Ancient history

The crisis in the Balkans

The crisis in the Balkans began when Austria decided to annex the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina to its territory.

By Lilian Aguiar

The crisis in the Balkans began in 1908, when Austria decided to annex to its territory the Turkish provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, coveted by Serbia and Russia. Germany declared its support for the Austrians. Russia, still unrecovered from the damage of the Russo-Japanese war, sought an alliance with France and encouraged Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro to avenge the atrocities committed by the Ottomans against the Macedonian Slavs with a military invasion of which it was previously resolved that, after the defeat of the Turks, Albania would be given to Serbia.

The victory of those small Balkan countries against the Turks impressed the world and alarmed Austria. When the victors disagreed over the partition, Austria, fearful of Serbia's expansion in the west, diplomatically forced the recognition of Albania as an independent state. With no way out to sea and frustrated in their pretensions, the Serbs sharpened their hatred against the Austrians.

Serbian nationalism was related to Pan-Slavism, which was based on the idea that all Slavs in Eastern Europe constituted one big family, having the protectorate of Russia. At the same time, there was a revenge movement that poisoned the French, remembering the defeat of 1870. It was in this climate of insecurity, militarism and exacerbated nationalism, of secret agreements and political alliances that a Serbian student, Gavrilo Princip, murdered on June 28 1914, in Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian crown.

Austria's reaction against Serbia came exactly one month after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the Austrians began bombing Belgrade. With the bombing of Belgrade, the political alliances made earlier came into conflict, thus initiating the first conflicts of the First World War.