Balkans crisis (jan 1, 1908 – jan 1, 1914)

Description:

1908:

Oct 7 Responding to what appears to be a weakened Ottoman Empire, Russia's Prime Minister Stolypin has made a secret agreement with Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary concerning Bosnia and Herzegovina – until now ruled by Austria-Hungary but nominally a part of the Ottoman Empire. Franz Joseph announces his intention of giving these territories autonomy and constitutional rule, and he announces their annexation.

Oct 7 Serbs have been looking forward to independence from foreign rule for all Serbs and a united Serbia. Serbia threatens Austria-Hungary with war. A secret organization in Serbia and students in Bosnia begin organizing resistance to Austrian rule, by violence if necessary.

Oct 8 Ordinary Russians side with their fellow Orthodox Christian Serbian brothers in Bosnia and Herzegovina, against their Austro-Hungarian Roman Catholic rulers. Russian pan-Slavists are especially annoyed. Russian cooperation with Austria-Hungary is ending. A Russian diplomat Izvolsky tells a Serbian minister, Vesnitch, "Hitherto we have always supported Serbia and we shall support her in the future, always and with all possible means."

Oct 28 Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II is supporting his ally Austria-Hungary but not in military action. He thinks of the Serbs as Asiatics and as part of the Asiatic threat to Western civilization. He is another ruler who owes his power to accident of birth. In an interview published in the London Daily Telegraph he says, "You English are mad, mad, mad as March hares." He states that "it is one of my dearest wishes to live on the best of terms with England." Britain's Foreign Secretary Edward Gray, meanwhile, is unhappy about the annexation, believing it has created too much volatility.

1909:

Mar 25 Austria-Hungary has amassed troops for an invasion of Serbia. Russia has a defense treaty with Serbia. Germany wants Russia to convince Serbia to withdraw its objections to Austria-Hungary's annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Russia's Tsar Nicholas doesn't want war and complies.

Mar 31 Serbia sends a message to Vienna (capital of Austria-Hungary) agreeing to the acceptance by Europe's imperial powers to the annexation and to live with the Austro-Hungarian Empire on "good neighborly terms." There will be no invasion. Franz Joseph's Imperialism has triumphed.

1911:

May 9 Ten Serbs meet and form a secret organization dedicated to uniting Serbs, including those under Habsburg rule in Bosnia, into a greater Serbia. The group calls itself Unification or Death. It will be better known as the Black Hand. It is led by a military officer, Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijevic, to be known as Apis. He is not connected with those making decisions for Serbia's government. Before the year is over he will send someone on a failed mission to assassinate Emperor Franz Joseph.

1912:

Feb 29 Serbia and Bulgaria secretly sign an alliance pledging to come to the defense of the other during war.

Oct 18 Serbia's King Peter joins Serbia to the war against Turkey. He claims that the Turks (Ottoman Empire) "showed no interest in their duties towards their citizens and turned a deaf ear to all complaints and suggestions." He pledges support to Serbs outside his kingdom nominally under Turkey's rule and help to Albanians in conflict with Turks. Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia call themselves the Balkan League, and with Montenegro they are now at war against the Turks. Germany backs the Turks, supplying them with arms to be tested on the field of battle. France backs Serbia.


Oct 24 At the Battle of Kumanovo (in Kosovo province), Serb forces defeat the Ottoman army, the Serbs suffering 687 killed, the Ottomans about 1,200. The Serb army numbered an estimated 132,000, the Ottomans an estimated 58,000.

Nov 21 The Serb victory at the Battle of Kumanovo is followed by Serbian forces reaching the Adriatic Sea at Alessio. Austria-Hungary threatens war against Serbia.

Nov 22 Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm promises his friend, Archduke Ferdinand that Germany would back Austria-Hungary in a confrontation with Serbia. He dislikes Serbs, having described them as Asiatics.

Nov 23 Russians are sympathetic with their fellow Orthodox Christians, the Serbs. Tsar Nicholas of Russia tells his Council of Ministers that he has decided to mobilize three Russian army districts – Kiev, Warsaw and Odessa – in response to Austria-Hungary (Roman Catholic) having mobilized against Serbia. France's Raymond Poincare has already, on the 17th, assured the Russian ambassador to France that France would honor its alliance with Russia in the event of war.

Nov 28 Albania declares independence from the Ottoman Empire. Austria-Hungary is supporting territory held by Serbia and Montenegro to be given to Albania.

Dec 10 The German emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, views "Germandom" in a Darwinian struggle with Slavic people ("Slavdom"). Today he tells the Swiss ambassador in Berlin: 'we will not leave Austria in the lurch: if diplomacy fails we shall have to fight this racial war'. (Max Hastings, 1914: Europe Goes to War, p9)

1913:

Mar 11 Austria-Hungary and Russia agree to demobilizations that end their war crisis. Austro-Hungarian armies in the northeastern province of Galicia are to demobilize and Russia is to allow conscripts to return home, lowering Russia's military strength to normal peacetime levels. It signals to Serbia that Russia is not going to back Serbian ambitions to gain access to the Adriatic Sea or Montenegro's ambition to take the city of Scutari (Shkodër). The Habsburg regime in Austria is left with the impression that Russia will respond to intimidation. Some Russians believe that the tsar's government has sold out the Serbs. Meanwhile, Serbia has been willing to give up gains to the Adriatic coast. It doesn't want war with Austria-Hungary.

Jun 29 The Second Balkan War erupts when Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War, attacks its former allies Serbia and Greece. Bulgaria now has a defense treaty with Austria. Montenegro is siding with Serbia. Romania has warned Bulgaria that it will not remain neutral.

Jul 10 Romania declares war on Bulgaria.

Dec 3 A Serbian journal in Chicago editorializes on Archduke Ferdinand's proposed visit to Sarajevo in 1914: "Take holy vengeance! Death to the Habsburg dynasty!" Serb youths in Bosnia have been oppressed by Austrian authorities responding to Serb nationalism. Teenage boys in Sarajevo jumped at the opportunity to join a conspiracy to assassinate the Archduke. Their leader is a nineteen year-old: Gavrilo Princip.

Dec 31 The year 1913 ends with leading strategists in Austria-Hungary still favoring war against Serbia, and against Russia if Russia intervenes. Austria-Hungary's military leaders fear Russia's growing military capability, and they favor getting the war with Serbia over with before Russia strengthened its military forces.

1914:
Jun 28 Archduke Ferdinand, heir to the Habsburg throne in Vienna and Inspector General of the armed forces, journeys to Bosnia without the usual protection against assassins. He remarks that all is in the hands of God. In Sarajevo he is assassinated. The elderly Habsburg emperor, Franz Joseph, is relieved. He didn't like the idea of Ferdinand as his successor but had accepted it because it was the order or things.

Jul 5 Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany agrees that the Ferdinand's assassins and regicide should be punished. He believes that his cousin, the Tsar of Russia, will agree. He goes on a sailing vacation off the coast of Norway.

Jul 14 Austria-Hungary secretly moves to start its war against Serbia.

Added to timeline:

Date: