AEHRENTHAL, erkn-tal, BARON (after ward Courii), Alms Leas von, Austrian statesman : b. Grosskal, Bohemia, 27 Nov. 1854; d. Vienna, 18 Feb. 1912. Studied law at Prague and Bonn; entered diplomatic service 1877; at taché, Saint Petersburg 1878; chief of cabinet under Count Kalnoky (foreign minister) 1883 88; councillor of embassy, Saint Petersburg, till 1894; minister to Rumania 1895-99; ambassa dor to Russia 1899-1906. In October 1906 he succeeded Count Goluchowsky as foreign min ister, the latter being forced to retire on ac count of Hungarian hostility. Aehrenthal was believed to be a strong Russophil with Con servative leanings and to have worked for the restoration of the Drei Kaiserbund, or League of Three Emperors, which had dominated Europe' between 1870 and 1878. He soon made a new departure in the foreign policy of his country. Whereas Goluchowsky had earned the title of a °brilliant second" to Germany, the new minister maintained the perfect equality of Austria-Hungary and her independent right to carry on her foreign relations without pre vious consultation and approval by Berlin. In regard to Hungary the dual minister has al ways a difficult role to play, and Aehrenthal wisely profited from the failure of his prede cessor. His first coup was played within a month of taking office, when he granted Bul garia relief from the burden of the °capitula tions,* a relic of the old times of Turkish misrule, under which no foreign subject could be arrested or tried without the presence of a consular officer of his own nationality. Nearly all the powers interested had signified their readiness to abolish the capitulations if every other one would consent. Austria, however, had always opposed the change, and it was left for Aehrenthal to render Bulgaria this graceful service, which cost his country nothing and laid the principality under a great obligation. He reversed the 10 years' old policy of playing off the Slav against the non-Slav Balkan states and settled an old quarrel with Serbia by re suming negotiations with that country. In Jan uary 1908 he sprang a surprise upon Europe by his plans for a Novi-Bazar railway, which he said would lay the foundation for further de velopments of Austria in the Balkans. This
proposal was regarded as peculiarly unfortu nate in view of the changes taking place in Turkey, which, it was hoped, gave promise of true progress in the Ottoman Empire. Aehren thal had exerted himself to prevent the Anglo Russian rapprochement of 1907, and the railway project was his answer to it, as a blow aimed at Russian predominance in the Balkans. The meeting of King Edward and the Tsar of Revel (July 1908), and the Turkish revolution, gave him his opportunity. A meeting between him and the Russian foreign minister (M. Izvolsky) in September relieved the strain between the two powers for a time, but events followed one another with startling rapidity. Eight days later Prince Ferdinand proclaimed himself Tsar of independent Bulgaria, and in another two days the Emperor Francis Joseph issued a proc lamation that Austro-Hungarian sovereignty was extended to Bosnia and Herzegovina, in other words, the two provinces were annexed. This was a step undoubtedly premeditated ever since the Berlin Treaty of 1878, by which these provinces were handed over to Austria to ad minister until such time as the Turks should be more competent to govern them. The move was a flagrant violation of that treaty, and Aehrenthal refused to entertain the idea of a conference on the ground that it would seem like "a tribunal in which Austria-Hungary would be the defendant)' Serbia and Monte negro threatened war, and the situation at last became so dangerous that the acquiescence of Turkey had to be bought by concessions and a sum of $11,000,000. Early in 1909 everything was ready for war on the southeastern fron tier, but Serbia was forced to yield when it became evident that Germany had compelled Russia to withdraw all hope of practical sup port. Aehrenthal had won a victory; but he had planted the seeds of the European war and placed his country more firmly than ever under German tutelage.