Austro-Hungarian Balkan politics on the eve of First World War

Austria (Austro-Hungary), after losing the war for dominance towards Prussiawithing the German world, redrew its foreign policy towards the Balkans that was still part of the Ottoman Empire. Favored by the Cultural Protectorate, the Vienna government continued to pursue a policy aimed at gaining sympathy of Albanians. Initially it supported the development of education and culture and later the political demands of Albanians.In the Balkans, Vienna faced the rivalry of the Russian Empire, which also saw the Peninsula as its area of influence. The rivalry between the two great powers of the time increased by the beginning of the 20th century. The annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austro-Hungary (1908), the creation of the Balkan Alliance (1912) with the help of Russia, the development of the First Balkan War and the London Conference of Ambassadors in London, though Austro-Hungary and Russia opposed each other for a long time, finaly the rivalry between them would end by waging a war.