East African industry and commerce had chosen a particularly ill-timed moment to seek opportunities overseas, for Europe was now facing a new round of economic crisis.
In 1912, an economic crisis first broke out in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, triggering a wave of industrial and commercial bankruptcies across the Near Eastern countries. International trade and financial markets steadily contracted. In August 1913, British and German heavy industry and finance began to fall into trouble, unemployment soared, and industrial production in France, Italy, Japan, and other countries also began to decline.
At this time, East African domestic industry was exporting in large quantities, further aggravating Europe's crisis. The markets were flooded with cheap goods, yet no one wanted them. On one hand, capital produced commodities without restraint; on the other, it refused to raise workers' wages. Social consumption was weak. Amid this contradiction, Europe had become a gigantic powder keg, capable of erupting into social revolution at any moment.
If Europe was the world's powder keg, then the Balkans were Europe's powder keg. The Balkan countries, having gone through two Balkan Wars, were generally impoverished, and after the wars ended, they were struck by the economic crisis as well.
At such a time, if these troubles could not be resolved and public attention diverted, Serbia's current regime could collapse at any moment. Thus, they turned their gaze toward their "enemy"—the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The conflict between Serbia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire had a long history. As early as the Bosnian Crisis, Serbian nationalists had been striving through various means to achieve "national independence and unification."
But as time passed, Serbian nationalism began to grow increasingly extreme. Driven by political necessity, some politicians openly made hardline statements, inflaming domestic sentiment. This turned Bosnia and Herzegovina into the focal point of conflict between Austria-Hungary and