Suchergebnisse

Diplomatic, political, economic, cultural, and scientific relations between Hungary and Albania date back to before 1918. At the time, Hungary was considered to possess and control half of a great power: the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The Austro-Hungarian Joint Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Ballhausplatz) played a crucial role in the strengthening of the Albanian national movement at the turn of the century and in preparing the members of that movement for the tasks to be performed as leaders of an independent nation-state. Based on archival sources yet to be published and relying on previous literature, the present study takes a historiographical approach in demonstrating how the so-called Albanian question gained increasing importance and became a priority of foreign policy for the Ballhausplatz while the interests of the Albanian national movement intertwined with the aspirations of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy as a great power. The paper also shows what roles the experts of the Austrian and the Hungarian part of the Monarchy and certain members of the Albanian national movement played in this joint venture. The paper concludes that the Austrians played a key role in building the Albanian statehood, while Hungarian scholar Lajos Thallóczy, representing Hungarian political and historical thought, made an unparalleled contribution to the modern Albanian nation-building process.

Abstract
The best guarantee of protecting the rights of Christian minorities on the European territory of the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th century was nothing else but the establishing of own nation-states, where the Christian population could lead his life without being ruled or controlled by the Ottoman Empire. This process found support and was assisted by the Great Powers. It means, that one form of the humanitarian intervention was the state-building instructed or assisted from abroad. One of the unexpected experiences of the Balkan Wars 1912/1913 was that the members of the Balkan League committed genocides and other kinds of mass violence against other Nationalities and the Muslim population of the peninsula. Among other things the Albanian state-building project of the Great Powers aimed to prevent further genocide and other acts of violence against the Albanian population and other refugees from Macedonia and to put an end to the anarchy of the country. The main international organisation to directly represent the great powers in the new Albania and to be responsible for the state-building process was the International Commission of Control.