"The Constitution of the Ujedinjenje ili Smrt" (Unification or Death)

Originally compiled in May 1911

"On entering into the organization, every member must know that by joining the organization he loses his own personality; he must not expect any glory for himself, nor any personal benefit, material or moral. Consequently the member who should dare to try to exploit the organization for his personal, or class, or party interests shall be punished by death."

While many terrorist organizations may claim to have changed the course of world history, one can reasonably claim to have sparked a world war. The organization was "Unification or Death," popularly known as Black Hand, and the war it started was World War I (1914–18).

Black Hand was comprised of military officers from Serbia, a country in the complex, mountainous area of southeast Europe known as the Balkans. For hundreds of...