Austria-Hungary announces the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

On 6 October 1908 Austria-Hungary was officially notifying the European capitals that it was annexing Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ottoman provinces which it had occupied and administered for thirty years. Emperor Franz Joseph had signed the act of annexation earlier: the proclamation was dated 5 October, and some accounts link the decision to his name day on 4 October. It was made public in Vienna and in Sarajevo on the morning of 7 October, which is why all these dates appear in the literature. The day before, on 5 October, Bulgaria had proclaimed its independence. So began the Bosnian crisis, one of the most dangerous crises in Europe before 1914.

Occupation and annexation

In 1878 the Congress of Berlin entrusted Austria-Hungary with the occupation and administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and with the right to keep garrisons in the Sanjak of Novi Pazar, a strip of land separating Serbia and Montenegro. A convention with Turkey in 1879 stated that the occupation “does not affect the rights of sovereignty of His Imperial Majesty the Sultan”. In the summer of 1908 the Young Turk Revolution restored the constitution in the Ottoman Empire. The Foreign Minister, Alois von Aehrenthal, feared that Constantinople would reclaim the provinces and decided to end their uncertain status. In a letter to the British diplomat Charles Hardinge he explained that Bosnia and Herzegovina were ready for a constitution and a diet in Sarajevo, but that only the sovereign power could convene one. As compensation for Turkey, Vienna was withdrawing its troops from the Sanjak.

In mid-September Aehrenthal held talks at the Moravian castle of Buchlau with the Russian Foreign Minister, Alexander Izvolsky, who a year earlier had concluded the agreement with Britain. Izvolsky agreed to the annexation in exchange for support for Russian demands concerning the Black Sea straits, but the understanding was not put in writing, and when Vienna announced the annexation Izvolsky denied having known of it. The two ministers later accused each other of breaking their word. The French were also convinced that Vienna had coordinated its move with Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria, which the Austrians denied. At 11 a.m. on 5 October Ferdinand proclaimed the country’s independence at Tarnovo and took the title of Tsar.

A day of notifications

On 6 October the British ambassador in Vienna conveyed to Aehrenthal the position of the Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey: London could not approve a violation of the Treaty of Berlin nor recognise an alteration of it without the consent of the other signatories, especially Turkey. Aehrenthal replied that the Treaty “contained not one word respecting sovereignty”, and that reconsideration was out of the question, as the Emperor “had already signed all the necessary documents”. In the note delivered in London the next day Vienna did not use the word “annexation” at all. It spoke only of the “imperative necessity” of freeing itself from the reserves of the 1879 convention and resuming its “complete liberty of action”.

Serbia, whose nationalists regarded Bosnia as Serbian land, reacted most sharply. King Peter I put off his departure for the manoeuvres and conferred with his ministers late into the night. On the morning of 6 October the official gazette announced the call-up of the first reserve, estimated at some 120,000 men. Mass meetings were held in Belgrade, and the Foreign Minister said the government faced a choice between war and revolution. The next day Serbia demanded that the powers restore the status quo or grant it territorial compensation. In Berlin the Under-Secretary of State at the German Foreign Office admitted that Germany had to choose between its ally Austria and its friends the Turks, and could not fail to support its ally.

Until March 1909

The Ottoman Empire responded with a boycott of Austrian goods and in February 1909 agreed to recognise the annexation in return for financial compensation. The conference of the powers proposed by Russia and Turkey was never convened. In March 1909 Germany demanded a clear answer from Russia, and Russia, weakened after the war with Japan, gave way. Serbia had to declare that “the fait accompli in Bosnia and Herzegovina has not affected her rights”, and promise good-neighbourly relations with Austria-Hungary. Russia and Serbia remembered this humiliation, and six years later Bosnia itself became the scene of the assassination that unleashed the war.