WI: Portalés knew Austro-Hungarians did not intend to annex Serbia

Saphroneth

Banned
I've been watching Extra History, and they said that had Portalés known the Austro-Hungarians did not want to annex Serbia then there would potentially have been no war - as he could have told the Russians.
Is this right?
 
I've been watching Extra History, and they said that had Portalés known the Austro-Hungarians did not want to annex Serbia then there would potentially have been no war - as he could have told the Russians.
Is this right?

???
I'm not sure what 'Extra History' is, but did anyone believe A-H was planning to annex Serbia?

Clearly they wanted to destroy the country's independence and make it a total puppet, to the extent that 'annexing' would be a mere formality and thus largely irrelevant.

So I doubt that this would make any difference.
 
Yeah, that does sound a bit weird.

If Russia stood by while an ally was attacked and crushed it would lose that ally and experience a massive loss of prestige and appeal in the region - whether or not the country (countries?) was officially annexed or just reduced to a state where annexation would be a formality. From their perspective, that would change very little.

And presumably there would still be a war even if they're completely right - just not a continent-spanning one.
 
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