АЛБАНСКИЯТ ФАКТОР В БАЛКАНСКАТА ПОЛИТИКА НА АВСТРО-УНГАРИЯ В КРАЯ НА XIX И НАЧАЛОТО XX ВЕК
THE ALBANIAN FACTOR IN THE BALKAN POLITICS OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AT THE END OF THE 19 AND THE BEGINNING OF THE 20 CENTURIES

Summary/Abstract: The Eastern crisis of 1894 – 1898 faced a severe test of Austro-Hungarian diplomacy. One after another, old problems such as the Macedonian, Cretan and Armeni-an issues, which have become more and more difficult to resolve with time, erupted anew. Vienna found a way out of the situation and agreed with Petersburg to unite in its efforts to preserve the status quo in the Balkans. The Far Eastern commitments of the Romanovs in purely geopolitical terms led to a temporary coincidence of their interests with the Habsburgs regarding the peninsula. Turbulent times made Austria-Hungary increasingly aware that the end of Ottoman rule in Southeastern Europe was near. In order to prevent an unfavorable arrangement of the Balkan geopolitical chessboard, Ballhaus launched its Albanian program, in which, in addition to the Catholic faith, it also relied on the strategy already tested in Bosnia to help build a new nation. With these plans, it aimed at quelling the expansion of the South Slavic states in a direction it did not want, and at the same time it aimed at building a barrier against the growing ambitions of Italy on the eastern shore of the Adriatic. These aspirations, however, activated Austria-Hungary absentee competition with Russia in the region, put its relations with Turkey to the test and even led to certain contradictions with the German diplomacy that defended Turkish integrity.

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