Serbia as a butterfly woman armed with a sword, the Serbian flag represented on her wings. From a series of postcards depicting the allies as butterfly women. (The counterpart is a series depicting the Central Powers as stinging insects.)

Serbie



Reverse: Editions "Aux Alliés" Paris, Helio. L. Géligné, 255. Bd. Raspail, Paris



Visé Paris No 24

Other views: Larger

Union or Death, the Black Hand, a Serbian secret society that included the head of the Serbian Intelligence Services, provided training and weapons to assassins to kill Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Serbia's Prime Minister, made some attempt to stop the plot, but he was too late or ignored. Gavrilo Princip and his companions returned from Serbia to Bosnia with four revolvers and six bombs.

Formerly a province of the Ottoman Empire, autonomous since 1817, the Kingdom of Serbia achieved independence in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. King Peter ascended to the throne in 1903 when Serbian officers murdered the prior king and his wife.

Many Serbs aimed for a greater Serbia, by pushing southwards against Turkey, and westward into Bosnia-Herzegovina, administered by Austria-Hungary since 1878. Two days after Austria-Hungary annexed the province in 1908, Serbian officials founded Union or Death to pursue Serbian aims against Austria-Hungary.

With Montenegro, Greece, and Bulgaria, Serbia was victorious in the First Balkan War of 1912-13 against Turkey, expanding significantly to the south. Forced by the treaty ending the war to give ground in newly independent Albania, Serbia refused to honor its pre-war agreement with Bulgaria on the division of Macedonia. Bulgaria's responded with the Second Balkan War, attacking Serbia on June 29, 1913. Again Serbia was a victor.

As July passed after the killing of Franz Ferdinand, many thought the crisis had as well, but Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to Serbia, requiring it to respond in 48 hours. Serbia accepted all conditions other than that Austria-Hungary participate in the investigation of the assassination. Unsatisfied, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914, and bombarded its capital of Belgrade the next day.

Serbia held against three Austro-Hungarian invasions in 1914. It was defeated in 1915 by the combined forces of Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Bulgaria.

The Kingdom of Serbia is a country in Europe.

More about The Kingdom of Serbia:

Statistics for Serbia (1)

Type	Statistic
Population	4,547,990

Some places in The Kingdom of Serbia (2)

Click to View	Location Type
Belgrade	City
Nisch	City

Some books about Serbia (6)

Title	Author Last Name	Author First Name
Collected Diplomatic Documents Relating to the Outbreak of the European War
The Road to Sarajevo	Dedijer	Vladimir
The Quality of Mercy: Women at War, Serbia 1915-18	Krippner	Monica
Serbia's Great War 1914-1918	Mitrovic	Andrej
The Balkans, A Laboratory of History	Sloane	William
One Morning in Sarajevo: 28 June 1914	Smith	David James