The Black Hand

One of the secret societies that shaped our world that we want to introduce to you is the Black Hand. The Black Hand, also known as Unification or Death, was a secret military organization founded in 1901 by officers in the Army of the Kingdom of Serbia. It earned notoriety for its claimed role in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo in 1914, as well as the earlier assassination of the Serbian royal couple in 1903, under the command of Captain Dragutin Dimitrijević.

It conducted propaganda operations from Belgrade, created armed bands in Macedonia (before the Balkan Wars, 1912-13), and established a network of revolutionary cells throughout Bosnia. The society was founded to unite those territories with a South Slavic majority that was not controlled by either Serbia or Montenegro at the time. It was inspired mostly by Italy's unification in 1859-1870, but also by Germany's unification in 1871. Within Serbia, it commanded the army and exercised enormous power over the government by frightening officials; it was so powerful that it challenged the government's authority. To destroy that rival, Prince Alexander, commander-in-chief of the expatriate Serbian army, brought the leaders of the Black Hand to trial in Salonika in 1917 on spurious allegations. Dimitrijević and two others were executed, while almost 200 others were imprisoned.

Founded: August 1901
Purpose: Liberation of Austro-Hungarian South Slavs; Unification of ethnic Serb territories
Location: Balkans
Founder: Dragutin Dimitrijević