Starting in 1878, Bosnia was occupied by Serb rival Austria. Naturally that was annoying and made a larger pan Serbia over all Serbs less possible. Why not form a Black Hand within the Serb government to make sure those wimps don’t make some back room deal with the Austrians and all their offered economic subsidies. Maybe we can even exact a little revenge on the Austrians with a little Balkan style justice. What could go wrong? So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
I asked above what could go wrong. Well check out this stamp. Austrian Hapsburg Emperor Franz Joseph presiding over the military occupation government of majority Muslim Bosnia. Now that government was occupying Serbia which is spelled the German way. The Hapsburg Monarchy imagined that with some degree of local autonomy, the people of various ethnicities would be happy to be their loyal subjects. It worked for the most part with Hungary and many a new Balkan nation recruited a German Royal house to rule them. It seems implausible that it could have worked, but this stamp got your letter mailed in Belgrade for two years.
Todays stamp is issue A24, a 60 Heller stamp issued by the Austrian occupation government of Serbia in 1916. The Serbian overstamp of the Austrian military occupation of Bosnia stamp existed in 21 denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 80 cents unused. It is worth more used, I can see why Austria obviously printed extras for the stamp trade, there is a lot going on with this stamp for the stamp collector to ferret out.
The occupation of Bosnia by the Austrians put more of them on more sides of Slavic Serbia. Serbia was a landlocked country and most of it’s imports and exports passed through Austria with Austrians taking a big cut. Serbian alarm at this can be seen in the coup of 1903 that brought to power the less pro Austrian of the two Serbian Royal houses, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/06/21/serbia-unlike-so-many-places-had-its-own-royal-line-or-more-problimatically-two/ . The new regime then tried to get tough on the Austrians by increasing customs duties on goods from Austria. Austria then closed the borders to all trade for landlocked Serbia. They then sent out feelers to the Serb government offering trade concessions in return for better relations and acceptance of the status quo.
Many Serbs harbored the dream of Serbs controlling more of nearby lands with a relationship with big power Russia. A yugoSlavia if you will with Serbs dominating. Members of the government and Army were very worried Serb Prime Minister Nikola Pasic would wimp out and accept an Austrian deal. They formed a secret society called the Black Hand that would dispense rough justice to wimps and sell outs. Their leader was a Serbian Army Major code named Apis. Since their views coalesced, Black Hand was in alliance with Muslim Albanians who also resented Austria. Black Hand was very worried, with some justification that the upcoming visit of the Hapsburg heir to the area and so there was arraigned a successful assassination of him in Sarajevo that lead to the starting of World War I.
In the early days of the war with Austria, Apis was promoted to Coronel, although allegedly not for his planning of the assassination. By 1916, however Serbia had been conquered with the remnants of the Army marching into Albania. The Serb government in exile reconvened on the Greek island of Corfu. With complete victory it seemed the way back was to purge themselves of the Black Hand in order that they might be allowed to return to Belgrade by the Austrians. Code Name Apis was tried for his part in the assassination and executed. The government was later allowed back to Belgrade and given power to rule a wider Yugoslavia not by Austria but rather by the victorious Allied side.
In 1953, Tito’s later version of Yugoslavia had their high court withdraw the conviction of Apis. They didn’t quite say that the assassination in Sarajevo was a good thing, but they said that there was inadequate evidence to convict. This was allowed to happen, Austria was now the land locked ethnic rumpstate and was no longer mounting much of a defense of the Hapsburgs.
Well my drink is empty and I will not again today reach for the bottle, I don’t want to be accused of having a black hand. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.