ABSTRACT
With the Habsburgs cut off from their role in Germany and Italy, a Balkan mission would be invented as a substitute by the aristocracy, the military and the bureaucracy which identified with the dynasty. It was meant to be a new lease of life, but it was also a way of escaping from the gradual accumulation of problems and conflicts into a foreign policy of prestige. It made the Monarchy ready for involvement in the Eastern Crisis, particularly in so far as it affected the Ottoman provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina wedged into its territories. In the Ottoman Empire, the Tanzimat had started up again more vigorously after 1856 under French-inspired ministers, with measures to achieve the promised equality between Christians and Muslims and to consolidate and modernize the central administration. The Ottoman bureaucracy did not find it too difficult to accept the principle of religious equality, but the reformers nevertheless met with opposition from all sides.
