Page 242 - Le Operazioni Interforze e Multinazionali nella Storia Militare - ACTA Tomo I

242 XXXIX Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

hand and to blockade the island of Crete itself to prevent a displacement of the conflict to
other areas on the other. After the power demonstration of the international community
had forced Greece to give in, the Austro-Hungarian ships were ordered to return home
only to be back again a few years later for yet another mission. 7

2. The revolt on Crete of 1896-1898
Despite signs of a new development in the Cretan Question from 1893 onwards the
attempt to find a peaceful solution for the conflict was doomed to fail. The members of
the so-called Reform Committee for Crete, which was founded in 1895 and had a rather
conservative character, longed for a peaceful solution “to be reached through the sup-
port of the European powers and thus sought the assistance of the foreign consuls on the
8
island”. The great powers, however, were for the time being not willing to give up the
status quo which had been reached so far.
Even when new unrests broke out in April and May 1896, which were openly sup-
ported by Greece , the great powers at first refrained from an immediate armed interven-
9
tion and wanted to find a diplomatic solution. However, they started to send warships
to the area – Austria-Hungary e.g. sent the armoured cruiser “Kaiserin und Königin
10
Maria Theresia”; it arrived off Canea on 29 May 1896. This reluctance was mostly
due to the fact that at the beginning of the conflict the relationship of the great powers
was characterized by deep mistrust – none of them wanted to risk a possible change in
its own sphere of influence –, which made it very difficult to agree upon a combined
operation. Thus a plan for such a combined operation, drafted by the Austro-Hungarian
11
7 Hans-Hugo Sokol, Des Kaisers Seemacht. Die k.k. österreichische Kriegsmarine 1848 bis 1914, Vienna-
Munich, Amalthea, 1980, p. 144; Lothar Höbelt, Die Marine in Adam Wandruszka, Peter Urbanitsch
(eds.), Die Habsburgermonarchie 1848-1918, vol. VI/1: Die bewaffnete Macht, Vienna, Verlag der
Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1987, p. 687-763, here: p. 762; Pangerl, Die Kreta-
Mission der k.u.k. Kriegsmarine, p. 19f.
For a more detailed account on the events from the viewpoint of Austro-Hungarian politics see the
correspondence in: Österreichisches Staatsarchiv, Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv, Vienna (= HHStA),
Politisches Archiv (= PA) XVI 81, Liasse IV, “Flottendemonstration gegen Griechenland”, 1886 I-V 15,
1886 V 16-VI, and 1886 VI.
8 Pangerl, Participation of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the Crete Operation 1897-1898, p. 138.
9 Pangerl, Die Kreta-Mission der k.u.k. Kriegsmarine, p. 32f.; Werner Zürrer, Die Nahostpolitik Frankreichs
und Rußlands 1891-1898, Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz, 1970, p. 338; Mehmet Uğur Ekinci, The Origins of the
1897 Ottoman-Greek War: A Diplomatic History, Master thesis, Ankara 2006, p. 18. See also HHStA, PA
XXXVIII 376, unfol.: telegram Pinter, Canea, 19.5.1896; HHStA, PA XII 277, Liasse XXXVIII Kretensische
Frage 1896 V-VI, unfol.: Baron Heinrich Calice (Austro-Hungarian ambassador at Constantinople) to
Gołuchowski, Constantinople, 21.5.1896; ibid., unfol.: Pinter to Gołuchowski, Canea, 4.6.1896 (concerning
the street fighting at Canea from 24 to 26 May 1896).
10 HHStA, PA XII 277, unfol.: Gołuchowski to Pinter, Vienna, 27.5.1896. An account of the events on Crete
is given in the “Schiffs-Tagebuch für S.M. Schiff Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia” (log book),
Österreichisches Staatsarchiv, Kriegsarchiv, Vienna, Schiffstagebücher Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia
(Panzerkreuzer) 1896-1897, Mb363 (7-12), K. 934, 7, 1.5.-1.7.1896, p. 28-61; ibid., 8, 1.7.-1.9.1896, p. 1-26,
p. 31-62; ibid., 9, 1.9.-1.11.1896, p. 1-38. See also Wladimir Aichelburg, Register der k.(u.)k. Kriegsschiffe.
Von Abbondanza bis Zrinyi, Vienna, Neuer Wissenschaftlicher Verlag, 2002, p. 258.
11 Zürrer, Die Nahostpolitik Frankreichs und Rußlands, p. 339.