The Habsburgs’ Game

Today’s installment concludes Austria-Hungary Annexes Bosnia-Herzegovina,
the name of our combined selection from Emil Reich and Major Archibald Colquhoun. The concluding installment, by Major Archibald Colquhoun from The Balkan Problem, was published in around 1908.

If you have journeyed through all of the installments of this series, just one more to go and you will have completed eight thousand words from great works of history. Congratulations! For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Austria-Hungary Annexes Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Time: 1908
Place: Bosnia-Herzegovina

Austria’s great chance of a free hand with Serbia lay in the obvious inability of Russia to make any move at this stage in her career the inability which Baron Aehrenthal, in his long experience of Russia, believed himself to have accurately gaged. At the same time it was, to many people, an incredibly rash policy which ranged a predominantly Slav State like Austria Hungary, with all her internal dissensions, against the Slav world, with Russia at its head. Austria, hitherto regarded as holding the balance in Middle Europe, now, at a crisis in her history, threw herself into the Teutonic scale. In return she receives that support of her policy by which Germany, also turning her back on a traditional policy, inflicts an unforgettable humiliation on Russia. Bulgaria, whose conduct has never displayed any altruism, cannot regard with equanimity the disappearance of the buffer-state between herself and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

As for the annexed provinces themselves, there is no remedy save to agitate constitutionally for autonomy within the Empire. Austria, as has been said, has treated her other Slav subjects with generosity. Unfortunately for the Serbo Croats of the annexed provinces, they have fallen, not into the hands of the Emperor Francis Joseph, who has become comparatively liberal and constitutional in his ideas, but into those of his heir and “the new Andrássy,” Baron Aehrenthal, the exponents of a new and vigorous foreign policy. It is no secret that the Archduke, Franz Ferdinand, for so long a time a “dark horse,” has developed strong ideas, and is by no means likely to be a colorless ruler. He is of the clerical reactionary school, a Hapsburg of the old type; and his hand is visible in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the Catholic propaganda, which is causing such bitter heart-burning among the Mussulmans and Orthodox. This is the country where the people, prince and peasant alike, actually preferred Islam to Catholicism at an earlier period. Nor is the bitterness allayed by the system of trade monopolies given to foreigners (nearly always German Catholics) and the openly avowed intention of permitting, if not encouraging, emigration so that German colonies may be planted on the soil. All this, added to the red-tapism of Austrian bureaucracy and the denial of the right of free speech, the press, and public assemblies, makes the lot of the Bosnian patriot a hard one indeed; and yet, if he has patience and can control his people and keep them in the country, he may win in the long run. His is the unconquerable tenacity of the Slav, against which the Prussians and the Magyars alike are vainly contending. It used to be taken as a sort of epigrammatic truism that the twentieth century belongs to the Germans. So far, however, the Slavs have more than held their own.

The suggestion that triadism should supersede dualism as the basis of the monarchy supposes the erection of a third (Slav) state made up of Croatia, Slavonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Serbia. Hungary might possibly support the project if the new state were to be part of the lands of St. Stephen; but it is hard to see how Austria would profit by such a scheme. Moreover, the southern Slavs are not encouraged by the experience of Croatia; and Serbia would resist to the death any such attempt-one which, indeed, Europe could hardly contemplate quietly. A more practicable scheme is that of reorganizing the Dual Monarchy on a federal basis, in which it would be possible to recognize the national aspirations of each race. This scheme has one drawback in the fact that racial and geographical boundaries do not coincide; nevertheless it is a practical proposal, and as such is the greatest menace to the Magyars, who would lose through it their political ascendancy in the State. The views of the heir apparent on these subjects are not clearly known; but he is above everything German and Ultramontane, and seemingly believes that by a policy of sitting on the safety-valve he can re-erect the Empire of Metternich. In foreign policy he and Baron Aehrenthal are evidently in favor of “l’audace, toujours de l’audace.”

Austria-Hungary’s true position in Europe is as the intermediary between Germany and Russia. Herself made mixed elements, she holds the balance between Teuton and Slav. The Emperor, Francis Joseph, in the last forty years has worked patiently to maintain the balance within his empire, which was the only sure foundation for securing its external safety. This policy seems to have been abandoned. The question is how far the internal strength of Austria Hungary justifies her. The army, reorganized since 1866, is a splendid instrument, highly finished; but its racial composition is still as mixed as it was in 1820, 1840, and on other occasions when, in Italy, Croatia, and Galicia, the effects of race feeling were found so disastrous. In the Italian campaigns of 1859 and 1866 there were desertions which seriously embarrassed the Austrian operations. Slavonic regiments could not be induced to serve in Croatia. In the Prussian campaign of up of 1866 large numbers allowed themselves to be captured without striking a blow; Italian regiments passed over to the enemy with bands playing; while the famous Hungarian legion of General Klapka was formed of deserters from the Austrian army. During the Prague riots in 1897, Czech troops refused to serve against their countrymen. Moreover, Magyar support has been secured only as part of the Magyarizing policy which will eventually disrupt the lands of St. Stephen. It carries with it obligations which may be used as a lever to uproot the present basis of Dualism.

Austria-Hungary is playing a game in which apparent victory now may cost her dear in years to come. Does Germany intend to build up a strong and independent Austria-Hungary? Is she not, rather, interested in preserving the conflicting elements within that conglomerate state? What these conflicting elements are has been stated, in barest outline, in this article, space forbidding any reference to religious and social struggles which are waged irrespective of race. Three facts emerge from the tangle. The Hapsburgs are irretrievably pledged to the Hohenzollern hegemony; the Magyars dig their own graves; and the Slavs, throughout Europe, are being goaded afresh into national consciousness.

This ends our selections on Austria-Hungary Annexes Bosnia-Herzegovina by two of the most important authorities of this topic:

• Crisis in the Near East by Emil Reich published in around 1908.
• The Balkan Problem by Major Archibald Colquhoun published in around 1908.

Emil Reich began here. Major Archibald Colquhoun began here.

This site features short and lengthy pieces on all aspects of our shared past. Here are selections from the great historians who may be forgotten (and whose work have fallen into public domain) as well as links to the most up-to-date developments in the field of history and of course, original material from yours truly, Jack Le Moine. – A little bit of everything historical is here.

More information on Austria-Hungary Annexes Bosnia-Herzegovina here and here and below.