This article examines the development of geomorphological and hydrological research on karst landscapes in Central and Southeast Europe in the period before 1914. It provides novel insights into the introduction of the term “karst,” originally the name of a cavernous limestone plateau east of the Adriatic city of Trieste, as a universal model for comparing and understanding dissolutional features in soluble rocks. Based on a critical reappraisal of the seminal work “The Karst Phenomenon” (1893) by the Serbian geoscientist Jovan Cvijić (1865–1928), submitted as a Ph.D. thesis at the University of Vienna, my essay argues for a reassessment of the beginnings of karst sciences. It gives more attention to research as a cooperative enterprise and to the interplay between the internationalization of geoscientific knowledge and the emerging national claims to the Balkan Peninsula and its inhabitants. Approaching the topic from a history of science perspective, I will analyze the epistemic, political, and social dimensions of early karst research at three different stages, namely, its emergence as an imperial undertaking in the Habsburg Monarchy, its synthesis and systematization through Cvijić’s “Karst Phenomenon,” and the final establishment of the Dinarides’ northwestern part as the “Classical” Karst.