Ever since the Austro-Hungarian Empire annexed Serbia at the end of the nineteenth century, the history of the Balkans had become utterly unrecognizable.
With Bulgaria's forceful rise, it had naturally become the new leader of the Yugoslav peoples. Yet, wary of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Ferdinand had not intervened directly before. Still, there had been no shortage of covert maneuvers.
Bosnia and Herzegovina in particular had been a key area cultivated by the intelligence services; next came Austrian Serbia. Though Serbian nationalism had fallen into a trough under Austro-Hungarian suppression, the remaining resistance forces were still far from negligible.
With the outbreak of the world war, the independence movements among the Austro-Hungarian Empire's Slavic peoples surged once more, creating an opportunity for Ferdinand.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire might have had seven or eight million Slavs, but many of them were loyal supporters of the House of Habsburg. Expecting them to rise up against the Austro-Hungarian Empire was simply wishful thinking!
Aside from a handful of radical organizations, most people were quite satisfied with the old emperor's rule. It was nothing like the later tales claiming that ethnic conflicts within the Austro-Hungarian Empire had been so severe that every minority wanted independence!
Only by living in this era did Ferdinand realize just how immense the House of Habsburg's prestige was within the Austro-Hungarian Empire!
Even the Kingdom of Hungary, with its highest possible death-seeking tendencies, had done no more than let its politicians pay lip service before the outbreak of the world war. If they were truly to be made independent, they would first have to ask whether the Hungarian people agreed!
Therefore, although the intelligence services had been laying the groundwork in the Austro-Hungarian Empire for a long time, they had never planned an ethnic uprising. There was simply no way to