876 Ch. 22 • The Great War

Map 22.2 The Balkans, 1914 The Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Balkan

states, including territory acquired in the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913.

nationalists viewed Bosnia and Herzegovina as South Slav states that should,
with Russian encouragement, become part of Serbia.

Instability in Turkey

Political instability in Turkey in the early 1870s had further whetted the
appetites of both Russia and Austria-Hungary for the Balkans, amid finan­

cial crisis, poor harvests, and the opposition of religious conservatives to
secularization. Following the Crimean War (see Chapter 18), Britain and
France had condescendingly invited the sultan “to participate in the advan­
tages of public law and the system of Europe,” while insisting on further
Western reforms. The Ottoman default on foreign loans in 1875 led six
years later to the administration of the Ottoman public debt being placed