On June 5, Jovanovic told Bilinski, that it might be good and reasonable if Franz Ferdinand were to not go to Sarajevo. He did, however, get along better with the Minister of Finance, Dr. Because of his extremist, pan-Serb views, Jovanovich was not well received in Austrian Foreign Ministry offices. The Serbian Minister to Vienna, Jovan Jovanovic, was given the task of warning the Austrians. When that failed, Pasic decided that he would try to warn the Austrians in carefully vague diplomatic ways that would not expose the Black Hand. He would also be admitting to deeper knowledge of anti-Austrian actions in Serbia.Ī weak attempt was made to intercept the assassins at the border. Should he warn the Austrians of the plot, he would be seen as a traitor by his countrymen. The tangled connections between the Black Hand and the Serbian government would put Serbia in a very bad position. If he did nothing, and the plot succeeded the Black Hand's involvement would surely come to light. When Prime Minister Pasic learned of the assassination plot, he had a difficult problem on his hands. Three young Bosnians were recruited, trained and equipped: Gavrilo Princip, Nedjelko Cabrinovic and Trifko Grabez.īecause of its many government and army members, the Black Hand's activities were fairly well known to the Serbian government. When it was learned that the Heir-Apparent to the Austrian throne, Franz Ferdinand, was scheduled to visit Sarajevo in June of 1914, the Black Hand decided to assassinate him. The group included many government officials, professionals and army officers. The Black Hand took over the older group's work of anti-Austrian propaganda within Serbia, sabotage, espionage and political murders abroad - especially in provinces Serbia wished to annex. They coveted the provinces for their own Serb empire.Ī secret society called Ujedinjenje ili Smrt, ('Union or Death') was founded in Belgrade, an outgrowth of an older Serb nationalist group: Narodna Odbrana. (Austria was supposed to help Russia in the Dardanelles first) After Austria payed Turkey a cash settlement, most of Europe calmed down. Russia, particularly, was upset, even though the Russians had earlier given their consent to the annexation. For whatever reason, the annexation caused quite a stir in Europe. It may have been an act of will by the Austrians, just to show that they were still an active, sovereign power. Full inclusion into the empire would give Bosnians full rights and privileges. Annexation would remove any hopes Turkey might have for reclaiming the provinces. On October 6, 1908, Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina directly into the Austro-Hungarian empire. Many in Serbia openly shared that desire. Many Bosnian-Serbs felt a strong nationalistic desire to have their province joined with that of their Serb brothers across the river in Serbia. Austria was granted the power to administer the two provinces indefinitely.īosnia was populated primarily by three groups - Croats (Roman Catholic), ethnic Serbs (Serb-Orthodox) and Muslims (left from the days of Turkish rule). The Treaty of Berlin (1878) settled the disposition of lands lost by the Turks following their disastrous war with Russia. Accurate orthography accompanies the map shown belowīosnia and Herzegovina were provinces just south of Austria which had, until 1878, been governed by the Turks. Cabrinovic, for instance, will be spelled as is, and not rendered as Chabrinovitj, or Chabrinovitch. I have chosen to use the same letters, but without the diacritical marks, rather than translitterating. Note on Slavic spelling: Due to the current limitations of HTML, certain Slavic characters can not be reproduced. Sarajevo, JSarajevo, JThe Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
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