The driving force behind it all was really Austria and its growing
existential angst. It struck a modus vivendi of mutual paralysis in
the Balkan with Russia as early as 1897. It lasted ten years in
which only Austria and Russia stood still but history defied them
both. To its horror, Austria discovered that in its pursuit of
glorious and condescending isolation, it was left only with Germany
as an ally, the very Germany whose Weltpolitik put it on a clear
collusion course with the moribund Sublime Port. Russia, on the
other hand, teamed up with a rising power, with Britain, at least
implicitly. The abrupt and involuntary departure of the pliable and
easily corruptible Obrenovic's in Serbia bode ill to the checks and
balances Austria so cultivated in its relationship with the
recalcitrant Serbs. Karageorgevic was much less enamoured with
Austrian shenanigans. The final nail in the ever more crowded coffin
of Austrian foreign policy was hammered in in 1908 when the Young
Turks effectively re-opened the question of the administration of
Bosnia-Herzegovina by Austria.
These territories were always under Turkish sovereignty, the
Austrians "discovered" to growing alarm. One solution was to annex
the administered units, as Austria's Minister of Foreign affairs
suggested.
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