Falcon and the Eagle: Montenegro and Austria-Hungary, 1908-1914

CHAPTER FIVE - The Malissori Uprisings: 1910-1911

CHAPTER FIVE The Malissori Uprisings: 1910-1911 Mary Edith Durham, the intrepid English writer and champion of Albanian causes, concluded that little good would come of Nicholas 's new royal standing. "One point both Montenegrins and Albanians agreed upon," she related. "'A king must have a kingdom. The Powers would not otherwise have allowed him to be king. Soon there will be war.' "I Even as Nicholas and his sons negotiated with the Powers over his assumption of the royal mantle, a crisis brewed in neighboring Albania, where revolt against Turkish rule raged throughout 1910 and 1911. Montenegro, Albania's hereditary foe, responded to the situation by taking the Malissori (Catholic Albanian highlanders) under her wing, as always with an eye toward enlarging her own territory. Ultimately, Nicholas became an outspoken champion of Albanian interests. By the summer of 1911, it appeared likely that he would provoke a military confrontation with the Ottoman Empire , one fraught with dangerous implications for the territorial status quo and the uneasy peace prevailing in the Balkans. The Powers, especially Russia, with strong diplomatic support from Austria-Hungary, took steps to thwart the realization of Durham's pessimistic prognosis. Many people were perplexed by Austria-Hungary's great interest in Albania. Conrad von Hotzendorf described the land as "a mostly swampy coastal fringe, where malaria rages for months on end, and which has only a few usable harbors."2 Yet Conrad himself offered two explanations for Albania's importance. First, she represented a bulwark against Slavic, more particularly Serb, expansion .3 Secondly, Vlore, one of her "few usable harbors," was a strategic port that commanded the Straits of Otranto, the narrow separating the heel of Italy's boot from the Balkan peninsula. In 66 The Malissori Uprisings: 1910-1911 67 the event of war, Vlore could conceivably serve as an Austrian or Italian Gibraltar.4 In the words of one Italian, "whoever possesses the port of Vlore will be the absolute ruler over the Adriatic."5 This theory, subscribed to by both Italy and Austria-Hungary, gave rise to an intense rivalry between the nominal allies. Italy tried to establish her presence on the eastern shore of the Adriatic, while Austria -Hungary tried to circumscribe the Italian beachhead. Harried officials at the Ballhausplatz despaired at this complication in the already unstable Balkan situation.6 Austria's interest in Albania had begun in the seventeenth century, when the Turks awarded the Habsburgs a "religious protectorate " over the Catholics of the Ottoman Empire, including the Malissori tribesmen of northern Albania. Subsequent treaties and agreements in the eighteenth century renewed and expanded Austria 's right to build and support churches, schools, and religious institutions. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, Vienna took a rather desultory interest in the affairs of her Albanian ward; but after her exclusion from Germany in 1866 and her expansion into the Balkans in 1878, Austria's interest in her "protectorate" became more animated.7 Toward the end of the nineteenth century, expansion-minded Italy initiated a challenge to Austria's cultural hegemony by founding Italian schools in Albania. Albanian was spoken in most of these, but in 1888 Italy established two elementary schools in Scutari , traditionally a center of Habsburg influence, with Italian as the language of instruction.8 The Miirzsteg agreement of 1903 fanned the smouldering rivalry. Many Italians feared that the resulting Austro-Russian program of reform for troubled Turkish Macedonia would leave their nation without a voice in Balkan affairs.9 Italian activity notwithstanding, Austria-Hungary had every reason to feel secure in the belief that northern Albania belonged to her sphere of influence. The Habsburg Monarchy maintained its traditional role as protector of the indigenous Catholic population , much as Russia championed the cause of the Orthodox in the Ottoman Empire. Durham described the relationship this way: The Catholics [of northern Albania] relied upon Austria with amazing faith. If a Turkish army dared approach the Christian mountains, there were folk who believed that the Emperor Franz Josef himself, upon a warhorse, would ride at the head of his troops to their rescue. 10 68 CHAPTER FIVE If the Catholics put their trust in the Austrians, so did the Habsburgs rely on the Catholics of Malesia to resist Slavic expansion. This they did as a matter of course, with little prompting from Vienna. There was no love lost between the Albanians and the Montenegrins who shared the same...