Seite - 20 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

20 On the Eve Habsburg Monarchy ? Would the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne perhaps never have travelled to Sarajevo… ? As it was, events took a different turn. Soon, further agreements were reached with the Ottoman Empire, since Aus- tria-Hungary wished to pay adequate compensation for the annexed territories. The Sanjak of Novi Pazar and its approximately 350,000 inhabitants was also returned to Turkey, and besides this, the Ottoman Empire had nothing to gain overall from fall- ing out with the Habsburg Monarchy on a permanent basis. However, the disputes continued between Austria and Russia, and particularly between Austria and Serbia, which regarded the constitutional changes in the Balkans as a threat and above all as an obstacle to its own expansion. In the end, Aehrenthal saw reason to publish extracts of the agreements made with Russia in order to make it clear, beyond the current dispute, that Russia had already agreed to an annexation in 1876 and 1877, and that the agree- ment with Izvolsky was far more concrete than the Russian had subsequently wished to accept. This step, whether or not it was justified, was regarded in St. Petersburg as an embar- rassment and a humiliation. However, that was not all. Following partial mobilisation by Serbia and a highly aggressive verbal reaction in Belgrade two days after the Aus- trian declaration of annexation, Aehrenthal demanded an official statement from Ser- bia declaring its willingness to return to normal, friendly relations with its neighbour Austria-Hungary. Serbia responded with a demand for compensation for the accession of the countries by the Habsburg Monarchy. This was in reality difficult to justify, and was also not supported by the Russians. Indeed, St. Petersburg went even so far as to in- form Austria that the Danube Monarchy would only have to deal with an intervention by Russia if it were to decide on a ‘promenade militaire’ to Belgrade. Finally, Great Britain made an attempt at mediation, which was accepted by Aus- tria-Hungary after a period of endless deliberation and following the intervention of the German Empire. Serbia issued a declaration stating that it undertook to return to cordial relations with Austria-Hungary. Even if no real meaning was attached to this statement, and if, as is likely, Austria-Hungary was unaware of the fact that in Ser- bia, another secret organisation, the Narodna Odbrana (National Defence) had been formed with the goal of unifying all Serbs, including those living in Austria-Hungary, to create a southern Slav kingdom and moreover to avenge the alleged dishonour that Serbia had suffered, on the surface at least the differences between the two states were smoothed over. Within the Habsburg Monarchy itself, life slowly returned to normal. However, the annexation had without doubt provoked highly intense reactions. Particularly in the Bohemian crown lands, no secret was made of the fact that there was far greater sym- pathy for the Serbs than for the ambitions of the Emperor to become ‘empire builder’. And right on the anniversary of his accession to the throne, on 2 December 1908,