The
members of the Black Hand lived secretly and dies mysteriously and
meaninglessly.
But the Black Hand - like the IMRO - was a child of the times. The
Balkans was perceived to be the gate to the crumbling Ottoman
Empire, The coveted prizes were not dirt poor Macedonia or Albania.
It was the stepping stone and the springboard that they represented
to much vaster territories, to the riches of the orient, to the
exotic realms of Asia. All Big Powers and would be Big Powers
engaged in the pugilistics of self-positioning. The demise of the
Ottomans was imminent and this imminence exerted subtle but
verifiable pressure on all the participant in this grubby grabbing
game. Additionally, in this fin de siecle, all involved felt doomed.
The rumblings of counter-revolutionary Russia, the drang nach Osten
of Austria - all were attempts at self re-definition and self-
preservation.
Perhaps this explains the outlandish and disproportionate reaction
of Austria to the needling of Bosnian terrorism. assertive
minorities constituted a direct threat to the very cohesion of
Empire. And Serbia blocked the hitherto unhindered path to eastern
territories - depriving Austria of lebensraum and raison d'etre.
Faced with a limiting event horizon, Austria imploded like a black
hole, unto itself.
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