The Europe of the early twentieth century was marked by instability and
unresolved conflicts. In the Balkans, the southeastern portion of the continent,
three facts defined the overall situation. The Ottoman Empire's grip
over this region, stretching back for five hundred years and slipping for the
past century, now disappeared. The peoples of the region had won increased
freedom from Turkish rule in the nineteenth century. The Balkan Wars of
1912-191*3 virtually eliminated the Turkish presence in Europe. Thus, the
old order, long tottering, suddenly vanished.
The second element was the historical tendency of Russia and Austria-
Hungary (the Habsburg or Dual Empire) to compete for power and influence
in the Balkans as Ottoman weakness presented the opportunity to do so. As
Turkish power faded, Russian and Austrian ambitions collided over who
would control, influence, or win over the newly independent or newly
expanded nations of the Balkans: Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Rumania.
A third element was the ethnic tensions of the region, which reached over
international borders in the relationship between the small nation of Serbia
and its giant neighbor to the north. Austria-Hungary at the start of the
century included a collection of Slavic peoples, increasingly restless under
the control of Germans in Vienna and Hungarians in Budapest. The existence
of large numbers of ethnic Serbs within the borders of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire and the ambitions of the Serbian government to bring these
ethnic brothers "home" to the Serbian nation threatened to create an ethnic
landslide. Viewing the prospect that the Dual Empire faced total destruction,
Austrian leaders like Field Marshal Conrad von Hotzendorf, chief of the
general staff, saw Serbia as a deadly enemy that somehow had to be erased
from the map.
World History
