Britain’s main concern in the matter was that Russia didn’t extend its empire into the Balkans, and the balance of power within the great powers. Even though Britain had a huge naval fleet, that was bigger than any other countries in Europe, they didn’t feel it necessary to jump into conflict. Britain was also safe in the fact that they knew France and Germany couldn’t make an alliance. These were Britain’s reasons for not progressing matters into a European conflict.
Russia also didn’t want European conflict for many reasons, they wanted to strengthen the alliance between them and Austria-Hungary but any type of conflict would wipe this out due to their alliances to other countries. They were working well together and agreeing on terms such as they were both working to try and prevent a war between the Balkan league and Turkey. Also the country didn’t have the money to fund a war and they had just lost a humiliating war against Japan. The government was under pressure from the Russian people to achieve victories on foreign soil, but Russia was reluctant, like Britain to go into battle. They also didn’t have the full support of Britain and France so they would be going into a war with Austria and Germany, without any help. These reasons are very important in why a major conflict did not develop from the Bosnian Crisis or the Balkan Wars.
France was beginning to establish its position when Poincare became the French Prime Minister. He wanted to keep the triple alliance stable so it would strengthen the country and its foreign policy. But Britain nor Russia were ready for war and with France only just establishing its alliances they weren’t ready to mobilize their army. So although they had fresh alliances they were not ready with their army or the support to go into a war.
Austria-Hungary was a main player in the lead up to World War one, and was already in part of the Balkans, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The problem was Austria had too many different problems to attend to and it wasn’t in their best interest to go to war at this present time. They were having trouble with Bosnia because they wanted rid of Austrian rule. Austria were also wary of going into battle with Russia because neither had the army nor the advantages if they went to war. It suited neither country to defeat Turkey, but the issue between Serbia and Bosnia needed sorting and this was a main problem between Russia and Austria-Hungary. The countries concerned were not willing to take matters into their own hands and weren’t ready to make the decision of going to war.
However, it took the work of Kokovtzov in the Balkan crisis to stop a potential catastrophe in a European war, his last minute intervention stopped this. Both Austria and Russia were mobilizing its troops, Austria in Bosnia and the partial mobilization of Russian troops in Russian Poland. The next move would have been a counter pass by Austria to full mobilizing of its troops, but Kokovtzov stopped this by pleading with Tsar Nicholas to think of the immeasurable fatalities this move would have cost. Austria-Hungary was on the brink of mobilizing their troops that’s why Kokovtzov’s intervention was crucial. This would almost definitely have started major European conflict.
Conclusion
The reasons why the Bosnian Crisis and the Balkan Wars didn’t develop into general European conflict were due to a mixture of reasons from all the countries whom it concerned. The triple alliance of Britain, France and Russia wasn’t as yet established and the full support from Britain wasn’t guaranteed. These unassurances meant that countries were wary of mobilizing their troops.
Money, Army strength, support, gains for the country, were all very important reasons why all these countries didn’t go into general European conflict after the Bosnian Crisis and the Balkan Wars. All these factors mount up to the inevitable stalemate, also their best interests weren’t there when it come down to the matter of mobilizing the troops to start European conflict.
The main countries involved in this were Russia and Austria-Hungary for the simple fact that they had troops already in the Balkans and were very much a major part in the running of Serbia and Bosnia respectively. Economic policy coincided with foreign policy and made the fact of going to war harder due to their establishment in the Balkans. Also the risk of going to war was far too great and many loses could have been made.
