the road to war tension in the balkans. the balkan region
DESCRIPTION
Russian Interest in The Balkans After being humiliated in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 they refocused attention to Europe Special interest in Balkans (Bosnia, Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria and Part of Greece) Feuded with Turkey and Austria Hungary, who had similar interestsTRANSCRIPT
THE ROAD TO WAR
Tension In the
BALKANS
The Balkan Region
Russian Interest in The Balkans• After being humiliated
in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 they refocused attention to Europe
• Special interest in Balkans (Bosnia, Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria and Part of Greece)
• Feuded with Turkey and Austria Hungary, who had similar interests
Austria-Hungarian Interest
• In 1908 Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina from Turkey
Serbia’a Response• They were upset for
two reasons:– 1) There were many
Serbs in the area
– 2) It cut Serbia off from the Adriatic Sea
They hoped that Russia would intervene, but Russia were reluctant in fear of a German attack.
Heightening Conflict in the Region
• 1912: Formation of The Balkan League under Serbian leadership
• Declared War on Turkey and defeated them
• Pushed Turkish influence out of the region
Serbia -vs- Austria-Hungary
• Austria-Hungary worried about Serbia’s growing power
• Serbia doubled in size after another war in 1913
Russia Officially Enters into the Conflict
• Serbia was weary of eminent aggression from Austria-Hungary
• They turned to their ally Russia for protection
Look at what we then had….
• Austria-Hungary -vs- Russia
• That means their allies are behind them
• Austria-Hungary ~ Germany and Italy (Triple Alliance)
• Russia ~ Britain and France (Triple Entente)
RECAP
• Let’s take another look at the major European Powers at the time of The Balkan Crisis
BRITAIN
• Major industrial power (behind US and Germany)
• Wanted to maintain status quo as major colonial power
GERMANY
• Major industrial power under authoritarian monarch
• Challenge existing order of powers and wanted to flex its muscle in doing so
RUSSIA• 4th largest industrial
power (but mostly in food and textiles rather than equipment and arms)
• Mostly a peasant, agricultural society
• HUGE army (1.3 million troops; 5 million reserves
FRANCE
• 5th leading industrial power
• Slow growing population (especially compared to Germany)