Editing Triple Alliance (1882) (section)

==Austria-Hungary==
By the late 1870s, Austrian territorial ambitions in both the [[Italian Peninsula]] and Central Europe had been thwarted by the rise of Italy and Germany as new powers. With the decline and the failed reforms of the [[Ottoman Empire]], Slavic discontent in the occupied Balkans grew, which both Russia and Austria-Hungary saw as an opportunity to expand in the region. In 1876, Russia offered to partition the Balkans, but the Hungarian statesman [[Gyula Andrássy]] declined because Austria-Hungary was already a "saturated" state and could not cope with additional territories.<ref name="B">{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Austria#toc=toc33365 |title=Austria: Constitutional experimentation, 1860–67 |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |date=15 November 2013 |access-date=2 March 2014}}</ref> The whole empire was thus drawn into a new style of diplomatic brinkmanship, which was first conceived of by Andrássy, centering on the province of [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]], a predominantly-Slav area that was still under the control of the [[Ottoman Empire]].{{cn|date=May 2018}}

On the heels of the [[Great Eastern Crisis|Great Balkan Crisis]], [[Austro-Hungarian campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878|Austro-Hungarian forces occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina in August 1878]], and Austria-Hungary eventually [[Bosnian Crisis|annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina in October 1908]] as a common holding under the control of the [[Ministry of Finance (Austria)|finance ministry]], rather than attaching it to either [[Cisleithania|Austria]] or [[Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen|Hungary]]. The occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina was a step taken in response to Russian advances into [[Bessarabia]]. Unable to mediate between the Ottoman and the Russian Empires over the control of [[Principality of Serbia|Serbia]], Austria–Hungary declared neutrality when the conflict between the empires [[Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)|escalated into war]].<ref name="B"/> To counter Russian and French interests in Europe, an alliance was concluded [[Dual Alliance, 1879|with Germany in October 1879]] and with Italy in May 1882.