Aleksandar and his Queen, Draga, in July 1903. Their hideously mutilated corpses were thrown from a window in the royal palace ... They regarded Aleksandr as an Austrian stooge.