Young Bosnia



Young Bosnia (Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian: Mlada Bosna; Cyrillic: Млада Босна) was a revolutionary movement active before World War I. The members were predominantly school students. It included primarily Serbs but also Bosniaks and Croats There were several motivations promoted amongst different members of the group. There were members who promoted Yugoslavist aims of pan-South Slav unification of territories including Bosnia into a Yugoslavia. There were members who promoted Serbian nationalist aims of pan-Serb unification into Serbia. Young Bosnia was inspired from a variety of ideas, movements, and events; such as German romanticism, anarchism, Russian revolutionary socialism, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Friedrich Nietzsche, and the Battle of Kosovo.

The rise to power of the popular Karađorđević dynasty in Serbia in the 1900s after the May Overthrow of the Obrenovic dynasty by the Serbian Army in 1903, stimulated support by both Serbs and South Slavs for their unification into a state led by Belgrade. Support for revolutionary Yugoslavism in Bosnia grew with the rise of the Serbo-Croatian Progressive Organization in 1911, and drew in support for the cause from Serbs as well as Croats and some Muslims. Young Bosnia sought the assistance of the Serbian government and received assistance by the Black Hand - a covert organization founded by the Serbian Army.

It was formed during 1900s in the Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina (an annexed condominium of Austria-Hungary), with significant influence from neighbouring Serbia.

Two notable organizations are referred to in connection with Young Bosnia: Narodna Odbrana and Black Hand. During a Serbian kangaroo court in French-occupied Salonika in 1916–17, Chief of Serbian Military Intelligence Dragutin Dimitrijević Apis testified that he had organized the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914, (the assassin was Gavrilo Princip). In the process, he used not only his power over elements of the Serbian military, but also the Black Hand. Leaders of the Black Hand in turn had penetrated Narodna Obrana and used the Narodna organization to infiltrate the arms and assassins into Sarajevo.

The Serbian National Organization of Petar Kočić had ties with the Young Bosnia. They participated in the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand which ultimately, led to World War I. "The political union of the Yugoslavs [..] was my basic idea [..] I am a Yugoslav nationalist, aiming for the unification of all Yugoslavs, and I do not care what form of state, but it must be free from Austria" -Gavrilo Princip during his trial

Claimed members of Young Bosnia who participated in the assassination were:
 * Gavrilo Princip
 * Nedeljko Čabrinović
 * Vaso Čubrilović
 * Trifko Grabež
 * Danilo Ilić
 * Muhamed Mehmedbašić
 * Cvjetko Popović
 * Miško Jovanović
 * Veljko Čubrilović
 * Vladimir Gaćinović, member of Young Bosnia, Narodna Odbrana and Black Hand