– Road to Great War – Serbian Intellectuals and Austro-Hungarian Policy in the Balkans (1894–1914)
– Road to Great War – Serbian Intellectuals and Austro-Hungarian Policy in the Balkans (1894–1914)

Summary/Abstract: The generation of Serbian Intellectuals who were active in the political and public life of Serbia at the turn of 19th and 20th century were considering problems of maintaining the attained independence of Serbia, a search for reliable support in foreign policy, integration of the nation and further economic, social, and cultural development. In the Europe characterized with complex relationships between the great powers, ambitious imperialist plans, instability and conflicts which were leading to the Great War (1914–1918), the Serbian intelligentsia, prevailingly educated in European university centers, was striving to find ways of accomplishing the idea of liberation and unification. The change of orientation in Serbian foreign policy, which began in the last decade of 19th century and was definitely confirmed with the raise of the Karadjordjević Dynasty to the Serbian throne (1903), was a manifestation of the need of Serbian politicians and intellectuals to facilitate liberation from economic dependence, development of the state and the national idea, by edging away from the reliance on Austria-Hungary. From the Congress of Berlin (1878), via the Customs War (1906–1911), the Annexation Crisis (1908) and the Balkan Wars (1912– 1913), the interest of Serbian intellectuals in the policy of Austria-Hungary in the Balkans was growing and intermingling with issues of the overall further development of Serbia. The aim of this paper is to shed a light onto the origins and development of the interest and the thinking of Serbian intellectuals regarding the policy and interests of Austria-Hungary in the Balkans in the period which immediately preceded World War I. The attitudes and thoughts of Serbian intellectuals which were published in periodicals (the Serbian Literary Gazette /Srpski književni glasnik/ and the Work /Delo/), press, brochures and books, are viewed in the context of Austro-Hungarian imperial thrust into the Balkans, which started with the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and was definitely confirmed with the act of annexation and war plans. The efforts of Austria-Hungary to control the entire Balkans and occupy its central areas have also been studied in light of the confrontation between the two blocs of European powers, perception of the place of the Serbs and Serbia in the complicated international relations of the time, as well as in light of development of the Yugoslav idea, which was present among Serbian intellectuals prior to World War I.

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