Austro-Hungarian Empire

(Today: Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, part of Serbia, part of Romania, Trieste, part of Poland, Slovenia, Czech Republic)

The Habsburgs have devoted their foreign policy to expansion into the Balkans, towards the Thessaloniki and the Aegean Sea since the loss of the Northern Italian territories (1859-60), and the first step in this was the creation of BiH under Austro-Hungarian rule (1878). Such plans inevitably led to conflict with Serbia, which itself had claims for territorial expansion to the Adriatic, but also to the southern Slavic parts of the Monarchy (BiH, Dalmatia, Slavonia, southern Hungary). Hostility only increased after the Austro-Hungarian final poll of BiH (1908), which Serbia considered purely Serbian by its interpretation of historical and ethnic rights, and intended to annex it once the Ottoman Empire collapsed. However, a possible war on the lack of foreign aid to Serbia was absent. The already bad relations were exacerbated by the great support of Austria-Hungary for the creation of Albania (1913) after the Balkan Wars, which also meant the destruction of Serbia's desire to go to the Adriatic.

At the same time, Serbia was concerned about plans by Crown Prince Habsburg Francis Ferdinand to federalize the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, which meant giving the Slavs greater concessions, and with greater concessions the less likely they would want to be governed by Belgrade in the future. Therefore, the Serbian secret service, Black Hand, knowing that it has the backing of the United Kingdom, will act on the revolutionary organization Young Bosnia. Its member, in turn, will assassinate Franjo Ferdinand in Sarajevo (1914), which will only accelerate the already launched chain of hostilities around the world known as the Great or First World War.