AEHRENTHAL, ALOYS, COUNT GRAF LEXA VON

born Sept. 27, 1854, Gross-Skal, Bohemia [now Hrub Skla, Czech Republic] died Feb. 17, 1912, Vienna, Austria-Hungary in full Aloys Leopold Johann Baptist, Count Lexa Von Aehrenthal foreign minister (1906-12) of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy, whose direction of the latter's annexation of Bosnia and Hercegovina (1908) provoked an international crisis. (See Bosnian crisis of 1908.) Entering the imperial foreign service as attach in Paris (1877), Aehrenthal subsequently worked at the Austrian Foreign Office and later was appointed diplomatic counselor at St. Petersburg (1888), ambassador to Romania (1895), and ambassador to Russia (1899). In 1906 he replaced Count Agenor Goluchowski as foreign minister. As aggressive as his predecessor was restrained, he revived the dormant foreign policy of the empire. Aehrenthal's proclamation of the annexation of Bosnia and Hercegovina (October 1908) raised the threat of war with Russia (whose foreign minister, Count Aleksandr Izvolsky, felt himself deceived in his negotiations with Aehrenthal), inflamed the Austrophobe passions of Serbia, and incurred international censure. He consistently opposed suggestions of preventive war against Italy and Russia, however, and sought to reestablish good relations with Italy, Austria's nominal ally, by supporting Italian imperialist ambitions in Libya (1911). The generally assertive course of his foreign policy also led to a cooling of relations with Germany.