it appeared that Germany and Austria-Hungary had entered upon a policy of economic and political expansion toward the Ægean and had an ambition to bring the Ottoman Empire within their sphere of influence. These efforts had been rewarded with considerable success. Serbia had been under the tutelage of Austria-Hungary from 1878 to 1903, when King Alexander was assassinated and a new ruler, who was friendly to Russia, was placed on the Serbian throne. The rulers of Bulgaria and Rumania were Germans and the crown prince of Greece was a brother-in-law of the Kaiser, William II. Germany had obtained from Rumania an important railroad concession and from Turkey the right to build a railroad to Bagdad and the Persian Gulf. German officers went to Turkey to train her soldiers, and the Teutonic powers showed that they intended to bolster up Turkey and support her against her enemies. Germany had thus supplanted Great Britain as the protector of the Ottoman dominions. Out of this policy there had grown up in the Balkans a serious rivalry between Russia and the Teutonic powers.
This rivalry reached the danger point in October, 1908, when Austria-Hungary formally annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Turkish provinces which she had been administering since 1878. It was a favorable time for such an
