Slavonic and East European Review

Abstract:

This article explores the emergence of a Hungarian influence on the Habsburg Monarchy's foreign policy following the 1867 Ausgleich. Anxious to monitor the Monarchy's policy towards Russia and the Balkans in particular, Hungary's minister president Gyula Andrássy encouraged the government of Serbia to believe that it could be secured the administration of Ottoman Bosnia, and despite the opposition to this of the Monarchy's foreign minister, Count Beust. Based on extensive use of Serbian and Hungarian sources, including the Belgrade diary of the Hungarian diplomat Benjamin Kállay, the article shows how the predictable failure of this scheme laid the foundations for Austria-Hungary's takeover of Bosnia in 1878, and the subsequent poisoning of Austro-Serbian relations.