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| The Bosnian Crisis
At the beginning of the 20th century, as at the end of it, the most unstable country in Europe was Bosnia-Herzegovina. Unlike its neighbours, such as Serbia and Albania, Bosnia had never enjoyed freedom or independence on freeing itself from Turkish rule. (Bosnia, in fact, only became independent for the first time in 1992). From being Turkish, Bosnia had come under Austrian control in 1878. In 1908, taking advantage of a crisis within the Turkish government in Constantinople, Austria-Hungary actually annexed Bosnia. It was now not only under Austrian control, but also actually a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Serbia was furious at the annexation. As in the 1990s Serbia considered itself the "older brother" of a large part of the Bosnian population (i.e. the Bosnian Serbs). Again, as in the 1990s, Russia was prepared to support Serbia in its "defence" of the Bosnians. Some Serbs even hoped to unite all the Slavic peoples south of the Danube in a new country: South Serbia or Yugoslavia.
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© Shirley Burchill, Nigel Hughes, Richard Gale, Peter Price and Keith Woodall 2007 Footnote : As far as the Open Door team can ascertain the image shown on this page is in the Public Domain. |
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