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Austria THE FINAL YEARS OF THE EMPIRE AND WORLD WAR I
The Crisis over Bosnia and Hercegovina
Around 1906 the Balkans again became the focus of great-power
rivalry, as Russia renewed its interest in the Balkans and became
Serbia's great-power patron. A crisis erupted in 1908, when
Turkey began to be reorganized as a constitutional state. Bosnia
and Hercegovina, which was Turkish territory under
Austro-Hungarian administration, was invited to send delegates to
the new Turkish parliament. Austria-Hungary responded by formally
annexing Bosnia and Hercegovina in violation of various
international agreements. It quelled Turkey's objections with
financial compensation. But by alienating Russia and Italy, the
annexation was a costly diplomatic victory for Austria-Hungary at
a time when the military alliance system of Europe was moving
against it. Britain had resolved colonial rivalries with both
France and Russia, paving the way for the cooperation of the
three countries in the Triple Entente.
Following the crisis over Bosnia and Hercegovina, Russia
encouraged the independent Balkan states to form what was
intended to be an anti-Austro-Hungarian coalition. But the new
coalition, called the Balkan League, was more interested in
partitioning the remaining Turkish territories in the Balkans,
and it defeated Turkey in the First Balkan War in 1912. The
Balkan allies turned on each other in 1913 in a war over the
division of the former Turkish territories. In this Second Balkan
War, Serbia doubled both its territory and its population.
Data as of December 1993
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