Editing Gyula Andrássy (section)

===The "Andrássy Note"===
The recovered influence of Austria was evident in the negotiations which followed the outbreak of serious disturbances in [[Bosnia Vilayet|Bosnia]] in 1875.
The three courts of Vienna, Berlin and St Petersburg reached an understanding as to their attitude in the Eastern question, and their views were embodied in the dispatch, known as the "Andrássy Note", sent on 30 December 1875 by Andrássy to [[Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust|Count Beust]], the Austrian ambassador to the [[Court of St James's]].{{sfn|Bain|1911|p=968}}

In it he pointed out that the efforts of the powers to localize the revolt seemed in danger of failure, that the rebels were still holding their own, and that the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] promises of reform, embodied in various [[firman]]s, were no more than vague statements of principle which had never had, and were probably not intended to have, any local application. In order to avert the risk of a general conflagration, therefore, he urged that the time had come for concerted action of the powers for the purpose of pressing the Porte to fulfil its promises.
A sketch of the more essential reforms followed: the recognition rather than the toleration of the [[Christianity|Christian religion]]; the abolition of the system of farming the taxes; and, in [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]], where the religious was complicated by an agrarian question, the conversion of the Christian peasants into free proprietors, to rescue them from their double subjection to the Muslim Ottoman landowners.
In [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]] elected provincial councils were to be established, life-term judges appointed and individual liberties guaranteed.
Finally, a mixed commission of Muslims and Christians was to be empowered to watch over the carrying out of these reforms.{{sfn|Bain|1911|p=968}}

The fact that the sultan would be responsible to Europe for the realization of his promises would serve to allay the natural suspicions of the insurgents. To this plan both [[Great Britain|Britain]] and France gave a general assent, and the Andrássy Note was adopted as the basis of negotiations.{{sfn|Bain|1911|p=968}}

When war became inevitable between [[Russia]] and the Porte, Andrássy arranged with the Russian court that, in case [[Russia]] prevailed, the status quo should not be changed to the detriment of the Austrian monarchy. When, however, the [[Treaty of San Stefano]] threatened a Russian hegemony in the Near East, Andrássy concurred with the German and British courts that the final adjustment of matters must be submitted to a European congress.{{sfn|Bain|1911|p=968}}
[[File:Berliner kongress.jpg|thumb|Andrássy (in blue uniform centre) at the Congress of Berlin, 1878]]
At the [[Congress of Berlin]] in 1878 he was the principal Austrian plenipotentiary, and directed his efforts to diminish the gains of [[Russia]] and aggrandize the Dual Monarchy. Before the Congress opened on 13 June, negotiations between Andrássy and the British Foreign Secretary [[Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury|Marquess of Salisbury]] had already "ended on 6 June by Britain agreeing to all the Austrian proposals relative to Bosnia-Herzegovina about to come before the congress while Austria would support British demands".{{sfn|Albertini|1952|p=20}}

In addition to the [[Austro-Hungarian campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878|occupation and administration of Bosnia-Herzegovina]], Andrássy also obtained the right to station garrisons in the [[Sanjak of Novi Pazar]], which remained under Ottoman administration. The Sanjak preserved the separation of Serbia and Montenegro, and the Austro-Hungarian garrisons there would open the way for a dash to Salonika that "would bring the western half of the Balkans under permanent Austrian influence".{{sfn|Albertini|1952|p=19}} "High [Austro-Hungarian] military authorities desired [an ...] immediate major expedition with Salonika as its objective".{{sfn|Albertini|1952|p=33}}

This occupation was most unpopular in Hungary, both for financial reasons and because of the strong pro-Turk sentiments of the Magyars.{{sfn|Bain|1911|p=968}}

<blockquote>
On 28 September 1878 the Finance Minister, Koloman von Zell, threatened to resign if the army, behind which stood the [[Archduke Albrecht, Duke of Teschen|Archduke Albert]], were allowed to advance to Salonika. In the session of the Hungarian Parliament of 5 November 1878 the Opposition proposed that the Foreign Minister should be impeached for violating the constitution by his policy during the Near East Crisis and by the occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The motion was lost by 179 to 95. By the Opposition rank and file the gravest accusations were raised against Andrassy.{{sfn|Albertini|1952|p=33}}
</blockquote>

On 10 October 1878 the French diplomat [[Melchior de Vogüé]] described the situation as follows:

<blockquote>
Particularly in Hungary the dissatisfaction caused by this "adventure" has reached the gravest proportions, prompted by that strong conservative instinct which animates the Magyar race and is the secret of its destinies. This vigorous and exclusive instinct explains the historical phenomenon of an isolated group, small in numbers yet dominating a country inhabited by a majority of peoples of different races and conflicting aspirations, and playing a role in European affairs out of all proportions to its numerical importance or intellectual culture. This instinct is to-day awakened and gives warning that it feels the occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina to be a menace which, by introducing fresh Slav elements into the Hungarian political organism and providing a wider field and further recruitment of the Croat opposition, would upset the unstable equilibrium in which the Magyar domination is poised.{{sfn|Albertini|1952|pp=33–34}}
</blockquote>

Andrássy felt constrained to bow before the storm, and he placed his resignation in the emperor's hands (8 October 1879). The day before his retirement he signed the offensive-defensive alliance with Germany, which placed the foreign relations of Austria-Hungary once more on a stable footing.{{sfn|Bain|1911|p=968}}