Authors: Rudolf Dinu, Antonio D’Alessandri
Forty years ago, Francis Roy Bridge, one of the leading experts on Austro-Hungarian foreign policy, stated that, at first sight, «the interests of the Habsburg and Ottoman empires in their declining years were identical»1. Although Bridge was referring to the first two decades of the twentieth century, his conclusion probably holds true for a much longer period of time, namely since 1848. At that time, the so-called ‘Eastern Question’ dominated the political stage. It implied the crisis of the Ottoman system, the rise of nationalism, the retreat of the Ottoman Empire from Europe, as well as interventions of the European powers.