Page - 29 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

 The Powder Keg 29 ing the withdrawal of Serbian troops from the Albanian territories. Should they fail to comply, Austria-Hungary threatened to take ‘appropriate measures’, as it chose to call them.40 This could be interpreted in any number of different ways. On the same day, Berlin informed Vienna that it continued to support the Austrian policy in full. Serbia, which had eight days to meet the Austrian demands, backed down immediately and promised to withdraw its troops from the Albanian territories before the deadline set by Vienna. This put Serbia back in its place, and  – from Belgrade’s point of view  – was a humiliation. In both Balkan wars, it had achieved almost all its goals, except for gaining access to the sea. On the other hand, Austria-Hungary had experienced for the second time that applying serious pressure to Serbia had caused it to give way. At this point, a balance can to some extent be drawn of the pre-history of the First World War, and clear patterns of action can also be distinguished. Austria-Hunga- ry’s foreign policy was to a large degree a policy directed at the Balkans. The Balkans and their problems not only absorbed most of Austria-Hungary’s attention, but also consumed the highest level of energy. There, everything was undergoing a process of change, a new conflict could break out almost every day, and it was difficult to predict who would be pitted against whom, and what the precise nature of the dispute would be. Statements given one day no longer be applied the next. Almost all of the states created by the gradual disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, most of which were very new, drew on nationalistic and above all historical evidence in order to underpin their claims and draw attention to their traditional rights. The Serbs drew attention to Stefan Nemanja (1166-1196) and Stefan Dušan (1331–1355) and their Great Serbian Empire. The Romanians not only used the Dacians and the Romans to support their claims, but also the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia and the battle with the Magyars, which had lasted for centuries. The Bulgarians did the same with the Great Bulgarian Empire from the 7th century and the ‘golden’ 9th and 10th centuries, while Albania took pride in its successful battle against the Ottomans under Skanderberg in the 15th century. For their part, the Turks, understandably, were reluctant to simply give up their European territories, and fought to retain them. Meanwhile, Austria-Hungary, which until 1912 had bordered the Ottoman Empire directly, was involved in every conflict, either in order to maintain or gain power, or to keep Serbia’s ambitions for expansion in check. Naturally, other powers such as Great Britain, France and Italy were also present in the Balkans. Italy was particularly involved, since it had an interest in gaining a foothold in Albania. Russia had become active in order to support both Serbia and Bulgaria or Romania in alternation. In this regard, the credibility of the Russian Em- pire was ultimately undermined, since it had let Serbia down twice, and Bulgaria once. France and Great Britain also had a whole cluster of interests ranging from economic advantages and power of influence through to a likely anxiety shared by both countries at the prospect of Germany strengthening its position in the Balkan region.