Growing Tension
From The First World War: The Complete Series, 'To Arms 1914'
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"Austria-Hungary’s domestic problems gave opportunities to her enemies. Serbia wanted the breakup of the empire. She welcomed national unrest, particularly in Croatia and Bosnia. Backed by Slav Russia, Serbia saw herself as the only independent hope for Slavs living under foreign rule in the Balkans. She wanted to unite them into a single south-Slav state, Yugoslavia." ~The First World War: The Complete Series, 'To Arms 1914' |
The Black Hand
As tension between Austria-Hungary and Serbia escalated, radical groups such as the Black Hand began developing. Formed by ten Serbian nationalists in 1911, the Black Hand was a notorious terrorist group by 1914. “For the purpose of realising the national ideals – the Unification of Serbdom,” the Black Hand would “fight with all means against all enemies of this idea” (The Constitution of the Black Hand, Articles I and IV). |
Dragutin Dimitrijević, "Apis" (bottom right), leader of the
Black Hand, and fellow Serbian officers |
Symbol of the Black Hand: "Union or Death"
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"I . . . by entering into the organisation "Unification or Death", do hereby swear by the Sun which shineth upon me, by the Earth which feedeth me, . . . by the blood of my forefathers, by my honour and by my life, that from this moment onward and until my death, I shall faithfully serve the task of this organisation and that I shall at all times be prepared to bear for it any sacrifice . . . . I further swear . . . by my honour and by my life, that I shall keep within myself all the secrets of this organisation and carry them with me into my grave. May . . . my comrades in this organisation be my judges if at any time I should wittingly fail or break this oath!" ~ Oath sworn by members of the Black Hand
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"I suggest that you nail me to a cross and burn me alive. My flaming body will be a
torch to light my people on their path to freedom."
~ Gavrilo Princip, assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand; statement after arrest