FEUILLETON The foreign factor and the construction of the Albanian nation (5): Albania gains primary importance for the Monarchy

Writing for Kosovo Online: Dragan Bisenic

The term "political nation" refers to a state that is not composed of ethnically homogeneous people and has the right to exist against its will. Primarily, this concept was related to the preservation of the unity of the ethnically diverse Habsburg Monarchy.

As the administrator of Bosnia and Herzegovina on behalf of Austria-Hungary, Benjamin Kallay believed that skillful politics should raise awareness of belonging to the Habsburg state while preserving certain inherited foundations from the previous state. In other words, he sought to suppress existing national sentiments in the occupied provinces and build awareness of a specific Bosnian nation as a part of the overall Habsburg entity. Around 1895, he admitted that this awareness had not yet prevailed in the provinces and that it would be achieved "only after a certain period of time".

How the "Bosnian Pot" was cooked

In this sense, a separate Bosnian coat of arms was introduced in 1889, a flag of red and yellow colors, funds were allocated to launch a magazine that would propagate the creation of a new Bosnian nation, and through a whole system of measures, an effort was made to impose a distinct character on the culture and life in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Even a dish, commonly known as "pot" (a type of stew), gradually began to be called "Bosnian".

Lajos Thalloczy was Kallay's indispensable collaborator. In fact, without him, Kallay could not have implemented his ideas. Thalloczy attached great importance to heraldry and symbols, so the creation of "symbolic images", flags, and coats of arms was an essential part of his work in creating a new national consciousness. As stated, Thalloczy claimed to have discovered a theory about the origin of the name Bosnia, according to which the root of the word "Bosna" is not of South Slavic but Old Albanian, Illyrian origin, meaning "salty land" or a vessel from which salt is obtained by evaporating salty water. Based on this, a legendary narrative about Tuzla, where the largest Balkan salt factory is located, was also created.

The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy collapsed in the early 20th century due to numerous economic and political reasons. However, at the turn of the century, it decided to play an active, or rather, controlling role in the creation, management, and utilization of the Albanian issue and the potential of Albanian nationalism. Albania gained primary significance for the Monarchy in the 1890s, and as the century turned, Ballhausplatz articulated the need for a new Albanian policy.

On the one hand, the new policy was necessary to keep Italian aspirations at bay, and on the other hand, Ballhausplatz believed that the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire was only a matter of time and did not want to lose influence on the eastern coast of the Adriatic due to rivals.

Seeing Russian influence behind the movements for national awakening in the Balkans, Austria-Hungary believed that these movements directly threatened them and that they should bring them under their control.

Since the First Serbian Uprising, it was evident that the Ottoman Empire was nearing its end. Archduke Karl stated in 1808 to the Vienna State Council that Serbia could become the nucleus of a future free South Slavic state because an independent Serbia would eventually become attractive to all South Slavs in the Monarchy. Ferdo Sisic noted that to eliminate this threat, Karl had proposed expanding Austro-Hungarian rule to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. Archduke Karl's views on preventing the creation of a strong Slavic state in the Balkans and pushing Russian influence out of that area established "a political idea" that would dominate the Monarchy's Balkan policy until its collapse. Emperor Franz I also embraced these views, and their aspirations were consistently directed toward the "Adriatic Triangle". Driven by fear of Southern Slavic national movements and unable to counter Russian influence in the Balkans, Metternich opted for a policy of maintaining Turkey.

In November and December 1896, the Joint Minister of Foreign Affairs, Agenor Goluchowski, convened a three-day conference for officials and experts from the Joint Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Joint Ministry of Finance. He tasked them with developing a new policy. All participants agreed that the only possibility for the Monarchy to assert its interests more distinctly was through the status of a cultural protectorate. To achieve this, Austria-Hungary had to rely heavily on the support of the local Catholic Church. However, despite regular subsidies sent by Vienna, the clergy in northern Albania sympathized with Italy, as most missions were led by Italian Franciscans. Another influential order, the Jesuits, also failed to build trust among the Albanians in the Monarchy. Therefore, the Albanian policy pursued until the end of the century did not establish an Albanian church system loyal to the Monarchy despite significant investments (specifically, the bishopric remained loyal to Vienna, but the lower clergy did not).

Support for Albanian nationalism

At the conference, a new strategy was presented to gain the support of the Albanian clergy. It was decided that the education of secular clergy members would take place in Austrian seminaries, and Vienna would seek Vatican support on issues related to the Albanian church. Goluchowski also decided to increase the amount of subsidies allocated to the local Albanian church (these amounts were further increased in 1902, 1909, and 1912). Conference participants changed their previous educational strategy, and from then on, teaching positions in schools funded by the Monarchy could only be filled by individuals approved by Austro-Hungarian consulates, and these teachers had to use textbooks written in Albanian.

Educational reforms were implemented during the first few years of the 20th century. This policy openly supported the strengthening of Albanian national consciousness because the interests of the Monarchy were not in conflict with Albanian nationalism. On the contrary, Vienna wanted to lay the foundations for an independent, anti-Italian, and anti-Serbian Albania after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Goluchowski also supported Albanian nationalism by establishing new consulates. The training of consuls assigned to Albania was reformed to enable officials to play a more significant political role in the region, and they were ordered to gain the loyalty of local Albanian dignitaries. In this regard, the Monarchy annually increased the amount of subsidies paid to Albanian dignitaries, including Muslim grand houses and beys.

These new measures strengthened the political and cultural positions of the Monarchy in the Albanian territories along the Adriatic coast. In the years following the conference (1896–1906), several memoranda and reports were written about territories inhabited by the Albanians. These memoranda were mainly assessments that provided an overview of the social development of Albanians and summarized the possibilities for Austria-Hungary in the region. Moreover, these texts contained action plans through which the Monarchy sought to encourage Albanian national sentiment and aimed to increase Austro-Hungarian presence in Albania to satisfy its imperial needs.

Efforts related to action plans were coordinated by Julius von Zvidinek, an official responsible for Albanian affairs. Key figures leading the implementation of these so-called "Albanian action plans" were Theodor Ippen, an experienced Austro-Hungarian consul-general in Shkodra, who had the deepest knowledge of Albania, and Lajos Thalloczy, a Hungarian scholar with expertise in the theory and practice of nation-building. As the commissioner of the joint finance minister Benjamin Kallay, Thalloczy was a key figure and the main theorist of the nation-building process in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Continuation tomorrow - Lajos Thalloczy, a key figure in the creation of the Albanian identity