214.]

Thus, Austria's action constituted a serious challenge to the Powers in
general, especially to Russia, Servia, and to regenerated Turkey[524].
So daring a _coup_ had not been dealt by Austria since 1848, when
Francis Joseph ascended the throne; it is believed that he desired to
have the provinces as a jubilee gift, a set off to the loss of Lombardy
and Venetia in 1859 and 1866. Certainly Austria had carried out great
improvements in Bosnia; but an occupier who improves a farm does not
gain the right to possess it except by agreement with others who have
joint claims. Moreover, the Young Turks, in power since July 1908,
boasted their ability to civilise Bosnia and all parts of their Empire.
Servia also longed to include it in the large Servo-Croat kingdom of
the future.

[Footnote 524: The constitutional regime which the Young Turks imposed
on the reactionary Abdul Hamid II., in July 1908, was hailed as a
victory for British influence. The change in April 1909 favoured German
influence. I have no space for an account of these complex events.]

The Bosnian Question sprang out of a conflict of racial claims, which
two masterful men, the Archduke Francis Ferdinand and the Austrian
Foreign Minister, Aehrenthal, were resolved to decide in favour of
Austria. The Archduke disliked, and was disliked by, the Germans and
Magyars on account of his pro-Slav tendencies. In 1900 he contracted
with a Slav lady, the Countess Chotek, a morganatic marriage, which
brought him into strained relations with the Emperor and Court. A
silent, resolute man, he determined to lessen German and Magyar
influence in the Empire by favouring the law for universal suffrage
(1906), and by the appointment as Foreign Minister of Aehrenthal, who
harboured ambitiously expansive schemes. The Archduke also furthered a
policy known as Trialism, that of federalising the Dual Monarchy by
constituting the Slav provinces as the third of its component groups.
The annexation of Bosnia would serve to advance this programme by
depressing the hitherto dominant races, the Germans and Magyars,
besides rescuing the monarchy from the position of "brilliant second" to
Germany. Kaiser William was taken aback by this bold stroke, especially
as it wounded Turkey; but he soon saw the advantage of having a vigorous
rather than a passive Ally; and, in a visit which he paid to the
Archduke in November 1908, their intercourse, which had hitherto been
coldly courteous, ripen