ABSTRACT
The Balkan question is between subject Christian populations and the Turks. But it complicates, not only by the quarrels of the subject of populations among themselves, but by the rival ambitions and claims of Russia and Austria. The interest of Russia in the Balkans is partly one of racial sympathy, in which the territorial ambition for the road to Constantinople lies through Rumania and Bulgaria. The interest of Austria in the peninsula depends primarily on the fact that the Austrian Empire contains a large Slav population desiring its independence, and that this national ambition of the Slavs finds in the independent kingdom of Serbia its natural centre of attraction. The whole episode is a classical example for the normal working of the European anarchy. Austria-Hungary primarily to blame, but Germany who supports Austria takes its share. The part in which Germany plays is secondary and throughout the Balkan wars German diplomacy is certainly working with England for peace.
