The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

view Vienna has always hatched intrigues to divide Belgrade and Cettinje, and has tried as long as possible to keep in her occupation the Sandjak of Novibazar. But with a persistent policy of denationalisation and persecution she has ended by creating dissatisfaction, the spirit of rebellion, the South Slav Irredenta. We now know what has been done in Bosnia where the authority of the bayonet still reigns supreme; and the last transformations in the government have brought the whole civil administration under the control of the chief military commandant, General Potiorek.”’ +

If the occupation of Bosnia and Hercegovina was a solace to the Hapsburg Crown after the loss of Venetia and Lombardy, the joy over the decision arrived at at the Congress of Berlin was not without its bitterness. Count Andrassy was never pardoned by the Crown for having achieved only a half success, since it was merely an occupation with a European mandate of administration and not simple and outright annexation. Therefore the annexation of those provinces was prepared for secretly and carefully. But it provoked in 1908-9 a dangerous crisis. It was a prelude to the later invasion of Belgium and a key to the political psychology of the Central Empires. United in a common purpose, relying on their armed forces, Austria-Hungary and

1 Virginio Gayda, L’ Austria di Francesco Giuseppe Milano. Roma, 1915.

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