The Bosnian Crisis of 1908

[ disclaimer: this is... more regurgitated revision/etc. thou hast been warn'd! oh yes. now read on if you're really interested in the bosnian crisis of 1908 in which austria-hungary and russia decide to screw over various treaty agreements to take what they want from the balkans but the thing ends up falling apart and russia gets pissed at austria-hungary then germany randomly steps in and supports austria-hungary which was probably a good thing to do because by then austria-hungary was pretty much germany's only ally because after bismarck was forced to resign under kaiser wilhelm ii, germany's alliance systems kind of collapsed and france which was once diplomatically isolated ended up in a strong alliance . . . and germany didn't have a very long list of allies . . . congrats if you read all of that and understood it! which . . . i don't know if you did . . . yeah . . . ]

In 1908 the foreign ministers of Austria-Hungary and Russia decided to take what they wanted in the Balkans.
Austria-Hungary wanted to annex Bosnia and Herzegovina, which it had been administering since the Congress of Berlin in 1878.
Russia wanted free use of the Bosporus and Dardanelles Straits, to allow its Black Sea fleet free access to the Mediteranean.
Both agreed to announce their measures simultaneously to prevent opposition by the other powers to this violation of treaty laws.

BUTTTT Austria-Hungary ended up announcing their annexation separately, while the Russian foreign minister was in Paris. There was such an uproar in Europe over this that Russia was now unable to claim her part of the bargain.

Public opinion in Russia and Serbia was inflamed. Russia denied that any such deal had been made, condemned the Austro-Hungarian action, and called for an international conference to put things right. Meanwhile, Serbia began agitation against the annexation.

Britain sought to mediate this crisis, save Russian face, and avoid war. However, in 1909 Germany proposed that the Austro-Hungarian annexation should stand and remain unmodified. When Russia hesitated in accepting this proposal, Germnay chucked an ultimatum - accept the changes, or Germany would go to war against Russia.

Russia backed down and the crisis ended.

RESULT?

The Entente powers (France, Britain, Russia) became suspicious of German motives. The Entente was further cemented because Russia became more dependent on French and British support than before. Russia meanwhile started building an anti-Austrian league in the Balkans, and encouraging Serbia (now a sworn enemy of Austria-Hungary) in agitation of the Slav minorities in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.


-checks notes-
Okay, it's actually encouraging anti-Austrian agitation among the Slav minorities in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.


Okay.

MAN MY HANDS/ARMS/WHATEV ARE GONNA DIE FROM THIS.

AND OHMYGOD
Yeah I hope I remember this hahahahah.

Though hopefully it shouldn't come up too much.

WHY DO I LIKE ABSORBING RANDOM . . . FACTS . . .


Unification German Unification . . . homfg.