Black Hand

Black Hand
   “Black Hand” (in Serbo-Croatian Crna Ruka ) was the byname of the secret Serbian organization Union or Death ( Ujedinjenje Ili Smrt). In the early twentieth century, radical nationalist societies operated in Serbia and tried to undermine the Habsburg regime in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Black Hand was founded in 1911 by extremists. Most of them were officers in the Serbian army and involved in the regicide of 1903, like the Black Hand’s leader Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijevic, head of the intelligence service of the Serbian army. Dimitrijevic (his nom du guerre was “Apis”) supported the terrorist group that assassinated Austria-Hungary’s heir to the throne, Francis Ferdinand, and his wife on June 28, 1914, in Sarajevo. In the aftermath of a power struggle within the Serbian government in exile, the leaders of the Black Hand were sentenced to death or imprisonment in a trial in Saloniki in 1917.
   FURTHER READING:
    Cox, John K. The History of Serbia. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2002;
    Stavrianos, Leften. The Balkans since 1453. New York: Rinehart, 1958;
    Strachan, Hew. The First World War. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
   GUENTHER KRONENBITTER

Encyclopedia of the Age of Imperialism, 1800–1914. 2014.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • black-hand — black hand·er; …   English syllables

  • Black Hand — (engl.: „Schwarze Hand“) bezeichnet: eine spezielle Ausführungform der Erpressung; siehe Black Hand (Erpressung) die Black Hand Gang, Erpresserbande in New York City um die 1900er Jahrhundertwende die Schwarze Hand, serbische Offiziers… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Black Hand — [A trans. of Sp. mano negra.] 1. A Spanish anarchistic society, many of the members of which were imprisoned in 1883. [Webster 1913 Suppl.] 2. A lawless or blackmailing secret society, esp. among Italians. [U. S.] [Webster 1913 Suppl.] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Black Hand — Italian immigrant secret society in U.S., 1904; earlier a Spanish anarchist society, both from the warning mark they displayed to potential victims …   Etymology dictionary

  • Black Hand — Black′ Hand′ n. why a secret criminal group organized in Italy practicing blackmail and violence …   From formal English to slang

  • Black Hand — n. [< symbol used by group in letters of extortion] 1. a group of Sicilian immigrant blackmailers and terrorists in New York in the early 20th cent. 2. any similar secret society …   English World dictionary

  • Black Hand — For other uses, see Black Hand (disambiguation). Unification or Death / Black Hand Black Hand seal Motto Unification or Death; Unity or Death; Death of Tyranny! Formation …   Wikipedia

  • Black Hand — noun a secret terrorist society in the United States early in the 20th century • Topics: ↑terrorism, ↑act of terrorism, ↑terrorist act • Hypernyms: ↑organized crime, ↑gangland, ↑gangdom * * * noun …   Useful english dictionary

  • Black Hand — Blackhander, n. 1. Italian, La Mano Nera. any of various secret criminal groups organized in Italy and operating in the U.S. in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, practicing blackmail and violence. 2. an anarchistic society in Spain,… …   Universalium

  • black hand — noun Usage: often capitalized B&H Etymology: Black Hand, a Sicilian and Italian American secret society of the late 19th and 20th centuries Date: 1904 a lawless secret society engaged in criminal activities (as terrorism or extortion) •… …   New Collegiate Dictionary

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