In such an environment, where potentially hostile countries
are locked in an awkward balance of power, it often
takes only a spark to set off a firestorm. Such was the case
in 1908, when a major European crisis began to emerge in
the Balkans, where the decline of Ottoman power had
turned the region into a tinderbox of ethnic and religious
tensions.
The Bosnian crisis of 1908–1909 began a chain of
events that eventually spun out of control. Since 1878,
Bosnia and Herzegovina had been under the protection of
Austria, but in 1908, Austria took the drastic step of annexing
the two Slavic-speaking territories. Serbia was outraged
at this action because it dashed the Serbs’ hopes of
creating a large Serbian kingdom that would include most
of the southern Slavs. But this possibility was precisely why
the Austrians had annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina. The
creation of a large Serbia would be a threat to the unity of
their empire, with its large Slavic population. The Russians,
desiring to increase their own authority in the Balkans,
supported the Serbs, who then prepared for war
against Austria. At this point, William II demanded that
the Russians accept Austria’s annexation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina or face war with Germany. Weakened from
their defeat in the Russo-JapaneseWar in 1904 –1905, the
Russians backed down but privately vowed revenge.
The crisis intensified in 1912 when Serbia, Bulgaria,
Montenegro, and Greece organized the Balkan League
and defeated the Turks in the First Balkan War. When
the victorious allies were unable to agree on how to divide
the conquered Turkish provinces of Macedonia and
Albania, a second conflict erupted in 1913. Greece, Serbia,
Romania, and the Ottoman Empire attacked and defeated
Bulgaria, which was left with only a small part of
Macedonia. Most of the rest was divided between Serbia
and Greece. Yet Serbia’s aspirations remained unfulfilled.
The two Balkan wars left the inhabitants embittered and
created more tensions among the great powers.
By now Austria-Hungary was convinced that Serbia
was a mortal threat to its empire and must at some point
be crushed. Meanwhile, the French and Russian governments
renewed their alliance and promised each other
that they would not back down at the next crisis. Britain
drew closer to France. By the beginning of 1914, two
armed camps viewed each other with suspicion. The European
“age of progress” was about to come to an inglorious
and bloody end (see Map 4.1 on page 66).
World History
