raharris1973
Well-known member
1) What if Austria-Hungary welcomed Muslim refugees fleeing conquered Ottoman territories in the first and second Balkan Wars to settle in Bosnia? The idea, beside being a humanitarian gesture, would be to shore up the anti-Serbian (and by extension, pro-Habsburg) element in Bosnia and improve relations the Ottomans as a prospective ally.
2) What if during the Bosnian crisis of 1908-1909, Austria-Hungary declined to yield its long-occupied Sanjak of Novi Pazar, positioned between Montenegro and Serbia, and instead annexed it, with Bosnia? Is taking such an action any more likely to make the Bosnia crisis lead to war in the short-term? With whom? Serbia? Russia? Or possibly the Ottomans?
If not, what difference does the solid Austrian presence make later when we get to 1912 and the Balkan Wars?
3) Can Austria-Hungary just perpetuate the 1878-1908 status quo of a Viennese occupied and governed Bosnia and Sanjak of Novi Pazar that is formally under Ottoman suzerainty, indefinitely into the future, without either yielding practical control back to the Ottomans, or newer claimants like the Serbs, nor annexing any of the territories itself?
2) What if during the Bosnian crisis of 1908-1909, Austria-Hungary declined to yield its long-occupied Sanjak of Novi Pazar, positioned between Montenegro and Serbia, and instead annexed it, with Bosnia? Is taking such an action any more likely to make the Bosnia crisis lead to war in the short-term? With whom? Serbia? Russia? Or possibly the Ottomans?
If not, what difference does the solid Austrian presence make later when we get to 1912 and the Balkan Wars?
3) Can Austria-Hungary just perpetuate the 1878-1908 status quo of a Viennese occupied and governed Bosnia and Sanjak of Novi Pazar that is formally under Ottoman suzerainty, indefinitely into the future, without either yielding practical control back to the Ottomans, or newer claimants like the Serbs, nor annexing any of the territories itself?